Chapter 122: Setting a False Trail

Due to the immense size of passenger starships and the long duration of interstellar travel, all ticket classes—with the exception of the lowest-tier berths—include private cabins of varying sizes.

The top-tier ticket purchased by Lan Tian comes with a private suite of approximately two hundred square meters. It features not only a bedroom but also a living room and a dining area, with dedicated staff providing daily cleaning and meal services.

This level of luxury left Bebu, who had only purchased a mid-tier ticket, feeling both envious and pleasantly surprised; it was a clear indication that Mr. Lan Tian possessed significant financial resources.

After bidding Bebu a temporary farewell, Lan Tian stepped quickly into his private suite. With a sweep of his cosmic star power, the signal light outside his door instantly turned red, indicating "Do Not Disturb."

"Damn it! Bai, what are we going to do? It’s going to take a whole month to reach Huidu Star! I can wait, but I’m afraid Earth cannot!" Lan Tian summoned Bai, his voice filled with anxiety. "Also, when can I activate the locator?"

"Rest easy. Everything is within my calculations. This month-long voyage is actually not a bad thing," Bai replied, shaking his head. "Don't be in such a hurry to activate the locator near Lanque Star."

"After all, you spent quite some time on Lanque Star and made contact with several people; there is even a record of your entry into Qingshan City. If they are determined, they will certainly be able to find traces of you. Be patient. Wait two days until the starship is far from Lanque Star, then activate the locator."

"This route passes through seventeen habitable planets. In the earlier stages, activate the locator once every two planets. After you have activated it three times, stop. Just wait peacefully for the starship to arrive at Huidu Star."

"Well? Do you understand the meaning behind this?" Bai asked pointedly after finishing his explanation.

"Pfft, don't look down on me! How could I not understand? It’s just creating a diversion. Activating it every two planets early on is to clearly tell the Yuanlan Empire that I am on the move. Stopping after three activations is to make them mistakenly believe that I am still active near those planets, while in reality, I will have already reached Huidu Star, far away from those locations," Lan Tian scoffed.

He felt a bit annoyed. Did this Bai really think he lacked the capacity for critical thought? He had simply grown accustomed to its presence, so he had stopped thinking for himself. After the last reminder, however, he had gradually begun to think independently.

"Haha, not bad, not bad. It seems you aren't so dense after all," Bai said with a grin, showing no embarrassment at being called out by Lan Tian.

Following Bai's instructions, Lan Tian activated the locator every so often as the starship departed from its docking planets. He also took the time to check on Earth via the Virtual Universe Network; fortunately, the planet remained safe and sound.

Combined with the intelligence Bai gathered from the network—that shortly after each activation, a small contingent of imperial troops would arrive at that planet, sealing it off under the guise of "security checks" to conduct a comprehensive sweep—Lan Tian knew his strategy was working.

Assured that Earth’s safety had been greatly improved, Lan Tian finally set his worries aside and began practicing the "Soul-Suppressing Pagoda" in his room to pass the remaining half-month.

By his estimation, he should be close to completing the first level of the "Soul-Suppressing Pagoda" by the time they reached Huidu Star.

In Lan Tian's view, the technique was as difficult as it was simple. The difficulty lay in the complex structure within each layer of the pagoda; interweaving it was mentally exhausting, and the slightest deviation would render it completely ineffective. The simplicity lay in the lack of bottlenecks; once one could successfully interweave the structure, the level was mastered.

Perhaps due to his increasing proficiency in controlling his mental energy, or perhaps because his talent was truly heaven-defying, after a few days of practice, he devised a shortcut: he partitioned his mental energy, setting 80% to a fixed interweaving pattern, while using the remaining 20% to continue contemplating the unfinished internal structure. This avoided the inefficiency of being unable to interweave while contemplating, or vice versa.

Since discovering this method, his progress on the first level had accelerated dramatically. Within just one week, Lan Tian had fully comprehended the internal structure using that 20% of his energy and immediately switched to full-speed interweaving. He believed that at this rate, it would take no more than five days to successfully complete the first level.

Time was money, and for Lan Tian, time was the fate of billions of people on Earth. Without compromising his interweaving efficiency, he split off another 5% of his mental energy to contemplate his cultivation realm.

According to Bai, his current strength was roughly equivalent to the peak of the High Nebula stage. The next level was the Planetary stage, and the requirement to reach it was to condense a solid energy planet within his initial universe!

Yes, an energy planet, not a real one.

In fact, until one reaches the Creation stage, everything in the initial universe exists in the form of energy. Only after achieving the Creation stage can one comprehend the profound laws required to transform that energy into tangible matter.

Of course, that was still too far off for Lan Tian to consider. What he was currently worried about was that even though he had been trying his best to restrain it, the speed at which his initial universe absorbed cosmic energy was still far exceeding his expectations.

Under the probe of his mental energy, the distribution of the endless nebulae in his initial universe had begun to shift. Some areas had become sparse, while others had reached an exceptionally high density.

He feared that it wouldn't be long before the first planet was born.

But it really couldn't happen that fast...

Lan Tian was speechless. He wanted to shout to the world that having high cultivation talent wasn't always a good thing!

The Jue Tian Pagoda had a maximum strength limit for participants at the peak of the High Nebula stage. Once he broke through to the Planetary stage, he would no longer be able to enter!

Lan Tian had never imagined that cultivating too quickly could become such a headache.

"Bai, is there any way to slow down my cultivation progress? Or, is it possible to regress a little?" Lan Tian asked a question that would undoubtedly make most cosmic cultivators want to punch him.

"...Regression? Are you out of your mind?" Bai couldn't help but curse, exasperated. "What's wrong with your brain? Why on earth would you want your cultivation to regress?"

"It's not that... I really can't keep improving. My initial universe is absorbing energy too fast, and the nebulae have already started to condense into a planet..." Lan Tian said helplessly. "If I accidentally break through to the Planetary stage before reaching the Jue Tian Pagoda, that would be a disaster..."

"...Are you serious?! That fast?! Your initial universe is too terrifying!" Bai was left dumbfounded. The speed of his cultivation was simply too fast. Even including the time when his aptitude was poor, how long had this kid even been cultivating?

And he was already about to break through to the Planetary stage?!