Chapter Twenty-Five: Rebuilding the Earth Mothership

Three mechs, so battered that their estimated value was only seventy thousand, with the deposit non-refundable.
The earth beast carcasses varied in size—fifty-seven in total, the large ones fetching five thousand each, the smaller three thousand.
Earth beasts had become so cheap now, their worth was scarcely that of a single pill.
With twenty-three large and thirty-four small, the sum amounted to two hundred and seventeen thousand.
He hadn’t sold the earth beasts’ stone cores; these contained energy and were valuable as materials for crafting.
His younger brother, learning calculation and repair, would sometimes try his hand at such things—he’d let him use these for practice.
He bought thirty Five-Mystery Vital Energy Pills and still had one hundred sixty-seven thousand left!
Taking the pills, he departed, crossing the Gateway projection to return to Blue Star.
He didn’t seek out Su Yue to ask about the “Earth” mech; he planned to have his brother help with that.
His brother’s teacher was skilled in mech repair; if he could enlist his help, the cost would be much lower.
At home, he took a shower and changed into clean clothes.
He placed the thirty pills in his brother’s room before contacting him: “I’ve left thirty Vital Energy Pills in your room.”
“Big bro, you didn’t rob a pill shop, did you? Where did you get so many pills?” Jiang Taixuan was startled and quickly activated the projection.
“I went to the planetary graveyard and found a treasure,” Jiang Taichu replied with a faint smile. “Your brother is a law-abiding citizen of Blue Star, educated for nine years—how could I do something like rob a shop?”
“The planetary graveyard? Why’d you go there? That place is a mess.” Jiang Taixuan sounded agitated.
“I was accompanying our supervisor—she’s a Qi Training expert,” Jiang Taichu said, pushing Yang Xianzhi out as a scapegoat.
“So that’s it,” Jiang Taixuan relaxed, “What was up with you before? You suddenly took leave and then vanished for days.”
“Just out with the supervisor on some business,” Jiang Taichu said, then changed the subject: “By the way, can you contact your teacher and ask if he could help me repair a mech?”
“Repair a mech?” Jiang Taixuan was puzzled. “Big bro, your supervisor is this generous—she gave you a mech?”
“An old wreck, the ‘Earth 95’ fully-automatic mech,” Jiang Taichu replied.
“That does sound ancient… Wait, fully-automatic? Are you crazy, or did I hear wrong? That’s the equivalent of a first-level Qi Training cultivator—someone just gave you that?”
Jiang Taixuan was incredulous.
A fully-automatic mech was not something a semi-automatic could compare to; it was no less than a Qi Training cultivator. How could anyone just give one away?
“It belonged to a friend’s father, left behind. They want to restore it but don’t have much money, so I hoped you could help ask,” Jiang Taichu explained.
There was no way Yang Xianzhi could take the blame for this; gifting a fully-automatic mech was simply too outrageous.
Even if Jiang Taixuan was brain-damaged, he wouldn’t believe it.
“I see. The ‘Earth 95’ is truly old—my teacher might not know how, but I’ll let you know.” Jiang Taixuan paused, then added, “By the way, that female classmate of mine wants to challenge you.”
“No time. Overtime this month; I have to work tomorrow.” With that, Jiang Taichu ended the call.

He felt the hidden meridians within his body; with the blessing of the “Sublime Dao True Lord of Clear Source,” by tomorrow he would perfect his external training and advance to internal.
His strength, speed, and defense would all rise again!
After a day of slaughter, he was tired and fell asleep as soon as he lay down.
The next morning, he rose early to take a Vital Energy Pill and cultivate.
He refined the medicinal power and once again ran the “Sublime Dao Body Refinement Method,” infusing essence into every limb and bone, beginning to merge it with his organs.
Internal refinement!
He felt his flesh brimming with even greater power, his bones growing tougher.
Powerful currents surged through his body, gathering in his palms.
Bang—
With a gentle clench, the air exploded with sound.
“When I get to the company, I’ll use the ‘Earth’ array spirit to scan myself, just to verify my current state,” Jiang Taichu thought.
His wristwatch vibrated, Tang Yu’s voice coming through: “Taichu, where are you? It’s time for work.”
“At home. What about you?” Jiang Taichu asked.
“We’re coming over soon, bringing roast goose. We’ll eat, then head to work,” Tang Yu replied.
Jiang Taichu agreed, then got up and went to the living room, turning on the psionic net to check the news.
The war on Star 10977 was still raging. What began as a conflict between Blue Star and the Xuanhuang Cultivation World had now drawn in the Canglan Realm as well.
The fighting was deadlocked; there was no telling when Star 10977 would fall.
Soon, Tang Yu and Zhang Jing arrived, each bringing dishes.
“Where have you been these past few days?” Tang Yu asked in confusion. “We tried to reach you but got no reply.”
“I had something to take care of—it’s sorted now,” Jiang Taichu replied vaguely. “Alright, let’s eat and get to work.”
“By the way, the Yuling Cultivation Center is advertising—someone killed dozens of earth beasts at the planetary graveyard and earned hundreds of thousands,” Zhang Jing said between bites of goose. “A thousand for entry, a thousand for a mech, and you can make hundreds of thousands.”
“Yuling’s ad?” Jiang Taichu was taken aback; he hadn’t expected to be featured in an advertisement.
Still, they hadn’t included his information or revealed much, or Zhang Jing would have known it was him.
“Yeah, it’s all over the psionic net now—everyone’s flocking to the planetary graveyard to hunt for treasure and kill earth beasts,” Zhang Jing said.
Tang Yu rolled her eyes. “It’s suicide, really. Those are all aging mechs that only last three hours. I checked the data.”
“Then how did they kill so many earth beasts?” Zhang Jing wondered.
“Must’ve been some rich kid with a new mech and a team of miners,” Tang Yu replied.

“If ordinary people went, even disabled earth beasts could pile up enough to kill them. You know how hard they are to kill,” Tang Yu said.
“True,” Zhang Jing agreed, recalling the toughness of earth beasts, and immediately gave up on the idea of treasure-hunting at the planetary graveyard.
Earth beasts were tenacious; if Jiang Taichu hadn’t had the Earth Law Sword, enough power, and defense, he couldn’t have hunted them so easily.
For ordinary people, even new mechs would be chewed up and swallowed, let alone aging ones.
After breakfast, the three took the psionic bus to Earth Company.
After identification and suiting up in their mechs, they entered Earth Star No. 10.
Jiang Taichu sent Yang Xianzhi a message, informing him he was back. Only then did Yang Xianzhi relax, transmitting a file for him to review first.
Back in his room, Jiang Taichu immediately summoned the “Earth” array spirit to test his strength.
He now possessed the equivalent of 28% mech energy, able to control 45% of a mech’s capacity!
He could ignore sniper bullets, though he still couldn’t block a psionic cannon.
At three meters, he could evade bullets; at twelve meters, he could avoid psionic and particle cannon fire!
To his surprise, his data now showed the “Earth 95” mech had directly replaced the “Mountain Patrol” mech, with all other stats unchanged.
Strictly speaking, the “Mountain Patrol” was a branch of the “Earth” mech, specializing in mountains.
But the “Earth” mech had all the abilities of the “Mountain Patrol,” with even stronger detection and burrowing capabilities.
More importantly, the “Earth 95” was fully automatic, which the “Mountain Patrol” couldn’t compare to.
Yang Xianzhi’s information arrived as well: “Check this first—it’s the area for your overtime collection. I’ve marked the best zones. Also, this time you’ll be working under a ‘Heavenly Dao Suppressor,’ but it won’t affect your particle radar for local scans.”
“What? Shielding against the Heavenly Dao?” Jiang Taichu’s face darkened. “You know my relationship with Tao Zhong and the others.”
“I’ll separate you; you won’t be with them.”
“What’s the company up to, blocking the Heavenly Dao?” Jiang Taichu pressed.
“Don’t worry—it’s been reviewed and approved. It’s allowed, but not encouraged. The Heavenly Dao will rate the company and determine resource allocation, so we have to keep this from it. That’s the higher-ups’ decision,” Yang Xianzhi said. “There’s an approval document.”
“May I ask what this is all for?”
“To rebuild the Earth Mothership, we need the energy of at least ten stars. Related documents will be shown during overtime, but cannot be copied, and you’ll have to sign a confidentiality agreement,” Yang Xianzhi replied.
Jiang Taichu drew a sharp breath—this meant draining Earth Star One completely, and not just that one.
The earth veins bred resources; their exploration was to locate these veins, making it easier for the company to strike at the right spot.