Swallowing the Stars: Ten Thousand Times Return for Taking on Disciples

Chapter 367 Various Treasures, the King of Qianwu Goes to Explore

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, Lu Qingshan has been staying in the Qianwu Secret Realm for more than half a month.

On this day, he received a telepathic message from the ruler of Qianwu Kingdom and came to the outside of the ruler's palace.

"Your Highness, His Majesty the King has been waiting inside for quite some time."

The eighteen divine generals outside the door bowed respectfully upon seeing Lu Qingshan arrive.

"Ah."

Lu Qingshan nodded slightly, then stepped inside.

The eighteen divine generals stared blankly at Lu Qingshan's back, thinking of the legends that had recently been circulating among the immortal gods of the Qianwu Universe Kingdom.

Has His Highness Lu Qingshan truly become as great as the King of the Kingdom?

Inside the main hall, the ruler of Qianwu Kingdom had been waiting for a long time. When he saw Lu Qingshan arrive, he got up and walked over, pulling Lu Qingshan to sit down beside him.

"I heard you held a banquet a few days ago and gave some rewards to Marquis Mingguang and the others?"

"It was just a small gathering among friends, and we only gave them some cheap trinkets," Qingshan said with a smile.

The ruler of the Qianwu Kingdom nodded slightly upon hearing this: "What is worthless to you is a treasure to them. However, I do have some good things here."

"what?"

Lu Qingshan was somewhat surprised.

"Qingshan, look."

With a wave of his hand, the ruler of Qianwu Kingdom displayed a pile of treasures before him.

Lu Qingshan glanced at the pile of treasures and discovered that there were three particularly valuable items among them.

He was a little surprised.

I thought the ruler of Qianwu Kingdom had run out of resources, but I never expected he still had so many good things.

Putting everything else aside, these three treasures alone are incredibly valuable.

And those ores.

Lu Qingshan only searched briefly and found that they were all extremely precious, some of which were even materials for crafting powerful treasures.

He asked, "Teacher, why did you take these treasures out?"

"This is not my treasure. It was given to you by a Venerable One from another universe within our Virtual Universe Company after I heard that you had broken through."

The shaman did not embezzle any money, and introduced them one by one.

"This sword was a gift from my good friend Venerable Bei Ming. It's a very good top-tier treasure and would be very suitable for you to use... And this battle suit, although it's just an ordinary treasure, is still considered top-quality among ordinary treasures. That sword is also quite good; it's probably worth about ten treasure points."

The ruler of Qianwu Kingdom recounted the treasures as if they were his own, explaining who had given each one to him, as well as their functions and values, clearly having known about them beforehand.

After the introduction, he said, "Take all these treasures. You've just broken through to the Universe Venerable realm, so you must be quite poor. With these things, you'll have some capital. As for the favors from these Venerables, just remember them, but don't take them too seriously. When you're not short of money in the future, just find an opportunity to return the favors."

The ruler of Qianwu Kingdom took back the gifts, not so that his disciples would be burdened with a lot of favors.

These are essentially congratulatory gifts, nothing much... nor are they favors that absolutely need to be repaid.

Looking at this huge pile of treasures, Lu Qingshan was speechless. No wonder the ruler of Qianwu Kingdom asked him to stay in the Qianwu Secret Realm for a few more days. It turned out that he was waiting for these treasures to be delivered.

He shook his head and said, "Teacher, I have some good fortune and am not short of treasures to improve my strength for the time being. I will accept this knife from these treasures, but you can keep the rest for yourself."

“Qingshan… these treasures were given to you by my friends. What would it look like if I kept them? Take this precious treasure, for example. I wouldn’t be able to use it properly. If people saw it, wouldn’t they laugh at me for embezzling my disciple’s treasures?”

The ruler of Qianwu Kingdom quickly shook his head.

"Teacher, I'll accept the treasure, but you can keep the rest. Those things shouldn't be anything special, right?"

Lu Qingshan was surprised by the Qianwu Kingdom's response, but he reluctantly accepted the treasure. However, he did not intend to keep the materials.

"These materials." The ruler of Qianwu Kingdom looked at the pile of materials.

"Teacher, please don't say any more. Besides, I don't want these precious treasures anymore," Lu Qingshan said firmly.

"Alright, I'll keep these materials for now. If you need anything in the future, come back to me... You probably haven't received the email from the virtual universe yet, right? That's right, since no one saw you break through, and you didn't return to Chaos City. I only mentioned that you broke through to the Universe Venerable. You should know when you return to the Initial Universe. After breaking through to the Universe Venerable, the clan will give you a loan limit of 100 Treasure Points, which you can exchange for some treasures that suit your needs... Don't be shy, every Universe Venerable has this limit, and the clan won't chase you for payment. You can pay it back whenever you want."

"Yes, I'll go and take a look after I get back."

Lu Qingshan nodded.

A loan limit of 100 points, with no debt collection efforts—what's the difference between that and giving it away for free?
Other cosmic venerables have it, so of course he wouldn't miss this opportunity.

This is equivalent to a top-tier treasure.

"Qingshan... You should make good use of these resources to improve yourself as soon as possible, and then you can travel with your master. The primordial universe is infinitely wonderful, and there are many places that you have not yet seen."

The ruler of the Qianwu Kingdom wore a longing expression.

"Uh, okay, teacher. I should be fine in just over ten epochs," Lu Qingshan said earnestly.

"More than a dozen epochs, that's good... You've progressed too fast, you need to settle down and reflect more."

The ruler of Qianwu Kingdom nodded.

He didn't seem to understand Lu Qingshan's refusal; after all, a dozen or so eras were nothing to a cosmic venerable.

Lu Qingshan was not very willing to venture out with the Qianwu Kingdom Lord. After waiting for more than a dozen eras, if the Qianwu Kingdom Lord still insisted on going out to explore, he would let his disciple accompany him.

……

Lu Qingshan still had some confidence.

Although a dozen or so epochs is a short time, it is relatively easy to cultivate a few disciples of the cosmic venerables.

At least the True King is definitely a certainty, and there's also Ling Yu... and the future Luo Feng is almost there too.

Lu Qingshan hadn't forgotten that he still possessed the Netherworld Heart, a treasure comparable to a supreme artifact. He had the Ghost King's clone secretly place this item into the divine kingdom of the Thousand Vine Star-Eating Grass, entrusting it to the grass for safekeeping. Once he obtained it, he would bestow it upon Ling Yu... Ling Yu's talent would undoubtedly improve once again, perhaps even giving her a glimmer of hope to become a first-class genius.

This thing was the companion treasure of the cosmic overlord, the One-Horned Ghost King. Although there was no precedent to tell Lu Qingshan what its specific effects were, it must be extraordinary.

Lu Qingshan accepted the three treasures and then bid farewell to the ruler of Qianwu Kingdom.

He directly had the Thousand Vine Star-Eating Grass open the divine kingdom passage in the Qianwu Secret Realm, allowing him to enter the Star-Eating Grass's divine kingdom.

……

Watching Lu Qingshan disappear into the divine kingdom's passage, the Qianwu Kingdom's ruler withdrew his gaze and pondered for a moment.

"It seems that Qingshan doesn't want to go out and explore with me."

Although he didn't show it just now, the ruler of Qianwu Kingdom was no ordinary person, and naturally he could tell that there was some delaying intent in his words.

"That's true. If it were a friend who had died several times in a row inviting me to explore the secret realm, I would also refuse..." The King of Qianwu could understand, but he still felt a little disappointed.

His gaze fell on the large pile of materials left behind by Lu Qingshan.

"These ores are enough to have someone forge a decent heavy armor for me, and if I can exchange them for a heavy weapon, that will be more than enough for my needs."

The ruler of Qianwu Kingdom was still somewhat conflicted. After all, going out alone, without even a trusted person to help him, made him feel insecure.

Those old friends of the Northern Moth now have well-coordinated teammates, so it's not advisable for them to join them rashly.

“Bei Ming has even brought out top-tier treasure weapons, and even that little guy Jiu Jian is inviting others to travel with him everywhere. It seems that the secret realm is not simple.”

The ruler of Qianwu Kingdom ultimately couldn't resist the urge to turn the tide.

With these resources, I plan to equip myself with the necessary gear and venture into that secret realm of the universe.

If we're lucky, we might be able to pay off the debts owed to those old friends first.

……

Within the Thousand Vine Star-Eating Grass Divine Kingdom, Lu Qingshan raised his hand and grasped the blood-red Netherworld Heart in his grasp.

This thing, in the hands of his human self, felt nothing at all, as if it were just an ordinary dead object.

As expected, without the bloodline of the One-Horned Demon King... one cannot feel the call of the bloodline, and it is also difficult to discover the extraordinary nature of this treasure.

"Star Eater, guard the divine kingdom well... don't let anyone else in."

Lu Qingshan gave the order.

"Master, I understand."

The Star-Eating Grass's voice remained as childlike as ever.

It was quite bored while stationed in the divine kingdom recently, so it created more than a dozen planets in the divine kingdom. These planets were all near Maple Leaf Star, some of which were much larger than Maple Leaf Star, and signs of human activity could be seen on them.

"well done."

Lu Qingshan nodded, approving of the Star-Eating Grass's approach, and then teleported to Maple Leaf Star.

Maple Leaf Star is, after all, located within the Divine Kingdom. Although many years have passed, little has changed here.

The palace was inhabited by Kevin's father-in-law and his family.

They temporarily helped Lu Qingshan manage all the affairs of Maple Leaf Star.

Lu Qingshan flashed and appeared next to his father-in-law Kevin.

"Father."

He spoke.

"Qingshan, you're back..."

Kevin was delighted to see Lu Qingshan and immediately sent messages to the others. Soon, Kelly, Wen Xiaomei, Kyle, Kyle's wife, and several young people rushed over.

Lu Qingshan looked at the little guys, who looked somewhat similar to Kevin and Kerry.

They were standing behind Kyle, presumably his offspring.

"Brother-in-law."

"Uncle."

The Kerry family also spoke up.

"Hmm." Lu Qingshan nodded, looked at the little guys, and originally wanted to give them some gifts, but found that the worst thing he had was an immortal divine weapon, which they couldn't even lift, let alone use.

He had given all the low-level treasures to the Thousand Vine Star-Eating Grass, who would occasionally scatter some of them throughout the divine kingdom.

“Father-in-law, the reason we let you live in the Divine Kingdom was because there was danger outside. Now the danger has been basically eliminated... If you want to go out, there shouldn’t be any problem.”

Once you break through to become a Universe Venerable, you will basically be safe as long as you are within the territory of the human race.

It's unlikely that they'll use their relatives to deal with the Universe Venerable. Even if those alien races wanted to target him, they probably wouldn't resort to such low-level tactics again.

After all, it would be pointless and would only expose them. Every spy lurking within the human race is an extremely valuable resource, and they wouldn't do such meaningless things.

"It's solved..." Kevin was somewhat surprised.

"Well, more or less, but I can't be completely sure."

Hearing Lu Qingshan's words, Kevin looked at the others and asked, "What are you all thinking?"

"I..." Kerry was about to say that he wanted to go out when Wen Xiaomei glared at him fiercely, and he immediately shut his mouth.

Wen Xiaomei smiled and said, "There are already several life-bearing planets in the Divine Kingdom, and there are still large areas of Divine Kingdom land that have not been explored. Why are you in such a hurry to leave? Brother-in-law, Kerry and I want to stay here."

“Yes, no problem.” Lu Qingshan glanced at Kaili and nodded when he saw that Kaili did not object.

"Uncle, I want to go out and have a look."

"Kyle, dressed in a golden battle suit, said."

Lu Qingshan did not answer, but looked at Kevin and Kerry.

Kevin hesitated for a moment, then said, "Kyle can go out if he wants. He's already a domain lord, so going out would be perfect for him to take charge of Qiulong Star."

When Kevin spoke, neither Kelly nor Wen dared to object. They simply reminded him to be careful outside and to take good care of their family business.

After discussion, Kyle decided to leave, while the others stayed.

This should also be the thought of most people in the Kingdom of God.

After all, one can enter the virtual universe from within the Divine Kingdom. If one has no adventurous spirit, there is almost no difference between inside and outside. The Divine Kingdom is not only safe, but also has a wealth of heritage... and countless treasures to explore. The conditions for cultivation here are much better than outside.

They were unaware that being born in the Kingdom of God limited their potential, but even if they did, probably no one would care.

Immortal gods?

Is that something they need to consider?

Even in the outside world, from the birth to the destruction of their Maple Leaf Star, it is unlikely that a single immortal god will be born, let alone fall into their offspring. Apart from this weakness that is not even a flaw, everything else is an advantage.

Besides his father-in-law's family, Lu Qingshan naturally gave everyone else the same option, allowing them to vote in the virtual universe.

As a result, only one in a thousand, roughly one billion people, chose to leave the divine kingdom, while the rest chose to stay.

After tens of thousands of years of development, the descendants of Maple Leaf Star in the Divine Kingdom have exceeded one trillion... They not only live on Maple Leaf Star, but also live on other planets created by other Star-Eating Grass, as well as on the vast and boundless land of the Divine Kingdom.

Some people have lived here for countless generations, and have long regarded this place as their home. Naturally, they would not abandon their home and choose to leave...

Those who chose to leave included several of the first people to enter the Divine Kingdom, who had already broken through to the cosmic level and would become powerful figures or planetary lords upon leaving. Others were people who had witnessed the vastness of the outside world through the virtual universe and yearned for it.

Although I knew that once I left, I would never be able to return, I was still determined to go out and explore.

However, once they leave, they may discover that although the universe is vast, it does not belong to them, and it is not as comfortable as the peaceful and prosperous divine kingdom.

Lu Qingshan had the Star-Eating Grass Kingdom teleport them to a resource planet. The Maple Leaf Empire had already received the news and would help settle these people on some life-bearing planets, providing them with some basic living support in the early stages, after which they would have to rely entirely on their own efforts to make a living.

After completing these tasks, Lu Qingshan teleported to the central temple of the Divine Kingdom. There was still one person he needed to meet there before he could return to the Initial Universe.

(End of this chapter)