Night, dotted with stars.
Pure white moonlight descended from the heavens, spilling over silver steps.
On the rooftop of a residential building in an ordinary neighborhood in the Outer City, Seventh Ring, a tall, straight-backed youth sat cross-legged.
His eyes were closed, his torso upright as a pine. His handsome face was extraordinary, with sword-like brows sweeping toward his temples, a high nose, and lightly pressed lips. Bathed in falling moonlight, he looked like an immortal exiled from heaven.
He sat with the centers of his palms, soles, and crown facing the sky. His chest rose and fell gently, and every breath seemed to draw upon the omnipresent energy of the starry cosmos, pulling wisps into his mouth and nose to be absorbed.
The Breathing Technique is a method of breathing and drawing in energy.
With a unique breathing rhythm paired with its specialized guiding technique, it draws the wondrous energy of the starry cosmos into the body. The flesh bears it as water bears a boat, complete and without leakage...
Recalling the profound principles of the Starry Sky Breathing Method he had just obtained, Lin Yuan clearly sensed the cosmic stellar energy that had previously eluded his perception constantly gathering toward him.
His body was ravenously absorbing this wondrous, higher-order cosmic energy. Every cell rejoiced, transformed, and evolved toward a higher level of life!
The entire process would last a long time.
A mortal's physical strength, after the four steps of skin tempering, Tendon Refining, blood tempering, and marrow cleansing, reaches complete perfection at Body Tempering grandmastery—and even then, it amounts to only ten thousand jin of force.
But absorbing cosmic stellar energy is like opening the body's genetic lock. The flesh can continue transforming and strengthening, growing stronger once more!
Bathed in abundant moonlight, Lin Yuan could distinctly feel his transformation accelerating. His body was evolving at a frantic pace, and his rate of absorbing cosmic stellar energy far exceeded the normal speed recorded in the cultivation manual.
Normally, this transformation would continue for seven days and seven nights before the body became "full" again, reaching a temporary limit.
Even peerless geniuses with outstanding aptitude, hailed as martial prodigies, needed at least a full day and night to complete their transformation.
Yet this was only Lin Yuan's first night of cultivation. Not even six hours had passed, and he already felt that his body was almost "full"...
He did not open his eyes.
But inwardly, he had an inkling of the reason—
The eleventh talent trait—"Swallowing the Starry Sky"!
Effect: greatly increases the speed of absorbing cosmic stellar energy, allows stellar energy to be extracted in any extreme environment, and enables the active absorption of all surrounding stellar energy to greatly boost combat power for a short time...
It was an utterly overpowered talent trait.
Combining a "cultivation accelerator," "terrifying survival ability," "incredible endurance," and "explosive combat power," it could be called one of the very best talent traits.
This was the last talent trait he had obtained in the Wilderness Zone. Previously, he had only been practicing martial Body Tempering, which did not involve stellar energy, so it had remained hidden, showing neither mountain nor water. Only now, at the crucial moment of Lin Yuan's breakthrough to become a true Starry-Sky Warrior, did it finally reveal its edge.
Crack, crack...
After an unknown length of time, Lin Yuan's body swelled slightly. Every contour of his muscles seemed to have been nourished, becoming hard as steel and iron and gleaming coldly beneath the moonlight.
At last, he opened his eyes and slowly stood.
With that movement, his body let out a series of thunderous sounds, and a terrifying, weighty pressure spread silently outward.
"Life transformation..."
Lin Yuan gazed at his current body, clearly sensing the enormous changes.
"Physical strength..."
He clenched his fist and felt a weight ten times greater than before.
"A hundred thousand jin!"
A single swing of his arm carried a hundred thousand jin of tremendous force.
This was the powerful physique of a true Starry-Sky Warrior!
This formidable body alone was beyond comparison with any Hunter or fierce beast.
A punch carrying a hundred thousand jin of force would not merely leave someone black and blue. Even the Tyrant Ferocious Tiger, the strongest beast in the Wilderness Zone, would probably be left in pieces here and there if it took that punch...
"And then there's..."
Lin Yuan raised his hand and stared at his palm.
Whoosh!
Inside his body, a warm current spiraled upward at a thought, gathering in his right palm and glowing a brilliant blue.
Star power!
Natal stellar force!
This was the supernatural power exclusive to true Starry-Sky Warriors!
"Just a single wisp of natal stellar force, yet it's so heavy..."
Lin Yuan looked at the azure star power in his palm. It seemed harmless and gentle as water, yet his heart filled with amazement.
This seemingly insignificant wisp of star power also carried a weight of a hundred thousand jin!
What did that mean?
A hundred thousand jin from his physique.
A hundred thousand jin from his natal stellar force.
It meant that a true Starry-Sky Warrior, even the weakest kind who had only just broken through, could unleash a full two hundred thousand jin of force at maximum power!
This was the enormous, almost insurmountable gap in strength between Starry-Sky Warriors and Body-Tempering Apprentices.
"At last, I've taken this step..."
Lin Yuan let out a deep sigh. Despite his composed expression, a trace of unrestrained exhilaration finally escaped.
He smiled silently, his eyes brimming with youthful spirit.
Three months!
Only three months.
Three months after awakening his true self, he had completed the ultimate transformation he had failed to achieve in the previous eighteen years.
From an ordinary graduate who had regrettably failed the June Joint Exam, from a Body-Tempering Apprentice who had only just entered the blood tempering stage, he had transformed into a true Starry-Sky Warrior wielding two hundred thousand jin of tremendous force!
The feelings behind it were not something he could explain to outsiders.
"Talent traits..."
He glanced at the Game Panel deep within his mind, the thing that had changed his destiny.
Player: Lin Yuan Level: 11 Experience: 1/2048 Lifespan: 18/335 (136 years of lifespan plundered) Talent traits: "Swordsmanship Mastery," "Martial Prodigy," "Transcendent Comprehension"...
Since returning, he had not opened his personal panel for a long time.
Now that he looked, he spotted the change immediately.
"My lifespan has increased by a hundred years..."
Lin Yuan calmed down and studied the clearly displayed figure of 335 years in the lifespan field, lost in thought.
It had been 235 years before, if he remembered correctly. With the effect of his tenth talent trait—"Life Plunder"—he had slain countless fierce beasts in the Wilderness Zone and plundered over a hundred years of lifespan!
And now, after breaking through to become a true Starry-Sky Warrior, his lifespan had naturally increased by another hundred years.
"A Starry-Sky Warrior's transformation really is a transformation of life. Does breaking through alone grant a lifespan of two hundred years?"
Yet according to the brief information outlined in the Breathing Technique cultivation manual, this was only the beginning.
Refining the first wisp of natal stellar force, undergoing the body's first transformation, shedding the mortal frame, and gaining a hundred thousand jin of tremendous force—this was the first realm of the Stellar Martial Path—
"The Mortal Transcendence Realm"!
It meant shedding one's mortal frame and formally entering the star-martial domain.
"Transcendence alone grants a lifespan of two hundred years. If I keep breaking through, could I truly live as long as the heavens?"
"Or perhaps... attain everlasting life?"
Before you continue