Chapter 1 Never Thought

Before returning, Jiu Ming never imagined that upon returning to Earth, he would be immediately surrounded by Su Zhou and two Saint Seats.

But after the bewildered True Dragon youth lowered his hand from his head and understood the situation, he quickly figured out why this was happening.

—It's embarrassing to say, but he really is quite important.

South Sea Dragon King, the leader of the pseudo-Daoism propaganda, the guardian of the Heavenly Pool Domain, the nominal future owner of the Heavenly Pool Domain, a true and orthodox inheritor of the immortals... Well, thinking about it carefully, if someone with so many titles went missing, it really would be a major event that would shake Zheng Country. It's only natural that Su Zhou and the Saint Seats would come.

Thinking this, Jiu Ming felt a little ashamed.

When he received the invitation from the Pioneer Space, he didn't think much about it. He simply followed the desire in his heart and chose that path... But in reality, abandoning everything now to go to the Pioneer Space was extremely irresponsible.

Although he didn't like being seen as a symbol of a certain force for propaganda, and he didn't want to stay in the South Sea just to guard the Heavenly Pool Domain... In fact, Jiu Ming wasn't even interested in the Heavenly Pool Domain itself.

As a True Dragon with a humble background, Jiu Ming only wanted to experience as many interesting things as possible in his life. But that didn't mean he could violate the contract for his own hobbies—Zheng Country had invested resources in him, and he should repay them, not just abandon everything and run off to the Pioneer Space.

"How are you doing? If you have any troubles, you can always talk to me."

"Oh, um... Okay..."

So, when Jiu Ming heard Su Zhou's cheerful question, he just timidly raised his head like a guilty little animal, looking quite pitiful.

This immediately made Su Zhou's friendly expression freeze.

--Damn it, does he look like he's about to cry?

Wait, wait, I didn't want to bully him, I just wanted to ask about the situation!

Thinking about it carefully, Jiu Ming is only a teenager, and he's been living alone in the sea for the past few years. Although he's called the South Sea Dragon King, he's essentially just a big kid who rarely interacts with people.

Was my tone and expression too scary? No, I was so kind and friendly!

Thinking this, Su Zhou sighed inwardly, and his tone became even gentler when facing the somewhat trembling Jiu Ming: "It's okay, don't worry, relax for a moment, we have plenty of time to discuss this."

"I won't do anything to you,"

"!"

"I'll talk, I'll talk right away!"

After hearing Su Zhou say the above lines in a gentle tone, Jiu Ming became even more teary-eyed, and his eyes even turned a little red.

However, unlike what the even more embarrassed Su Zhou thought, Jiu Ming's teary eyes were not due to his gentle tone and behavior, but due to some more peculiar reasons.

For example, in the blue-haired True Dragon youth's eyes, there was a black-red, very obvious, very terrifying, very dangerous huge warning symbol hanging above Su Zhou's head, slowly rotating.

[Chaos Covenant Holder, Primordial Candle Dragon] (Pure black skull)

[Heavenly Soul Karma Position - Earth Immortal Su Zhou] (Pure black skull)

And when Jiu Ming saw these symbols, some information immediately appeared in his mind.

[Ultra-Hazardous Target. Specific strength unknown. Specific state unknown. Strength undetectable, extremely high threat.]

[Action Recommendation: Stay Away]

Next to Su Zhou's warning symbols, there was always a huge metal skull symbol.

Naturally, this information was not inherent to the Pioneer Space.

It was the 'Primary Detection Module' that Jiu Ming had exchanged for a D-level pioneering permission and 1500 exploration points.

As a True Dragon and the inheritor of a Dragon King, Jiu Ming had enough strength of his own. He had his own cultivation methods, bloodline, and inheritance, and his future development was quite promising.

So, he didn't actually need to exchange for anything to be strong enough—provided he could unleash his power.

Because of this, after thinking for a long time, Jiu Ming finally decided that what he needed most were some auxiliary abilities related to detection. It could help him judge the situation, gather more information, and thus obtain the greatest gains in a strange world.

For exploring other worlds, the convenience and improvement brought by a detection module far outweighed learning a high-powered spell.

But now.

This detection module's first use did not provide any assistance to its user.

In fact, Jiu Ming was almost frightened by the warning displayed by his detection module.

Even after he took Su Zhou's outstretched hand and regained his footing with the other's strength, it was still the same.

--Su Zhou, this, this is too strong, right?!

--Is this what an immortal is? Why is this guy so strong?!

Jiu Ming's gaze uncontrollably focused on Su Zhou. He stared at the other, and his dragon eyes reflected the almost tangible flames of spiritual energy flowing on his body.

In the South Sea at night, this spiritual light was so bright that it created countless intersecting shadows.

At this moment, the True Dragon seemed to fall into an illusion—

The human before him seemed to be surrounded by an endless expanse of darkness—it was the evil called Grudge, the hatred called Hatred. It was as deep as the sea, terrifying, and surrounded him like clouds.

Countless cursed words and ugly souls formed these haze, as if to completely cover Su Zhou.

However, Jiu Ming could see that deep within the seemingly profound sea of curses, there was a flame that seemed weak but constantly released light, burning fiercely.

It used light to drive away chaos, like a star hidden in a nebula.

That was the power of vows.

Curses and vows intertwined, like the cycle of the sun and the clouds that obscured it, forming a cycle of light and darkness. They rotated constantly, and finally, in Jiu Ming's eyes, merged into the incredibly contradictory human before him.

Then, enlightenment dawned.

--The fire burning in the darkness, the wind howling in the silence.

--Water in times of thirst and despair, lightning flashing in nothingness.

"This is... the Candle Dragon?"

Just as Jiu Ming was almost driven to madness by the flood of information while staring at 'Earth Immortal Su Zhou' due to his overly high spiritual vision.

Perhaps because the analysis was complete, the True Dragon youth suddenly sensed more additional information coming from the dangerous symbol above Su Zhou's head.

[Optional Team Mission: Defeat the Primordial Candle Dragon] (Pure black skull)

[The entire team receives one S-level pioneering permission, 55,000 exploration points. The person who lands the decisive final blow receives an additional reward of double that.]

[Optional Exploration Mission: Explore the secrets hidden within the Primordial Candle Dragon]

[Current progress 0%, reward points 0]

[Optional Special Team Mission: Invite the Primordial Candle Dragon to return to the Pioneer Space]

[The entire team receives a reward of one S-level pioneering permission, 70,000 exploration points, the Primordial Candle Dragon automatically joins the inviter's team]

"Damn, is this gap too big?!"

The moment Jiu Ming saw the S-level pioneering permission, he immediately woke up and almost screamed.

--You have to know, he risked his life, fought hard for days to prevent Chen Tang Pass from being flooded by the Dragon Palace, and in the end, he only got a D-level pioneering permission. Even if he perfectly blocked the Dragon Palace army that attacked Chen Tang Pass, the reward was only DD.

Adding in preventing the Third Prince of the Dragon Palace from being killed by Lingzhu, even if he performed perfectly, he would only get a C-level pioneering permission at most... And that was with perfect performance!

But now, this Candle Dragon's mission reward directly jumped to S-level?!

"This has to be a joke, tell me this is all a dream..."

For a moment, Jiu Ming lost his ability to speak due to excessive shock.

To avoid being further stimulated by Su Zhou, he subconsciously turned his head and looked at the Living Saint and the Suppressor Saint beside him.

Then, he saw it.

[Bai Ze · Living Saint Cang Lunzhe] (Dark gold crest symbol)

[Mid-stage Human Immortal Leader. Danger level: High.]

[Optional Mission: Defeat Bai Ze · Cang Lunzhe]

[Receive one A-level pioneering permission, 35,000 exploration points.]

[Optional Mission: Kill Bai Ze · Cang Lunzhe]

[Receive two A-level pioneering permissions, 45,000 exploration points]

[Mech Soul · Suppressor Saint Wu Chongwen] (Dark gold crest symbol)

[Low-stage Human Immortal Leader. Heretical Cultivator. Danger level: High.]

[Optional Mission: Defeat Wu Chongwen]

[Receive one A-level pioneering point, 30,000 exploration points.]

[Special Exploration Mission: Explore the truth behind Earth]

[Current progress: 0. Reward points: 27]

A series of data, very clear.

But strangely, compared to the Living Saint, the Suppressor Saint had no kill mission.

In fact, neither did Su Zhou.

Even, Su Zhou also had a very special 'invitation' mission! And the reward for the invitation mission itself was even higher than defeating him...

This was too strange, especially the meaning behind it... Could it be that the Pioneer Space wanted to win over Su Zhou?

And that Primordial Candle Dragon... What did that even mean?

"Jiu Ming?"

Just as the True Dragon youth's thoughts suddenly drifted away, Su Zhou's overly clear voice entered his mind, startling him awake: "Are you alright?"

"Oh, um... I feel like I'm doing alright."

Coming back to his senses, Jiu Ming met Su Zhou's gaze, his blue dragon eyes flashing with unease. He hesitated and said, "I... might be alright?"

"Oh, is that so? Then tell everyone about it."

Then, he was shocked to hear Su Zhou's calm question: "What exactly did you experience in that 'Pioneer Space'?"

"You, how do you know..."

"Haha." Purple-blue dragon pupils stared at Jiu Ming's surprised expression, Su Zhou smiled mysteriously: "Don't look at me like that."

"I know more than you think."

……

After demonstrating overwhelming power and being very familiar with the Pioneer Space, Jiu Ming finally gave up hiding.

Indeed, there was a lot of information in the Pioneer Space that could not be told to Earth, which was also forbidden by the Pioneer Space. If he forced himself to speak, even Su Zhou and Yala could only hear a garbled mess.

But overall, the Pioneer Space's taboo was only that he could not reveal details about the 'Pioneers' to others.

As for other aspects of information, they were all acceptable and not as strict.

"The situation is roughly like this..."

After Jiu Ming stammered out his experiences after arriving in the Pioneer Space, whether it was Su Zhou or the Living Saint and Suppressor Saint, they all roughly knew the True Dragon's experiences in the mission world, as well as the various 'missions' he saw them as.

This was not information that could not be said, because it had nothing to do with the Pioneers, it was just Jiu Ming's own perception.

"Damn, I actually became a mission? And it sounds like I'm the final boss."

After hearing Jiu Ming's description, Su Zhou even felt a little amused... and a faint chill.

"Is that so?"

He didn't know how to evaluate the overly terrifying assessment results of the detection module Jiu Ming purchased: "No wonder you had that expression before... But seriously, Jiu Ming, are you just getting to know me now? You should have been afraid a long time ago."

"Who said I wasn't afraid before!" Although Jiu Ming didn't say it on the surface, his heart was shaking: "I was terrified before too, okay!"

"Seriously, this is really strange."

And in the soul space, Yala even complained: "That invitation mission is too much - what's going on, is everyone coveting my contractor?"

"Invite you to the Pioneer Space? He actually gave out this suggestive mission?"

"Shameless Pioneer! I will definitely kill the Pioneer!"

In the soul space, the snake spirit was indignant, as if it wanted to swallow the Pioneer in one bite.

Although the Pioneer's mission was indeed unethical, it had to be said that Su Zhou also learned some quite interesting things from Jiu Ming's information.

For example, the Living Saint's strength was likely stronger than the Suppressor Saint's - but the Suppressor Saint's survival ability had even reached an unbelievable level, so much so that Jiu Ming could not possibly kill him, it was absolutely impossible.

So, for Jiu Ming, there was not even a reward option for killing the Suppressor Saint.

And Su Zhou himself was the same. His defeat mission was even an entire team mission, and the recommendation in the detection module didn't even say how big the team was—four people? Ten people? Twenty people? Or was it a large-scale joint assault mission by multiple teams?

Who knew - it was all deceptive narration.

"We'll take Jiu Ming away first - thank you Professor Su, you've been a great help."

At this time, the South Sea was silent.

Not long ago, the Living Saint and Suppressor Saint had already left with Jiu Ming.

They would go to Tiandu, and an entire team of the Thirty-Six Saint Central Committee was already prepared, ready to once again listen to Jiu Ming's narration, analyze his actions in the Pioneer Space, and assist in planning his exchanges and mission preparations in the space.

Su Zhou knew very well that Jiu Ming had only exchanged for the return time in the Pioneer Space, and he would eventually return to the Pioneer Space. No one could stop him.

But before that, there were many things waiting for him to do.

For example, Jiu Ming would receive a tailor-made cultivation plan, as well as many powerful cultivation secrets that the Zheng Country could provide.

Su Zhou believed that after learning about the existence of the Pioneer Space, the Zheng Country would not be stingy with resources. Instead, they would increase their investment to make Jiu Ming stronger, strong enough to cope with the dangers in the Pioneer Space.

Then they would also obtain various technologies and resources scarce on Earth through Jiu Ming.

Anyway, that was the gist of it, mutual benefit.

At this moment, only Su Zhou remained in the South Sea. He slowly floated up from the deep sea and came to the turbulent sea surface.

"This is very much like something the Pioneer would do."

In the turbulent tide, Yala crawled out of the personal space and came to Su Zhou's shoulder. He couldn't help but shake his head slightly: "Mark all things with the harvest of exploration, use tasks as guidance, and then let people roam around."

"Label all beings with simple labels such as 'defeatable', 'killable', and 'invitable', and then create the illusion that 'I can choose this'."

"For the sake of curiosity, how many ugly things will the Pioneer's眷属 (juàn shǔ - dependents, family) do? Haha, who knows?"

Yala's tone was full of spicy sarcasm.

Su Zhou couldn't understand this at first, but just now, after hearing Jiu Ming honestly narrate that he had 'defeat' and 'invitation' missions on him, he understood a little.

"Yeah, after all, not everyone likes being treated as an exploration mission."

Saying this, the youth stood on the sea surface. He looked in the direction Jiu Ming and the two Saint Seats had left in. Su Zhou now really felt the decisive difference between the Pioneer and Yala, and the reason why he felt a little repulsive towards the other.

In the end, did the Pioneer place any restrictions on the curiosity born from exploration?

And is unlimited curiosity and the desire to explore really a good thing?

Obviously not!

—But that's the Pioneer.

Exploring the unknown, satisfying curiosity, a seemingly bright essence.

But...

Who knows what kind of things crazy people will do to satisfy their curiosity, to complete exploration tasks?

Su Zhou knew very well—they could do anything.

It was like a player playing in a strange game world. When they encountered a strange NPC, they would use all means to explore all the NPC's dialogues and figure out all the tasks they could release.

Then, after completing all the NPC's tasks, they would kill them without hesitation, like innocent children.

And all of this was simply because the Pioneer's 眷族 (juàn shǔ - dependents, family) wanted to see how much 'different information from before' the NPC would show—or even for a simpler reason.

They first saw what items would drop from killing the NPC, how much experience they would gain, and what consequences would occur.

—A longing for the unreachable horizon of eternity, an infinite desire to explore, and the supreme ambition to advance... Although this was just a metaphor, this was probably a summary of the Pioneer's 眷族 (juàn shǔ - dependents, family).

Beneath that seemingly extraordinarily positive description was essentially a true indifference.

--What will happen if I kill this person? What will happen if I don't kill him?

The person who was laughing and chatting with someone in the previous moment would suddenly kill someone because of curiosity, wondering 'what would happen to the world if I killed him here?'... This was what the Pioneer's 眷族 (juàn shǔ - dependents, family) could do.

They wanted to explore every unknown possibility, and even wanted to know what would happen if the world was destroyed.

But this world was not a game world.

The real world has no save points.

So, unlimited advancement, unlimited exploration of the unknown... was definitely not a wonderful thing.

"The most extreme of the Pioneer's 眷族 (juàn shǔ - dependents, family) would do anything to explore the unknown."

Staring at the distant sea, the waves churning endlessly due to the moon's gravity, Su Zhou murmured to himself, "Anything."

And Yala also looked in the same direction as the youth, He sighed lightly: "Yes, this is the essential difference between me and the Pioneer."

"I pursue 'life has the right to do anything'. And the Pioneer is 'life should do anything we don't know'."

A cool sea breeze swept across the sea, bringing with it the night's tides. Su Zhou stood on the sea surface, He raised his head and looked at the crack traversing the dark vacuum of the universe at the top of the sky.

The crack in the Great Seal.

—The Pioneer Space…

He thought so.

A family organization belonging to the Pioneer in the myriad worlds.

In the future, when he traveled through the myriad worlds, he would definitely encounter these guys often.

Those Pioneer's 眷族 (juàn shǔ - dependents, family) would inevitably arbitrarily modify and distort the course of other worlds for their own curiosity, and even issue challenges to themselves.

Of course, according to their own intentions, they were certainly doing good things.

Just like Jiu Ming, he first stopped the Third Prince of the Dragon Palace from being killed, and then stopped the Dragon Palace from flooding Chen Tang Pass. He felt that this was what he should do, and that this was the course of history that would allow him to have a clear conscience.

He would change the original course of history and explore the 'unknown future' that interested him.

And this was probably the origin of 'pioneering permissions' and 'exploration points'—changing everything known and shifting everything to an unknown orbit.

In the process, the numerous families of the Pioneer would eventually grow to the point where they could awaken other great beings.

And the most important thing was that the great being [Pioneer] was even willing to sacrifice his hope of gaining freedom for this.

—He sincerely believed that it was right to allow the myriad beings to explore the endless distance and the infinite unknown, even if it hurt others.

To maintain, even at the cost of giving up his own freedom.

And His families obviously had this essence of being willing to do whatever it takes.

"Sigh... Is it madness, or is it decisiveness?"

Staring at the phantom of the crack in the starry sky, Su Zhou couldn't help but sigh. He smiled somewhat complicatedly: "This is the Pioneer, this is the great being..."

—Exploration, adventure, pioneering, opening—

Whether dark, light, good, or evil. Everything was contained in these elements.

One, correct.

"I really, can't choose any path—any path similar to those of the great beings."

"Although I don't know what's right, there's no doubt that they're all wrong."

Thinking this, Su Zhou prepared to turn around and leave the South Sea.

But at the same time, he sensed something and took out his phone from his pocket.

He could see prompt messages flashing on the phone.

The sender was... [Su Zhou Support Group 014]?

"Oh, it's Krossel!"

After realizing this, Su Zhou muttered softly, clicked to enter, checked the information, and then understood.

"In a few days, my fan management group is actually having an offline gathering? He's coming over early to report on the abnormal situation in the ritual to me."

"He's already in Zheng Country?"

Chuckling, Su Zhou began to enter information: "That's unexpectedly good news."

"Then, meet at 11:30 tomorrow noon."