Swallowing the Stars: Only in my later years did I come to the life-spending panel.

"More than sixty years have passed in the blink of an eye."

Deep within the courtyard, a long sigh echoed as a stream of water meandered around the pavilion and flowed into the pool beneath the old plum tree.

Under the tree, the old man was wrapped in a thick blanket. His silver-white hair was neatly combed. On his deeply lined face, only a pair of cloudy eyes could still reveal a trace of his former sharpness.

His thin body swayed with the rattan chair.

In Jiangnan Base City, Zhou Mu is the head of the Zhou family.

He also had a deep-seated secret: he was not a person of this world.

More than 60 years ago, Zhou Mu's life as a corporate slave ended when a bus ran a red light while he was crossing a zebra crossing.

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself in a cruel universe that had swallowed the stars.

Initially, he was ambitious and planned to cling to the coattails of Luo Feng, the future ruler of Earth, and achieve immortality and eternal life.

But reality gave him a resounding slap in the face: at this time, there were still several years before the RR virus outbreak, and Luo Feng had not even been born yet!

Fortunately, Zhou Mu's body possesses exceptional talent, with top-tier abilities in both martial arts and mental power.

With this talent and a combination of strength and gentleness, he carved out a place for himself on Earth, a place rife with powerful and entrenched factions.

The "Twilight Wilderness Transportation Group" stands in a prime location in the center of the Jiangnan Base City, monopolizing 66% of the wilderness transportation business in the base city.

None of these are important. What truly caused Zhou Mu, with his invincible war god strength, to be confined within the base city was:

During the Great Nirvana period, he displayed extraordinary martial arts talent, progressing without any bottlenecks. In just over ten years, he reached the strength of an invincible war god. This speed of advancement is far beyond what even the world's strongest person, "Hong," can match.

He thought he could smoothly advance through the leap in life level, becoming a planetary-level powerhouse with a long lifespan and earth-shattering strength, thus leaving Luo Feng behind.

Unexpectedly, decades have passed in a flash, and he has tried to break through several times, but has failed repeatedly.

That qualitative change in the level of life seemed like an insurmountable chasm, one that he could never cross.

He obtained a priceless Origin Potion from an ancient civilization's ruins, which could greatly increase the probability of condensing miniature planets, as well as a secret technique called "Void Concentration" for mentalists to break through to the planetary level.

Zhou Mu forced himself to break through, but his very essence was severely damaged, and his physical condition began to deteriorate.

He is now nearing the end of his life, and his performance is only a fraction of what it used to be.

"Forget it, compared to my previous life, I've already lived a wonderful enough life in this one."

Zhou Mu chuckled self-deprecatingly, rose shakily from the rocking chair, grabbed the already cold purple clay teapot from the stone table beside him, drank it all in one gulp, and walked into the house with his hands behind his back.

Zhou Mu, who was pacing away, suddenly stopped and stumbled.

In the void that only he could see, a panel shimmering with pale golden light appeared before Zhou Mu's eyes without warning.

[Shouyuan Furnace]

Name: Zhou Mu

Realm: Peak Ninth-Tier Apprentice-Level Spiritual Master, Ninth-Tier Apprentice-Level Martial Artist

Skills: Void Concentration (beginner level, can be deduced), Seven Tribulations of Sky Breaking (perfected level, can be deduced), Nine-Fold Thunder Blade (fourth level, perfected level, can be deduced), World Annihilation (eighth level, perfected level, can be deduced)... [Expand]

Current lifespan: 18 days

Current lifespan stolen: 0

[One can infuse lifespan into martial arts techniques, gaining corresponding progress. Upon successful deduction, the corresponding realm of understanding, power exertion method, and energy circulation of the technique will be directly imprinted on the soul and body, achieving instinctive mastery after "thousands of tempering".]

[Infusion cannot continue if the patient's life expectancy is less than one year.]

The panel that appeared before him made Zhou Mu's breathing gradually become heavier. After more than sixty years of experiencing the ups and downs of life, he had long passed the age of being easily startled and had learned to keep his emotions in check. But at this moment, Zhou Mu still couldn't control his emotions.

"Father, are you alright?"

Zhou Wanqing, who had been observing her father from inside the building, saw him suddenly stagger. In a moment of panic, she jumped out of the window, leaped down from the second-floor platform, landed lightly, and went to help Zhou Mu.

His daughter's voice drew Zhou Mu's attention away from the light screen, and he reached out to try to touch it.

"Dad, what's wrong? Is there something in front of you?"

Zhou Wanqing looked at her father's strange behavior of reaching out and touching the air, and asked him a question in confusion.

"It's okay... just let me have some peace and quiet."

Zhou Mu returned to his bedroom with his daughter's help.

Having confirmed that only he could see the light screen in front of him, he stared blankly at the golden finger that he had been waiting for for so many years, and his old and lifeless body began to tremble uncontrollably.

"Finally..." he muttered to himself, "I've finally waited for this day. My cheat, why did it take you so long?!"

"Do you know how I've been all these years?!"

Zhou Mu sat down on the sofa, his gaze fixed on the light screen in front of him, its brightness fluctuating like the breath of life. Tears welled up in his no-longer-sharp eyes.

Just then, as if hearing the host complaining about his heartache, a character on the light screen panel began to blur and flicker.

[Historical kills are being tallied...]

[Total kills: 189020 monsters, 34508 Beast General-level monsters, 99 Lord-level monsters, 3 King-level monsters]

[Historical kills will have their lifespan reduced by a factor of 0.001...]

【...】

[Current plunder lifespan: 999 years]

Looking at the characters flashing on the panel, Zhou Mu forced himself to calm down and began to study his panel.

"Plundering lifespan? Deducing lifespan consumption?"

"So it seems to be using the remaining lifespan of the creatures I kill as fuel for its simulation?" Zhou Mu muttered to himself. "Oh well, I still have plenty of lifespan left to plunder, I'll just have to try it and see!"

"Deductive Void Concentration, fill it up!"

Then, Zhou Mu made a slight thought, and the number of lifespans stolen displayed on the panel began to jump continuously, with lines of data appearing, and the text in the skill section began to change and recombine.

[Concentrating the Mind in Emptiness (Beginner) → (Minor Success)]

【...】

[Concentrating the Mind in the Void (Minor Success) → (Major Success)]

【...】

[Concentrating the Mind in the Void (Great Success) → (Perfect)]

[By consuming 279 years of your lifespan, you will have reached the pinnacle of your Void Concentration cultivation!]

[Current plunder lifespan: 770 years]

The changes on the panel gradually stopped, but then a vast and indescribable cosmic energy surged from the heavens and earth into Zhou Mu's decaying body. His parched veins, like land that had not received rain for a long time, greedily absorbed the long-awaited cosmic energy and transformed it into source energy. His body began to perform the Void Concentration Technique as if by instinct.

The immense source energy gathered in the sea of ​​consciousness as the incantation was activated, and everything fell into place naturally, compressing and condensing into a miniature planet that was constantly rotating!

Breakthrough!

Planetary-level spiritual master!

The insurmountable barrier that had separated Zhou Mu from the Apprentice level and the Planetary level for decades was easily flattened by the perfected "Void Concentration" secret technique, and he finally realized his long-cherished wish to break through to the Planetary level!