In the vast star domain, a warship carefully navigated around the ubiquitous meteorites as it pressed toward its destination.
The warship was small—less than twenty zhang in length—making it one of the tiniest vessels in the star domain, barely qualifying as a low-grade Saint King vessel. Its hull was not particularly sturdy; the pockmarked dents across its surface told the story of countless meteorite impacts sustained while traversing the void.
Any higher-grade warship would never have suffered such damage.
The small vessel crept through the star domain as if walking on eggshells. It appeared to be heavily laden with cargo, which kept its speed low.
Inside the hull, roughly sixty-odd warriors of varying cultivation levels went about their duties, thoroughly bored out of their minds.
They had been dispatched to mine ore on a resource star, where they'd spent a full half year. Only recently had they finally filled the warship's cargo hold and begun the return trip.
There had been a hundred of them when they set out, but nearly half were gone by now. For reasons no one understood, the resource star had been crawling with savage star beasts, and many of their companions had been killed while mining.
The survivors were grateful to be alive and had no complaints.
Half a year of hard labor would earn them years of comfortable living, and everyone was content. After returning, they would receive generous rewards, be allowed to study more advanced cultivation techniques and martial arts, and possibly even obtain higher-grade artifacts. Lost in such daydreams, they awaited the warship's triumphant arrival.
Wu Yi was the warship's supervisor—a cultivator at the first stage of the Saint King Realm. At her age, such cultivation was considered exceptional on Dark Star. The clan elders had even declared that as long as she was willing to work hard, she would surely reach the Void Return Realm in the future.
Her strength was not the greatest aboard the warship. The strongest was a clan enforcer who had accompanied them, a cultivator at the third stage of the Saint King Realm. However, he was quite old, and aside from overseeing the warship and ensuring its safety, he wanted nothing to do with anything else. Not even Wu Yi had the authority to give him any orders.
There were other Saint King Realm cultivators among them as well—after all, mining in the wilds demanded a certain level of strength.
Wu Yi stood in the warship's engine chamber at that moment, gazing through the transparent viewport at the glittering expanse of stars. Her beautiful eyes shimmered with longing.
Dark Star was her homeland, but the spiritual energy of heaven and earth there couldn't compare to what other cultivation stars in the star domain possessed. Resources were scarce, supplies were thin, there were no high-grade spiritual treasures, and certainly no powerful experts.
The strongest person on Dark Star was only at the second stage of the Void Return Realm—two thousand years old by all accounts, well past his prime. It was questionable whether he could still hold his own in a fight.
Moreover, Dark Star occupied a rather remote corner of the Heng Luo Star Domain. This was evident from the countless dead stars in its vicinity—finding a resource star for mining required months of travel, during which everyone lived in constant fear, terrified that some catastrophic danger would destroy the ship and kill them all.
Precisely because of its remoteness and poverty, the great powers of the star domain rarely paid this area any mind. Even the most notorious scoundrels—the villains of the Abandoned Nest at the Spine of the Star River, who committed every atrocity imaginable—wouldn't bother coming here to plunder.
Although Dark Star was technically part of the star domain, it had effectively become cut off, forgotten by the wider world.
Wu Yi desperately wanted to leave Dark Star and see the outside world while she was still young—to experience the wonders of other cultivation stars. She'd heard from those who'd visited that there were countless things unavailable on Dark Star. Out there were Void King Realm experts, all manner of unimaginable marvels, and cultivation speeds that defied belief. People out there had more Saint Crystals than they could spend and pills of every conceivable variety.
Compared to those people, Wu Yi felt like a total rube—a genuine country bumpkin who'd never seen the wider world.
She yearned for everything beyond, but the clan's circumstances kept her grounded. From the moment she'd come of age, she'd been devoting herself to her people. This mining expedition to the resource star—everyone knew how dangerous it was. In the past, of every ten warships sent out, having five return was considered a smooth run. No one dared volunteer, so she'd had no choice but to step forward, accepting the task under the approving gazes of the clan elders.
They figured that as a woman, even if she died out there, it wouldn't matter—it wouldn't hurt the family's foundation. That was why they'd agreed so readily.
Had it been any other male heir of the direct bloodline, those elders would never have permitted it.
A bunch of short-sighted fools—no wonder they could only sit on Dark Star and wait to die!
What's wrong with being a woman? Wu Yi let out a quiet huff, her fists clenching gently as she silently swore that one day she would leave Dark Star, break free from that suffocating cage, find her own freedom, and witness the wider, more magnificent world.
"Miss!" A warrior at the third stage of the Entering Saint Realm hurried over, his greedy gaze lingering for a moment on Wu Yi's voluptuous rear and the smooth curves of her back before he quickly lowered his head, feigning proper decorum.
"What happened?" Wu Yi turned to face him. "I just saw Yu Feng rush out with a group. What are they doing?"