In the dark void of space, a silver-gray spaceship was rapidly traversing at faster-than-light speed.
To Qi Yuan's surprise, the owner of the ship that had purchased their group of Lei Yuan Tribe slaves had yet to summon them.
But this suited him just fine—it gave him the opportunity to further familiarize himself with the system he had just acquired.
"Disciple Return System: Returning items or imparting cultivation experience can trigger a return."
"The item return is easy to understand, but how does returning cultivation experience work? The experience I can pass on to my disciples is undoubtedly what I have already mastered myself. Even if the return is multiplied tenfold or a hundredfold, what's the point?"
"However, the return multiplier is quite appealing. On top of the basic return rate, there is a chance to trigger a critical strike reward up to 100 times. If I can find a genius disciple with a base return multiplier of 100, and then trigger a critical strike, wouldn't that result in a 10,000-fold return?!"
That would be amazing!
If I could trigger a 10,000-fold return every time, regardless of cultivation levels or realm, just continuously sending disciples money and resources, I'd probably become the wealthiest person in the Original Universe in no time!
By then, what wouldn't I be able to buy—heavenly materials, rare treasures? My own cultivation would soar like a rocket!
Of course, this was just a fleeting fantasy. There were still many restrictions to actually implementing it.
First of all, the system's return function could only be triggered once a month, and the items given must align with the disciple's current level. Otherwise, the return multiplier would be affected.
Secondly, triggering a critical strike reward wouldn't be easy—it had to be an item that could deeply move the disciple.
In other words, it wasn't enough for the item to just be expensive. It had to be suitable and resonate with the disciple.
Moreover, items returned by the system couldn't trigger another return if re-gifted. The method of gifting had to be varied.
The time and energy spent on this process was not insignificant.
But aside from these points, the most pressing issue Qi Yuan faced was how to acquire a high-multiplier genius disciple.
He himself was only at the second tier of the Stellar Rank, and being a native of a planet, he had now become a slave under the control of a biological chip.
As long as they weren't utterly foolish, no high-multiplier genius would be willing to become his disciple.
Well, actually...
Qi Yuan's gaze swept around—
As the 'ancestor' of the Lei Yuan Tribe's martial arts, if he were to speak up, the planetary-level tribe members around him would probably not reject him.
Besides, many of them had already been his disciples at some point.
"Let me see how promising the Lei Yuan Tribe's talents are."
His thoughts stirred, and he quickly began to scan the Lei Yuan Tribe members around him, using the system's functions to probe their abilities.
The more he investigated, the more disheartened he became—
[Target Longshan, Basic Return Multiplier: 4x, Can Bind]
[Target Shen Buhai, Basic Return Multiplier: 3x, Can Bind after Becoming a Disciple]
[Target Tang Hong, Basic Return Multiplier: 3x, Can Bind after Becoming a Disciple]
Out of the hundreds of planetary-level Lei Yuan Tribe members, most of them had a basic return multiplier between 3x and 5x.
The highest multiplier was barely 8x, failing to even reach a double-digit figure.
"No one even has a multiplier above 10x. Looks like the Lei Yuan Tribe's bloodline isn't very impressive after all."
But at this point, he had no better options and could only choose the best among the dwarfs.
"Anyway, the system doesn't limit the number of disciples I can bind, so I'll give it a try!"
Qi Yuan's eyes swept through the crowd and quickly locked onto a middle-aged Lei Yuan tribesman on the edge of the group.
This man wore ragged clothing, his frame was thin, and his hair was white and messy—he looked like an exhausted farmer who had labored his whole life in the fields.
This was the only person among the hundreds of Lei Yuan Tribe members who had a return multiplier of 8x.
To be honest, Qi Yuan was somewhat surprised when he discovered that this person had the highest return multiplier out of over three hundred Lei Yuan Tribe members.
Because in the memories of the original owner, this person's talent didn't stand out among the tribe.
He was one of the first disciples of the original owner, and while the secret arts he practiced and the resources available to him weren't inferior to others, his progress was incredibly slow.
Before the arrival of the outsiders, his cultivation had barely broken through to the second tier of the planetary level, ranking at the bottom among his fellow disciples. Moreover, many rising stars had already surpassed him.
The only thing worthy of praise was that his foundation was particularly "solid." Though his progress was slow, he advanced steadily, one step at a time, and his combat techniques and agility were unrivaled by his fellow disciples.
"Could this be a 'clumsy genius' version of the Lei Yuan Star?" Qi Yuan thought to himself.
"Never mind. There's no better choice for now. I'll use you as a backup."
Resolute, Qi Yuan sent a thread of consciousness to the illusory panel in his sea of consciousness.
Immediately, the system's prompt sounded in his mind:
[Target Cang Fan, Basic Return Multiplier: 8x, Satisfies Disciple Conditions, Bind?]
After confirming the selection, the originally blank system panel immediately displayed the information about Cang Fan:
[Name: Cang Fan]
[Race: Lei Yuan Tribe]
[Cultivation: Planetary Level, Tier 2]
[Attribute: Lightning]
[Cultivation School: Martial Artist]
[Basic Return Multiplier: 8x]
The panel was quite simple, revealing no special information. Qi Yuan glanced at it and then quickly dismissed the panel.
"I have a disciple now. Should I try the system's return function?"
He pondered for a moment, then decided against it for the time being.
After all, he was currently penniless. Other than the option of imparting cultivation experience, he didn't even have a "gift" to trigger the system's return function.
Furthermore, he hadn't forgotten his current identity.
As a slave controlled by a biological chip, every one of his actions was under the supervision of his owner. If he carelessly exhibited behavior unbefitting of a slave, it would easily attract unwanted attention.
Whether he would be captured for experimentation or executed on the spot, the consequences were beyond his ability to bear.
"My strength is too weak. I must be cautious. I can't let anyone know that I can break free from the biological chip's control!"
"I'll wait for the ship to land and then look for an opportunity."
Thunderstorm Star was a well-known resource planet in the Eternal Star Domain.
The entire planet was covered by thick lightning clouds all year round, and most areas on the surface were constantly bombarded by violent electrical storms.
In such a harsh environment, even planetary-level warriors couldn't stay for long without supplies.
However, this very environment also gave birth to a rare and valuable resource—Thunder Crystal Ore.
The Thunder Crystals extracted from this ore could be used to forge force weapons or combined with other metals to make C-grade alloys, making it a highly sought-after metal in the universe.
Thanks to the abundant reserves of Thunder Crystal Ore, Thunderstorm Star's value could rival that of over ten planets of similar size.
This was a treasure so immense that even universe-level powerhouses would be tempted.
However, despite the fact that the coordinates of Thunderstorm Star were no secret, no universe-level powerhouse dared to make a move on it.
The reason was simple: the planet was protected by the mighty Oltega Family.
In the ship's cabin, Qi Yuan attempted cultivation using the methods passed down from the original owner.
Streams of cosmic energy flowed into his body and were refined into pure gene energy.
However, Qi Yuan found that the speed of this refinement was incredibly slow.
After completing another cycle of energy circulation, he reluctantly had to stop.
"The original owner's cultivation method is so low-level, and without any cultivation resources to assist, at this rate, it'll take me decades, even hundreds of years, just to reach the third tier of Stellar Rank."
The Lei Yuan Star had never connected with the cosmic civilizations, and the methods of cultivation that the original owner used were cobbled together from the remnants of an alien spaceship that crashed there.
With such methods, it was fortunate that the original owner had broken through to the Stellar Rank.
Without better cultivation techniques, it was uncertain whether he could reach the peak of Stellar Rank before his lifespan expired.
"I need to find a better cultivation method, or it'll be impossible to advance."