Luo Feng sat on the throne, overlooking a crowd of special beings kneeling in the darkness below. The excitement and reverence in the eyes of these thousands of special beings made Luo Feng instantly realize the tragedy of these seemingly rare and powerful beings—that they were simply too weak.
Because of their extremely high life hierarchy and innate secret techniques, countless races across the universe were tempted to act, enslaving them or seizing their bodies.
If a group of special beings lacked a powerful protector, they would quickly be torn apart and devoured by the greedy races across the universe.
In ancient times, when the Blood-Cloud Sovereign roamed the universe, the number of special beings was still considerable. He encountered some special beings being hunted and killed, felt pity, and rescued one group after another, eventually gathering these thousands of special beings. After infinite eons of growth…
With guidance from Situ Shangke, top cosmic overlords such as Heitian Lord, Yin Qiu Venerable, and Ciwu Demon Monarch emerged.
Had it not been for such protection, they would surely have been hunted themselves.
Of course, over the long ages, special beings without protectors had long since vanished from the river of cosmic history. Hence, many ancient existences, such as the Chaos City Lord and others, possessed numerous special-being avatars. However, as time passed, it had become increasingly difficult for someone of Luo Feng’s era to find special beings to seize.
“Situ Shangke protected them, nurtured them, and guided them, just like their father,” Luo Feng murmured silently. “No wonder they all call him Master, and yet their admiration and respect come from the bottom of their hearts.”
“From today on!”
“I am the Blood-Cloud Sovereign. Although I have gained such a powerful force, besides the Earth lineage, I now bear another great responsibility.” Luo Feng mused inwardly.
…
Indeed, this was a force that made cosmic powers envious—a force of three top cosmic overlords! Particularly Heitian Lord, whose divine power purity was nearly a hundred times greater than that of Tianyang Venerable. Even with the same high-grade treasure armor, Luo Feng needed to attack two levels higher to achieve the same effect as killing Tianyang Venerable. Moreover, Heitian Lord’s divine body was a million kilometers tall—billions of times larger than Tianyang Venerable’s less-than-ten-meter form.
“Yin Qiu Venerable and Ciwu Demon Monarch, though their divine bodies aren’t as exaggerated, are still quite large.”
“With these three present, this force of special beings can withstand any threat unless facing a Cosmic Sovereign.” Luo Feng nodded inwardly. Protecting this force was not as difficult as protecting the Earth lineage. After endless eons of growth, this lineage of special beings had already developed self-defense capabilities.
Luo Feng suddenly understood why the treasure chamber contained so many precious materials, heavy treasures, and common treasures. Since Luo Feng’s future opponents would be Cosmic Sovereigns, even common treasures could be shattered in battles at that level. Obviously, these common treasures were not left for Luo Feng by Situ Shangke, but for this group of special beings.
“Heitian,” Luo Feng called.
“Master,” Heitian Lord replied in a simple tone.
“You eighteen, report to me all the treasures you possess,” Luo Feng commanded, looking down.
“Yes. I have high-grade treasure armor and six high-grade treasure hammers!” Heitian Lord smiled simply. “Master, are you going to give me top-grade treasure armor this time? You mentioned last time… next time you’d try to get me top-grade treasure armor, saying that once I have it, even a Cosmic Sovereign would find it hard to kill me.”
Luo Feng was taken aback.
Top-grade treasure armor? In his teacher’s treasure chamber, there were only over a hundred common treasures.
“Teacher Situ Shangke is too cunning! Now that I’ve inherited the position of Blood-Cloud Sovereign, the responsibility of equipping treasures for my subordinates falls on my shoulders?” Luo Feng inwardly cursed, though he could do nothing about it.
“I’m working on it. Top-grade treasure armor isn’t easy to obtain,” Luo Feng replied.
“Yes, but Master will definitely manage it,” Heitian Lord said.
“Next,” Luo Feng ordered quickly.
…
One by one, Yin Qiu Venerable, Ciwu Demon Monarch, and others reported their treasures, revealing to Luo Feng that all eighteen Cosmic Venerables possessed treasures, clearly assigned according to their strength. The three top Cosmic overlords each had several high-grade treasures. This caused Luo Feng, who had originally planned to bestow treasures, to abandon the idea. In the end, he merely granted some heavy treasures to a few immortal special beings, and the meeting concluded.
“This is a force.”
“Although I bear the responsibility of leading and protecting them, they can also help me accomplish many tasks,” Luo Feng mused. “In the future, the Earth lineage will naturally be my responsibility to protect. The special beings led by Heitian Lord and the Earth lineage should complement each other.”
That very day, Luo Feng ordered these special beings to withdraw.
He then separately summoned Heitian Lord, Yin Qiu Venerable, and Ciwu Demon Monarch with a decree: “Heitian, Yin Qiu, Ciwu, I need to go out for a while. All matters concerning the children in the Guke Secret Realm are now entrusted to you. If you encounter anything you cannot resolve, notify me immediately.”
“Yes.”
“Yes, Master,” all three replied through their communication tokens.
…
That very day, the Jingu Beast avatar quietly returned to the human territory and back to his divine realm.
…
From that moment on, Luo Feng’s life was divided into two parallel paths: one was his Golden Horned Beast avatar delving into the mysteries of the ‘Star Tower’ through the secret pattern diagrams, while the other was his Earth-human form immersed in cultivation on Purple Thorn Island.
(Note: “荆” in “紫荆岛” is translated as “Thorn” to maintain consistency with the conventional translation of “Purple Thorn Island” in the novel context. The term “Golden Horned Beast” is used instead of “Jingu Beast” as it’s the established translation for this creature in the original work.)
First, his Earth-human form began cultivating the eighth tribulation of the ‘Nine Calamities Secret Manual’.
The advantage of a small divine body was that cultivation was extremely fast.
After over a year, Luo Feng completed the eighth tribulation, with his life gene level rising from approximately 9,800 times to around 10,050 times. This was merely Luo Feng’s rough estimation. He then proceeded to cultivate the ninth tribulation of the “Nine Tribulations Secret Manual”… During this cultivation process, the growth rate of his life gene level became extremely slow. Particularly when he reached the midpoint of the ninth tribulation—his life gene level suddenly plateaued! It stagnated, just a hair’s breadth away from “perfect genes.” No matter how much further he cultivated the “Nine Tribulations Secret Manual,” his life gene level ceased to increase at all.
“Just a little bit more.”
“My Nether Sea avatar and Golden Horned Beast avatar both directly attained the perfect gene level, yet my Earthling body is just a step away from perfection. Why, starting from the middle of the ninth tribulation, has the ‘Nine Tribulations Secret Manual’ become completely ineffective?” Luo Feng felt anxious.
It was useless.
No matter how much he cultivated, his life gene level remained stagnant.
“Just a little bit more. What should I do?”
…
On the third year at Purple Jing Island.
Luo Feng sat cross-legged on a stone bridge beside a pond in the courtyard of his estate. At this moment, the ‘Nine Calamities Secret Manual’ finally reached its final stage! Neither the Golden Horned Beast avatar nor the Dark Sea avatar had completed the entire manual before achieving perfect genes. Luo Feng’s Earth-human form was the first to fully master the entire ‘Nine Calamities Secret Manual’.
“Whoosh~”
Sitting there, his entire body emitted a sound like surging ocean waves. At the same time, golden threads began to appear on his skin surface, forming an enormous, mysterious, and extremely complex pattern across Luo Feng’s body! If his entire skin were peeled off and laid flat, the pattern formed—though different in composition from the text-based patterns of the ‘Nine Calamities Secret Manual’—would carry the same profound essence.
“Boom!”
Luo Feng felt a fundamental breakthrough in his life source, as if a certain bottleneck had been shattered. At this moment, his life gene level finally took another small step forward! Just this tiny step… represented a fundamental breakthrough and leap.
“I broke through.”
“I broke through,” Luo Feng’s eyes filled with joy.
“I need to return to my divine realm.” Luo Feng clearly sensed his divine body attempting to absorb energy and expand, but on Purple Thorn Island, there simply wasn’t enough energy available for absorption. Without hesitation, he activated divine realm teleportation and soon departed from Purple Thorn Island.
…
In the divine realm.
The boundless dark sea churned with waves towering hundreds of kilometers high. Above the surging waters, a black-haired young man stood naked in midair. Innumerable streams of seawater rose from below, coiling around him like silken ribbons as they were ceaselessly absorbed into his body. His form began to expand rapidly.
From less than two meters tall, he started growing taller and taller.
10 meters, 100 meters, 1000 meters…
His divine energy within his body also increased, rising by countless times beyond!
Reaching a height of over ninety thousand kilometers, he finally stopped.
“From today on!”
“My Earth-human form and the Jingu Beast avatar will be my two main combat forces!” Luo Feng smiled. Previously, although the Earth-human form had high divine body purity, its small size made it impossible to use the ‘I am the Universe’ technique. Now, however, his Earth-human form matched the Jingu Beast avatar in divine body size, naturally allowing him to unleash greater strength. Also, techniques like the Cosmic Sovereign’s ultimate secret art ‘Golden Light’ could be used without worrying too much about excessive divine body consumption.
“It’s time to visit the Chaos City.”
“The Zhan Yue blade is too fragile for me now.”
…
Luo Feng first went to the Chaos City in the Primeval Universe, bringing the ‘Zhan Yue blade’ along with a large number of common treasures obtained from hunting in the Primitive Star, plus more than twenty treasures from the Blood Cloud Palace’s treasure chamber. Adding these to his remaining treasure points, he exchanged them with his race for a top-grade treasure war blade—Bei Jiu Xue!
The war blade’s original name was ‘Bei Jiu Xue’, but Luo Feng renamed it ‘Blood Shadow Blade’.
“Heitian, Yin Qiu, Ciwu… the hundreds of treasures in the treasure chamber were left by the teacher for you special beings. However, those young ones still need a very long time to grow. I’ll temporarily take some, and definitely replenish them in the future.” Luo Feng also felt the pressure. Now the insect race, mechanical race, and beast race were all stirring.
The stronger his power, the better.
With the supreme treasure ‘Armor of Plunder’ capable of activating to the third layer (reducing enemy attacks to one ten-thousandth) and a divine body towering over ninety thousand kilometers, his survivability had reached an utterly terrifying level. Yet, when facing a Cosmic Sovereign, a high-grade treasure warblade was clearly insufficient.
…
After departing from his divine domain, he returned to Purple Thorn Island.
The Jingu Beast avatar, starting from the secret pattern diagrams, continued researching the ‘Star Tower’ secret patterns within the divine realm.
Luo Feng’s main body quietly cultivated on Purple Thorn Island, continuously deepening his comprehension of the ‘Beast God Path’. After all, the more he grasped the Beast God Path… the more it would enhance his mastery of secret pattern diagrams. In this tranquil manner, 61 years passed in the blink of an eye.
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