"The Perseverance has arrived at the Gamma System Space Station. Students, please take your personal belongings and disembark in an orderly manner."
Lu Yin stood by the window, gazing down. The Gamma System Space Station was already far from the Solar System, and this was the place where the Perseverance would perform its first wormhole jump.
To most people, the Gamma System Space Station was quite ordinary, but to people like Zhang Dingtian and Xu San, who were stepping into space for the first time, everything felt incredibly overwhelming.
The Gamma System Space Station was enormous—thousands of times larger than the Perseverance—constructed entirely of unknown metals, floating in space. Flying crafts zoomed in every direction, making the whole station look like a massive metal beast, bristling with menace.
Behind the station was a defensive net formed by countless spacecraft. Even from a great distance, Zhang Dingtian could sense the overwhelming fluctuations of star energy emanating from it. That was the presence of beings capable of walking through the stars. There were such beings stationed here.
The Perseverance docked within a massive framework, and below it, beams of light descended as students were transported down one by one.
Most of the students were not headed to the Imperial Capital. They came from different parts of the Da Yu Empire and needed to transfer from here.
More than twenty students disembarked at the Gamma System Space Station. Once they left the Perseverance, they clearly looked more relaxed.
Granny was among them. She was finally away from Lu Yin.
Before leaving, she glanced back at the Perseverance and saw Lu Yin waving at her. She rolled her eyes viciously and muttered something under her breath—clearly not anything kind.
Lu Yin raised an eyebrow. "This girl is asking for a beating."
Besides Granny, Willow, Bailie, and others also left. Their academies were not far from one another.
What surprised Lu Yin was that even Silver left.
Lu Yin stared at Silver's back with a thoughtful expression. That man was hard to read. Cooperation? Let's see who outplays who. But before that, he needed to figure out who was backing Silver.
High in the sky, a figure shot forward—it was Xiken Maldo.
Lu Yin took one last look at the universe and turned back to study the star charts. Now truly immersed in the vast cosmos, he could feel its immensity. As for the fifth star, he was confident he could activate it within a month. How strong would he be then? Generally speaking, each additional star doubled the power. With four stars, he had already overwhelmed Qing Yu at the Explorer level. With five stars, he might even be able to challenge Fusion-level students from the Universe Hall. Even someone like Mono might no longer be a match.
The station master of the Gamma System Space Station was named Baruda, an Explorer with a power level above 10,000, capable of walking through the stars. He had guarded the station for over two centuries with unwavering dedication.
Normally, a space station master didn't need to personally monitor wormholes, but Baruda was different. For over 200 years, he had overseen the wormhole personally, making him well-known throughout the Da Yu Empire.
Xiken Maldo traveled across vast space to reach the rear of the station, gazing at the massive wormhole. Then he looked at the nearby defensive net made of densely packed ships. At its center was Baruda's personal craft.
With a hiss, the hatch opened, and a middle-aged man in battle armor stepped out, crossing several kilometers in a single stride to stand before Xiken Maldo. "Baruda, Station Master of the Gamma System Space Station, greets General Maldo."
Xiken Maldo treated him with genuine respect and smiled. "Station Master Baruda, it's been thirteen years since we last met. How have you been?"
Baruda answered solemnly, "No signs of enemy invasion for thirteen years."
"Good," Maldo replied. "His Majesty has mentioned you many times. Thank you for your service in guarding the frontier of the Da Yu Empire."
Baruda gave a formal military salute. "It is my duty as a citizen of the Empire to protect the frontier."
"You should've received notice already. A planet on the edge called Earth has just undergone evolution. Please monitor it closely and eliminate any failed products as soon as possible, to prevent enemy infiltration," Maldo said sternly.
Baruda's eyes sharpened. "The New Human Alliance?"
Maldo nodded and looked in Earth's direction. "We must ensure the zombie failures from evolution don't fall into their hands. Even if they get just one Corpse King, it would be a big problem for the Da Yu Empire. You understand how serious this is."
Baruda nodded gravely. "Understood. I will dispatch troops immediately to Earth to eliminate the zombies."
"One more thing—while eliminating the zombies, do not harm the planet itself. For now, that planet belongs to the Purple Mountain King," Maldo added.
Baruda saluted again and quickly departed.
Not long after, the Perseverance started up again, rising and flying toward the wormhole behind the space station.
The moment they entered the wormhole, everyone felt a momentary loss of gravity. But within an instant, everything stabilized. The only change was the surrounding starfield—vastly different from before. They had traveled from the Gamma System to another star system space station and didn't even stop before continuing onward.
Xu San exhaled deeply. The moment they entered the wormhole had terrified him. The darkness within wasn't something just anyone could face.
The distance traveled through the wormhole was immense. They had crossed from the domain where the Solar System resided into a new one.
The cosmic map was structured with galaxies as the smallest unit, then galaxy clusters, each made up of many galaxies. Above that were superclusters, and then domains. Major powers in the universe generally used domains as boundaries of control.
One domain contained many superclusters—immensely vast. The Da Yu Empire spanned thirteen domains, covering nearly half of the Canglan Territory.
Above domains were territories. The outer universe had seventy-two territories in total. The Canglan Territory was just one of them. On average, each territory contained about one hundred domains. This meant the Da Yu Empire's size was about one-tenth of the Canglan Territory, which had 125 domains.
The Solar System belonged to the Fourth Domain. The Perseverance had just crossed from the Fourth Domain into the Third Domain. Their destination was the First Domain—where the Imperial Capital was located, and the center of the entire Da Yu Empire.
With a batch of students having left, the training area felt much more spacious.
Lu Yin arrived at the training area and saw a few familiar faces. Those people quickly scattered like avoiding the plague at the sight of him. Lu Yin didn't care—he had never intended to get along with anyone.
Now that his identity as the Purple Mountain King was confirmed, trouble was bound to follow. He could already predict that he would be disliked throughout the Da Yu Empire. So what? The identity was fake anyway. All he needed was enough influence in one of the Empire's domains in the future. Of course, that wasn't achievable just yet.
The training area simulated various environments and was quite large.
Lu Yin wandered into the gravity zone—a good place to train the body.
There were more than a hundred gravity chambers, each large enough to accommodate multiple people and open to everyone.
He picked an empty one and immediately set the gravity to six times normal, warmed up, then steadily increased it. As the gravity rose, his body grew heavier, and internal organs were under more pressure. When the gravity reached thirty times, he was drenched in sweat. That level was the limit for Explorers—most couldn't withstand more than that.
"This'll do. Time to train," Lu Yin murmured and began basic exercises. They were simple but effective. With these, he had trained his body to the point that he could use the Wave Palm without star energy. Now, even though Wave Palm and Sky-Splitting Palm weren't as effective due to stronger techniques, he didn't want to give them up. So in the absence of star crystals, he would use this time to strengthen them.
Outside the gravity room, several students stared at the display. "Thirty times gravity? Which senior is training? Mono? Flame Steel? Or Fire Xiaoling?" someone guessed.
"Maybe one of the old soldiers. Some of them are Fusion Realm cultivators."
"Soldiers seem more likely. They can't get star crystals, so they train their bodies instead. I've heard some of them reach Fusion Realm-level strength in flesh while still being Explorers."
"Bah, just a bunch of trash. What good is physical strength? They're just battle slaves," one student sneered.
A few soldiers nearby looked angry but said nothing. They had come from trial planets, and it was already a great honor to be selected for the Perseverance, but the Empire hadn't rebuilt their bodies—they really were battle slaves.
"Enough. If you want to know who it is, just open the door," one student said impatiently.
Someone else quickly advised, "Disturbing someone during training can get you into trouble. Thirty times gravity—could be a Fusion Realm. Are you sure you can handle that?"
The student hesitated, then backed off.