Planet Pulverizer: A Mortal's Ascent

Chapter 168: True Heart

"Spirit Force can also be used in such minute areas?" Li Pin murmured to himself.

"The greatest distinction between a Martial Saint and a grandmaster lies in condensing Martial Will. They can consistently utilize their Spirit Force, causing the world to shake with a single thought. However, as one delves deeper into Spirit Force, it can be infused into every action."

Phantom fell into thought for a moment before continuing, "You can even think of Spirit Force as a Force attached to the spiritual level. We refine qi and blood into Force, which theoretically needs to be released through our limbs.

"When our Forces ascended into Transformative Force, Force will be released with every single move. It is not different when Spirit Force is cultivated to a higher level.."

Li Pin looked at the Martial Saint from the organizing committee. "Higher level?"

Phantom quickly realized something and looked a little embarrassed. "The key difference between a Martial Saint and a grandmaster is the ability to stimulate the Martial Will and achieve unity of thought and action. When words and will are aligned, maximum strength is achieved. However, if a Martial Saint acts against their true heart, their strength will be affected."

Li Pin had heard of this theory before.

At the Martial Saint level, a martial artist indeed had to act according to certain principles while avoiding others. Many things that seem incomprehensible to ordinary people are common for Martial Saints and even Astral Cultivators.

He couldn't help but glance at the Great Sun Chosen One again.

The reason this Martial Saint could recklessly challenge an Orc Fighter with a qi and blood level of over 100 points... was clearly because he had been influenced by Martial Will.

"I personally prefer to act silently, becoming one with the shadows, walking in darkness. I also practice concealment and stealth methods, and am not skilled in direct combat.... Unless it's a place where there are almost no hiding spots, no Martial Saint had been able to detect my stealth technique until now. How... did you discover me?"

"It was qi," Li Pin answered. "I sensed your qi."

"Impossible!" Phantom asserted. "I've been refining my Shadow Walker Technique for thirty-six years, and I can already merge my own qi with the external environment. If necessary, I can even lower my body temperature to match the surroundings. How could there be any qi leakage?"

"It may be hard to believe, but it is the truth. Maybe I am extraordinarily gifted and am able to sense things that ordinary people can’t."

"Extraordinarily gifted...."

Phantom, though somewhat dissatisfied with the answer, knew he couldn't force Li Pin to explain.

"Let's leave it at that," Li Pin said. "I'll take the points for these two ferocious beasts."

"Of course." Phantom nodded. "I personally witnessed you killing these two ferocious beasts! All of the two hundred and ten points rightfully belong to you."

Li Pin glanced at the Great Sun Chosen One.

By now, the Great Sun Chosen One had already caught his breath. Noticing Li Pin's gaze, Great Sun Chosen One, this young Martial Saint who thought highly of his talent, felt a stinging pain on his face.

However, recalling the strength Li Pin displayed when killing the two ferocious beasts....

"A bet is a bet. These two ferocious beasts are your wins."

Li Pin stepped forward and began collecting his spoils. "Alright."

He had to take the two Crimson-Tooth Tiger Fangs. The value of these main materials for refining astral equipment might not be much worse off compared to a genuine astral crystal.

"By the way, can you help me carry this ferocious beast's corpse back? After all, it's the meat of a mid-tier ferocious beast and is quite nutritious. It would be a waste to leave it here," Li Pin requested of Phantom.

Phantom was speechless.

Don’t you realize how injured I am? A Crimson-Tooth Tiger weighs nearly a ton, and you’re really asking an injured person to carry it back for you?

"Sure," Phantom resigned, "Leave it to me."

"Thanks."

At this point, the Great Sun Chosen One had adjusted his mindset. He said in a deep voice, "Li Pin... I admit that you are a strong opponent. Your swordsmanship, especially... amazes me. But... if you think this means you've defeated me, you're gravely mistaken."

He wiped the blood off his body and stood up straight again. "With your strength and speed in earning points, getting into the top ten should be no problem. I'll wait for you in the round-robin stage of the World's Top Martial Competition.

"By then, I'll make you understand that fighting martial artists and fighting ferocious beasts are not the same. And I'll show you who the real world champion is."

After saying this, he didn’t give Li Pin a chance to respond and quickly turned to leave.

Phantom watched the Great Sun Chosen One, who seemed to have run off, then glanced at the two ferocious beasts that represented two hundred and ten points. With a quick calculation...

When he sneaked into the arena to observe Li Pin, the first place, Yan Hongtu, had 1,565 points. The Great Sun Chosen One was in third with 1,411 points and Li Pin was in fifth with 1,398 points, just 13 points behind the Great Sun Chosen One and only 3 points behind Cheng Yufeng, who was in fourth place.

It was precisely because Li Pin was closing the gap so quickly that some people in the organizing committee couldn’t sit still and sent Phantom to secretly observe if Li Pin was breaking any rules while hunting the ferocious beasts.

Now, with Li Pin suddenly gaining 210 points...

His points shot up to 1,608!

If no one else earned a large number of points whilst he was observing Li Pin, then Li Pin had already surpassed the Dragon Gate Hall's carefully nurtured genius disciple and was contending for first place!

He could imagine the uproar from the organizing committee and the representatives of the influences behind the major contestants when they saw these numbers.

However, he had recorded Li Pin’s performance. It would be enough to silence everyone. No matter how incredulous they felt, the hard facts would leave them no room to doubt.

Everyone... has misjudged him. Phantom thought to himself.

He couldn’t wait to help Li Pin present the truth to everyone.

"There's no Astral Crystal again," Li Pin sighed.

Phantom explained, "This Orc Fighter and the Crimson-Tooth Tiger have only recently mutated, so the chances of them condensing an Astral Crystal are low. Generally, the longer a ferocious beast mutates, the more likely it is for them to form an Astral Crystal inside.

"Ferocious beasts are different from humans. They don't have a complete cultivation system, but their desire for evolution drives them to constantly bathe in starlight. The massive starlight accumulation in their bodies makes them stronger. Once they reach a certain level of strength, they face only two outcomes--death or continue to mutate."

After hearing this, Li Pin quickly realized something. "When humans can no longer withstand the strengthening due to the starlight, they stop meditating on the Astral God. Ferocious beasts, however...."

"That's right." Phantom nodded. "This leads to two possibilities. One possibility is that the beasts might go extinct on their own without our intervention. However, this is quite unlikely because... compared to the mere ten billion humans, the number of other species on Gaia is... too vast."

"The second possibility... is that the ferocious beasts adapt to this mutation... evolve into even stronger species, and integrate into more astonishing evolutionary systems!" continued Li Pin.

"After thirty years of turmoil, we thought we had weathered the crisis brought by this evolutionary upheaval. Next, we would only need to consolidate and stabilize our position. With human wisdom and our more complete cultivation system compared to the ferocious beasts, we would just need to grow steadily.

"It wouldn't be long before humanity reclaimed our dominance over Gaia! But... ferocious beasts... especially the demonic creatures who have evolved to possess intellect, they... or rather, their evolution speed far exceeds our imagination."

"The Degenerate Temple?”

This perilous region was the first thing to come to Li Pin’s mind. The Degenerate Temple was originally a sacred site of a barbarian tribe with a blood sacrifice tradition. When the Astral God descended, such primitive tribes were supposed to perish with the world’s upheaval. However, the result was...

In their desperation for survival, they used their tribe members' and wild beasts' blood and lives to sacrifice to their god.

It was a stone statue!

The result was... the statue of the god came to life.

The god statue came to life and massacred the entire tribe. It used blood sacrifices to awaken other god statues. They then left the tribe, forging new statues and building a temple while hunting ferocious beasts, demonic creatures, and humans to awaken even more god statues to strengthen themselves.

To this day, no one knew how many living statues there were in the temple they built themselves.

When there were no enemies, they were scattered in the primitive jungle like real statues. However, when someone or something with life passes by, they would suddenly awaken, violently killing all intruding creatures and using them as sacrifices to continue their rituals.

The materials of these statues made them a lot stronger than human bodies. Each degenerate statue, once brought to life, can contain a large amount of starlight, thus rapidly becoming incredibly powerful.

Setting aside Ordinary Astral Cultivators, even those fully equipped high-class Astral Cultivators, wielding their own divine weapons, wearing natal astral equipment, and equipped with a full set of high-grade astral equipment, would not be certain of victory.

To this day, the Degenerate Temple had spread rapidly. It had expanded to cover a range of over five hundred kilometers from the original temple.

"It's not just the Degenerate Temple... even the Shadow Forest's underground palace..."

Phantom seemingly realized something and quickly stopped speaking.

Li Pin immediately realized the true reason the Tianyuan Federation had decided to build cities and towns in the Shadow Forest.

Things were probably not as simple as they seemed to be.

The danger level of the Shadow Forest couldn’t compare to the Degenerate Temple. However, being deep in the mountains, its underground palace hadn’t been explored by humans for over a decade.

The underground palace below the Shadow Forest was too convoluted. It was like a maze and was too massive. Moreover, with dangers lurking everywhere, without finding the correct path, no one would be able to survive inside for long.

Otherwise, once supplies ran out and the Astral Cultivator became lost, even the strongest Astral Cultivators would have no other option but to die.

Moreover, since people have never explored the core of this underground palace, no one knew whether similar mutations to the Degenerate Temple had occurred in the center of this perilous region over the past decade.

"Li Pin, show your excellence and strength to the fullest. Trust me..." Phantom said solemnly. "Though this is just an attempt from the management, if you can stand out in this World's Top Martial Competition, the benefits you will ultimately gain will far exceed your imagination."

Li Pin nodded slightly. "I will."

Phantom also nodded.

After collecting his spoils, Li Pin turned and headed deeper into the forest.