Even using magic, Xu Zifan dug for quite some time at a depth of 500 meters. When the life form beneath was finally revealed, he was stunned.
What is this small green thing, about the length of a palm and the thickness of a finger? A green earthworm?
Xu Zifan suddenly felt a strange attraction. According to the original owner's memories, this attraction meant that beasts actively wanted to form a contract.
Xu Zifan squatted down and poked the little thing, taking a closer look. "This looks like a snake. What kind of snake is this tiny, bright green one?"
[Shaohua: Host, there is no record of this type of snake in the literature, but it appears in novels. It is usually a very venomous snake, and also very intelligent. After biting the protagonist's finger and drinking his blood, it became attached to him.]
Xu Zifan's lips twitched. "Shaohua, this world uses mental power contracts, so there's no need to drink blood. But if that's the case, my contracted beast is actually a very venomous snake? Am I that venomous and cold-blooded?"
[Shaohua: To those scumbags, you are indeed quite ruthless and cold-blooded, host.]
Xu Zifan was speechless, but he still felt that his contracted beast shouldn't be a venomous snake, right?
The little green snake didn't look well; it hadn't opened its eyes and its breathing was very weak. If he hadn't found it today, it probably would have died in three days.
From this perspective, the little green snake has a very strong will to live; it actually survived alone on this desolate planet, which is very similar to him.
Besides, their fate was truly extraordinary; it was such a coincidence that he flew here and met the little green snake before it died.
He quite liked the little green snake. He decided to form a contract with it and make it his spirit pet, since he wouldn't need to rely on contracted beasts to fight anyway.
Xu Zifan released his spiritual power, and the weakened little green snake immediately released its spiritual power to merge with him.
At the moment of spiritual fusion, Xu Zifan felt a new connection within his consciousness. Just like when he refined his natal magic weapon, he now had a natal spirit beast as well.
Unfortunately, the spirit beast was severely injured and on the verge of death, unable to communicate with him, and he still didn't know anything about it.
Xu Zifan smiled and tapped the little green snake's head. "You survived a planetary catastrophe and even waited for me to come and save you. You're really lucky. From now on, you'll be called 'Changsheng' (meaning 'longevity'). I hope you'll be healthy and never suffer like this again."
The little green snake possessed a strong spiritual energy. Xu Zifan thought of the jade fragments around him that had lost their spiritual power, so he simply went into his space and soaked it in the spiritual spring. "Take good care of your injuries. Once you're healed, I'll take you to see the interstellar world."
The little green snake closed its eyes tightly and slowly sank to the bottom of the pool, remaining motionless. Xu Zifan could feel it frantically absorbing spiritual energy; it really could heal itself, so he didn't need to worry about it.
He left the space, piloted his starship around the Earth, and as if he had completed some kind of ritual, departed from Earth.
He found a remote area on the interstellar map, on the edge of the Empire system, somewhat like an island on Earth.
The planets over there are relatively small, and in this era of war, no one has gone to explore them, or rather, they haven't had time to pay attention to such remote places.
Xu Zifan left.
Just like with islands, once you get close, you'll always find other islands that aren't marked on the map.
When Xu Zifan arrived at that area, he discovered that in addition to the few small planets, there were two other planets there, but they were surrounded and obscured by the other planets.
Xu Zifan landed on a small planet. There were no humans on the planet, but insectoids roamed there. They were all low-level insectoids, resembling pangolins, with hard, black shells and ferocious, gaping maws. They would swarm towards humans without hesitation as soon as they smelled their scent.
This was the first time Xu Zifan had ever seen a living Zerg!
He quickly boarded his mech and excitedly charged into the swarm of Zerg. He'd been practicing for ages without a place to test his skills; now he could finally have a real fight!
Xu Zifan didn't use any spiritual power this time, relying entirely on his mecha to fight. He used every move he had learned: slashing with a knife, stabbing with a cone, shooting, flattening with a hammer, and smashing.
When he got tired of fighting, he would enter the space. The Zerg would become restless for a while after losing their target, and then they would return to normal behavior. After resting, Xu Zifan would go out to fight them again, not killing them all at once. Sometimes, in order to practice moves he wasn't yet familiar with, he would try to spare their lives. Once the Zerg on one planet were wiped out, he would move on to another planet.
There were nine planets in total. He practiced every move he learned countless times until he was extremely familiar with them. He even thoroughly researched the weaknesses of these insectoids and figured out where to attack most effectively.
Finally, he encountered two advanced Zerg, fought them fiercely and with great passion, and even deliberately let them go so that they could bring new Zerg to fight.
After the two advanced insectoids escaped, he was left alone on these nine small planets, along with various plants, animals, and minerals.
Xu Zifan inspected the area and was surprised to find energy stone mines on the two larger planets in the middle!
Interstellar people don't use natural gas or oil; whenever they need energy, they use a white energy stone that resembles jade. The two planets have vast deposits of these energy stone mines, practically covering both planets.
[Shaohua: Host, you've made it.]
Looking down at the immense wealth from mid-air, Xu Zifan laughed. "[God has blessed us with talent! Let's go buy a planet!]"
Xu Zifan left the capital planet simply to keep his departure record, so everyone would know he was gone. Incidentally...
They also traveled in space to find suitable opportunities to train, not to escape.
Therefore, after the Xu and Feng families fell from power, no one could use their authority to suppress him anymore, and he could come and go openly and honestly.
However, instead of returning to the capital planet, he went to a medium-sized planet that was in charge of this area and pretended to be a wealthy second-generation heir who wanted to buy the planet.
It's not uncommon for wealthy young people to buy small planets, but it's extremely rare for them to come to such a remote place to buy them, including two small planets that no one had even discovered before.
The person in charge looked at Xu Zifan several times and questioned, "Are you from the capital planet? Have you been to those planets? Why do you want to buy there?"
Xu Zifan put his hands in his pockets, leaned against the wall, and chuckled, "Why? Because it's far enough away from the capital planet. I don't want to go back to the capital planet and see some disgusting people again."
The person in charge understood; it turned out the young master was throwing a tantrum. He really had too much money to burn, running off to this godforsaken place to squander it just because he didn't want to meet anyone. Only the wealthy people on the capital planet, who didn't experience the hardships of life, would do something like this.
He operated the AI to go through the procedures step by step. According to regulations, if someone wanted to buy a planet, he should personally go and check it out, understand the details of the planet, and then set a suitable price.
But he's poor here, and sending a starship to such a distant place would probably get him a scolding from his superiors. So he simply skipped that step and, seeing Xu Zifan's wealthy demeanor, calmly raised the price.
Xu Zifan feigned impatience, "Hurry up and do it. Are you afraid I can't afford it? Just tell me the final total amount and I'll transfer it to you."
The person in charge had originally set a high price and was waiting to negotiate with him, but when he saw that the man was completely ignorant of the market, he immediately entered the price, made the sales contract effective, and started the money transfer process.
Without a word, Xu Zifan transferred the money to him, using up all of his mother's inheritance and all the property he had stolen from space pirates. Fortunately, in this remote place, those small planets were worthless, and he could afford them.
The person in charge had never seen so much money in his life, and this was his achievement. He brought such a large amount of revenue to the government, so he would definitely be promoted!
As if afraid Xu Zifan would change his mind, he quickly completed the final step. With the entire star network synchronized, Xu Zifan's name was marked on the interstellar map for those nine small planets.
Xu Zifan smiled slightly, turned, and left. As he exited, a little girl ran into him and exclaimed in surprise, "Xu Zifan? What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to take care of some business." Xu Zifan nodded to her, calmly entered the starship, and left.
The person in charge asked curiously, "You know him?"
The little girl covered her face and said excitedly, "How could I possibly know him! He used to be a double S-level genius, the heir of a powerful family. I never dreamed I'd actually meet him in person! Ahhh, he's so handsome! By the way, what's he doing here? He's been missing for so long, and now he's come all the way here. It would be great if he settled down on our planet. But this place is so poor, why would he settle here? Is it because his talent is too poor?"
The person in charge frowned. "Stop arguing. He didn't come to settle down. He went to a more remote place. Look, he came to buy these few small planets, saying he didn't want to go back to the capital planet and see the people he dislikes."
The young girl quickly looked at the screen and was surprised to find that Xu Zifan had bought a planet in that region. But then she felt she understood a little. Xu Zifan had fallen from being a double S to a double F, been expelled from his family, had his engagement broken off, and was being cursed by the entire internet. He must be disheartened and wanted to hide away in some unknown little place, right?
She told her supervisor her suspicions, but the supervisor didn't care about such things. He happily printed the document to report to his superiors, and as he wished, received praise and a promotion was on the horizon.
Xu Zifan understood the governments of these small interstellar places very well. In times of war, small places are poor, management is more lax, and mistakes are more likely to occur. It's like how, decades ago, if you had money, you could rent a mountain for a hundred years.
He took advantage of the supervisor's laziness and desire to gain an unfair advantage, and successfully obtained energy stone mines from two planets. His wealth is now immeasurable!
Xu Zifan returned to his planet, and before he even landed, he saw swarms of insectoids approaching. Some crawled on the ground, while others flew in the sky.
He laughed, logged into his mech, and joked with Shaohua: "[They've basically invaded our planet, haven't they? Now we can rightfully take them down.]"
"let me."
Xu Zifan heard a pleasant boy's voice, paused for a moment, and then saw a small green snake appear out of thin air in front of him.
He looked at the little snake in surprise, "Immortality? You recovered so quickly?"
The little snake flew to his shoulder and affectionately nuzzled his cheek. "I haven't fully recovered yet, so I can't fight for too long, but I'm enough to deal with them. Let me help you this time!"
Xu Zifan nodded, watching curiously as it did what it did. It flew above the insectoid race, and suddenly its body grew to a full two meters long!
Layers of beautiful blue scales appeared on its body, horns grew on its head, whiskers appeared around its mouth, and sharp claws appeared, transforming it into a majestic little blue dragon!
Xu Zifan was stunned for the first time, "Wow, I've really struck it rich this time..."