Arriving at Qiulong Star

Suddenly having to leave home for a month naturally led to questions from his wife and parents. Luo Feng had a headache, fearing his family would worry, so he could only lie, saying he was going to a secret place for a 'seclusion'. The next morning, Luo Feng ate breakfast with his family. After this meal, he would leave Earth, leave the Milky Way Galaxy, and head to a planet very far from the Milky Way Galaxy—Qiulong Star. “Brother!” Luo Hua walked in from outside. “I heard you’re going away for a month? You didn’t even tell me. If Mom and Dad hadn’t informed me, I wouldn’t have known.” “I was going to tell you before I left,” Luo Feng said, sipping his porridge. It was frustrating. Luo Feng hadn't actually planned to directly inform his younger brother, or his two elder brothers, Hong and Lei Shen. After all… explaining it would be quite troublesome. At Luo Feng’s current speed, even circling Earth wouldn’t take a day. What would he be doing for a month? Saying he was going into seclusion for cultivation. Deceiving his family might work, but deceiving Hong and Lei Shen would be very difficult. “Xiaohai, Pingping,” Luo Feng said, embracing his two children. “Daddy, kiss,” his eldest son, Luo Ping, stretched out his small face and kissed Luo Feng. Xiaohai next to him also pouted, extending his little face. However, his wife Xu Xin, his parents, and his younger brother all harbored a hint of worry. “Don’t worry, there’s nowhere in the world now that can threaten me. It’s just that this seclusion is very important, I can’t be disturbed by anyone, and it has very strict environmental requirements. That’s why I must go,” Luo Feng reassured his family. “Xiao Xin, while I’m away, take good care of Mom and Dad. If Hong or Lei Shen call, just tell them I’m in seclusion and cannot be disturbed.” “Okay,” Xu Xin nodded. “Then I’m off.” Luo Feng set his two children down on the ground and walked out, smiling. The entire family, including the two children, walked into the courtyard. “Goodbye, Daddy.” The two children called out in clear voices. “Goodbye,” Luo Feng waved with a smile, slowly ascending into the sky. His family looked up, watching Luo Feng ascend higher and higher until he vanished from sight. High in the sky, a massive black saucer-shaped spaceship appeared. Its outer hatch opened, Luo Feng swiftly flew inside, and the hatch closed. Then, it rapidly broke through the atmosphere, heading towards outer space beyond Earth. Inside the Heilong spaceship’s control room, Luo Feng, clad in a blood-red combat suit, stood before the control panel screen. The small face of the demon Babata appeared on the screen, grinning triumphantly and baring his fangs: “Luo Feng, the spaceship has left Earth.” “External view, 100% simulation,” Luo Feng said. Whoosh! Everything in the surrounding control room vanished from sight. Fortunately, he was standing on the ground and could feel its presence. It was invisible to the naked eye. He looked around… boundless, vast starry space. Turning to look behind him, there was the giant blue planet—Earth! “Babata, this is my first time leaving Earth to go to another living planet. I just feel… unsettled,” Luo Feng couldn’t help but say. “It’s just like your college entrance exam back then, this is called nervousness!” On the screen, Babata gnawed on an apple twice, chuckling, “It’s not strange. As you say in Huaxia, ‘Grandma Liu visiting the Grand View Garden,’ or ‘a country bumpkin entering the city for the first time’—it’s the same principle! You’re going from Earth to a powerful and prosperous planet like Qiulong Star, of course you’re nervous!” Luo Feng nodded slightly. The main thing was… a place like Qiulong Star, according to Babata, was a hundred times more prosperous and powerful than the most bustling imperial capital of the ‘Silverblue Empire,’ a cosmic primary civilization that controlled eight major star systems! Luo Feng had never even been to the Silverblue Empire, so how could he not be nervous about suddenly going to Qiulong Star? Fortunately, as a Spirit Reader with a powerful consciousness, he quickly adjusted his emotions. “Babata, is the spaceship not at light speed yet?” Luo Feng couldn’t help but ask. “If it were the Yunmo Star, of course it would reach light speed very quickly. But this is only a C5-class spaceship after all,” Babata said, shaking his head dismissively on the screen, then chuckled, “Of course, this C5-class spaceship is considered quite high-end in the Black Dragon Mountain Empire. Even some Universe-level powerhouses only pilot such ships.” “The Heilong spaceship’s acceleration is pretty good. If it were one of those common interstellar fleet ships, *that* would be slow!” “And some low-grade, junk spaceships generate too much acceleration during takeoff. Passengers even have to enter ‘safety pods.’ Otherwise, they might die,” Babata explained. Luo Feng suddenly realized. That’s right, acceleration! Accelerating to light speed, even if the speed increases by 500 kilometers per second every second, that’s 50,000 times Earth’s gravity! Yet, he felt nothing inside the spaceship. “That’s the advantage of a high-end spaceship. This ship has an automatic gravity adjustment system that can regulate itself to maintain a fixed gravitational pull inside. Currently, the gravity inside the ship is one Earth gravity,” Babata said. “Right.” Luo Feng suddenly understood. He had been walking inside the spaceship just as he would on Earth, with no difference in gravity. Babata hadn’t mentioned it, so he hadn’t noticed, but now that Babata pointed it out, Luo Feng realized… maintaining Earth’s gravity inside a spaceship in space was indeed something noteworthy. “Haha, I’ve been on Earth for so long, I’m used to this gravity, I didn’t even notice,” Luo Feng laughed. “Twelve more seconds until light speed!” Babata exclaimed. “10!” “9!” On the screen, Babata’s small face was very serious, counting down. “8!” “7!”… Luo Feng looked outside. His naked eyes could no longer clearly see the planets; he could only see the surrounding starry sky completely blurred, gradually even turning dark. “How strange,” Luo Feng held his breath. “3… 2… 1!” Babata shouted. In the vast starry space, a black spaceship, which had already become blurred, suddenly—the space rippled slightly. The spaceship vanished! It wasn’t a ‘disappearance’ due to reaching light speed and becoming invisible to the naked eye, but a true disappearance from this universe! Boom! Luo Feng felt the spaceship vibrate slightly. The vibration lasted for about ten seconds, the surroundings were completely dark, and then it stabilized. “Cosmic transit successful, we have entered the ‘Dark Universe’,” Babata announced on the screen. “Disabling external view simulation.” “Dark Universe?” Luo Feng was very curious. “Babata, what’s the Dark Universe like?” “The spaceship is currently traveling at light speed, so it’s impossible to capture an external view,” Babata explained. “We’d need to decelerate to capture it, but… accelerating and decelerating consumes a lot of energy. Luo Feng, I’ll just simulate some of the Dark Universe’s scenery for you.” A screen appeared out of thin air before Luo Feng. It displayed some magnificent scenery: a vast space filled only with glowing specks, like fireflies—an ocean of ‘light points.’ Besides these beautiful specks, there was nothing else in this immense space. Oh… and the spaceship! “The Dark Universe and the ‘Original Universe’ we live in correspond by coordinates.” “However, if we travel a certain distance in the Dark Universe, say ‘30 light-seconds,’ and then transit back to the Original Universe, you’ll find that the distance you’ve advanced is ‘10.081 million times 30 light-seconds.’,” Babata explained. “The Dark Universe and the Original Universe correspond at a ratio of 1:10.081 million.” Luo Feng was secretly astonished. Traveling at light speed for a year in the Dark Universe is only one light-year. But after cosmic transit, returning to the Original Universe, that would be 10.08 million light-years away. “In the Original Universe, matter cannot exceed light speed. Once it reaches light speed, it directly undergoes cosmic transit, arriving in the Dark Universe. In the Dark Universe, however, it is possible to exceed light speed,” Babata said. “The spaceship is currently slowly accelerating. This Heilong spaceship’s maximum speed is 1.5 times light speed, but considering energy conservation, 1.2 times light speed is just right.” “We are expected to arrive at Qiulong Star in approximately 10 days. Luo Feng, you can rest or cultivate during this time.” Days spent traveling in the Dark Universe were monotonous and boring. Nine days later, “Luo Feng, we will undergo cosmic transit and arrive at Qiulong Star in 20 minutes,” Babata said. “Oh, right, Babata, to go from the Original Universe to the Dark Universe, one needs to reach light speed. What about going back? How do we transit from the Dark Universe back to the Original Universe?” Luo Feng was curious. This vast universe was too mysterious. How could Earthlings have imagined what would happen upon reaching light speed? As for the notion that reaching light speed could reverse time, Luo Feng had always disagreed. If a distant planet was 1 million light-years from Earth, then what Earthlings saw might be its appearance from 1 million years ago. According to some people’s deductions, by exceeding light speed and flying towards that planet… one could see the planet as if time were reversing, seeing its past appearance. But in Luo Feng’s view… that was ridiculous! The so-called ‘time reversal’ of that planet was merely what the naked eye perceived. In reality, the planet was continuously aging! “It’s very simple: decelerate, decelerate until completely still! Then you automatically transit back to the Original Universe,” Babata said. “In this Dark Universe, there is no such thing as stationary matter.” “Oh?” Luo Feng was very surprised. The spaceship gradually decelerated, from 1.2 times light speed, all the way down to—stillness! Luo Feng only felt a slight vibration from the spaceship beneath his feet. The vibration lasted for about ten seconds, and then everything became calm. “Cosmic transit successful, returned to the Original Universe,” Babata announced. “External view virtual, 100%,” Luo Feng quickly said. Whoosh! Luo Feng immediately saw the vast starry space around him. Most notably… he spotted a distant planet that seemed to glow with a colorful light, and faintly, two satellites orbited it. “That planet is Qiulong Star,” Babata said. “Luo Feng, once we enter Qiulong Star, follow our plan.” “Babata, you said entering a planet costs money. But I don’t have any currency,” Luo Feng quickly said. No matter how rich he was on Earth, how could the Silverblue Empire or the Black Dragon Mountain Empire recognize Earth’s currency? Here, it would just be ‘printed pictures’ with no use whatsoever. “You don’t have any, but I do!” Babata exclaimed. “However, the master’s bank card is useless to you; it’s bound to his spiritual imprint. But the master did leave behind some coins. Those were coins he carried with him, and sometimes, loose change can be useful.” “Coins?” Luo Feng was startled. “Yes, I thoroughly searched my entire storage space and found 932 Ganwu coins,” Babata said. “932 coins?” Luo Feng blinked twice. So poor. “These are Ganwu coins, not Heilong coins, and certainly not cheap Silverblue coins!” Babata quickly exclaimed. “It’ll be enough for you to get by on Qiulong Star for a while!”