The Ninth-level Division of the Starry Sky Cup continued for several more days after the stunning duel between Qin Feng and Jinmu before finally drawing to a close.
Qin Feng didn’t slack off in the slightest despite his elimination. He used the time to meticulously review the recordings of every duel between the top experts, which greatly broadened his horizons.
Afterward, he threw himself back into the Imperial Arena. Through countless live battles, he honed the [Qian Yuan] technique he had developed mid-fight, polishing it to a state of perfect fluency.
Although his cultivation level remained unchanged, this period of consolidation resulted in a visible improvement in his strength.
When the dust settled on the Ninth-level Division, the massive fleet scheduled to return home had yet to depart.
According to the schedule, the ships were to wait until all the competitions for the lower-level Martial Artists were over before returning as one. However, the official tournament for Sixth-level Martial Artists had just entered its brutal culling phase and was far from over.
Qin Feng had no intention of wasting his time there.
Using his personal terminal, he submitted a request for an early return to the university directly to Yue Hong, the instructor in charge of the Canaan contingent.
Considering he had already secured a spot in the Cosmic Genius Battle and thus successfully completed his mission, Yue Hong readily approved his request.
Furthermore, Yue Hong also distributed the reward for placing in the top one thousand to Qin Feng.
The reward was simple: 1,000,000 Contribution Points.
With permission granted, Qin Feng didn’t linger for a moment, heading straight for the venue’s Subspace Transmission Center.
Accompanied by a faint sensation of spatial distortion, his figure vanished from the bustling venue. The next moment, he was back at Canaan Starry Sky Martial Arts University, from which he had been absent for many days.
The familiar air, the familiar scenery.
Qin Feng took a deep breath, allowing the excitement and insights from the fierce battles of the Starry Sky Cup to settle deep within him. After composing himself, he returned to his dormitory.
He sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, and the entire room fell into absolute silence.
Next, he was going to do something monumental: ascend to the Planetary Level.
His consciousness sank into his body, where he could clearly ’see’ the Top-grade Primordial Acupoint.
It was like a dormant star suspended in the center of his Dantian Cosmos, containing enough terrifying energy to blast an entire planet into cosmic dust.
And to ascend, he had to ignite this star.
In the Empire’s Martial Dao textbooks, this process was known as—Core Casting!
A Martial Artist had to take their entire, thoroughly tempered Will and, in a single instant, with unprecedented resolve, force it into the Primordial Acupoint. There, it would collide directly and head-on with the internal Sea of Spiritual Energy, a force as violent as an exploding supernova!
It was a do-or-die process.
If one’s Will was crushed by the violent Spiritual Energy during this collision, the best-case scenario was psychic damage that would take years to heal.
The worst-case scenario was the Primordial Acupoint losing Control and self-destructing on the spot, leaving not even a trace of the body behind.
Countless prodigies had fallen at this final step.
But upon success, one’s Will would become like a sovereign, gaining complete Control over the entire Primordial Acupoint. It would reforge it, transforming it from a simple Energy Core that merely absorbs and expels energy into an eternally operating Psychic Core—one that contained the cultivator’s own Martial Dao Intent and Life Brand!
Once the Psychic Core was cast, it signified a fundamental leap in the Martial Artist’s very essence. They would have shattered the cosmic shackles of mortal life, officially stepping into the magnificent hall of the "Planetary Level."
From then on, their physical bodies could traverse the void, their lifespans would be measured in millennia, and their every move would hold the power to shatter stars.
Qin Feng reviewed the principles of ascension in his mind one last time, feeling not a shred of hesitation.
His Will brazenly plunged into the tranquil Sea of Spiritual Energy!
There was no earth-shattering collision as he had imagined.
There was none of the soul-rending agony described in the textbooks.
When Qin Feng’s Will, as unyielding as Divine Iron, came into contact with the vast Sea of Spiritual Energy within the Top-grade Primordial Acupoint, everything simply fell into place.
With a body possessing the potential of a Starry Sky Giant Beast and a Top-grade Primordial Acupoint, ascending to the Planetary Level was a foregone conclusion—effortless and simple.
For Qin Feng, the near-fatal dangers that other Martial Artists faced—the ones that offered only a sliver of a chance at survival—simply didn’t exist.
The entire process was as simple and natural as breathing.
「Just one day later.」
Inside the dormitory, Qin Feng slowly opened his eyes.
Deep within his eyes, two newborn stars seemed to slowly rotate, profound and resplendent.
Within his body, the Primordial Acupoint had undergone a complete metamorphosis.
It had transformed into a rapidly spinning Psychic Core that emitted a faint golden glow. It ceaselessly gushed forth a purer and more majestic Spiritual Energy, which washed over and strengthened his entire body, down to every last cell, like an unending tide.
It was no exaggeration to say that the energy level and destructive power contained within this small Psychic Core were on par with that of an actual planet’s core.
But at this moment, this terrifying power—a force capable of destroying civilizations—was as docile as a part of him, completely under his Control. It moved at his whim, an extension of his own body.
He slowly raised his hand and clenched his fist.
The air crackled, as if unable to bear the strain.
He could clearly feel that his every move now contained the terrifying, magnificent power to shatter stars.
His very life had leaped to a new level, his lifespan now stretching for millennia.
Until the energy in his Psychic Core was fully exhausted, his life force would be tenacious to an appalling degree.