Planetary Level 1

Although his body and spiritual force had suffered significant trauma due to the forced cultivation technique, severely damaging his potential and even slightly overdrawing his 1,000-year lifespan as a Planetary Level, Jiang Yao's state of mind had undergone a metamorphosis.

To describe it with a line of poetry: "Long trapped in a cage, I have returned to nature once more."

He seemed to have truly stepped onto the path of the strong.

Half of this was the reliance brought by his minor success in cultivating the

Xu Yuan Opening

, and the other half was because he felt as though he had truly died once during the process of opening the

Xu Yuan Space

.

He had genuinely believed he was going to die; the moment the opening treasure was swung down with force, the fuel it consumed was Jiang Yao's soul.

He had watched with his own eyes as his soul gradually withered away.

This experience was exactly like his past life, where he had been tortured by a terminal illness, inching toward an irreversible death in agony.

Not everyone gets to experience such a death twice.

And it was only after Jiang Yao reawakened within that

Xu Yuan Space

that he realized what kind of transformation he had undergone.

The ability that he had cared about most—possessing power akin to a domain while at the Planetary Level—could only be considered a byproduct.

The greatest benefit was that his soul had undergone a qualitative change. Even when his soul detached from the

Xu Yuan Space

and no longer possessed that supreme, all-encompassing power, it still retained a profoundness he could previously never have imagined.

The most obvious point was when he opened the

Seven Turns of Heaven's End

; he was astonished to find that this advanced secret technique, which caused geniuses of the Lingtong Race to suffer immensely, suddenly seemed extremely simple in his eyes.

Jiang Yao initially suspected it was an illusion, so he attempted to cultivate it.

The result... he directly succeeded in the first turn, achieving a 6x spiritual force amplification, and this was even with his spiritual force foundation damaged.

This was a top-tier Planetary Level spiritual force amplification technique that Prose had stated with absolute certainty: "Only half of those with mid-grade spiritual force talent can succeed in the first turn within a year."

And he had spent... hmm... a few minutes?

He certainly wouldn't attribute this to his own innate talent being exceptional; his talent had been made very clear during the assessment, and any wishful thinking had been shattered to pieces.

It could only be that his soul had undergone a miraculous change. If nothing else, his comprehension had at least reached a god-like level. Just how strong it was, a single Planetary Level technique certainly couldn't reveal the bottom line.

The incredulous Jiang Yao spent the next few days cultivating the

Seven Turns of Heaven's End

to the fifth turn, reaching a 14x amplification.

If not for the Messenger stopping him and telling him not to waste his time and energy on such meaningless things, Jiang Yao could have cultivated it to the seventh turn in one go.

That feeling of rapid progress, like cutting through vegetables, was addictive.

That sensation of clearly feeling the "progress bar" racing forward was something Jiang Yao hadn't even experienced when he was a genius at the school on his home planet.

After Jiang Yao completely put the

Seven Turns of Heaven's End

behind him, he poured all his energy into cultivating the

Xu Yuan Opening Control Chapter

.

The

Control Chapter

was divided into five levels, and he was currently at the first level.

However, even at the first level, the profoundness of

Xu Yuan Control

was far beyond that of a domain.

Beyond having an intensity comparable to the third level of a domain, its precision was far superior, reaching a microscopic scale. Within his range of control, he could even intercept and decipher the spiritual force and origin force transmissions of others.

Of course, while cultivating, he ensured that his range of control was kept within his residence.

Furthermore, he could clearly perceive and even manipulate the eight types of elemental cosmic energy in space.

That's right, unlike a domain,

Xu Yuan Control

was attribute-less.

And this was precisely the direction Jiang Yao had focused his cultivation on in the few days before the assessment.

Firstly, he could only display the power of a first-level domain; otherwise, he wouldn't be a prodigy, but rather a source of suspicion.

Secondly, he had to imbue his

Xu Yuan Control

with an elemental attribute, as there were no attribute-less domains in the universe.

The attribute Jiang Yao awakened after stepping into the Planetary Level was earth origin energy, but the Messenger wanted Jiang Yao to display the fire attribute.

As for the reason, he only said it was related to the inheritance technique Jiang Yao would receive upon stepping into the Stellar Level.

Changing one's own attribute would be incredibly difficult for a normal person, but for Jiang Yao, who possessed the

Xu Yuan Space

, it was too simple.

The eight elemental energies in the space within his

Xu Yuan Control

were as clear as lines on his palm, and Jiang Yao could call upon them at will.

After only a simple practice, he could perfectly imitate a first-level fire attribute domain.

His soul sat in the

Xu Yuan Space

like a deity, and the power spread from the

Xu Yuan Space

through his eyes to the outside world. The temperature in the room rose sharply, ripples appeared in the air, and the walls made of

B5 Alloy

even took on a reddish hue.

With another shift of his mind, the power was retracted from the outside into his body. Everything within the reach of his power was as clear as fire; he could even see the gene arrangement in his cell nuclei clearly, and the damaged foundation of his body was slowly repairing under the control of this power.

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

He could feel that as long as he moved his mind, he could combine his genetic origin energy, physical strength, spiritual power, and will to unleash his greatest power.

Although he couldn't be called invincible at the Planetary Level because his origin energy foundation was too poor—after all, the difference in origin energy foundation between the first and ninth stages of the Planetary Level was 256 times—he didn't care.

After all, being invincible at the Planetary Level didn't have much meaning, especially for a power of the Lingtong Race's caliber; even if a war broke out, it wouldn't be the turn of Planetary Level cannon fodder to go to the battlefield.

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

The Messenger's reminder caused Jiang Yao's soul to withdraw from the

Xu Yuan Space

.

The moment his soul withdrew from the

Xu Yuan Space

, it was as if a deity had instantly fallen into a mortal; that supreme power dissipated like a bubble in an instant, as if the power that had just controlled everything like a god was merely an illusion.

But the lingering heat in the room that hadn't faded was enough to prove it wasn't an illusion.

Jiang Yao, who had been a shut-in for almost a year, could clearly feel countless overt or covert gazes falling on him as he walked toward the trial grounds.

After he walked into the trial grounds, he discovered that the number of people was far greater than he had imagined. Their batch only had sixty-some people, but there were already over a hundred people in the trial grounds now.

It was obvious that geniuses from previous batches had also come to observe the first assessment of Jiang Yao's batch after their talent grading. After all, it was the afternoon and there were no classes, so even the most diligent people could spare some time to watch the excitement. Fortunately, the trial grounds were vast; let alone a hundred spectators, it could hold several times that many.

"There are a lot of people here today."

"Haha, this batch will be our rivals in two years, shouldn't we get to know them in advance? Besides, you can usually tell their future potential from the first-year assessment."

"True, the initial grading only determines talent, but practicing the Seven Turns of Heaven's End also requires comprehension. The first few levels aren't difficult, but it gets increasingly profound the further you go. Aside from our Lingtong Race, I've never heard of any other faction letting their Planetary Level members practice mental power amplification secret techniques. Mental power talent is easy to determine, but comprehension isn't something you can see at a glance."

"That's the point of the three-year protection period. After three years, the level of potential is basically laid bare."

"I heard there's someone in this batch named Mo Li whose mental power talent is shockingly high. He led the first round of the control assessment by a landslide. I'm only two batches ahead of him, so it's quite possible I'll have another competitor in the Middle Dormitory in two years."

"Pfft, that's only because Kuman started changing the assessment method for the first round after he took charge. While it might reflect the flexibility of mental power usage and the precision of force application, it can't measure the toughness, sharpness, softness, or the overall quality of the mental power itself. If I had taken that assessment, my performance wouldn't have been any worse than that so-called Mo Li."

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

"Don't play innocent. I don't believe you aren't here to watch the show. I wonder how that kid, who jumped to a high-grade rating based on so-called willpower despite having low-grade mental power talent, will perform. Haha, I've never heard of anyone rated as high-grade talent dropping to low-grade during the protection period before."

"The worst high-grade talent in history? I guess that's a kind of history-making, too."

"Tsk tsk, he really hit the jackpot. My batch was just unlucky; there were a few monsters in it, otherwise, I could have been rated high-grade too. Competition in our Lingtong Race is about being one step ahead to stay ahead. If I had been rated high-grade from the start, relying on those resources, I might have made it into the Upper Dormitory by now. During the golden three-year protection period, I didn't even get a whiff of Sangshi Liquid. If only I had had Sangshi Liquid to boost my mental power back then..."

"Stop living in the past. You're the best at bragging, though I agree that high-grade talent resources are truly wasted on this guy named Jiang Yao."

"Hmph, I think Kuman's grading process had issues. First, he changed the method for the first round, and then in the final round, he came up with a 'three-second man.' I've never even heard of a score lower than 20 seconds. Who would believe that wasn't an assessment error?"

"Quiet! Are the superiors someone we can discuss?"

"Which one is Jiang Yao? This guy is quite mysterious; I haven't even seen him."

"There, that one on the left. Planetary Level... Planetary Level rank one?!"