’My rank in the Imperial Arena is still stuck at the sixth dan. That’s proof enough that my Killing Technique has a major weakness. It can’t be helped... I can only cultivate a Level 6 Killing Technique after my Spiritual Power Index reaches one hundred.’
’Once my Spiritual Power Index hits one hundred, I’ll go back to the academy.’
In his mind, Qin Feng set a clear plan for himself.
"Loneliness is normal."
His fingers unconsciously caressed the armrest of the sofa, tracing the texture worn smooth from his father leaning against it for years.
"The path to greatness is always a lonely one."
He softly repeated his father’s words.
...
Time, once again, flowed forward with an air of indifference.
Qin Feng didn’t leave the Silver Seagull Community. He stayed in the empty house, living a life of ascetic training that was even more desolate and pure than his previous fifteen years.
During the day, he would go to the Extreme Martial Arts Hall and, like an ordinary student, hone his fist techniques and spear skills over and over again in the Gravity Room.
He refined those three Control Realm Killing Techniques, tempering them until they were etched into his very bones.
At night, he would return home and immerse his entire being in the visualizations of the "Crystal Meditation Method."
In his Spiritual World, the deity formed of pure crystal grew ever more solid, ever more brilliant.
「One year later.」
When Qin Feng next awoke from deep Meditation, his Spiritual Power Index had quietly broken through the ninety-point mark.
All that remained was the final, patient grind to reach one hundred.
Everything was advancing steadily in the direction he had planned.
However, on one ordinary afternoon, an abrupt, special notification alert from the Empire’s mission system shattered the tranquility.
BEEP—!
Qin Feng raised an eyebrow and opened his personal terminal.
In his mission log, dormant for a long time, an extremely high-priority assassination mission he had pinned to the top was now flashing with a blinding red light.
[Assassination Mission: ’Shi Dang’]
[Target’s latest coordinates have been updated...]
A series of complex Star Realm coordinates appeared clearly on the light screen. They pointed to a region on the Empire’s border, a gray area known for its chaos and bloodshed—the Taranis Maelstrom.
’Heh, so they’re here to give me a push.’
Over the years, Qin Feng had seen through the trick Zhou Xiong and Yu Han had played on him back then.
’If they were truly letting Shi Dang slaughter ordinary citizens of the Empire, and forbidding other Martial Artists from taking the mission, then how could his latest coordinates have been updated?’
’Someone must have been tailing Shi Dang.’
’And Shi Dang’s killings were all within a controllable scope. His victims were likely Imperial prisoners or the like.’
’I was immature and reckless back then.’
’It’s time to go now.’
Qin Feng slowly rose to his feet.
He turned, walked out, and locked the front door of his house in the Silver Seagull Community.
With a single thought.
The menacing and heavy suit of Level 6 Power Armor, [Destroyer I], stored in his Subspace Storage Unit, transformed into streams of light that swiftly enveloped his body.
The cold touch of the metal instantly awakened his long-dormant combat instincts.
He extended his right hand, and the Level 6 Alloy Long Spear, [Raging Tide]—the weapon that had accompanied him through countless bloody battles—quietly appeared in his palm.
The spear’s shaft trembled slightly, emitting a hum like a dragon’s roar, one that thirsted for blood.
In Qin Feng’s eyes, not a single trace of peace or tranquility remained. In its place was an absolute calm like that of Ten Thousand Years Profound Ice, and an endless killing intent, searing and boiling like magma from the planet’s core!
Space rippled like the surface of water.
The next second, his figure vanished completely.