Loopy Toad’s answer was actually pretty cryptic, but given his respect for “Senior Dog,” the red-haired young man didn’t think too much of it. At this realm level, it really was possible that traveling back and forth in space, the other party might have slipped and accidentally fallen into this world, and in the process saved it.

　　There were a lot of things in this world which couldn’t be explained using common sense. Besides, Zhenyuan thought that big shots had a very unique way of thinking.

　　There had to be a special reason for why “Senior Dog” was able to cultivate to such a high realm.

　　On the other side, Wang Ling, who was still invisible, had already collected the data on the gas as briefed by Wang Ming, and was planning to get Loopy Toad to leave. Frankly speaking, Wang Ling was now deeply aware of how strong a Venerated Immortal was after this fight with Wind Spirit… and he was actually a little disappointed. He had thought that Venerated Immortals were very strong – unfortunately, this fighting strength wasn’t anything to him.

　　Although Venerated Immortals could already start to grasp the use of “Heavenly Dao,” their comprehension of “Dao” was still far from enough. To truly master a Heavenly Dao required a lot of effort in cultivating it. Furthermore, comprehending “Heavenly Dao” in fact depended on luck most of the time.

　　This was because every Heavenly Dao was comprised of several attributes, and the strongest attribute of them all was “omniscience.” In all the Three Thousand Great Spells, the attribute which Wang Ling had mastered was the most advanced one.

　　So sometimes, even Wang Ling himself felt that he was a little too “strong.”

　　Originally, he had intended to ask about the “Immortal’s Treasure House,” but after the battle, he had lost interest.

　　At that moment, Loopy Toad couldn’t help asking the red-haired young man, “What are you going to do after this?”

　　This was something Dog Two was asking itself, not Wang Ling.

　　Holding the heart demon stone, Zhenyuan sighed. “I’ll use this heart demon stone to restore Drought Star to its original state.”

　　“You’re really obsessed with finding a second planet.” Loopy Toad smiled.

　　“No choice.” The red-haired young man shrugged his shoulders, and while his reply seemed off-handed, he actually felt regret from the bottom of his heart. “Although it’ll still be a long time before the spirit energy of heaven and earth is fully consumed, at the current rate the earth’s environment is being exploited, the earth may perish even before the natural spirit energy is exhausted. Senior, you’re probably clearer on this issue than I am, right?”

　　“Mm…”

　　Loopy Toad turned its head away, feeling a little awkward. “Of, of course…”

　　“Although every country has signed the ‘International True Immortal Convention’ to augment the protection of the earth’s natural spirit energy, the damage to the environment is real,” Immortal Zhenyuan said.

　　The “International True Immortal Convention” he was talking about was an agreement signed by countries around the world in which all True Immortal experts had put down their handprints as an oath. According to the convention, in order to prevent the excessive exploitation of the spirit energy of heaven and earth, all True Immortal experts were not allowed to use the “Samsara Spirit Tribulation” to advance to Venerated Immortal level.

　　For once thing, the Samsara Spirit Tribulation’s consumption of natural spirit energy was too fierce. There was a real possibility that it could suck an entire region dry of spirit qi in the blink of an eye, resulting in a void of spirit qi and causing a great deal of it to be lost to the void.

　　Another thing was that none of the countries currently had leaders at Venerated Immortal level, so a True Immortal advancing to Venerated Immortal level would actually break the balance of power between countries. Thus, in order to realize long-lasting peace in the modern cultivation world, the “International True Immortal Convention” was born.

　　In truth, the Ten Founding Generals like General Yi, Marshal Jiang, Secretary Sun Dakang, President Qi and Director Shi actually all had ample resources for advancing to Venerated Immortal level, but these resources referred to materials other than “the spirit energy of heaven and earth.” Only “the spirit energy of heaven and earth” was special since this was a naturally produced resource that, once used up, was difficult to sustain.

　　So there were two major areas of research in science right now.

　　The first was developing a new way to advance to Venerated Immortal level from True Immortal level that didn’t require using the old “Samsara Spirit Tribulation” method, which consumed excessive amounts of natural spirit energy, and which would be one that wasn’t too much of a burden on the natural environment.

　　The second was the possibility of developing an apparatus to replace natural spirit energy or to generate it.

　　These two research concerns sounded easy, but were in fact very difficult. Every six months, experts from the major world powers would meet together to study, share on and investigate these issues, but so far they had been unable to produce any practical plans; a lot of the theories put forward were fantastical and not feasible.

　　So under these conditions, there were in fact plenty of people who, like Immortal Zhenyuan, thought about developing a second planet.

　　Wang Ling actually knew something about this point from his science class in junior high school. That had been the first and only time that he had scored an unprecedented full one hundred marks in his life, but Father Wang hadn’t rebuked him for it.

　　That was because Wang Ling’s entire class at the time had also gotten full marks.

　　“So you created the Gate Between Worlds to hide this Drought Star which you found? Also, people say that all the times that the Gate Between Worlds descended to the human world was because you were testing improved versions of the Gate?” At this point, Loopy Toad asked a very crucial question, even though it hadn’t needed to.

　　Immortal Zhenyuan started to sigh emotionally again at Loopy Toad’s question. As expected, senior dog was senior dog; it even knew that he was the one who had invented the Gate Between Worlds!

　　“Senior, you misunderstand… When I invented the Gate Between Worlds, it was just purely meant to be a bridge between the demon world and the human cultivation world. As for the spirit energy of heaven and earth, I thought that through the connection, we could perhaps jointly discuss countermeasures with the demon world to come up with good solutions – I never expected the Gate Between Worlds to be taken advantage of.”

　　Immortal Zhenyuan sighed. “When the Gate Between Worlds suddenly descended the last few times, it was Wind Spirit causing trouble. In the end, it turned into rumors that I was running performance tests on the Gate Between Worlds.”

　　So this was the actual truth…

　　Both Wang Ling and Loopy Toad nodded inwardly.

　　Wang Ling could straightaway tell that Immortal Zhenyuan wasn’t lying.

　　Conversely, it actually made sense, because given the sort of person Zhenyuan was, him summoning the Gate Between Worlds to destroy a city wasn’t something he would do.

　　Before leaving, Loopy Toad sighed as it surveyed the level of destruction on Drought Star.

　　The battle just now had already destroyed one-sixth of the surface. One-sixth might look small, but Drought Star was an entire planet! Even if it was smaller than Earth, it was still a very vast area!

　　“Youngster, do your best.” Dog Two addressed Zhenyuan like a sage elder before leaving.

　　In some respect, both Loopy Toad and Wang Ling actually had a good impression of Zhenyuan. Nowadays, there were too few people who chose to secretly and quietly work for the sake of humankind; although migrating to a second planet was a pretty extreme notion, Zhenyuan was at least committed to the sustainable development of mankind for the future.

　　“Senior, wait!”

　　At that moment, the red-haired young man yelled, “Senior Dog! Will we meet again?”

　　Loopy Toad turned its head. “Hm… we shall see…”

　　At that moment, Wang Ling had already stamped his foot. If he stamped three times, Lord Ma would take them back.

　　“Senior Dog! This is for you!”

　　Just then, the red-haired young man threw a jade pendant at Loopy Toad, who caught it firmly in its dog paws.

　　The instant Wang Ling saw this jade pendant, his eyes lit up.

　　Because it was none other than Immortal Zhenyuan’s “immortal seal”…