From star gatherer to leader of humanity

Three days later, Xu Bai piloted his mining spaceship and arrived at an area 300 million miles deep in the Shattered Star Sea.

This area is usually only visited by experienced players in teams, for no other reason than the abundance of alien beasts and the presence of some interstellar pirates lurking here.

If you're not careful, your mining ship could be damaged and stranded here, so it's safest for experienced players to come here in a team.

Inside the mining spaceship's control room, Xu Bai's eyes gleamed as he looked at the data transmitted back from the exploration fluctuations on the screen.

"There are so many fragmented celestial bodies containing hundreds or even thousands of tons of cinnabar!"

"But I didn't come here to find you. I'll gather some of your food after I've eaten my fill."

Xu Bai piloted the mining spaceship, flying towards a broken celestial body containing heavy starstone.

Heavy Starstone is an indispensable material for making spaceship armor and basic magical artifacts. One ton is worth fifteen strands of spiritual energy on the space station.

"450 tons of content, with 15 strands of spiritual energy per ton, that's 6750 strands of spiritual energy, no problem."

After deploying four surveillance drones and confirming that there were no abnormal data or alien creatures in the vicinity, Xu Bai then deployed the mining engineering robot.

"Collecting heavy starstone is simpler than collecting iron, and it can be completed in half a day."

"I can take advantage of this time to cultivate for a while."

Xu Bai reclined the chair, sat cross-legged on it, took out a spirit stone from his robes, held it in his hand, and began cultivating the "Spiritual Qi Technique".

At this moment, Xu Bai's dantian only had a capacity of 300 strands of spiritual energy. In this cultivation world where casting a fireball spell would consume 50 strands of spiritual energy, this dantian capacity could only be considered barely adequate.

As the pure spiritual energy surged into Xu Bai's body, it circulated through his meridians and finally returned to his dantian.

Xu Bai's dantian began to slowly expand under the enhancement of spiritual energy.

Four hours later, Xu Bai felt that his meridians could not withstand the pressure and stopped cultivating.

Upon checking his dantian, he found that after four hours of cultivation, the amount of spiritual energy stored in his dantian had only increased slightly.

"The first level of the Spiritual Qi Technique requires the expansion of the dantian by 500 strands of spiritual qi. For each strand of spiritual qi that my dantian expands, it costs one spirit stone. For 1,000 strands of spiritual qi, it costs 1,000 spirit stones."

"This is only the energy consumption for the first level of Qi Refining; the amount of spiritual energy consumed increases as you progress."

Xu Bai did a quick mental calculation and arrived at an astronomical figure of several million or even tens of millions.

"Does the difficulty of the road ahead mean we should give up?"

"Before I died, I was determined to risk my life. Now that I'm dead, how can I hesitate?"

Xu Bai looked at the screen. At this moment, the mining engineering robot was rapidly crushing and cutting the collected heavy star stone, and it had entered its optimal state.

Five hours later, after the last piece of heavy starstone was loaded into the ship's hold, the fourteen mining engineering robots returned.

Four surveillance drones flew back to the mining vessel in the distance.

"Keep going, liver!"

The mining spacecraft continued its deep exploration, searching for high-value minerals.

Half a day later, the mining spaceship shuttling between celestial bodies suddenly received an unusually strong mining fluctuation data.

"Crimson Flame Refined Iron, and there might even be Crimson Sun Crystal at its core!"

Xu Bai, who was originally drowsy, was instantly awakened and looked at the coordinates transmitted by the data.

"If there's a Crimson Sun Crystal in the core, then there's a high probability that there are alien beasts in the surrounding area!"

"Be careful!"

The mining spaceship slowed down and slowly made its way to the coordinates.

Four reconnaissance drones are scouting ahead.

"It is said that rare alien beasts can fetch high prices, and their eggs and cubs are even more valuable."

Looking at the monitoring screen, a dark red, fragmented celestial body, several miles long, was sandwiched among many other fragmented celestial bodies.

Four probe drones meticulously explored every corner of the red, broken celestial body.

Xu Bai stared intently at the monitor screen; the twin heavy machine guns on top of the mining spaceship were already in preheating mode.

"The twin heavy machine guns are fine for dealing with ordinary Foundation Establishment stage alien beasts, but if it's a speed-type one, we might have to risk damaging the ship to hit it."

"However, with the speed of my mining ship, as long as I'm in an open area and can pick up the speed, I should have no problem fighting speed-type Foundation Establishment beasts."

"It has healing properties, making it more forgiving in combat!"

Xu Bai controlled one of the reconnaissance drones to begin surveying the star map of the surrounding broken celestial bodies in search of a suitable battlefield.

"Fortune favors the bold. One ton of Crimson Flame Refined Iron contains 320 strands of spiritual energy. Judging from the data, there are at least hundreds of tons. If there is indeed Crimson Sun Essence among them, then we'll be rich! Three hundred strands of spiritual energy per gram!"

Xu Bai carefully examined the surveillance footage and data on the screen, trying to find the strange beast.

As a result, after surveying the surrounding area for hundreds of miles, no abnormal data was found.

"In that case, let's try sending another bait over there."

A probe drone swaggered over to the red, broken celestial body, emitting a peculiar fluctuation.

Amidst this fluctuation, Xu Bai suddenly noticed an anomaly in the data transmitted from inside the shattered celestial body.

A five-meter-tall, fifteen-meter-long, crimson-red creature covered in dark red scales emerged from a hidden cave and spewed a thick stream of flames at the detection drone.

The reconnaissance drone dodged instantly, while Xu Bai piloted his single-person mining spaceship forward, its heavy twin-barreled cannons on top already locked onto the location of the alien beast.

"A serpent-dragon, judging by its size, should be in the mid-Foundation Establishment stage. It's a formidable opponent!"

The mining spaceship deftly leaped out of the gap and appeared several miles away from the red, broken celestial body.

The heavy twin cannons on top of the spaceship opened fire, and the spaceship's intelligent AI, Hakimi, had already maximized its computing power to lock onto the Serpent Dragon.

The serpent-dragon nimbly weaved across the dark red, shattered celestial body, then suddenly leaped and flew towards another shattered celestial body.

"Now!"

On top of the spaceship, the heavy twin-barreled cannons suddenly spun, instantly increasing their rate of fire by 20%.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom…

Several cannonballs hit the serpent dragon, blasting it several miles into the air.

Xu Bai pressed his advantage, maneuvering the spaceship ahead closer and closer to the serpent dragon. The heavy twin-barreled machine guns on the top of the spaceship began to rotate left and right, searching for the best time to fire.

As the serpent-dragon was about to crash into the shattered celestial body, the heavy twin-barreled machine guns opened fire again.

After dozens of shells, the area around the shattered celestial body was filled with fragments of the serpent-dragon's corpse.

Xu Bai deployed a multi-functional drone to search for these fragments. The corpses and flesh of the alien beasts could also be sold, but the more complete they were, the more valuable they were.

The mining spacecraft landed steadily on the dark red, broken celestial body, with mechanical arms extending from both sides of the spacecraft and firmly adhering to the surface of the celestial body.

With the two side cabins opened, the mining engineering robots began their work.

At this moment, Xu Bai stared at these mining engineering robots, watching them collect Crimson Flame Iron bit by bit, silently hoping that Crimson Sun Crystals would be produced.

As the shattered celestial body was gradually mined, the amount of crimson iron in the ship's hold increased.

When the mining robot reached the core of the broken celestial body, Xu Bai's heart rate soared to the heavens.

"With just a few ounces, my mining ship can acquire a white attribute!"

Just as Xu Bai was looking forward to it, the mining robot provided feedback data.

Xu Bai was practically glued to the screen watching.

"175 grams of Crimson Sun Crystal!" Xu Bai exclaimed excitedly, patting the armrest seat.