Nine Revolutions Mysterious Technique

In less than ten minutes, Zhou Yuan's spacecraft reached the edge of the Shattered Star Belt.

"Beibei, find a larger asteroid and move closer to it," Zhou Yuan said to the virtual kitten in front of him, whose tail was swishing.

"Understood, Master." The kitten flicked its tail.

"Understood, Master!" Beibei immediately put aside her playful mood, and streams of data flashed through her golden eyes.

"Master, there is an asteroid two hundred million kilometers away in the upper-left direction. It has a diameter of three hundred and twenty kilometers. Its surface is covered in thick cosmic dust, and there are several natural fissures inside it. It is very suitable for concealed docking."

"Alright, that one. Move over and park somewhere hidden." Zhou Yuan nodded as he gave the order.

The Goshawk's engines let out another low hum. Its hull adjusted slightly, and like a falcon streaking through the universe, it flew straight toward the target asteroid.

The asteroid's surface was uneven and pitted, covered in densely packed impact craters. The largest crater was even more than ten kilometers wide, and the rocks around its edge had long since been scorched into a glassy texture by intense heat.

Beibei guided the spacecraft around the exposed sharp rocks with great care before finally slipping into a fissure on the asteroid's far side that was several thousand meters deep.

The fissure twisted and turned like a natural tunnel, just large enough to contain the Goshawk's hull.

"Master, the spacecraft has finished docking. External environment simulation has been activated, completely masking the ship's energy fluctuations. External scans will only identify this as an ordinary rock fissure." Beibei's voice carried a hint of pride.

Zhou Yuan walked straight into the core chamber at the deepest part of the spacecraft. This was the heart of the entire ship, its sturdiest location, and also where Zhou Yuan usually cultivated.

Zhou Yuan sat cross-legged in the center and slowly closed his eyes. His consciousness gradually sank into his sea of consciousness as he began studying the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Technique deduced by the Hunyuan Dao Seed.

The Nine Revolutions Mysterious Technique required one to comprehend secret patterns before it could be cultivated. One had to use soul power to construct a complete secret-pattern structure, then use the origin force within one's body to connect them, eventually forming a circulating system jointly composed of soul consciousness and origin force.

This secret art had been specially deduced by the Hunyuan Dao Seed for Zhou Yuan. It perfectly suited his physique and soul, allowing him to cultivate with twice the result for half the effort.

The first layer of the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Technique consisted of exactly 10,081 secret patterns. These secret patterns were not arranged on a flat plane. Instead, they interlinked into a complex three-dimensional structure, like a miniature model of the universe, with every secret pattern corresponding to a fundamental law of the cosmos.

"Hmm?" Zhou Yuan had only just calmed his mind when he keenly sensed something wrong. He could clearly feel that the origin force within his body had become many times more powerful than before, while his strength, speed, and reaction time had all undergone a qualitative leap.

"Why am I so strong?" Zhou Yuan was startled and quickly examined himself inwardly. He was still at the Universe Level Second Layer, but the sheer abundance of origin force within him was more than thirty times greater than before. The strength of his body had likewise reached a terrifying level.

"I'm still at the Universe Level Second Layer. Why do I feel so much stronger than before?" Only then did Zhou Yuan carefully inspect his body and origin force.

Before long, he thought of the Earth Heart he had obtained earlier. "My origin force is thirty times stronger than before, and my physical attributes are probably the same. The most likely explanation is that my genetic level has increased thirtyfold."

Having read Swallowed Star in his previous life, Zhou Yuan was no stranger to this world's cultivation system. After Luo Feng absorbed the Space Heart, his genetic level had risen directly by a hundredfold.

Although the Earth Heart Zhou Yuan had absorbed was also a core material of a source supreme treasure, it was one level lower than the Space Heart. A thirtyfold increase in genetic level was already an excellent gain.

"I didn't expect that activating the Hunyuan Dao Seed wouldn't directly absorb the Earth Heart, but would instead let me absorb it completely." As Zhou Yuan pondered the reason for the change in his genetic level, a smile unconsciously curled across his lips.

"Wouldn't that mean that once I finish cultivating the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Technique, I can directly reach the perfect genetic level of 10,081 times?" Zhou Yuan continued to think.

The moment that thought surfaced, Zhou Yuan's heart burned with excitement.

After all, in the world of Swallowed Star, genetic level was tied to a cultivator's strength.

Before becoming a Universe Master, ordinary lifeforms could only raise their genetic level to a hundred times at most. Aside from the protagonist Luo Feng, who possessed the Nine Tribulations Secret Manual, no one could break that rule.

Once he mastered the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Technique, however, his genetic level would reach a terrifying 10,081 times. Moreover, perfect genes could grant him the strongest innate secret technique bestowed by the Primal Universe.

"I'll cultivate the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Technique first. This is the foundation of my strength." Zhou Yuan took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the excitement in his heart and casting all distracting thoughts aside.

His consciousness sank into his sea of consciousness once more, and he began examining the secret patterns of the first layer of the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Technique.

These secret patterns seemed complex, each containing profound mysteries, as though they were manifestations of the laws of the universe.

But cultivation only required him to steadily use spiritual power to draw the secret-pattern diagram, then use origin force to connect every secret pattern in the order drawn by his spiritual power. Finally, he only needed to activate the diagram through the resonance between spiritual power and origin force.

Zhou Yuan did not need to fully comprehend the entire secret-pattern diagram.

As for the resonance between spiritual power and origin force, Zhou Yuan was already thoroughly familiar with it. Though he was only at the Universe Level Second Layer, he had long comprehended a domain—and an eighth-level domain at that.

Cultivating a domain happened to require perfect resonance between spiritual power and origin force.

That was also why he had dared to venture alone into the middle region of the Shattered Star Belt. After all, some relatively weak Domain Lord level experts only operated within the middle region of the Shattered Star Belt.

After carefully studying the secret-pattern structure of the first layer of the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Technique and confirming that failure would not endanger his life, Zhou Yuan eagerly began his first attempt.

He slowly closed his eyes and focused his consciousness to the utmost. His soul power became an invisible brush as it began drawing the first secret pattern in his sea of consciousness. Perhaps because the increase in his genetic level had strengthened his spiritual power, the first secret pattern went exceptionally smoothly, completed in one go without the slightest hitch.

Encouraged by that promising start, Zhou Yuan's confidence soared. His soul power continued to move, and one profound secret pattern after another gradually took shape in his sea of consciousness.

However, the path of cultivation was never smooth. When he reached the 1,017th secret pattern, Zhou Yuan's soul power suddenly fluctuated slightly, causing the pattern's lines to deviate.

The next second, the entire secret-pattern structure that had already taken shape collapsed instantly like dominoes, turning into specks of light that scattered through his sea of consciousness.

"Did I fail?" Zhou Yuan opened his eyes and gently exhaled. There was not the slightest hint of discouragement on his face. Cultivation could never be accomplished in a single stroke, especially not a heaven-defying secret art like the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Technique.

Over the following days, Zhou Yuan entered an almost crazed state of cultivation.

He repeatedly used spiritual power to draw the secret-pattern structure. Whenever he failed, he started over. Once his spiritual power was exhausted, he stopped to recover, and as soon as it returned to normal, he immediately threw himself into another round of attempts.

The secret-pattern structure in his sea of consciousness formed time and time again, only to collapse time and time again. Yet through those repeated failures, Zhou Yuan's spiritual power became increasingly condensed and powerful, while his understanding of the secret patterns deepened further and further.

Finally, after three full months of unrelenting attempts, the moment the final secret pattern formed perfectly in his sea of consciousness, the entire secret-pattern structure instantly stabilized.

A three-dimensional structure composed of 10,081 secret patterns floated at the center of his sea of consciousness, slowly rotating and radiating a faint mysterious glow.

"Success!" Zhou Yuan's heart surged with excitement, but he did not relax, because this was merely the first step.

Next, he had to use the origin force within his body to connect the 10,081 secret patterns one by one in the order drawn by his spiritual power. This step was even more difficult than drawing the secret patterns, requiring extremely precise control over origin force. The slightest mistake would ruin all his previous effort.

Zhou Yuan carefully mobilized the origin force in his body. Like a slender thread, it slowly reached toward the secret-pattern structure in his sea of consciousness.

The first secret pattern connected successfully. Then the second, the third... When he had connected more than two thousand secret patterns, a slight error appeared in his control of origin force, and the entire secret-pattern structure collapsed once more.

Failure did not dishearten Zhou Yuan. Instead, it made him more composed. He tried again and again, continuously adjusting his origin-force output and control precision as he accumulated experience through failure.

Time quietly passed amid the tedious cultivation. In the blink of an eye, nearly a year had gone by. On this day, when the final trace of origin force successfully connected to the 10,081st secret pattern, the entire structure suddenly erupted with dazzling light. All 10,081 secret patterns lit up at once like 10,081 stars, shining brilliantly in his sea of consciousness.

"The connection succeeded!" Wild delight flashed through Zhou Yuan's eyes.

The final step that followed was the easiest one for Zhou Yuan.

With a thought, his spiritual power and origin force instantly resonated. The secret-pattern structure in his sea of consciousness began to slowly rotate, every secret pattern operating according to some profound law, like a flawless miniature of the entire universe.

As the secret-pattern structure operated, a strange force spread from his sea of consciousness and instantly swept through Zhou Yuan's entire body.

The origin force and spiritual power within him were forcibly stirred by that power, rapidly circulating through his body along the route guided by the secret-pattern structure. Zhou Yuan even lost autonomous control over his own body.

A warm sensation rose from within him, as though countless invisible hands were gently massaging every inch of his skin, every bone, and every cell.

The power emitted by the secret-pattern structure was slowly yet steadily tempering his body, cleansing his marrow and reshaping his veins while transforming his genetic sequence.

Zhou Yuan could clearly feel that his body was undergoing earth-shaking changes. His fleshly body began to develop anew, the quality of his origin force gradually strengthened, and even his soul became more condensed.

However, all of this came at the cost of consuming vast amounts of origin force and spiritual power. Before long, Zhou Yuan felt as though the origin force and spiritual power within him had been completely drained, and waves of intense weakness flooded his heart.

His vision went black. Unable to hold on any longer, he fell stiffly onto the cultivation platform as though all strength had left his body, completely losing consciousness.