Chapter 215: Madman Qin Feng! Name Spreads Far and Wide, Rapid Growth, No.

Chapter 215: Madman Qin Feng! A Name Spreads Far, Growth at Light Speed, the Fourth Cup!

The voice of the Nine Spirit King, imbued with supreme laws, slowly faded from the minds of the five trillion geniuses, but the shock and information it brought were like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, stirring ripples layer upon layer.

A millennium-long competition, point plundering, a decade-long hunt, elimination upon failure...

Every word heralded an unprecedented, protracted, and bloody survival game.

The Nine Spirit King did not begin the teleportation immediately but gave all participants three minutes to digest and understand this complex set of rules.

Above the square, the deathly silence was broken, replaced by a stifling hum.

Countless geniuses exchanged rapid glances with their companions, using the briefest language to urgently formulate initial strategies.

"The rules are even more brutal than I imagined,"

said Jin Mu, his gaze sharp as a blade. "A decade-long hunt—once you fall into it, turning the tables is as hard as reaching the heavens. This means we have almost no room for error."

"Yes,"

Huo Yuan’s face also shed its usual levity, becoming unusually grave. "And random deployment... that’s the biggest variable."

He looked at Qin Feng and Jin Mu, speaking quickly: "Once we’re inside, we’ll find a way to regroup as soon as possible. But given the situation, with five trillion people scattered across ten thousand star systems, we might not end up in the same place. Let fate decide—if we meet, good; if not... we’ll have to make do."

"Alright,"

Qin Feng nodded succinctly.

He understood that on such a grand scale, any meticulous plan seemed futile.

All they could do was ensure their own survival first, then plan for what came next.

The three minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

On the high platform, the Nine Spirit King seemed to sense that everyone was ready.

He spoke no more, only slowly raised his arm and gently waved it toward the boundless sea of people below.

The next moment, before every participant, a teleportation invitation shimmering with silver light appeared simultaneously.

Qin Feng, Huo Yuan, and Jin Mu exchanged glances, nodded in tacit understanding, and then chose to accept at the same time.

Light instantly swallowed everything.

Five trillion teleportation beams lit up at once across the endless square, their brilliance even outshining the stars in the sky above.

The light flashed, and the figures vanished.

In just a single moment, the vast square that had held five trillion geniuses became empty and desolate, leaving only the Nine Spirit King alone, seated upon his throne.

...

At the very same moment Qin Feng and the others were teleported, the entire human empire’s subspace network was detonated by an unprecedented spectacle.

The official empire forum, a massive information exchange platform gathering hundreds of trillions of netizens, had its topmost, never-changing pinned position occupied by a brand-new live broadcast window.

[Universal Genius Battle · Major War Zone — Millennial Blood War]

The bold red title exuded a pulse-quickening aura.

At the same time, within the empire, countless billions of private networks, planetary local networks, and star-region information ports—regardless of their size or theme—were forcibly pushed the same red-pinned live broadcast link.

This was a public spectacle of the highest order, open to all humanity.

In every corner of the empire, countless professional event commentary organizations—whether the official "Voice of the Empire" or civilian ones like "Hall of War Gods," "Frontiers of Martial Arts," "Qiming Viewing," and so on—set aside all their current projects at this moment, pouring all resources and focus into the commentary and analysis of this major war zone.

The "Universal Genius Battle," especially its core phase, the "Major War Zone," was the highest-spec, most valuable, and most influential top-tier event in the entire human empire, with no equal.

Qiming Star.

Inside the office of the Extreme Martial Arts Hall’s curator, Lin Yue, Gu Yue, and Wu Shangfeng—three enlightenment mentors—stared intently at the massive light screen before them.

On the other side, in a cozy apartment, Qin Feng’s uncle, Wang Ming, paused his work and watched the match with slight tension. Beside him, the white-haired woman was no longer there.

Aunt Li Juan had passed away.

Far away, at the Duna Starry Sky Martial University.

Wang Hao and Wang Jie, in their dormitories, silently followed the live broadcast.

And at the Canaan Starry Sky Martial University.

Shi Potian, Xiong Yanfu, Tie Mu... these close friends and comrades who had fought alongside Qin Feng had long gathered, their eyes blazing as they locked onto the screen.

Ning Jing and others also had the live broadcast set up in the subspace network.

For people like Wang Hao, Shi Potian, and Ning Jing, they had their own cultivation tasks and life paths; they couldn’t devote all their time to watching the matches.

But everyone understood tacitly that in any spare moment between their training, the live broadcast of the "Universal Genius Battle" would be their sole focus.

Because there, they saw familiar figures, the targets they pursued.

...

When he opened his eyes again, the world around him had undergone a cataclysmic change.

Cold, desolate, vast.

That was Qin Feng’s first impression.

He found himself floating in an endless deep space.

Ahead of his vision, a slightly ordinary yellow star was burning fiercely.

Around this star, nine planets of various forms moved slowly along their fixed orbits.

This was a perfectly standard single-star system.

The sensation of weightlessness caused him no discomfort.

As a planetary-level powerhouse, the "spiritual energy core" within him, like an inexhaustible miniature sun, continuously spewed forth vast amounts of energy, sustaining all his life activities.

In this cosmic vacuum devoid of any material sustenance, he needed neither food nor breath.

His physical body was so formidable that he could easily break free from the gravity of any planet beneath his feet, and even escape the gravitational pull of the distant star, achieving true physical traversal across the deep cosmos.

All kinds of cosmic rays and extreme low temperatures could not harm him in the slightest.

"A planetary-level powerhouse—this is truly an interstellar life form,"

Qin Feng mused inwardly.

Just then, he felt a faint burning sensation on the back of his right hand.

He raised his hand and saw a simple jade tablet mark, formed of light, slowly emerging there, eventually solidifying.

"This must be the 'Information Jade Tablet' the Nine Spirit King mentioned,"

Qin Feng thought, and he immersed his spiritual power into it.

Instantly, a massive flow of information surged into his mind.

[Name: Qin Feng]

[Points: 0]

[Current Location: Galaxy No. 117]

[Initial Ranking: 5 Trillion]

[Prompt: The map data package for this tournament has been generated and is ready for download at any time.]

“Hammer, download the map for this tournament.”

Qin Feng issued the command instantly in his mind.

“Yes, master.”

Hammer’s voice responded swiftly, “The data package has been downloaded. Loading it into your retinal information layer and powered armor HUD interface now.”

With a thought, Qin Feng summoned the standard planetary-grade powered armor stored in the subspace storage unit.

It was a set of heavy armor, steeped in a style of iron blood and Gothic grandeur, its design language a direct inheritance from the Empire’s most elite “Ultramarines” chapter—brimming with power and intimidation.

The dark gold plates reflected a cold gleam under the star’s light, and the shoulder armor bore the emblem of Canaan Starry Sky Martial University.

Accompanied by a series of fine mechanical clicks, the heavy plates covered his body one by one, eventually encasing him completely.

“Click!”

The helmet sealed shut, and his field of vision was instantly replaced by a pale blue HUD interface.

He extended his right hand, now clad in armor, and the dark, somber spear named “Star-Swallower” appeared in his palm.

With a divine weapon in hand and sturdy armor on his body, an unprecedented sense of power and security filled his heart.

Qin Feng opened the HUD interface and began to carefully examine the newly loaded, immensely vast and complex galactic map.

On the powered armor’s HUD interface, an incredibly vast star chart slowly unfolded in three-dimensional form.

Countless points of light converged and flowed, ultimately forming a magnificent panorama that shook the soul.

“This is… a massive galaxy cluster.”

Qin Feng’s mind was fully immersed in the map, while the intelligent assistant Hammer performed efficient data analysis and annotation on the side.

“Based on preliminary calculations, this galaxy cluster consists of over ten thousand independent galaxies.”

“Most of the galaxies are standard spiral forms, with a few elliptical and irregular galaxies scattered among them. Each standard galaxy has a diameter exceeding one hundred thousand light-years.”

A series of astronomical figures clearly revealed the terrifying scale of this battle zone.

Qin Feng quickly performed a mental calculation.

“Ten thousand galaxies, five trillion participants… on average, each galaxy will host nearly five hundred million martial artists. In a mature galaxy over one hundred thousand light-years in diameter, the number of potentially habitable planets is theoretically countless—billions upon billions.”

“From this perspective, the density of martial artists still seems very, very low.”

He reached a preliminary conclusion.

On such a vast spatial scale, encountering another participant seemed no easy task.

This meant that the early phase of the competition might offer a relatively stable period for development.

However, this thought had barely arisen when it was interrupted by a sudden disturbance from the jade token imprint on the back of his hand.

The jade token, formed of light, suddenly flashed with brilliant radiance, and a new stream of information was projected directly onto his HUD interface.

[Scanning all high-value resource points within a hundred light-years of your location…]

“Hmm?”

Qin Feng’s eyebrows rose slightly; he keenly sensed something amiss.

Then he tested the subspace teleportation function and found that it could be used freely without restriction.

“Here, I can actually use subspace teleportation without any limits.”

A thought, like lightning, flashed through his mind, shattering all his previous optimistic deductions.

“‘Automatic resource search within a hundred light-years,’ combined with ‘unrestricted subspace teleportation’…”

Qin Feng instantly understood the true intent of the tournament organizers.

These two functions together would completely alter the rhythm of the entire competition.

It meant that any martial artist could, in an extremely short time, thoroughly survey all resource points within a star system or even a larger area.

Resources are finite, and martial artists are driven by profit.

When everyone swarms toward a few limited points, what erupts is inevitably a bloody battle of extreme intensity!

“I still thought too simply.”

Qin Feng clicked his tongue in awe, “Billions of planets sound like a lot, but truly valuable resource points within a galaxy are probably as rare as phoenix feathers. Five hundred million martial artists fighting over them—this isn’t development, it’s raising poisonous insects!”

He immediately adjusted his mindset, raising the danger level of this competition to the highest.

“Hammer, activate your automatic search function.”

Qin Feng ordered in a deep voice, “Lower the target grade and link it automatically with the jade token’s search function. Highlight on the map any resource that could benefit my current cultivation, no matter how small.”

“Yes, master.”

Hammer responded at once, “Adjustments made as per your request. However… Hammer must remind you that my current detection range is only one light-year~ As your strength increases, my abilities will be highly bound to yours, and this detection range will expand accordingly.”

“Oh? You can increase your strength too?”

This caught Qin Feng somewhat off guard.

“Yes, master. Hammer has a deep binding relationship with you. The stronger you are, the more subspace computing power and authority I can access, and the more powerful my functions become.”

“I see.”

Qin Feng nodded slightly and asked no further questions.

He began a thorough, carpet-style search of the initial star system where he had been deployed, centering on himself.

Qin Feng used no spacecraft; instead, he crossed the cold vacuum of space with his bare physical body.

The physique of a planetary-level powerhouse allowed him to move like a giant whale swimming through the ocean—effortless and graceful.

One, two, three…

He swept past a “scorching planet” radiating terrifying heat, its surface churning with magma that couldn’t even raise the temperature of his powered armor by a single degree.

He descended onto a verdant “life planet,” sweeping it with his mental energy, only to find that although the environment was pleasant, it had yet to nurture any higher life forms, let alone any celestial treasures worth harvesting.

He plunged into the pitch-black, fathomless trenches of an “ocean planet,” then set foot on the eternal glaciers of a “frozen planet” that had remained unmelted for eons.

Alas, he found nothing.

“The ninth planet, the last in this star system—I wonder if its subsurface liquid ocean might hold something good.”

Qin Feng conducted his final investigation.

Yet the result still disappointed him.

This meant that the small star system where he had been initially deployed was a complete wasteland, devoid of any valuable resources.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Qin Feng performed a subspace teleportation, jumping directly to a neighboring star system.

Search for resources!

If none, switch galaxies immediately!

The maximum gravitational influence of a star system spans roughly two to three light-years.

A hundred light-years can encompass dozens of star systems.

The very instant his physical form coalesced once more, the jade plaque insignia upon the back of his hand erupted into a brilliant, unprecedented radiance.

[Scanning all high-value resource points within a one-hundred-light-year radius of your position...]

[Scan complete!]

[Resource points detected: 3]

[Highlighted on your personal map. Please check at your own discretion.]

Upon Qin Feng’s HUD, the map refreshed in a single heartbeat.

Three exceptionally conspicuous coordinate points, shimmering with a bleeding red aura, appeared clearly within this brand-new star system where he now stood.

"Finally, a discovery."

With a mere thought, he summoned a sleek, small personal flyer that epitomized sci-fi elegance. It transformed into a streak of flowing light, hurtling swiftly toward the nearest red dot.

The first red dot was situated deep within the interior of a vibrant, living planet.

As the flyer broke through the atmosphere, Qin Feng found himself captivated by the spectacle before him.

The surface of this world was blanketed by trees of incomprehensible scale. The trunk of each tree was as massive as a mountain range, while their crowns thrust straight into the clouds, blotting out the very sky.

The flyer wove through the gaps between these titanic woods, giving Qin Feng the illusion that he had stumbled into one of those legendary magical realms at the fringes of the Empire’s domain.

Sweeping the area with his spiritual perception, he found no signs of humanoid intelligent life.

In truth, these seemingly ordinary giant trees were themselves a unique form of life infused with immense psionic energy—an exquisite material for crafting high-grade psionic elixirs.

Guided by the marker of the red dot, the flyer plunged deeper into the wilderness.

Before long, he arrived at a core region designated as a site of supreme value.

It was a colossal cliff face standing ten thousand meters high, yet it was composed not of stone, but of a bizarre, layered formation of giant mushrooms.

Upon the caps of these mushrooms grew countless smaller fungal organisms that cast a faint, ghostly blue glow, and the air was thick with a refreshing, peculiar fragrance that instantly invigorated the mind.

"These are 'Mind Mushrooms'."

The encyclopedia function of the Hammer armor triggered automatically, displaying the relevant data directly upon the light screen.

"Effect: When consumed directly, it exerts a benign pressure upon the user's spiritual consciousness sea. In the process of resisting this pressure, the user's spiritual force is slowly tempered and enhanced."

"Evaluation: Entirely devoid of toxic side effects; a top-tier natural treasure for spiritual force assistance."

"So that is how it is."

A glimmer of joy surfaced in Qin Feng’s eyes. "The reserves of Mind Mushrooms here must be at least tens of thousands of tons. A fine harvest indeed."

He let out a sharp laugh and piloted the flyer to a smooth landing on an open patch of ground at the base of the cliff. Then, stepping out of the cabin doors, he prepared to harvest these precious fungi himself to sustain his next thousand years of cultivation.

Yet, the very moment his boots touched the soil, a fierce, whistling wind suddenly tore through the horizon.

A figure descended from the heavens like a falling meteor, crashing heavily onto the ground a short distance away and kicking up a circular wave of dust.

It was a warrior dressed in a similar suit of power armor.

He wore no helmet, exposing a face filled with untamed arrogance and wild fury, and in his hand, he held an exaggeratedly styled, curved long saber.

Upon spotting Qin Feng, a cold smile curled the corners of his lips, and he commanded in a tone that brooked no argument: "Get out of this star system. You are not to touch a single one of the three resource points here."

"Oh?"

Hearing this, Qin Feng let out a soft exclamation of curiosity and calmly countered, "And who might you be?"

"My name is Manus!"

The warrior slung the long saber over his shoulder, his eyes filled with the disdain of a hunter looking at prey. "And you are about to become the second opponent to fall by my hand, Manus."

Before the words could fully fade, he violently erupted into motion.

Click.

A ferocious power armor helmet instantly encased his head.

In the next heartbeat, the ground beneath his feet shattered with a roar, and his entire being transformed into a bolt of lightning. Brandishing his long saber and wrapped in surging psionic energy and spiritual intent, he lunged straight for Qin Feng like a flash of divine light sundering heaven and earth.

Regrettably, he had chosen the wrong opponent.

To Qin Feng’s monstrous perception, every detail of his adversary lay entirely exposed.

"A level-seven killing method, at the minor mastery realm. But it is of a highly superficial sort; in terms of quality, it is roughly on par with the Nine-Fold Blood Spear."

"As for spiritual force... it is about the volume of a single chalice, though the foundation is reasonably solid." Even as Qin Feng conducted this precise analysis in his mind, he advanced instead of retreating.

Facing that lethal saber light that tore through the air, he did not even draw the Star-Swallower spear from his back; instead, he simply threw out his right fist.

Meeting the blade with a bare fist.

It was none other than the Heaven-Swallowing Fist Technique.

When that punch was delivered, there was no earth-shattering commotion, yet it seemed to contain a black hole capable of devouring both the heavens and the earth.

The moment Manus’s rampaging saber momentum and spiritual pressure came into contact with the edge of Qin Feng's fist, it was like mud entering the vast ocean—instantly dissolved, swallowed, and erased.

"What?!"

Manus was struck with horror, his face draining of color. Never had he imagined that his full-strength strike would be neutralized so effortlessly by another.

An intense crisis of life and death forced him to make the most rational decision in an instant—to turn and flee.

But he had already been targeted by Qin Feng.

"Wanting to leave?"

Qin Feng’s figure abruptly blurred where he stood. In the next fraction of a second, he appeared like a phantom right beside the rapidly escaping Manus.

It was another seemingly ordinary strike of the Heaven-Swallowing fist.

This time, Manus clearly felt that terrifying, irresistible pressure of spiritual force. His thoughts ground to an immediate halt, and his mind lost its footing.

And in that fleeting instant of distraction, Qin Feng’s fist—wrapped in a destructive power—slammed with absolute precision heavily against Manus's chest, beneath the power armor, right into the position of his psionic core.

Boom—

A muffled explosion to the absolute extreme echoed from within Manus’s body.

His psionic core was completely shattered by this single punch.

The rampant energy instantly spiraled out of control, blasting his body along with that sturdy suit of power armor into a sky full of scattering metal and fragments of flesh and blood.

[You have defeated your opponent. Base points obtained: 1]

[You have plundered the opponent's points: 2]

[Your total points have been updated to: 3 points]

[Your overall rank has risen to: 3,215,789,456,123rd]

[Your regional rank within Star System 117 has risen to: 49,987,554th]

A brief and entirely lopsided battle thus came to an end.

Qin Feng stood calmly in place, watching the stream of information dancing across his HUD, his eyes completely devoid of emotion.

Neither the rank that had instantly surged ahead of three trillion names nor the 3 points that had just been credited to his account could stir a single ripple within his heart.

A bloody elimination tournament destined to last for a thousand years had only just begun.

Any trivial advantage gained at present seemed utterly meaningless in the grand face of the immense scale of time.

From the very beginning to the end, his objective was singular—to develop.

To utilize this resource-abundant trial ground to the absolute limit of his capabilities, exploiting every possible chance to elevate his own strength to its zenith.

The words of his master, King Devouring Heaven, still echoed in his ears: "Within the grand war zone, there lie boundless cultivation resources... If you can endure until the top one hundred, by the time you emerge, your entire strength will essentially have been tempered to the galaxy level."

This was the ultimate value of this competition for Qin Feng.

He spared no further thought for the opponent who had already vanished, turning his attention back toward the colossal cliff of "mental mushrooms" before his eyes.

Opening his palm, an invisible gravitational force radiated from his center, and those fungal lifeforms shimmering with a faint blue aura upon the cliff face detached themselves as if answering a call, transforming into torrents of blue light that poured continuously into the open ground ahead of him.

Tens of thousands of tons of mental mushrooms soon accumulated into a small mountain, emanating a peculiar, exotic fragrance.

With a mere thought from Qin Feng, his vast sub-spatial storage unit opened, swallowing the mountain of mushrooms whole into its depths.

"Before graduating from Canaan last time, I deliberately upgraded the capacity of the storage unit; looking at it now, that decision was indeed correct, for this time it is more than ample."

Qin Feng smiled, a trace of satisfaction appearing upon his countenance.

He casually retrieved a palm-sized piece from the mushrooms he had just stored, its cap possessing the deepest, most concentrated blue glow.

Without a moment's hesitation, he swallowed it directly and cleanly, as though eating a biscuit.

The mushroom melted the instant it entered his mouth, turning into a cool and strange stream of energy that flowed down his throat straight into his four limbs and hundred bones, ultimately converging flawlessly into the sea of his mental consciousness.

In the next breath, a powerful yet gentle pressure descended out of nowhere.

This sensation shared a subtle, profound similarity with the boundless majesty he had endured while contemplating the inheritance stone tablet of the Devouring Heaven Fist Technique.

Yet by comparison, the pressure of the stone tablet had been violent and vast, like the heavenly majesty of the universe, requiring his full exertion and highly strung mind in every confrontation.

Meanwhile, the pressure brought by this mental mushroom was far gentler.

It was more akin to a warm, rising tide of seawater, which, despite bringing a continuous sense of oppression, did not cause any unbearable, stinging pain, but offered instead a comforting sensation of tempering.

Under the influence of this benign pressure, the barriers surrounding his three "chalices" of mental power began to be slowly compressed, tempered, and solidified at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The total volume of his mental power was also continuously enhanced during this process.

"A wonderful sensation,"

Qin Feng sensed it meticulously, "If I continue to consume them consistently, this rate of mental enhancement is almost equal to when I contemplate the Devouring Heaven Fist Technique with all my might."

"Most crucially, this process requires absolutely no active guidance or resistance on my part; it is equivalent to a passive form of elevation."

This discovery brought a sincere smile to Qin Feng's face.

For a cultivation fanatic like him, nothing was more beautiful than an idle upgrade.

He casually pulled out a few more pieces of mental mushrooms, swallowing them one by one like snacks.

"Mmh, this thing tastes quite good, a bit like the dried blueberries of the Morning Star."

...

After packing up all the harvests of this place, Qin Feng boarded his aircraft, leaving behind no lingering attachment as he transformed into a streak of light, teleporting toward the second luminous point marked upon the map.

That was a metallic vein located deep within the planetary core.

Within the vein lay rare alloys that were extremely scarce in the outside world.

Qin Feng did not trouble himself to mine it, but instead thrust the Star-Devourer spear directly into the mineral vein.

Upon the dark shaft of the spear, countless star-like patterns lit up, and a powerful devouring force radiated outward, causing the metallic essence of the entire vein to be fully absorbed by the long spear, like a hundred rivers returning to the sea.

After devouring an immense quantity of rare alloys, Star-Devourer underwent no visible change, yet Qin Feng could feel that its internal structure seemed to have become heavier and more resilient.

...

Having dealt with the second resource point, he rushed without pause to the final marked location.

That was a hidden cavern situated deep within the asteroid belt.

Inside the cave, countless blood-red crystals radiating a demonic light were embedded.

Resource Name: Blood Crystal

Cause of Formation: Cosmic high-energy particle streams striking celestial bodies rich in life elements, evolving through hundreds of millions of years into natural crystals

Effect: Absorbing the energy within can directly strengthen the physical body of a planetary-level martial artist. The more absorbed, the greater the enhancement, though every living organism possesses an upper limit of absorption, the specific limit varying according to individual foundation

Looking at the appraisal information provided by Hammer, Qin Feng's eyes grew brighter than ever before.

Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately sat cross-legged within this cavern, commencing a new round of deep seclusion.

He took down a single blood crystal and held it within his palm.

The spiritual energy core within his body began to revolve slowly at a specific frequency.

The refinement method of the Canaan Scripture activated on its own, and a powerful suction force erupted from within him, causing the hard blood crystal to melt at a visible speed, turning into the purest stream of crimson energy that surged through his arms and into his entire body.

An indescribable sensation of dry heat instantly spread through his whole frame!

Qin Feng felt every single one of his cells let out a thirsty cheer under the washing of this energy.

His bones vibrated, his muscles tore and restructured themselves, and the speed of his blood flow became like surging magma!

Once the energy of the first blood crystal was completely absorbed, he could clearly feel that his life force index had experienced a significant spike!

It worked!

He immediately picked up the second piece, the third piece...

Time lost all meaning in this dull and agonizing torment of physical tempering.

One year, two years, three years...

Within the cavern, Qin Feng's figure remained utterly motionless, like an eternal statue. The blood crystals beside him turned to ash one after another. His aura, too, grew deeper and more terrifying through this process.

This prolonged period of seclusion lasted for a full five years!

When Qin Feng completely integrated the energy of the one thousandth blood crystal into his body, he slowly opened his eyes.

A flash of brilliant light, nearly condensed into substance, vanished from his eyes, burning two faint ripples into the void ahead.

He rose slowly, clenching his fists.

"Crack-crack-pop—"

A series of explosions, akin to the popping of roasted beans, echoed from within his body. An unprecedented, terrifying sense of power—as if he could shatter a planet with a single punch—flooded his every cell.

"Five years, one thousand blood crystals..."

Qin Feng looked down at his own hands, murmuring to himself, "My physical strength, compared to five years ago, has fully doubled!"

What a terrifying leap of advancement this was!

The value of this batch of blood crystals was simply immeasurable.

Only after absorbing all the blood crystals did Qin Feng remember to return his attention to the jade plaque upon the back of his hand.

Five years had passed, and he knew not how the battles outside were progressing.

He sank his mental power into it, and the stream of information instantly refreshed.

Name: Qin Feng

[Points: 3]

[Current Location: Galaxy No. 117]

[Overall Ranking: 3,198,542,761,009th]

[Hint: 17,452,108 contestants have been officially eliminated]

Gazing at the updated data, a flicker of contemplation passed through Qin Feng's eyes.

"Five years, and over seventeen million contestants have been eliminated. It seems the intensity of battle is higher than I imagined."

"But my ranking has barely moved. This suggests that most martial artists, in these initial five years, have likely chosen, like me, to prioritize resource hunting and steady development. True large-scale conflict has yet to erupt."

"However, now that the first round of seclusion should be over, a new wave of large-scale searching is about to begin, and the intensity of battle will soon escalate."

Qin Feng reached his conclusion.

Those eliminated were probably unlucky wretches who stumbled upon powerful foes early in their exploration, much like Manus.

And these initial resource points likely only required three to five years of seclusion.

Soon, the war zone would plunge into endless battles once more.

—

During the five years of seclusion, aside from the terrifying doubling of his physical body, Qin Feng's spiritual power cultivation had not lagged behind.

Throughout these five years, besides absorbing blood crystal energy, he daily consumed "spiritual mushrooms" like snacks, in measured doses.

Under the gentle yet persistent pressure of spiritual tempering, his mental sea had undergone a qualitative transformation.

The three spiritual goblets representing the "Planetary Second Limit · Cup Realm" had become denser and heavier, their contained spiritual liquid droplets already brimming over.

Beside them, a fourth, new, slightly illusory goblet had successfully taken shape.

This meant his spiritual power cultivation had officially entered the stage of condensing the fourth goblet.

Though the fourth goblet was not yet fully solid, its total capacity and control precision were leagues beyond what they were five years ago.

"Body and spirit, advancing side by side."

Qin Feng was deeply satisfied with his gains over these five years.

He did not linger in place.

A star system's resources had been thoroughly scavenged; it was time to move on to the next target.

His figure, along with the small spacecraft, vanished into the silent asteroid belt.

In the days that followed, Qin Feng transformed into a tireless interstellar scavenger.

He conducted systematic jumps and searches, star system by star system.

Subspace jump—arrival—jade token scan—lock resource point—jump—collect resources—then another subspace jump.

The process was monotonous yet efficient.

He visited a star system burning with green flames, where on a floating crystal continent he harvested "ether crystals" that accelerated spiritual energy recovery.

He visited a dark nebula-shrouded galaxy, where amid the ruins of a dead planet he found a "black soul flower" capable of tempering martial will.

He encountered sporadic battles, but most opponents were of similar or lesser strength than the first Manus he had killed.

Before Qin Feng, whose foundation had surged, they didn't even qualify for him to draw his gun; they were easily crushed by the "Devouring Heaven Fist Technique," turning into negligible points on his jade token.

Time flew by amid this endless searching and occasional combat.

In the blink of an eye, several more years passed.

Within Galaxy No. 117, the name "Madman" gradually spread.

Mainly because Qin Feng acted too decisively, granting no chance for mercy, and, as if he hadn't seen resources in eight lifetimes, he plundered them with insane greed.

…

One day, Qin Feng completed another ultra-long-distance subspace jump, arriving at a new, unfamiliar star system.

The moment he stabilized his form, the jade token imprint on the back of his hand erupted with an unprecedented heat, its light so intense it was almost blinding.

On the HUD interface, the map refreshed rapidly.

A colossal, glaring red dot appeared at the edge of this star system.

The energy reaction represented by this dot was several times—even dozens of times—greater than any resource point he had encountered before.

"Oh?"

A glint of keen interest flashed in Qin Feng's eyes.

"Such a massive energy reaction, yet it's not located on a life-bearing planet, but on a moon of a gas giant."

He examined the map information closely.

It was a moon labeled "Europa-7."

Data indicated it was a typical oceanic moon, its surface covered by thick ice, beneath which lay a liquid, churning subsurface ocean kept warm by internal activity and tidal forces.

"An underground ocean capable of nurturing such immense energy resources... there must be something extraordinary hidden within."

Without hesitation, Qin Feng set the coordinates, piloted his spacecraft into a silver streak, and shot toward that ice-blue planet radiating infinite allure.

…

The spacecraft pierced the thin atmosphere and slowly landed on the surface of "Europa-7."

The hatch opened, and a blast of wind mixed with ice crystals and sulfur rushed in.

Qin Feng stepped out onto the hard, uneven ice.

He looked around; the environment was exceptionally harsh.

The sky was not deep black but an eerie dark purple, as the nearby gas giant blocked most of the star's light.

Gale-force winds whipped fine snow and ice like knives across the ground, producing mournful howls.

Visibility was extremely low; distant objects were shrouded in dim mist.

According to Hammer's detection, the average surface temperature here was around minus 170 degrees Celsius.

The average ice thickness was an astonishing 100,000 meters.

And the massive resource dot on the map was undoubtedly located deep beneath this ice, in the sunless liquid ocean.

"100,000 meters of ice... First, find the thinnest point."

Qin Feng made up his mind.

He did not act hastily but instead stowed his spacecraft and began traversing this desolate moon on foot.

His spiritual power spread like an invisible net, extending deep into the ground, meticulously probing the geological structure of every inch of ice.

This process lasted an entire day.

Finally, at the bottom of a huge ice canyon, he found his target.

"Right here."

According to his survey, due to geological activity, the ice here was structurally weakest, with a thickness of "only" about 10,000 meters.

With his current strength, a single full-force strike would be enough to pierce it completely.

However, just minutes after he had pinpointed the location and prepared to break the ice, two powerful and utterly distinct auras approached at high speed from different directions, almost simultaneously!

Clearly, he was not the first to discover this place.

Qin Feng's eyes narrowed, and he slowly turned to face the newcomers.

Two figures, one on the left and one on the right, landed almost at the same time on the ice not far from him, sending up two sprays of ice shards.

The one on the left was extremely burly, nearly four meters tall, with muscles knotted like a sculpture carved from granite.

He was bare-chested, wearing only a simple animal-hide loincloth around his waist, and his bronze skin was covered with ferocious totem tattoos.

In his hand, he carried a white bone club, crafted from the leg bone of some giant beast, thicker than Qin Feng's entire body.

His eyes were filled with savagery and brutality, like a beast from the primordial era.

The one on the right formed a stark contrast to the barbaric giant.

He wore a set of pure white power armor with sleek lines, like a work of art, its surface engraved with ornate golden patterns.

He wore no helmet, revealing a head of brilliant golden hair and a pair of azure-blue eyes; his features were handsome, his bearing noble, like a holy knight stepped out of myth.

The two warriors, utterly different in style but equally formidable in aura, both halted upon seeing each other and Qin Feng, forming a tripartite standoff.

The silence lasted only a few seconds.

The barbarian giant was the first to break the stillness.

He slammed his enormous bone club heavily against the ground, producing a dull thud that made the ice beneath his feet tremble.

He grinned, revealing a mouthful of stark white teeth, and let out a thunderous roar of laughter.

"Hmph, I, 'Madbone' Bato, have set my sights on the resources here!"

He swept a contemptuous gaze over Qin Feng and the golden-haired warrior, and issued his final ultimatum in a tone that brooked no argument.

"You two—either get lost, or—die!"

(End of chapter)