Breaking Through: The Planetary Level Card Pool!
Earth, Mingyue Residential Area.
After returning to his villa from Ancient Civilization Ruins No. 9, Li Jing saw off Wu Tong, Jiang Nian, and Zhuge Tao, who had come to visit, and declined requests for an audience from all the other factions.
He sat cross-legged on the roof of his villa, making his final preparations to break through to Planetary Level.
Li Jing worked to clear the stray thoughts from his sea of consciousness, concentrating intently.
Then, with his consciousness, he drew the vast mental power gathered in his sea of consciousness into a high-speed rotation.
He stripped away the impure energies within it and compressed it to its maximum density.
When the mass of mental energy had been compressed to its absolute limit and could go no further,
He continued to exert pressure on it from the outside with his consciousness.
Boom!
At a certain critical point, the mass of mental energy, compressed to its limit, began to collapse inward, contracting even further.
During the process, its energy level began to leap, and the mass of mental energy gradually took the rudimentary shape of a planet.
At the same time, Li Jing felt an intense tearing sensation in his mind, but his formidable will suppressed it, and it caused no hindrance. Instead, he consciously accelerated the process of collapse and transformation.
As the collapse neared its end, Li Jing knew the crucial step had arrived.
He used his will to set the miniature planet taking shape in his sea of consciousness spinning, while guiding it to release energy that radiated throughout his body.
This completed genetic restructuring at the level of his cells, bones, and internal organs, stabilizing the miniature planet's form.
This step could be neither too fast nor too slow.
If it spun too fast, the newly formed miniature planet would collapse.
Too slowly, and it would be unable to radiate enough energy to complete the life-level leap.
A breakthrough that was extraordinarily perilous for ordinary Earthlings flowed as naturally as drifting clouds and running water under Li Jing's control.
At last, a transparent miniature planet appeared in Li Jing's sea of consciousness, spinning steadily, its energy fluctuations concentrated and regular.
Planetary Level Spirit Reader, achieved!
Li Jing's body rose without a gust of wind, the miniature planet in his sea of consciousness repelling Earth's gravity.
Without relying on anything external, he floated in midair.
His life level had changed as well. He could survive in space for a short time and had gained the basic qualifications to wander among the stars.
Even in the universe, he was now someone who could obtain citizenship.
One step into Planetary Level, and heaven and earth suddenly seemed boundless!
"Strike while the iron is hot. I'll raise my warrior cultivation to Planetary Level too!"
With a thought, Li Jing followed the steps he had used to break through as a Planetary Level Spirit Reader, refining and compressing the Gene Origin Energy in his dantian.
Boom~
More than ten minutes later, a new miniature planet appeared in Li Jing's dantian, completely different from the one in his sea of consciousness.
It was fiery red all over, its surface covered in delicate dark-red patterns like cooled lava. Brilliant crimson-gold light flowed between the patterns, like magma surging beneath the ground.
Planetary Level Gene Warrior, achieved!
A look of understanding flashed in Li Jing's eyes. "Just as I thought, my Gene Origin Energy is fire-attribute!
"After breaking through to Planetary Level, I also gained a special ability, [Blazing Flame Body].
"Its effect is pretty good. Once activated, it increases the power of fire-attribute secret techniques.
"It's about on par with Diamond Body, the special ability Luo Feng awakened at Planetary Level."
But that ability was unimportant to Li Jing, for whom Planetary Level was only a transition.
Later in Swallowed Star, Planetary Level special abilities were never even mentioned.
These special abilities were basically only useful in fights between Planetary Levels with no backing or advanced secret techniques.
Compared with the boost to combat power provided by domains and even laws, their effects were negligible.
"I've finally broken through to Planetary Level. First, let's see what's changed in the lottery system's card pool!"
With a thought, Li Jing immersed his consciousness in the depths of his sea of consciousness.
The system's card pool had indeed been upgraded!
The original cosmic starfield background had become an enormous, magnificent nebula.
At the center of the nebula stood the card pool interface.
Li Jing hurried to check the changes to the Planetary Level card pool, particularly the items appearing in it and the price of card draws.
After some exploration, he found that the card pool had indeed changed a great deal. Compared with the Apprentice Level card pool, calling the changes earth-shaking would be no exaggeration.
The first and foremost was the increase in draw prices: a single draw had risen from one million Huaxia Currency to one million Black Dragon Coins.
(Silver Blue Coins are far too inconspicuous, so I'm using Black Dragon Coins directly. At Star Level, it won't jump straight to Ganwu Coins either.)
A ten-draw cost nine million Black Dragon Coins.
The gap in value was more than ten millionfold!
After all, Huaxia Currency was only money issued by Huaxia Country on Earth.
At most, it could buy treasures on the level of Water of Life and Dragon Blood. Even Spirits of Nature were hard to purchase with it.
Black Dragon Coins, however, were the official currency issued by the Black Dragon Mountain Empire, an intermediate civilization in the universe, and could be used throughout the universe.
A dozen or so Black Dragon Coins could buy a so-called High-level War God slave from Earth.
As for one million Black Dragon Coins, who knew how many years an ordinary Planetary Level Universe Citizen would have to work to earn that much?
Fortunately, Li Jing had not rushed to break through to Planetary Level earlier, instead spending quite some time making more draws from the Apprentice Level card pool.
Once he found suitable channels in the universe to sell the various rewards he had obtained, he would have enough to cover his initial investment in the Planetary Level card pool.
Once the snowball of that virtuous cycle started rolling, the speed at which he grew stronger at Planetary Level would be no slower than it had been at Apprentice Level.
Besides the draw prices, the upper limit of the Planetary Level card pool's rewards was also clearly higher than that of the Apprentice Level card pool.
At that moment, the single limited-edition golden UR card at the very top of the lottery interface was none other than the Fire Domain Direct Access Card.
As long as Li Jing drew it, he could save a great deal of time and obtain the Fire Domain directly.
He would become an "invincible" powerhouse among Planetary Levels.
Though with his current talent as a starfield-level genius, obtaining a domain at Planetary Level would not be difficult,
The time it would take was hard to predict, and what Li Jing lacked most right now was time.
The Universe Genius Battle was not far away!
In the few years he had, he not only had to break through to Star Level, but also had to move beyond domains and step across the threshold of an Origin Law.
Moreover, if he wanted to achieve a good result,
Merely crossing the threshold of a Lower Origin Law would not be enough. He had to cross the threshold of a Higher Origin Law.
If he wanted to surpass Bolan, a genius who appeared among humanity only once in ten thousand eras,
He would have to raise his comprehension of a Higher Origin Law to a level comparable to that of some genius World Lords.
Time was short and the task was heavy; Li Jing could not afford to spend his time slowly cultivating and gaining comprehension.
Drawing cards to improve directly was the most practical approach!
As for the money spent along the way?
That was all pocket change!
Once he entered the Virtual Universe Company's Core Layer, he would have plenty of opportunities to earn money.
Even if he did not take on missions to earn money, with the privileges and channels available to a Virtual Universe Company Core Layer genius,
Li Jing could safely sell some of the valuable items he obtained through card draws.
Being a lone wolf was certainly satisfying, but the risks along the way were beyond his control.
A little fellow at Planetary Level or Star Level brought out treasures that even Domain Lords and World Lords coveted, yet had no significant backing.
If they didn't rob him, who would they rob?
Just being robbed would be getting off lightly. Most likely, they would kill their victim while they were at it.
If they were even more vicious, they would use Soul Control on him directly.
Let alone a little fellow like Li Jing who had yet to grow up-even the Immortal Hu Yanbo, who had barely attained Marquis rank, had been killed outright by an enemy because he lacked backing.
If he had not been lucky enough to have a disciple like Luo Feng, how could he have had a chance at resurrection?
Even if he could fight, he still needed power and backing to make his way in the world!
Of course, joining the Core Layer was one thing, but Li Jing would not be anyone's dog. He was merely seeking protection.
If they treated him sincerely, he would repay them in the future.
If they treated him the way they treated Luo Feng, then they could not blame him for taking Earth out of the human race and establishing an independent faction.
Luo Feng might be the Earth Lord, but Li Jing was the one with genuine Earth blood. What was wrong with leading Earth to independence?
But that was only a thought. What would determine whether he and Earth stayed or left was the attitude of humanity's higher-ups in the future.