Starting Cultivation in Wasteland

No matter how you look at it, having lifeboats in space, and two of them at that, definitely provides a sense of security.

The five boarded Mu Yu’s lifeboat, along with two lifeboat capsules, and Granny Jia packed away her knockoff creation.

In any way you calculate it, she is a junior to Mu Yu and the other person, with modest financial strength, and there’s no need for bravado.

After boarding the lifeboat, Qu Jianlei released the Flower Scorpion and Xiao Moshan, mainly worried that something might go wrong with the two of them.

It turned out he was right to worry.

Flower Scorpion was still okay, just unconscious, but Xiao Moshan was bleeding from the seven orifices, looking as miserable as he could be.

"Lucky I opened them," Qu Jianlei muttered softly, "Alright, let’s first pick a place to land."

The fact now proves that the Supreme can survive longer in space not just because of high cultivation levels.

The key is they can also carry a lot of essential supplies with them!

Five Supremes together not only have at least two lifeboats but also a large amount of energy blocks.

When Qu Jianlei first encountered Rhine, the other party had a lifeboat but dared not speed up, precisely because of the lack of energy blocks.

After some selection, everyone gave up on the meteorite passing three million kilometers away, and chose the star body eight million kilometers away.

That star body was strange, moving quite fast, as if it was an intruding foreign celestial body in this area.

However, everyone chose it unanimously because this celestial body was large enough, with a diameter exceeding fifteen hundred kilometers, and possibly had geothermal energy.

Meanwhile, a muffled sound came from the cabin of the 3344 ship.

Soon after, the image of the Big Head Butterfly appeared on the main control screen, "Is this... a teleportation failure?"

Then it spun around frantically, "Locate possible coordinates, calculate!"

The 3344 ship housed fifty million calculation units, with computing power astonishingly immense when operating at full capacity.

Twenty minutes later, the temperature inside the starship had reached over sixty degrees.

"No good, the boss isn’t here, cooling down is too troublesome... Forget it, as long as no one’s dead, let’s save some energy blocks for now."

The lifeboat wasn’t fast, taking a day and a half to reach near the star body.

Before they could land, the eyes of several Supremes all lit up, "Huh, there’s something unusual!"

It was indeed unusual; the star body was emitting a faint energy.

Celestial bodies that emit energy... are actually not uncommon, some even emit strong, unknown radiation.

But the energy emitted by this star body felt familiar to everyone.

As they drew closer, everyone finally realized, "There’s an energy stone ore here!"

This was an astonishing discovery, as such mines were always the exclusive domain of the Empire.

But soon, the Paranoid issued a warning, "Be careful, there are signs of previous mining!"

Upon hearing this, everyone’s hearts sank instantly: It’s owned!

"Already mined... well, that’s good," Qinghu voiced, with hardly any concept of "wealth" in her mind.

What she cared about was, "They will definitely come back, we just have to wait."

It was a simple understanding, but indeed very pragmatic.

They were a team of five Supremes, even if someone was present, was it the Empire’s official mining team? Could they dare be disrespectful to them?

However, the lifeboat never received any communication signal, clearly indicating there was no mining team on the star body.

The lifeboat slowly landed, and the five Supremes stepped out; by this time, everyone had already overcome the discomfort from teleportation.

Nevertheless, Flower Scorpion and Xiao Moshan remained in the lifeboat, essentially acting as guards, as bringing them out would be a waste of resources.

Each Supreme flew in different directions, investigating the star body’s conditions.

Qu Jianlei took on almost half of the area, as he carried quite a few detectors and several robots.

After spending half a day, they completed the exploration of the entire star body, and concluded: This is an abandoned mine celestial body that’s been mined.

Qu Jianlei couldn’t help but think of the star body blown up in the asteroid belt.

However, this star body’s primary production should be energy stone ore, and it wasn’t fully mined.

The mining traces on the star body’s surface were evident, proving the existence of open-pit mines, with more than a dozen deep mining tunnels.

At the deepest points of these tunnels, there were some small veins of energy stones.

This should have been mined by a large mining company, the traces left by the mining machines were huge, and the methods were quite crude.

They must have abandoned the small veins because they weren’t worth it.

Even among the Supremes like Qu Jianlei, it seemed a bit unworthy.

But for long-term residence here, these small veins could provide a continuous energy source.

Understanding this, everyone felt somewhat relieved, as their demand for energy blocks was immense.

Originally, they had accumulated quite a few energy blocks, but just this teleportation consumed forty-five million blocks.

Among only seven people, there were five Supremes; although their combat power was overwhelming, every Supreme was a major consumer of energy blocks.

Even the A-level Flower Scorpion wouldn’t require too few energy blocks.

Though Xiao Moshan was only B-level, he still basically had the need to push for A-level.

In comparison, the demand for food and water is not very high.

After understanding the situation, everyone began to build shelter.

Mu Yu and Qinghu were the main contributors; one had the Earth Attribute, the other could simulate the Earth Attribute.

Granny Jia had expended a lot of Inner Breath outside the Imperial Military Region during the rain, so she and Flower Scorpion were on alert.

Paranoid was wandering on the Star Body, searching for other mineral veins while also picking up some trash.

That’s right, picking up trash, just like Qu Jianlei did when constructing on the Abandoned Mine Star Body, searching for abandoned mining equipment.

Unfortunately, it’s unknown which family mined here, and abandoned equipment was rarely seen.

In the mining holes, however, some discarded support columns could be picked up, which was better than nothing.

Qu Jianlei had much to do; first, he had to create an Energy Block Extractor — Energy Stones must be refined before use.

The principle of the Energy Block Extractor is simple, but to make it simplified, it must be developed into a large-scale device.

Handcrafting large equipment... this made Qu Jianlei feel like crying, but there was no way around it, as he was the only one proficient in mechanical manufacturing.

Thinking back then, when he worked alone on the Abandoned Mine Star Body, it wasn’t this tough.

At least he had the mechanical arm of the Starship, various parts, and the cooperation of the Big Head Butterfly.

Now the Little Lake is still around, but the small mechanical arm of the Lifeboat is too simple in function, almost like it doesn’t exist.

Indeed, there are more people around, with four being Supreme, but why does it feel even more challenging than last time?

One day later, the temporary shelter was built, and for improvements... it can slowly be done.

Granny Jia couldn’t take it anymore, "Quickly set up the Qi Gathering Array and Spirit Gathering Array, so everyone can take a few days to rest."

It’s not that she’s being pampered, but the others were about to reach their limit as well.

Without air and still needing to perform numerous Techniques, the consumption of Inner Breath was simply too great, even the Supreme couldn’t endure it.

Array materials were ready, and the two Supremes had established a large enough dwelling to simultaneously set up two arrays.

After the arrays were set up, Qu Jianlei took out several cans containing liquefied compressed air.

He didn’t bring much of this stuff, initially prepared just in case; if it weren’t for numerous Storage Talismans, he wouldn’t have brought any.

Now it could be put to use, but he dared not use it up completely, leaving more than half in reserve just in case.

No matter how you put it, at least there was sparse air in the large stone cave.

The density of that air was roughly... much thinner than the top of Blue Star Everest.

But having it is better than not, as for future air sources... they can be slowly prepared.

After all, they’re Awakened, their physiques are far stronger than average people, so there’s no worry about adaptation.

Among these people, Qinghu and Xiao Moshan were seeing the Spirit Gathering Array for the first time.

Xiao Moshan didn’t bother with much and proactively went into the Qi Gathering Array to rest.

Qinghu, on the other hand, walked to the side of the Spirit Gathering Array and asked Qu Jianlei, "Is this the Spirit Gathering Array you calculated?"

Qu Jianlei nodded slightly at the words, "Yes, but I advise against using it right now."

Then he pointed his finger at Mu Yu, who was sitting in the Qi Gathering Array cultivating.

Qinghu raised an eyebrow without much reaction, turned toward the Qi Gathering Array, "I’ll ask you again later."

In the subsequent rest, everyone rested intermittently, adjusting slightly better before continuing with the work.

But at the same time, we must maintain a certain level of Inner Breath readiness—who knows when someone will come?

Half a month flew by, and Qu Jianlei finally crafted the Energy Block Extractor and successfully tested it in one go.

Still the same issue, the energy consumption was a bit large, Qu Jianlei wasn’t entirely satisfied.

But everyone else was content; the place lacked nothing more than Energy Stones, what was a little loss?

Paranoid even expressed, "Seems like interstellar travel should always bring along a mechanical expert."

Mu Yu smiled and spoke up, "A mechanical expert with Supreme Cultivation Level—if you can find one, it’s best to stick with the leader!"

To be honest, the supply of Energy Stones had always been a concern weighing heavily upon everyone’s hearts.

Qu Jianlei vowed he could create it, but without seeing the actual item, who could believe unconditionally?

Now finally, they could breathe a sigh of relief; with everyone’s food and nutrient injection they carried, surviving fifty years wasn’t an issue.

The subsequent modifications were necessary to solve the air supply and improve other aspects of life quality.

In a blink of an eye, three months passed, and the shelter was finally modified satisfactorily.

Through the analysis of stones, air had returned to normal levels.

Qu Jianlei even started manufacturing compressors, planning to repackage the used air—having supplies brings peace of mind.

This involves various machinery, still a long process, but... everyone will get used to it.

Everyone’s condition returned to the peak, feeling ready to strike at any time.

Granny Jia asked Qu Jianlei, "When can our Lifeboat send a distress signal?"

The other people, as long as they could endure loneliness, could safely cultivate here, but she truly couldn’t wait.

Qu Jianlei replied solemnly, "I’ll make two more Energy Block Extractors, and first accumulate some Energy Blocks."