Cultivation Direction

After becoming a Planetary Level first-tier Spirit Reader, and with his physical strength reaching Apprentice Level eight, Luo Feng began preparing to have Babata teach Luo Zhiyuan some cultivation techniques. However, he still couldn't learn the special techniques of the Yunmo Star Lineage, since his Spiritual Force hadn't changed. He could, though, start practicing some basic techniques.

So Babata met Luo Zhiyuan in virtual space for the first time. As a welcome gift, Babata conjured a small wristband and gave it to Luo Zhiyuan, telling him it was a compact storage device with a storage space of about 300 square meters and a height of roughly ten meters.

It was actually something from Babata's own private stash, where it had been gathering dust for who knew how many years. He'd found it again and added an Auxiliary Optical Computer, making it the perfect gift for Luo Zhiyuan.

Babata installed a subsidiary intelligence of his own in the Auxiliary Optical Computer. He said that whenever he was free, he could play with Little Zhiyuan, which was much more fun than being stuck with that idiot Luo Feng.

Luo Zhiyuan had encountered another miraculous item from the world of Swallowed Star: a storage device. Back in his original world, he'd coveted things like this to no end. Now he had one of his own, and he was so delighted that he held up his wrist and spent ages playing around with storing items. Babata couldn't stand watching any longer and finally decided it was time to teach him.

Over the next while, Babata began teaching Luo Zhiyuan the essential knowledge of cultivation in virtual space. This included the Universal Language, basic information about the universe, some of the Golden Horned Behemoth's Inheritance Memory that Babata had obtained from Luo Feng, general foundational knowledge for Martial Artists and Spirit Readers, and basic cultivation techniques for both.

In Babata's eyes, all this complicated knowledge was essential groundwork. As for the other cultivation and combat techniques, in Babata's words, there was no rush. They needed to build a solid foundation first.

Luo Zhiyuan never slacked off when it came to learning. He studied diligently in virtual space, knowing that since he'd crossed over from another world, he had a lot of detailed knowledge to catch up on. Otherwise, relying only on what he'd read in the novel would leave him practically illiterate.

While studying in virtual space, Luo Zhiyuan discovered he could use Flowing Time there too, though it consumed some energy. But he was already a Planetary Level Spirit Reader, far stronger than he had been at the Apprentice Level. And thanks to his ability to multitask, he could study in virtual space while absorbing energy and cultivating in the real world. The energy expenditure and intake almost balanced out.

He still couldn't reach the highest time-flow multiplier, but he could maintain an energy balance at around three times the normal flow of time.

So aside from cultivating with Muya Crystals when he needed to increase his own energy, and practicing actual techniques without Flowing Time, he kept Flowing Time running at three times its normal speed while learning all the basic knowledge Babata taught him.

A month passed for everyone else, but for Luo Zhiyuan it was nearly three. His knowledge grew more and more complete. Babata thought Little Zhiyuan's mind was now fully mature and that he could be treated like an adult. What Babata hadn't noticed was that Luo Zhiyuan's body was also growing rapidly with his use of Flowing Time.

By the winter of 2061, the first spacecraft Luo Feng had acquired, the Black Dragon Mountain X81, had been mostly repaired inside Babata's storage space. Everything was ready except for an auxiliary power system.

Although it still couldn't perform a Cosmic Shuttle, it could at least reach sublight speed—100,000 kilometers per second! Luo Feng planned to take a trip to Mars by himself, a one-day jaunt. He'd have breakfast at home, head to Mars, then return home that evening for dinner. Just thinking about it made him happy.

On December 3, Luo Feng announced early that morning that he wouldn't be back for lunch. Luo Zhiyuan came to his senses and realized Luo Feng was going to Mars that day. He considered acting cute and asking to go along, but then figured Luo Feng could only collect a little "pocket change" on Mars, not even enough for his Golden Horned Behemoth's cultivation. He gave up on tagging along to scrounge for loot.

Luo Zhiyuan went to the gravity room to continue cultivating. After all his studying, he had a very clear understanding of this world's cultivation system.

Babata had told him long ago, "The strong in the universe mainly follow one of two paths. One is the Martial Artist, who relies primarily on their own body to launch close-range attacks. The other is the Spirit Reader, who relies primarily on Spiritual Force to launch ranged attacks.

"There is no definitive answer as to which is stronger. Martial Artists have fiercer, faster attacks, while Spirit Readers have more varied and unpredictable methods. For Martial Artists to break through and improve, they must pay attention to 'spirit and willpower.' Spirit Readers must also pay attention to 'the body and genetic energy.'

"When you're weak, it doesn't matter too much if you favor one path in your cultivation. But once the strong pass the Planetary Level, Star Level, and Universe Level, and reach the Domain Lord Level or even the World Lord Level, they face high demands in every area: spirit, willpower, Origin Energy, the body, and their level of understanding. After all, how much water a barrel can hold depends on its shortest plank!

"So even though you're a Spirit Reader, you absolutely can't let your Martial Artist cultivation fall behind. Your Martial Artist cultivation is too weak right now. You haven't trained your Force Amplitude, combat techniques, or movement techniques yet, so you need to make up for these shortcomings in your body as soon as possible."

"Force Amplitude means that if your body has a strength of 100, dealing 100 damage in an attack gives you a Force Amplitude of 1, while dealing 200 damage gives you a Force Amplitude of 2.

"Back when I was with the Yunmo Star Lineage, the average Force Amplitude for disciples at the ninth Apprentice Level was 10. All of this can be achieved through techniques and training, so it's not difficult. The theoretical limit for physical Force Amplitude is 100, though that's extremely hard to reach—even for World Lord Level experts! That's because it's one of the necessary conditions for becoming a great Immortal Expert."

"Of course, Mental Power has an amplitude too, much like physical force. If you use Mental Power to control a weapon and attack an enemy, and can control one weapon with maximum attack power, then your Mental Power Amplitude is 1. Your Brain Domain Width is already 41, so in theory you can perfectly control 41 streams of Spiritual Force. But you're still a long way off, so keep working hard, Little Zhiyuan. Heh!"

In the gravity room, Luo Zhiyuan had already activated the multiple-gravity training mode and set the gravity to ten times Earth's. Training in a high-gravity environment helped improve his control over himself, both physically and mentally.

Since practicing boxing was the simplest way to improve his control over his body, Luo Zhiyuan kept practicing a set of punches. It was a fairly good Combat Secret Technique from the Yunmo Star Lineage, and he was now throwing each punch with all his strength, carefully sensing the subtle changes in his body as it moved through the forms.

After practicing for a while, Luo Zhiyuan was on the verge of reaching a Force Amplitude of 10 today, assuming nothing unexpected happened. That would bring him up to the Yunmo Star Lineage's average. Babata praised him for it, but training his Spiritual Force was difficult. So far, he could only perfectly control ten streams of Spiritual Force, still far below his theoretical limit.

Spirit Readers in the universe mainly belonged to one of two schools. One was the Controller, who specialized in controlling weapons for ranged attacks, remotely destroying the enemy's body. Their Spiritual Force only needed to attach to their weapons for an instant to control them and kill their enemies. To increase their damage, they often had to divide their Mental Power into many streams, so Mental Power Amplitude was mainly reflected in controlling multiple streams separately.

The other was the Illusionist, who specialized in Soul Attacks and fought with all kinds of illusion techniques. They used Spiritual Force to influence and control an enemy's soul or body, taking control of the body or destroying the soul. To attack, they had to extend their own Spiritual Force to the enemy's body or Consciousness Ocean as quickly as possible. That meant shaping their Spiritual Force so it stayed concentrated rather than dispersing after leaving the body. Mental Power Amplitude was mainly reflected in concentrated attachment; they didn't need to split their Mental Power into many streams, since a single concentrated stream was enough to attack an enemy.

Luo Zhiyuan practiced the Control Chapter, the Controller's basic technique, and had trained his Mental Power Amplitude to 10, allowing him to control ten weapons at once. He also practiced the Illusion Chapter, the Illusionist's basic technique, and could now combine ten streams of Mental Power into the simplest Soul Attack technique: Mental Shock.

Mental Shock required gathering at least ten streams of Spiritual Force and directing them at the opponent's Consciousness Ocean. It could directly attack an enemy's soul, leaving them dazed or even causing Soul Annihilation.

Since Luo Zhiyuan possessed the Innate Secret Technique Soul Fusion, which was clearly an Illusionist's attack method, he was more interested in the Illusionist path. He'd wanted to find a suitable target and test it for a long time, but he'd never had the chance. He decided to look for an opportunity once his Martial Artist cultivation reached the Planetary Level. He also had an Innate Secret Technique that created a clone, which he hadn't tried yet.

After Luo Feng returned from his trip to Mars, life continued to flow by uneventfully. Before long, it was spring of 2062, and Luo Zhiyuan's Martial Artist cultivation finally advanced to the first tier of the Planetary Level.

Once his body reached the first tier of the Planetary Level, Luo Zhiyuan felt as though every cell in his body was boiling. Genetic Energy that had been lying dormant and unabsorbed in his cells began to gather like droplets of water. Waves of heat surged from all over his body, swirling and converging until they gathered in his lower abdomen, at his dantian.

Like Pangu opening the heavens and earth, his previously empty dantian suddenly burst open. The swirling Genetic Energy spun faster and faster, continuously expanding and contracting. With each cycle, its volume grew smaller. Luo Zhiyuan felt his consciousness tremble, and his body shuddered!

A Miniature Planet appeared in his vast dantian. Unlike the transparent, crystal-like Miniature Planet that had first appeared in his Consciousness Ocean, this one was milky white! The entire milky-white Miniature Planet was actually a unified whole formed from countless milky-white hexagonal crystals.

The milky-white Miniature Planet kept rotating on its axis, sending out waves of strange fluctuations. Genetic Energy transformed into a thread of milky-white Origin Energy that instantly shot out of the dantian and flowed into his body.

In an instant, every part of Luo Zhiyuan's body—his bones, bone marrow, skin, meridians, internal organs, and everything else—began to change rapidly. This transformation was even more dramatic than when his Spiritual Force had first reached the Planetary Level. Luo Zhiyuan felt as if every bone in his body had been shattered piece by piece, then reassembled.

After the transformation was complete, Luo Zhiyuan called Babata to check what special ability he had gained. He knew that all Planetary Level Martial Artists gained a special ability, but he was curious what his would be and whether it could provide meaningful support in the long run. He remembered that this ability hadn't really come up much in the original work, and wondered if it became useless later on.

After examining him, Babata told Luo Zhiyuan, "Not bad. It's the light-type Phantom Body. It can increase your flying speed by 1.5 times and improve your ability to change direction instantly. You can use it to attack or escape." Luo Zhiyuan was quite satisfied. He'd always believed that in this world, staying alive was the most important thing, and anything that improved his chances of survival was a good thing.

Come to think of it, besides a storage device, he didn't have any other equipment yet. He should ask Babata if there was anything suitable in his private stash.

"Babata, do you have any weapons or equipment I can use right now? I can't keep going around empty-handed."

"What do you want?"

"Weapons, armor, anything's fine. I'm not picky."

"Armor's easy. I still have a Black God Set here, enough for you to use at the Planetary Level. It can cover your entire body to form protective armor whenever you want, and you can shape it however you like. It's very convenient. As for weapons, what kind are you looking for?"

Luo Zhiyuan thought it over. He didn't really like the Martial Artist's style of charging straight into a fight; it felt kind of stupid. The Controller path would clash with Luo Feng's, which wouldn't work either. Thinking of his Innate Secret Technique, he made up his mind.

"Illusionist! I'm more interested in cultivating as an Illusionist. By the way, what weapons do Illusionists use? Don't tell me they use throwing knives too?"

"Illusionists become terrifying when they reach the higher levels, but early on, they mainly rely on Soul Secret Techniques to fight, so they don't have high demands when it comes to weapons. I don't have any weapons particularly suited to an Illusionist right now. However, Illusionists rely heavily on armor and movement techniques. After all, their own defenses are very important while they're using Soul Secret Techniques.

"Many Illusionists also study the Controller's weapons as a secondary path. They use illusion techniques to control an enemy's soul first, then remotely destroy the enemy's body with weapons. There are also some races in the universe that have no souls. Illusionists have a hard time when they run into such opponents, so they need to learn some of the Controller's techniques too.

"You could do the same, but the only Controller weapon I have here is an Arc Blade Disc. I originally planned to give it to your father, but he has the Soaring Sky Shuttle, so he never used it. What do you think? Do you want it?"

An Arc Blade Disc? He was pretty tempted to take it for a spin, but Luo Feng would need to sell it later to save Earth. He'd better leave it for Luo Feng. Otherwise, if Luo Feng didn't have the money to buy what he needed, Earth—and Luo Zhiyuan himself—would be in danger.

"Since you don't have any weapons for Illusionists, I'll pass. Just give me the Black God Set for now."

"All right. I'll make you some throwing knives to use for the time being. Wait a moment."

Not long afterward, Luo Feng brought Luo Zhiyuan a Black God Set and forty throwing knives. Although the knives couldn't pierce the Black God Set's defenses, they were more than capable of breaking through the physical defenses of a Planetary Level Martial Artist.

The Black God Set had originally been a ring. Luo Zhiyuan put it on the middle finger of his right hand. After about thirty seconds, the skin on his middle finger suddenly stung, and the black ring began to ripple like boiling water. Droplets of black liquid trembled, while pain ran up his entire middle finger.

Fortunately, the pain wasn't too bad.

He could see streaks of red flowing into the black droplets. Countless black droplets wrapped around Luo Zhiyuan's middle finger. As the red seeped into them, the droplets seemed to undergo some kind of change. The whole process lasted about fifteen minutes before everything stopped.

The instructions for using the Black God Set automatically appeared in Luo Zhiyuan's mind. The ring, which had originally been thicker than his finger, now seemed to have disappeared, becoming as much a part of his body as his own skin.

"Change, change shape. Turn into armor."

As he thought this to himself, Luo Zhiyuan stared intently at his finger. The ring instantly turned into a pool of liquid. It first formed a glove over his right hand, then quickly spread up his arm. Before long, it covered his entire body except for his eyes.

Luo Zhiyuan studied himself in the mirror, constantly adjusting the armor's appearance. He planned to have some fun with this second miraculous piece of equipment of his.

The Black God Set first turned into a Green Arrow-style hooded leather outfit from his old world, then into Superman's cape and skintight suit. After that, it took on a few different Saint Seiya armor designs. In the end, he even turned it into Sun Wukong's outfit, complete with a phoenix-winged purple-gold crown, golden chainmail armor, and cloud-treading lotus silk boots. He tried everything from simple to elaborate designs and had a wonderful time.

Luo Feng watched his son play at cosplay and make all sorts of strange poses, and could only smile wryly to himself. "Little Zhiyuan is still a child, after all. His body may be at the Planetary Level, but he's only a year and a half old.

"Ordinary children that age are still innocent and clueless. According to Babata, my son is already mature, and he's saved our family a lot of worry. But we've also missed out on so much of the family joy other people get to experience. I don't know whether to be happy or feel sorry for him.

"Looks like I need to work even harder at cultivating. Once I'm stronger, I'll be able to let my son grow up carefree, just like the children in other families."