Swallowing the Stars: 100x Return for Teaching Apprentices

Chapter 110 The Returning Spaceship

Qi Yuan's originally uneventful cultivation life was stirred up by the appearance of Long Yun.

As the first character from the original work he personally encountered, it was inevitable that he felt a sense of nostalgia.

In addition, Long Yun is also a powerful genius who ranks among the top in a certain genius competition, which is quite attractive to him.

Although there is no immediate possibility of accepting him as a disciple, it has set a goal for him to strive for.

With the return system at his disposal, he was confident that he could catch up with and even surpass the geniuses who appeared in the original work step by step.

When the time comes, it would be very rewarding to gather all these well-known geniuses under my wing and achieve the perfect 'card collection'!
Although meeting Long Yun, a character from the original work, was somewhat unexpected and exciting, Qi Yuan's current status and strength were limited, so he had no intention of having much contact with him for the time being.

After exchanging a few words with Xing Zhan to get acquainted with him, he exited the virtual universe.

"Hehe, the appearance of Longyun has given me a lot of motivation. My short-term goal is to quickly raise my strength to a level comparable to an immortal, and then start trying to 'conquer' this Longyun!"

Just as Qi Yuan was about to continue his cultivation with this momentum, he was interrupted by unexpected news.
Maple Moon Star.

As Qi Yuan's territory continues to expand, Maple Moon Star, which was originally designed as a 'hub star', is now becoming increasingly prosperous and bustling.

Outside Maple Moon Star, countless spaceships and transport ships crisscrossed the area, almost to the point where people had to queue up for pick-up.

In the starry sky hundreds of thousands of kilometers away from Red Leaf Star.

A small cargo ship, about two hundred meters long, floated quietly in the void.

Meanwhile, a dozen or so small spaceships were keeping watch around the cargo ship from a distance.

Wow~
A dark blue, sword-shaped spaceship appeared in the distant starry sky and then quickly approached.

Upon approaching, the dark blue spaceship was immediately put away, and Qi Yuan, clad in a golden armor with secret patterns, appeared in the void.

"Mr. Qi Yuan."

The 'professional manager' that Qi Yuan hired, Samonka, emerged from a small spaceship nearby and quickly came to his side.

At this moment, Samonka showed Qi Yuan the utmost respect, even with a hint of regret in his expression.

If Qi Yuan's rapid advancement from the Universe level to the Domain Lord level in a short period of time had only surprised him somewhat, then the fact that Qi Yuan had broken through to the World Lord level in just over thirty years and even gained the recognition of the Origin Law was truly shocking and astonishing!

This astonishing speed of improvement is comparable to that of the top geniuses in the bank's combat departments!
Unfortunately, the other party had already joined the Virtual Universe Company. Otherwise, I would definitely have found a way to bring him into the Cosmic Galaxy Bank. Aside from the reward for recommending geniuses, the favor I had with Qi Yuan would have been enough to benefit him greatly.
"Samonka, what exactly is going on?"

Qi Yuan's voice immediately woke Samonka from his reverie.

"Ah, Mr. Qi Yuan, is that so?"

Samonka quickly explained, "Not long ago, the flagship of one of our teams that went to the Chia star system to explore trade routes suddenly sent out a self-destruct alarm signal and lost contact. But unexpectedly, less than a day later, this spaceship suddenly appeared here."

"However, several days have passed, and the spaceship remains motionless. The people inside have not appeared, and we have been unable to make any contact with them."

"Didn't you try to break through the hatch and go in to take a look?" Qi Yuan asked, frowning.

Although the small cargo ship in front of us has reached the C-level, it is only C2 level. With the technology of this world, destroying part of the ship's hull is an easy thing to do.

"Mr. Qi Yuan."

Samonka glanced cautiously at the silver-gray transport ship hovering in the distance before continuing,

"Sir, have you seen the video I sent you? We suspect there's something extremely unusual happening on this transport ship, which is why we haven't dared to easily breach its hull."

"This is it."

Samonka replayed a video clip he had previously sent to Qi Yuan on his personal computer screen.

The video is likely surveillance footage from a compartment inside a spacecraft.

In the video, dozens of crew members in uniform stand in circles.

In the center of their circle stood a blond, one-horned youth dressed in a black Force suit.

A bizarre scene is unfolding between the blond, one-horned youth and the dozens of crew members.

Streaks of silvery-white threads, resembling tentacles, extended from the back of the blond, unicorn-like youth's head, connecting with the foreheads of the other dozens of crew members.

On those silk threads, the colorful shimmering light rose and fell in a very regular pattern, as if it were breathing with life.

However, at a certain moment, a slightly struggling expression appeared on the face of the blond, one-horned youth who had been standing with his eyes closed, and alarms immediately went off throughout the spaceship.

At that moment, the video suddenly stopped playing.
"Mr. Qi Yuan, this is the last footage of this spaceship before it lost contact," Samonka explained in an extremely serious tone.
"Judging from the scene, we suspect that the crew members may have been parasitized by some extremely strange life form. Our industry management department has limited ability to handle this situation, and we are worried that improper operation may lead to the leakage of the parasite. Therefore, we did not dare to carry out any dismantling operations on the spacecraft."

"parasitic?"

Upon hearing this, Qi Yuan frowned.

With a slight movement of his mind, a wisp of world power rapidly spread towards the silver-gray cargo ship.

The special alloy that could significantly block the penetration of cosmic-level telekinesis naturally had no effect on him.

In an instant, that wisp of world power successfully broke through the barrier and 'saw' the scene inside the spaceship.

Similar to the surveillance footage I saw before—

Inside the cargo ship's core compartment, dozens of crew members in uniform stood in a circle. Extremely fine silver threads emerged from their foreheads, converging behind the head of the blond, one-horned youth in the center, the threads shimmering with a hazy light.
The instant the power of Qi Yuan's world probed, the blond, one-horned youth and the dozens of crew members inside the spaceship seemed to sense it, all looking up at the same time. On their faces, identical, eerie smiles appeared.
Dozens of people, with the same movements and the same expressions, created an indescribably eerie scene.

However, Qi Yuan now possesses strength comparable to the peak of most realm lords, so he wouldn't be intimidated by such a small situation.

Following his habit developed over the years, he even habitually cast a 'detection' spell on the blond, unicorn-like man in the spaceship.

Upon this investigation, a look of astonishment appeared on his face—

[Target: Time-Scented Insect; base return multiplier: 58x; can be bound after becoming a disciple.]

"A worm that rubs against the ground?"

"Twenty-five times?"

"Could this be the parasitic creature that Samonka mentioned that might exist? But... this thing can be taken as a disciple?"

Qi Yuan stared incredulously at the blond, unicorn-like youth who seemed to be looking at him through the outer wall of a spaceship.
However, before he could react, something even more surprising happened!

The system notification that had just appeared in my mind changed at an incredibly fast speed—

[Target: Longji Montoya; base return rate: 21x; can be bound after becoming a disciple.]

Although this change only lasted for a moment before returning to its original state, Qi Yuan still managed to capture it instantly!

"What's going on? The information this system is detecting is actually changing?"

Qi Yuan's astonishment deepened; in all the decades since he acquired the system, this was the first time he had encountered such a peculiar situation.
"Could it be because of parasites?"

A guess suddenly arose in his mind.

If it were truly parasitic, then these two lives might still be living within one body, containing two different life energies, which is why the system made a misjudgment.

Thinking this, he immediately manipulated a wisp of world power to quickly invade the consciousness of the blond, unicorn-like youth.

His action naturally provoked resistance from the blond, one-horned youth. To be precise, it was the resistance from the 'Time-Swept Insect' that had taken over the youth's body!

"His-"

A silent shriek suddenly erupted in the mind of the one-horned youth!
Accompanied by a shrill whistle, an incredibly sharp soul attack instantly crashed down!

However, in the face of Qi Yuan's powerful world force, this soul attack, which was enough to affect even a universe-level expert, was like a wave crashing on a reef, instantly shattering and disintegrating.

However, a wisp of Qi Yuan's world power followed the direction in which the spiritual impact receded and instantly broke through into the sea of ​​consciousness of the blond, one-horned youth!

"Whoosh whoosh~~~"

Within the mysterious, hazy sea of ​​consciousness, three enormous fireballs of stars were continuously orbiting along some wondrous trajectory.

Above these three fireballs of stars, a huge, ferocious worm with a nearly transparent body and a thousand wings and legs was slowly swimming.

From the abdomen of this ferocious insect, thin silver threads, resembling tentacles, floated out.

Some of these silver threads burrowed into the three enormous fireballs of the stars, while others took root in the surrounding void of the sea of ​​consciousness, spreading out to who knows where.

The instant Qi Yuan's power entered this sea of ​​consciousness, the ferocious, thousand-winged, thousand-legged insect seemed to be utterly enraged—

Beneath it, the swaying silver threads suddenly transformed into nimble tentacles, lashing out at his mere wisp of power.

At the same time, an even more piercing scream echoed throughout the entire sea of ​​consciousness.

Along with the piercing screams, in addition to the even more ferocious soul attack, there was also an invisible fluctuation of power.

Under the influence of this fluctuation, even the faint consciousness attached to Qi Yuan's wisp of world power became slightly sluggish.
(End of this chapter)