Starforce Warriors

Armed with the cultivation resources he had received from Chongque City, Li Xiaofei began a long period of seclusion. This time, he remained in seclusion for two full years. And with the Secret Time Pavilion accelerating time, it amounted to a total of twenty years.

Over the course of those twenty years, he absorbed vast amounts of celestial jade and jade marrow, extracting their energy and pushing his Pulsar level cosmic lifeform energy to its peak. However, he remained just one step short of reaching the Black Hole level. He simply could not break through that bottleneck. Li Xiaofei then spent another year, effectively ten more years, yet still failed to enter the Black Hole level.

He came to realize that he had truly hit a bottleneck. No amount of diligent cultivation alone could break through it. He needed a stroke of fortune. After some reflection, Li Xiaofei left Rebun Island. He took on different identities of different ages as he began a journey across the world.

This time, he no longer intervened in worldly affairs. He always remained a bystander, an observer of the warmth and coldness of the human world, witnessing the myriad faces of life. He watched children be born, and the elderly pass away. He attended weddings and funerals, saw business negotiations and underhanded schemes, martial arts duels and street brawls. At times, he drank himself into a stupor, or drifted alone across the ocean...

The Earth, now unified under Great Xia, had established a supreme authority governed strictly by Great Xia bloodlines.

Li Xiaofei took on countless forms. He experienced life in the political arena and walked through the five senses of society. Sometimes, he became a low-level superhuman. Other times, he became an ordinary man with no powers, struggling to earn a paycheck, trying to survive amid this era of tremendous change.

One year. Two years. Five years. Li Xiaofei continued to shift identities, living through different lives. He completely stopped cultivating, as if he had truly started life anew.

Eventually, he became a low-ranking employee at a seafood export company, living the most ordinary life of an average person. He even began dating an equally ordinary girlfriend, visited her parents, spent weekends together, went camping and had barbecues as he dreamed about married life under the stars.

It was a tempering of the heart through the mundane world. Li Xiaofei felt that he had gained something. But that mysterious, elusive feeling remained just out of reach. It was intangible and hard to define. He wasn't in a hurry. He continued to savor life. Still, the world was changing dramatically.

As the population of superhumans in Great Xia soared, the energy tides between heaven and earth naturally began to shift. Eventually, excess Energy Spores spilled into the world, triggering a surge in spiritual energy.

The emergence of superhumans began to accelerate in foreign nations. Moreover, insects, beasts, fish, birds, and other wildlife began to mutate. All across the globe, incidents of mutated animals attacking humans became increasingly frequent. Some animals, having undergone multiple awakenings, gained intelligence and began to rule over their own species.

Thanks to their massive populations and overwhelming numbers compared to humans, the speed of mutation and accumulating strength among wildlife far outpaced that of human evolution under normal circumstances.

Many Alpha level, also known as Nether-level, beast kings emerged one after another. As with many evolving planets of Earth, the oceans became increasingly perilous for humankind. Mutated marine creatures rose to dominance at an alarming rate.

Under normal evolutionary circumstances, the mutated sea beasts would eventually become the absolute dominant force on Earth. Humanity would be fragmented across separate continents as intercontinental travel would become difficult and dangerous.

But the evolution of Earth No. 1818 was clearly far from ordinary. Great Xia's Dragon Group swept through both terrestrial and aquatic mutated beasts with overwhelming might. No beast king dared to resist the five Omega level absolute powerhouses, since those who did were utterly annihilated. In less than five years, the wild beasts submitted to Great Xia's Dragon Group and became officially registered 'civil servants.'

Thanks to the Dragon Group's dominance, the evolving beasts became humanity's allies. Giant turtles replaced ocean freighters, massive birds replaced airplanes, and various smaller mutated beasts became helpful companions in everyday life. Many superhumans formed pacts with intelligent beasts, leading to the emergence of a new profession, the beastmaster.

The founder of the seafood export company where Li Xiaofei worked happened to be a water-type superhuman. He was a decent person and offered generous compensation. Once he formed a pact with an Alpha level beast king, the company's strength soared, and business flourished. Because of Li Xiaofei's diligence and reliability, he was promoted to department manager, and his salary was raised.

His girlfriend's family was thrilled and hosted a celebratory dinner. Wedding plans were soon put on the agenda. At that point, it had already been seven years since Li Xiaofei entered seclusion.

Once the wedding date was confirmed, Li Xiaofei knew it was time for him to leave. Thus, he 'died' in a sea beast attack during an ocean cargo shipment and his body was never recovered. According to his will, all of his assets, savings, compensation, and insurance payouts were left to his fiancée.

In the years that followed, the company continued to thrive and expand. However, Li Xiaofei returned to Rebun Island, where he resumed his closed-door cultivation. After five years of tempering his heart in the mundane world, his inner realm had grown significantly.

His greatest gain was that he would never become a heartless immortal. He would not lose his reverence for life simply because his level had risen. He would not lose his empathy for ordinary people just because his strength had grown. He would always carry compassion and understanding for the world. He would revere life.

Time flowed on as another year passed in the blink of an eye. Li Xiaofei's life level had improved again, reaching an unprecedented height within the Pulsar level. Yet he still could not step into the Black Hole level.

The opportunity still hasn't come?Li Xiaofei sank into contemplation once more.

He realized that the previous tempering of his heart in the mortal world had indeed benefited his cultivation but it was not the decisive factor. Simply accumulating energy behind closed doors was no longer enough to break through the bottleneck.

So where exactly is the key to my breakthrough?

After deep thought, Li Xiaofei decided to end his seclusion once again. This time, however, he did not return to the mortal world for further tempering of the heart.

Instead, he chose to travel and observe the world's beauty, making his way to Silent Lake on Mount Hakutou in Jiepeng. After so many years, he wanted to see how far Ishihara Masami had progressed on her cultivation path.

***

Mount Hakutou.

Its scenery was breathtaking, as the snow-covered peaks resembled a silent, white-haired sage in deep contemplation. Jiepeng's development had taken a rather unique path in recent years.

The Dragon Group of Great Xia only exerted minimal control over Jiepeng, almost as if they had deliberately chosen to let the region evolve on its own. The domestic development of superhumans in Jiepeng had outpaced that of the West.

On this particular day, dozens of figures appeared at the foot of Mount Hakutou and walked up to the outer edge of Silent Lake. They stood by the water's edge and gazed into the distance where ancient buildings were nestled within the tranquil harmony of lake and mountain.

This place was Jiepeng's sacred martial arts ground, the headquarters of the Sword Sect.

"Milord, are we really going to assassinate the Number One Sword Saint?" A young Jiepeng superhuman, his face filled with hesitation, asked, "The Dragon Group of Great Xia has issued strict decrees forbidding superhumans from killing one another without cause. If we go through with this, won't we risk angering the people of Great Xia?"

In today's world, every superhuman lived under the shadow of Great Xia's authority. To oppose Great Xia was a path to certain death.

They were led by a figure entirely wrapped in white bandages. He slowly opened his mouth to speak, his tone filled with unshakable confidence.

"The Dragon Group doesn't concern itself with Jiepeng. Even actions that violate their decrees are left unchecked. I've tested their bottom line through various methods over the past three years, and there's no doubt. The Dragon Group won't interfere even if we kill the Sword Saint. You all have nothing to worry about."

"But even so... we aren't a match for the Sword Saint, are we?"

"That's right. Her strength is unfathomable. No one in the past five years has lasted even a single move against her."

"Even if Milord is the number one superhuman in Jiepeng, your chances of defeating the Sword Saint are still slim."

The others spoke up one after another, trying to dissuade their leader from taking this reckless step. They were all superhumans capable of stirring the winds and clouds within Jiepeng. Each one of their names, if spoken aloud, would be enough to send crowds into a frenzy of worship.

Yet their combined words of caution were not enough to sway the figure wrapped entirely in white bandages. On the contrary, their doubts only made his resolve stronger.

As the founder and supreme ruler of Izu Tennyo, the largest superhuman organization in Jiepeng, he was widely known as the number one superhuman in the country, and the second strongest individual overall. He held immense power and influence.

But throughout the years, not a single person in Jiepeng, not even his most fervent followers, believed that he could ever be a match for the Sword Saint, who lived in seclusion at Silent Lake.

And yet today, he had come. He had come to Silent Lake with his most loyal followers at his side. He was here to do something earth-shattering. He intended to assassinate Ishihara Masami, the goddess of swordsmanship in Jiepeng. It sounded like an impossible task. But he believed otherwise. Because he knew a secret.

The woman in seclusion, Jiepeng's most powerful figure in history, the strongest Sword Saint the Sword Sect had ever produced, known by many as the God of Swordsmanship, the Martial Goddess, the Eternal Flower of Mount Hakutou, had long since fallen into qi deviation due to her cultivation. She was now at the brink of collapse. Her energy was exhausted and her life force nearly extinguished.

Her immense strength had become nothing more than the emperor's new clothes. All it would take was a single poke for it all to vanish. And today, he had come to be that child, the one who spoke the truth.

He would shatter the myth, then seize her place. He would rule Jiepeng. Then, he would challenge Great Xia.

Behind him... stood a far greater backer.