So it turns out that in every world capable of supporting Divine Transformation Stage cultivators, once you survived the tribulation and ascended to the Spiritual Realm, the very first thing you faced was... the Spiritual Realm Cultivator Entrance Examination!
Only after passing could you get a real “Cultivator Residence Permit” for the Spiritual Realm.
After that, every major realm required you to endure tribulation again. The Spiritual Realm’s tribulations not only tested your body with lightning, but also made you answer test questions while your body was wracked with agony...
Because of this, Spiritual Realm cultivators were all test-taking experts. The earlier you memorized the answers, the fewer worries you'd have—there was no way to avoid it in any case.
The Daoist sect’s supremacy wasn’t just thanks to their elders and true disciples being too powerful, but also because the test bank for the Spiritual Realm’s tribulation was maintained by the Daoist sect.
Learning this truth about the Spiritual Realm, Ling Jing set down the jade slip full of practice questions. “What kind of suffering is this? I already suffered through the mortal world, and I have to keep suffering in the Spiritual Realm? I suddenly have zero motivation to advance.” She let her head droop limply onto her boyfriend.
Qin Jingzhou pulled his girlfriend into his arms, smiling as he explained, “You could do as I did—once you reach the Tribulation Stage, you just set the questions, you don’t have to answer them anymore.”
Ling Jing reached over and pinched his chin. “You’re so ordinary!”
Qin Jingzhou just kept on smiling.
Ling Jing pretended to be a little miffed, switching from pinching to squeezing. “Since you’re an examiner now, how is it fair not to give me any hints?”
Qin Jingzhou narrowed his eyes. “Of course I’ll give you some.”
He was definitely going to give her pointers, but even so, at most he could guarantee she’d pass—not get a high score.
With her boyfriend’s tutoring and this promise of passing, Ling Jing was already more than satisfied. So with Qin Jingzhou beside her, she devoted herself to studying, quietly waiting for the spiritual energy of this world to recover to the level fit for the Divine Transformation Stage.
After respectfully delivering a package just once, the Demonic Sect Master returned to the Spiritual Realm and immediately issued an order to his sect—stay far away from a certain set of coordinates!
Those coordinates pointed directly to the current mission world, which was experiencing the final wave of spiritual energy revival.
Of course, demonic cultivators loved talking big. But when it came to real action, most of them were extremely cautious. In truth, demonic cultivators were often better than orthodox cultivators at avoiding disaster and seeking profit—after all, no single lower world was worth risking their lives for.
Most demonic cultivators chose to stay out of it, but that didn’t mean other Void Refining cultivators in the Spiritual Realm weren’t tempted. While Ling Jing was quietly studying, waiting for the spiritual energy to reach the threshold, a total of twenty-three Void Refining cultivators arrived from the Spiritual Realm.
Within the mission world, thanks to half-crippled Void Refining cultivators spilling the beans, local cultivators learned why their world was such a coveted prize, and how to avoid ending up as prey—to take some control over their own fates. If you wanted to find a backer, you had to show some strength, or you were just throwing yourself into the pot, like Taiyi Sect, where not a scrap survived.
So, for the first time ever, Eastern cultivators and Western mystics united to fight for their future.
Ordinary people too, especially those enhanced by the Evil God’s larva, stopped worshipping cultivation levels after Ling Jing and Qin Jingzhou “broadened their horizons.” Combining their newly acquired black technology and gene optimization solution, and working closely with ambitious Extraordinaries, they drove away fifteen of the twenty-three Void Refining cultivators. Of course, there was a price to pay.
In fact, the public worldwide gradually learned the connection between the spiritual energy revival and the outsiders, and the truth of the current crisis. At first, many wanted to surrender or do nothing, but seeing the joint investigation results from multiple national governments and Extraordinary forces—especially after watching Taiyi Sect’s demise—reluctantly, everyone agreed: we must unite!
When people actually witnessed the casualties and realized how cruel this struggle for the future really was, they truly stood together for the first time.
Of course, with eight billion people on earth, expecting everyone to be as one was unrealistic, but over seventy percent reached consensus and took action. In Hua Country, the proportion was nearly ninety percent.
Qin Jingzhou was quite satisfied with this result, so he gave Hua Country a private boost. In addition to the combat glove tech he had already handed to the authorities, he made up four entire bathtubs’ worth of bootleg gene optimization solution and presented it to the officials of Hua Country as a reward. The raw materials for this solution were, incidentally, carried back from the Spiritual Realm in person by the Demonic Sect Master.
Lack of cultivation talent usually meant you couldn’t actively draw in ambient spiritual energy, but that didn’t mean ingesting food or medicine rich in spiritual energy wouldn’t work at all. Ordinary people with no talent, after eating the Evil God’s larva, saw comprehensive improvements in spirit and body—clear evidence of effect.
The gene optimization solution, as a main product of the interstellar world and crystallization of their scientific wisdom, was far superior even to what the Evil God’s larva or the Evil God itself could offer.
Taking the gene optimization solution would, depending on your personal potential, enhance one or several organs, and those enhanced organs would then be able to absorb spiritual energy from the environment on their own. While this couldn't match cultivators’ active, all-round advancement, holders of enhanced organs—paired with proper tech—could more than hold their own against cultivators and Extraordinaries. Nobody could dominate everything with “just one trick.”
Director Li listened to Qin Jingzhou’s explanation as if he’d discovered a treasure, promptly whisked away the four bathtubs’ worth of optimization solution, and started experiments right away in the downtown Capital City underground lab.
Due to various constraints in the real world, the optimization solution that Qin Jingzhou concocted wasn’t as potent as the official interstellar version, but its side effects were almost nil.
All twenty members of the First Blade Squad took the solution, and surprisingly, each one’s enhancements were different. After a brief adjustment period, they were all able to don combat gloves, wield black-tech flying swords, and cooperate seamlessly with the Extraordinaries.
That was how they managed to defeat fifteen of the twenty-three Void Refining cultivators. Cultivators entering this world had their powers suppressed to the Nascent Soul stage, but their experience remained unaffected.
Of the remaining eight, seven took one look at the half-destroyed cultivator locked in the underground lab and quietly backed out. The last was dispatched by Qin Jingzhou in the same old way—a single slap had him running around in circles, crying for his head.
Qin Jingzhou had seen the performance of Extraordinaries and ordinary people alike and was thoroughly pleased. He sensed the spiritual energy revival would soon accelerate again, so he brought out the high-load exoskeleton tech.
This was actually a prerequisite for producing the legendary mechas that, in the interstellar world, could cross galaxies and stand face-to-face against the Zerg.
Once the Hua Country authorities had mastered the basics of exoskeleton technology and generously shared several results with other nations, the world’s spiritual energy recovery reached completion.
Everyone knew this last stage was the most perilous test of all. Both Extraordinaries and ordinary people felt: at last, the grand finale was finally here.
Right at this time, after nearly fifteen years of preparation, Ling Jing advanced to the next stage.
Suspended high in the air, with five simultaneous thunderbolts striking her, Ling Jing was not enjoying herself, but she still had energy to let her thoughts wander. Based on her talent, cultivation technique, and how much leeway the World Will granted, her boyfriend figured it would be five tribulation bolts for her, and he was pretty accurate.
She was just about to remark that the Fivefold Thunder Tribulation wasn’t that bad when a shock of lightning struck her crown—her first thought was: Eh? What was I just thinking about?
After that came pure agony.
Next, another bolt struck her Nascent Soul. She could clearly see a tiny version of herself in her sea of consciousness... instantly charred to a crisp.
She could almost smell it.
The intense burning and rising sense of crisis snapped her out of daydreams entirely. She focused wholly on wrapping up her Nascent Soul with her divine sense.
Practice brought insight—it turned out that divine sense worked sort of like electromagnetic shielding!
Of course, the next round of tribulation lightning hurt even more, and having your divine sense struck was a very particular, indescribable pain. But seeing her Nascent Soul wasn’t being doubly charred, Ling Jing still felt some comfort.
The Nascent Soul was like an engine. According to her boyfriend, you needed to reach the Fusion Stage if you wanted a dual-core set-up... so she had to keep her Nascent Soul as intact as possible. If it fractured, she’d be in real trouble.
While pondering, she frantically drew upon her spiritual energy and wrapped her Nascent Soul together with her divine sense.
Once she managed to stabilize everything, she simply closed her eyes and started reviewing the questions for the Spiritual Realm entrance exam.
Standing on the ground, Qin Jingzhou kept close watch on her advancement process. If anything went wrong, he could stop it immediately. So far, though, his girlfriend was handling it with ease.
Qin Jingzhou was delighted. “Steady.”
The System muttered quietly, “Miss Ling’s system has already been struck into emergency shutdown. Right before it powered down, it told me if Miss Ling advances smoothly, she’ll need to return to headquarters for re-registration.”
Ling Jing had just withstood the final barrage of tribulation lightning and, intending to whine to her boyfriend, saw her system boot up in time to relay a message from HQ: headquarters was under attack by the Evil God, advance to the next stage and return at once to help.
Ling Jing conveniently—well, actually using her divine sense that still sparked with electricity—tapped "Confirm" in front of her.
And was teleported out on the spot.
Qin Jingzhou could have stopped it, but after considering, decided to let Ling Jing return to HQ first. Just looking at this teleportation technique, he could tell that Ling Jing’s headquarters was on par with the strength of the Spiritual Realm’s Demonic Dao.
So at worst, it might be a bit of trouble, but not really dangerous... maybe not even a scare.
His girlfriend was being recalled to HQ immediately for two reasons. One, because she’d passed the Fivefold Thunder Tribulation with ease and, given enough resources, was guaranteed to reach Great Ascension in the future—no organization could afford to just let someone like that run wild anymore. Two, since his girlfriend worked at HQ and they were being besieged by the Evil God, it probably had something to do with him.
As for the Fate’s Son serving the Evil God, there’d been no news for several years.
But he was certain that the “little guy” was still following the Evil God’s path—still alive and well, just no longer human.
Hit the young, draw out the old. This held true even for Evil Gods.