Swallowing the Starry Sky: Qin Feng

On the morning of October 7, 2060, it was an ordinary yet extraordinary day for Qin Feng.

After resting for two days, he is finally ready to break through to the planetary level today.

At this moment, in the gravity chamber, Qin Feng, sitting cross-legged on the ground, held the green crystal core in his hand. The monkey, who knew the significance of this day to Qin Feng, also made a rare appearance, intending to personally protect him during his breakthrough.

"You're lucky, kid. The life energy inside this crystal core is very pure, more than enough to help you break through to the ninth level of Apprentice. The rest can also help you when you break through to the Planetary level."

"How do you use this thing? Do you crack it open and eat it like an ancient willow heartwood?"

"Yes, just break through the outer shell and consume the energy liquid inside."

Qin Feng picked up the long knife beside him with his right hand and carefully cut a thin slit in the outer skin of the crystal core. A rich life aura rushed out, and green energy liquid slowly flowed out along the crack. He quickly put the crystal core into his mouth and sucked on the crack until he swallowed all the energy liquid inside before putting down the remaining empty shell.

At this moment, as the rich life energy began to spread throughout Qin Feng's body, all the cells greedily fought and frantically devoured it. All the cells were evolving and perfecting themselves, constantly eliminating useless impurities and expelling them from the body. Time after time, this evolution seemed to have no end. The rich life energy in his body was inexhaustible, supporting the continuous evolution of the cells without any pressure.

When evolution reaches a certain limit and all cells are saturated, obstacles that were normally insurmountable are now overcome in one fell swoop without any delay.

After passing this hurdle, the cells, which had already reached saturation, broke through their saturation state once again. The genes, which had reached their limits, began to transform again. However, most of the life energy supporting this transformation was still undigested. When the gene transformation reached another limit, Qin Feng used a guiding technique to gather the energy latent in his cells to the non-existent dantian, continuously converging, rotating, and compressing all the energy.

The life energy that had already been consumed by about 80% was gathered together by Qin Feng at this moment. Like the last straw that broke the camel's back, with a loud bang, as if the world was being created, even his consciousness trembled. The dantian that did not exist before was instantly opened, and the genetic energy began to expand and contract rapidly, forming a blue planet in the dantian space that looked like it was made up of countless tiny sapphires, slowly rotating.

A wisp of blue genetic energy flew out of the planet and into his body. Instantly, Qin Feng's body felt as if he had taken a super tonic, with his joints cracking and his muscles, internal organs, blood system, and even his bones rapidly becoming stronger. This was a comprehensive transformation from the microscopic level, an evolution of genes, and a leap in life.

After a long while, everything calmed down. He opened his eyes, examined the changes in himself, clenched his fists to feel it, and thought, "Is this what planetary level is like?"

"This power is truly astonishing. 100 million kilograms of physical strength and 100 million kilograms of genetic energy, combined, that's over 200 million kilograms of basic strength. And this is just after breaking through. The upper limit of strength for a first-tier Martial Artist at the Planetary level is 200 million kilograms each for physical strength and genetic energy, which is 400 million kilograms. How strong is the Constant level?"

As he channeled his primal force, a chilling aura spread out, causing the surrounding temperature to drop by tens of degrees. Was this the special ability he gained after breaking through to the planetary level?

"It's just a breakthrough to the planetary level. The special ability is the most common ice ability. Apart from adding freezing power to your Force attacks, there's nothing special about it. Don't get too excited, kid. This kind of power is just a weakling in the universe."

"Tsk! Didn't I just break through? Monkey King, I suffered a lot to break through to the planetary level, can't I even be happy for a moment?"

Qin Feng withdrew his power and complained!

"You're still far from good enough. Your current level of consciousness is up to standard, and your swordsmanship is barely passable at the level of intent. But your power multiplier is only nine times. You should know that in the ape-man race, a ninth-level apprentice's power multiplier is considered unqualified if it is less than ten times. Geniuses can even reach fifteen or sixteen times their power multiplier before breaking through to the planetary level."

"This is just the beginning; I'll catch up later."

"Qin Feng, you must remember, compared to a mentalist, a martial artist is actually at a disadvantage in terms of power amplitude. A planetary-level mentalist can cultivate their mental power amplitude to more than ten times with a little serious training, and geniuses can even reach twenty or thirty times. Moreover, many mental weapons have amplitude functions. Think about it, a first-level planetary-level mentalist has an amplitude of 15 times. If they use a mental weapon to amplify their amplitude by another two times, that's 30 times. How long do you think it would take you to cultivate to a power amplitude of 30 times?"

Yes! Thinking about how Luo Feng used the Sky-Piercing Shuttle in the original work to easily triple the amplitude of more than ten times, reaching an exaggerated 30 times, suddenly breaking through to the planetary level doesn't seem so appealing anymore.

"I understand, Brother Monkey. Don't worry, I won't get cocky, and I'll work on improving my power generation as soon as possible."

"You know that's good. Now come with me to the Origin Space, I'll show you something amazing, a real surprise!"

"The primordial space, could it be?"

"Yes! Is that the one?"

The two appeared in a pure white primordial space. Qin Feng carefully looked around and found everything to be as usual. There was no significant change in the enhancement to his comprehension.

"Brother Monkey, didn't you say that the pearl would be repaired as I grow stronger? Why doesn't it seem like there's been any change?"

"The repair of the orb also requires a process of accumulating energy, just like your cultivation. You draw energy from the universe every day, except that the energy the orb absorbs is special. It's the kind of energy that you can only obtain as you become stronger. Just as you advance in rank when your energy accumulates to a certain level, it can also achieve phased repairs as you break through. If I hadn't suppressed it just now, it would have already completed its repair along with your breakthrough. I'm very curious about how much it can repair this time? What new abilities will it gain?"

Having said that, he released the suppression with a thought, and instantly, the entire pure white space churned with white mist. Endless cosmic energy began to appear in the space, and the original ordinary white haze was completely replaced by white mist formed from pure cosmic energy. Even on the treasure palace floating in the air, cosmic energy began to condense into dewdrops and drip down. This exaggerated energy density was simply terrifying. It felt like if someone stayed in this environment for a long time, even a pig could become a powerful being. Even the Wuchen Continent, the headquarters of the virtual universe company in the original work, wasn't this exaggerated, right? Damn, the energy was compressed into a liquid state.

This was just the change in environment. Next came the change in comprehension boost. Before, with a double comprehension boost, Qin Feng felt like he had an extra brain. But now, it felt like he had instantly grown ten extra brains. Various sparks of thought flashed by incredibly quickly. Many problems that he couldn't understand when he was cultivating alone before became as simple as eating and drinking. Looking back on his previous cultivation, he discovered many imperfections. This feeling was simply amazing, even giving Qin Feng the illusion that he was omnipotent at this moment.

"Hahaha! I really am a genius. I made the right choice in choosing to study weapon crafting. I will definitely become an outstanding weapon crafting master in the future."

Qin Feng, who was immersed in the wonderful feeling of the enhanced comprehension, came back to his senses and looked at the monkey, asking: What's wrong?

"Haha! Qin Feng, the gem's repair level has reached 10%, and it's unlocked a new function! It's an incredibly useful function, a real boon to my weapon-refining studies! Come with me."

With a wave of their hand, the two appeared in a side hall of the Supreme Treasure Palace. Inside, various simulated forging equipment were displayed. In particular, in the center of the side hall, there was a hot furnace radiating intense heat and a fully automated blacksmithing machine. The feeling of déjà vu was just like that of those who forge kitchen knives on Earth, except that the technology of the equipment was far more advanced than that of Earth.

Qin Feng was completely dumbfounded and couldn't help but complain: "Brother Monkey, is this where you forge weapons? Why does it feel so low-class?"

This was the first time he had ever seen a monkey studying the environment of weapon forging. This thing was no different from a blacksmith shop on Earth!

"What? What do you think weapon crafting is? Do you think it requires breathing fire and making hand seals like in the novels on Earth? That's all nonsense. This is the most scientific method of weapon crafting."

While the process of solidifying runes into weapons may seem fantastical, the fundamentals of forging remain constant: the heating and refining of raw materials, and the combination and arrangement of various materials—these are all crucial factors affecting weapon performance.

The quality of the weapon blank is crucial to a good weapon, so the first step in learning weapon crafting is to forge a suitable weapon blank.

Next comes the process of solidifying specific arcane patterns onto the weapon. Just like wielding the nine divine weapons, even without having learned them, one can release the arcane techniques solidified on the weapon by activating the arcane patterns. Of course, the prerequisite is that you have the corresponding level of understanding of the laws.

"I see. So this is the scientific method of weapon forging? What are these new features? And how will they help you with weapon forging?"

"That's incredibly helpful. The new features, in short, are understanding, decomposing, and reconstructing."

This means that from now on, anything I can understand can be broken down into its smallest particle units and then reassembled into what I want.

For example, an alloy recipe might require ten metals to mix. If I have enough materials and understand the combinations, I can break down those ten metals into their smallest particle units and directly arrange them according to the recipe to create the finished alloy. It's incredibly time-saving, labor-saving, and worry-free. In the future, I can focus more on learning runes. Once I learn to forge one weapon and have the first perfect template, with enough materials, I can effortlessly create many more.

Furthermore, I can use this decomposition and reconstruction function to continuously experiment with various material arrangements and combinations, making my forged weapon blanks more perfect and its integration with the secret patterns smoother, thereby allowing the weapon to unleash greater power.

As the monkey excitedly introduced the new features, Qin Feng gradually frowned, feeling somewhat disappointed. He had originally thought that some new abilities would appear that would help his cultivation, but the new features turned out to be completely useless to him.

The monkey noticed his silence, stopped talking, and asked: What's wrong?

"It's nothing, Brother Monkey. I'm just a little disappointed. I feel that this function is basically useless to me right now. What I need now is an ability that can help me increase my evolution speed. With the current 10x comprehension bonus, my learning speed will definitely be very fast in the future. This will cause a problem: my evolution speed will not be able to keep up. With my current ninth-grade bloodline, how long will it take to cultivate to the Hengxing level at a normal speed? Ten years or twenty years? This is still an optimistic view. Without special opportunities, it wouldn't be surprising if it took a hundred years. I don't want to wait that long."

"Hey! You little rascal, I was too excited to tell you."

The monkey waved its hand in the air, and instantly, countless cosmic energies gathered in its hand into a ball of liquid.

"I have absolute control over anything that enters this space. Compressing cosmic energy into liquid is something I can easily do. You can drink it like water, or even use it as bathwater. This space is constantly absorbing massive amounts of cosmic energy from the outside. Although this energy liquid can't compare to the evolution liquids that specifically promote physical evolution in the universe, it's enough to guarantee that you, a mere planetary level, can advance one level in one or two months. Reaching planetary level nine within a year and a half is no problem at all. This is because your bloodline level is too low, and your energy digestion speed is limited. Even if you had a fifth or sixth-grade bloodline, you could reach planetary level nine in just a few months."

Qin Feng asked excitedly, his voice trembling, "Really?"

"Hmph! I'm not going to joke with you about something like this. But don't get too excited. This stuff only works for low-level martial artists. You should know that there are limits to a martial artist's physical evolution. When you reach a certain limit and your potential is exhausted, then having more energy liquid is useless."

This is not an evolution fluid specially formulated for the evolution of life, and breakthroughs between minor realms are not important; it is just a process of energy accumulation. As long as your foundation is solid enough, and your consciousness strength, power exertion, combat techniques, etc. are not lacking, you can succeed.

Breakthroughs between higher realms depend on yourself; they are the evolution of genes, a leap in life, and cannot be achieved through external forces.

Haha!

"This is already very good, what more could you want?"

"Moreover, you can now cultivate both outside and in the Origin Space simultaneously. Even your planetary-level strength in the virtual universe was too weak to support the separation of consciousness while maintaining physical awareness in the virtual universe. But this is possible within the Origin Pearl. You only need to separate a wisp of soul power containing all your memories, and then I will mobilize the pearl's primal energy to create a 100% simulated body to support it, giving it independent capabilities in the Origin Space. This is the greatest benefit the pearl's repair will bring you this time."