From star gatherer to leader of humanity

As this spiritual energy gathered in Xu Bai's dantian, a special spiritual light appeared in his dantian.

Feeling this spiritual light, Xu Bai felt a sense of indescribable emotion.

"Hey, why didn't you come sooner!"

"All these years, you have no idea what kind of life I've been living here!"

"They're at the bottom of society; they don't even dare to eat more than a few bites of meat!"

"To gather enough spiritual energy for my younger brother and me to advance our Qi cultivation, my whole family has scrimped and saved for over a decade. I studied like crazy at school, but because of my damned aptitude and stagnant cultivation level, I couldn't even get into high school!"

Although Xu Bai's face showed pain, the mountain that had been weighing on his heart for sixteen years had quietly lessened considerably.

In this world ruled by the ultimate forms of the Thirty-Six Immortal Sects, the chances of the lower classes rising up are extremely slim.

Moreover, these opportunities are either given to you at birth, or you have to survive a near-death experience and even have to bow down and be a dog to those powerful families to obtain them.

Xu Bai was neither of superior talent nor willing to be someone else's dog, so he had lived an extremely repressed life over the years.

Because he understood that even if he risked his life, he would most likely only be able to cultivate to the Qi Refining Realm in this lifetime.

"Adding attributes to everything? Isn't that just enchanting!"

"This is still divided into levels. The lowest level, gray attribute, requires 10,000 strands of spiritual energy."

"Gray, white, green, blue, purple, gold, orange, rainbow—this color sequence looks familiar, doesn't it?"

"I wonder what attributes my ten thousand strands of spiritual energy will have."

"We must choose this first item carefully." Xu Bai looked at the low-level terminal on his wrist, and finally shook his head.

"We'll talk about it after I join the star-collecting team."

Just as Xu Bai was about to go to sleep, Xu Jun's voice came from next door.

"Brother, what are you mumbling about over there?"

"Go to sleep!"

Xu Bai said something and then lay down on the bed to sleep.

Three days later, inside a huge interstellar station waiting hall.

The family looked at Xu Bai with reluctance.

"Xiao Bai, remember, no matter what, your life is the most important thing. You must come back!"

Xu Lang looked at his eldest son with reluctance, his eyes filled with tears.

Zhang Wan, who was standing next to her, was already crying.

"Mom and Dad, don't work too hard, wait for me to come back."

At that moment, the announcement system in the waiting room began to play.

"Flight CU2048, bound for the Bailianzong Interstellar Station, is now boarding. Passengers with tickets, please proceed to gate 48 for boarding."

Upon hearing the broadcast, the couple embraced Xu Bai.

Reluctant to part ways, Xu Bai carried his large bag and walked towards Gate 48, turning back every few steps.

After scanning with his terminal, Xu Bai walked into the glass skywalk, where a huge interstellar spaceship docking area covering tens of square kilometers came into view.

Looking at the interstellar spaceships through the glass, Xu Bai felt a sense of disconnect.

In the history class of the Thirty-Six Immortal Sect, there is a special explanation for the great explosion of modern science and technology.

Originally, the area ruled by the Thirty-Six Immortal Sects only had four inhabited planets in the same orbit. The mortal realm was like the one Xu Bai had seen in cultivation novels, still in an era similar to feudal dynasties. Only powerful cultivators could traverse the starry sky and travel between various inhabited planets.

This state of affairs persisted until the invasion of the Eldar.

The Thirty-Six Immortal Sects marveled that such a weak individual could actually traverse such a distant part of space using technology.

The Lingke race, now enslaved, marveled that such a backward civilization could produce so many powerful beings.

It wasn't until the Thirty-Six Immortal Sects came into contact with the myriad races of the starry sky that the Lingke race, who were slaves, realized that their civilization tree had gone astray.

The spaceship Xu Bai was going to take was an ordinary civilian-class passenger ship, 280 meters long, with a top speed of 0.8 times the speed of light, and it would take nearly a month to travel to the Hundred Refinements Sect interstellar station.

After walking across the glass walkway and entering the spaceship, Xu Bai found his seat according to his ticket information.

The space was cramped, barely enough to sit down, with no room to stretch out one's legs. Looking at this cabin that could accommodate at least a thousand people, Xu Bai inexplicably thought of the best-selling products of the 18th century in his previous life.

A month later, the spaceship arrived outside the border of the human territory of the Thirty-Six Immortal Sects.

A lunar-sized interstellar station stands silently in the universe.

The spaceship docked at the spaceport, and Xu Bai followed the flow of people to the Hundred-Refined Star Interstellar Station.

Outside the spaceport, there were small spaceships waiting to recruit new members. Thousands of people were crammed into even smaller cabins. The spaceship took off and headed to the training department.

On the huge training ground for new recruits, tens of thousands of new recruits who had signed up for the Star-Picking Team stood there in groups of one hundred each.

"The Star Gathering Team's mortality rate for new recruits last year was 36%, out of 49872 people. Of these, 30% died from spaceship malfunctions, 20% from accidents, 20% from interstellar pirates, and the remaining 30% died from cultivation deviations."

A man exuding a powerful aura stood on the main stage of the training ground. He did not bring any amplification equipment, yet his voice clearly reached the ears of tens of thousands of new recruits.

Upon hearing about the high mortality rate among new recruits, the lined-up recruits immediately began to whisper among themselves.

"Quiet!!"

An immense pressure emanated from the man on the platform, like a wave of air.

In an instant, thousands of timid newcomers were so frightened that they knelt down on the ground.

"Those who fall are eliminated! Hundred Refinements Sect Star Gathering Team, don't be cowards!"

The personal terminal on the wrist of the fallen newcomer lit up red.

Looking at the frightened boy beside him, Xu Bai felt that with such a weak mentality, he might as well go home and work in a factory tightening screws.

Thousands of guards expelled new recruits whose personal terminals were glowing red from the training grounds.

"The remaining new recruits shouldn't gloat; those who haven't reached the Qi Refining stage after six months of training will all be eliminated!"

Xu Bai, standing in the group, frowned slightly, vaguely sensing that there was a trick involved.

"The training department has a spiritual energy cultivation room. If you don't have spiritual energy, it doesn't matter. The Hundred Refinements Sect can provide you with a low-interest loan of 100,000 strands of spiritual energy, with an annual interest rate of 15%."

"Six months later, you will be able to operate small mining ships, form your own teams, and mine in the Shattered Star Sea."

"You should know that experienced miners in the Shattered Star Sea earn at least ten thousand strands of spiritual energy every month!"

Xu Bai, standing in the group, looked at the impassioned man and felt that his words were full of clichés.

"One hundred thousand strands of spiritual energy, with half a year of hard work, would be enough for me to cultivate to the Qi Refining stage."

"At that time, we will definitely have to rent small mining vessels or take out a loan to buy them."

"Going to the Shattered Star Sea to mine will probably require joining those teams to make offerings, and they'll definitely take a cut."

"besides……"

After being reprimanded, Xu Bai and the other new recruits were taken to the training ground for intensive testing of the "Eighteen Forms of Body Refinement".

This is the most essential basic body-refining and foundation-building method condensed by the Thirty-Six Immortal Sects after countless revisions.

Once you cultivate to the Ninth Form of Body Refinement, you can build your foundation by absorbing spiritual energy.

Xu Bai has now mastered the sixth move, "Tiger Crouching on the Ground," and only needs three more moves to absorb spiritual energy and advance to the Qi Refining Realm.

However, cultivating these last three forms requires absorbing spiritual energy and refining one's qi and blood. Each of these last three forms requires at least 20,000 strands of spiritual energy.