187: Chapter 187 Departure from the Elma Federation

"Is this the Soul Realm?" Su Fan's Android stepped through the spatial rift and arrived in the Soul Realm.

"It's similar to Nether Planet." The Great Elder also looked at the surrounding environment with curiosity.

"The base was just built, so there isn't much to see. Let's go take a look at the Soul Realm Stone Tablet," Su Fan suggested with a smile.

"You don't need to follow us. We are using Androids, and the ghosts pose no threat to us," the Great Elder said kindly to the soldiers beside him.

"Yes! Great Elder!"

The two did not walk very fast, observing the surrounding environment as they went.

After they grew tired of the scenery, they accelerated their pace.

Before long, they arrived at the stone tablet. Su Fan touched the tablet with his hand, feeling somewhat excited.

When he saw the crack behind the stone tablet, he immediately smiled.

"Great Elder, look, this is where Su Xiaobai obtained the precious sword."

"Haha! Su Xiaobai's luck is heaven-defying; his future prospects are limitless!" the Great Elder praised.

"You flatter him, you flatter him, haha!" Su Fan was overjoyed.

"Let's enter the Yuan River and look at the spaceship wreckage at the bottom."

"Good!"

The two went down into the Yuan River and explored the riverbed filled with wreckage, but they found nothing new.

However, looking at the riverbed packed with spaceship wreckage, Su Fan thought of waste utilization.

"Great Elder, say, if we melt down this spaceship wreckage and recycle it to extract usable materials, wouldn't we strike it rich?"

"That's a good idea, it's worth a try. Once successful, our Xia State will obtain a vast amount of precious materials," the Great Elder's eyes lit up as he spoke in agreement.

"Alright then, I will arrange for experts and scholars to research in this direction," Su Fan said with a smile, his gaze full of anticipation.

"Arrange for more experts. With so much wreckage, I can't even imagine how many resources we would gain once they can be utilized," the Great Elder's eyes burned with a slight heat.

"No problem!" Su Fan said with a smile. "Great Elder, who do you think piled these spaceship and weapon remains at the bottom of this Yuan River?"

The Great Elder lowered his head in thought, but eventually shook his head.

"Could it be the ancestors of our clan?"

"After all, the stone tablet by the Yuan River uses the script of our Xia Clan, or rather, the Shenyuan Clan."

"I have a doubt." Su Fan stared at the spaceship and weapon wreckage on the riverbed. "Why is so much wreckage piled at the bottom of the river?"

"This Soul Realm is so large, and we haven't even explored its boundaries yet. Piling it anywhere else would surely be simpler and more convenient."

"What was the purpose of the civilization or power that piled this spaceship wreckage here? Could there be some conspiracy?"

"That is what I'm worried about!" Su Fan said with a serious tone, frowning.

"For now, we have insufficient information. We can only wait for news from the experts, scholars, and the excavation teams. If they can excavate something like data modules and successfully decipher them, we will know some things," the Great Elder sighed.

"Sigh—" Su Fan also sighed. "There are too many secrets in the universe. This place is still quite far from our Blue Star, but just thinking about the Golden Dragon in the Solar System gives me a headache."

"In this life, how can one be without troubles? Just strive for a clear conscience!" The Great Elder patted Su Fan's shoulder, his eyes filled with encouragement.

Time slowly passed. In the following days, Su Fan and the Great Elder casually toured the Soul Realm before leaving.

They did not meet up with Su Xiaobai and the others, as Su Xiaobai's group had already ventured deep into the Soul Realm and could not be caught up with in a short time.

...

Three years later.

Su Xiaobai emerged from the Soul Realm and returned to his hometown, Blue Star.

After giving Su Fan a large amount of soul crystals, he cultivated for another two years and successfully broke through to the fourth level of God Forging.

After breaking through to the fourth level of God Forging, Su Xiaobai chose to enter the Soul Realm again.

When Su Mingxia and Su Huang saw that Su Xiaobai had already reached the fourth level of God Forging, they became anxious. They went directly to Su Fan to request his permission to enter the Soul Realm for training.

After five years of development, some areas of the Soul Realm had become relatively stable. Su Fan no longer restrained his children and agreed to their request to enter the Soul Realm.

Su Mingxia and Su Huang were overjoyed and immediately packed their things to head to the Soul Realm.

As for Su Feng, she was also dragged along to the Soul Realm by Su Huang.

Except for the young Su Han, all of his children had gone to the Soul Realm!

In the same year, Su Fan received battle reports from the front lines: the war between the Canglan Empire, the Alma Federation, and the Black Dragon Empire was nearing its end.

The Black Dragon Empire, fighting one against two, was ultimately overmatched and on the verge of defeat!

But just as the Canglan Empire prepared to join forces with the Alma Federation to conquer the Black Dragon Empire in one fell swoop, the Alma Federation suddenly turned traitor, pointing its spear directly at the Canglan Empire!

"What a series of twists and turns! Haha!" Su Fan laughed as he looked at the battle report and spoke to the Great Elder.

"This is quite the drama; the Alma Federation was hiding its strength!" the Great Elder analyzed.

"They certainly were," Su Fan said with a smile. "Even when they were allied with the Canglan Empire to attack the Black Dragon Empire, the number of spaceships they sent out was small."

"I think they've had the ambition to annex both the Canglan Empire and the Black Dragon Empire for a long time."

"The Alma Federation has always been quite mysterious; their way of life is completely different from ours." The Great Elder pointed to the images of the Alma People displayed on the large screen.

"Actually, I'd still prefer it if the Canglan Empire or the Black Dragon Empire won."

"I hope so too," Su Fan smiled. "After all, aside from skin color, we are similar in most other ways."

"Even our living environments are the same."

"In the future, when we occupy the planets of the Canglan Empire and the Black Dragon Empire, we won't even need to terraform them; we can just start interstellar migration directly."

"These Alma People are different; it feels like they are the true aliens." Su Fan looked at the pictures of the Alma People with some disgust.

"To be honest, they are really ugly!"

"Haha!" The Great Elder laughed. "What do you plan to do next?"

"Should we enter the fray?"

"It's still too early!" Su Fan shook his head.

"I plan to enter the Alma Federation to explore next."

The Great Elder nodded. "Alright, go ahead. I'll continue to scavenge resources in Black Dragon and Canglan."

"How many spaceships do you plan to take this time?"

"Ten will be enough!" Su Fan considered for a moment and then gave a number.

"Is that enough?" The Great Elder was a bit worried.

"It's enough! It's our first exploration, and we don't know the situation over there yet," Su Fan said with a smile.

"Good! Be safe!"

...

Su Fan set out on an interstellar journey once again.

This time, he took his fifth son, Su Han, with him.

Su Han was not yet sixteen, so he couldn't cultivate yet; it was the perfect time to take him to see the wonders of the universe.

Of course, they were going as Androids. Su Fan would never risk his true body; this way, even if something went wrong, they would only lose ten spaceships.

Speaking of spaceships, one had to mention the independent research and development of class-c spaceships.

Independent R&D was incredibly difficult, and progress had recently been stalled by the preparation of a certain material.

Su Fan estimated that it would take at least several more decades before they could successfully develop a class-c spaceship independently.

This bottleneck from the system made him very uncomfortable. Without successful independent development, the system couldn't upgrade, and the black technology of a Level 5 civilization couldn't be exchanged.

It was just like being stuck on a quest in a game because of a missing item; it was very frustrating!

Since they couldn't rely on independent development, they could only exchange for production lines to manufacture them.

In the past decade or so, the population of the Xia State had increased significantly, and Su Fan had accumulated a lot of influence points again.

He used most of these influence points to manifest production lines for the kongming motherships.

With the newly added production lines and the various precious resources scavenged from the Black Dragon Empire and the Canglan Empire, the number of class-c spaceships in the Xia State was also rapidly increasing.

The ten spaceships Su Fan and his group were taking to the Alma Federation were newly manufactured.

Regarding the population, according to the current growth rate and the Red Queen's calculations, they would have to open up new habitable planets in thirty years.

Hearing this, Su Fan waved his hand and immediately dispatched planet-opening teams to begin the development and terraforming of new habitable planets.

The Canglan Empire could barely protect itself now, so it had no time to worry about its borders.

The Xia State took this opportunity to expand northward!

...

In the southern region of the Black Dragon Empire, ten kongming motherships were rapidly performing warp jumps.

It was Su Fan and his son who had already set off!

The journey to the Alma Federation was long, requiring them to bypass the southern border of the Black Dragon Empire and then head north from its eastern border.

It was estimated to take at least a year to arrive at the Alma Federation.

Therefore, most of the time, Su Fan was not in the spaceship but was quietly cultivating at home.

This peaceful life continued for over a year.

A year later, with a reminder from the Red Queen, they arrived at the Alma Federation!

...