Swallowing the Stars: Starting with the Battle of Geniuses

Chapter 82 The Limits of Talent, Fourth Contingency Plan (Bonus Chapter)

"What an amazing talent!"

As the days went by, even with Aisa's perspective, she couldn't help but sigh.

Even the most difficult and obscure questions, after her guidance, Hunzhen could gain some understanding.

It's really...

What Isa thought was a day of digestion time was actually ten years of primordial universe digestion by the simulated humans.

In reality, Hunzhen was regarded as a peerless genius by Aisa, while the simulated human in the simulation record was naturally the number one idiot.

It's estimated that he was verbally abused by his strict teacher, Aisha, more than once.

"You? First place in the Genius Battle? Are you saying your entire grade is a bunch of idiots? Or did you get into the Primal Secret Realm through connections?!"

Hunzhen could easily imagine that exhilarating scene.

"But what does this have to do with me, the undisputed champion of the Genius Battle and a peerless genius?"

That being said, Hunzhen did indeed feel the bottleneck brought about by his talent.

As the arrival time in Chaos City draws closer, the simulated human can spend more time cultivating there. The cultivation benefits of each simulation increase as the human gets closer to Chaos City.

In reality, Hunzhen's talent should be gradually increasing, and his cultivation speed should be getting faster and faster... That's the correct way to put it.

However, the reality is that in the past few years, after he truly mastered the laws of space, he seemed to have reached the limit of some kind of talent, and his cultivation speed dropped sharply.

After Cong Haixuan finished, he spent more than half a year completing the introduction to the laws of space. After the "Ten Thousand Flows" reached the perfect level of the Hundred Flows, it took several more years. By the end of the Genius Battle, when he exerted all his strength in his movement technique, he could only manifest more than two hundred illusory bodies at the same time.

Of course, this is partly due to his later shift in research focus to the laws of spatial containment. But even if he were to shift his focus back to the laws of teleportation now, reaching three hundred illusory bodies would likely be his limit.

"If the laws of space are like this, it's no wonder that even when simulating death, people refuse to study the laws of time."

Using a time-simulating talent, he independently researched the laws of time acceleration, estimating that this situation would occur upon reaching a hundredfold acceleration. Reaching a speed of two hundred times, the same level as two hundred illusory bodies, would likely mean making no progress for centuries.

Once Hunzhen enters Chaos City and chooses the Cosmic Chaos Stele, it is foreseeable that his understanding of time will experience an explosive growth.

Conversely, a lack of spatial awareness can completely drag things down and become a hindrance.

However, Hunzhen did not intend to abandon the laws of space and truly become Bolan's version of the laws of time.

Having used top-tier bloodline evolution potions, absorbed the Chaos True Spirit, and received training from the Virtual Universe Company, even without the simulation system, Hunzhen has already surpassed the vast majority of universe citizens.

With their own talent and background, plus the three thousand times the cultivation time of the simulation system, they can comprehend a lower-level law and achieve immortality; it's just a matter of how fast or slow.

With his innate talent for time as a foundation, Hunzhen believes that becoming a powerful immortal wouldn't be too difficult. As for comprehending the laws of time and becoming a cosmic venerable?

Bolan's talent in space alone is comparable to that of geniuses spanning tens of millions of epochs, and even the rulers of the universe only say that he has the potential to become a Venerable One.

Hunzhen didn't want to make any definitive statements. If someone asked him, he would only say, "I think my chances of becoming the Time Venerable are a tiny bit greater than Bolan's chances of becoming the Space Venerable."

But at least, the path of the Venerable One is now clearly visible.

Hunzhen is the type who always starts planning for the future well in advance.

With the Time Master now "stable," his considerations naturally progressed to a more advanced level.

His ambition has long since ceased to be immortality or a supreme being; it is to become the master of the universe!

Hunzhen had no sense of awe or fear of "taking too big a step and tearing his balls".

"I've already met the prerequisites to become the Time Master. The rest depends on my own comprehension and effort, so why shouldn't I dare to dream of becoming the Lord of the Universe!?"

This is Hunzhen's truest thought.

Therefore, Hunzhen could not possibly abandon the spatial laws he had already begun to accumulate.

Instead, we need to go even further!

Hunzhen had a total of four planning plans four and a half years after the preliminary selection.

Firstly, the focus is on strengthening and enhancing the willpower of the simulated humans.

The improvement of willpower is a gradual process. So far, through this plan, he has been able to reach a consciousness strength of nearly level 7 at the sixth level of the universe level with his first-level universe-level mental power.

The amplitude of consciousness reached 70 times!

Secondly, we are trying a path that combines time and space.

The result is the mastery of the third level of the Yuan Shen Weapon, the Yuan Guang Style, and the ultimate move "Arc Light Leap"!

Third, collect information about immortal teachers to form a codebook, and find the teacher who is most suitable for you.

The result is Isa, who is now teaching him.

And the last fourth item—

Information on "Special Life Forms".

After encountering Yan Yu's attempt to possess him and discovering that the simulation system could instantly replenish lost energy, Hunzhen conceived the idea of ​​possessing a higher-level life form.

Having such an ability means that as long as the gap between him and the target of his possession is not so great that his soul will be completely destroyed within a day, he can achieve absolute success in possession!

Possessing too many bodies will result in cosmic restrictions, or as described in cultivation novels, "incurring the jealousy of the heavens."

Not only does the difficulty of possession increase dramatically with each attempt, but after a certain number of attempts, the spirit and body may not be able to fully merge, the understanding of the laws will decline, and one is destined to be unable to break through to immortality.

Such restrictions are only natural.

Otherwise, some powerful forces could even capture ten races that are proficient in different laws, and use them to possess the past, changing bodies before each law reaches the critical point of achieving immortality.

Within the last body, one chooses to break through the bottlenecks one by one.

Having thoroughly comprehended all ten laws, one can greatly reduce the difficulty of becoming a true god through this unorthodox shortcut.

It is important to understand that comprehending the Ten Laws is one of the prerequisites for mastering the Laws of Chaos. With a foundation in the laws, the difficulty of developing ways to apply them and creating sixth-order secret techniques naturally decreases dramatically.

They might even be able to mass-produce true gods after acquiring the inheritance of advanced civilizations.

Such a thing would be impossible for the primordial universe and even the supreme rules to allow.

Hunzhen had considered having the simulated human possess another body to circumvent this restriction.

But then two problems arise.

In the world of Swallowed Star, possession is not simply about changing one's physical body.

For example, Luo Feng, after possessing the Golden Horned Beast, was also influenced by the Golden Horned Beast and became more inclined to kill.

Genetic multiplier is not only a multiplier of physical strength, but also a multiplier of mental strength. Of course, there are some special powers in this universe, such as the "Black Warrior" who can increase their body's genetic multiplier to ten times its original value, and some special life forms that also have innate secret techniques to enhance mental or physical strength, but these are all additional bonuses.

Possession is ultimately a simultaneous change of both the soul and the body.

When simulating inheritance, should we choose material inheritance or soul inheritance?

Isn't this a bug?

Based on Hunzhen's many years of simulation experience, the most likely outcome is...

Choosing material inheritance means either "resetting your peak state" or "advancing your life level." Because the soul and body are incompatible, it basically leads to a collapse and death like Zaro did before. Material inheritance, at most, involves filtering and transforming the other person's overall energy, which is higher than one's own, into an advancement in life level.

Choosing soul inheritance usually only allows one to inherit the experience and insights gained from the possession, without allowing the original soul to be transformed by the possessed object first. In the previous case, if the spirit and body are incompatible, the simulation system will actively eliminate outcomes that could lead to the original soul's death.

Only when matter and soul change simultaneously can a complete possession take place.

In theory, a simulation system that can only select one option per simulation cannot allow Hunzhen to inherit the result of the possession.

At the same time, a question naturally arose in Hunzhen's mind.

"If I break through to immortality and my soul and body completely merge, will the simulation system change?"

This question is still too far removed from Hunzhen's mind; it only briefly surfaced before he dismissed it.

Aside from the limitation that simulated inheritance can only be chosen in one way, Ran Hun really dared not rashly try something with unknown consequences. The second problem was...

Given the simulated human's personality, there is no simulation system that can instantly replenish "mana," and he would definitely not do something as risky as possession.

Not to mention that Hunzhen is targeting special life forms; a tiny simulated human attempting to possess another's body would almost certainly die.

Under these constraints, Hunzhen could only initiate the possession process himself and then use the instantaneous return ability of the simulation system to make countless simulated people die for him in order to achieve the success of the possession.

This inevitably leads to the limitations imposed by the rules of the universe and the supreme rules.

Therefore, even Hunzhen planned to choose the best target during the first possession and not consider a second possession.

In any case, for Hunzhen, the most important thing is that the target of possession has a high talent for spatial laws. If it takes a long time to find a suitable special life form, it is not unacceptable to choose an ordinary life form with a high talent for spatial laws as a second-best option.

With both time and space talents, his probability of becoming the master of the universe naturally increases exponentially.

Unfortunately, Hunzhen was not the only one who wanted to seize the body of a highly gifted life and ascend to heaven in one step.

Countless people have spent tens of thousands, even tens of millions of epochs, trying to find a special life form below immortality, no longer caring about their innate talents, and still unable to find a suitable target.

Even with Hunzhen's advanced knowledge, more than three thousand times the time, and the privileges of a member of the Primal Secret Realm, there is still no sign of the target so far.

"The battle of geniuses is over, and there's no rush for the long cultivation period ahead. We can take our time to find a suitable target for possession."

"Thirty years in Chaos City, during which time I focused on the laws of time, striving to showcase my talent, and apprenticed myself to a high-ranking and powerful figure. The level of one's social standing determines the size of their information cocoon; by transcending these levels, one can obtain information that was previously inaccessible..."

He never doubted or wavered about whether his talent could attract important figures at the level of a cosmic ruler or above.

His goal has always been clear.

Having made up his mind, Hunzhen returned to his cultivation once again.

The latest novel is first published here!

Looking at Aisa's earnest instruction, Hunzhen couldn't be more satisfied.

Although this old woman always acted like a menopausal woman before the application was approved, even Hunzhen's blood pressure rose during their argument.

But after he actually agreed to be his teacher, Aisha was very dedicated and taught him everything he knew.

The benefits of a suitable teacher to students are obvious.

Before Hunzhen locked onto Aisa, the Sims mostly chose Immortal teachers who specialized in two of the three elements: "fire," "wind," and "space," which naturally couldn't solve any problems related to the combination of space and time.

After changing teachers, his progress in combining time and space has been incredibly rapid compared to before.

Many doubts can be easily resolved with just a few pointers and a few simulations by the simulator.

"I've watched all your videos from the Genius Battle."

Inside the training ground, it was another routine Q&A session.

Unlike in the past, this time Aisa did not let Hunzhen "figure it out on his own" after the Q&A session. Instead, she beckoned and started playing a video of the Genius Battle in the training ground.

It is the scene of the final battle between Hunzhen and Bolan.

"Tsk tsk, 'Arc Transition'? Your taste in names is terrible..."

As the video played, showing Hunzhen's conversation with Bolan as he unleashed his final attack, Aisa paused the video, chuckled, and gave a playful look.

Hunzhen's face immediately darkened: "Teacher, you deliberately stopped at this point; it shouldn't be related to the following teaching content, right?"

"What?! It's alright now?!"

Aisa glared and clapped his hands in the air, causing the ground to cave in.

She said, "You idiot! This is crucial to whether I call it 'that teleportation ray' or your lame move name!"

"No, you deliberately stopped playing here to mock me! Besides, what's wrong with the sound of 'Arc Transition'!?"

Hunzhen cursed inwardly, but ultimately couldn't be bothered to argue with this menopausal old woman.

Seeing that Chunzhen didn't retort, Aisa lost interest in teasing him and said with a smirk, "It's clear that your understanding of the laws of time and space is extremely solid, and your use of the primordial weapon has transcended the rigid application of a beginner. There are 108 fundamental mysteries in both time and space; you must have mastered at least ten of each to be able to use such a trick to make light appear to teleport almost instantaneously. Hmm, your idea is good, but... it's still too conservative!"

Suddenly, Aisha pointed, and a transparent sphere appeared.

"Primordial Spirit Weapon!"

Hunzhen's pupils contracted slightly, and he looked at Aisa with excitement: "Teacher, you're finally going to demonstrate it yourself?"

Aisa smiled slightly, and instead of answering, asked, "Hunzhen, would you like to use this move directly without relying on splitting multiple primordial spirit weapons to gain power?"

Hunzhen's eyes lit up.

time flies.

When Hunzhen sought guidance from Aisa, he took advantage of the time before arriving at Chaos City to delve into the combination of spacetime laws and the use of primordial divine weapons.

The other geniuses also eagerly absorbed the nutrients from the initial points issued by the Virtual Universe Company.

……

Inside the training room, Rong Jun brandished his battle sword wildly, drenched in sweat, yet his gaze remained unwavering: "My opponent isn't just Bolan, but also Hunzhen!"

Putting aside his naive and unruly personality, just based on what I learned from our conversations recently, his title as the number one genius is well-deserved!

……

Inside the quiet room, Luo Feng sat cross-legged with his eyes closed. Before him, the Divine Weapon moved at high speed, and the combinations between the golden swords kept changing, emitting all sorts of mysterious auras.

suddenly!

With a whoosh, the three golden swords linked together, slicing through the void and emitting a clear sword hum.

Luo Feng suddenly opened his eyes, his expression calm, but his eyes flashed with thoughts: "The Blood Flowing Manual is truly profound. Lian Luo is truly gifted to create such a manual."

besides……

A strange glint flashed in Luo Feng's eyes: "It's not just the Bloodstained Manual; Hunzhen can so accurately pinpoint the key points and essentials of these texts and recommend them to us. Compared to Hunzhen, we are like students and mentors!"

Seeing only a glimpse of the whole picture, Luo Feng truly realized the chasm-like gap between them.

……

On a desolate plain in the primeval region, Berlan stood with his eyes closed, the wind rustling the grass around him, the blades of grass faintly emitting a gray, decaying time-like fluctuation.

"Berlan, are you still planning to travel through time with us?"

A tall, thin man interrupted Berlan's meditation and questioned him.

"teacher."

Berlan opened his eyes and bowed slightly.

No answer is an answer in itself.

"madness."

The man sneered, "I remember there was someone from your generation named Hunzhen, who has already surpassed you."

Berlan's body trembled slightly.

The man said calmly, "His talent in spatial laws is not as good as yours. If you start to focus on spatial laws now, you still have a chance not to be left far behind by him."

Berlan raised his head, recalling the defeat not long ago, and a hint of wavering and confusion flashed in his eyes.

But in an instant, the confusion dissipated, and determination returned.

Bolan remembered that Hunzhen had also traveled through the same time and space.

"Remember the choice you made today."

The man shook his head and turned to leave.

……

It is also the original area.

Longyun muttered to herself, "I've already become a member of the Primal Secret Realm, with more resources. One step ahead, always ahead... I will prove that I, Longyun, am no less capable than anyone else!"

Each genius, with their own thoughts, immersed themselves in years of cultivation.

Then, three years passed...

at last!

The geniuses who made it onto the list of the top 1,000 in the Genius Battle have arrived in Chaos City!

Two chapters, over 9 words, who still says I'm lacking!?

(End of this chapter)