In a daze, he lost all sense of heaven and earth, time and the cosmos flowing endlessly. Vaguely, he witnessed the vicissitudes of the mortal world and the array of stars across the heavens. His mind was utterly liberated, freed from the constraints of the flesh, bathed in starlight, standing in the void.
This was Feng Lin’s true sensation now—his mind unbound, drifting through the universe, carefree and unrestrained. Beneath the boundless starry sky, countless rays of light scattered down, twinkling without cease. Feng Lin’s body seemed to transform into a black hole, with stellar energy pouring into him like rivers converging into the sea.
The surrounding starlight suddenly dimmed, and the sky darkened, as if a patch of the infinite starry tapestry had been devoured by some terrifying cosmic beast, leaving the puzzle incomplete with an abrupt void. This anomaly was shrouded in the boundless night, making it hard to detect. As the instigator, Feng Lin himself didn’t notice it either.
He was immersed in a wondrous state of unity between heaven and man, as if merged with the universe itself. His mind expanded infinitely, each star feeling like a distant yet majestic life, his heartbeat syncing with the pulse of the stars. Starlight became an extension of his consciousness, spreading outward, enveloping all of heaven and earth.
Gene potential +8%, +8%, +8%... Stellar energy entered his body, nourishing every part like spring water, bringing coolness both inside and out. The Stellar Breathing Technique was a form of cultivation, and gene potential increased with any practice, regardless of the method—only the rate of increase varied, but it always grew.
Stellar energy was the light of stars, having crossed countless light-years of cosmic space, constantly split, diluted, and refined until it became extremely pure, no longer as scorching as the original stellar rays. Starlight nourished all things, serving as the source of all life energy. As stellar energy flowed through his meridians without a trace of impurity, it rapidly converted into gene potential, stored within his body.
Immersed in the state of unity, Feng Lin’s mind soared, expanding like it was being inflated. The three dim stars in his human gene map faintly flickered. With a sweep of his will, Feng Lin identified them as the three psychic-type genes.
This release of the mind had a clear stimulating effect on them, instinctively drawing gene potential to begin gradual awakening, though the results varied. Among them, the spiritual gene was the slowest, growing at only 1% per increment, barely reaching 5% after half a day. The telekinetic gene was next, increasing at 3% per increment, reaching 15%. The mental gene, which enhanced human mental strength—the most fundamental and important attribute of the mind—grew the fastest, at 8% per increment, quickly reaching 40%.
Feng Lin was delighted. With a single night of cultivation, awakening the other two genes was unlikely, but awakening the mental gene was still possible. He focused entirely on absorbing stellar energy, determined to awaken the mental gene before dawn. For Feng Lin, awakening a new gene was the hardest step.
Once awakened, with enough free gene points, he could instantly boost it to a high level. Gene potential kept rising, +8%, +8%, +8%... At the same time, the three psychic genes absorbed potential more slowly, their growth lagging, but eventually, the total reached 528%.
Meanwhile, the enhancement stat behind the mental gene gradually climbed, finally breaking through 100%. The mental gene silently shifted from 0 to 1, awakening at last.
"Gene: Mental Gene Grade: High-tier Basic Gene Enhancement Points: 1 Abilities: Mental amplification, hypnotic persuasion."
In an instant, Feng Lin felt a profound change. He stood tall, his eyes deep and dark like a vortex, unfathomably eerie, as if they could draw in a person’s soul. Pop! An invisible ripple spread from Feng Lin’s brow, enveloping the surroundings, formless and intangible.
Mental force burst from his body, instantly connecting with heaven and earth. Everything around him was sensed without omission. This feeling was wondrous, far surpassing human vision. Human vision was three-dimensional, at most capturing three perpendicular faces of an object.
But mental force was different—free from the constraints of sight, formless and intangible, like clouds or mist, filling the space. It sensed objects from every angle, leaving no blind spots, offering a god’s-eye view where all things were within perception. Yet this incredible sensation didn’t last long. Soon, Feng Lin felt mentally exhausted, unable to sustain it. He closed his eyes, withdrawing all mental force into his body.
Since the mental gene was only enhanced to one point, its capacity was limited. Feng Lin immediately began adding more points. Enhancing the mental gene would strengthen his mental power, boost his energy, and bring many benefits. With a thought, Feng Lin’s gene potential instantly dropped by 100%.
A nebula burst and poured into the mental gene, the enhancement points jumping from 1 to 2, and his life force increased by 0.8, reaching 10.9. Feng Lin didn’t stop, continuing to add points. He still had 528% gene potential, enough to add three more points to the mental gene, leaving 228% in reserve.
He pressed on. The mental gene flickered without pause, instantly rising to 3 points, far from its limit. This was because it was a high-tier basic gene.
Typically, a low-tier basic gene could only be enhanced twice, and reaching 3 points was already a prodigy among prodigies. The mental gene, in theory, could be enhanced to six points. Feng Lin didn’t hesitate, adding points eagerly until the enhancement reached 4 points, and his life force climbed to 13.7.
Once he became an interstellar cultivator, his life force grew exponentially. Achieving this state made him a different person entirely. And this was just from enhancing a basic gene. If he enhanced the Stone Monkey Gene—a mutated primal gene—how much more would his life force increase? Feng Lin had no experience to draw on, so he couldn’t make an accurate judgment.
He smiled faintly, inwardly marveling at his own astonishment. He would have to get used to his life force growing rapidly from now on. Feng Lin released his mental force again, sensing a difference. With the mental gene enhanced to 4 points, his perception of the world had changed drastically. First, the range had greatly expanded.
Previously, his mental force could only scan a radius of about ten meters; now it reached forty meters. Moreover, the precision of his mental detection had increased significantly, able to detect details as small as a centimeter. From the undulating mountains and tumbling rocks to the howling dust in the wind and drifting sand grains—nothing escaped his notice.
If before it was an ordinary perspective, now it was like a magnifying glass combined with a telescope, revealing the finest details and seeing far into the distance... Feng Lin was lost in this god’s-eye view, unable to tear himself away, until he suddenly noticed something amiss. After scanning with his mental force, he detected a shadowy area on the mountain’s dark side, untouched by starlight.
On the cliff face, a dark figure was clinging and rapidly slithering closer, like a snake, utterly silent and eerily strange.