Heaven Protects Our Clan!

"Intent? What is intent? Do you guys know?"

"Are you referring to the intent of the Zhouhui Heavenly Blade?"

"It's said that when you reach the peak of perfection with the Zhouhui Heavenly Blade, you reach the state of 'thorough mastery,' and beyond that is intent. Is that what you mean?"

"Is that legend actually true?"

"Of course it's true. Back at the Apprentice Level, don't the Martial Artists' Zhengang Art manuals divide cultivation into four levels: Foundation, Micro, Perfection, and Intent? It's just that it's much harder for a Spirit Reader to achieve micro-level control of their mental power than it is for them."

"Then, what did he mean just now when he said he had already broken through from intent?"

"Is there a realm above intent?"

The mental power assessment was effectively interrupted, and as everyone looked at each other in shock, they began whispering and speculating about what Jiang Yao had said to make Prose's expression change so drastically.

Prose seemed to have considered this possibility as well. He regained his composure, even wearing a faint smile: "Are you saying you've comprehended the intent of the Zhouhui Heavenly Blade?"

The Zhouhui Heavenly Blade is a mental power cultivation technique for Spirit Readers of the Lingtong Race at the Apprentice Level. Its highest level offers a chance to comprehend intent, and this intent can guide an Apprentice Level practitioner to awaken attributes related to that intent upon reaching the Planetary Level, potentially even leading to powerful special attribute abilities.

This is one of the reasons why the gap between Martial Artists and Spirit Readers narrows significantly after reaching the Planetary Level.

However, this so-called intent—such as Thunderbolt Intent or Wind Blade Intent—is subordinate to elemental attributes. Once one reaches the Planetary Level and their genetic energy undergoes a leap, awakening the eight major attributes, the intent from these Apprentice Level secret manuals loses its significance.

Only after entering the Planetary Level does the so-called "Path of the World Lord" begin: Foundation—Intent—Domain—World.

However, for the Lingtong Race, a Planetary Level existence has only one value: not to serve as cannon fodder or hired muscle, but to potentially become a Stellar Level, or a Stellar Level that has awakened a Bloodline Divine Ability.

Therefore, only those Planetary Level geniuses following the Martial Artist path are taught attribute cultivation techniques and given help in building their foundations by the clan.

As for Planetary Level Spirit Readers, whose threshold for entering the Stellar Level is even more stringent due to the need to awaken a Bloodline Divine Ability, they can barely master a basic mental power amplification technique, so it is naturally impossible to let them waste time and energy cultivating some form of intent.

Prose felt he might have overthought it; after all, he had only recently comprehended a domain and was quite sensitive to it.

But what could there be to break through regarding the intent of the Zhouhui Heavenly Blade?

Jiang Yao revealed a slightly embarrassed smile: "Lord Prose, a year ago, during the will assessment in the illusion, my heart seemed to be touched. Shortly after the assessment, during a session of meditative cultivation, I had an epiphany and seemed to enter a very mysterious state. I checked in the Virtual Universe, and it seemed to be attribute intent."

"Then, half a year later, the intent had another opportunity for a breakthrough. I went into seclusion for half a year and finally broke through. It felt like I had gained a sense of control over everything; my mental power, origin energy, will, and body all seemed to fuse together. That should be the domain I looked up on the Virtual Universe."

Prose's voice turned somewhat dry, and he couldn't help but let out a laugh: "Kid, do you even know what a domain is? Are you just spouting nonsense?"

He himself had ascended to the heavens precisely because of his domain, leaping from an obscure Stellar Level in the clan to become a peerless genius comparable to Kuman. Not only was he going to the main sect to receive higher-level inheritance training, but he was also listed by the clan as a seeded player for the Peak Genius Tournament.

No one had a more profound understanding than he did of just how genius it was to possess a domain at the Stellar Level.

And yet, this kid, who had only been at the Planetary Level for a little over a year and was only at the first stage, claimed to have comprehended a domain.

Isn't this a joke?

Jiang Yao knew that saying anything more at this point would be useless, so he simply let his consciousness enter the Xu Yuan Space. Then, a faint crimson light expanded rapidly from his center. In the blink of an eye, a hazy crimson domain enveloped the entire trial grounds.

Everyone on the field and on the sidelines, who had been whispering, felt the space shudder violently. Everyone suddenly felt as if they had become ordinary people, burdened by hundreds of pounds of weight, making every movement incredibly difficult. Those who tried to resist instinctively felt that the more they resisted, the greater the suppressing force of the crimson domain became.

"How is this possible?"

"Impossible!"

The two Stellar Level examiners still on the trial grounds, though not bound by the power of the domain, could not help but exclaim in shock.

Prose felt the pressure bearing down on his body, his expression one of utter disbelief.

After a long while, he suddenly realized something and asked: "Was that you a few days ago?"

Prose was naturally referring to the day Jiang Yao successfully opened the Xu Yuan Space and revealed its power for the first time.

Jiang Yao smiled awkwardly and said: "It was my first time awakening the domain, I couldn't control it."

Prose remained silent for a moment, still unable to comprehend this.

Could it be his will? This thought suddenly crossed his mind. But I've never heard of a strong will having any effect on comprehending a domain.

Of course, Jiang Yao's will was beyond what "outstanding" could describe. Prose had indeed never heard of anyone in the history of the Lingtong Race having the will strength of a Stellar Level just after breaking through to the Planetary Level.

Could it be that when will reaches a certain level, it undergoes a miraculous transformation?

Prose thought it over and could only attribute the cause to Jiang Yao's innate talent for will.

No matter how unbelievable it was, the domain was now pressing right in his face, and Prose had no choice but to accept it.

As one of the top geniuses within the Lingtong Race, he possessed decisive judgment. He immediately darkened his face and ordered the two Stellar Level examiners, who were still carefully experiencing the crimson domain: "Shut down the Virtual Universe interface for the entire Starry Sky Building. You two continue the assessment. Not a single word of what happened today is to be leaked. Do you understand?"

The two examiners could see the gravity of the situation from Prose's expression and quickly agreed.

After giving the order, Prose had Jiang Yao retract his domain and led him out of the trial grounds. After several turns and passing through multiple doors requiring identity verification, they entered an elevator.

Before Jiang Yao could even react, the elevator plummeted downward with unimaginable acceleration, leaving both of them in a state of weightlessness.

Inside the trial grounds, there was dead silence.

Like everyone else, Mo Li stared at the backs of the two disappearing figures, still lost in confusion.

It wasn't supposed to be like this!

Wasn't today supposed to be the moment he stunned the crowd, shone with brilliance, and became the strongest genius of the younger generation of the Lingtong Race, looked up to by all?

Of course, he had indeed shone for a while—before Jiang Yao appeared.

He couldn't understand what happened after that. He could still grasp the fifteen-story light screen, but what on earth was a domain? Was that crimson domain, which felt like the territory of a god and left him completely powerless, really emanating from Jiang Yao's body?

On the elevator, Jiang Yao silently felt the speed of the descent: Good grief, is this an elevator to the planet's core? At this depth, we must be reaching the center of the planet.

After only a few dozen seconds, the elevator began to decelerate, then accelerated upward, immediately shifting into a state of hypergravity.

Once the elevator doors opened, Prose led Jiang Yao into an incredibly vast space, as if it were a world at the heart of the planet.

"This is the fundamental stronghold of our Yanhe Lingtong Race, the core of the entire Yanhe Star System. It controls all the weaponry on Yanhe Star and serves as the residence for the Council of Elders. Of course, the elders do not all stay here, but at least one elder is stationed here on any given day.

The person I am taking you to meet is Elder Luo. He is the head of the four elders of our Yanhe Lingtong Race and the only Universe Level Spirit Reader Controller among the elders—that is to say, a Spirit Reader who does not specialize in illusions."

Jiang Yao silently processed the information Prose had revealed. It seemed that once a member of the Lingtong Race reached the Universe Level, they became an elder. However, considering that Spirit Readers made up more than half of the population at the Planetary Level, it was surprising that the ratio dropped to one-quarter at the Universe Level.

It seemed that the difficulty the Lingtong Race Spirit Readers faced in advancing due to their bloodline talents was no exaggeration. Thinking of the favoritism and importance shown to Spirit Readers, there really was a trade-off for every gain.

The Messenger within the space of the Taihuan Token mark on Jiang Yao's chest let out a scoff: "Although your Lingtong Race has a weak foundation, mediocre willpower, and low genetic levels, this Bloodline Divine Ability is indeed quite interesting. It seems this Taihuan Token choosing you as its master was truly not a random selection."

Yanhe Star had a radius of tens of thousands of kilometers; the size of this subterranean space alone exceeded that of many planets.

The entire space was shaped like a hollow sphere. Various buildings were constructed on the inner surface of the sphere, while in the center of the spherical space sat a solitary small island—though it only appeared small, its area was actually tens of thousands of square kilometers.

Prose introduced the surroundings while leading Jiang Yao onto a train that crossed a bridge to the island, bringing him before an old man.

Prose bowed respectfully and said, "Elder Luo."

Jiang Yao followed suit and called out, "Elder Luo."

Standing beside the old man was the very examiner who had been sent by Prose to notify Elder Luo.

However, the information held by this examiner was already outdated.

Unlike Prose, Kuman, and the others, Elder Luo did not keep his eyes closed. He kept them open like a normal Lingtong, nodded, and cast his gaze toward Jiang Yao with a faint smile in his eyes: "Very good. It seems you have astonishing comprehension in the cultivation of spirit power. Do not worry; even if your talent is insufficient, superior comprehension is enough..."

Prose had to interrupt the old man with a helpless expression: "Elder Luo, it is no longer about spirit power... Jiang Yao, display your domain."

Jiang Yao had no choice but to once again manifest the fire-attribute first-stage domain he had been disguising.

Naturally, Elder Luo repeated the same reaction as Prose.

However, being a Universe Level powerhouse, he was naturally more knowledgeable and experienced than Prose.

Looking at Jiang Yao, Elder Luo's expression shifted from appreciation to a burning gaze that even made Jiang Yao's skin crawl. He sighed deeply, then looked up and laughed heartily.

He had heard that there were indeed monstrous geniuses in the universe who were "Planetary Level individuals with domains."

But such geniuses were so rare that one might not appear in ten thousand star systems; they were not necessarily something that could be cultivated, but purely a miracle of probability.

Even the geniuses of Universe Kingdom level who had shone in the Peak Genius Tournament or the Peak Warrior Tournament in the past had generally acquired their domains at the Stellar Level.

To put it bluntly, most such geniuses came from third or fourth-tier human bloodlines that reached the Stellar Level upon adulthood, and they were the result of careful cultivation by the three major dojos of the Xuanshang Universe Kingdom or other super-powers.

Planetary Level individuals with domains usually only appeared in weak races with low bloodline grades that were forced to remain at the Planetary Level—the weakest stage—for a long period.

Weak races, however, lacked the resources and secret techniques of the super-powers within the Universe Kingdoms. It was impossible for them to specifically cultivate geniuses with domains at the Planetary Level; firstly, the investment of resources and energy was not worth it, and secondly, there was no feasible method.

But precisely because of this, being able to possess a domain at the Planetary Level was inevitably due to one's own talent. It required extremely powerful comprehension and perception of origin energy attributes, and digging deeper into those attributes led to the laws.

This meant that Jiang Yao was a genius even more talented than Kuman.

"Hahaha! Heaven blesses our race!"

The Lingtong Race was one of the six Sacred Lands of the Kasolo Empire, a mid-level civilization. They had many branches, and their Yanhe Star System branch did not have a long history or deep accumulation of heritage; it was truly unremarkable.

But first came Kuman, and then came Prose—this was already at the level of their ancestral graves smoking with good fortune.

Now, another monster who possessed a domain at the Planetary Level had emerged. Even Elder Luo, who had lived for tens of thousands of years and seen much of the world, felt a bit of trepidation amidst his wild joy. The luck of their Yanhe branch was truly heaven-defying!