Immortals Once Ascended to Heaven and Roamed Beyond the Stars

"Don't worry, Xiao Tu. A martial artist opening acupoints is like a traveler journeying around—the moment they reach a mountain, they open it. As long as they get there, it counts as success, theoretically speaking."

Li Hu earnestly explained it to Su Tu, even using human anatomy to explain the principles behind a martial artist opening acupoints from the ground up.

Su Tu gained a new understanding of martial artists circulating qi to open acupoints.

As qi flowed through the body, it strengthened the flesh. Once the body grew stronger, the acupoints within naturally expanded and opened, thus opening the acupoints.

Simply put, the stronger the qi circulation, the stronger the body. The stronger the body, the faster the acupoints opened. The faster the acupoints opened, the stronger the qi circulation.

It was a closed loop.

Whether it was cultivating Immortal Burial or learning Prajna Seven Kills yesterday, both had greatly increased the Proficiency of his Body Strengthening skill.

Combined with the massive amount of Proficiency he had gained while fighting Ka Sha Shi, Su Tu's physical strength had soared, resulting in him opening eleven acupoints in a row.

"Looks like Martial Dao and Body Strengthening really are a perfect match."

Martial Dao cultivation could increase the Proficiency of Body Strengthening, thereby strengthening his body, while a stronger body allowed him to open acupoints more quickly.

In other words, the harder Su Tu grinded, the greater his talent became. The greater his talent became, the less time he needed for breakthroughs, and the more he could slack off.

The harder Su Tu grinded meant the more Su Tu could slack off. What kind of damn Su family inequality was that?

Su Tu quickly shook off his inexplicable train of thought.

"Brother Tiger, what was that monster yesterday that called itself a Xie Race member?" Everything had happened too suddenly yesterday, leaving him with a bellyful of questions.

Now that Li Hu had come right to his door, Su Tu naturally would not let him go.

"Ah, you mean that 'Beast'?" Li Hu scratched his head.

"Beast?"

Hearing that word, Su Tu was somewhat puzzled. On Blue Star, beasts and animals were defined as creatures without the ability to communicate or higher intelligence.

Ka Sha Shi clearly possessed intelligence and even had something called divine favor. It seemed more like an alien race than a wild beast.

"Under the protection of the Martial God, the Federation has gained quite a few allies. Although some powerful civilizations are unwilling to establish diplomatic relations with the Federation, they will not easily provoke it either. Everyone exists in a state of mutual deterrence. If they can avoid fighting, they try to maintain peace.

"After all, if civilizations and races slaughter one another in war, it becomes easy for other civilizations to take advantage of them.

"You have to understand that interstellar wars involve battles where trillions of lives are at stake.

"So, once a civilization reaches a certain standing, it receives tacit respect, and problems are resolved peacefully." Li Hu spoke as he sat on the sofa.

What he said was easy to understand. It was like Earth in Su Tu's previous life: if countries were evenly matched in strength, then even if they disliked each other, they would not easily go to war, instead maintaining a certain balance.

Su Tu understood that, but he did not know why Li Hu had suddenly brought it up. What did the interstellar situation have to do with Beasts?

Seeing Su Tu's confusion, Li Hu did not keep him in suspense. He pursed his lips slightly and continued.

"This is how normal racial civilizations deal with other civilizations."

"But some races are exceptions. It is as though they possess an innate malice and hatred toward human civilization. Since humanity entered the Interstellar Era, they have continuously attacked the Federation, intending to destroy human civilization."

"Hatred is mutual. Whenever humans see these races, an unprecedented disgust arises within them for no reason at all. That feeling seems to emerge from the very source of our bloodline."

"It is like the instinctive revulsion people feel upon seeing cockroaches, as though it has been etched into our DNA through countless ages. Between us and those races, it is as if we are natural enemies. They spare no effort in trying to destroy human civilization, while we hunt them across the stars.

"Those who are hunted naturally have no right to be named. Thus, to humanity, no matter how advanced their race is or how sophisticated their technology may be, they have only one name.

"Beasts! Beasts hunted by humanity!"

Li Hu's voice brimmed with killing intent. The murderous urge in his words toward those Beasts seemed almost tangible, on the verge of spilling over.

It was enough to show that these "Beasts" must have inflicted enormous harm upon the Federation and humanity.

Su Tu thought of it as well. Although yesterday had been his first time meeting Ka Sha Shi, an instinctive disgust had arisen in his heart, like the nauseating sensation of biting into a sour, stinking rag. Only after killing it had that sickening feeling barely faded away.

He also remembered the unknown monster from that night. It had conveyed a deep, icy malice, so he told Li Hu about it.

Li Hu judged that he had most likely encountered a Beast then, but it had been wary of something and had not acted.

As Li Hu had said, the disgust toward the Xie Race seemed etched into human DNA. Like fear of hunger and yearning for light, it had become an ancient instinct passed down by humanity.

To imprint an instinct resembling an emotion into DNA required the accumulation of countless years.

Yet according to Li Hu, these Beasts were all alien races. Humanity had entered the Interstellar Era less than a thousand years ago, but those Beasts could provoke instinctive disgust in humans. That meant humanity had encountered these races long before leaving Blue Star, in far more ancient times.

But was that really possible?

In even more ancient times, when humanity might still have been living primitive lives, they had already encountered these interstellar races with terrifying abilities. They might even have fought them without falling behind.

Because the emotion planted in human instinct was disgust, not fear. If ancient humans had been helpless against these interstellar monsters, the enormous disparity would have planted fear in their DNA.

Just as newborn antelopes would cower and tremble at the roar of a tiger.

Su Tu understood better than anyone how disgusting and troublesome Ka Sha Shi's abilities were. He had no idea what methods humanity had possessed in even more distant times to contend with such monsters.

Moreover, the emergence of this emotion revealed many things.

"Could these Beasts once have been creatures from Earth?" Su Tu asked. Only that possibility could explain why humans instinctively felt disgust toward them.

Perhaps a racial war had occurred on Blue Star long ago, and those Beasts had lost before somehow ending up in the universe.

Li Hu shook his head. "At first, many Federation higher-ups had the same idea as you. Federation scientists dissected and studied these Beasts to see whether there were any traces of Blue Star within them. After all, as long as something had once existed there, no matter how many millions of times it evolved, it would leave behind its original traces.

"But there are no traces of Blue Star on these Beasts at all. They are interstellar races by nature. There is no doubt about that."

Hearing Li Hu's words, Su Tu frowned. Since these races had never appeared on the Ancestral Star, why did humanity possess such deep-rooted disgust toward them? Could it be... that humanity had left Blue Star for the universe long ago, at the very beginning of its origin?

"No, that's impossible." Su Tu lowered his gaze, rejecting the thought.

How many years had it taken humanity to leave Blue Star? How many generations of technological updates and iterations had it taken before they barely reached the universe? Then, only after spending several more centuries researching wormhole jumps had they gained the ability to travel freely through the boundless cosmos.

How could people in those backward eras have left Blue Star, ventured into the universe, and even hunted those races? What, were they supposed to throw a worn-out shoe into the sky and ride it up? Somersault their way into space?

Seeing his junior brother's expression, Li Hu guessed what Su Tu was thinking. He smiled faintly and said, "Since you've thought of it, why not say it?"

"Before human technology had developed, in that age when ancient rites were practiced and old systems upheld, immortals once ascended to heaven and roamed beyond the stars!"