Chapter 354: Hauling Stars, Pushing Planets

Ling Jiu brought the spacecraft 9527 and 9527 to Earth, and let 9527 set up the test program.

After that, Ling Jiu left and came to his first stop: Whitehole-1.

Having left the egg of the Flame Astral Behemoth on Whitehole-1 for 1959 years, it should have hatched by now, according to Leoux.

It was likely to be wreaking havoc on Whitehole-1 now. So Ling Jiu was eager to check it out.

“I have detected the Flame Astral Behemoth and locked its position, Ling Jiu.”

“How about Emperor Might and Vulcan? Are they alright?”

“They are all alive.”

“Glad to know that. I was worried that they might have bumped into and been killed by the Flame Astral Behemoth. All right, let’s first check out the Flame Astral Behemoth.”

The next second, he teleported near a volcano.

This volcano that stood in the middle of an endless desert was massive, dozens of times larger than was huge, dozens of times larger than Olympus Mons on Mars.

But unlike Olympus Mons, it was apparently an active volcano.

Thick, billowing smoke and ash rising from the volcano spread in all directions.

“Is the Flame Astral Behemoth here?”

Ling Jiu came above the volcano. The billowing smoke and volcanic ash bounced away as he got closer.

“That is right,” Leoux replied.

“Is it hiding inside the volcano? This fits the behavior of a Flame Astral Behemoth. Let’s check it out.”

Ling Jiu nodded and then jumped into the volcano.

For ordinary people, entering an active volcano was as good as suicide.

If the extreme temperate did not kill Ling Jiu, the billowing smoke and choking volcanic ash would.

But Ling Jiu was not afraid. With his current strength, he would survive a plunge into the Sun’s surface, more so in the magma.

He dived all the way down and soon descended to the deepest part of the volcano, where magma was constantly bubbling in incredibly high temperatures.

A giant beast resembling a male lion, but covered with flaming scales, with a pair of wings covered with the same flaming scales on its back, with nine spiral horns, was crawling in the hot magma.

It was purring loudly and stirring magma all over the place as it slept.

“It looks badass.” Ling Jiu could not help but exclaim.

“It not just looks badass,” Leoux said, “but is also a Level-seven super-clustered being. With the strength of a Flame Astral Behemoth, it could beat any ordinary-apex super-clustered being without breaking a sweat.”

“Indeed! It is not a Flame Astral Behemoth for nothing.”

Ling Jiu exclaimed and then stepped out of the hidden dimension.

The Flame Astral Behemoth had keen senses and immediately sensed Ling Jiu the moment he came out of the hidden dimension.

A pair of vicious eyes larger than a taxi locked on Ling Jiu instantly.

But after seeing Ling Jiu’s face, the viciousness disappeared and was replaced by excitement in its eyes.

“M—Master!”

The Flame Astral Behemoth roared twice, and then a crisp and pleasant voice came into Ling Jiu’s mind.

“A female?” Ling Jiu was startled.

“It looks like it is indeed a female Flame Astral Behemoth.” Leoux chortled. “You can hardly associate it with Flame Astral Behemoth just by hearing her voice. Her appearance is simply too badass.”

Ling Jiu forced a smile and then looked at the Flame Astral Behemoth. “I am sorry, I am late, Flame Astral Behemoth.”

“I have been waiting for you for a long time. I thought you abandoned me.” The Flame Astral Behemoth wept in joy.

She burst into tears and plunged into Ling Jiu’s arms, rubbing her head against his chest.

It was a bizarre sight as the Flame Astral Behemoth was over ten thousand meters tall, her head as massive as a ten-story building. It just looked super weird when she rubbed her head against Ling Jiu’s chest.

To comfort the Flame Astral Behemoth, Ling Jiu deactivated his Size Reduction arcana and his body returned to normal size.

Swish!

He became a 30,000-meter giant in the blink of an eye.

Whumpf!

He suddenly became so tall that his head broke through the volcano dome above. Massive rocks fell and smashed into the magna lake below.

“Bawl — Master! Bawl—”

The Flame Astral Behemoth consequently snuggled up against Ling Jiu’s chest.

The Flame Astral Behemoth only calmed down after a long while. She then followed Ling Jiu out of the volcano and came outside.

“How about me giving you a name, Flame Astral Behemoth?” Ling Jiu asked.

“Okey-dokey!”

“How about you using my surname, Ling, and your name, Flame, as in Flame Astral Behemoth, from now on?”

“Flame Ling? My name is Flame Ling! Yeah, I have a name now!”

Flame Ling was as excited as Ling Jiu was as she now had a name, finally.

It was clear that Flame Ling was a cheerful and extroverted girl. She might be a Flame Astral Behemoth on the outside, but deep down was the heart of a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl.

Youth, vigor, and vitality—it was hard to imagine that such a cheerful and cute ‘little girl’ was over a thousand years old.

“Is there any ideal place for Flame to practice self-cultivation, Leoux?”

“The Flame Astral Behemoths feed on stars. The most ideal place for them is none other than the core of a star,” Leoux replied. “You just need to find a star and let her absorb the energy.”

“Are there stars around here?”

“The closest star to Whitehole-1 is about five light-years away. But the gravity of the white hole there is infinitely low, the white hole has little effect on it, and the time flow is anything but fast.”

Ling Jiu frowned. Faster time flow was helpful to self-cultivation. This star is close to Whitehole-1, but the time flow is too slow to be an ideal place for self-cultivation.

“Are there other ideal stars?”

“Nope.” Leoux shook its head. “A white hole is a celestial body that continuously ejects energy particles. Theoretically, it is almost impossible for other celestial bodies to exist around a white hole. Any celestial bodies that come near a white hole are mostly wandering planets. Stars have enormous masses with strong gravitational pulls. There are few wandering planets, and even fewer stars can wander to the vicinity of a white hole. At least, there are no stars near the eight white holes that are connected to Earth.”

“In other words, there is no ideal star for Flame to practice self-cultivation, right?”

“There is none. But I can haul the nearest star over.”

“Er… did you just say ‘haul’? How is this even possible?”

“Why not?” Leoux let out a smile. “A star is just a celestial body with a higher mass and a higher temperature. For lower-level civilizations, its high temperature makes it unapproachable. But for higher-level civilizations, it is a source of fuel.”

“In fact, you can now enter the surface of the Sun and absorb the energy of the Sun to improve your strength.”

“I am so strong now?” Ling Jiu’s eyes blinked.

“Super-clustered beings are extremely strong. Under normal circumstances, a large galaxy can only produce one super-clustered being. You have met too many super-clustered beings, and so you think that super-clustered beings are common. But that is a wrong perception,” Leoux said. “Let’s go. Let me bring you to haul a star.”

“Righto.”

The distance of 5 light-years is far. But for Leoux, it was just as close as getting to a neighboring village.

“This is an orange dwarf with a diameter slightly smaller than the Sun. Its mass is about 90%, radius about 86% of the sun. Its surface temperature is 4,000℃. Under normal circumstances, its life span is as long as a millennium,” Leoux explained with a smile. “For living things, the bigger the body, the better. The bigger the body, the more competitive and stronger. But for a star, the smaller the mass, the larger the body, and the longer the life span. Of course, the breeding of life requires the most stable environment. So life can breed the easiest near a stable and long-lived star.”

“I have learned something new today.” Ling Jiu nodded.

“There are more.” Leoux guffawed. It steered the Leoux and came near to the star, then launched thousands of space shuttles.

The space shuttles surrounded the star in an equal distance among them before releasing their black chains.

Countless black chains were connected, forming a massive, impenetrable net to envelop the star.

Immediately afterwards, a black chain was fastened to the Leoux.

Leoux gave the chain an abrupt pull, jerking the star forward slowly, hauling it like an old donkey pulling a carriage.

“Holy moly, it really moves!”

It was a sight. As experienced and widely traveled as Ling Jiu was, he could not believe his eyes.

He did not even dare to think about hauling a star before this. But it really happened now, and the one who did this was his friend.

Unbelievable.

As the Leoux hauled the star and came in front of Ling Jiu, Leoux’s voice came. “We may go home now, Ling Jiu.”

“There is a planet orbiting this star, Leoux,” Ling Jiu said, pointing to a planet that was left in the distance.

This planet originally orbited the star, but as the speed of the star was hauled away faster and faster, the planet could not keep up, and was left behind in space.

“It is a rocky planet, about the size of Mars. There is not much value in it. Just leave it there,” Leoux said indifferently.

“It will be a waste to leave it just like that. Why not bring it along, place it around a white hole, and make a little modification here and there, and voilà! It is another habitable planet.”

Ling Jiu licked his lips and then flew towards the planet. When he came in front of the planet, he teleported to the other side of it.

He then gave it a hard push.

The planet started to move.

He pushed it harder, and the planet continued to speed forward.

“Lead the way, Leoux.”

“I have no problem if you want to bring it along. But I have got to remind you it is going to slow us down and take us eight to ten years to get to the white hole.”

“It doesn’t matter. The flow of time is fast here, and time is what we have got here.”

“Very well, whatever.”

Just like that, Leoux hauled the star forward while Ling Jiu pushed the planet as he followed from behind.

They started to pick up speed along the way.