Xiao Ba drifted back and forth unwillingly.
All that delicious, fragrant treasure was gone.
It stared longingly at the little sun. Its taste had been so perfect—so intoxicating—that Xiao Ba wanted nothing more than to steal another bite.
Mo Xuan thought it over again and again, then finally decided to keep the little sun.
He already had a good stock of Rejuvenation Pills and Longevity Pills. Once he built an Immortal Garden, this "sun" would become truly priceless. The best treasure was always best used by oneself.
"Don't touch it again," Mo Xuan warned Xiao Ba, then stepped out of the transport vessel.
Dock Two was already piled into a small mountain. Apprentices rushed about in chaos, barely keeping up.
Mo Xuan greeted Du Min and Teacher Cui, then exchanged a formal bow with Ding Yu.
Du Min handed Mo Xuan the jade platter and sighed with genuine feeling. "It's been many years since I've seen a harvest this big. Since you borrowed your teacher's transport vessel, the realm only takes two-tenths as commission. The remaining eight-tenths are yours to allocate freely."
For an immortal, "many years" meant at least several centuries.
Ding Yu glanced at Mo Xuan, bewildered. Teacher Kong really treated Mo Xuan like his own child—ridiculously well.
Mo Xuan smiled modestly and examined the jade platter.
This platter was essentially the Qingyuan Realm's version of a laptop: mind-operated, multifunctional, and incredibly convenient.
After the realm's two-tenths commission, Mo Xuan's allocable share was:
A-grade Tier One: 2,986 kg
A-grade Tier Two: 3,520 kg
A-grade Tier Three: 6,874 kg
B-grade Tier One: 8,632 kg
B-grade Tier Two: 6,321 kg
B-grade Tier Three: 6,954 kg
C-grade Tier One: 2,962 kg
C-grade Tier Two: 1,584 kg
C-grade Tier Three: 655 kg
D-grade: assorted scraps
The points exchange rates were listed clearly:
C-grade Tier Three: 1 point/kg
C-grade Tier Two: 1.5 points/kg
C-grade Tier One: 2 points/kg
B-grade Tier Three: 5 points/kg
B-grade Tier Two: 8 points/kg
B-grade Tier One: 10 points/kg
A-grade Tier Three: 20 points/kg
A-grade Tier Two: 25 points/kg
A-grade Tier One: 30 points/kg
Water- and Wood-aspect energy crystals were worth more than double. D-grade wasn't worth much at all. As for Earth-grade… that wasn't something points could measure.
Mo Xuan calculated his total.
His eyes widened.
227,367 points.
He had borrowed one thousand points per month from the Grand Academy. Over two hundred years, that totaled 245,000 points. He'd expected it would take five hundred years of work to repay.
Yet after only one year of "mining," he was already close to clearing the debt.
And the asteroid belt still had half its mass left.
Mo Xuan nearly laughed out loud.
Ding Yu had worked five years for only twelve thousand points. Over one hundred and fifty years, he'd accumulated just three hundred and eighty thousand.
His eyes were red with envy.
Mo Xuan planned carefully:
Repay the Academy: 150,000 points
Give Teacher Kong: 50,000 points
Keep for himself: 27,000 points
He returned the jade platter to Du Min with both hands.
Du Min glanced at it, nodded, and went back to directing the frantic apprentices.
Ding Yu probed with a few subtle questions.
Mo Xuan remained calm, claiming it was simply luck—he'd found a small asteroid patch, and it was already mined out.
Ding Yu didn't fully believe him. If it were him, he'd hide the truth too. He didn't think it was wrong, and invited Mo Xuan to visit his family sometime.
Mo Xuan accepted with a smile.
Ding Yu bowed farewell and left first with his transport vessel.
Mo Xuan returned to his ship.
The cabin was dim.
His expression darkened.
Xiao Ba flinched and immediately spit the little sun out, stammering. "Master, I—I wasn't doing it on purpose. I… I was wrong. Xiao Ba won't dare again."
This time, Xiao Ba's stupidity had actually helped preserve the treasure—so Mo Xuan was in a decent mood. He scolded it a few times, then let it off.
Next time, though, he'd whip it.
Mo Xuan looked at the little sun.
He needed to deal with it first.
His current storage pouch only held one cubic meter, and its materials were too low-grade to store asteroid cores safely anyway. Now that he had points, it was time to upgrade his storage artifact.
He piloted away from the Asteroid Workshop, leaving Jiang Zou's Immortal Heaven. Descending one thousand meters, he saw a colossal palace floating among clouds—
the Grand Academy.
At the palace's upper-left was a training field shaped like a football stadium, except dozens of times larger. It was reserved for transport vessel piloting practice. Because energy was scarce, piloting classes weren't frequent, and the training field was currently idle—only a single transport vessel sat alone at a dock.
Mo Xuan parked his vessel, then moved like a gust of wind across the ground toward the palace. Within the Academy, flying freely through the air was forbidden.
Inside the immense hall, diligent students moved in small groups everywhere. The Academy accepted only a little over a thousand new students each year, but becoming immortal took decades or centuries. Over time, the resident population became enormous.
"Senior Brother Mo Xuan!""Brother Mo!"…
Mo Xuan's reputation was high. Students greeted him respectfully with bows. He returned smiles and nods. He was an immortal now—one rank above them.
Technically, by strict etiquette, they should call him "Uncle-Master," but the Academy was relaxed about it. Some students were even on equal terms with instructors. After all, Academy students were "immortals in training"—sooner or later, most would ascend.
Mo Xuan soon arrived at a side hall:
the Points Exchange Hall.
In the empty hall's center, an old immortal sat dozing in a grand wooden chair. His hair and beard were completely white, a dull gray stone hairpin stuck in his knot, yet his complexion was rosy and smooth.
It was said that Immortal Elder Li was over two hundred thousand years old—older than even the Three Dao Lords—Qingyuan's first elder. No one knew his true strength, but everyone knew it was unfathomable.
"Grand Steward Li," Mo Xuan greeted with a respectful bow.
Elder Li squinted one eye open and mumbled, "Oh, little Xuan. Haven't seen you come in to write IOUs lately."
That nickname made Mo Xuan's teeth ache.
He forced a smile. "Grand Steward Li, I've become immortal. I don't need to write IOUs anymore."
Elder Li grunted, opened both eyes, studied him, then nodded. "I thought so. Your foundation's stable. Not bad."
Mo Xuan explained his purpose. "Grand Steward Li, I'd like to exchange points for a storage artifact."
Elder Li raised an eyebrow. "Storage artifacts aren't cheap. See for yourself."
He tossed a green jade platter over.
Mo Xuan caught it with both hands and selected the storage category.
There were many options: storage pouches, boxes, beads, bracelets, rings.
You got what you paid for.
The lowest-grade pouch cost three hundred points. The best pouch had one hundred cubic meters and cost one thousand.
Bracelets and rings were rare and expensive. He couldn't afford them. He focused on storage boxes and storage beads.
With twenty-seven thousand points, Mo Xuan finally felt wealthy. He started from the best.
After comparing, he chose a storage bead priced at 12,000 points.
It offered one thousand cubic meters—huge. It had a specialized compartment for asteroid cores that prevented energy leakage, plus preservation and temperature control for herbs, food, fruits, and more.
Incredible value.
Twelve thousand points…
Mo Xuan hesitated. But everything cheaper was dramatically worse.
He clenched his teeth and confirmed the exchange.
His remaining points: 15,000.
He switched to the spirit medicine section and bought large quantities of thousand-year ginseng, thousand-year polygonum, spirit tea, and spirit fruits. These were relatively cheap—about twenty points each.
There were ten-thousand-year ginseng too, but ordinary people couldn't withstand such fierce medicinal force, and it was costly—five or six hundred points each.
So he stocked up on thousand-year medicines instead—good for his family to use and also easy to sell.
He then bought a batch of affordable nourishing pills.
Three thousand points vanished in a blink.
He purchased daily necessities for immortals—spirit stones, jade talismans, talisman paper—another five hundred points.
Points remaining: 11,500.
Mo Xuan grit his teeth and exchanged for two Rejuvenation Pills.
One pill cost 3,500 points.
It hurt.
After that, he specifically purchased a better beast-taming bag for Xiao Ba: 2,000 points.
His points dropped to 2,500.
Points came fast.
They disappeared faster.
Never enough.
Mo Xuan also wanted a luxury jade platter integrating communication, networks, and reference archives—many immortals didn't even have one. It cost three thousand points.
He couldn't afford it yet. Next time.
Mo Xuan returned the platter to Elder Li. "Grand Steward Li, I'm done."
Elder Li scanned it, then looked at Mo Xuan in surprise. He chuckled. "You kid struck it rich. Next time you come, bring me a jar of good liquor."
Mo Xuan nodded.
Elder Li lifted his left hand. It looked ordinary—except for the dull gray bracelet on his wrist.
Mo Xuan swallowed.
A legendary divine-grade storage bracelet—nothing like the exchange hall versions.
Even the best points-exchange storage bracelet couldn't contain the worst storage pouch, because storage artifacts had independent spaces that couldn't overlap.
But Elder Li's bracelet had no such limit. Rumor said it could even store an entire Immortal Heaven.
Elder Li was a Heaven Immortal—by all logic he should have an Immortal Heaven, yet no one had ever seen it. People guessed it was stored inside that bracelet.
True or not, everyone agreed on one thing:
Elder Li's bracelet could store anything—storage artifacts, transport vessels, star battleships.
A supreme treasure.
A crystal-clear storage bead the size of a ping-pong ball appeared in Elder Li's palm, along with a blue cloth pouch.
Mo Xuan carefully picked them up and checked. Everything he'd exchanged for had already been neatly organized inside the storage bead.
He bowed deeply in thanks and left.
He returned to the transport vessel like a gust of wind.
This time Xiao Ba behaved—just stared longingly at the little sun without daring to act.
"Master, you're back! If you didn't come back soon, I really couldn't have held myself!" Xiao Ba wailed, eyes watery, throwing itself at him.
Mo Xuan understood completely.
Leaving Xiao Ba alone with the little sun was like locking a starving glutton in a room with an unguarded feast. Willpower alone wouldn't save anyone.
Mo Xuan smiled, took out the storage bead, and sealed the little sun inside.
The cabin instantly darkened.
Xiao Ba blinked in confusion. What just happened?
Mo Xuan scanned the bead with his mind. The little sun sat in a corner compartment now, no longer blazing—only as bright as a small bulb.
Perfect.
He pocketed the bead, then took out the beast-taming bag and opened it toward Xiao Ba.
"Get in."
Xiao Ba stared at the pitch-black opening like it was a black hole. "Master… what is this?"
Mo Xuan didn't bother explaining. "Collect."
Xiao Ba flailed wildly, struggling—yet it was s*ck*d in.
Inside, the beast bag's space was surprisingly large—about two hundred cubic meters, like a rectangular swimming pool room. Three luminous pearls were embedded in the ceiling for light. The space was divided into four areas: an activity zone, a bedroom, a restroom, and a small bath.
Xiao Ba quickly forgot the outside world and treated it like home, happily rearranging things to its taste.
Mo Xuan chuckled, tucked the bag into his robes, and flew to the vessel repair workshop. He spent 2,000 points repairing and maintaining the transport vessel, replenishing its energy reserves.
His points dropped to a pitiful 500.
One point was equivalent to ten thousand RMB—asteroids were worth absurd amounts.
And an interstellar miner?
That was diamond-tier employment.