Miracles Through Brute Force!

The Martial Arts Training Hall on the thirty-third floor of the Limit General Hall.

The training hall on this floor had been completely renovated. Not only had all its equipment been replaced with more advanced models, but Yang Zheng's personal Ancient Civilization Gravity Chamber had also been installed.

"Seven-Leaf Grass!"

In the center of the training hall, Yang Zheng took a fresh stalk of grass from a small box. Its stem was like jade, translucent as emerald, with silver veins running across its surface and giving off a faint glow.

Hiss, hiss, hiss!

With a thought, Yang Zheng spread his Spiritual Force outward, pulverizing the entire stalk of Seven-Leaf Grass into a pulp and guiding it into his mouth.

Most plant spirits were taken orally.

This stalk of Seven-Leaf Grass was naturally no exception. Before taking it, Yang Zheng had read its instructions: he only needed to crush and swallow it within the window when its medicinal potency was active.

The pulp dissolved the moment it entered his mouth.

The plant essence of the Seven-Leaf Grass flowed down his esophagus into his body, and that familiar sensation instantly spread through him again.

His soul trembled.

His genes evolved.

Discarded cells and impurities were expelled as his cellular vitality, muscle and tendon toughness, and bone density steadily increased.

Deep within his body, the genetic material inside his cells transformed rapidly under the influence of this plant vitality. His genes broke down, then reassembled again and again, constantly refining themselves.

Time passed.

At last, the transformation ended.

"Whew!"

After a quick shower, Yang Zheng walked over to the Punch Strength Tester, took a deep breath, and threw a punch.

Bang!

The Punch Target shook violently, and a string of figures immediately appeared on the tester's display.

423512 kg.

"Four hundred and twenty thousand kilograms of punching strength. My physical fitness jumped straight to High-level War God, and what's more..."

Yang Zheng clenched his fist. Having taken two plant spirits in such a short time, he had not fully absorbed them. A great deal of undigested energy still lay hidden within his body.

For a while, his physical fitness would therefore continue improving at an accelerated rate, until that stored energy was exhausted.

"Next, I'll ride this momentum and break through to become a Planetary Level Spirit Reader!"

Yang Zheng's breathing gradually steadied and his heartbeat slowed. He sat cross-legged on the floor again, immersing his consciousness in his boundless Sea of Consciousness.

Apart from Babata and certain Ancient Civilization Ruins, nowhere on Earth offered an effective method for breaking through to the Planetary Level.

But the underlying principle was always the same.

Miracles through brute force!

The essence of cultivation was a leap to a higher level of life. The so-called Planetary Level, Star Level, and so on were merely names for different states of life.

Once life evolved to a certain limit, it only needed to shatter that limit to leap into a higher realm.

It sounded simple.

But only a handful could actually accomplish it. That was why breakthrough techniques existed: to help cultivators avoid unnecessary detours and improve their chances of success.

Advancing from the apprentice ninth order to the Planetary Level was a crucial step in elevating one's level of life, and the most fundamental one.

Once that threshold was crossed, an apprentice would officially become a Gene Warrior or Spirit Reader of the universe.

Spiritual Force could, in fact, also be called mental energy or soul power.

When mental energy became powerful enough to leave the Sea of Consciousness and control external matter, penetrate another creature's Sea of Consciousness, and so forth, that sufficiently powerful manifestation of mental energy was Spiritual Force.

Spiritual Force and consciousness!

These were the two core elements of a Spirit Reader.

Spiritual Force permeated the entire Sea of Consciousness and had a tangible existence, while consciousness was intangible, elusive, and impossible to touch.

Spiritual Force determined the lower limit; consciousness determined the upper limit.

His accumulated Spiritual Force had already reached its limit when the Pyramid shattered.

The Spiritual Force control exercises in the Heavenly God Atlas were a crude form of mental power amplitude training, as well as a crude method of training consciousness.

Once both consciousness and Spiritual Force reached their limits, an apprentice could break through to the Planetary Level at any moment.

Rumble...

Within Yang Zheng's boundless Sea of Consciousness, his previously tranquil Spiritual Force, which had formed something resembling a river of stars, suddenly surged violently. The raging Spiritual Force abruptly began to spin.

It accelerated, faster and faster...

Time passed. January 5, 2059.

"Mm, all right!"

In a conference room at the global Headquarters of the Limit Martial Hall, Hong, dressed in black, ended the call and turned to Thunder God, who stood beside him in white robes.

"That kid Yang Zheng has gone into seclusion. He said he's preparing to break through to the Planetary Level."

Thunder God had heard the conversation clearly. Because of the strange changes on Mist Island, they had intended to call this "successor" over to gain some experience. They had not expected him to go into seclusion instead.

"Breaking through to the Planetary Level..."

Thunder God sighed. "If you work it out, it's only been two or three months since that kid awakened his Spiritual Force. Is he already ready to attempt the Planetary Level?"

"Yang Zheng's talent as a Spirit Reader is every bit as good as Luo Feng's. Once they both reach the Planetary Level, I'm afraid it won't be long before Ister can't even hold on to his position as the second-ranked Spirit Reader."

"Isn't that a good thing? The more powerful people like them we have, the safer humanity on Earth will be."

"Brother Hong, since Yang Zheng can't come for now, I'll be acting alone. If there's anything good on Mist Island, don't fight me for it," Thunder God quickly said.

"Anything good? We don't even have the first hint of anything yet, and you're already talking about rewards?" Hong glanced at Thunder God, picked up the tea beside him, and took a sip. "Deal with that Beast Emperor first, if you can."

"That's easier said than done!"

Thunder God was unwilling to concede. Although the monster king on Mist Island had only just appeared, it could unleash its full strength underground and underwater.

Warriors fighting underground, on the other hand, would inevitably be affected by their surroundings.

Was everyone supposed to be Hong?

Possessing a domain at the Planetary Level-there was not even a record of such a thing in the Ancient Civilization Ruins.

And now that Hong had obtained the Cloud-Touching Vine, it had increased his strength by fifty percent, even though it was still in its growth stage.

"So now you know how hard it is?"

Hong looked at Thunder God with a faint smile. "There are definitely treasures on Mist Island, but they belong to whoever is destined to find them. I won't compete with you, but some things don't simply go to the strongest person."

"It comes down to luck and fate."

"Haha, my luck's always been pretty good!" Thunder God grinned. "Once the ceremony for your Limit Martial Hall's new Inspector is over, I'll stay on Mist Island. I refuse to believe I won't find any treasures."

As long as it was not a contest of strength, he refused to believe Hong could have more free time than he did.

They had originally established the Thunder Dojo only to create competitive pressure for those beneath them. Thunder God himself had never particularly liked that sort of thing.

"The ceremony is about to begin!" Hong suddenly checked the time, then rose and headed out of the conference room.

"Let's go!"