Star Fragments

Inside the spaceship's control room, Luo Feng and the other eight Taichu Secret Realm members, along with King Meteorite and a group of Immortals, were all gathered.

"We're about to perform a cosmic jump," King Meteorite chuckled, his voice seemingly shaking the entire control room. "Jumping to the Taichu Secret Realm is a bit different from jumping to a regular starfield."

"Oh?" Luo Feng and the others were curious.

"You'll see in a moment." As soon as King Meteorite finished speaking, a cold voice echoed throughout the control room: "Initiating cosmic jump. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6... 3... 2... 1..." The entire spaceship vibrated slightly, and after a moment, it returned to normal.

"Jump complete."

"External view, full virtualization," King Meteorite called out.

Instantly, the surrounding scenery changed dramatically, allowing Luo Feng and the others to see the outside world at a glance.

"My heavens!"

"Ah!"

Luo Feng and the other eight, including Prince Wuka of Manka Star, stared wide-eyed at the outside world in shock.

"Well?" King Meteorite smiled.

"It's incredible," Luo Feng said, looking outside. A faint mist enveloped the exterior, and in the distance, colorful cloud formations were visible, with large meteorites occasionally appearing.

"How can this be..."

"It's impossible?"

All eight of them, including Luo Feng, were in shock. Cosmic jumps usually transported them directly into the 'starry sky' of the original universe, which was empty, making such sudden jumps very safe. But now, King Meteorite's spaceship had jumped directly into the interior of a specific region, which was incredibly risky.

"No, this isn't right," Wuka exclaimed. "This... this is inside the Taichu Secret Realm?"

"Indeed," King Meteorite smiled faintly, the fine scales on his face crinkling. "Yes, this is already a relatively core area of the Taichu Secret Realm."

"Then, what if we need to leave the Taichu Secret Realm?" Wuka pointed outside. "Look, outside, meteorites and dust clouds are everywhere. There's simply not enough space for the spaceship to accelerate! To perform a cosmic jump, the spaceship must accelerate to light speed!"

Luo Feng nodded repeatedly. Indeed.

Jumping directly into the Taichu Secret Realm was easy, but what about getting out?

"You're right," King Meteorite nodded with a smile. "The Taichu Secret Realm has a maximum diameter of about 5 million light-years, equivalent to the size of a starfield."

"In the starry sky, you can accelerate to light speed freely, but a cosmic secret realm is different," King Meteorite explained. "Cosmic secret realms have peculiar fiery currents, cold currents, gale-force winds, and numerous dust particles, which create immense resistance for spaceships. Accelerating to light speed here is almost impossible."

The conditions for a cosmic jump are very stringent.

It must accelerate to light speed!

To accelerate to light speed, first, the resistance must be extremely minimal, and second, there must be a very long acceleration distance. Just as an airplane needs a runway to accelerate, a spaceship accelerating to light speed requires millions of times more space than an airplane runway. This is easily achievable in the near-vacuum of the cosmic starry sky.

But in a cosmic secret realm... it's almost impossible!

"Yes, cosmic jumps are generally impossible within a cosmic secret realm," King Meteorite affirmed. "However, the Taichu Secret Realm is different. It has been excavated and modified! Within the Taichu Secret Realm, many areas have been cleared by super-powerhouses, creating vast, empty regions specifically for spaceship acceleration."

"Oh?" Luo Feng, Rongjun, Qianshui, Wuka, Aichen, and the others were astonished.

What an enormous area it must be to clear out enough space for a spaceship to accelerate to light speed.

"There's no other way! The Taichu Secret Realm is too vast. If we didn't do this, we'd have to fly in slowly from the outermost perimeter. Given its maximum diameter of 5 million light-years, even light would take 5 million years to traverse it. Not jumping directly inside simply isn't feasible," King Meteorite chuckled. "Later, each of you will receive a star map, specifically a partial star map of the Taichu Secret Realm. Through that map, you'll know how to enter and exit the Taichu Secret Realm."

...

The spaceship flew within the Taichu Secret Realm.

"I need to drop each of you eight off at your respective residences," King Meteorite said with a laugh in the control room. "It will take about three days to fly to all eight of your places."

Luo Feng and the other eight remained silent.

Eight residences, and the spaceship would take three days to fly to them all?

"Alright, Rongjun, we've arrived at your residence," King Meteorite called out. Simultaneously, the external virtualization allowed everyone to clearly see a beautiful, small landmass floating in the distant, faintly mist-shrouded void. As they approached, the landmass grew larger and larger, until the spaceship finally landed directly on this landmass in the void.

*Beep!* The hatch opened.

"Everyone, go out and take a look," King Meteorite called out with a smile.

Luo Feng, Rongjun, and the other eight excitedly flew out of the hatch. As they exited, they immediately felt the rich cosmic origin energy contained within the faint mist. Luo Feng and the eight landed on the ground, gazing into the boundless void in the distance, where mist permeated and occasional cold currents drifted by.

"Land in the void?"

"This is amazing."

"How big is this landmass?" Luo Feng and the eight looked closely. This landmass floating in the void was astonishingly large; at least Luo Feng couldn't estimate its size with his eyes.

*Boom!* King Meteorite landed on the ground and laughed, "This is Star Fragment No. 80389092, with a diameter of approximately 5800 kilometers. In the center of this star fragment is a large mansion, Rongjun, and that will be your residence. Of course, this entire star fragment now belongs to you personally."

"Understood." Rongjun looked around. The plants and flowers on this void landmass were incredibly lush.

"The Taichu Secret Realm has incredibly rich cosmic origin energy," King Meteorite said, pointing to the surrounding mist. "Look, these ubiquitous faint mists are actually extremely tiny particles formed from the materialized cosmic origin energy." As he spoke, King Meteorite made a grabbing motion in the air, and a large patch of mist was rapidly compressed.

It condensed into a large crystal block.

"Cosmic Crystal?" Luo Feng, Aichen, and Rongjun couldn't help but exclaim.

"Yes, Cosmic Crystals," King Meteorite chuckled. "The endless mist here can spontaneously gather to form Cosmic Crystals. Because the cosmic origin energy is so rich... cultivating in the Taichu Secret Realm makes sensing the cosmic origin fluctuations much clearer, which is more beneficial for cultivation."

*Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!* Dozens of figures broke through the air from a distance.

"Your Highness!"

Dozens of cosmic warriors, clad in battle suits and boots, landed neatly. Led by a Sector Lord, they respectfully saluted in unison.

"Everyone else, back on the spaceship. Next, we're going to Wuka's residence," King Meteorite called out.

"See you later, Rongjun." "Rongjun, we're off." Luo Feng and the others greeted him, then re-entered King Meteorite's spaceship. The spaceship ascended and set off again.

...

One by one, the members were dropped off at their residences. Luo Feng was the fifth to be dropped off.

"Star Fragment No. 80389081?" Luo Feng muttered to himself, walking on the landmass. "Approximately 6200 kilometers in diameter. According to King Meteorite, these star fragments... are numerous star fragment outposts created by the Virtual Universe Company's super-powerhouses by shattering stars."

"Such rich cosmic origin energy," Luo Feng exclaimed, waving his hand to feel the mist.

If he wanted Cosmic Crystals, he could make them anytime.

Just compress the mist, and it would form Cosmic Crystals... However, for core members like Luo Feng, even 1 trillion cosmic coins was only 1 primal unit. And to compress and produce 1 trillion cosmic coins, heavens, how many years would that take? So it wasn't worth it at all!

Of course, if ordinary planetary residents saw this, they would all go mad.

Cosmic coins were still a very expensive currency for the common strata in the universe.

"Hmm?" Luo Feng looked up.

Dozens of figures flew through the air from a distance. The leader was a bald old man, none other than Luo Feng's guard captain, Aoduolike Wen Shenglai Suo.

"Your Highness," the dozens of people respectfully saluted.

"Alright," Luo Feng said with a smile. "Aoduo, we finally meet in reality."

"I've been looking forward to this day as well," the bald old man smiled. "Your Highness, I'll lead the way."

A moment later.

Surrounded by his guards, Luo Feng arrived outside an ancient manor. This ancient manor was 300 kilometers long and wide, with numerous buildings inside. Such colossal structures... were incredibly easy for the Virtual Universe Company to create.

"Your Highness," Aoduo said with a chuckle. "Allow me to introduce you."

*Whoosh!* With that, Aoduo ascended directly, and Luo Feng followed, the two flying tens of thousands of meters above the ground.

"From tens of thousands of meters up, you can barely see the edge of the star fragment," Luo Feng said, looking down. Aoduo, however, pointed into the distance. "Your Highness, look over there."

"Hmm?" Luo Feng looked and was startled.

In the incredibly far distance was a deep blue planet, its radiance unobstructed by the endless mist.

"That's a super-large planet," Aoduo exclaimed. "It has a diameter of 1.28 million kilometers. What's strange is that it's incredibly icy cold, yet it emits light. Our star fragment, along with over three thousand other star fragments, constantly orbits this colossal 'Ice Star'... and almost all of them are inhabited by core members of the Taichu Secret Realm."

"Oh?" Luo Feng found it unbelievable.

1.28 million kilometers in diameter?

It was close to the diameter of a star in the Solar System, yet it was an icy cold, super-large planet that could emit light? Bizarre!

"The Virtual Universe Company issued an order long ago: no one below the Immortal level is absolutely permitted to enter that Ice Star. Sector Lords who enter are almost certain to die," Aoduo lamented. "An Ice Star that can emit light... and can even kill Sector Lords, it's practically stronger than a star."

"Cosmic secret realms are indeed mysterious; many things defy common sense," Luo Feng also shook his head.

In truth, with such dense mist that could spontaneously condense into Cosmic Crystals, permeating an entire starfield... it wouldn't be strange for such a place to give birth to anything unusual.

"This..." Luo Feng looked down at the large star fragment suspended in the void mist below. "This will be my cultivation ground from now on. Come on, let's go down."

*Whoosh!* Luo Feng and Aoduo dove directly downwards.