bookbashuk Page 9
Page 9
"Same here."
Lu Ming's words were concise and to the point.
He just sold his treasure.
I have a lot of money on me, but I haven't had time to exchange it for resources yet.
But there's no time left now, and he's still very confident in his current abilities.
That's enough to handle this operation!
"Alright! I'll contact Xiao Sanzi, Manji, and Yingsuo right away and arrange to meet on 'Ash Star' on the outer edge of the Dark Cloud Star Belt!"
Heya acted swiftly, sending a message through the intelligent optical brain.
Soon, the other party replied that they had received the message and would head to the meeting point as soon as possible.
"Let's go, Lao Lu!"
Heya stood up, a hint of excitement flashing in his eyes.
"Let's see what we can gain this time!"
Lu Ming also stood up, his calm expression masking a slight excitement within.
The first action after breaking through to the Domain Lord level is something that people are somewhat eager to take.
Two streaks of light shot out of the lord's mansion in an instant, flying straight towards the outer space of Qiulong Star.
Heya's ship was a D6-class spaceship called "Silver Shuttle," which was entirely silver-gray with sharp lines and was even faster than Lu Ming's "Bluebird."
"Get on my spaceship, it'll be faster."
Heya extended an invitation.
Lu Ming didn't stand on ceremony. He put away his Bluebird and entered the Silver Shuttle with Heya.
hum-
The Silver Shuttle's engine roared, instantly accelerating to the speed of light, plunging into the dark universe, and speeding towards the Dark Cloud Star Belt.
Chapter 10 It is difficult for an upright official to deal with household affairs
The Dark Universe travels at extremely high speeds. Half a month later, the Silver Shuttle arrived near its destination, left the Dark Universe, and returned to its original space.
Outside the porthole lay a desolate and silent star field.
In the distance, there is a diffuse, dimly colored "dark cloud band".
Nearby, countless meteorites of varying sizes floated, slowly moving and forming a dangerous debris field.
This place is far from any habitable planet; it's a true cosmic desert, which explains why this hidden place has remained undiscovered for so long.
Guided by the coordinates, the Silver Shuttle skillfully navigated through the meteorite field and finally approached a small, lifeless, gray-black planet—Ash Star.
The spaceship landed inside a crater on the dark side of Ash Star.
As the hatch opened and Lu Ming and He Ya stepped out, a loud, boisterous laugh came from behind a huge meteorite nearby.
"Hahaha! Old Lu! Heya! You two old guys, you got here pretty fast!"
Before the words were finished, a bald, muscular man, nearly three meters tall, with muscles that looked like they were cast in metal, and wearing brown armor, strode over.
With each step he took, the ground trembled slightly; it was the domain lord "Manji".
Manji walked up and patted Heya's shoulder hard. Then, his big, round eyes glared at Lu Ming, and his large, fan-like hand slapped Lu Ming's shoulder with a loud voice.
"Old Lu! You little rascal! You've finally crawled out of your Azure Sky tortoise shell! It's been almost ten thousand years since I last saw you. I thought you were planning to die of old age at home!"
However, his hand suddenly stopped just as it was about to touch Lu Ming's shoulder.
Manji's smile froze, replaced by deep astonishment. He looked Lu Ming up and down carefully, as if trying to get to know him all over again.
"You...you smell wrong!"
Manji said in a muffled voice.
"That cosmic-level decaying aura... is gone? In its place is a... I can't quite describe it, but it feels really good! Old Lu, you... you fucking broke through?! Domain Lord?!"
Looking at Manji's shocked expression, Lu Ming smiled slightly and teased, "What's wrong, barbarian? You're allowed to use your muscles to grow your brain, but I, Lu Ming, am not allowed to break through to become a Domain Lord?"
"Hahahaha!"
After confirming, Manji burst into an even louder laugh, this time slapping Lu Ming's shoulder with such force that it could shatter a mountain, but Lu Ming didn't budge.
"Good! Excellent! I knew it! You old codger, your life is as tough as a star core, how could you possibly be blocked by the mere threshold of a regional lord!"
He seemed even more excited than Hea had been.
"Damn it! You have no idea, we old guys were secretly discussing this before! If you still couldn't break through in a hundred years, we would swallow our pride and borrow a huge sum of money from the Cosmic Galaxy Bank to get you a treasure that could repair your foundation! But who would have thought that you would take care of it yourself! You saved us a lot of money! Hahaha!"
At that moment, a slightly effeminate voice rang out softly.
"Hey barbarian, can you keep your voice down? Are you afraid people won't know we're having a gathering here?"
With the sound, a blurry figure materialized from the shadows like a ghost. It was a thin man wearing a black bodysuit, with an ordinary face that would be easily lost in a crowd.
It was "Shadow Shuttle," the team's expert in stealth and reconnaissance, a peak ninth-tier cosmic-level mentalist.
Ying Shuo first nodded to He Ya, then looked at Lu Ming, a hint of surprise and relief flashing in his calm eyes.
"Lu Ming, congratulations. It seems our chances of success in this exploration have increased even further."
Lu Ming smiled at Ying Suo and said, "Ying Suo, it's been a long time. I appreciate your kind words."
Heya laughed from the side, "Alright, half the people are here. Now we're just waiting for Xiao Sanzi, the discoverer."
"Tch, that guy summoned us, but then he turned out to be the slowest to arrive."
……
About seven or eight days later, just as Lu Ming and the others were meditating in the crater, a subtle spatial fluctuation came from within.
Not far away, the void rippled like water, and a spaceship with a deep blue body and smooth lines like a swimming fish silently appeared. It was Carlos's ride, the "Deep Blue C7 spaceship".
The hatch opened, and a man dressed in blue casual clothes, with a youthful and handsome face, but whose eyes held the shrewdness and vicissitudes of life that come with age, stepped out.
"Sorry everyone, I'm late."
Carlos, the domain lord nicknamed "Little Three," strode forward and bowed to the crowd.
"Oh, so our great discoverer has finally decided to show himself?"
Manji's loud voice rang out first.
"I thought you found some treasure and sneaked in by yourself!"
Carlos shook his head with a wry smile: "Manji, please don't make fun of me. Sigh, I was just held up by some family matters."
Heya, being perceptive, noticed that Carlos seemed genuinely troubled, so she asked, "What's wrong, little Sanzi? Judging from your appearance, it doesn't seem like you were just delayed on the road."
Carlos sighed, rubbed his temples, and looked like he had a headache: "It's all because of my good-for-nothing son! You all know that he's my only son, and I finally managed to raise him to cosmic level. His talent is alright, but his brain... sigh!"
He paused, then said helplessly, "This kid, somehow, met the little princess of the Los Empire during a space mercenary assessment, and then he fell head over heels for her!"
The shadow shuttle's voice drifted over.
"The Los Empire? That relatively powerful early-stage civilization? As a domain lord, your son taking a liking to their princess isn't a bad thing, is it? Does the Los Empire dare to refuse?"
"That's the problem!"
Carlos slapped his thigh, his tone even more frustrated.
"If it were a normal marriage alliance, I could just send someone to say a word, and the Emperor of the Los Empire would probably be more than happy to send his daughter over! But my brat... he's a damn simp!"
"Lick the dog?"
Manji's eyes widened; this was the very word Lu Ming had taught them!
Lu Ming understood, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
Heya couldn't help but chuckle.
Carlos was heartbroken.
"Yeah! It's that kind of shameless flattery! That little princess of the Los Empire is clearly playing hard to get, keeping him hanging on, making him do this and that, even using his status as the son of a domain lord to solve some problems, but she just won't give him a straight answer. My silly son is happily thinking it's a test, and he's doing his best to perform! Before I left this time, that kid came to me again, begging me to put pressure on the Los Empire, or to give me some big gifts... It made me so angry!"
"puff……"
Heya finally couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"So you're so busy with your son that you can't get away?"
Carlos nodded helplessly: "That's right! I had to coax him a lot to calm him down. He said he'd help me figure something out after I get back from this expedition. Really... how could I, Carlos, who's been so shrewd all my life, have such a love-struck son!"
Upon hearing this, Manji burst into laughter, his voice echoing across the surrounding area.
"Hahaha! Little Sanzi, I never thought you'd end up like this! Where did your cunning go? Why didn't you pass that on to your son?"
Ying Suo also revealed a rare smile: "Even an upright official finds it hard to settle family disputes."
Chapter 11 Entering the Secret Realm
Lu Ming smiled and shook his head, then spoke.
"Children and grandchildren have their own blessings, so don't worry too much. Perhaps he will grow up after experiencing some setbacks."
Carlos sighed, "Let's hope so. Forget about this troubling matter, let's get down to business! Everything's normal at the entrance to the secret realm, let's prepare and go in as soon as possible, lest something goes wrong."
Everyone's attention returned to exploring the secret realm.
"Let's go, let's go, let's set off!"
Five spaceships of different shapes formed a small formation and, guided by Carlos, silently traversed the dense asteroid belt.
After flying for about half a day, the scenery ahead began to change.
In the center of a relatively empty star field, space itself was distorted, and a huge vortex about 100 meters in diameter floated silently.
The vortex was a deep blue, dotted with starlight.
It rotates slowly, emitting a gentle yet powerful suction force that silently swallows up the occasional small meteorite fragments that drift by, without causing the slightest ripple.
"This is it."