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

Inside the war base, tens of thousands of soldiers were still in shock, watching the bolt of lightning carrying the enormous figure draw closer and closer. Despite the pressure from the remnants of the King-level monster, they involuntarily raised their weapons.

Zhou Mu landed on the base's helipad, casually setting down the dragon corpse with a muffled thud.

Li Dawei had already walked out of the command room and was standing not far away, watching this scene with a complicated expression.

His uniform swayed slightly in the night wind, and behind him were several staff officers who were equally shocked and speechless.

As a veteran who had guarded the Southeast Military Region for many years, Li Dawei had seen too many dangers and experienced too many life-and-death situations, but the scene before him—a human dragging the corpse of a king-level monster falling from the sky—was still beyond his comprehension.

Zhou Mu raised his eyes, his gaze falling on him, and said calmly, "Your base has a logistics department, right? The kind that's good at handling monster corpses."

Li Dawei was stunned for a moment, then quickly stepped forward and saluted: "Speaker Zhou! Yes, we have a dedicated team for processing monster materials."

"Help me remove the bones from this dragon." Zhou Mu pointed to the dragon carcass. "You can keep the scales, flesh, and internal organs for the military. I only need the complete skeleton and the dragon's head."

Li Dawei's pupils constricted slightly.

The corpse of a top-tier king-level monster is a treasure trove from head to toe.

Scales and skin can be used to make SS-class combat suits, flesh and blood can be used to extract gene potions, and even internal organs are valuable materials.

Zhou Mu said... "Leave it all to the military?"

He paused for a moment, his voice slightly hoarse: "Speaker Zhou, this is far too valuable. According to the rules, the warrior who kills a King-level monster is entitled to all the spoils. You don't need it—"

"I don't need these things," Zhou Mu interrupted him. "But your Base 001, which fights against sea monsters year-round, suffers from a lot of equipment wear and tear. These materials are just what you need to replenish your stock."

He paused, then added, "I have other uses for the dragon bones; I need to take them back to the peak training camp. I'll come back to pick them up in three days. Will I be able to process them then?"

Li Dawei took a deep breath and nodded emphatically: "Yes! I'll personally oversee it and guarantee it will be handled perfectly for you."

Zhou Mu nodded, soared into the air, and transformed into a bolt of lightning, disappearing into the night sky.

Li Dawei stood there, watching the lightning bolt disappear into the distance, speechless for a long time.

After a long silence, he turned around and said to the staff officer behind him, "Notify the logistics department to mobilize everyone. Call in the base's best material handling experts. This is the Azure Dragon of the East Sea, a king-level monster; we can't waste a single bit of material."

The warriors responded with a roar and swarmed toward the dragon corpse.

......

Above the East China Sea, in a silver-gray intelligent fighter jet.

Zhou Mu washed away the dragon blood from his body and floated cross-legged in the fighter jet.

"panel."

A pale golden light screen appeared in response.

[Shouyuan Furnace]

Name: Zhou Mu

Realm: Planetary Level 2 Spiritualist, Planetary Level 1 Martial Artist

Looking at the panel showing his first breakthrough and the five-figure plundered lifespan, Zhou Mu exclaimed, "The quality of the sea monsters is really high! The lifespan I accumulated from this wave of battles already surpasses the harvest from a level three beast tide!"

"It's too slow to accumulate lifespan by hunting monsters alone; it's more efficient to hunt monsters in large numbers during a monster horde."

"Panel, consuming 1 years of lifespan to continue deducing the lightning domain!"

On the panel, the characters representing the lightning field began to blur...

[Fifth Level Perfection in the Lightning Realm → Sixth Level Perfection in the Lightning Realm]

......

[Sixfold Perfection in the Lightning Realm → Sevenfold Accomplishment in the Lightning Realm]

[By consuming 10000 years of your lifespan, you will elevate your Lightning Domain to the seventh major stage of mastery!]

Your understanding of the laws of lightning has deepened.

[Understanding of the Lightning Law: Beginner (2%)]

Zhou Mu looked at the numbers on the panel and a satisfied smile appeared on his lips.

The plundered ten thousand years of lifespan allowed his domain to leap from the fifth level of perfection to the seventh level of mastery, and his comprehension of the lightning law also increased from 1% to 2%.

He closed his eyes, feeling the new power surging within him.

Seventh level of domain.

If the realm of the fifth level of perfection is a lake, then the current realm is a vast ocean!

The range expanded from five kilometers to ten kilometers, and the suppressive force more than doubled!

More importantly, while comprehending the realm, his understanding of the laws of lightning deepened. That 1% improvement may seem insignificant, but for Zhou Mu, who was only at the planetary level, it was a qualitative leap.

He opened his eyes, raised his right hand, and the electric light dancing on his fingertips was more solid and its color was deeper than before.

"With my current understanding of the laws and my domain level, I can already rival ordinary fifth or sixth-tier universe-level powerhouses!" he muttered to himself. "But my realm is still too low. I can't unleash the full power of my domain. When I unleash my domain at full power, I can only be invincible at the planetary level. Planetary level beings are not even cannon fodder in the universe."

He recalled the timeline from the original work.

There are less than three years until the Golden Horned Beast arrives.

The juvenile form of that cosmic behemoth was born at the planetary level. With its terrifying growth rate, it won't be long before it reaches the eternal level or even higher.

In the original story, humanity almost exhausted all its resources to fight him. Hong and Thor were seriously injured and on the verge of death. The five strongest people on Earth even burned their souls and cooperated with Luo Feng to use a secret technique to kill him and possess his body.

Zhou Mu's gaze gradually deepened.

Although his strength has improved by leaps and bounds, and his understanding of the laws is now comparable to that of a cosmic level, his understanding of the laws is like software; if the hardware is too weak, he cannot unleash his full potential.

We are still far from being able to confront the Golden Horned Beast head-on.

He needs to quickly improve his martial arts and mental cultivation levels; secret techniques, weapons, and life-saving methods all need to be prepared.

"Looks like I'll need to go and meet Babata after the Peak Training Camp opens!"

......

Three days later, at War Base No. 001.

Zhou Mu's fighter jet landed on the tarmac, where Li Dawei and several logistics personnel had been waiting for some time.

"Speaker Zhou," Li Dawei stepped forward and saluted, "the dragon corpse has been disposed of. The skeleton has been completely removed, and the scales, flesh, and internal organs have all been sorted and preserved as you instructed. The dragon head has been stored separately and treated with preservatives."

Zhou Mu nodded and followed him into the logistics warehouse.

In the center of the warehouse, a hundred-meter-long, dark blue dragon skeleton is displayed silently. Each bone is well-preserved, gleaming with a cold, eerie luster under the lights.

Beside it was a huge dragon head, its mouth slightly open, its fangs bared. Even though it had been dead for many days, it still exuded the residual pressure of a king-level monster.

Zhou Mu walked around the dragon skeleton once, then nodded in satisfaction: "Well done."

He raised his hand and put the dragon bone and dragon head into his spatial ring. After doing this, he turned and walked towards the fighter jet. A silver-white stream of light shot into the sky and disappeared into the clouds.

Li Dawei stood there, gazing at the receding streak of light, speechless for a long time.

……

Jiangnan Base City, Peak Training Camp.

Zhou Mu landed on the top floor of the main building, where the project manager had been waiting for a long time.

"Chief Instructor!"

Zhou Mu nodded, took out the dragon bone and dragon head from the ring, and placed them on the top-floor platform. The enormous dragon bone almost occupied half of the rooftop, and the dragon head was even more ferocious and terrifying.

The oppressive aura emanating from a king-level monster caused even the high-ranking war god in charge to feel his legs go weak.

The person in charge stared in disbelief: "This is... the Azure Dragon of the East Sea?!"

"Hmm," Zhou Mu said calmly. "Find the best sculptor to make sculptures of the dragon bones and dragon heads, and have them coiled around the main building. I want to see the finished product before the camp opens."

The person in charge swallowed hard and nodded emphatically: "Yes!"