Chapter 640 - 382: The Era of the Great Counter-offensive Has Begun

Chapter 640: Chapter 382: The Era of the Great Counter-offensive Has Begun

’I’ll put that aside for now. I’ll wait to divide them up until I’ve collected all nine pieces.’ ’The other seven planets in space are sure to have Divine King Realm Exotic Beasts, too.’

However, he didn’t intend to go hunt them. His plan was to first fuse with the Heart of the Earth before deciding on his next move. It would be ideal if he could beat the other Divine Kings to the Planet Dominator Realm.

Regardless, Earth was his home base. He had to protect it.

News of what happened here would get out sooner or later, and the Exotic Beasts from deep space would surely launch another massive assault. Li Xiang decided there was no time to delay and would immediately begin fusing with the Heart of the Earth.

He respectfully saw off the four Earth Vein Dragon Spirits, then glanced from afar at the Divine Level Stellar Mother Ship floating in the Dark Cosmic Space. For a moment, he didn’t dare go aboard.

’The circumstances just now were special, and that ten-person Fusion was certainly incredible,’ he thought. ’But now that the crisis is over for the time being, wanting to do it again is nothing but a fantasy.’

Li Xiang didn’t even have to think about it; he knew it was absolutely impossible!

’A pity it only went halfway.’ During the battle, everyone had poured their Spiritual Power into his body, and their minds had merged as one, but their physical bodies had remained separate.

It was still different from a proper Dual Cultivation. It was a battle, after all.

That was why Li Xiang called it "halfway." But even halfway had been incredibly intense and exhilarating, as proven by the fact that he’d broken through several minor Realms in one go.

’It’d be nice if another dangerous moment like that came along,’ Li Xiang thought, then was immediately startled by the idea. He shook his head again and again. ’No, better not. A life-and-death crisis like that is something I’d rather not experience again.’

With a flicker, he appeared beside the Heart of the Earth and began to communicate and fuse with this symbol of planetary sovereignty.

Aboard the Stellar Mother Ship, Yao Yao covered her mouth to hide a giggle and whispered to Zhao Xueqing and Lei Xiaohui, "Brother Xiang was so intense earlier, and now he doesn’t even dare to come up here."

Charming smiles graced the lips of Zhao Xueqing and Lei Xiaohui. To be honest, even if Li Xiang had dared to come aboard, they wouldn’t have dared to be so "bold" again.

It wouldn’t have been a big deal for them, but Jiang Cai’Er and Luo Feifei definitely wouldn’t have agreed to it. The fact that a fight hadn’t broken out was already huge progress.

About an hour later, the Divine Maidens had mostly recovered. The colossal Stellar Mother Ship made its return trip, reaching the surface in an instant and docking at the Sky Mother Port.

Jiang Cai’Er invited everyone to City No. 03. Since she was opening up, she decided to be even more generous, setting aside several houses in City No. 03 for them to choose from. They weren’t all together, however; they were scattered throughout the city.

Yao Yao, Zhao Xueqing, and Lei Xiaohui already had houses there, but their previous ones were too small. These new ones were a major upgrade.

"This way, everyone will have a place to stay when you come to City No. 03 in the future. You won’t have to get a hotel."

Now, with the intercity underground transit network restarting, travel and cooperation between the various Underground Cities had increased, making hotels a scarce commodity. Besides, when the cities were under lockdown, hotels had hardly been part of the original design.

Some were hastily approved later, but for a population that loved to travel, it was still not nearly enough.

Everyone was thrilled. Chiba Yuki and her mother chose a large manor, and Erin picked one out as well. Yao Yao, Zhao Xueqing, and Lei Xiaohui naturally didn’t stand on ceremony with Jiang Cai’Er and each selected a house. Seeing that everyone else had picked one, Luo Feifei dropped the pretense and chose one for herself, too.

"I have a lot of work to do, so I’ll leave you to it." ’I’ve been generous enough,’ Jiang Cai’Er thought to herself. She didn’t dwell on the matter and immediately immersed herself in her other duties.

As a Digital Life, she had countless Clones, but her work focused on two main areas: first, processing and optimizing various government affairs to ensure the country ran efficiently, and second, research and development for the military.

They now had the skeletons of five Divine King Level Exotic Beasts. Each one was enormous, measuring two to three thousand kilometers in length. Converting them into Stellar Mother Ships wouldn’t be as simple as just scaling up the existing design.

Because of their larger size and the greater number of Inscriptions required, the process would take much longer and be far more technically demanding.

’A Divine King Level Stellar Mother Ship this massive can’t just be equipped with the same old shipboard weapons, can it? The firepower just wouldn’t match.’

It wasn’t just the shipboard weapons that were a mismatch. The onboard detection systems, Invisibility technology, engines, and so on were all unsuitable. They would all need to be further developed and upgraded.

All of this would take time.

Jiang Cai’Er returned to the Earth Core to discuss the next steps with Li Xiang.

They both agreed that secrecy was paramount to success. For the time being, the fact that they had killed several Divine King Realm Kings of Exotic Beasts deep within the Earth Core had to be kept under wraps.

If news of this spread across the globe, it might reach the ears of some Saint Tier Exotic Beasts. Those beasts might have a way to contact their allies in outer space. That would lead to endless trouble.

At the very least, they had to wait until he had completely fused with the Heart of the Earth.

Jiang Cai’Er chose one of the Divine King Realm Exotic Beasts from Li Xiang—the weakest one. It was still over 2,200 kilometers long, 800 kilometers wide, and about five to six hundred kilometers tall. It wasn’t a regular rectangular block, of course, but streamlined, retaining the shape of the Exotic Beast’s body.

Since it was too massive for Jiang Cai’Er to transport on her own, Li Xiang helped deliver it to the production facility used before.

This first vessel would be an experimental ship of sorts, as the technology wasn’t fully mature and they would have to learn as they went. The remaining corpses were still stored in Li Xiang’s Otherworldly Warehouse.

Once Li Xiang had delivered the "cargo" to its destination, he returned to the Earth Core. Jiang Cai’Er, meanwhile, summoned her team and began marshaling the immense manpower and resources needed to start converting the Exotic Beast’s corpse.