Planetary Level, First Order

Although the quick cultivation secret technique had inflicted considerable damage on Jiang Yao's body and mental power, greatly diminished his potential, and even slightly cut into his thousand-year Planetary Level lifespan, his state of mind had undergone a transformation.

To put it in the words of a poem: "Long confined in a cage, at last I return to nature."

He seemed to have truly set foot on the path of the strong.

Half of his confidence came from his small success in cultivating Xu Yuan Opening; the other half came from the fact that, while opening the Void, he had seemed to die for real.

He had genuinely thought he was going to die. The instant the Opening Treasure swung down with all its might, the fuel it consumed was Jiang Yao's soul.

He had watched helplessly as his soul gradually faded away.

The experience was much like the way, in his previous life, a terminal illness had tormented him and led him step by painful step toward an irreversible death.

Not everyone got to experience death like that twice.

Only after Jiang Yao awoke again in that Void Space did he realize what kind of transformation had taken place within him.

What he had cared about most before—that he could wield power on par with a Domain at the Planetary Level—turned out to be merely a by-product.

The greatest benefit was that his soul had undergone some kind of qualitative change. Even outside the Void Space, without that seemingly supreme power to control everything, it possessed a profoundness he had previously found impossible to imagine.

The clearest sign came when he opened Seven Turns of Heaven's End and was astonished to find that this advanced secret technique, which had tormented the Lingtong Race's geniuses, had suddenly become incredibly simple in his eyes.

At first, Jiang Yao suspected he was hallucinating, so he tried cultivating it.

And then... he mastered the first turn outright, achieving a sixfold Mental Power Amplitude, even with his damaged mental power foundation.

This was the top-tier Planetary Level mental power amplitude secret technique that Prose had firmly claimed "only half of those with mid-grade mental power talent can master in a year."

And he had taken... well... a few minutes?

Of course, he didn't think it was because he'd always had extraordinary talent. The talent assessment had made his true aptitude perfectly clear, shattering any wishful thinking.

That left only the possibility that his soul had undergone some miraculous change. Whatever else had changed, his comprehension had at least reached a godlike level. Just how powerful it was couldn't possibly be determined by a single Planetary Level technique.

Over the next few days, Jiang Yao took Seven Turns of Heaven's End all the way to the fifth turn, reaching a fourteenfold amplitude.

If the Messenger hadn't stopped him and told him not to waste his time and energy on something so pointless, Jiang Yao could have cultivated all the way to the seventh turn in one go.

The feeling of making progress as effortlessly as chopping melons and vegetables was addictive.

Even back when Jiang Yao had been considered a genius at school on his home planet, he had never experienced anything like that unmistakable sense of a progress bar racing forward.

After putting Seven Turns of Heaven's End completely behind him, Jiang Yao devoted all his energy to cultivating Xu Yuan Opening Control Chapter.

The Control Chapter had five levels, and he was currently at the first.

Even so, the subtleties of Xu Yuan Control surpassed those of a Domain by far.

Its strength could rival that of a third-level Domain, while its fine control was far superior, reaching a microscopic scale. Within its range, he could even intercept and decipher other people's mental power transmissions and Origin Force transmissions.

Of course, whenever he cultivated, he made sure to keep the range of his control within his own residence.

In addition, he could clearly sense and even manipulate the eight types of elemental cosmic energy in space.

That's right. Unlike a Domain, Xu Yuan Control had no elemental attribute.

And this was precisely what Jiang Yao had focused on cultivating in the days before the assessment.

First, he could only display the power of a first-level Domain. Anything beyond that wouldn't make him seem like a prodigy—it would arouse suspicion.

Second, he had to give Xu Yuan Control an elemental attribute. There were no attribute-less Domains in the universe.

The attribute Jiang Yao had awakened upon entering the Planetary Level was earth Origin Energy, while the Messenger wanted him to display a fire attribute.

As for why, he had only said it was related to the inheritance technique Jiang Yao would obtain upon entering the Stellar Level.

For an ordinary person, changing one's attribute was naturally an incredibly difficult task. But for Jiang Yao, who possessed a Void Space, it was far too easy.

Within the range of Xu Yuan Control, the eight types of elemental energy in space were as clear to him as the lines on his palm, and he could draw on them at will.

With only a little practice, he could perfectly imitate a first-level fire Domain.

His soul seemed to sit enthroned in the Void Space like a god. Power flowed from the Void Space through his eyes and spread into the outside world. The room's temperature shot up, ripples appeared in the air, and even the B5 Alloy walls took on a reddish hue.

With another thought, the power withdrew from the outside world and returned to his body. Wherever it reached, he could see through everything within him, even the arrangement of genes inside his cell nuclei. Under his control, the damage at the root of his body's injuries also began to heal slowly.

This perfect control over himself brought Jiang Yao into a state of exquisite harmony.

He could feel that with a single thought, he could unite his Origin Energy, bodily strength, mental power, and will, unleashing his greatest strength.

Although his Origin Energy foundation was far too weak—after all, the gap between a first-order and a ninth-order Planetary Level was already 256 times over in Origin Energy alone—so he couldn't yet claim to be invincible at the Planetary Level, he didn't care.

After all, being invincible at the Planetary Level didn't mean much, especially for a power on the Lingtong Race's level. Even if war broke out, Planetary Level cannon fodder wouldn't be sent to the battlefield.

"Jiang Yao, it's time for your assessment."

The Messenger's reminder drew Jiang Yao's soul out of the Void Space.

The moment his soul left the Void Space, it was as if a god had suddenly fallen back into the mortal world. That supreme power vanished in an instant like a bubble, as if the power with which he had controlled everything like a god had only been an illusion.

But the warmth lingering in the room was enough to prove it hadn't been an illusion.

On his way to the trial arena, Jiang Yao—who had spent almost a year as a shut-in—could clearly feel countless gazes falling on him, some obvious and some discreet.

Only after entering the trial arena did he realize there were far more people than he'd imagined. Their class had only a little over sixty students, but there were now more than a hundred people in the arena.

Clearly, geniuses from previous classes had also come to watch this batch of youngsters undergo their first assessment since their talent rankings were assigned. After all, it was afternoon and there were no classes. Even the most diligent could spare some time to see the commotion. Fortunately, the trial arena was spacious; it could easily hold a hundred spectators, or several times that many.

"There are a lot of people here today."

"Haha, this batch will be our competition in two years. Of course we want to get a look at them early. Besides, the first year's assessment usually gives you a good idea of their potential."

"Exactly. The initial ranking only measures talent, but cultivating Seven Turns of Heaven's End also depends on comprehension. The first few turns aren't hard, but the further you go, the more profound it gets. Apart from the Lingtong Race, I've never heard of any power having its Planetary Level members cultivate a mental power amplitude technique. Mental power talent is easy to assess, but comprehension isn't something you can tell at a glance."

"That's the point of the three-year protection period. After three years, you can pretty much see how much potential everyone has."

"I heard this batch has a guy named Mo Li with incredible mental power talent. He was miles ahead in the first test, the control assessment. I came to see him today. I'm only two classes above him, so in two years, I might have another competitor for a place in the Middle Dormitory."

"Tch, that's because Lord Kuman changed the first test after taking charge of the assessments. It shows how flexibly you can use mental power and how precisely you can apply your strength, but it can't measure the resilience, sharpness, and flexibility of your mental power, or its quality. If I'd taken that test, I wouldn't have done any worse than that Mo Li."

"If you didn't come for Mo Li, then who did you come for?"

"Why pretend to be so innocent? Don't tell me you're not here for the show. I wonder how that kid will perform—the one with low-grade mental power talent who supposedly rose to high-grade thanks to his willpower. Hahaha, I've never heard of anyone ranked high-grade dropping to low-grade during the protection period."

"The worst high-grade talent in history? That's still making history, isn't it?"

"Tsk, even so, he came out ahead. A few freaks showed up in my class, or I could've made high-grade too. The Lingtong Race is all about getting ahead early and staying ahead. If I'd been ranked high-grade at the start, I might have made it into the Upper Dormitory by now with access to high-grade resources. During the most golden three years of the protection period, I didn't even get a whiff of Sangshi Liquid. If I'd had Sangshi Liquid to improve my mental power back then..."

"Quit with the 'if only.' You're best at bragging, if you ask me. Still, it really is a waste to give high-grade resources to this guy Jiang Yao."

"Hmph, I think Lord Kuman got the rankings wrong. First he changed the method for the first test, then he made a three-second wonder out of the final test. I've never heard of anyone scoring under twenty seconds. Who'd believe it wasn't an error in the assessment?"

"Keep your voices down! Are we even allowed to discuss our superiors?"

"Which one's Jiang Yao? He's pretty mysterious. I've never seen him."

"There, that one on the left. Planetary Level... First-order Planetary Level?!"