Starting Cultivation in Wasteland

Qinghu was the first to speak up in support of Flower Scorpion’s defense.

"That’s how it is on semi-militarized planets—sometimes they really don’t play by any rules."

Mu Yu nodded at that, then asked, "Uh... Old Ben, he should’ve been notified by now, right?"

"Relax," the Paranoid answered offhandedly, "the boss doesn’t leave anyone out when he does things."

In short, the mess they’d stirred up with this operation was really not small.

By the latter half of the night, the sky above Star No. 3 was already dotted with countless starships.

The raiders who launched the sneak attack had completely vanished, but the Military wasn’t in a hurry. The Star Port was already locked down—where could anyone possibly run?

The other side was vicious; searching at night was a bit too risky and would only add unnecessary casualties.

Since they’d lost the trail, there was no need to keep searching. What needed doing now was to lock down the skies.

But the residents of Star No. 3 had already noticed something wrong. Some people got up in the middle of the night to check. "Are they doing another military drill?"

"There was no notice. I’m guessing something big happened. Let’s see when it’s daytime."

The Military’s thinking was the same: wait until dawn, organize manpower properly, deploy the formation, and comb the ground inch by inch!

By this time, Qu Jianlei had already linked up with the main group.

The rendezvous point was a hilly area, one of the target ranges used during exercises. No civilians around, but scattered monitoring instruments.

The Energy here was a bit chaotic, much of it harmful to the human body, with a large amount of metal debris—a perfect place to hide.

The seven of them were crouched in a burrow, discussing the next steps.

Flower Scorpion and Xiao Moshan’s Level wasn’t high enough, so they could only sit off to the side.

Xiao Moshan had been injured during the escape—no external wounds, but the serious one was a fracture in the tibia of his right leg.

When those soldiers guessed he was Xiao Moshan, they targeted his lower body specifically to keep him from running.

Still, the injury really wasn’t that bad; he had brought some medicine himself.

As for the topical medicine for bruises and sprains, it was Flower Scorpion who helped apply it.

Once she realized Xiao Moshan was willing to come back, she immediately switched attitudes—after all, he was once a comrade-in-arms.

Xiao Moshan just sat there in silence, watching Jian Lei and a bunch of Supreme big shots discuss matters, his thoughts somewhat tangled.

As for that female Supreme who had ditched him, he didn’t have any complaints. On the contrary, he felt she’d already done more than enough.

Both B-levels had been knocked out by her; otherwise, if he’d made a move, he might have alarmed people—after all, that was a Star Realm Military Region!

The Supreme leaving him behind... truth be told, he had it coming; he’d brought it on himself!

What really surprised him was that Jian Lei had grown to this extent. To be honest, he was deeply taken aback.

Especially among the four Supremes, he even recognized one—that was the famously aloof Supreme, Qinghu.

Qu Jianlei briefed his companions on the situation, stating that how things had developed was beyond his expectations, and he apologized to everyone for it.

But everyone indicated it really didn’t matter; in this world there is no such thing as a plan that overlooks nothing.

As for ways to get off the planet, they all tried to pool ideas.

Yet after talking for so long, not a single method came up that everyone could absolutely trust.

In the end even Xiao Moshan spoke up, because he understood the Star Domain Military’s thinking better than anyone else.

Even Qinghu’s proposal—to have Rhine come over—was vetoed by Xiao Moshan.

He shook his head and said, "The Count Clan really isn’t usable... even the Duke doesn’t work, unless the Duke personally comes, and even that’s just barely."

"But at a time like this, if the Duke wants to come in person, the Star Realm Military Region can politely refuse!"

"Then we wait and see?" Qu Jianlei made a suggestion. "Watch how intense their search is, see if we can find an opening from that."

"That’s a bad idea." Once Xiao Moshan slipped into his normal mode, he truly dared to shoot down anyone.

The Military Intelligence Department he served in existed to advise the higher-ups—how could he do that without speaking his mind?

"You don’t understand how terrifying Star Realm Level Military really is. If they can’t find people, they can literally dig up the entire planet... in the literal sense."

Qinghu hesitated, then looked at Qu Jianlei. "Or... should we use that method of yours?"

Qu Jianlei just stared blankly, silent for a long time, no one knew what he was thinking.

The Paranoid was more straightforward and spoke up directly. "What method?"

Qu Jianlei frowned, his voice slightly dazed. "Mm... near-earth teleportation."

"What?" The other three Supremes were all shocked at once.

Xiao Moshan was worse; his body went soft and he slid straight down to the ground. "Hiss... my leg!"

When everyone came back to their senses, Mu Yu finally asked in disbelief, "Near-earth teleportation... you can pull that off?"

Regardless of their specialization, any Awakened who’d advanced to Supreme had heard of near-earth teleportation.

Because near-earth teleportation involved not just technology, but also the metaphysical.

Many theoretical masters among Awakened believed: near-earth teleportation might involve the Space Attribute!

There was no such Attribute among Awakened, but that didn’t mean the Space Attribute didn’t exist.

Other Attributes that were guessed at but lacked proof included: time, fate, creation, and so on.

If the theory of Space Attribute can be fully understood, a High Tier Awakened might even be able to achieve jump purely with their physical body.

Of course, a purely physical-body jump might require a Cultivation Level so powerful it defies imagination, and it might even be fundamentally impossible.

But you can always add external auxiliary devices to realize this kind of jump, right?

Regarding these speculations, quite a few suggestions were raised, and there were even a few people who personally went to experiment.

Just like how a Paranoid will risk harming their body to try and冲击 beyond Supreme, the madness of a genius is something ordinary people really can’t understand...

Qu Jianlei answered absent-mindedly, "This... the stability isn’t very good, and we haven’t measured the upper distance limit yet."

Everyone fell silent at his words; after a long while, Mu Yu finally spoke.

"Being able to do it at all is already amazing, how can you sound so indifferent?"

"That’s not exactly it," the Paranoid shook his head, that face which was always stiff showing a trace of lingering fear.

"Safety is still very important. For this kind of thing, we must be cautious, otherwise we’ll end up hurting others and ourselves!"

After struggling at the edge of life and death for two hundred years, no matter how paranoid and hard-headed he was, he’d learned reverence.

Granny Jia looked at Qinghu thoughtfully. "How did you know about this?"

The old lady was quite familiar with Panda’s situation; in her impression, the relationship between these two shouldn’t be that close.

Qinghu said very calmly, "Last time on Celestial Handle Star, we used Near-Earth Jump to ascend in time."

At that, Granny Jia’s eyes lit up; she didn’t mind Qinghu hiding this—such a big matter, and she had only just joined.

What she cared about was, "So it’s actually succeeded before?"

The Paranoid looked at Qu Jianlei thoughtfully. "This time you also planned to do that, but... the Star Port got locked down?"

Truly worthy of someone who’s lived long enough; just a little thinking, and he figured it out.

Mu Yu’s eyes brightened even more. "Then did you set a jump exit on the Starship?"

"Well... yes!" Qu Jianlei answered hesitantly; with his style of doing things down to the smallest detail, how could he not have such a backup?

But he’d been hesitating all along, and the key was here. "The problem is... it’s a bit far."

More than just "a bit" far. He had set Teleportation Array Plates on 8384 and 3344 respectively.

But these two Starships were both meant for pickup; they were at least five million kilometers from Star No. 3!

He had never tested Teleportation at such a long distance; where would any talk of success probability even come from?

After he finished explaining, everyone looked at each other. The vision was beautiful, but... reality was just too brutal!

The success rate at ten thousand kilometers and the success rate at several million kilometers—how can those be mentioned in the same breath?

Hearing this, Qinghu couldn’t help but frown slightly. "Why not run a test?"

Qu Jianlei gave her a helpless look. "I’d like to, but the timing isn’t right, and it’s not very convenient."

So many people are watching me; it’s not like you don’t know.

Qinghu snorted and fell silent; that really was the case.

If anyone found out that Ran Bingluan had another trick up her sleeve—"Near-Earth Jump"—the entire Imperial might go crazy.

The Paranoid gave Mu Yu a deep look and spoke hesitantly. "Since there’s been no testing, we should still be cautious."

Mu Yu was a little dissatisfied. "Tell me, when did you become such a coward?"

The Paranoid rolled his eyes in anger, thinking, if it weren’t because I care about you, what would I be afraid of?

The old lady pondered and said, "How about we wait a bit longer and see just how intense their search is?"

At that, the corner of Xiao Moshan’s mouth twitched slightly: this one really doesn’t give up!

Granny Jia’s words became the consensus—after all, attempting an untested jump like this was no different from courting death.

The next entire day, Qinghu, the Paranoid, and Granny Jia all went out together to investigate the consequences of the Star Domain Military’s fury.

By the time they returned one after another at dawn, none of their expressions looked good.

Qu Jianlei didn’t even need to ask; Little Lake had already relayed what had happened today.

Big Head Butterfly hadn’t even exerted herself, yet she’d already seen far too many examples.

No need to go into the details; it was truly a "searching the azure heavens above and the yellow springs below" situation.

The Paranoid’s description was also unique. "This is basically a nano-level search... is the Hope Star Realm Military really this rich?"

Qinghu, face dark, said, "We really can’t hide from this. I suggest we consider a risky jump."

The Paranoid gave her a look and spoke suspiciously. "Your crimes aren’t that serious, are they?"

Qinghu, however, answered flatly, "At least we have successful, real-world tests proving that the theory is correct."

"If I get caught by the Military now, the outcome won’t be great either. So why not take a gamble? Maybe I can awaken Space Attribute!"

No wonder there are so few normal people among geniuses; once they make up their mind, they really can be ruthless.

"I support Qinghu’s proposal," Mu Yu spoke up at that. "What if she does awaken?"

As she spoke, she gave the Paranoid a deep look. "I don’t want to be treated as a joke again... once was enough!"

As long as she could stay with him, life and death truly didn’t matter that much.

To be captured in public—this really would be utterly humiliating, even for a Supreme.