Chapter 157 - 157: 156: Focusing on Cultivation!
Chapter 157 - 157: 156: Focusing on Cultivation!
In other words, he only needed ninety thousand Stellar Crystals to raise from ten thousand meters to one hundred thousand meters, which is equivalent to nine times the energy consumed to advance from the Fourth Rank to the Fifth
Rank.
However, these were nothing. The real expenditure of resources lay in elevating from the peak of the Fifth Rank to the Sixth Rank.
The resources required for this were ten thousand Nucleus Crystals.
Nucleus Crystals, a type of crystal produced inside a nucleus star, were worth ten thousand times more than a Stellar Crystal.
Nucleus Crystals, Stellar Crystals, Source Crystals, these three types of crystals were respectively extracted from the nucleus of stars, suns, and planets, and their value ratio was perfectly set at ten thousand.
Du Gang frowned, “To advance from the peak of the Fifth Rank to the Sixth Rank requires ten thousand Nucleus Crystals? So, what if you want to advance from the Sixth Rank to the Seventh, would it require one billion Nucleus Crystals, or ten thousand of some even higher level crystals?”
Originally, he was planning to breathe a sigh of relief once he broke through to the Stellar Level. However, he found out that the ten thousand Stellar Crystals he took advantage of were not nearly enough for him to advance from Fifth Rank to the Sixth.
“According to the fact that the closer to the center of the Universe, the easier it is to grow more valuable things, there’s no reason for Du Kang to always run to the border…”
Once his strength reached the Fifth Rank, and he clearly understood the astronomical numbers of resources required to breakthrough from Fifth Rank to Sixth Rank, he started thinking otherwise.
“Just looking at the resources in the Milky Way Galaxy, even if all the resources of the entire galaxy were pooled together, it may not necessarily yield ten Nucleus Crystals. But to break through from the Fifth Rank to the Sixth Rank, it requires ten thousand Nucleus Crystals…”
Is Du Kang truly a simpleton? I mean it’s not like he’s an idiot, right?
He knew very well that resources are scarcer the further from the center, yet he kept running towards remote places.
Du Gang’s eyes slightly narrowed, “Unless, Du Kang never planned to upgrade to the Sixth Rank…”
The further away from the Milky Way Galaxy, the closer to the Entropy Domain where life does not exist. No matter how long-lived a person is, they won’t survive in the Entropy Domain for long.
“So according to this reasoning, Du Kang’s goal might actually be the Entropy Domain?”
He was stunned “Could it be, Du Kang intended to self-destruct? To make the Ancient God extinct?”
After a while, he shook his got head, “Unlikely. If that was the case, there would have been no need for him to leave behind his inheritance, no need to leave a recorded message for my son, nor to take advantage of me…” After deliberating for a while, Du Gang came up with another speculation.
“Could it be that Du Kang intended to find an heir near the Entropy Domain?”
During the Fourth Rank, Du Gang genuinely believed that the Ancient Gods were just that, and that Du Kang was really killed by Zhou Haotian’s treachery.
But looking at it now, that was not the case at all. When he advanced to the Fifth Rank, he had clearly felt the power of the Ancient God.
The Lance of the Ancient God could break all laws and domains. The water-like domain couldn’t stop the Lance of the Ancient God, let alone on that day when Du Kang also had the Sky-breaking Strike!
He can confirm that, even at the Fifth Rank, even without the comprehension of the mysteries of the laws, and without the Eternal Domain, he could still slay the cosmic-level powerhouses merely with his physical body, and the Sky-breaking Strike of the Lance of Ancient God.
He had just broken through to the Fifth-Rank Ancient God. With the Ancient Divine Spear alone, he had instantly defeated Zhou Haotian, and not only that, but at the Fifth Rank, he had comprehended a kind of momentum.
With the great pressure on the weak, he only had to transform. By virtue of his gigantic stature, he would naturally give smaller creatures a sense of momentum, making their combat power decrease and their bodies slow down.
Keep in mind, at that time, people like Fan An were affected by this momentum. They fell back several hundred thousand meters before barely escaping its effect.
This was also because Du Gang did not directly target them.
Apart from this, Du Gang could confirm that Du Kang could never be secretly murdered by anyone else because of his immunity to all kinds of poison!
When he advanced to the Fifth Rank, he had this feeling that he couldn’t be poisoned by ordinary toxins.
Only something from the center of the universe could potentially poison an Ancient God.
The supposed poisoning of Du Kang a hundred thousand years ago may have been only an illusion…
“Therefore, I can now list all the suspicious points…
“First, Du Kang’s death is suspicious. With Du Kang’s strength, even if Zhou Haotian poisoned him, it should not have lowered his strength. Moreover, with the attribute of the Lance of Ancient God being able to break all laws, Zhou Haotian wouldn’t have been able to stop him with one…
“Second, Du Kang’s destination. If the Ancient Gods simply left due to the enemies at the center of the Universe, then they could have lived well in other advanced or intermediate cosmic countries. They didn’t specifically have to run to such a remote place…
“Third, in more than a dozen consecutive generations, the Ancient Gods didn’t learn the Ancient God’s secret methods and only learned the Sky-breaking Strike. If I believe that they’re lazy, or their talents are not good, then I’m being naive…
Just by looking at the low common people’s affinity for laws and his own law affinity reaching one hundred percent due to the Ancient God’s body, it’s clear that the talents of the Ancient Gods are not that bad.
He wouldn’t think that the reason for the high affinity for the laws is due to his being from Earth. Besides, he had also specifically consulted relevant data:
other than the god bodies that exist and were born at the center of the
Universe, no other races could reach the affinity force of one hundred percent!
“Fourth, the inheritance memory of the Ancient Gods doesn’t contain any secret methods above the Sixth Rank. I thought that when I broke through to the Stellar Level, it would unlock a new secret method, but there weren’t any…”
This suggests that either the Ancient God’s inheritance memory was erased by outsiders, or it was erased by the Ancient God who created the “Spear and Lance Nine Kills”.
Among this pile of Ancient Gods, only that person is the most suspicious.
Because that Ancient God seems to live in the center of the Universe and
possesses profound secret techniques. After him, the subsequent fifteen generations of Ancient Gods began to move far away from the center of the Universe and only learned the Sky-breaking Strike.
“Fifth, the geographical location of the Solar System. Although it is located in the center of the Silver Plane in the Wasteland Star Domain, it is in the star system nearest to the Entropy Domain where life exists in the third spiral arm…”
There were star systems even closer to the Entropy Domain than the Solar system, but they were all tranquil star systems where no life existed, or at least, no humans resided.
After combining all these, Du Gang came to a conclusion.
“The Ancient Gods, starting from the creator of the ‘Spear and Lance Nine
Kills’, began a group migration, moving towards the direction of the Entropy Domain… at the same time, they weren’t moving very fast… their goal could be to find an inheritor near the Entropy Domain?”
“They’re not moving fast, either because their search for an inheritor has a time limit or because they are short on fuel, and they had to scrape for fuel along the way…”
Du Gang furrowed his brows, “From the center of the Universe to the edge of the Universe, that took the time and lives of fifteen generations of Ancient Gods, were they waiting for a specific time? Or did they really not have enough fuel, and had to drag their feet all the way to Earth over fifteen generations of Ancient Gods?!!”
He felt like there was a startling conspiracy behind this, consisting of both enemies’ and Ancient Gods’ plans.
“So, my birth could potentially be a counterattack by the Ancient Gods? Or it could be a conspiracy of the enemy?”
“There are two possibilities, one is that the Ancient Gods wanted to destroy themselves in the Entropy Domain after running for fifteen generations, but they were stopped by the enemies of the Ancient Gods who killed Du Kang and then gave his heritage to me after his death…”
“The other possibility is indeed some scheme of the Ancient God, one that spans over hundreds of millions of years and has resulted in the death of fifteen generations of Ancient Gods…”
“Moreover, even if there was no Du Gang, there would be another Du San or Du Si who would ultimately accept the inheritance of the Ancient God…”
“And that so-called Zhou Haotian might just be a whetstone prepared by Du
Kang for himself, the sixteenth generation Ancient God!”
Thinking up to this point, Du Gang’s mood suddenly became heavy.
At that moment, Barara gave him a shove, “Du Gang, what are you thinking about? Why haven’t you spoken for so long?” Du Gang laughed and said, “Nothing…”
Does Barara know anything? The possibility is slim!
He understands that even if Du Kang is indeed planning something, he would definitely not tell an artificial intelligence. So, it’s very likely that Barara was prepared by Du Kang or his enemies…
“No matter what trials and tribulations lie ahead, I will use the Ancient Divine Spear to carve out a bloody path for myself!”
After thinking about many things, in the end, Du Gang converted all his thoughts into this sentence as a form of self-determination.
Unexpectedly, after he finished speaking, his ability which was originally stuck at the peak of the fourth level broke through instantaneously and reached the fifth level!
After another breakthrough in his mentality, Du Gang hid away all of these thoughts. He didn’t know what the fifteen generations of Ancient Gods were scheming, nor was it something he could know at his current level. However, he believed that when he reached the Eternal Level, he would surely be able to investigate everything!
“The pressing matter at hand is to diligen tly cultivate. The Cosmic Peak Talents Competition will start in one year and four months…”
From what happened at the Sky-reaching Tower, he finally understood that it would take him forever to look for resources on his own.
Therefore, he must rely on a powerful backing, drawing from the Virtual Universe Company the resources he needed.
Could there be any other forces in the universe more powerful and wealthy than the Virtual Universe Company?
Therefore, he must achieve a good ranking in the Cosmic Peak Talents Competition this time in order to gain access to more resources.
From Fan An, he learned that geniuses under 10,000 years old were eligible to participate in the Cosmic Peak Talents Competition.
Furthermore, those prodigies from the center of the universe often have reached the rank of Sector Lord, which is extremely terrifying!
Therefore, he must work even harder!
After careful consideration, Du Gang finally decided to study the other volume of the “Light and Dark Secrets” given to him by Ou Yun in the Life Space.
In addition to this, he also brought the Gold Element Seventh-Rank Technique rewarded by the company as bonus for advancing to an outer disciple.
The company’s reward was of the sixth rank, but with Fan An spending a lot of Contribution Points, it was upgraded to a seventh-rank technique.
The company allows the employees to upgrade the techniques rewarded to the disciples.
The Seventh -Rank Gold Element Technique Du Gang chose was the “Red Gold Spear Technique”, but only the middle three levels.
Similarly, after receiving the technique inheritance, he smoothly comprehended the mystery of War Gold, which was similar to Sharp Gold’s mystery and was a heavy attack power rule.
Up to this point, he had acquired two sets of techniques sufficient to comprehend the Mystery of the Laws.
“Light and Dark Secrets” and “Red Gold Spear Technique”.
“Light and Dark Secrets” is currently the fastest progressing technique, and he has already comprehended a Secret Mystery and further mastered a Domain after achieving perfection.
While the “Red Gold Spear Technique” has allowed him to comprehend 99% of the Sharp Gold Mystery and 1% of the War Gold Mystery.
His main objective in going to the Life Space is to grasp the Mysteries of “Light and Dark Secrets” and then proceed to the Killing Field for combat and tempering.
This time, with the Secret Mystery as a foundation, Du Gang quickly grasped the new Light and Dark Law. He completed the learning of the other Mysteries of the Light and Dark Secrets in just over four months.
The Dazzling Mystery, unlike the Secret Mystery that hides light and oneself, is a law that releases a strong light to blind the enemy’s eyes.
What thrilled Du Gang the most was that this Dazzling Mystery could be used against the blind.
This meant that no matter whether the enemy had their eyes open or not, and whether they had seen his Dazzling Mystery, as long as the enemy hadn’t used the Secret Mystery to cut off contact with the outside world, they would definitely be affected!
However, the Dazzling Mystery is only capable of blinding an enemy’s eyes, and does not hold much power in attack.
But this wasn’t an issue for Du Gang, who had the Laws of Sharp Gold and War Gold. His attack power could be boosted a lot.
Now, for him, the Mystery of Light and Darkness functions as support. The Secret Mystery can hide himself, while the Dazzling Mystery can blind the enemy.
And the Mysteries of Sharp Gold and War Gold are his primary attack!
One day, as soon as he came out of the Life Space and was preparing to go to the Killing Field in the Virtual Universe, Barara stopped him.
“Du Gang, the official start time for the Cosmic Peak Talents Competition has been announced!”
“Didn’t we already know the time?”
Barara laughed and said, “This is different. The four major companies have established the organizing committee for this year’s Cosmic Peak Talents Competition, and the news was released by the organizing committee…”
“In addition to the specific time, the organizing committee of the Peak Genius Competition also announced the time for the public release of the competition format…”
Du Gang wondered, “Isn’t the competition format decided yet?”
Barara laughed, “This is to prevent any underhanded practices. Therefore, the format of each competition can vary, and the organizing committee announced that the format of the Open Audition would be announced in six months.”
“Open Audition?”
Du Gang froze for a moment, “They don’t announce all the formats at once?
Barara smiled and said, “It’s not that easy. This is a competition for the entire universe. The Cosmic Peak Talents Competition has five different large-scale competition structures: the Final Championship, the Regular Championship, the Qualifying Contest, the Elimination Match, and the Open Audition.”
“There are five large-scale different structures. We in the Milky Way Galaxy, have to start from the Open Audition, and fight all the way, until the Regular Championship, where we get a chance to compete against the geniuses from the center of the universe…”
“Before that, we need to go through the Open Audition, the Elimination Match, and the Qualifying Contest. These three structures are all very complicated, and each competition will consume a lot of time…”
“Based on previous years, it’s usually lower-level events that end first before the higher-level events are announced, and the five-level competition slowly proceeds from low to high…”
“Alright then!”
Du Gang nodded, checking the time. Quite conveniently, there was still a year left until the Cosmic Peak Talents Competition began.
“In half a year, when they announce the rules of the Open Audition, remember to inform me!”
Having said that, he directly entered the Primary Killing Field of White Dragon Mountain in the virtual universe.
This time, he was not solely aiming to earn White Dragon Coins, but also to train and increase his combat power.
However, before he entered, Du Gang had taken the Ancient Divine Spear from his ear, shrinking it down to a size that fit his proportions before making his way into the virtual universe.
The Worries Relief Spear was no longer sufficient for him to continue battling in the killing field because he had lost due to his weapon in the previous round.
This time entering the Killing Field, Du Gang had a different idea.
Before, he aimed to earn White Dragon Coins, but now, despite still aiming to earn White Dragon Coins, it was not as urgent. Relying on White Dragon Coins to buy Nucleus Crystals to consume was not very practical…
So, this time, he planned to follow his previous survival tactics, to first survive until he achieved ten thousand consecutive victories, attain the title of “Asura” , then start increasing the grade of the opponents he was battling against to really start his training.
However, things did not go as he had planned.
After winning consecutively a thousand times, the opponents he faced were mostly ones who also had over a thousand consecutive victories or those of equal strength.
The first two thousand wins went by fairly smoothly, resulting in very steady competitions where he was able to control the fight until the last second.
However, after exceeding two thousand consecutive victories, the opponents he encountered had become somewhat challenging.
Because most of these opponents possessed the mysteries of the Laws, and while they had not encountered enemies with domains yet, without using his domain, he would not be able to take the victory that easily.
Yet Du Gang, who was filled with the desire to train, generally only used his domain to oppress rather than using it to directly fight his opponents.
Initially, he mainly used the mysteries of Sharp Gold in the game, but most of the time now, he uses the mysteries of War Gold.
Because he found that during battles, using the mysteries of laws can deepen his understanding of the laws.
From two thousand consecutive victories to three thousand consecutive victories, in a thousand fights, he raised the level of War Gold mysteries to twenty- three percent.
And the mystery of Stunning Light was even more exaggerated, directly reaching thirty-eight percent.
Almost every match ended with him winning due to the Stunning Light mystery.
Most of the opponents he encountered during this period were people who had only understood one mystery.
In half a month, he did not rest for a single moment and, calculating that a match lasts for ten minutes, he had one hundred and forty-four battles a day, leading to two thousand matches in half a month.
After two thousand continuous battles, Du Gang was feeling mentally exhausted but he had the perfect solution.
By operating his Primordial Source and cultivating his Ancient Divine Spirit once, all of his mental weariness was cleared away.
Half an hour later, Du Gang, full of vigor, entered the Killing Field again.
This time, it was his three thousand and first match. It could be estimated that his opponent this time would be stronger than the last. As predicted, this time, his opponent had a domain.
“Kid, I advise you to surrender!”
His opponent was a muscular man who stood two meters tall. He was very confident, his nostrils flaring as he spoke to Du Gang.
Du Gang had seen many opponents of this type and wasn’t agitated by a single provocative comment.
Without uttering a word, he directly used the second transformation of the Skyward Nine Transformations to widen the distance between them.
As before, he used his step technique to dodge first.
Because, of the eighty-one methods of the second transformation of Skyward Nine Transformations, he has already learned more than half, with only a negligible part left to master the second transformation.
“Stop running!”
The range that the muscular man’s domain covered was evidently not quite large as he had just recently grasped it.
In the domain stage, there are also levels of classification for domains, but they are generally calculated by the size of the domain.
Regular people who have just entered the domain stage have domains covering a diameter of only ten meters.
Although it looks small, within this domain, all the enemy’s attributes are suppressed and the person’s power, defense, and so forth are all greatly amplified.
Aside from the two superior laws, there is no difference in quality between the various base laws’ domains, only their interaction induces an enhancement, a counteraction, or no related boost.
For instance, a domain that focuses on fighting is definitely stronger than a domain that focuses on assistance in terms of its attack power!
But in terms of quality, they belong to the same level.
The only factor that might differentiate their level is the degree to which the practitioner has acknowledged and cultivated the domain.
For example, a domain covering from a diameter of ten meters to a hundred meters is referred to as the Primary Domain.
A domain covering from a diameter of a hundred meters to a thousand meters is referred to as the Intermediate Domain.
A domain which covers from one thousand meters to ten thousand meters is called the Advanced Domain.
A domain that extends from ten thousand meters to a hundred thousand meters is called the Top-Level Domain.
According to Du Gang’s understanding from the books, a Top-Level domain that is until the Eternal Level — has effectively reached its limit. The largest extent of this one layer only enshrouds a range of a hundred thousand meters.
But its power is not as simple as just covering that extent because with each meter that the diameter of the domain expands, the increase in attack power, as well as defense power, doubles.
This means that, although they possess domains, a domain at the ten-meter level adds a bonus of ten times to attack power, whereas a domain at the ten-thousand-meter level adds a bonus of ten thousand times to attack power.
The muscular man opposite only has a domain range of ten meters, so as long as Du Gang doesn’t appear within his domain range, there won’t be a big problem.
With a giant axe in his hand, the muscular man continued to pursue Du Gang. At this moment, even with the boost from his domain that resulted in a tenfold speed increase, he was still unable to catch up with Du Gang.
You should know that Du Gang had not activated his domain at this time, and had achieved such an effect merely by using the stepping technique of the second transformation.
In the memory space inherited from the Ancient God, the “Skyward Nine Transformations” might be the highest level technique that Du Gang has found.
Just the stepping technique of the second transformation had reached an unfathomable level.
For a while, Du Gang was all over the battlefield.
“Stand still!”
The muscular man kept roaring angrily. It was not that he was not calm, but rather Du Gang was too audacious.
Apart from initially keeping his distance, Du Gang ran in a straight line. Then, when he found out that the muscular man was too slow, he deliberately ran back and left an afterimage just outside the muscular man’s domain range, mocking him.
At this moment, Du Gang was using the killing field entirely as a place to cultivate.
Here, each battle allows him to perform multiple forms of cultivation.
For the first four or five minutes of the ten-minute battle, he would choose to use the stepping technique to run in circles. Since the enemy is alive and possesses wisdom, as well as the possibility of having secret arts that can increase their speed, he must concentrate in order to cope with the unexpected changes in the enemy’s speed.
And this constant adaptation is precisely the key to quickly mastering and comprehending the stepping technique!
In addition to the cultivation of the stepping technique, Du Gang would also start to engage the enemy with the War Gold Mystery after the sixth minute, and further comprehend the War Gold Mystery.
Only in the last minute would he display the Blinding Light Mystery to take down the enemy.
However, this was the first time that he encountered a strong opponent with a domain.
So, after running away for five minutes, Du Gang tentatively used the Ancient Divine Spear, attached with the War Gold Mystery, to launch a long-range attack on the muscular man.
“Boom!”
This spear-like attack that was launched was quickly nullified once it entered the one-foot range of the enemy’s domain.
“As expected, it’s still a bit challenging to confront a domain relying solely on the War Gold Mystery, huh?”
However, Du Gang did not give up. He continued to lead the enemy around while constantly looking for opportunities to launch different spear techniques, waiting for a chance to attack the enemy.
“BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!”
Tens of consecutive attacks were all nullified by the muscular man’s domain.
The few axe-shaped attacks launched by the muscular man, however, were easily dodged by Du Gang.
At this moment, Du Gang once again realized the importance of the stepping technique.
This kind of top-tier stepping technique allowed him to remain undefeated even in the face of an enemy with a domain.
No matter how powerful your domain is, it’s pointless if you can’t hit me!
Just like that, after struggling for four minutes, the War Gold Mystery failed to break open the enemy’s domain and attack the muscular man.
“Sigh, it seems that I can only confront a domain with a domain!”
Du Gang sighed, activated his stepping technique, decoyed his opponent, and quickly approached him. Just before entering his opponent’s domain, he activated his own. Then, with their domains constantly nullifying each other, he got close to his opponent’s face.
He launched an attack with the Blinding Light Mystery, and immediately a scream rang out.
“My eyes!”
The muscular man’s eyes were actually unharmed. The Blinding Light Mystery attacked his mind, causing him to go temporarily blind. Although the duration was short, it was enough for Du Gang to take down his opponent.
With the bonus from the Secret Domain, Du Gang used the War Gold Mystery to end the opponent with one spear strike.
“An opponent with a domain is just so-so
Du Gang shrugged his shoulders, feeling no particular difficulty dealing with this opponent compared to previous ones.
“Forget it, from now on, mainly focus on confronting domains with domains, and start cultivating domains…”
He had initially considered comprehending 99 percent of the War Gold Mystery then finding ways to break through the two gold mysteries to perfection, but now it seems that the results weren’t quite as expected.
Soon, the 3,002nd enemy appeared. This time, it was another person with a domain.
And Du Gang, following his previous routine, practiced his stepping technique for the first five minutes, leading his enemy in circles to get a sense of their power.
From the sixth to ninth minute, he released his domain to confront the enemy, studying the various intricacies of his domain.
However, when he deployed his domain and fought against the enemy while habitually harassing them with the War Gold Mystery, he found that the War Gold Mystery could still improve!
“It turns out that deploying a domain and comprehending mysteries don’t conflict with each other…”
After realizing this, Du Gang was overjoyed.
In this way, he could learn the stepping technique, cultivate his domain and comprehend the War Gold Mystery at the same time in every battle, which was equivalent to accomplishing three different forms of cultivation in a single match.
Moreover, these live enemies progress much faster than when he cultivates alone!
After understanding this, Du Gang immediately threw himself wholeheartedly into the repetitive cycle of dodging the enemy, confronting them, cultivating, and defeating them.
[Author note:] Kitten wants to aim for the first place in the Combat Power Ranking, wants to kick Hawk out, and take his long-term first place in the Combat Power Ranking.
The condition to be listed in the Combat Power Ranking is an average rating of 500. At the moment, the book’s average rating has drastically slumped and is quickly about to fall off the list.
To the readers reading for free, if your financial condition allows, Kitten really hopes for a full paid subscription on Qidian.
The daily update strength is up to 30,000 words. The word count for this time’s four [Author’s note] is not included..