From star gatherer to leader of humanity

Xu Bai's mining spaceship, like a beam of light, darted through the gaps in the shattered sky, reaching the deepest area it had previously ventured into in just one day.

The benefits of increasing mental strength by 5 times go far beyond that. Xu Bai felt that his ability to analyze data was several times faster than before. When the data was transmitted, he could tell at a glance whether there were any spirit mines within a thousand miles.

With the help of these two factors, the speed of exploring spirit mines increased several times. In just one day, Xu Bai found a Flame Gold Mine, with 280 strands of spiritual energy per ton and a total content of 240 tons.

This kind of spirit ore, with this amount of reserves, is already considered a large mine for most experienced players.

After checking the surrounding area and finding no abnormal data or alien beasts guarding it, Xu Bai piloted his spaceship to land on the broken celestial body containing flaming gold.

After releasing the warning spaceship, Xu Bai couldn't wait to start cultivating.

As soon as he entered the Shattered Star Sea, he sensed the dense, chaotic spiritual energy. He had been unable to cultivate here before, but after his spiritual power expanded fivefold, he was confident that he could extract pure spiritual energy from it.

"No matter what, we've saved some spirit stones."

With his mental energy amplified fivefold, Xu Bai could multitask, devoting a sliver of his mental energy to vigilance while focusing the rest on cultivation.

After ten hours of cultivation, Xu Bai's dantian expanded by a trace of spiritual energy. The progress was slightly slower than when cultivating by absorbing spirit stones, but since this spiritual energy was free, Xu Bai thought, "What more could I ask for?"

"If the white attribute is this powerful, then what about the higher attributes? Wouldn't that be defying the heavens?"

"We don't have enough spirit stones right now, so let's get the spaceship sorted out first, and then we can talk about other things."

Xu Bai looked at the Flame Gold Mine, which was only half-mined, and took out five basic spell jade slips from a box next to him.

He placed the jade slip containing the Spirit Gathering Technique between his eyebrows and began to study it.

The most basic steps to casting a spell are the flow of energy through the meridians, hand seals, and sufficient spiritual energy. However, once a spell is fully mastered, the reaction phase can be skipped, and the spell can be cast directly.

The fivefold increase in mental strength allowed Xu Bai to learn extremely quickly. He memorized the entire Spirit Gathering Technique in just half a day. As long as his meridian circulation and hand seals kept up, he would be able to perform it smoothly in the future.

"Spirit Gathering Technique, basic consumption of 30 strands of spiritual power, can gather 100 strands of spiritual power in places with abundant spiritual energy. Spiritual energy can be used for cultivation or for casting spells."

"It is said that when one cultivates to a high level, one can condense spiritual liquid in the void in places where spiritual energy is abundant."

Of these five basic spells, the Spirit Gathering Spell is the one Xu Bai most wants to learn.

At this time, the Yanjin ore had been mined, and Xu Bai piloted the mining spaceship to continue the search deeper.

Just as Xu Bai was rapidly searching, the four small combat ships that were tracking him went even deeper into the area.

"What should we do? We can't even handle this simple matter. We won't be able to explain this to the gang leader when we get back."

"I feel like this month's salary is getting further and further away from me!"

The four of them became increasingly panicked.

"Should we go back and report now, or continue the search?" one of them asked.

"We can't just go back like this, we need to find a perfect excuse!" one of them suddenly said, his voice rising.

"You have an idea?" the other three asked in unison.

"I have some immature ideas. That kid only has a Hummingbird-class mining ship. He can't cause any trouble."

"Our biggest threat is the Iron Gang. I know the exact location where the Iron Gang trains new recruits. If we can go there and kill a few of the Iron Gang's senior executives, we can atone for our sins."

"Then we can make an excuse that we lost them because they detected us and kept tracking us, and we'll keep our salaries for this month!" the person said excitedly in the private channel.

"That's it!"

The four small, single-person combat ships changed direction and headed towards the outer edge of the Shattered Star Sea.

Eight hundred million miles deep in the Shattered Star Sea, Xu Bai felt as if he had arrived in paradise. If it weren't for the alien beasts harassing him, it would be perfect.

"Warm jade ore, 510 strands of spiritual energy per ton, with a total content of 87 tons."

Xu Bai carefully explored the broken celestial body containing warm jade ore. In the past few days, he had collected similar ores, all of which were occupied by alien beasts from the starry sky.

A surveillance drone landed on the holy white, shattered celestial body and began to emit a peculiar fluctuation at a regular frequency.

Not long after, a giant white jade serpent as thick as a bucket suddenly burst out from inside the shattered celestial body, glaring angrily at the surveillance drone.

Just as Xu Bai was about to control the surveillance drone to leave, the drone was trapped by a special kind of telekinetic force, which crushed it into pieces.

Then, as if sensing something, the giant white jade serpent looked in the direction of Xu Bai's mining spaceship, its body transforming into a white light as it flew towards the spaceship.

"Damn, a celestial beast that has awakened its supernatural powers!"

Xu Bai immediately maneuvered the mining spaceship to find a suitable place for battle.

The white jade serpent was very fast; in the past, Xu Bai would definitely not have been able to escape its pursuit.

The moment the white light appeared within the mining ship's strike range, the heavy twin-barreled cannons opened fire.

Xu Bai's mental strength surged, and every shot from the twin machine guns he controlled landed on the giant white jade serpent.

At first, the white jade giant serpent's psychic power could withstand the attack, but as the firing rate of the twin machine guns increased, the white jade giant serpent's psychic power could not hold up and it was hit by the cannonballs.

Several shells accurately hit the head of the giant white jade snake, instantly blowing its head off.

"So what if it's a Foundation Establishment stage beast? It's nothing in front of my heavy twin-barreled machine gun!"

The dead white jade giant snake's body slowly stiffened, its entire body transforming into warm jade-like flesh, which Xu Bai happily took into the cabin.

"Hakimi, help me find out the effects of the Spirit-Flesh Warm Jade."

The list of rare and precious materials circulating in the market contains hundreds of thousands of entries. Even with Xu Bai's excellent memory, he couldn't possibly remember them all. He could only make a general identification and then consult personal terminals or smart data.

"The Spiritual Flesh Warm Jade is mostly formed from the death of special jade-type beasts. Its material is the main material for setting up spiritual energy purification arrays. It can also be refined into a jade pendant magic tool for personal use to purify spiritual energy and nourish the body. It can be carried directly on the body to nourish the body. Its value is considerable, and one pound can be sold for 800 strands of spiritual energy."

Listening to the information Hakimi provided, Xu Bai quickly scanned the warm jade of spirit flesh in the cabin.

"280 jin, that's 220,000 strands of spiritual energy! We've struck gold!"

Just as Xu Bai was getting excited, a violent wave suddenly swept by.

Within the shattered celestial body containing warm jade, an even larger and more ferocious white jade serpent burst forth, angrily flying towards Xu Bai's location.

"Damn it~"

A sharp alarm sounded from the main control room of the mining spacecraft.

"A monster exceeding its energy range has been detected. Immediate evacuation of this area is recommended!"

Xu Bai reacted quickly, maneuvering his spaceship to escape the moment the alarm sounded. The alien beasts beyond his energy range were at least Golden Core stage, far beyond the capabilities of his spaceship's heavy twin-barreled machine guns.

A massive, house-sized, shattered celestial body was flung out by a Golden Core stage white jade serpent using its mental power and crashed into the spaceship.

Then several more fragmented celestial bodies of the same size hurtled toward Xu Bai like meteors.