Chapter 32: [The Conqueror]! (Please keep reading! Vote and support!)
Hongning Base City.
Hong sat in the headquarters office of the martial arts hall. On the rosewood tea table in front of him lay six open books—volumes of the Jiang Family's Recompiled Xingyi. He had specially requested them and was now studying and deducing their contents one by one.
Even after more than twenty days of deep thought, he still hadn't gleaned much.
He couldn't figure it out.
These six secret manuals, which in his eyes were no more than "profound" at best, how could they produce a monster like Jiang Zhe, who had achieved a force output twelve times that of a normal human?
Hong didn't believe the Jiang Family had deceived him. He had repeatedly watched the footage from that battle and had clearly observed the essence of Xingyi within Jiang Zhe—Dragon Body, Bear Shoulders, Eagle Grabs, Chicken Legs…
What Jiang Zhe used was the most orthodox form of "Six Arts of Xingyi"!
"Just like me and Thor back then—we fused ancient martial arts with traditional yoga to blaze our own path… Jiang Zhe has found his own path from ancient Xingyi. And in terms of skill comprehension, his talent is probably far above mine or Thor's."
For once, that steely face of his revealed a rare smile.
Hong had been in a good mood lately. After so many years of nurturing Earth's human warriors, they were finally seeing returns—someone with enough talent had grown strong enough to give back.
Still, rather than relying on others' results, Hong preferred to unlock the secrets himself. That was a Grandmaster's pride.
"Gradual accumulation leading to transformation—that's the slow route. Achieving that level of strength is clearly thanks to the 'Six Arts of Xingyi' system."
"Actually, the overall difficulty of practicing the entire Recompiled Xingyi is even higher than that of World-Ender and Ninefold Thunder Blade. Mastering all six volumes isn't something suitable for widespread teaching among martial artists. Only those with extremely high comprehension can learn all six and then fuse them into one."
"But even so, with the current version of Recompiled Xingyi, the best outcome should only be comparable to Thor in terms of force output. It shouldn't surpass him, let alone double it like Jiang Zhe."
"That guy…" Hong raised an eyebrow. "He's a walking BUG."
Just then, the intelligent system sent Hong an urgent message—highlighted in red—to ensure he didn't overlook it.
"News about Jiang Zhe?" Hong instantly straightened up.
He opened it—and saw a flurry of information flood in: the leak of Jiang Zhe's coordinates, the forces behind the incident…
Ever since discovering Jiang Zhe's astonishing force multiplier, Hong had been secretly protecting him.
Any mention of "Jiang Zhe" across Earth's communication networks would automatically be flagged, compiled, investigated, and analyzed by the intelligent system to eliminate potential threats.
Hong's expression darkened.
"Twenty years of peace… and you rats are getting bold! You think I won't act against council members, so you act with impunity?"
"Li Nansheng!!!"
"Hiding in Hanxia, scheming behind the scenes time and again, trying to shake my foundation… Do you think I'm made of clay?"
As if asking the void itself, Hong muttered, "Why would he target Jiang Zhe?"
The lights in the office dimmed. A light screen emerged out of thin air, displaying a grainy video—footage from an old smartphone.
Li Nansheng never imagined his secrets would be laid bare like this, crushed under the weight of superior cosmic technology!
"He actually pierced the Black God suit… That spear—so it really was the Jiang Family's closely guarded secret!"
Hong was visibly intrigued.
As a spear-user himself, he couldn't help but covet the extravagantly ornate, dragon-carved, 2.6-meter-long weapon.
As the investigation deepened, it even uncovered historical records from before the Great Nirvana.
"What? This spear is an heirloom of the Jiang Family? It traces back to the Sui and Tang dynasties?"
Hong instantly lost interest. He had hoped they'd discovered an ancient alien ruin—something worth profiting from.
---
Meanwhile, Jiang Zhe—the very man Hong had called a "BUG"—was undergoing a dangerous "bug fix."
His rhythmic life-force field acted like a forge hammer, with his body as the molten metal under relentless tempering.
His spirit, flesh, bones, and blood—each component of his being—were compressed, strengthened, and fused until the once-awkward, loose sensation disappeared. He became a completely unified individual!
Three internal stars began to resonate, pulsing in unison like a primal breath, filled with profound rhythm.
The life-force field dissipated.
The first stage of his life evolution was complete.
A smile tugged at the corner of Jiang Zhe's lips.
From this moment on, he was a perfect threefold genetic-level lifeform—one whose traits could be inherited.
In theory, he was no longer considered an Earth human, but rather a new human species under the category of cosmic humanity.
When he advanced to the level of a Cosmic Sovereign and established his own interstellar nation, he could rightfully call himself a royal lineage of the human race—on par with the Celestial Wolves of the Demon Race.
Suddenly, without warning, a powerful will descended!
Space froze around Jiang Zhe. The smile on his face froze as well. Even the dripping water in the cave stopped midair.
His entire inner world was locked.
An unimaginable force poured into Jiang Zhe's body—not just assisting in his evolution, but also probing him.
Finally, it penetrated his genetic nucleus.
In the eyes of this dominantly oppressive will, the space inside Jiang Zhe's nucleus was merely a dark purple land—nothing unusual.
No Dao Tree. No axe. No god crystal. No golden folded page.
Nothing at all!
After a thorough inspection and finding nothing exploitable—not even a single flaw in his life composition—it acknowledged him as a fully evolved new species.
...Which also made the will's presence seem unnecessary.
So, it recorded the genetic structure of this new species, then fused the secret runes carved on Jiang Zhe's chest using beast blood into a blood-red banner mark, and branded it onto his forehead.
Only then did the will recede.
Perhaps, in some distant future cycle of the cosmos, the universe would spawn others of Jiang Zhe's kind—created based on his template.
---
"Where… am I?"
"Underground. Beneath the Australian continent… Just now…"
His muttering became a mental whisper.
"I've completed the first phase of the Life Blueprint. Achieved threefold genetic level. Reached the [Hero] tier. A new kind of human has emerged…"
Jiang Zhe touched the imprint on his forehead, sensing the additional innate secret technique imprinted in his mind.
"So… the Original Universe Will came… and gifted me an innate secret technique?"
Jiang Zhe grimaced. He didn't look thrilled.
"Gotta admit—you sure know how to take shortcuts!"
"You turned the external cultivation method from the Life Blueprint—[Conquest]—into an innate secret technique for me?"
"Geez… thanks a lot!"
He looked as if he'd lost trillions of Hunyuan units in one go.
"Come on, big bro Origin! With your vast resources, couldn't you gift me a [Clone] ability instead? I know you've handed that out before!"
Sigh… Just think about the twelve top-tier star beasts in the universe—that's the real pecking order.
The Golden Horned Beast doesn't even need effort to be broken-level strong.
"Tree? Axe?"
"Clone! Clone! Clone!"
"Saying it three times—because the universe is terrifying, and I want to survive!"
"Even if the Origin Will can't hear me, Tree and Axe, surely you two can?"
After giving his "cheat system" a proper scolding, Jiang Zhe turned to inspect the results of completing Phase 1 of the Life Blueprint.
The five stages of the Golden Human Life Blueprint: Martial Immortal Path were as follows:
[Hero] Bloodline – 3x
[Demi-God] Bloodline – 10x
[Bronze] Bloodline – 22x
[Silver] Bloodline – 181x
[Gold] Bloodline – 1810x
Becoming a [Hero]-tier human marked official entry into the organization—this kind of lifeform could pass their genes on to the next generation.
And the benefits weren't just a full-body 3x power-up—every new bloodline level also came with an innate secret technique.
His was:
Innate Secret Technique: [Brute Force]!
To put it simply: no fancy effects, just pure, raw double strength.
Sound familiar?
It should.
It's one of the three core talents of the Golden Horned Beast: [Enhance]!
In fact, across countless cosmic species, combat-type secret techniques that boost power output are the most common.
You could even train a body-strengthening secret technique to achieve the same effect.
However, combining two such boost effects—like one from training and one from an innate technique—doesn't necessarily mean multiplying their values. There's always loss.
When the multipliers are small—say 2x, 4x, 11x, 15x—you won't notice it.
But the closer you get to the 100x limit, the greater the diminishing returns.
For example, a 2x talent combined with a 40x training method might not give you 80x output—more likely 60x, or even 50x…
In short, the universe isn't going to let you exploit a loophole that easily.
You think you can just stack two multipliers to break the 100x physical limit?
Even a dog would scoff at that!
That said, those calculations only apply once you reach the Immortal tier.
In the early stages, right now, you're just boosting physical strength—it's fine to stack them however you like.
"All in all, [Brute Force] is still very useful in the early stages."
"Besides, the [Brute Force] talent will evolve alongside the Life Blueprint through its remaining four stages. It's not static."
After analyzing the [Brute Force] talent, Jiang Zhe finally turned his gaze to the new secret technique granted by the Original Universe.
[The Conqueror]!
—After conquering a target's body and mind, the target drops a "Source Essence Crystal," which is automatically absorbed into the banner mark.
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