Chapter 254: Refining the Po Suo Flower, Strength Skyrockets! Guluo King Ruins Open

Chapter 254: Refining the Bodhi Flower, Strength Soars! The Ancient Luo King Ruins Open!

“Haha! A Hidden Dragon List prodigy? Nothing special!”

The mad laughter of “Tu” echoed across the mountain peak. Every one of his strikes was heavy and forceful, forcing Ye Luo to retreat step by step, his stone body constantly cracking and flaking away.

Qin Feng continued to wait silently.

His instincts told him things were not so simple.

A son of a sovereign, having fought on the myriad race battlefield for many years—if he were so easily undone by a schemer’s plot, then the weight behind the name “Hidden Dragon List” would be far too cheap.

Ye Luo must still have a trump card.

The battle raged on.

Crack, crack, crack—

With a series of heart-wrenching shattering sounds, Ye Luo’s entire left arm was brutally smashed apart by a heavy punch from “Tu,” scattering into countless fragments of stone.

“It’s over!”

A flash of cruel satisfaction gleamed in “Tu’s” eyes. Seizing the opening, he gathered all his strength and rammed his head straight into Ye Luo’s chest, clearly aiming for a killing blow.

Yet, in that instant between life and death, Ye Luo—who had been passively taking blows—suddenly revealed a look of resolute coldness deep within his purple-flame-burning eyes.

He let the attack come, but his remaining right hand plunged into his own chest, withdrawing something from within.

It was an irregular fragment, only the size of a palm, shimmering with brilliant golden light.

The moment this fragment appeared, an indescribable, ancient and overbearing might—as if born from the dawn of the universe—burst forth!

This power even surpassed the galactic level, carrying a hint of Black Hole-level essence!

Its nature was extremely similar to the life-saving jade talisman that Huo Linhou had given to Qin Feng!

“No!”

“Tu,” who was charging with all his might, felt his ecstasy instantly freeze, replaced by boundless terror.

He sensed the aura of death that could annihilate him in an instant, and tried to forcibly halt his momentum, but it was already too late.

“In the name of the Sovereign…”

Ye Luo’s weak yet majestic voice rang out, “…I grant you… annihilation!”

In that moment, the golden fragment blazed with intense light, transforming into a slender golden ray that, at a speed beyond thought, pierced through the skull of the Fire Pig cultivator “Tu.”

No scream, no struggle.

“Tu’s” massive body froze in midair, then, like a weathered sand sculpture, dissolved from the inside out, inch by inch, into the most basic particles, vanishing completely between heaven and earth.

He fell on the spot, body and soul extinguished.

After doing all this, Ye Luo could no longer hold himself up. He fell to one knee, gasping heavily.

The golden fragment in his hand dimmed, becoming an ordinary object.

To activate this final trump card, he had exhausted his last shred of mental energy. Now, he was at his weakest.

“Now.”

Qin Feng, who had been lying in wait, flashed a sharp glint in his eyes.

This was the moment he had been waiting for!

Without any hesitation, Qin Feng’s form instantly exploded into motion, turning into a blue-gold streak of light. Gripping the Star-Swallowing Spear, he charged with the force of a thunderbolt straight at the kneeling son of the Stone Sovereign.

In the blink of an eye, the ninth-level killing technique “Heaven Splitter” was pushed to its extreme!

A vast, viscous force field, like an invisible swamp, instantly enveloped an area ten thousand meters in radius.

The air seemed to turn to mercury; every movement met with tremendous resistance.

Though it had not yet formed a true domain, this level of suppression—already at a minor completion stage—was a veritable net of heaven and earth for a target who had exhausted his strength!

“What?!”

Ye Luo, struggling to rise, felt this sudden, terrifying killing intent and the pressure of the force field. The purple flames in his eyes flickered violently, and his face was filled with incredulous shock.

He had thought he had cleared all obstacles and could finally obtain the supreme treasure, the Bodhi Flower.

He never imagined that while the mantis stalked the cicada, the oriole was behind!

Here, a human prodigy had been hiding!

And his strength was formidable, his aura condensed—far surpassing the rabble before!

As a son of a sovereign, he knew better than anyone how troublesome and terrifying a top-tier human prodigy of the same level could be!

“Damn it!”

Ye Luo let out a furious roar. He struggled with all his might, the residual black light around him blazing, trying to resist the omnipresent viscous force field.

But his current state was far too poor. Qin Feng’s “Heaven Splitter” carried a killing intent, pressing down like Mount Tai, making all his struggles futile.

“Dare you leave your name?!”

Under the threat of death, Ye Luo bellowed in unwilling rage.

“Your killer is Shi Dang!”

Qin Feng’s icy voice, like the cold wind of the ninth underworld, entered Ye Luo’s ears.

At the same time, the space behind Qin Feng twisted slightly, and the phantom of a majestic golden tower, towering millions of light-years high, shot into the sky!

The Indestructible Projection!

Under the suppression of the Indestructible Projection, the already powerful “Heaven Splitter” force field surged again. The aura of crushing everything pressed down on Ye Luo’s stone body, making it creak and groan, nearly shattering on the spot.

“Shi Dang! Fine, I’ll remember you!”

Ye Luo roared, a flash of madness and venom in his eyes.

He knew he had reached the final moment of life and death.

Just as Qin Feng’s devastating spear strike—enough to annihilate the soul—was about to land, Ye Luo suddenly opened his mouth and spat out a pair of folded, pitch-black wings.

The moment these wings appeared, a profound, powerful aura far beyond the galactic level burst forth.

A Black Hole-level secret treasure!

“Whoosh—”

The wings instantly unfurled, runes flowing over them. Ignoring the viscous force field formed by Qin Feng’s “Heaven Splitter” technique, they gave a mighty flap!

The force field was torn apart in that instant.

A powerful reaction force forcibly ejected Ye Luo’s body from the core area of the force field, turning him into a black streak of light that fled madly toward the outside of the Floating Mountain at an inconceivable speed.

“Hmm?”

Qin Feng’s pupils contracted slightly, and his spear momentum faltered.

He wanted to give chase, but reason instantly overpowered his impulse.

He quickly weighed the pros and cons.

First, the Bodhi Flower was the most important goal of this trip.

Such cosmic treasures that elevate the quality of one’s spiritual energy are rare and cannot be sought after; there must be no mishap whatsoever.

If chasing after Ye Luo were to cause any accident to the Bodhi Flower, that would be a true loss of both capital and returns.

Secondly, the opponent possesses a black-hole-level flying treasure; if he is determined to flee, even if I activate the Crimson Gold Wings, I might not be able to catch up for a while.

Lastly, and most crucially.

This is the core area shrouded in poisonous mist—my home ground.

Once I chase beyond the bounds of the Floating Mountain, without the mist’s weakening effect, once Ye Luo’s spiritual energy recovers slightly, relying on his heritage as a prodigy of the Hidden Dragon List and his endless trump cards, it would be uncertain who would be chasing whom.

In the blink of an eye, Qin Feng made the most correct decision.

He withdrew his spear, abandoned the pursuit, and turned his gaze to the Bodhi Flower, which floated quietly in midair, radiating boundless allure.

He reached out, summoned a gentle strand of spiritual energy, carefully cradled the flower’s stem, and, along with a small clump of soil from its roots, plucked it intact, then swiftly stored it in his most core subspace storage unit.

With the treasure in hand, Qin Feng felt no relief.

“I must leave quickly!”

“Though Ye Luo fled gravely wounded, he will not let this rest. While he is weak and helpless, I must descend the mountain and get far away from here.”

“Otherwise, once he recovers somewhat, relying on his resources, he might set up a spiritual barrier or some tracking mark around the Floating Mountain to wait for me to emerge—then I will be utterly passive.”

Having grasped the crux of the matter, Qin Feng did not linger for a moment.

He cast one last glance at the chaotic battlefield, intending to scavenge spoils, but found only corpses strewn about—not a single intact spatial ring.

In the energy clashes and melees of that magnitude, the spatial rings worn by these beings had long been shattered by the terrifying aftermath, and the resources within had naturally been annihilated in the spatial turbulence.

“What a pity.”

“In the future, if I encounter an opponent I can easily slay, I should set aside a thread of spiritual energy beforehand to protect their spatial ring, so as to maximize the spoils.”

Qin Feng silently reviewed the lesson in his mind, committing it to memory, then with a flicker of his form, he sped down the mountain.

Fortunately, the beings here had been slaughtered to the last, and aside from the escaped Stone Emperor’s son, Ye Luo, no one knew that the ultimate prize—the Bodhi Flower—had fallen into his hands.

...

Halfway up the mountain, at the agreed meeting point.

When Qin Feng’s figure appeared, Niu Ben of the Fire Ox Clan, Yu Qi of the Feather Clan, and Hei Yun of the Shadow Clan had already been waiting for some time.

Calculating the time, only the last month remained of the originally agreed one-year period.

The four gathered again, but the atmosphere was subtly tense.

“Brother Qin, how were the gains?”

Niu Ben, still wearing that simple expression, was the first to ask.

“Acceptable.”

Qin Feng replied tersely, his gaze sweeping over the others as wariness rose in his heart.

He immediately proposed, “The year is almost up; this place is no longer safe. Let us descend the mountain and leave the Floating Mountain at once.”

Yet, unexpectedly, Niu Ben of the Fire Ox Clan directly shook his head, grinned, and rejected the suggestion: “No rush, no rush.”

Beside him, Hei Yun of the Shadow Clan let out an ambiguous low laugh, also voicing dissent.

Qin Feng narrowed his eyes and instantly understood the situation.

At the same time, the silent Feather Clan cultivator Yu Qi quietly emanated a dangerous, vigilant aura.

Seeing this, the simple smile on Niu Ben’s face finally vanished, replaced by a greed and ferocity that bared its fangs.

He swept his gaze over Qin Feng and Yu Qi without restraint, like a predator eyeing its prey, and chuckled, “Back at the foot of the mountain, you dared to look at me like I was food. Now, wait to die.

All the gains from this trip to the Floating Mountain—yours and his—are mine!”

Hei Yun’s figure wavered in the shadows, echoing, “Brother Niu is right. Hand over all the treasures, and we might grant you a quick death.”

The moment the words fell, the protective light barrier that had been enveloping Qin Feng and Yu Qi—provided by Niu Ben’s treasure to block the poisonous mist—vanished without warning with a crisp “pop.”

Instantly, the thick gray poisonous mist, like sharks scenting blood, surged madly toward Qin Feng and Yu Qi.

Niu Ben and Hei Yun’s scheme was well laid.

They didn’t need to act themselves.

By trapping Qin Feng and Yu Qi here, preventing their escape, the terrifying mist of the Floating Mountain, omnipresent, would need only three or four months to completely erode and consume their spiritual energy, leaving them to die in despair.

Then, without shedding a drop of blood, they could claim all the year’s harvest from the two.

Faced with this deadly betrayal and trap, Yu Qi’s expression turned grim, while a strange, cold smile crept onto Qin Feng’s face.

“Heh—”

“Utterly tedious.”

These words carried undisguised contempt and disdain.

Had it been before, without the dual external threats of the Bodhi Flower and the Stone Emperor’s son, he might have been interested enough to use his Imperial Chief Medal to drag out a game with these two clever fools, to see who would laugh last.

But not now.

The Stone Emperor’s son, Ye Luo, could recover at any moment and launch a frenzied pursuit.

Time was his most precious commodity.

He had no leisure to play such childish games here.

With that thought, Qin Feng held nothing back.

“Woom!”

A pair of magnificent Crimson Gold Wings, blazing with blue-gold energy patterns, unfurled instantly from the “Limit” power armor on his back.

A terrifying spiritual psychic force field erupted, whipping up a gale that scattered the oncoming poisonous mist.

The next second, Qin Feng’s form transformed into a dazzling streak of light, ignoring the stunned gazes of Niu Ben and Hei Yun, and shot into the sky at a speed far beyond their reaction limits, vanishing in an instant.

As for the Feather Clan cultivator Yu Qi, also trapped in dire straits, Qin Feng neither cared nor would he care about his fate.

Strangers in this battlefield of myriad races—looking after oneself was already fortune enough.

Yet, in the moment of his departure, the corner of Qin Feng’s eye seemed to catch a glimpse: in his despair, that Feather Clan cultivator also unleashed a treasure radiating black-hole-level aura, transforming into another streak of light, fleeing in the opposite direction.

Clearly, in this treacherous battlefield where hearts are deceitful and each harbors their own schemes, who would dare team up with strangers and explore dangerous lands without a few hidden life-saving trump cards?

The deadly trap meticulously laid by Niu Ben and Hei Yun, after all their scheming, came to nothing.

...

The cosmos is vast, stars like dust.

Before absolute scale, even a galaxy-level powerhouse is as insignificant as a single leaf adrift in a boundless ocean.

After escaping the Floating Mountain, Qin Feng did not pause for a moment.

He drove the Crimson Gold Wings, turning into a barely perceptible streak of light, weaving through intricate asteroid belts and sparse interstellar dust.

He chose not to enter subspace—that dimension full of unknowns and strangeness, where for a lone traveler, opportunity and risk are never in balance.

Navigating in real space, though time-consuming, was the safest choice.

Fifty years of time are but a fleeting moment in interstellar travel.

Throughout this period, Qin Feng maintained the highest vigilance, his spiritual force like an invisible net, monitoring every possible direction of pursuit behind him.

He constantly altered his course, sometimes using a star's gravitational slingshot to accelerate, sometimes diving into the thick atmospheres of gas giants to erase any trace that might exist.

Fifty years of unbroken flight and concealment were enough to render any tracking method ineffective.

Even if the Stone Emperor's son, Yeluo, had recovered from his injuries and possessed heaven-defying connections and secret treasures, he could not precisely lock onto a peer who was determined to hide across such vast star domains.

Finally, deep within a chaotic asteroid belt torn apart by the gravitational forces of several stars, Qin Feng halted.

The spatial structure here was extremely unstable, with energy turbulence and gravitational vortices everywhere, forming a natural shielding field.

He selected an ocean planet covered entirely in ice and liquid methane, small in size and inconspicuous within its planetary system.

Without a moment's hesitation, Qin Feng plunged like a meteor into the deep blue ocean.

Cold, dark, and silent.

As depth increased sharply, all external light was devoured, leaving only endless darkness.

Terrifying pressure squeezed in from all sides, enough to crush an interstellar warship into dust in an instant.

Beneath the seabed, chaotic currents formed countless massive ocean currents and whirlpools, their roars and tearing creating a natural chaotic field of psychic energy.

Any psychic probe would be twisted, torn apart, and reduced to meaningless noise here.

This was the perfect sanctuary Qin Feng sought.

He descended all the way until he reached a ten-thousand-meter trench at the boundary between the planet's core and mantle.

There, he carved out a temporary cave dwelling, then slowly released his vast, ocean-like spiritual force.

This was not a simple probe but a more subtle arrangement.

His spiritual force spread like liquid mercury, silently extending, attaching itself to every sizable asteroid in the belt, linking to every subtle node of the gravitational field.

He did not construct any offensive formations, merely laid out a vast alert network covering the entire asteroid belt.

Once any threatening lifeform entered this region, any energy fluctuation not belonging to the natural background would instantly trigger this net, buying him precious reaction time.

Having done all this, Qin Feng sat cross-legged, his consciousness sinking into his sea of consciousness, and let out a faint sigh. "Pity... I am still only at the Galactic level."

His heart was filled with longing for a higher realm—not merely a pursuit of power, but a thirst for "knowledge."

"If I could advance to the Black Hole level, I would possess the ability to continuously digest knowledge like a singularity.

Those grand guardian arrays constructed from billions of psychic energy runes, once laid down, would allow me to cultivate in peace without distraction, no longer needing to split my mind for vigilance."

"At the Black Hole level, I could also begin to truly delve into the mysteries of 'space.'

Tearing space for short-range jumps, even performing continuous directional space teleportation—that is the true form of a cosmic powerhouse."

"Speed..."

Qin Feng's thoughts flowed in the endless darkness. "In this boundless cosmic battlefield, speed is the foundation of everything."

Countless years of wandering, countless brushes with death, had made him understand the weight of these two words more deeply than anyone.

The universe is too vast.

So vast that even the speed of light seems sluggish.

A standard spiral galaxy spans tens of thousands of light-years.

Even traveling at light speed, it would take a full hundred thousand years to cross.

For those weak civilizations struggling within their home galaxy, lacking even subspace navigation technology, their entire race's lifespan would not suffice to touch a neighboring star.

Even civilizations that have mastered subspace navigation are not safe.

Subspace is filled with indescribable dangers; a single misstep could lead to total loss or interference from the will of subspace evil gods, becoming fodder for chaos.

Only those truly standing at the pinnacle of the cosmos can achieve stable, efficient faster-than-light movement through their own understanding of space.

That is not merely travel but an absolute advantage in survival and hunting.

A race like humanity, possessing a pure subspace sanctuary, is utterly unique in the universe—only humanity has such a blessing.

It is precisely because of the pure subspace sanctuary opened by the Emperor that humanity can freely use subspace teleportation within its territory, allowing humanity to unite and unleash terrifying power.

Indeed, Qin Feng now began to miss the subspace teleportation within human territory.

"Fortunately, the mission target 'Guluo King's Ruins' issued by the cosmic will, and the 'Thunder Phase Sea' entrusted by Senior Sun Chantang, are still at the edge of this star domain, not too far away.

Otherwise, mere travel would consume tens of thousands or even a hundred thousand years."

"Time waits for no one; I must break through to the Black Hole level as soon as possible!"

A sense of urgency lashed at him like a whip.

Qin Feng composed himself and began to inventory the gains from this journey.

Within his subspace storage unit, translucent fruits radiating an ethereal aura floated silently.

Void Mystery Fruits.

During the two months he waited for the Bodhi Flower to bloom atop the Floating Mountain, he had already absorbed over a dozen.

Now, he still had more than ninety left.

These Void Mystery Fruits alone would steadily push his progress toward the "Eternal Singularity" from two percent to around ten percent.

This was already a colossal fortune that would drive any Galactic-level powerhouse mad.

But the true treasure was the strange flower lying quietly at the center of all resources.

Its entire body shimmered with flowing light, its petals layered upon layers, as if condensed from the purest spiritual energy, each ray of light containing a Dao resonance that calmed the mind.

The Bodhi Flower.

According to information Qin Feng had retrieved from the Empire's database, the value of this Bodhi Flower far surpassed all the Void Mystery Fruits combined.

Not only could it provide vast, pure spiritual energy, but its heaven-defying property was that it could enhance the "quality" of spiritual force!

"If I can fully absorb this Bodhi Flower, my progress might leap to around fifty percent!"

This number made Qin Feng's heart race.

It would virtually save him thousands, even tens of thousands of years of arduous cultivation and resource gathering.

Of course, he also knew that the path of cultivation was never a simple linear accumulation.

The higher the density of spiritual force, the more resources and effort required to increase it even slightly, growing geometrically.

Though it seemed he could reach fifty percent progress, the remaining fifty percent would be far more difficult and lengthy than the path already traveled.

"Even so, obtaining the Bodhi Flower on this trip to Floating Mountain can only be described as 'luck.' This fortune is too immense."

Without further hesitation, Qin Feng activated the *Tenfold Hand* deep within his sea of consciousness.

The nurturing method activated, and his body seemed to transform into an invisible black hole.

A Void Mystery Fruit materialized; the moment it touched his palm, it dissolved into a torrent of pure energy, which he devoured into his body, then, through the profound techniques of the *Tenfold Hand*, continuously converted into golden spiritual force that increased the density of his "Indestructible Tower."

Time lost all meaning in the absolute stillness of the deep sea.

Within the cave dwelling, only the flickering light on Qin Feng's body and the ever-disappearing Void Mystery Fruits remained.

……

Fifty years of time, fleeting in an instant.

When the last trace of energy from the Void Mystery Fruit was fully absorbed and refined, the Immortal Tower within Qin Feng's Sea of Consciousness had become far more solid than before.

The tower's body now stood thick and sturdy, every inch of its walls flowing with a dense golden radiance, more substantial and more imposing.

The progress toward the "Eternal Singularity" had reached, neither more nor less, exactly the ten percent mark.

He did not pause. After a brief adjustment, he took out the much-anticipated Sal Tree Flower.

As the flower left his body, the entire pitch-black trench was illuminated by its soft, precious light.

A refreshing, exotic fragrance spread; just a whiff of it made Qin Feng feel as though his spiritual world had been cleansed, becoming more transparent and pure.

He held the Sal Tree Flower and began to refine it with all his might using the "Tenfold Hands" technique.

This cultivation session was far longer and far more perilous than absorbing the Void Mystery Fruit.

If the energy of the Void Mystery Fruit was like a stream, then the energy of the Sal Tree Flower was like the Milky Way pouring down from the Ninth Heaven! The sheer magnitude and purity of that energy far exceeded Qin Feng's imagination.

A vast torrent of energy washed over his Sea of Consciousness, madly surging into the Immortal Tower.

The golden tower, at a speed visible to the naked eye, became ever more awe-inspiring and dazzling. On its surface, the density of spiritual power climbed step by step.

Eleven percent, twelve percent... twenty percent... thirty percent...

The progress skyrocketed, but there was no joy on Qin Feng's face; instead, it grew extremely grave.

What he had to do now was not merely absorb and transform.

More importantly, under the impact of this terrifying energy, he had to "restrain" his Immortal Tower!

He had to exert every ounce of strength to maintain the tower's grand scale of ten million light-years, ensuring its volume did not expand by even a fraction.

What he needed to do was, within a limited volume, infinitely increase its "density" and "mass."

This was a wrestling match with his own power.

At the slightest misstep, the Immortal Tower would be shattered by this uncontrollable, massive energy.

If that happened, although he could rely on his experience to recondense it more quickly, it would still be a total loss, wasting this heaven-sent opportunity and precious time.

One year, ten years, a hundred years...

In the deep-sea cave dwelling, Qin Feng sat like an ancient, unchanging statue, while the storm within his Sea of Consciousness raged ever more fiercely.

That golden Immortal Tower had now reached the pinnacle of brilliance.

Inside the tower, the golden spiritual power, so dense it had nearly become solid, surged like volcanic magma about to erupt, madly battering the tower's walls, causing the entire tower to tremble slightly, as if it might collapse at any moment.

All of Qin Feng's mind was devoted to stabilizing and compressing the tower.

It was an extremely delicate and tedious process, requiring absolute focus and an unyielding will.

...

Four hundred and fifty years slipped away silently.

When the last wisp of the Sal Tree Flower's radiance merged into Qin Feng's body, the towering waves in his Sea of Consciousness finally subsided.

The Immortal Tower standing at the center of his spiritual world had undergone earth-shattering changes.

It still maintained its height of ten million light-years, but its essence had leaped to an entirely new level.

The tower's body was no longer pure gold; it now displayed a noble, golden-red hue, as if tinged with crimson.

It resembled the crown of an emperor or the rising sun, embodying ultimate majesty and vitality.

The golden-red color signified a change in the quality of Qin Feng's spiritual power!

This was extremely rare!

This advantage would persist! Even if he advanced to the Black Hole level and was crowned a king, he would still have the edge of high-quality spiritual power!

On the tower's walls, as the quality of spiritual power improved, countless profound and intricate runes formed naturally. They flickered and slowly revolved, making the entire tower no longer seem like a lifeless object, but a supreme divine artifact with its own breath and pulse.

The progress steadily settled at the fifty percent mark.

"Hoo..."

Qin Feng slowly opened his eyes, a long breath escaping his lips.

Under the terrifying water pressure of this ten-thousand-meter deep sea, that turbid breath acted like a deep-water bomb, instantly detonating the surrounding water.

A visible shockwave exploded outward, forcibly creating a terrifying vortex tens of thousands of miles in diameter on the pitch-black seabed, churning billions of tons of seawater, lingering for a long time.

He clenched his fist, feeling the surging power within his body. An unprecedented sense of strength filled his heart.

"My strength... has increased by more than a thousandfold!"

A sharp light gleamed in Qin Feng's eyes.

Five hundred years ago, facing "Wild," the mechanical race prodigy ranked 987th on the [Hidden Dragon List], he could only flee in panic for a hundred years.

Facing Ye Luo, the son of the Stone Emperor, if not for the poison mist that had greatly weakened his opponent, he wouldn't even have had a chance to strike.

But now, it was different.

"If I were to encounter 'Wild' again now, or Ye Luo at his peak..."

A confident smile curled at the corner of Qin Feng's mouth. "Killing them might still be very difficult, but it's absolutely not impossible to fight them! Even... to turn around and hunt them down!"

Such was the immense boost from the Sal Tree Flower—one opportunity surpassed a thousand years of bitter cultivation.

He stood up. The tidal ebb and flow of spiritual energy caused the seawater around him to retreat automatically.

With a single step, his figure vanished from the seabed. In a flash of light, Qin Feng was already in the cold vacuum outside the ocean planet.

He oriented himself, felt no reluctance, and continued toward the coordinates of the "Ancient King's Ruins," embarking on a new journey.

...

Time flies like an arrow, years pass like a shuttle.

The journey that followed was a long and lonely cultivation.

Qin Feng's figure, like a tireless ghost, swept past one unfamiliar galaxy after another.

Montage-like scenes flowed behind him.

He had seen a crystalline race civilization, building magnificent crystal cities on barren moons, only to be roasted into lava by the star's radiance under the tidal lock of their homeworld.

From the embers of their civilization, Qin Feng took a naturally formed "Gravitational Core" that contained spatial laws.

He had also passed through a galaxy ruled by a sub-species of the feathered race, whose beings worshipped the remains of an ancient stellar beast.

Qin Feng intervened, erasing the parasitic insectoid hive that dwelled on the remains, feeding on the planet's life force. As a reward, he sat in meditation for ten years within the bones of that giant beast, comprehending the lingering, mighty battle intent, which greatly improved his killing techniques.

He had also descended upon a mechanical civilization engulfed in full-scale nuclear war. Amid the pervasive radiation dust and mushroom clouds, he moved as if through an empty land, packing up their entire central database located deep in the planet's core. It contained all the technological knowledge of that civilization over tens of thousands of years.

But there was too much about artificial intelligence in that knowledge, so Qin Feng had to abandon it.

Along the way, he had destroyed evil and casually blessed kindness.

The civilizations he encountered were diverse in form and race, but without exception, they were all alien.

Of the sparks of human civilization, Qin Feng saw none.

It is only natural, after all.

In this cruel universe, any newly born human civilization is immediately detected and contacted by the great Human Empire.

Then, the entire race is teleported into one of the great cosmic cities, becoming part of the Empire's vast population, under its protection.

The countless martial artists below the planetary level in the cosmic city metropolitan areas all came from such origins.

For those nascent civilizations trapped on their home planets or confined within their star systems, a single descent of a galactic-level martial artist, a mere gesture, is no different from a legendary god.

Slaughter, plunder, enlightenment, cultivation...

Throughout this long, solitary journey spanning a thousand years, Qin Feng's heart and mind were tempered to an ever more tranquil stillness, like an ancient well.

...

In the blink of an eye, a thousand years passed leisurely.

When Qin Feng awoke from a meditation that had lasted decades, he was only the final leg of the journey away from the Ancient Luo King's Ruins.

A millennium of plunder and arduous cultivation had pushed his progress toward the "Eternal Singularity" from fifty percent to sixty percent.

The Star-Swallowing Spear in his hand and the "Limit" Tiangen Alloy Power Armor on his body, after devouring vast quantities of rare metals and heavenly treasures, had both reached the absolute peak of galactic-level secret treasures, only a single step away from the threshold of the black hole level.

They seemed to have gained a life of their own, yearning for a final transformation.

Qin Feng knew that to elevate them to black hole-level secret treasures, he would need a true great opportunity, a kind of superior metal alloy.

Once they ascended to black hole-level secret treasures, because they were Tiangen weapons connected to his mind and heart, having grown together with him, he would not need to spend the long time other powerhouses did to refine their countless restrictions anew; he could use them directly.

By then, his overall combat power would once again soar dramatically.

"From the end of the Genius War, entering the Myriad Races Battlefield, I have now trained for nearly two thousand years."

"My actual age is also approaching three thousand years old..."

Standing in the cockpit of the "Limit" power armor, gazing at the distant sea of stars, Qin Feng could not help but feel a trace of emotion.

For the strong, years are merely a number, but the trials of two thousand years had still left ring-like marks, like the growth rings of a tree, on his rock-solid Dao heart.

"The Ancient Luo King's Ruins... finally, almost there."

His spiritual power had extended to its utmost limit; at the edge of his perception, he "saw" it.

In the boundless deep space, within a splendid and magnificent nebula, a palace of indescribable grandeur floated silently.

It exuded an aura of ancient desolation, bleakness, and overbearing dominance, like a cosmic beast that had slumbered for eons.

With its faint, almost imperceptible "breath," the nebula spanning several light-years around it rose and fell like the tides, a spectacle of extreme grandeur.

However, when Qin Feng focused his spiritual power further, his brow slightly lifted.

Outside the massive gates of the Ancient Luo King's Ruins, in the vast void, dozens of figures had already gathered, their auras powerful and unruly.

They belonged to different races, each with an aura as deep as the ocean, clearly all renowned prodigies of the 1300 War Zone.

These prodigies of myriad races warily kept their distance, marking their own territories, all silently awaiting the opening of the Ancient Luo King's Ruins.

"Oh? There's also a human powerhouse!"

Qin Feng's spiritual power keenly captured a familiar and pure human aura.

That aura was far stronger than an ordinary galactic-level, carrying a martial, iron-blooded killing intent and the majesty of one who commands a region.

A Marquis-level powerhouse!

Qin Feng immediately made the judgment.

But what surprised him somewhat was that this human Marquis-level powerhouse simply sat cross-legged on a meteorite, eyes closed in meditation, making no move to expel the myriad race prodigies lurking nearby, as if he were completely oblivious to their presence.

And the myriad race prodigies did not seem to sense the presence of this Marquis-level powerhouse at all.

(End of this chapter)