Star God

Changfeng Martial Hall had rented an entire floor of nearly three thousand square meters in an office building downtown, a clear sign of its considerable wealth.

They had also rented rooms in Yunsheng Apartment across from the office building.

Li Pin moved in that very day.

It was a fifty-six-square-meter single room.

Taibai had no shared-area allocation.

Even counting the twenty-square-meter quiet room specially partitioned off for martial artists, the apartment was spacious for one person.

After a busy afternoon spent moving, Li Pin treated Fang Yubai and Shanhu, whom he had come to know through a fight, to a meal. That officially marked his employment at Changfeng Martial Hall.

Night fell.

Li Pin returned to the apartment and settled his mind.

Having a private space entirely his own counted as a new beginning.

He entered the quiet room, whose floor was covered in thick rubber mats, and recalled the boxing methods he had practiced.

Back then, without guidance from a famous master, the manuals he had studied had drawn on the strengths of countless schools...

Or rather, they had been patched together from east and west, yet he had still created a training method and fighting style of his own.

The fighting style was Eight Fiends True Fire Strength.

The training method was Mysterious Gate of Profound Yin.

At its highest level, it could Embrace Qi into Dan.

Of course, he had failed to Embrace Qi into Dan, so whether the Mysterious Gate of Profound Yin could truly reach that stage still remained to be proven.

"Ming Jin, An Jin, Hua Jin, Dan Jin, and Gang Jin all refer to the application of force. Though I have not Embraced Qi into Dan, I can use the Mysterious Gate of Profound Yin to embrace yin and charge yang, visualize the Eight Fiends to ignite the heart-fire, and strike with Dan Jin."

Li Pin understood this point perfectly.

But it held no meaning for him as he was now.

Without Embracing Qi into Dan, without his force becoming a unified whole, relying entirely on explosive qi and blood to produce an imitation Dan Jin through Eight Fiends True Fire Strength was equivalent to overloading his body.

Even at his peak, using it once or twice would drain his qi and blood and damage his muscles and bones.

Back then, he had sparred with a Hua Jin martial artist. After losing, the other man had borne a grudge and hired experts to surround and kill him. Li Pin had unleashed three Dan Jin strikes in succession, fighting his way out of the encirclement, but damaging his foundation and planting the seed for his later failure to Embrace Qi into Dan.

Dan Jin was already like this; Gang Jin was even more perilous.

For Gang Jin to erupt, the five viscera and six bowels had to resonate together. If one's lungs and internal organs were not strong enough, before the Gang Jin could even be unleashed, internal bleeding would strike first, leaving one gravely injured.

In severe cases, death came on the spot.

"The physique is the root. Only when the physique works with explosive force, when strength and technique combine, can a martial artist truly display their power."

Li Pin calmed himself, adjusted his breathing, circulated the Mysterious Gate of Profound Yin, and supplemented it with the Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound Technique. His body trembled continuously, as though every cell had been set into motion.

The process was as familiar as driving along a well-traveled road, and it posed no difficulty to him.

After a full half hour, Li Pin completed a round of training. Though he had not exercised violently, sweat had already soaked his entire body.

After a moment, he adjusted his breathing, then focused his mind and slowly immersed himself in sensing his own body.

The fusion of his souls seemed to have produced some kind of talent, giving him a level of awareness of himself so precise it was beyond belief.

Within only a few minutes, he had determined how much this training session had improved his physical strength.

"If I use the physique and qi-blood strength units provided by the Martial Arts Association as a measure..."

Li Pin converted the figures. "This round of training raised my qi and blood from 16.113 to 16.127, an increase of 0.014. Strictly speaking, it was 0.01466..."

If he wished, he could precisely track the figures to ten decimal places, thirty decimal places, or even a hundred decimal places.

This level of precision...

Even though it was not his first time testing it, his emotions still surged and churned.

Science simply could not explain such a phenomenon.

But transmigration had already happened to him. What did science or not science matter anymore?

"With my current nutritional intake, I can train six rounds a day. The final qi-blood increase would be 0.08796... Keeping three decimal places and rounding it, that becomes 0.088. In one month, that would be 2.64 points."

Five months later, his qi-blood strength would reach 29.328.

That corresponded exactly to the peak of Hua Jin—the threshold for Embracing Qi into Dan.

However...

"That is only in theory. Over the past half month, I have continuously improved it. The daily qi-blood increase from the Mysterious Gate of Profound Yin has risen from 0.035 to 0.088. The rate of improvement has slowed somewhat now, but reaching 0.1 will not be difficult. If I add some martial training herbs and increase the number of cultivation sessions, it might reach 0.15 a day. In a little over two months, I could attempt Embrace Dan."

No guidance from a famous master? No supreme inheritance?

The feedback from his own body was the best teacher.

Li Pin did not begin a second round of cultivation afterward.

He took a shower, changed clothes, turned on the computer he had moved from the dormitory, and logged onto Taibai's most popular Martial Arts Website.

The moment he entered the site, a window popped up.

Taibai was planning to launch a campaign to purge the ferocious beasts and Demonic Beasts of Death Valley, recruiting martial artists to venture deep inside and investigate.

Gaia Star covered more than two hundred million square kilometers, yet two-thirds of it consisted of wild mountains and remote ridges occupied by ferocious beasts and Demonic Beasts.

The source of it all was...

The Star God.

A high-dimensional lifeform whose greatness could not be described by ten thousand languages.

Its radiance filled the entire solar system.

Ninety-three years ago, after some people of "aptitude" beheld this great, vast existence through visualization, fear, chaos, madness, and despair rapidly spread.

Order collapsed.

Countless wars erupted because of It.

Three years later, the wars also ended because of It.

The weapons of war humanity had been so proud of suddenly began suffering increasingly frequent malfunctions.

Gunpowder failed, cannons exploded in their barrels, warships broke down, and instruments malfunctioned.

Because...

The "atoms," Bathing in Starlight, had developed consciousness and drawn close to the Star God.

When weapons and instruments attacked Star Refiners who had visualized the Star God and Bathed in Starlight with hostile intent, the atoms resisted. Malfunctions became frequent, and those destroyed first were often the users themselves.

The wars were forced to draw to a close.

From then on, the era of the Star God arrived.

And humanity was not the only thing Bathing in Starlight.

Beasts, plants, birds, and animals—every living thing on Gaia received its share of rain and dew.

Humanity's living space shrank again and again.

The world remained in turmoil for twenty years.

Until seventy years ago, when the first batch of Star Refiners stepped onto the world stage and led the armies of various nations against the ferocious beasts and Demonic Beasts, only then did the present-day order take shape.

The Tianyuan Federation was the product of the alliance of various nations during those thirty years of upheaval.

Together with Great Shang, the Empire, the Star Alliance, Sunflare, and the Thirty-Six Nations of the East Sea, it was known as the Six Poles of the World.

Li Pin glanced at the terms offered for recruiting martial artists.

Depending on strength, daily pay ranged from tens of thousands to millions.

Any special discovery also came with generous bonuses based on its value, with the highest reaching hundreds of millions.

But after one glance, he looked away.

"Demonic Beasts and Star Refiners stem from the same source. They will sense each other when close, so martial artists have to conduct the reconnaissance. But... this is work done with one's life on the line."

Li Pin closed the pop-up window, entered the site, and searched for videos of the few Dan Jin Masters and Gang Jin grandmasters making their moves.

In truth, there was no need to search.

The videos of every Dan Jin Master and Gang Jin grandmaster were hugely popular, effortlessly starting at over a million views.

He searched by view count. Aside from a few ridiculous videos, the quality of what he found was generally quite good.

Some videos even discussed insights into Dan Jin and experience with Gang Jin that he had sought in vain on Blue Star.

Though they were mainly meant to draw traffic and lacked a coherent system, they were still better than Blue Star, where he could not even find a living Gang Jin grandmaster.

"What a flourishing age for martial arts."

Li Pin sighed from the bottom of his heart.

He browsed for a while and soon found a video titled "A Detailed Explanation of Embrace Dan."

The uploader had a string of certifications.

Associate Senior Title certification from the Jiangzhou Martial Arts Association, vice president of the Yunguang City Martial Arts Association, master of Iron Sword Martial Hall, direct successor of Divine Ape Thirteen Swords, veteran martial artist Master Luo.

"A provincial-level Martial Arts Association professional certification?"

Provincial professional certifications had always been watered down.

An Associate Senior Title only required one to strike with Dan Jin.

When he clicked in, he found that the man truly was a genuine Dan Jin Master.

But after watching for only one minute, the video abruptly cut off.

"A paid video?"

Li Pin paused.

The half-hour video was not expensive—just ten yuan.

He registered an account. As for the ID...

After thinking for a moment, he entered the four words: "Hundred Thousand Star Years."

Then he paid to watch it.

The video content brought Li Pin some delight.

Although the things Master Luo explained were relatively basic, they would be of considerable help in perfecting the Embrace Dan realm of the Mysterious Gate of Profound Yin.

He could try to address its shortcomings bit by bit.

"I was narrow-minded. As I am now, I do not necessarily have to fight a Dan Jin Master to comprehend how qi and blood can Embrace Dan."

After watching it through, Li Pin continued browsing videos on the application of Dan Jin.

Every one of these videos eventually led to recruitment advertisements for martial hall disciples, claiming that only hands-on instruction could let someone quickly enter the martial path.

But once one truly registered and paid, it was already considered honest and decent if the hall master showed up once a month.

In the time that followed, Li Pin's life clearly became more regular.

In the mornings, he went to Changfeng Martial Hall to practice.

From time to time, Shanhu came to exchange moves with him.

In the afternoons, he took time to teach several rich young men who had been driven to martial arts like ducks forced onto a perch.

Though Taibai's social environment was relatively stable and it had not experienced war for sixty years, the danger had not disappeared. The older generation in particular had lived through the turbulent years and lacked any sense of security. With insufficient aptitude, they could only devote themselves to martial arts.

If they could not make it themselves, they pushed their descendants to do so.

Though the several wealthy young men wore miserable expressions every time they practiced, they did not dare skip out.

Teaching them also allowed Li Pin to review the old and gain new understanding.

After teaching his disciples, he cultivated at night while watching videos.

On Blue Star, Li Pin had relied entirely on burying his head in hard training and had encountered only a few Dan Jin Masters. Yet now, simply watching videos gave him insights at every turn.

By observing others' application of Dan Jin and combining it with his own Eight Fiends True Fire Strength to make improvements, his command of Dan Jin circulation became increasingly natural and effortless.

One morning, a month later.

Changfeng Martial Hall.

Before the coaches had arrived for work.

Boom!

Accompanied by a thunderous roar.

Li Pin, whose physique had not yet fully recovered, struck his first blow in this world that matched the explosive force of Dan Jin.

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