One Step to the Goal

Having found a safe and efficient method for willpower training in the Ice Cold Deep Cave, the weight that had been pressing on Tang Ping's heart finally lifted.

In the past, he had always relied on extreme methods, forcing his secret techniques to push his body into overdrive to sharpen his willpower. While it seemed effective, it was actually fraught with hidden dangers.

He had grown accustomed to this in the virtual world, acting without restraint because he knew he could respawn. But if he were to subconsciously do the same in the real world when facing danger, his body would collapse instantly, and he likely wouldn't even have the chance to regret it.

Furthermore, as his physical strength improved and the power of his fused domains grew stronger, relying on the overload of secret techniques for combat was no longer realistic.

After all, secret techniques were meant for fighting enemies, not for self-mutilation; one couldn't keep doing the foolish thing of "inflicting a thousand casualties on the enemy while suffering eight hundred oneself."

Although the Wind-Thunder Secret Canon did contain a few desperate forbidden techniques, and he had practiced them in his spare time just in case, most of their side effects were irreversible. He could never use them lightly unless absolutely necessary.

Now that he had the Ice Cold Deep Cave as a "natural willpower furnace," his path of cultivation had truly entered a healthy track, and he no longer needed to gamble with his life for progress.

With no more worries, Tang Ping immediately set to work on the real business: spending money to improve his strength!

When the 1 billion Black Dragon Coin arrived, he didn't even blink. He logged directly into the Rare Treasure Shop in the Virtual Universe and precisely ordered half of the One-Year Accelerated Planetary Peak B-Package.

He was already a level five planetary spirit reader, and this package perfectly bridged his current realm, saving him the trouble of screening resources and putting together a training plan himself.

Immediately after, he ordered a Ten-Year Star Entry to Peak C-Package for Luo Xiaoyu. This package focused more on solidifying foundations and gradual progress, which perfectly suited Luo Xiaoyu's steady and methodical cultivation style.

The total price for both packages was 500 million Black Dragon Coin. Tang Ping readily paid a 100 million deposit and chose "cash on delivery" for the rest, scheduling deliveries every three months.

After all, many of these high-level cultivation packages contained liquid medicine or active ores rich in pure energy, which were highly perishable. Having them all delivered at once would not only make storage difficult but also lead to waste due to energy dissipation; batch delivery was the most prudent choice.

Having spent 500 million, he still had 500 million left.

Tang Ping rubbed his chin and pondered for a moment before simply opening the cosmic financial platform and, with a wave of his hand, dumped all the remaining money into the stocks of Galaxy Liquor and Galaxy Tea.

The moment he placed the order, the smart assistant on his personal terminal popped up a notification: [Detected a massive one-time investment. We suggest rational investment, diversifying risks, and preparing a risk-hedging plan...]

Tang Ping glanced at the prompt and couldn't help but sneer.

Rationality? Risk hedging? He only knew how to go all-in!

Win and live like a king, lose and go back to working on the construction site!

After handling the wealth distribution, Tang Ping took out his personal terminal and tapped out a detailed training schedule. As long as no unexpected accidents occurred, he would execute it strictly:

The first three days: Rotate between planetary spirit reader attack techniques and flight techniques every half day to solidify basic skills and achieve proficiency;

Every three days: Use the resources from the Planetary Peak B-Package to steadily improve his realm. This was a package limitation; unless one was S-rank, it could only be used once every three days, so there was no way to rush it;

After one week: Go find Luo Xiaoyu to "deeply discuss" spear technique practice and exchange cultivation insights, then enter the Ice Cold Deep Cave to improve his willpower. Initially, he would persist for one day, then gradually increase the duration and venture deeper into the cave;

Daily routine: Continue polishing attack techniques during cultivation gaps, ensuring practical combat and bitter training went hand-in-hand;

Monthly fixed tasks: Submit a mining report for the BX10081 Star System to the family and a mining report for the Lost City to the guild leader.

These two reports were not just written casually.

Although the family and the guild only came to collect ore once a year and the backend system could automatically track production, the significance of proactively submitting reports was completely different.

It allowed them to clearly see that in a remote, godforsaken place like the Lost City, there was a clansman/member like him silently working hard, how much work he had done, how much pressure he had endured, and what results he had achieved.

Tang Ping was well-versed in this. In his previous life, he was able to become a technical supervisor at a young age precisely because of this. No matter where you are, burying your head in work is useless; you have to let the "boss" know how much work you've done.

Moreover, with the help of artificial intelligence, writing reports was a matter of minutes.

With the schedule finalized, Tang Ping began his unwavering mode of bitter cultivation.

Occasionally, when he went out of seclusion after a week to find Luo Xiaoyu, his wife would be a bit unhappy because she was buried in her own cultivation.

At these times, Tang Ping would activate the dual overlay of his Wind Domain and Thunder Domain, demonstrating his progress during their sparring sessions. He would use his solid strength to show her what "overwhelming divine power" and "a genius's growth rate" meant, and finally, with a few sweet words and actual actions, he would coax his wife until she was beaming with joy and weeping with happiness.

Hmph, this is what a man is!

The harder you are, the more beautiful the sound! --- Music Master Beethoven

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, half a year had passed.

During these six months, Tang Ping strictly followed his training schedule. The resources from the Planetary Peak B-Package acted like a ripening agent, causing his strength to soar at a speed visible to the naked eye.

When he opened his personal panel again, the values on it had undergone a heaven-shaking change:

[Realm: Planetary Level Nine (999/1000) → Peak!]

[Willpower: Star Level Two (300/1000)]

[Lifespan: 23/5000]

[Laws: Wind Domain Level Two (1000/10000), Thunder Domain Level Two (1000/10000)]

[Secret Technique: Wind-Thunder Secret Canon (2100/10000000)]

Planetary Level Nine Peak! He had even successfully broken through to the legendary level two domain!

Now, his base domain amplification had reached 40%. In combat, the wind aided the thunder's momentum, and the thunder amplified the wind; the power was more than double what it had been at level one.

The only flaw was that the speed of using drugs to improve his strength was too fast, and the progress of polishing his domains couldn't keep up with the pace of his realm improvement, making it seem slightly impetuous.

But Tang Ping didn't care at all; instead, he chuckled. A man, after all, should be fast! Get the realm up first, and there would be plenty of time to slowly polish the domains later.

When the time came, Star Level fighting Planetary Level—the advantage would be his!

Looking at the values on the panel, Tang Ping stretched, feeling the surging energy within his body, his eyes flashing with anticipation.

Planetary Rank peak is merely the starting point; what comes next is the push toward Star Rank!

At this moment, Tang Ping actually set aside his previous impatience, becoming extremely cautious.

For those top-tier geniuses of the universe, Star Rank might just be a minor realm that can be broken through with a snap of the fingers, but in reality, this is already a disaster-level strength capable of deciding the life and death of an entire region.

Records from the Great Cataclysm on Earth: back then, a single Star Rank alien descended and nearly wiped out the humans in the entire area single-handedly; had it not been for top experts risking their lives to stop it, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

Such strength, even in the vast universe, is already a genuine "hard currency."

Finding a position as a guard captain or planetary security supervisor in any interstellar consortium or cosmic nation would not only provide generous benefits and an easy, comfortable life, but could even lead to accumulating wealth that ordinary people couldn't earn in several lifetimes.

However, high compensation often corresponds to high difficulty.

Under normal circumstances, across several life-bearing planets combined, among billions or even hundreds of billions of humans, a Star Rank expert might not appear for hundreds of years.

Tang Ping dared not gamble his future on "luck." To ensure the breakthrough was foolproof, he opened the Rare Treasure Pavilion in the Virtual Universe, preparing to "pay to win" in the most reliable way possible.

His fingertips slid across the breakthrough resources section of the Rare Treasure Pavilion, from Star Rank Breakthrough Guiding Fluid to Starry Sky Body-Tempering Ore, each item marked with a hefty price tag. Just as Tang Ping was pondering how to combine the resources most cost-effectively, his personal terminal suddenly popped up a financial notification, making his eyes light up:

[The annual dividends for your holdings in Galaxy Liquor (0.03% stake) and Galaxy Tea (0.02% stake) have been processed. With a dividend rate of 10%, a total of 55.2 million Black Dragon Coins has been credited to your account. The funds have been transferred to your anonymous account.]

Tang Ping was stunned for a moment, then couldn't help but laugh out loud.

These damn rich people, they have money they can't spend, simply can't spend it all.

Fortunately, he is now one of them, too.

Joy!