Chapter Ninety-Five: Return to Devouring — Planetary Level

Previously: In July 2056, Qin Ming entered the Elite Training Camp of the Ultimate Martial Hall. At the end of the month, his instant-step and void-treading movement techniques were revealed to the world, stunning all under heaven and making him the richest man on earth.

In August, during a life-and-death adventure in Australia, he obtained a spiritual treasure of vegetation and essence on Mist Island, and his cultivation advanced. When he returned, he became an invincible God of War and was appointed Inspector of Jiangnan Base City.

In October, he went to Australia again, slew a king-class beast, and comprehended the ninth level of the inch punch. He fell into an ambush and was gravely injured by a pseudo-emperor-class nine-tailed fox, but the Thunder God appeared and killed it.

By the end of the year, on his return, he discovered that Luo Feng had killed Li Wei. Li Yao came to demand the name of the culprit, only to be driven away.

Jiang Fan became Qin Ming.

Inside a cosmic-grade intelligent combat craft, Qin Ming opened his eyes. Here, only one night had passed.

Yet in the other world, earth-shaking changes had taken place in that single night. Thinking of all he had seen and endured, his heart swelled with mixed feelings, until only a sigh remained.

Ah, life keeps pressing forward amid the unexpected and the helpless. The capable cut through thorns and blaze a broad road ahead, while the dejected only complain and sink ever deeper into ruin.

"Xiao Qiang, open the door!"

After a moment’s thought, Qin Ming gave the order. The hatch opened, and he jumped down, returning home.

"So your seclusion is over already?" Qin Yicheng looked at his son with some surprise. "At your level, further progress is probably very difficult, so don’t force yourself. What would you like to eat? I’ll have your mother make something."

"Whatever’s available is fine."

In the living room, they turned on the television, watched the news, and drank tea.

Qin Ming felt utterly at ease.

No matter what, in this world there was a future one could actually see. On the other side, one had to tread carefully at every step; it was exhausting. Just like a cousin, practically a childhood sweetheart, who had awakened memories from a hundred thousand years ago and turned mad and erratic. Who knew whether it was the suffering of being lost in the mortal world?

"Dad, how have you been feeling lately?" Qin Ming asked.

"Better than ever!" Qin Yicheng beamed with pride. "My physical condition has already fully entered the ranks of the God of War. I’m just waiting until I’ve comprehended the void-treading step, then I’ll go into the wilderness to fight and hunt down two commander-class beasts, so I can properly become a God of War in name and in truth. Ha-ha, by then our family will have two Gods of War, and that alone will be glorious enough to boast about. And your mother’s physical condition has already reached the level of an advanced warrior, and Lulu is not doing badly either. I just haven’t let her reveal her strength."

"Dad, when you go to the wilderness, tell me in advance. I’ll go with you so nothing unexpected happens."

"With you, an invincible God of War, around, of course we can’t let that go to waste!"

"Oh, right, Dad. The wine infused with the spiritual flower pearl from the last time—did you finish it?"

"Finished it! Later I looked it up. That spiritual treasure of vegetation and essence is a rare marvel, worth at least a hundred billion each. If this had been in the past, tsk tsk, your old man would have hidden it away as a family heirloom!"

"For your son, it’s nothing much." Qin Ming said as he walked toward the room. "I’ll bring you some better things in a bit!"

"Good!" Qin Yicheng’s eyes lit up.

A moment later, Qin Ming returned with a jade bucket about a foot high in his hands and handed it to his father. "Dad, this is a kind of spiritual liquid. Give one-third of a cup to Mom and my sister every day; it can improve their constitution. As for you, one cup a day. Over time, you may even reach the level of an advanced God of War!"

"Good, good, good. The ancients were right: when one man attains the Way, even his chickens and dogs rise to heaven!" Qin Yicheng accepted it without the slightest courtesy.

"Pah, you’re the chicken, you’re the dog!" Luo Xia came over carrying two dishes, but the smile on her face could not be concealed. "Xiaoming, don’t worry about us. Everything should go to you first!"

"Don’t worry, Mom!" Qin Ming said with a smile. "Also, after opening the jade bucket, seal it back up quickly, or the contents will dissipate and evaporate!"

"I’ll take care of it!" Luo Xia snatched the jade bucket without another word and hid it in the room. When she came out, she carried in several more dishes, filling the table to overflowing. She sat beside him and stared at her son. "Xiaoming, when the new year turns, you’ll be nineteen. Nineteen isn’t young anymore, and with you being both an invincible God of War and the richest man in the world, isn’t it a little wrong to be all alone?"

"Mom, what are you trying to say?"

"At the very least, you should find a girlfriend!"

"Th-that’s still too soon, too soon!" Qin Ming immediately felt his head ache.

"Too soon for what?" Luo Xia raised her voice a little. "I’ve heard that for you Gods of War, the older you get, the harder it is to have children. If you surpass the God of War level, wouldn’t it be even harder? Our old Qin family has only your line. If you don’t have time to look, just tell me what kind of girl you like, and I’ll search the whole world for one. As soon as word gets out, I’m sure girls all over the world will line up to come on blind dates!"

"I’m sure of that too!" Qin Yicheng said, holding back laughter. "The whole city of Yangzhou would be packed to bursting."

"Mom, I’m planning to go to Australia tomorrow for training!"

"You’re going again?" Luo Xia’s expression stiffened, and then she understood. "If you don’t want a blind date, fine. Whether you’re an invincible God of War or the richest man in the world or an inspector from the Ultimate Martial Hall, at home you’re still my son. New year’s nearly here, and until after the holiday, you are not going anywhere."

"The heavens may be vast, but you’re the biggest of all!"

Joking and laughing, the whole table of dishes went into Qin Ming’s stomach.

After drinking a cup of tea, he walked toward the neighboring villa and said, "Mom, Dad, don’t call me unless I come out. Just leave me a message!"

"Understood! You’re already an invincible God of War, so why work so hard at cultivation? Don’t overexert yourself!" Luo Xia said with concern.

The father and son exchanged a look and could only shrug helplessly.

Back in his own villa, Qin Ming closed the door and went down to the basement.

Without turning on the lights, he sat cross-legged directly on the cushion in the center.

With a flip of his hand, he took out a purple-gold ginseng.

A ten-thousand-year purple-gold ginseng, a thing that had truly grown for ten thousand years.

It was as thick as a child’s arm, entirely purple-gold in color, and covered in fine roots.

Without hesitation, he put it in his mouth and ate it bit by bit.

In only two or three breaths, it was completely swallowed.

He activated the Mystical Path Technique to speed up refinement.

The warm current that spread through his stomach erupted at several times its usual force.

Boom...!

In an instant it reached its peak. A surging torrent of heat rushed toward every limb and bone, every organ and internal cavity, every skin and sinew, down to the depths of every cell in his body.

It was rapidly refined and absorbed, transformed into gene source energy, and his foundation rose from the very core.

This transformation was fierce and violent.

A wave of berserk gene source energy suddenly turned and rushed entirely toward the lower dantian.

Qin Ming’s heart gave a hard leap.

From his understanding of the planetary level, he knew this meant the dantian was about to be opened.

"It looks like my body has now reached its current limit. With the Mystical Path Technique added in, I’ll naturally step into the planetary level!"

That thought flashed through his mind for an instant.

The torrent gathered. The dantian, like a heart, contracted and expanded. The response came fast and violently, hundreds of times in the blink of an eye.

Boom...!

When the gene source energy gathered to a certain degree, a sound that seemed to ring through the soul exploded from the void dantian. From nothing came existence, and the dantian was opened.

The gene source energy seemed to find a home, flowing into the dantian and gathering at its center. It began to spin, collapse, and condense, and in the blink of an eye, a miniature planet formed.

It was a tiny golden planet, blazing brilliantly as it spun.

And at that very moment, a stream of golden gene source energy, transformed and sublimated, flowed out from that planet and fed back into his body, spreading through every part of him in an instant.

The next moment, Qin Ming’s entire body began to undergo earth-shaking change!