A New Beginning

Luo Zhiyuan regained consciousness from the chaos once again. He slowly sensed his surroundings, wanting to check the state of the twin souls and see if his physical body had recovered. Gradually, he sensed two familiar fluctuations very close to him. Oh, it was those two mischievous twins; it seemed they were fine, which was a relief.

His consciousness extended further. Hmm, this sensation—it must be the feeling of a body. There were no injuries; his torso and limbs were intact. Not bad. Thank goodness, no major disaster had occurred. Otherwise, it wouldn't just be his own death; he would have also caused Luo Feng to be left without heirs, which would be a grave sin. After all, in the world of Swallowed Star, these were the only two sons Luo Feng had.

Wait, why are the three of us souls in the same body?

Before he could figure out what was happening, the souls of Luo Zhiyuan and the twins were pulled together by an irresistible force, beginning to blend and merge.

This terrified Luo Zhiyuan completely, but he was powerless to resist. He could only keep muttering, Please, don't let me be wiped out this time. I just got a new body and haven't done anything yet. A magnificent world is waiting for me to explore...

One hour...

Two hours...

Early the next morning, Luo Zhiyuan woke up once again. Well, once again. He realized that this time he was truly awake because he opened his eyes.

It felt as if several centuries had passed since he last used his eyes to view the world. Before he could even begin to marvel at how beautiful the world was, a flood of memories surged into his mind.

First were the memories of the twins. It turned out they had been coexisting within the newborn body, sharing it and communicating with each other. All these memories, including their emotions, were transmitted to Luo Zhiyuan in one go.

Then, a mysterious pressure, as if coming from the distant horizon, appeared in Luo Zhiyuan's heart. He felt a solemn and majestic mental pressure that made him feel like less than an ant—barely even a speck of dust—in front of it.

This mysterious pressure imparted some inherited memories to him, letting him know that he was now someone with a "golden finger," as there were three innate secret techniques deep within his soul: Soul Fusion, External Incarnation, and Flowing Time. They were a combat technique, a survival technique, and a cultivation technique, respectively.

Luo Zhiyuan roughly organized these memories. Although he didn't fully understand the specifics of these three innate techniques, he had a general idea. To figure them out, it seemed he would need to experiment a few more times. But how did he have innate secret techniques? Weren't those usually reserved for the extremely rare races or special lifeforms in the universe? Those beings were favored by the origin will of the universe; because they were so few in number, they were granted such survival techniques.

Could it be that after I transmigrated, the origin will of the universe discovered me and, knowing I am a unique lifeform in this universe, granted me these innate techniques to give me more means of survival? After all, strictly speaking, I should be the only transmigrator in this universe, right? It was unclear, so he would think about it later. In any case, it was his gain.

Luo Zhiyuan suddenly remembered that he had just passively performed a Soul Fusion, which had simply merged away the souls of Luo Feng's two sons. However, Soul Fusion would form a soul space within the sea of consciousness. After pulling the other party's soul in, a weaker soul would be directly merged, while those of equal or greater strength could be destroyed and devoured using other methods.

Soul Fusion would enhance his spiritual energy and consciousness strength, and he could choose to possess the other party's memories and emotions. He now possessed all the memories and emotions of the twins, which made him feel a genuine sense of apology toward Luo Feng and Xu Xin.

Although Luo Zhiyuan did not actively kill their sons, the souls of those two little ones had indeed disappeared. Therefore, he chose to retain all the emotions and memories of those young souls and integrate them into his own. In this way, he began to treat Luo Feng and Xu Xin as his own family. He then accepted the two people who were still strangers to him with a sense of relief—though, of course, he wouldn't treat them as his parents, perhaps just as a "nanny dad" and "nanny mom."

Now, Luo Zhiyuan felt somewhat comforted. Because of a twist of fate, his name was still Luo Zhiyuan; otherwise, being called "Pingping" or "Xiaohai" would have been very awkward. This was the name his old man had given him, telling him it was a tribute to the Zhiyuan ship. Now, it was ironic that he had really disappeared in that world—a prophecy fulfilled.

Soon, Luo Zhiyuan began to worry again. He found that he couldn't control this body well. He clearly wanted to sit up, but when he got halfway, he tipped over to the side and bumped his nose. He didn't want to cry, really, but the body started crying uncontrollably on its own.

Luo Feng soon appeared by his side. Seeing that he had bumped his nose, he began to tease him without a shred of sympathy.

"Oh my, our little Zhiyuan is already one year old, why are you still such a crybaby? Aren't you ashamed? Haha!"

Luo Zhiyuan looked at Luo Feng with teary eyes, wanting to say he didn't mean to cry, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he cried even louder. It was all this disobedient body's fault!

Soon, Xu Xin also came over. Seeing Luo Feng teasing little Zhiyuan, she rolled her eyes at him and hurried to pick up little Zhiyuan. As she walked, she said, "Little Zhiyuan, don't cry anymore. If you cry, your nose will get crooked and you won't look handsome. Daddy isn't comforting us, so we'll punish Daddy by making him cook breakfast!" Luo Feng had no choice but to rub his nose and accept his fate.

After a terrible breakfast, Luo Zhiyuan was carried by Luo Feng to the grass in the residential garden to do some physical training. After nearly three months of nurturing, little Zhiyuan's physical fitness was already very good. It was estimated that in another two months, he would reach the fighter level, which was the apprentice level. A fighter who was just over a year old—if word got out, it would surely shock the teeth off many people on Earth.

Luo Zhiyuan tried hard to control his body. After adapting to using a spoon and chopsticks during breakfast, he could barely manage to control his body without major issues. He followed Luo Feng's instructions to do stretching exercises, then flexibility exercises, and then began a game of chasing a ball.

Yes, it was that kind of game used to tease cats and dogs, but Luo Feng was using spiritual energy to control the ball, making it roll irregularly on the grass, while Luo Zhiyuan kept chasing after it.

Luo Zhiyuan didn't know how many times he had rolled his eyes at Luo Feng. If it weren't for the fact that this helped him speed up his proficiency in controlling his body, he would have ignored Luo Feng and let him play by himself!

After nearly an hour, Luo Zhiyuan was quite familiar with this body, though only after falling down many times. He was covered in sweat and grass clippings. No matter how good his physical fitness was, he was still a child, and his stamina was limited. So, he just lay on the ground and refused to get up.

Luo Feng felt that was enough for the day. Seeing little Zhiyuan covered in sweat, he tacitly allowed this behavior.

Luo Zhiyuan, lying on the ground, suddenly thought of a question. He didn't know what time it was now. He only knew from the vague memories of the two little ones that he should be over a year old, but he didn't know which part of the plot they were in. This was a bit bad; Earth had some big trouble during this period!

So, Luo Zhiyuan rolled over and walked to Luo Feng's side, asking while panting slightly, "Dad... what... time is it now? I mean... when is... my birthday?"

"Hahaha, what's wrong? You just had your birthday yesterday, and you're asking when your birthday is today? It's a long way off. Did you not eat enough cake yesterday? It's okay, there's still some at home; you can keep eating when we go back!"

"Okay, I want to eat more." So, I just turned one yesterday? That means Luo Feng hasn't left Earth yet. If I remember correctly, Luo Feng's first trip to Mars should be in the winter. Good! Knowing the timeline makes me feel at ease. Now, I can plan some things.

Over the next few days, Luo Zhiyuan accepted Luo Feng's various teasing—including, but not limited to, chasing the ball—well, let's call it exercise—while integrating more harmoniously into the Luo Family. In his spare time, he began to recall the troubles that would soon appear on Earth.

Hmm... First, before the end of the year, Luo Feng would go to Mars for a trip and make a small fortune. Then, next spring, Hong and Thunder God would wake up and cultivate with Luo Feng. After he turned two, Luo Feng would reach an alien civilization's planet for the first time, beginning his first intimate contact with cosmic civilization. Then, on November 23, 2062, Earth would welcome its first wave of alien explorers—the kind with ill intentions.

Although Earth's first intimate contact with aliens was successfully resolved by Luo Feng, the second wave of people three months later would cause huge problems, throwing the whole world into chaos. Once that crisis was over, Earth would be temporarily free of trouble.

So, calculating it, there was still nearly a year and a half. During this time, Luo Zhiyuan planned to cultivate as quickly as possible. At the very least, he needed some self-preservation ability. Otherwise, if something happened and he wasn't sent to a survival base by the cosmic slaves Luo Feng bought in time, it would be extremely dangerous. Luo Zhiyuan didn't want to lose his life.

But how could he achieve self-preservation in a year and a half? Time was too tight; he hadn't even reached the fighter level yet. Time... right, the innate technique Flowing Time was a cultivation technique. He didn't know how effective it was, but he could try it.

Thinking of it, he did it. Luo Zhiyuan found an opportunity during a nap when no adults were watching and used Flowing Time on himself for the first time in his bedroom.

A very mysterious feeling flashed through Luo Zhiyuan's heart. It was impossible to describe accurately; it was as if the whole world had been slowed down. Even the curtains dancing in the wind were slowed, and he could clearly see the curtains rising and falling with the wind bit by bit.

But when he tried to make a move himself, he found that he was also slowed down, though it was slightly better than the outside world. It was a contradictory feeling; it seemed only his mental intent was unaffected.

Then, a realization came: his physical fitness was too poor. Once his body reached the planetary level, his physical movements would be able to keep up with his mind. At that time, he would be able to use Flowing Time to accelerate his own time flow and gain more time to cultivate. However, the inherited memory stated that the time flow could only be accelerated by a maximum of 10 times, which was enough.

Flowing Time lasted for about a minute before it interrupted itself because the energy in Luo Zhiyuan's body was insufficient to continue. Luo Zhiyuan felt extremely exhausted, his whole body was weak, and he had difficulty breathing, accompanied by a severe headache. Just as he was panicking, a surge of energy emerged from deep within his mind and began to nourish his entire body.

This... could this be spiritual energy? Have I awakened my spiritual energy? Luo Zhiyuan couldn't move a muscle; he could only feel the energy from his mind transforming and improving his body.

Luo Zhiyuan's body kept evolving under the transformation of this energy. He couldn't speak or move, only occasionally twitching or showing signs of blood seeping through his skin, and he involuntarily let out some soft moans.

Luo Feng, who was chatting with his family in the next room, was the first to notice the movement. Thinking little Zhiyuan had woken up, he came over to check, only to be shocked to see him covered in sweat and bloodstains.

In a panic, he quickly called Babata to check. After scanning little Zhiyuan's body for a while, Babata said to Luo Feng in a relaxed tone, "Yo, your little guy really has great talent. He's starting to awaken his spiritual energy at one year old. Don't worry, this is his first awakening of spiritual energy; he's cleansing his marrow and improving his physical fitness. It's a good thing. After this, he should enter the apprentice level and can officially start cultivating. Not bad, not bad, a bright future ahead, haha!"

Luo Feng felt relieved after hearing this and stayed to watch over him. The other members of the Luo Family also came over. Luo Feng told them the situation, so they were no longer worried.

About two hours later, Luo Zhiyuan's physical evolution ended. He knew what was going on, but as a one-year-old child, he couldn't act too abnormally, so he turned his head and asked Luo Feng, "Dad, what happened to me?"

Luo Feng smiled and thought for a moment. He felt that a child wouldn't understand what spiritual energy awakening was, so he just bluffed, "It's nothing. You were having a dream just now and broke into a cold sweat. Let's go get you cleaned up, or your mom will say you're stinky when she gets back."

To hell with dreaming! Fine, since Luo Feng wasn't saying much, Luo Zhiyuan didn't press him either. He gave a simple "oh" and followed him to take a bath.

While bathing, Luo Feng told little Zhiyuan, "Zhiyuan, you can start training now. You envy that Dad can fly, right? Once you start training, you'll be able to fly just like Dad."

Oh? That was good news. Although he knew that awakening spiritual force would definitely improve his physical fitness, he hadn't expected to reach the Fighter Apprentice level right away, saving him two months of time. Not bad.

Luo Zhiyuan immediately put on a look of pleasant surprise: "Really? That's great! I want to start training right away so I can fly soon. That way, I can go out and play by myself." Acting like a child was so exhausting...

During the bath, Luo Zhiyuan ended up breaking a few things. The reason, of course, was that his newly enhanced body was once again out of his control.

Afterward, Luo Feng proceeded to tease little Zhiyuan in various ways—well, let's call it training. While helping him gain control over his body as quickly as possible, he began teaching him some fundamental knowledge about cultivation, including how to absorb cosmic energy, how to convert that energy into his own genetic force, guiding techniques, and various precautions for training. However, these were no longer the cultivation methods used on Earth, but rather the cultivation techniques of the Yunmo Planet lineage that Babata had dug up. Because Babata had decided to find a junior fellow apprentice for Luo Feng—namely his own son—it had kept Babata amused for days!