"I'm not entirely sure either, but from a quick search, I found that the Willow Heart is a treasure capable of enhancing one's strength," Wei Wen explained succinctly.
"As for the white crystal, just holding it allows one to absorb more genetic energy. It must be an even more advanced strength-enhancing treasure."
"With these treasures, you'll grow faster."
"These treasures are worth many times more than Dragon Blood. I can't accept such a reward for my contributions." Despite his intense desire for them, Luo Feng fell silent for a moment before declining.
"You could use them yourself to improve your own strength. My current abilities aren't much help to you anyway, right?"
As the saying goes, there's no such thing as a free lunch, and Luo Feng understood this principle well.
He and Wei Wen shared a deep bond, having been best friends since childhood.
But in Luo Feng's view, their relationship wasn't sufficient grounds to accept a treasure that could drive the entire world into a frenzy.
"What's between us? There's no need to refuse. I have plenty of such treasures myself. It's just that my current absorption rate is limited, so I am giving you some," Wei Wen stated calmly.
"Besides, the increase in your strength might actually be of real help to me someday. So don't worry about it; just use them with peace of mind."
"But you must keep these treasures a secret."
"Thank you." Luo Feng wasn't one for false pretenses and chose to accept the treasures. After all, he deeply yearned for greater power to achieve his goals.
Goals like enabling his brother to walk again, or turning a secret affection into an open relationship.
It was worth noting that during his time at the elite training camp, as Luo Feng's strength grew, his crush on Xu Xin had become almost public knowledge.
He often chatted with her in secret, learning more about her circumstances.
Knowing that the marriage of the eldest daughter of a major family like hers involved many complexities, he understood that the stronger he became, the greater his chances would be.
"How do I use this Willow Heart and the white crystal?" Luo Feng asked, looking at the Willow Heart with curiosity.
"The crystalline shell on the Willow Heart's surface is extremely tough. The liquid inside is the true essence," Wei Wen explained simply.
"The method is to pierce the surface shell and orally consume the inner liquid essence. Be careful not to swallow the crystalline shell as well."
"The process isn't painful like absorbing Dragon Blood; instead, it's quite comfortable. The duration of the transformation varies depending on the magnitude of the leap."
"With these essences, it will be easy for both your warrior and spiritual master abilities to reach the peak of the God of War level."
"As for the white crystal, you can simply hold it during future training to continuously absorb energy. The rate of improvement might not be as rapid as with the essence."
"But I sense its effects are more profound, and it will be of great use to powerful individuals like me who have surpassed the God of War level."
"You've surpassed the God of War level?!" Luo Feng was stunned by Wei Wen's final words.
Luo Feng drew a sharp breath, an expression of disbelief breaking through his usual composure as he stared bewildered at Wei Wen's figure.
A powerful God of War was already a colossal figure within a Base City. For instance, in the novel, when the God of War Lu Gang died, China held a specific memorial service for him, illustrating the stature of a God of War.
As for those who surpassed the God of War level, there seemed to be only a few dozen on the entire Earth.
Luo Feng, who had just recently become a warrior, hadn't dared to imagine reaching beyond the God of War level.
He never expected that in just a few months, Wei Wen had already surpassed it. This was utterly astounding.
Moreover, Wei Wen was very young, possessed immense talent and comprehension, and his future potential was limitless. Luo Feng couldn't help but admire Wei Wen's achievements.
"My ability to surpass the God of War level is mainly due to my greater latent spiritual power," Wei Wen offered a simple explanation. "You'll reach this point sooner or later too."
Luo Feng didn't press further. After all, everyone had their own secrets.
For example, before his identity as a spiritual master was revealed, he hadn't even told his own parents.
Thus, Luo Feng had no intention of probing Wei Wen's secret.
Besides, Wei Wen had already given him so many treasures, and he still didn't know how he could possibly repay such kindness in the future.
Following Wei Wen's instructions, Luo Feng began to slowly absorb the Willow Heart.
In about an hour, both Luo Feng's warrior physique and his mental strength as a spiritual master reached the peak of the God of War level.
Due to the feedback from Luo Feng's progress, Wei Wen's strength as a spiritual master increased significantly. The potency of a single strand of his mental power approached the second level of the Planetary stage.
As for his warrior strength, while the feedback was substantial, it wasn't enough to break through to the Planetary level.
After all, the baseline for a Planetary-level warrior was essentially 100 million kilograms of physical strength and force power.
However, he felt his warrior breakthrough had reached a bottleneck. He would likely have to wait until Luo Feng finished absorbing the Mu Ya Crystal before he could break through to Planetary level.
"This Willow Heart elevated me to the limit of the God of War level, increasing my strength more than tenfold. I never expected the effect to be this potent," Luo Feng said, shocked.
In his perception, both his warrior physique and mental strength had reached the apprentice-level limit, with no room for further increase.
Only by surpassing the God of War level could he grow again.
"Alright, it's about time. You can start absorbing the white crystal now," Wei Wen reminded him.
Luo Feng immediately sat cross-legged in meditation, a Mu Ya Crystal appearing in his hand.
The aura emanating from the Mu Ya Crystal made Luo Feng's mouth water. Guided by his primal genes, streams of pure energy from the crystal swiftly poured into his body.
The energy of the 'Mu Ya Crystal' differed from the free genetic energy in the universe. It was exceptionally pure and refined, of extremely high quality!
Typically, absorption took about a month to advance to the Planetary level.
With Luo Feng's superior guidance skills, the process was even faster.
…
Time flew by, and several days passed in the blink of an eye.
Atkin's death went largely unnoticed. After all, the affairs of Planetary-level powerhouses often moved quickly.
"Whoosh!"
Wei Wen, who had been lying down awaiting feedback from Luo Feng, suddenly felt his entire body begin to heat up.
At that moment, every cell in his body seemed to boil, and the genetic energy latent within each cell began to gather like droplets of water.
The droplets of genetic energy merged into streams, the streams into rivers… ultimately transforming into Force!
Wave after wave of Force continuously rotated and gathered, finally converging in the dantian region of Wei Wen's abdomen.
Boom!
There were fundamental differences between the power of spiritual masters and warriors. The origin of a spiritual master lay in the Sea of Consciousness, while that of a warrior lay in the abdominal Dantian.
The Dantian, which seemed not to exist, was born in an instant, akin to Pangu separating heaven and earth!
The swirling genetic energy accelerated its rotation, constantly expanding and contracting within the Dantian.
With each expansion and contraction, the volume of the Force vortex shrank!
Suddenly, Wei Wen felt a tremor through both his consciousness and body. His physical body had broken through to the first level of the Planetary stage!
And within the vast Dantian, a miniature planet of Force materialized. His Force had also reached the first level of the Planetary stage!
"Crackle, crackle—"
In an instant, every part of Wei Wen's body—his bones, marrow, skin, meridians, internal organs—began undergoing a rapid, drastic transformation.
This transformation was even more exaggerated than the last time his mental power had reached the planetary level!
After all, genetic energy involves cellular genetic material. Only a transformation at the genetic level could bring about such a profound change in the body.
The physical metamorphosis triggered by breaking through the planetary level with genetic energy was far more intense than achieving it through mental power alone.
He felt as if every cell in his body was being shattered and then reconstituted!
Having ushered in this new physique, his strength continued to soar, directly reaching the peak of the ninth stage of the planetary level.
Furthermore, every planetary-level warrior possessed a special ability, which was said to have some connection to their future talent in comprehending the original laws.
"I wonder what my special ability will be," Wei Wen couldn't help but muse.
Upon reaching the planetary level, a warrior gained an additional means of combat: their unique special ability.
Among different planetary-level warriors, some possessed abilities like Ice—such as Hong's personal guard, Bing Shan.
Others had abilities like Light—similar to Hong's domain, which was the Domain of Light.
Of course, according to the novel, these were merely the perceptions of people on Earth.
In the vast universe, the myriad special abilities could ultimately be summarized into eight categories: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Thunder, and Light.
For instance, Luo Feng's Vajra Body was a rare Metallic type ability, which seemed to enhance the strength of bones and cells.
This was an exceedingly rare ability. With robust bones, muscles, and cells, one could unleash greater explosive power—simply put, their attacks would be stronger.
Especially in terms of defense, genetic energy could integrate into the surface of muscles and skin, resulting in astonishing defensive capabilities at the same level!
The specifics weren't detailed further, and this ability was somewhat weakened in the later stages.
As for Wei Wen, due to his unique physique and soul, the cosmic energy his body absorbed was different. Consequently, the genetic energy formed through conversion was also distinct!
Genetic energy is primarily divided into eight attributes: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Thunder, Wind, and Light.
Wei Wen's special ability should be bestowed by the original energy of his genes, so his ability was likely the original attribute of Metal!
Among these eight categories, none was inherently superior; thus, the Metal attribute was not bad at all.
However, within any category, there existed both extremely powerful and relatively weak special abilities!
"I'll find out later. It's not critically important to me anyway," Wei Wen shook his head slightly.
"Hmm?" Suddenly, Wei Wen froze, sensing a change within his sea of consciousness.
[Ding. Congratulations, Host, on reaching a certain level of strength. System upgrading... 1%... 2%... 3%... 100%.]
[System upgrade successful. New function unlocked: Myriad Heavens and Worlds. Additional binding opportunity granted.]
"A new function?" Wei Wen was momentarily stunned and couldn't help but examine the system panel.
Truth be told, his system had an almost negligible presence, aside from frequently prompting information related to his improvements.
He had thought he could only bind to Luo Feng, but unexpectedly, there was now an additional binding slot.
Of course, this slot couldn't be used within the Swallowed Star world but was intended for other worlds.
"Myriad Heavens and Worlds?" Wei Wen pondered thoughtfully.
Logically, after his transmigration into Swallowed Star, he was no longer in his original world. So, it seemed reasonable that the system could also allow him to travel to other worlds.
Wei Wen focused his senses and soon discovered the change in his sea of consciousness: there now seemed to be a unique gate of light.
The other side of this light gate connected to other worlds.
Wei Wen fell silent for a moment. With a thought, his consciousness sank toward the light gate, and the memories of reading novels became clearer in his mind.
Details he had previously overlooked while reading novels now seemed to sharpen into focus.
In a sense, this was another advantage he possessed besides the feedback mechanism, making his recollection of the plot more precise.
Naturally, along with clearer memories of the Swallowed Star story, his memories of the Desolate Era also became more distinct.
Thus, he guessed that the next world he would travel to would be the Desolate Era.
He had initially hoped a world with a relatively lower power level might appear, allowing him to train and gain experience first. The thought of showing off in such a setting seemed quite entertaining.
But now, it appeared that wish was instantly dashed.
The Desolate Era was no minor world. Its level of danger was comparable to the infinite Chaotic Source Space of Swallowed Star.
Of course, considering the Three Realms alone, its scale was at most comparable to the original universe in Swallowed Star.
However, even the Chaosverse of the Three Realms was an immensely powerful world, teeming with experts far beyond the planetary level.
After a long internal struggle, Wei Wen finally decided to test it out first, hoping nothing would go wrong.
With a thought, Wei Wen's consciousness passed through the light gate and instantly arrived in the Desolate Era.
However, this journey wasn't a complete, real-time transmigration but more akin to a projection.
Secondly, his planetary-level strength had also been assimilated within the Desolate Era world. He estimated his current power to be around the level of a first-class innate Qi practitioner or a first-class innate Godbeast.
Wei Wen wasn't entirely certain about the specific combat prowess.
With the addition of the Myriad Heavens and Worlds function, he had imagined a weaker world appearing, letting him hone his skills first.
Perhaps he'd even be the ceiling of power in a minor world, making it almost too easy to dominate.
But now, it seemed that wish had failed.
The Desolate Era was no small fry; its danger level rivaled the infinite Chaotic Source Space of Swallowed Star.
He planned to first give the Desolate Era world a try. If it proved too dangerous, he could simply return.
"How about giving it a try?" With that thought, Wei Wen focused his consciousness on the light gate.
Suddenly, Wei Wen's consciousness blurred momentarily. When he regained awareness, his projected clone found itself already in the Desolate Era!
And the moment the projection arrived, he also realized his main body was still in the Swallowed Star world.
Understanding this, Wei Wen breathed a sigh of relief.
What if his real body had completely transmigrated? Forget about whether ordinary beings could detect anything—if the mighty Axe came investigating, wouldn't he be completely exposed?
However, while this method ensured his secret remained hidden, his current state was quite peculiar. Simply put, his main body didn't possess high-level consciousness.
Of course, his body in the Swallowed Star world could still perform basic actions like eating and sleeping according to its previous habits.
But for more complex and demanding tasks, his consciousness needed to return.
He didn't know if this function was limited to this capability, or if his current consciousness was still too weak to manage more.
For example, entering the Virtual Universe or virtual spaces indeed involved the consciousness leaving the body.
But when strength reached a certain level, one only needed to branch off a sliver of consciousness to enter the Virtual Universe.
Perhaps it was because Wei Wen's current strength was too weak, preventing him from splitting his consciousness to operate both his main body and clone simultaneously.
Naturally, even with his consciousness fully immersed in the Desolate Era world, he could still monitor the situation of his Swallowed Star body at any time.
Should anything happen, he could return to his main form immediately.
…
Enjoying the story? Get early access to 70+ advanced chapters.
👉 Join me on Patreon: patreon.com/DarkLord621