From star gatherer to leader of humanity

The crystal-clear, fire-drill-like red sun crystals were placed into the ship's hold by the mining machinery.

After the initial excitement subsided, Xu Bai calmed down, like a mouse that had been trying to find a Mandel supercomputer but had only managed to get a six-fold guarantee, and began to feel anxious and uncertain.

"We need to wait another day for the Crimson Flame Iron to be fully collected; we can't give up halfway!"

"Be careful, nothing will go wrong."

A day later, Xu Bai watched with extreme tension as the hatches on both sides of the mining spaceship slowly closed.

"450 tons of Starstone, 126 tons of Crimson Flame Iron, and 175 grams of Crimson Sun Crystal—these add up to a total of 99570 strands of spiritual energy, nearly 100,000 strands. Combined with what we had before, that's enough for a white enchantment!"

"There's still time. Use the remaining slots to collect as many Starstones as possible."

Xu Bai turned the spaceship around and began searching the surrounding area.

"320 tons of Starstone, barely enough."

"Chen Tie, Chen Tie, no!"

"Moon Cold Refined Iron, 241 tons, 20 strands of spiritual energy per ton, this is acceptable."

For the next two weeks, Xu Bai wandered around this area, filling the cargo hold of his mining spaceship.

On a broken celestial body nearly 500 miles in diameter, Xu Bai's mining spaceship stopped and slowly recovered from its injuries.

While collecting spirit charcoal, we were attacked by three alien beasts from the starry sky. The main control room, the cabin, and the smelting furnace were all attacked.

The attack room was almost torn open by the attack, but luckily Xu Bai reacted quickly and dodged it.

"It's fraught with danger!"

Xu Bai hid for two hours until the gray ship was completely restored before he dared to continue exploring.

"Starstone, 130 tons, barely enough."

Just as Xu Bai's cabin was about to be full, a signal fluctuation from a mining spaceship was suddenly detected. This spaceship's signal was not concealed in the slightest.

"This signal?"

Xu Bai frowned slightly as he looked at the data on the screen. He had a strong urge to go and check it out, but he quickly suppressed it with reason.

"Anyone who dares to leave their spaceship signal uncontained at the depths of the Shattered Star Sea is definitely not someone a novice like me can mess with."

"It's better to avoid trouble."

Just as Xu Bai was about to turn the ship around and leave, Hakimi received a message from the mining spaceship on the other side.

"Don't go, there's a moonstone vein here. I can't take it all back, so I'll share some with you."

Xu Bai glanced at the information and then steered the spaceship away.

"What the hell is the difference between this and offering a huge sum of money to have a child?"

Thousands of miles away, a single-person mining spaceship, even larger than a Hummingbird-class spaceship, is docked on a nearly 300-mile-long, milky-white, broken celestial body, where hundreds of top-tier mining engineering robots are mining lunar stalactites.

A young man sat on the top of the spaceship, wearing only a Taoist robe and without any protective equipment.

The young man drank his wine, looking in the direction where Xu Bai was.

"This little guy is quite cautious; he probably doesn't recognize me." After saying this, the young man ignored him, finished the wine in the gourd, and began to cultivate in the Shattered Star Sea.

Ten days later, Xu Bai piloted the mining spaceship away from the Shattered Star Sea.

As soon as he came out, Xu Baifa found that the public address system was even more lively.

In the cosmic region between Space City and Shattered Star Sea, Xu Bai could see many Hummingbird-class mining ships with the naked eye.

"All the new recruits from my cohort should be here."

Xu Bai watched as a pair of brand-new Hummingbird-class mining ships, led by ten older mining ships, entered the Shattered Star Sea.

"Newcomers have a better chance of survival if they follow the gang."

The mining spaceship slowly came to a stop at the unloading port, but this time all 3000 ports were full of queues, and Xu Bai waited for three hours before it was his turn.

The unloading time was 10 minutes, and the cargo list appeared on Xu Bai's personal terminal.

「赤炎精铁126吨、赤阳晶175克、重星石976吨、月寒精铁241吨、灵木碳284吨、辰铁1580吨。」

After reviewing the list, Xu Bai chose to hand it all over, and subsequently received 66760 strands of spiritual energy on his personal terminal.

Upon seeing this spiritual energy, Xu Bai immediately docked his solo mining spaceship at the public spaceport.

After disembarking from the spaceship, they quickly went to the United Bank and exchanged 50 spirit stones.

Inside the private room, as 100 spirit stones dissipated in his dantian and transformed into a beam of elemental light, Xu Bai felt an irrepressible urge rising within him.

"No rush, let's rest for a day first."

After more than a month of arduous travel in the Shattered Star Sea, even a Qi Refining cultivator was finding it difficult to endure.

After taking a shower in the cramped shower room, Xu Bai lay down on the single bed and fell into a deep sleep.

Xu Bai slept for two whole days before slowly waking up.

Xu Bai picked up his personal terminal from the side, put it on, opened the message bar, and immediately sobered up after seeing the message from his parents.

"Son, there's enough spiritual energy at home. Take care of yourself, absorb more spiritual energy to improve your strength, and we'll be waiting for you to come back!"

Xu Bai looked at this line of text and was slightly moved. He opened the transfer interface and transferred another 10,000 strands of spiritual energy to his family.

"Mom and Dad, I had a wonderful experience here. This money is for you to improve your lives."

In the commercial street of Space City, Xu Bai carried the frozen meat of alien beasts he brought from the Broken Heart Sea to the largest restaurant.

"Snake and dragon scraps, I'll buy 112 jin (500g) of meat with 10 strands of spiritual energy per jin. Do you want to sell?" The restaurant manager said after scanning the scraps of meat in the freezer with an instrument.

"I sold 105 jin, could you help me process the remaining 7 jin into a meal?"

The meat of some alien beasts is highly nutritious, even more so than some elixirs. However, the preparation methods are extremely complicated and are a closely guarded secret of chain restaurants.

"One pound of processed meat costs 30 strands of spiritual energy, and three vegetarian dishes will be served as complimentary. If needed, it can be processed for you in an hour." The hotel manager maintained a professional smile as he looked at Xu Bai.

"Please process it. If it tastes good, I'll come back next time!"

Xu Bai was led by the waiter to a private room to wait.

Inside the private room, Xu Bai sat on the sofa, turned on his personal terminal screen, and found the Caixing 185 Team Forum.

At the same time, a post appeared on the forum that was originally noisy and full of various disputes.

"Congratulations to Fellow Daoist Changqing on advancing to the Foundation Establishment stage! Congratulations to the Star Gathering Team! Congratulations to the Unending Life!!"

The post had hundreds of thousands of replies, and Xu Bai even saw information about this fellow Daoist Changqing's experiences.

Xu Changqing joined the star-collecting team seventy years ago. At that time, he was just a barely graduated star-collecting worker. Apart from his skill in operating the spaceship, he had no other skills.

He first joined a gang, and after more than 20 years of working diligently in the gang, he became a high-ranking member of the gang and his cultivation level rose to the mid-stage of Qi Refining.

After obtaining a large quantity of spiritual energy worth tens of millions of strands deep within the Shattered Star Sea, he began to rise slowly. From then on, he repeatedly obtained large quantities of spiritual energy in the Shattered Star Sea, and his cultivation level became stronger and stronger.

After successfully collecting a large quantity of materials yesterday and purchasing Foundation Establishment Pills, I advanced to the Foundation Establishment stage and escaped the bottom of society.

This is a newly recruited star gatherer in the Foundation Establishment stage of the Shattered Star Sea this year.

Xu Bai knew that the seemingly simple introduction concealed countless experiences of fighting and escaping death in the Shattered Star Sea.

Finally, Xu Bai also saw a dialogue that Xu Changqing had given to all the star gatherers.

People say there are countless paths to immortality, but for us there is only one: the path of risking our lives.

"The world is full of suffering; may all my fellow practitioners be freed from it soon!"