Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map

Sixteen years later.

Inside a villa in Luo Capital.

"Ah Luo, are you still going to the martial hall today?" After breakfast, Yue Qin looked at the sunny, handsome young man before her, feeling a surge of pride.

Jiang Luo smiled. "I'm going to East Snake Mountain to cultivate in seclusion. I probably won't be back for quite a while, so you, Dad, Yingying, and Xiao Ting don't need to wait for me."

After seeing her eldest son off, Yue Qin turned around and glared at Jiang Luo's younger siblings, launching into her usual lecture. "Why can't you two learn from your brother for once?"

"Especially you, Xiao Ting. Your grades are bad, and you don't put any effort into martial arts either. You practice for a couple of days, then slack off for a few more. You haven't even become a warrior. You're bringing shame on the Jiang Family!"

Jiang Ting grumbled as he poked at his food, looking as if he couldn't care less what she said.

The youngest, Jiang Ying, sighed helplessly. "Mom, stop comparing us to Big Brother all the time. He's the youngest Martial Saint and Upper House member in the Alliance's history. He's not just unprecedented—there probably won't ever be another freak like him..."

Under her mother's sharp glare, the girl pursed her lips and swallowed the word "monster."

Jiang Ting snorted. "Our principal is said to be one of the Alliance's top ten Grandmasters. I heard he was a peerless genius when he was young, but even he lost to my brother in a sparring match, didn't he?"

"Even the greatest genius could train in martial arts until the day he died and still not catch up to one of Big Brother's fingers. So what's the point of practicing?"

With that, he ran upstairs, no longer listening to his mother's attempts to push him to study.

Yue Qin froze for a moment, then smiled wryly.

Thinking back, Jiang Luo had become a warrior at just seven years old and defeated her husband, a senior martial arts instructor at a club. After that, her husband had grown somewhat disheartened with martial arts.

Having a son with such extraordinary, peerless talent filled the family with both pride and pressure.

Deep inside a mountain range, two guards stationed outside the cultivation chamber in the core area saw Jiang Luo and bowed respectfully. "Hall Master!"

Jiang Luo nodded and entered the cavernous space beyond the mechanical doors, under their reverent gazes.

"Not bad. It's still not as strong as the faith of the most devout believers, but it's much stronger than the faith in 'Emperor Luo' or 'Ancestor Luo.'"

Jiang Luo felt the faith flowing in from every direction, gathering in the seal deep within his soul. It then transformed into wisps of white wish power and flowed into a star.

The dazzling white sun of wish power that had accumulated in the seal's space over the past five thousand years had already been completely used up.

All that remained was a white star—the wish power he had gained and accumulated over the past few years, thanks to his titles as the youngest Martial Saint in history and the strongest Martial Saint of the present age.

Though it contained less than one-twentieth of the wish power he had before, he was very satisfied with how quickly it was accumulating.

Sixteen years had passed since he had been reincarnated through the secret art of Corpse-Free Reincarnation.

But it had only been three years since he became the youngest Martial Saint and founded the Crimson Bright Martial Hall. He had been recognized as the strongest Martial Saint of the present age for just one year.

In such a short time, he had gathered one-twentieth of the wish power accumulated over the previous five thousand years!

Of course, that was partly because the population in ancient times had been far smaller than it was now. Luo Planet had a population of over ten billion, a result of advances in technological productivity.

Another reason was that his soul had previously needed to consume wish power constantly just to sustain itself, so much of it hadn't been saved.

At this rate, in another decade or so, he would probably have replenished the wish power accumulated over the several thousand years that had already been exhausted.

Unfortunately, this won't last much longer... Jiang Luo thought to himself.

Once the people of Luo Planet came into contact with Cosmic Humans, the quality of their faith would drop dramatically.

His research over the past decade had shown him that faith came in different degrees of quality.

The most devout believers were those who regarded him as an omnipotent supreme god, the one and only god.

Several thousand years ago, when his title of "Emperor Luo" had made him the sovereign of the gods in mythology, he had gained believers like that.

On average, a year's worth of faith from one of these most devout believers could be converted into a wisp of white wish power.

Next came those who worshipped him as the strongest person in the known world. It would probably take a hundred believers a year to contribute a wisp of white wish power.

Then there were those who revered him as an ancestor or famous figure. To be precise, this could no longer be considered faith.

It was merely a feeling of admiration and respect. Even tens of thousands of people might not contribute a wisp of white wish power in a year.

Once the people of Luo Planet made contact with cosmic civilization, Jiang Luo would surely lose his title as the "strongest."

The people of Luo Planet would still revere him—as their leader and strongest person—but it would no longer be worship of the strongest, and they could no longer be called believers.

And they certainly wouldn't regard him as an omnipotent supreme god.

"It would be best if I could buy a life-bearing planet, move ordinary people there to multiply, and cultivate faith in me as a supreme god..."

Jiang Luo shook his head, cutting off his scattered thoughts one by one. He closed his eyes, merging his mind and body with heaven, earth, and the planet as he sensed the natural world around him.

Countless blazing golden flames gathered in his right hand, while a cold radiance gathered in his left.

He held a blazing star in one hand and an icy star in the other!

This was the first volume of the Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map, manifested at the cost of nearly all the wish power he had accumulated over several thousand years.

The first three layers were the apprentice stage.

From the Fourth Layer onward, one entered the Planetary Level.

Three years ago, he had mastered the third layer and reached the War God level. On Luo Planet, that meant he was a Martial Saint Grandmaster.

From ancient times to the present, no one on Luo Planet had ever surpassed the Martial Saint level and reached the Planetary Level. Martial Saint Grandmasters were already the strongest beings on the planet.

Of course, that was only an equivalent in terms of cultivation level.

His actual physical strength had long surpassed a thousand tons, rivaling that of a Planetary Level warrior. He was the undisputed strongest person on Luo Planet.

And that didn't even include his Spiritual Force.

Because his soul had been nourished by wish power for several thousand years, it was far stronger than that of an ordinary person from Luo Planet. Once his physical body had reached the War God level, his Spiritual Force had already entered the Planetary Level.

And now, he was finally about to break through to the Fourth Layer!

Perhaps because the people of Luo Planet had worshipped him as "Emperor Luo" and "Ancestor Luo" for several thousand years when he had been a soul.

For him, entering the state of unity between heaven and man was as easy as breathing, so cultivating the Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map wasn't particularly difficult.

Of course, being able to approach a breakthrough to the Fourth Layer so quickly was also the result of consuming a great deal of wish power.

Wish power could not only manifest all kinds of techniques and divine abilities; he could also consume it to overcome bottlenecks and speed up his progress in cultivating a technique.

Jiang Luo vaguely sensed two mighty laws, mysteries that had existed throughout the vast universe for countless ages.

Vast amounts of cosmic energy, accompanied by wisps of radiance, began to gather around Jiang Luo at an increasing pace.

First, flecks of watery light gathered, gradually forming enormous lotus leaves.

Then, specks of flame gathered, forming crimson lotus leaves.

The watery and fiery lotus leaves circled him, overlapping above and below as they spun in opposite directions.

They looked like two taiji fish, chasing each other.

After an unknown length of time.

"Boom!" "Boom!"

Enormous flames formed out of thin air around him, followed by surging waves of water. Everything in their path froze into ice sculptures, then shattered and burned away.

Jiang Luo felt every cell in his body burst apart, then reform under the interweaving of two streams of gene-origin energy.

His mortal body was shed!

"Crack, crack, crack..."

"Pop! Pop!"

Jiang Luo felt every tiny part of himself rapidly transforming. The Spiritual Force sealed within his sea of consciousness was also released in full!

"This power..." Jiang Luo clenched his fist, and the air twisted around it.

It had increased by more than a hundred times!

"About 200,000... no, 250,000 tons!"

The increase in his strength was so great that even he couldn't estimate it accurately.

His raw physical strength alone was close to 250,000 tons!

"That's about as high as the physical strength of a Planetary Level Nine warrior, right? But my gene-origin energy is only at the first level of the Planetary Level..."

A Gene Warrior's strength was divided into "physical strength" and "gene-origin energy."

At the first level of the Planetary Level, both physical strength and gene-origin energy were around a thousand tons, for a combined total of two thousand tons.

But after mastering the Fourth Layer of the Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map, Jiang Luo had shed his mortal body and remade it directly to the level of a Planetary Level Nine warrior!

Without taking strength amplification into account, his physical body alone could rival a Planetary Level Eight warrior.

"And physical strength isn't even the most important thing..."

Jiang Luo smiled and moved his mind.

"Boom!"

The surrounding space shuddered violently. First, a crimson radiance spread out, covering the entire cavernous space carved into the mountain as if it were divine territory.

Then a silver-white radiance spread over the crimson domain.

The two overlapped, one icy cold and the other scorching hot.

They even seemed to transform into two enormous lotus leaves...

A domain!

And a dual domain of water and fire!

This was the marvel of the Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map after reaching the Planetary Level.

"When Luo Feng's Gene Warrior reached the Planetary Level, he gained a metal-type Diamond Body. I suppose mine could be called a water-and-fire body—"

"Not good!"

Jiang Luo suddenly froze.

Cracking sounds came from above the mountain.

Fine cracks appeared across the surrounding rock walls of the cavern.

Jiang Luo immediately sent a telepathic message to the guards outside the Crimson Bright Martial Hall. "Get out of East Snake Mountain!"

While he had been mastering the Fourth Layer of the Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map, he had touched the Origin Law and drawn on the water- and fire-type cosmic energy to transform his body, already damaging the inside of the mountain range.

Then he had released his dual domains, one icy and one scorching, making matters even worse. It had been the last straw.

Rumble~~~

The ground shook, and clouds of dust filled the air.

East Snake Mountain collapsed completely!

A streak of light shot out through the still-settling dust, carrying more than a dozen guards from the Crimson Bright Martial Hall.

"H-Hall Master!" A burly man stared in shock.

Flight!

The Hall Master was actually carrying them as they flew through the air.

"Could it be..."

Jiang Luo casually waved his hand, setting the dozen or so guards down in the forest below.

Before he vanished from sight, he left them with one sentence. "If the Alliance sends people to ask, tell them I made a breakthrough while cultivating in seclusion."

The guards of the Crimson Bright Martial Hall looked at one another.

A breakthrough?

The Hall Master was already invincible among the Martial Saints. If he had broken through again, wouldn't that mean...

Above the clouds, Jiang Luo transformed into a streak of light and flew through the air, paying no attention to the many artificial satellites in space.

Now that he had reached the Planetary Level, the body he had cultivated through the Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map, together with his dual domains, gave him strength comparable to that of a Star Level warrior.

Nothing on this planet could threaten him anymore, so there was no need to keep his strength hidden.

"With my current strength, I should be ready by now..." Jiang Luo's gaze was deep and distant.