After a night of cultivation and an unexpected skirmish with members of the Mars Revolutionary Army, the sky had unknowingly brightened into full daylight.
Feng Lin pushed his speed to the limit, turning into a blur of afterimages as he raced back toward his destination.
His sleeves whipped through the wind, his form swift as a blade cutting through the air with a low hum.
As the sun rose, Mars' temperature soared rapidly, soon exceeding 50 degrees Celsius—sweltering and unbearable. Gale-force winds howled, kicking up swirling clouds of sand and dust.
Descending from the high mountains, Feng Lin didn't pause for a moment. It took him only twenty minutes to finally return to the windmill forest on the surface of Shitai City, where he boarded an elevator heading down to the underground city.
Seizing this brief downtime, Feng Lin pulled out his identity chip and began tapping on it rapidly with his fingers.
The chip could automatically record a person's information and daily experiences, ensuring no important memories were forgotten and allowing for easy review at any time.
But his encounter with the Mars Revolutionary Army was not something suitable for recording.
The identity chip wasn't absolutely secure either. If it fell into someone else's hands, a skilled interstellar hacker could potentially breach the chip's network firewall and pry into its contents.
Giant Pharmaceutical had too many secrets lurking within its walls, forcing Feng Lin to remain highly vigilant, just in case.
If the Mars Revolutionary Army hadn't lied, his situation was far from optimistic.
Given Giant Pharmaceutical's influence, hiring an interstellar hacker wouldn't be difficult.
If Giant Pharmaceutical got wind of this information, it could spell trouble down the line.
So, to be safe, Feng Lin deleted those records to avoid leaving any evidence that could be used against him, needlessly putting himself in danger.
But when he saw the contact information sent by Luke, the Mars Revolutionary Army member, it had already been encrypted.
Feng Lin thought it over and decided to keep it saved.
If things ever reached a critical point, having another option meant having another path to survival.
Stepping out of the elevator, he looked at the bustling underground city, as lively as ever, and boarded a train heading toward Giant Pharmaceutical.
His expression was calm. He resolved to bury everything that had happened tonight deep in his heart, revealing not a single detail.
He neither fully believed nor completely dismissed what the Mars Revolutionary Army had revealed, maintaining a skeptical attitude.
Next, he would verify things step by step.
If Giant Pharmaceutical truly harbored malicious intentions, as long as it didn't affect him, he'd let it slide.
Feng Lin knew his limits. Becoming an interstellar cultivator was merely the first step on the path of true cultivation—far from being able to control his own destiny.
Laying low was the way to go!
But if others provoked him, Feng Lin wouldn't back down.
Even if his strength fell short, he wouldn't sit idly by and wait for death.
The path of cultivation was fraught with difficulty at every turn. Without a fearless heart that pressed forward relentlessly, one couldn't go far.
...
The train was packed with people. Feng Lin, wearing his Giant Pharmaceutical uniform, stood out conspicuously. The Martians around him cast all kinds of strange glances his way—envy, curiosity, longing, jealousy, disgust, hatred... The emotions in their eyes were incredibly complex.
"Look, that guy's a Giant Pharmaceutical employee. He must be loaded! So enviable!"
"Giant Pharmaceutical people are all bloodsuckers. What's there to envy?"
"That company is a cancer on Shitai City, even on Mars!"
...
Murmurs of discussion were filled with hostility.
Feng Lin's heart sank. As the largest corporation in Shitai City, Giant Pharmaceutical was clearly unpopular. There had to be a reason for that, something worth pondering.
Ignoring the gossip, he pretended nothing was wrong along the way, as if he saw and heard nothing, and went straight back to Giant Pharmaceutical.
Today was his day off, giving him plenty of time to continue cultivating and solidify his foundation.
Giant Pharmaceutical occupied a massive area, with dozens of departments, each handling its own duties.
As a newcomer, Feng Lin wisely chose not to wander around, to avoid leaving a bad impression of snooping. In truth, he had neither the inclination nor the time.
Back in his room, he immediately began intense cultivation.
Grumble!
His stomach roared like thunder. A night of cultivation had put immense strain on both his mind and body, and the fight had drained his physical energy.
Feng Lin was starving.
He casually grabbed a bottle of Giant Pharmaceutical's own Giant-A type advanced nutrient solution and downed it.
It was bland and tasteless, carrying only a faint hint of food aroma—nothing else, as insipid as water.
This advanced solution might work for ordinary people, but for Feng Lin, now an interstellar cultivator, it was as useless as chicken ribs.
He had no choice but to drink life potion!
Feng Lin took out a bottle of life potion and gulped it down. A cool liquid entered his body, accompanied by a slight warmth.
Finally, some effect!
But only a little.
It really was different now!
Feng Lin felt both helpless and delighted.
He still remembered the first time he took this life potion—the excruciating pain as his body underwent drastic transformation, nearly killing him. Now, he felt nothing at all.
This meant his life essence had reached a very high level, his form gradually approaching perfection, and the life potion's effects had become negligible.
The downside was that he now needed to find a more advanced potion!
Feng Lin frowned slightly, a new worry surfacing.
Life potion was the cheapest, most basic type. Other gene potions were each worth a fortune.
Being an interstellar cultivator was an incredibly expensive endeavor. Maintaining one's cultivation drained money like water.
The four essentials of cultivation—wealth, companions, methods, and location—placed wealth first.
If one wanted a smooth path in cultivation, wealth was indispensable.
A plan to make money had to be considered.
But now wasn't the time for that. Feng Lin, still ravenous, began chugging life potions one after another.
The word "potion" in its name felt ironic now—it was as bland as water when he drank it!
Feng Lin downed ten bottles of machine-synthesized life potion in one go before feeling slightly full. Reluctantly, he drank five more bottles of higher-grade, artificially synthesized life potion, finally managing to satisfy his hunger!
He immediately closed his eyes, sat upright, and began cultivating.
The method of refining essence into energy operated naturally.
Feng Lin felt a burning sensation in his stomach, as if it had become a great furnace, incinerating the nutrients, removing impurities. Streams of heat surged through his body, replenishing everything, leaving only pure nutrients transformed into genetic potential, stored away.
Genetic potential +20%, +20%, +20%...
With ample nutrient supply, the refining method processed nutrients at an astonishing speed, causing genetic potential to skyrocket visibly, quickly reaching 521%.
At the same time, Feng Lin's vitality was steadily increasing.
After breaking through to interstellar cultivator, the evolution of life didn't seem to stop entirely. With the supplement of nutrients, it immediately began to change.
Vitality: 13.9, 14.1, 14.3...
Each time, vitality grew weakly but rapidly, by increments of 0.2.
Soon, Feng Lin's vitality broke through the 16 mark, reaching as high as 16.8.