The universe, what an incredible thrill it is... Please keep reading!
The message from the Peregrine reached the Leonine at the far end of the Redwood star system after fifteen minutes had passed.
Staring at the unbelievable scene on the screen, the three people in the Leonine’s cockpit were so shocked they could not utter a word for a long time.
Ten minutes after the Peregrine received Lady Fariel’s reply—
The interstellar space above the scavenger ship suddenly split open!
A rift appeared, like a gaping maw of blood, devouring everything in its path.
A shriveled, pitch-black humanoid arm extended from the scarlet fissure, as if traversing endless time and space, bearing the ancient anguish and vast, silent pressure of a primeval era.
The spiritual pressure detected by the ship instantly soared past level one hundred!
Time and space froze.
The withered giant hand seized the Peregrine's hull and slowly dragged it into the spatial rift.
The fissure vanished.
The stars glittered—empty interstellar space as though the Peregrine had never been there at all.
Lu Chen himself could not make sense of what had happened.
He sensed the crew had been subjected to a mental assault, yet something felt off.
“Is this... Nether?”
Nether—aberrant creatures born from lost demonic essence, mindless monsters that devour all living things.
Mental attacks, devouring spiritual energy, and abyssal rifts—these are the three hallmarks of an uncontrolled Nether.
Of these, Gloria spoke with the most authority.
“Don’t look at me. I don’t know what it was either, but that hand definitely wasn’t a Nether.”
She frowned deeply, as if wanting to say something, but then held her tongue, lifted her teacup, and drank quietly.
Nearby.
Little Sirius clutched her head, cowering in terror, her eyes glazed white, instantly losing consciousness.
It was as if her mind had been completely sealed and controlled, yet fear kept her from even standing.
Lu Chen hurriedly fed Aili a few healing pills, after which she fainted.
After carrying Aili to her room to rest, Lu Chen quickly returned to the cockpit.
Standing before the cat cage wrapped in airbags, he could no longer bring himself to look directly at the black cat.
“The giant hand that ripped through space had a real, shriveled flesh—didn’t seem like a demon either…”
Lu Chen was deeply puzzled.
Gloria shrugged, guessing casually,
“Maybe someone wants to control the Nether? The universe is vast, and there are plenty of lunatics.”
She sipped her tea, unwilling to dwell on it.
“Don’t overthink it. If this is the only beast in the universe infected with demonic poison, such things are bound to happen.”
Lu Chen nodded, frowning,
“It looks like this demonized black cat is indeed a lost experimental subject, but not necessarily the only one.
The organization behind it must be powerful. I suspect the black cat was stolen and then lost along the way.
Also, Aili’s sudden loss of control is very unusual—likely tied to her atavistic traits and mental seals.
I’ve never heard of beastfolk atavism before—only in recent years have such rumors surfaced.
Could it be that beasts must go through a process of cultivating intelligence before succumbing to demonic transformation?”
Gloria didn’t understand a word Lu Chen said.
To her, compared to the universe’s endless mysteries, Lu Chen himself was the strangest entity.
“The universe is so big, all kinds of monsters and demons abound, and mysterious events happen every day. Pondering them is pointless—getting stronger is what matters.
Think about it: do you venture out for profit or to explore the cosmos?
You should be glad someone else claimed the reward for you; had you gone yourself, you’d be dead by now.
Don’t you feel the slightest relief at having escaped disaster?”
Lu Chen looked up at Gloria, shaking his head in confusion.
Not at all…
Ahem.
He quickly explained,
“Relief? I foresaw it in advance—it wasn’t luck.”
Gloria smiled, drinking her tea. When the cup was empty, she uncorked her flask and took a sip of liquor.
“How does your first Pangu adventure feel? There’s always surprises here—quite exciting, isn’t it?”
Lu Chen hadn’t expected it—he’d deliberately chosen the simplest ‘find the cat’ quest, only to encounter a monster over level one hundred!
He’d just entered the novice zone!
The universe truly was thrilling…
But dangerous? Hardly.
“It’s alright.”
Lu Chen’s expression betrayed no fear—if anything, he seemed suppressedly excited.
Gloria glanced at him, sensing he was feigning calm.
“Still planning to take the cat with you to the White Dew?”
“Of course.”
Lu Chen’s resolve was clear, and he added,
“With a treasure like this, I must get a good price!”
“That’s the spirit!”
Gloria leaned on Lu Chen, forcibly pressing her flask to his lips and making him drink several mouthfuls.
“That’s our captain.”
While Lu Chen was distracted, she deftly slipped his storage pouch from his belt.
“That scavenger ship captain was a drunk—he couldn’t possibly lack good liquor!”
Try as she might, Gloria couldn’t open the pouch, even resorting to tearing at it—still no luck.
Lu Chen wiped the traces of liquor and Gloria’s succubus scent from his mouth, looking at her as if she were a fool.
After much effort—beating, kicking, and muttering curses—Gloria was left sweaty and embarrassed, unable to open it.
Finally, she handed the pouch back to Lu Chen, retrieving her flask with a disgruntled,
“Why just watch? If you’re so capable, open it yourself.”
Lu Chen shook his head, inspecting the pouch.
Palm-sized, made from some beast hide, its surface etched with complex defensive runes—damaged, but the internal spatial runes remained intact.
Ancient storage pouches like this were new to Lu Chen.
Even old-fashioned pouches had password locks.
Modern cultivators’ spiritual senses are weak, making it hard to decipher rune passwords or forcibly break spatial arrays.
Unless faced with a true master, these are nearly impossible to open.
Lu Chen, however, used his item identification abilities to probe the internal rune structure, then manipulated the external runes with spiritual energy, easily unlocking it.
There wasn’t much inside.
Over two hundred spirit stones.
A jar of aged liquor.
A locator—apparently used by the Interstellar Scavenger Alliance to track pirate ships.
Lu Chen immediately destroyed the locator!
He pocketed the spirit stones.
Adding the eight hundred stones he’d previously scavenged, he now had over eleven hundred!
He examined the jar of liquor—the talisman and label had corroded together, making it hard to identify.
[An eight-hundred-year-old Imperial Star Crabapple Red.]
Lu Chen checked online; it could fetch about a hundred spirit stones.
He tossed it to Gloria.
“Take it. I’ll dock your share of spirit stones later.”
Upon receiving the liquor, Gloria’s perked nose twitched, savoring,
“Imperial Star Crabapple Red—though not yet a millennium old, it’s a rare vintage.”
“…”
Lu Chen was speechless—her canine nose rivaled his item identification, wasted on trivial pursuits.
Gloria didn’t uncork it right away, but stowed it away to enjoy on a special occasion.
Lu Chen gripped the now-empty pouch.
Strictly speaking, its internal space was small, access cumbersome, security poor, and spatial stability lacking.
Lu Chen checked online; most ancient pouches were mere collectibles, worth only a few hundred spirit stones.
In the Era of Declining Magic, the galaxy’s spiritual energy was low; relying on spiritual power and arrays, spatial magic was hard to sustain.
Large spatial arrays like interstellar gates and teleportation arrays depended on spiritual energy and annihilation-class hybrid power—minimum planetary scale.
Even spiritual and nuclear-powered warp engines could only shrink to the size of a house.
For example, the Empire’s civilian storage wristbands supposedly used miniature black hole technology, triple-bound to bloodline, spiritual vein, and ID code, nearly impossible for outsiders to open. Maximum capacity: a one-meter cube—enough to stow a spirit sword diagonally.
Unfortunately, even the entry-level model consumed one hundred standard spirit stones daily to maintain spatial stability—a luxury item, destined to be.
There are larger military-grade storage devices, but the Empire forbids export—only senior officers are equipped.
Lu Chen yearned for a large-capacity storage device; with it, he could streamline his scavenger armor, boosting mobility and combat power… but it was wishful thinking for now.
“Oh well, I’ll keep the pouch, modify it, and use it to hold spirit stones, pills, or a lightsaber hilt—still handy.”
Apart from the pouch, low-grade armor, spirit swords, and pills were barely worth anything—maybe a hundred stones total.
Lu Chen had just entered the Pangu Corridor, yet he wasn’t cowed by the level one hundred monster’s attack.
He hadn’t even left the Redwood star system.
The ship still carried the black cat.
The Leonine brazenly docked at a vibrant commercial planet.
Lu Chen left the black cat, pouch, and Gloria’s liquor aboard, selling all excess spoils.
He kept a hundred spirit stones each for himself and Aili.
Gloria was content with her liquor.
The remaining thousand stones were exchanged for cultivation pills—Bone Cleansing, Meridian Opening, and Healing.
“Cultivation mustn’t lag—pills are essential!”
More importantly, with Gloria’s demonic blood assisting, a few pills could easily level him up—the effect was immediate, addictive.
He also bought some cat food.
A famished monster could turn cannibal!
When Little Sirius awoke, the Leonine had already left the Redwood system.
Lu Chen brought her a cup of invigorating red tea.
She instinctively sipped it, donned her silver spectacles, and fixed her gaze on Lu Chen.
Blinking, her face was blank.
A faint daze lingered in her pale blue eyes.
She gradually regained some clarity.
But when Lu Chen questioned her about the giant hand, she was utterly lost—no memory at all.
She got up, went to the porthole, resumed studying the myriad spiritual arts and tending her glass-jar ecosystem.
Her mind remained a bit muddled.
Lu Chen didn’t press further.
Several days passed.
The Leonine arrived at a new star system.
This time—
His treasure map finally responded!