Starting Cultivation in Wasteland

Qu Jianlei watched the actions of the seven people with his own eyes, without making the slightest reaction.

It had nothing to do with him in the first place, and he had no intention of having any interaction with them.

However, it must be said, these people were indeed lucky because they encountered him.

With someone else, there would be a high probability of robbery or even murder to silence them.

Qu Jianlei had been targeted multiple times because he had shown certain value, hadn't he?

The same applied to these seven individuals; although seven life support pods weren't particularly valuable, they were worth someone taking action over.

The key was that as stowaways, they were black accounts that nobody cared about; killing them would have no consequences.

Moreover, since they had started stowing away, it's impossible they didn't carry some valuables, right?

However, Qu Jianlei did not want to become someone he hated, so he just ignored them.

Another day passed, the starship began its leap, and the seven people hid in the life support pods.

If he took action at this moment, Qu Jianlei wouldn't even need to kill them; the power of space during the leap would kill the seven of them.

As he realized he had such a thought, he sighed and shook his head, dispelling the distracting thoughts from his heart.

Indeed, proximity to darkness corrupts, and after being in the Empire for so long, his temperament was somewhat affected.

Three days later, the leap ended, and the C-level warrior also emerged from the life support pod.

Then he released the other six people.

Although they had life support pods, the seven were not in great condition. They took out food to replenish their strength, remained reticent and taciturn.

Half a day later, the starship trembled slightly and surprisingly started to adjust its speed.

Soon, a voice sounded, "Customs enforcement inspection, everyone please cooperate."

Qu Jianlei hid in the corner, his expression turning a bit strange. Why... is it happening again?

Besides searching the passenger cabin, customs officers opened the door to the cargo hold.

The seven had already hidden in the dark, not daring to breathe heavily.

There were a total of three customs officers who went down to the cargo hold, one with a gold attribute at C-level and two modified warriors.

The C-level had already donned armor, and the lights in the hold lit up, turning the dim hold as bright as daylight.

Frowning, he walked around, making a dismissive noise, "Seriously, you all don't take yourselves as outsiders, do you?"

"Living traces haven't been handled well, not to mention the stench... Who allowed you to relieve yourselves here?"

Qu Jianlei, upon hearing this, felt a bit helpless, for this person was truly correct; the seven left too much evidence.

They hadn't relieved themselves on the floor, keeping it all in bags, yet the cargo hold was sealed, with little air circulation.

Added to the body odor and such, it was unbearable even for Qu Jianlei, and occasionally he felt the impulse to kill again.

It wasn't for money, they were just too unbearable!

Thankfully, he restrained his murderous intent, and now it seemed... restraint was correct?

After the C-level warrior finished speaking and paused for a response, receiving none, he snorted coldly again.

"There's no need to hide, Bloodhands asked me to pick up the goods... Do I really need to say the passphrase to a bunch of ants?"

After waiting a bit, a modified warrior appeared and spoke in a deep voice, "Friend, it's still better to say the passphrase."

"What garbage," a customs officer flared up, striking with a loud slap, his movement not too fast, the other side seemingly didn't dare to dodge.

However, the stowaway modified warrior wasn't easy to deal with, he covered his face, teeth clenched, and voiced, "There's a fire bomb in the cargo hold."

"Tsk, boring," the C-level gold attribute shook his head, speaking in a low voice, "On Celestial Handle Star, there's a storm... is that enough?"

"The storm doesn't match the gale," the opposing modified warrior exhaled a breath, "Boss, the passphrase is correct."

The wood attribute C-level among the stowaways stepped forward, "Alright, everyone come out."

Seven people emerged one after another, the gold attribute C-level frowned slightly, "Only seven?"

The stowaway C-level replied in a somber tone, "Two died, three were caught."

"I don't care about that, the money can't be short," the gold attribute C-level lifted his chin, "Check the goods!"

The remaining two customs officers began inspecting the goods.

Before long, they found some contraband, and a modified warrior went up to report it.

After about half an hour, he returned with two people, took part of the contraband away, leaving some behind.

Qu Jianlei understood at once, some cargo owners must have paid to redeem their goods.

Those unwilling or not powerful enough were left with both their goods and people confiscated.

Then the customs officers took the seven people and left through the cargo hold's internal door.

It was clear that this inspection was not just to pick up these seven people, but the customs team also wanted to make some extra profit.

Once the hold returned to darkness, Qu Jianlei let out a faint snort, "Hmph, it's truly rotten to the core."

Still, a part of him felt a little relieved: Thank goodness I didn't resort to murder and robbery, or else I would have surely been exposed.

Good deeds lead to good outcomes, the ancients did not deceive me.

For the next two days, nothing else occurred, and the starship safely landed on Celestial Sharp Star.

When the starship landed in the afternoon, Qu Jianlei didn't hurry to leave, he just coldly watched as the cargo was transported out.

As night approached, the starship started loading new cargo, yet he remained still.

Xiao Hu couldn't hold back anymore, "If you don't leave now, what if it flies back to the Star of Hope?"

"What's being loaded now is just pre-loaded cargo," Qu Jianlei casually replied, "The cargo for passenger shipping will start later."

Xiao Hu was speechless, and after a while, replied, "You really are... cautious."

Qu Jianlei indifferently responded, "He who travels a hundred miles should consider half of it as ninety, we've endured eight days, one more bit won't matter."

Sure enough, it was only at nightfall that new cargo started to be loaded onto the ship.

However, what left Qu Jianlei speechless was seeing more stowaways being packed into containers and brought aboard.

These stowaways really are innumerable!

Yet he didn't continue paying attention to this matter, instead cautiously sensing the surroundings and sneaking out at a gap.

Unavoidably, he was caught on surveillance, but luckily his body technique was fast enough that, without a careful look, you couldn't recognize the figure as human.

As long as they didn't recognize it immediately, it didn't matter. Xiao Hu quickly hacked into the spaceport's data center and deleted the relevant footage.

In the Hope Star Realm, Qu Jianlei didn't dare to casually use Xiao Hu's abilities, fearing others might associate it with artificial intelligence.

On this Celestial Sharp Star, he had no such concerns, since Xiao Hu had never appeared here before.

What he didn't expect was that over an hour later, within a gigantic building, an alarm sounded...

Qu Jianlei still relied on his spiritual power to safely get out of the spaceport without incident.

Feeling the outside air, he couldn't help but frown: the air quality here really isn't great.

Oxygen content is low, purity isn't high, and crucially, there are small amounts of harmful gases.

This feeling is somewhat similar to the gorge on Zarif Star or Garbage Star: is this the living environment of the Prosperous Star Realm of the Empire?

As he was frowning and pondering, a middle-aged woman dressed flamboyantly approached him.

"Looking for lodging? We have cheap rooms and beautiful ladies, can help you handle temporary residence permits!"

"What?" Qu Jianlei was stunned for a moment; why does this scene feel somewhat familiar to me?

However, his reaction wasn't too slow; he spread his hands toward her, "Do I look like I just got off a starship?"

He was carrying something, but just a small shoulder bag, which didn't make him look like an interstellar traveler.

"Not just off a starship?" The woman's brow furrowed, then she smiled again, "We have beautiful ladies!"

Qu Jianlei didn't reply again, passing around the woman and walking away with long strides.

Blue Star's life experiences taught him to keep conversations to a minimum in such situations; explaining just now was already a bit too much.

The woman watched his back and spat lightly, "What's the point of dressing like an outlander for no reason, is it fun?"

But she didn't think too much about it; the next moment, she was already approaching a middle-aged man coming her way...

Qu Jianlei suddenly realized, the thing is... my clothing style exposed my origins?

He knew that different regions have different dressing habits, not only the Empire was like this, Blue Star was as well.

But being recognized because of this caught him off guard.

Fortunately, he noticed in time, it's not too late to change.

Thinking like this, he leisurely strolled down the street.

The location of the starport was in the city of Pan Shi, Celestial Sharp Star's second-largest city.

However, the starport was far from the city center, over forty kilometers away; areas near the starport were relatively desolate.

Qu Jianlei walked unhurriedly, observing the attire of people around him as he went.

At a glance, there wasn't much feeling; perhaps due to the proximity to the starport, there were more outlanders?

As he walked further, he discovered many people wearing long gloves with half-fingers exposed and high boots.

Is this a local feature? Qu Jianlei was contemplating, when he saw a few clothing shops ahead.

Entering a store, he found that most of the clothes for sale had binding cuffs and hems.

Of course, there were open-cuffed tops and pants as well.

However, Qu Jianlei noticed the staff's clothing all had bound cuffs and hems, how could he not realize this?

He bought a few outfits, gloves, and high boots and immediately changed in the store.

He then walked for three hours and finally arrived at a somewhat bustling street area.

There were food stalls, inns, and general stores, and surprisingly, two bars.

It was almost ten at night by then, Qu Jianlei thought for a moment and decided to enter the "Wandering Bar."

The bar wasn't too small, over three hundred square meters, divided into two floors, with mostly open seating and a few private rooms.

Qu Jianlei chose an open seat and sat down. Ten seconds later, a waiter came over.

The music was deafening, Qu Jianlei didn't rush to order drinks but asked first, "What time do you close?"

"We don't close," the waiter loudly replied, "But if you want to stay overnight, there's a minimum charge."

Qu Jianlei felt another sense of déjà vu: how does this feel like an internet café offering overnight packages?

(Updated to this point, calling for monthly tickets, subscriptions, and recommendations.)