Chapter 172: Pursuit and Assassination

Wang Wu continued descending until he reached a depth in the corona layer that could continuously scorch him even under normal conditions.

He had originally intended to stop at a slightly higher spot, but despite the appearance that Yin Shenli was idly scrolling her phone there, the moment he halted, the woman immediately began berating him.

After a barrage of extremely cutting insults—well, mainly the woman's personal threats—Wang Wu nonetheless dutifully resumed his descent.

"So were you able to locate that person?"

After Wang Wu stopped at a depth he was only barely satisfied with, Yin Shenli finally resumed her call with Qin Xiang.

Qin Xiang had reached out to her of their own accord; the matter discussed was unrelated to the world they inhabited, but pertained to this world.

Although their relationship could only be described as acquainted—far from friendship—the fact that both were Wang Wu's masters made her treat Qin Xiang rather courteously.

Of course, because Qin Xiang's Extreme Heaven Vajra Gate and the Dark Extreme Divine Sect are friendly sects, the two maintain a cooperative relationship.

Disciples of the Dark Extreme Divine Sect, when supplementing with gold-system techniques, may freely select internal cultivation manuals from the Extreme Heaven Vajra Gate and purchase various supplements produced by that gate at discounted prices.

Most ordinary cultivators use some supplements to varying degrees; with technological progress, martial training still demands diligent practice, yet supplements remain indispensable.

After all, they can dramatically accelerate a cultivator's progress, allowing someone of average stature to stack medicines and reach the fourth rank in a very short time.

If you're willing to work harder, the third rank isn't unattainable either.

Of course, beyond that, the effects of supplements become negligible at the second and first rank realms.

"You're not here now; based solely on your description and the scant information transmitted, I can't make a judgment," Yin Shenli said, stomach growling, to the other end of the phone, "You'll come over eventually, so we can discuss it after you arrive."

"That so-called immortal you mentioned—so, is he actually an immortal?"

"I don't know either," the bruised Qin Xiang said on the other end, "Probably an immortal? This place also has a Heavenly Court and such organizations; it seems to be a very powerful prehistoric civilization."

He had just taken a beating today and was now taking medicine; although it was his wife who beat him, it wasn't really his wife who beat him.

In Qin Xiang's household, the only one capable of breaking through Qin Xiang's defenses in combat is his wife, but she dotes on him and basically never lays a hand on him.

Unless ordered by his parents-in-law.

This time, it was indeed because of his parents-in-law's order, and the reason Qin Xiang got beaten can only be said to be his own misfortune.

Earlier, during ranked matches, Qin Xiang ran into his own father; because his father's playstyle was extremely sluggish, Qin Xiang dragged the opponent into the match room after the game and berated him harshly.

At that time, the opponent was so scolded he couldn't retort, and during a match in the arena he even got his head shaved by Qin Xiang, which made Qin Xiang smug for a long while.

Then about two months passed; Qin Xiang himself had already forgotten the incident, but his father had not.

So, during a family gathering two days ago, Qin Xiang inadvertently revealed his ID in front of his father.

That's why Qin Xiang now has a bruised and swollen face.

Although it looks terrible, he actually wasn't seriously injured, but the pain was certainly painful.

His wife also dared not hold back, because if she did, it wouldn't be her delivering the blow—it would be Qin Xiang's master.

Humans have long lifespans, and Qin Xiang isn't old. Although his master's strength doesn't match Qin Xiang's—otherwise he wouldn't have stepped down from the sect leader's position.

Yet the master is capable of breaking through Qin Xiang's defenses.

The master was already displeased because Qin Xiang surpassed his teacher, and if given a chance to strike him while the master didn't retaliate, he certainly wouldn't hold back.

"Prehistoric civilization?" Yin Shenli glanced toward the depths of the Milky Way.

Her gaze could pierce the void, crossing tens of thousands of light‑years in an instant, giving her an unobstructed view of the entire Milky Way.

This is a higher‑dimensional perspective; ancient old humans could also achieve this, but ultimately, relying on machine‑granted divine authority, they still couldn't match great power returning to oneself.

New humans are always confident about such matters, or rather they harbor a strong sense of superiority over old humans.

And as the final crystallization of the human Empire, they indeed have the right to be superior.

Because humanity succeeded, in the final life stage of that massive Empire they finally created what they had long pursued.

"God."

Although they themselves have become deities of that universe, just as new humans feel superior to old humans, they are not deities that have absorbed all great power into themselves.

That is still far from enough.

The combination of powerful technology and powerful individuals—that is what old humans pursued.

Technologically, they have reached a pinnacle before transcendence, but physically, old humans are still far from sufficient.

At the cost of the entire Empire's burning and destruction, they gained a brand‑new era for the whole civilization.

Although the outbreak of war and the Empire's collapse aren't really related, after successful research on new humans, humanity originally intended to gradually convert all humans into new humans.

But the war's outbreak interrupted this process, so only a portion of humanity completed the transformation and entered the Seed Base.

The remaining humans, their fate was to perish along with the Empire.

Today, the new humans on the wasteland can be roughly divided into two types: those manufactured, who have slept in the Seed Base until now and, upon awakening, extend their lives through martial cultivation up to the present.

The other type are the offspring born from the natural unions of these new humans.

New humans also have relatively poor fertility; whether this is a common flaw of extraordinary races is unknown, but they indeed have reproductive issues.

Yet even so, thousands of years have passed and the number of new humans remains large.

In today's Solar System, conservative estimates put the population at nearly one hundred billion.

It seems huge, but compared with millennia of new human civilization history and their lifespans, the figure is actually rather small.

The stronger the new humans, the poorer their fertility; as for the exact cause, all we can say is that our extraordinary species is simply that way.

Yin Shenli herself is a manufactured new human; compared with naturally born new humans, her cultural level is higher, having completed middle school during the human Empire and later, after awakening, attending university.

In this regard, she is clearly far superior to any high‑school student.

That's a university degree, after all.

Speaking of which, Wang Wu, this disciple, is also a university student; although the Earth they inhabit isn't the same, it's still a university student, which still holds considerable merit.

Moreover, Wang Wu isn't just an ordinary university student; he's a master's degree holder.

Undoubtedly, this also gave Yin Shenli more face.

After all, he is a high‑level intellectual, though Wang Wu, this high‑level intellectual, often behaves in ways that don't quite match his degree.

But there's nothing that can be done; his master's hometown's technological level has far surpassed his comprehension, and this world doesn't require any of the knowledge he acquired during university.

The only thing he can possibly use is some everyday knowledge, and those bits of common sense do give him a little help, but only a little help.

Fine, it's really a matter of personal ability; he's still too weak.

"Master, Master! I feel I'm about to collapse! I'm dying!!"

Just as Yin Shenli was gazing far into the depths of the galaxy, beginning to search for the existence of that "immortal" based on the information Qin Xiang provided, Wang Wu's cry for help made her pause the search.

She glanced down at Wang Wu once, seeing her disciple reduced to a burning fireball, and she frowned:

"Damn it, you're whining at this level? Looks like you haven't taken enough hits!"

"Hold it!"

"Wow! So hot, so hot! So hot!! Master! I feel I really can't hold on!!!"

Even though the Master had spoken, the pain coursing through his body was still unbearable for him.

"Fine, I'll just f***ing come down and give you a hand!!"

Finally, under Yin Shenli's renewed threat, Wang Wu fell silent.

Although his strength is considered "piercing heaven and earth" within the Tianyuan civilization, Wang Wu's temperament remains that of an ordinary person.

Most of the time he's cowardly, only on rare occasions does he become brave—so brave he'd even forfeit his life.

But that's what an ordinary person is—a true portrait of an ordinary person.

Mostly timid and fearful, yet sometimes capable of astonishing courage.

Of course, having cultivated Earth martial arts, this "ordinary person" Wang Wu is actually far from ordinary, at least mentally.

He is now completely different from his former self, a mismatch.

Earth martial arts don't forge temperament; Qin Xiang and Yin Shenli are also rather ordinary in personality—well, somewhat controversially ordinary.

After all, someone who can blow up a planet with a flick of a hand still gets red‑faced arguing over a few cents worth of vegetables at the market.

A sect leader of a top contemporary sect, the head of a premier assassin organization, spends the whole day online either insulting people or insulting people. Then she watches all sorts of adult‑only content to reward herself, truly a female loser.

The problem is, this female loser is actually very beautiful and has a great figure.

Would a woman like that have no one like her, be unable to find a boyfriend? Of course not.

In fact, some men do like Yin Shenli, but after a while they give up on their own.

As for why, there are many reasons. The biggest may be that this woman is too terrifying; ordinary people never see the "female loser" side of her.

As a super‑kill king even more terrifying than Qin Xiang, this woman's reputation is a thousand times, even a hundred million times, more terrifying than Qin Xiang, the Extreme Heaven True Demon.

Ordinary new humans are generally normal, only looking odd at certain times.

As for warriors, especially ones like Yin Shenli, they can usually maintain the aura of being "top‑tier elites."

Only at certain moments does that aura completely collapse.

Of course, this doesn't include when they're fiercely haggling with people at the market.

Refining a Diamond Body takes a very long time; even though Wang Wu has already maxed out all his supplements, it still requires at least half a year of his time.

Moreover, because he must cultivate the Diamond Body, Wang Wu will have to spend a large portion of the next half‑year on cultivation rather than on his family.

The girls naturally have no complaints about this, since their beloved needs to become stronger, and his greater strength can better protect them and the world.

Likewise, they won't stop here, not just because their lover is already the strongest person in the world—ah no, a demon—and then cease.

And they also don't want to fall behind; although they may never surpass their husband in strength, they will still do their utmost to cultivate.

As for cultural lessons, they are equally diligent and serious.

It's just that, compared to their progress in strength, the cultural side…

Logically, a transcendent's mind can't be ineffective; demons simply haven't seen enough of the world, which doesn't mean they have IQ issues.

But in reality, their grades in these cultural classes are indeed far from ideal.

Although Wang Wu sometimes gives them extra lessons, under the expectant gazes of the three demon girls.

However, the final outcome usually ends with Wang Wu's red‑warm, and because of the demon race's nature, after the red‑warm he cannot use that method.

After that, Wang Wu finally understood why, despite having Yao Qing, Zi Yuan, Zhao Xingyue, and Wang Lan—people of the human and former human races—around him, those three still stare at him, begging for his guidance.

On the Sun, Wang Wu's daily task is the monotonous sitting inside, starting from temperatures of a few hundred thousand degrees, then several hundred thousand, up to a maximum of a million.

And that took him less than two months.

It was also on the fifty‑second day of his immersion in the Sun that Master Qin Xiang finally wrapped up his affairs and arrived in Wang Wu's world.

At this moment, Wang Wu's "Extreme Heaven Divine Palace" is also ushering in its "high‑end combat power."

Extreme Heaven True Demon Qin Xiang, and Asura Lord Yin Shenli.

Of course, the people here have no idea about these two nicknames.

This time, Qin Xiang also plans to reside here for a while, not only to help his good disciple cultivate but also for his own sake.

He is only one final step away from breaking through to the next stage.

"That immortal, can you trace his aura, Little Li, the Sect Leader?"

Above the Sun, Qin Xiang, clad in camouflage combat pants that never change, arms crossed, watches Wang Wu inside the Sun while asking the nearby Yin Shenli.

(End of Chapter)