Cultivation Mission

A few hours later, Yin Congyang took delivery of the goods he had ordered from the Virtual Universe Company staff and returned to his residence.

Locking the doors and windows tight, he took out two boxes containing Life Fruits. These Life Fruits contained an incomparably vast life force; even a World Lord gravely injured could be saved by one, earning them the title of a World Lord's second life.

They were definitely sufficient for use on his clones. Supplemented by treasures containing the power of the Laws that he had exchanged with his points, his second and third clones should be able to complete their condensation in one go.

As for the problem of the Life Fruit's life force being too strong and bursting the clones, that didn't exist. The [Clone] secret technique had a solution for this issue. If the energy absorbed from the treasures was too great or too strong, the mysterious connection between clones could be used to transfer the excess energy to other clones or the main body. If even the other clones and the main body couldn't contain it, there was another secret technique to disperse the excess energy, preventing the clones from being damaged.

Currently, his first clone was still at Universe Level, Stage One, and this clone couldn't enjoy the treatment of a Nutrition Chamber. It could only cultivate painstakingly on its own. Fortunately, its body and soul were also within the range of the mysterious fluctuations radiating from the main body's dantian, allowing for continuous evolution.

Checking the time, he saw that he had plenty of time to finish condensing the two clones before receiving the Nutrition Chamber. He hesitated no longer and sent the two boxes and other treasures into the storage spaces containing the clones.

A few hours later, both clones had completed their final stage. He copied a portion of his Spiritual Consciousness and imprinted it into the souls of the two clones, then adjusted their appearances, heights, and so on. From then on, Yin Congyang had three clones.

The Life Fruit truly lived up to its reputation as a treasure containing immense life force. Both clones were elevated to Universe Level, Stage Three, and the excess energy that overflowed during the process actually raised the first clone to Universe Level, Stage Four, making it the highest cultivation level among all, including the main body.

He summoned all three clones out of the storage space. The main body and the clones smiled at each other. Yin Congyang thought for a moment. Always calling them the first clone and second clone was easy to confuse; he needed to give them names. Recalling the ancient texts about the Four Symbols and Five Elements, he said to the first clone, which had fused with the Jianmu Heart, "From now on, you will be called Azure Dragon."

Turning to the gold-element clone that had fused with the Geng Metal Essence, he said, "You are White Tiger."

"And you will be called Vermilion Bird."

The clone that had fused with the Phoenix Fire nodded.

Yin Congyang stroked his chin, considering. The next clones would be for the Law of Water and the Law of Earth. When the time came, the water clone would be called Black Tortoise, and the earth clone, in memory of his past life, would be called Kunlun.

The next step was to have the main body quickly advance to Universe Level, Stage Nine. Unfortunately, he couldn't go challenge the Heaven-Reaching Bridge, the Illusion Sea, or the Immortal Altar now, because he hadn't been to Chaos City yet. These three places required authorization after visiting Chaos City; otherwise, he wouldn't even know how to get there—he had no teleportation qualification.

Otherwise, with his current strength, he had some confidence in passing the first level of the Heaven-Reaching Bridge. The Illusion Sea was even less of a concern; his will and consciousness were already at the World Lord level. As for his physical force output, he had long reached the perfect one hundred times multiplier, which would earn him full points at the Immortal Altar.

For now, he could only wait until after soaking in the Nutrition Chamber to try completing some training missions. All training missions awarded points; the difference was only in mission difficulty. High-difficulty missions gave high points, and low-difficulty missions gave low points.

He currently had 470 points remaining, which was actually enough to condense one clone into form. But first, he already had three clones, which was sufficient from a safety perspective for now. Second, both of these clones were still in their first stage, and he had no immediate plans to proceed further. After he completed a few low-level missions, he might have enough points to condense both clones simultaneously.

The next day, Yin Congyang went to the location of the Nutrition Chambers. After passing identity verification, he lay down in Nutrition Chamber number C365. The chamber had already been filled with enough nutrient fluid for several days of use.

This type of nutrient fluid could not be used continuously. It could be used for a maximum of three days at a time, and a stop of at least one day was required before reuse.

This didn't matter much to Yin Congyang. He could still connect to the Virtual Universe while lying in the Nutrition Chamber, and his clones could cultivate in the storage space. It just cost a bit more time for travel back and forth.

A year and a half later, with the help of the Nutrition Chamber, Yin Congyang's physical fitness and Spiritual Force had been elevated to Universe Level, Stage Nine. Normally, an ordinary Universe Level cultivator would take about nine months to raise their body from Stage One to Stage Nine. But Yin Congyang's physical foundation was too strong; it took nearly double the time to reach Universe Level, Stage Nine.

This was not the limit. The fluctuations in his dantian continued to relentlessly strengthen Yin Congyang's body, soul, and will. But this was an effect that using nutrient fluid could not achieve.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor of the training room, Yin Congyang pondered silently. Now that the main body's physique had been raised to Universe Level, Stage Nine, and he had just mastered the fifth sword technique of the Drifting Blood secret code, comprehending the fifth subtlety of the Law of Space, there would be no further leap in strength for a short time. So, it was time to start trying the training missions.

With a thought, a screen appeared in the air of the training room. He gently tapped the "Training Missions" icon.

Three levels of training missions appeared on the screen.

Safe Level (Mortality Rate 0%)

Normal Level (Mortality Rate 10%)

Difficult Level (Mortality Rate 20%)

"Hmm, why are there only three levels? Aren't there supposed to be Dangerous Level and Desperate Level behind? Could it be... because I haven't been to Chaos City, my authority isn't high enough?"

"Query Dangerous Level missions and Desperate Level missions!" Yin Congyang said to the Optical Computer.

"Query completed. Current authority is insufficient to access Dangerous Level and Desperate Level missions," the Optical Computer replied immediately.

"So that's it. Then for these few decades, the highest I can do is take on Difficult Level missions..."

He gently tapped the "Difficult Level" icon.

"Shua~"

A dense list of training mission names appeared on the screen.

1 Lingbo City (Virtual Universe Company, Heaven and Earth Secret Realm)

2 Valley of Demons (Virtual Universe Company, End-of-the-World Secret Realm)

3 Storm Hall (Universe Mercenary Alliance, Radiance Secret Realm)

7 Peerless Powerhouse (Virtual Universe Company, End-of-the-World Secret Realm)

13 Rain City (Universe Galaxy Bank, Mist Cloud Secret Realm)

135 Moonlight City (Virtual Universe Company, Heaven and Earth Secret Realm)

379 Illusion Glass Realm (Virtual Universe Company, End-of-the-World Secret Realm)

1078 Cloud City (Giant Axe Dojo, Long Blade Secret Realm)

The list contained a motley assortment of mission names, over a thousand in total, covering almost all the secret realms of humanity's five major powers.

"I'd better pick one from the End-of-the-World Secret Realm first. After all, for Difficult Level missions, the difficulty is probably about the same. If I choose a secret realm from another power, I don't know how much time I'd waste just on travel... But still, I should look at the detailed mission information first before deciding which one to pick."

He began clicking on one difficult-level task after another, checking the mission details.

He scrolled through task after task, each with extensive information and very lengthy descriptions.

In the end, he chose the [Peerless Powerhouse] mission located in the End-of-the-World Secret Realm, because it was simple enough—unlike some tasks that required time, effort, and brains, this one had only one requirement: fight.

On a super planet called "Gaishi" within the End-of-the-World Secret Realm, an Expert Tournament is held every hundred years. Every level below Immortal has its own tournament: World Lords have a World Lord-level Expert Tournament, Domain Lords have a Domain Lord-level one, and Universe Level also has its own—any Universe Level can participate.

The Domain Lord-level Expert Tournament is held once every thousand years, and the World Lord-level one once every ten thousand years.

But this isn't in the Virtual Universe; it's in the real world, a one-on-one arena match. No referee, no rules. As long as both are Universe Level—whether you're Universe Level Stage 1 or Universe Level Stage 9—you can compete.

After signing up, opponents are completely random, determined by drawing lots. This means a Universe Level Stage 1 could end up facing a Universe Level Stage 9 opponent.

Once the match is set, you cannot forfeit; you must step into the ring. However, you can surrender one minute after the match starts—if you can survive that long.

The completion criteria for this mission is to place in the top ten of the Universe Level Expert Tournament. Tenth place rewards 10 points, ninth place 20 points, eighth place 40 points, and so on, with first place earning 5120 points.

Don't think this is easy. As a special planet in the cosmic secret realm, Gaishi Star is extremely vast, with a diameter of 500,000 kilometers, so its population is enormous. Being in a cosmic secret realm, the universe's source energy is incredibly rich, making the probability of strong individuals very high. Babies born on Gaishi Star have the strength of a high-level apprentice, and by adulthood they can reach Star Level—a fairly good bloodline. There are many Universe Level, Domain Lord, and World Lord powerhouses.

However, because they are born in the secret realm, breaking through to Immortal is extremely difficult—only one-thousandth the probability of normal cosmic humans.

Gaishi Star holds the Warrior Battle for two purposes. First, to filter out the strong, nurture them, and try to increase their chances of breaking through to Immortal. Second, to reduce the population. Although Gaishi Star is huge, after countless epochs, it's still overcrowded. Since the entire planet is under the management of a few lucky Immortal powerhouses, with no internal wars or chaos, and with extremely long lifespans, the population grows unchecked. Eventually, it would burst Gaishi Star, which is why the Warrior Battle was born.

Gaishi Star was discovered when the Virtual Universe Company was remodeling the End-of-the-World Secret Realm. Although Gaishi Star submitted to the Virtual Universe Company, the probability of producing powerhouses above Immortal is too low, so the company doesn't value it much.

The company's rule is that only by breaking through to Immortal can one leave Gaishi Star and join the Virtual Universe Company, going to the outside world. And only by reaching World Lord level can one qualify to enter the Virtual Universe.

This rule directly leads to an extremely martial culture on Gaishi Star. Everyone reveres the strong. Once you break through to Immortal, you can leave Gaishi Star, or even if you only reach World Lord, you can access the wondrous Virtual Universe.

Therefore, the people of Gaishi Star don't resent those from the Virtual Universe Company; instead, they welcome them. Because there's another rule: if you defeat or kill someone from the Virtual Universe Company in the same major realm during the Warrior Battle, the defeater gets a high reward, and the killer can directly replace the victim, entering the Virtual Universe Company's Core Layer.

So the greatest danger in undertaking the [Peerless Powerhouse] mission comes from this.