Who said it was dual cultivation?

Gloria listened with a furrowed brow, a trace of the succubus’s unique ambiguity flickering between her brows.
“Cultivate with you? Do you mean dual cultivation?”
Lu Chen was speechless.
“Who said anything about dual cultivation? Or do you want your cultivation level to forever stay at thirty-eight?”
Gloria considered for a moment, then replied earnestly,
“I don’t need to cultivate. I just need to slowly recover my strength... Surely you don’t think a beauty like me is only at the thirty-eighth level, do you? I actually fell from a high tier all the way down to thirty-eight. That’s the only reason you got lucky, kid!”
Lu Chen couldn’t tell if this was true or not, so he tried probing,
“So, how can you regain your strength?”
Gloria said,
“First, we need to catch up with the White Dew, the interstellar cruiser. Lady August can help me, and she can also remove the soul seal from Ellie—and even cure your weak constitution.”
Weak?
I’m strong as hell, thank you very much!
Lu Chen had no intention of letting a succubus call him frail.
The White Dew was the latest interstellar cruiser, which set sail from Seafarer Harbor three years ago and was now in the latter part of the Dawn Route through the Pangu Corridor.
If they went at full speed, they could catch up in a few months.
The cruiser ran once every five years. If they didn’t pursue it now, they could wait for the next one, and two years later enter the Pangu Interstellar Corridor together with the Autumnal Equinox.
If he hadn’t met Gloria and set out ahead of schedule, this would have been Lu Chen’s original plan.
But now, he had no desire to wait two more years.
Other transmigrators would have conquered the whole world in two years; he needed to hurry.
As for whether Gloria really was a powerhouse who’d lost her cultivation, and whether this Lady August was as wondrous as claimed, only catching up to the White Dew would reveal the truth.
For now, Lu Chen had to quickly improve his cultivation.
Because piloting armor consumed enormous stamina and spiritual power.
“You two can wait until we catch up with the White Dew to cultivate. But Ellie and I need to arm ourselves now!”
“Do as you like. Just hurry up—there’s nothing fun in Seafarer Harbor. The White Dew is where the Adventurers’ Guild truly shines.”
With that, Gloria hugged Ellie and went to rest in the living quarters.

Half an hour later.

Lu Chen received an email: Arden Fermat’s second bounty had been withdrawn.
The Adventurers’ Guild had even reported Arden Fermat’s questionable lifestyle to the Xivi Kingdom.
Of course, it would do nothing, but the guild just wanted to disgust Arden Fermat for his underhanded deeds.
Lu Chen finally breathed a sigh of relief.
“No bounty, what a relief.”
Gloria, back in the cockpit, didn’t quite understand.
“You’re so reckless. Are you still afraid of being hunted?”
Lu Chen shrugged.
“I just don’t like being in the spotlight.”
Gloria took a sip from her flask.
Her eyes, bright as sword energy and rippling with radiance, reflected Lu Chen’s figure.
“A firefly at night is hard not to notice.”
Lu Chen smiled.
“As long as there are enough fireflies.”
Over the years, Gloria had seen many self-illuminating fireflies in the universe—some so bright they could light up the stars.
In terms of talent, Lu Chen was only average.
But for some reason, he was so ordinary, yet so confident.
He had the brashness of youth, and yet the chill of a machine.
He took risks again and again, yet never made mistakes, always laughing last and coming out on top.
She couldn’t quite understand this man.
But as long as he could make her rich, that was enough.

“You stay on the ship and look after Ellie. I’ll go buy some elixirs and be right back.”
Lu Chen disembarked alone.
He went to an apothecary and bought some Healing Elixirs, Marrow-Washing Pills, and Meridian-Clearing Pills.
He spent five hundred spirit stones in total.
Back on the ship, he gave Ellie a Healing Elixir.
The Healing Elixir was a universal healing pill, instantly replenishing one’s spiritual power and curing all manner of ailments.
Most of the time, it worked.
Ellie soon woke up.
She rubbed her eyes.
Her complexion was rosy, her skin fair and pink with a childish roundness to her cheeks, innocent yet distant blue eyes, short silvery hair soft and neat, and a pair of fluffy, always-perky wolf ears…
Adorable.
Seeing Lu Chen, she was still a bit nervous, afraid.
Afraid of what might happen.
The gentler Lu Chen was, the more tense she became.
“Captain, are we setting off?”
“Not yet. Don’t be so nervous, just go out with Gloria for a bit and relax.”
Lu Chen took stock of their finances.
“We have a damaged Octopus-class ship and five hundred spirit stones. I’ll give each of you a hundred spirit stones—go to the marketplace and buy whatever you want: food, drink, clothes, entertainment… I’ll go sell the Octopus.”
Gloria, ever insatiable, wasn’t satisfied with a mere hundred spirit stones.
“You stingy captain, this is Seafarer Harbor! What’s a hundred spirit stones worth? Hand over all five hundred!”
She snatched the spirit stone pouch from Lu Chen.
In fact, Lu Chen had made a small fortune this time. The five hundred spirit stones were intended as spending money for them anyway.
After all, it was Ellie’s first allowance. Too little felt awkward—it wouldn’t help win her over.
Besides, both women had contributed greatly in the flight test, earning him a hefty sum.
He was just giving them their rightful share in advance.
“Fine, take it all. But make sure to buy supplies for the ship—especially spiritual fuel and a backup power core. Make sure you get everything!”
Of course, Lu Chen didn’t expect Gloria to actually remember the supplies. She’d burn through the money, and that was fine—he just wanted her to feel a bit guilty, to keep her in check.
“Got it!”
“And keep your comms open at all times.”
“Yes, yes… You nag so much, you’re almost like my dad, you know that?”
“As long as you remember you have a dad.”
With Sirius in tow, Gloria jumped on a jet ski and vanished in the blink of an eye.
Lu Chen disembarked as well, piloting the Octopus according to the commercial navigation system toward a lower-tier secondhand ship market.
Halfway there, he received a holocall.
The caller was a tall fish-man with an octopus head and braided tentacles, looking like a more refined Cthulhu.
“We’re the Evil Spirit Bounty Hunter Team, and we’re the real owners of the Octopus you’re piloting. Since the bounty on the Leonin has been withdrawn, our misunderstanding is over.”
“Evil Spirit Bounty Hunters?”
Octopus-men counted as evil spirits? Lu Chen found the team name a bit too eccentric.
The octopus-man continued,
“The Octopus was a new ship for new recruits. The goal was to capture the Leonin during the flight test… It was just a standard guild bounty, with no harm intended—just to bring you in for questioning.”
Lu Chen did a quick search; Evil Spirit Bounty Hunters was a top-tier team on par with the Justice Hunters, specializing in bounties and, in fact, even more righteous than the Justice Hunters.
Which was why the Justice Hunters were now surpassing them—being a villain let you power up much faster.
The truly strong good guys were real heroes.
But plenty of teenagers were obsessed with the allure of villains.
“We can call it even, but I’m not interested in joining another team.”
Lu Chen said flatly.

The octopus-man had wanted to recruit him, but seeing Lu Chen’s attitude, he settled for a compromise.
“Captain Lu, you misunderstand. We just want to buy the Octopus back.”
Lu Chen was surprised. Was the Octopus worth something?
“How much?”
The octopus-man replied,
“The new ship cost three thousand spirit stones. Now that it’s missing eight arms, the secondhand market won’t pay more than two thousand. We can offer twenty-two hundred.”
“Alright, let me check around. Talk to you soon.”
Lu Chen canvassed the secondhand market.
Most offers were around eighteen or nineteen hundred, with the lowest an insulting fifteen hundred, as if he were a fool.
One store owner, impressed by his flight in the broadcast, offered two thousand at most.
Lu Chen then contacted the Evil Spirit Bounty Hunters and sold the Octopus for twenty-two hundred spirit stones.
After receiving the transfer from the octopus-man, he unlinked the Octopus from his pilot registry and disembarked.
The Octopus, now remotely controlled, flew away from Seafarer Harbor on its own.
“Paying a premium to recover a stolen ship—they just want to make friends, not enemies.”
With that thought, Lu Chen remotely started the Leonin and headed to the secondhand ship trade and modification market.
First, he needed to equip the Leonin with a defensive array.
A brand-new thirty-level adventure ship typically started at three thousand spirit stones.
A thousand for the hull and engine,
a thousand for offensive weapons,
and a thousand for defensive systems.
The Leonin was a basic long-range vessel, not meant for ship-to-ship combat, so offensive weapons could wait.
Gloria could serve as a living weapon—perhaps more effective.
For now, a set of thirty-level defensive arrays would suffice.
Lu Chen went to a large ship modification shop,
spent a thousand spirit stones, and installed a full thirty-level defensive array.
This included not just the array, but a suite of hardware:
fully automated magitech jammers, interceptor machine guns, and anti-missile missiles.
It could block lasers, track missiles, and supposedly even shield against high-level mage attacks.
Installing the defensive array was slow; the entire ship needed rewiring and some glyphs had to be redrawn… It was painful to watch.
Out of sight, out of mind, Lu Chen left in his armor.
He went to upgrade his scavenger armor!
At the armor market,
he saw that even a secondhand thirty-level combat suit cost no less than two thousand spirit stones.
Absurd!
If only he’d had Gloria snatch a retired imperial suit from Arden Fermat’s seventh planet.
Given the steep prices, he couldn’t afford a new or secondhand combat suit for now.
Of course, his focus was on scavenging, so it wasn’t strictly necessary.
He hadn’t upgraded his suit’s engine beyond level ten, because his cultivation was at level ten—it was easier and more precise to control this way.
In an emergency, when spiritual fuel was low, he could power the suit with his own spiritual energy.
The right arm’s mounted laser cannon was level twenty and had its own power source.
Some of the armor plating was thirty-level titanium alloy.
For Lu Chen, local defense wasn’t enough.
So he spent another two hundred spirit stones, picked through a pile of scrap for some thirty-level titanium, and fully reinforced the scavenger armor, bringing it up to a complete thirty-level defense.
For him, defense mattered more than offense.
Yet, passing a laser weapons shop, Lu Chen found himself unable to take another step.