Chapter Thirty-Four

Cheng Yuan cast his gaze around. “Is meditation really that powerful?” The reporter’s face seemed to say, “How would I know?” but the scholar, provoked by the question, began to reminisce. “Wait, at the very beginning, meditation was indeed formidable. Its origins trace back to a magical civilization that was in the process of deconstructing its own world. Each of their top magicians could rival disaster-class monsters, and even the entrances to their world were crafted by their own hands after glimpsing ours. Still, meditation is, at best, an introductory manual. The way you all treat it is rather excessive.”

The man in the purple robe looked up at the sky. “Yes, it took us two hundred years, and we finally reached a point where we no longer feared death. We refined the grotesque and saw their true nature was nothing so terrible. With upright methods we suppressed them; with cunning, we defeated them; and we returned their own methods upon them.” Then, gesturing proudly at the flickering lights along the boundary of the colossal planet, he declared, “Master of Spiritual Perception, even though half our world has fallen, even if our foes are invincible on the battlefield, what of it? We are certain we will win.”

Set against the vast planet, the robed man’s bangs danced in the wind. He clenched one fist, his eyes brimming with determination and confidence.

Cheng Yuan couldn’t help but applaud, then asked, “So, do you have a way to defeat It?” The man nodded, replying firmly, “No.” “What?” Cheng Yuan exclaimed.

The man shrugged. “As things stand, it’s far better than two hundred years ago, but we’re well aware that our current strength would still stand a chance against It before the Eternal Night of the Ghost Moon began. Now, It cannot be killed or overcome. Its power can move mountains, fill seas, change the heavens and the earth—endless, inexhaustible. And should It wish, another Ghost Moon Eternal Night would be but a thought away. So, O Great Master of Spiritual Perception, does your civilization have any solution?”

Cheng Yuan rolled his eyes. “No. After the ecological reshaping, disaster-class beings are virtually invincible. According to those mages from Maixiti, with every stage these disaster monsters progress through, the world is further eroded and reshaped to suit them. After the reshaping phase, Its corruption has forced the planet to adapt to Its presence. Without your intervention, It would have completed Its final transformation into something akin to a ‘god.’”

The man in the purple robe nodded, turning his gaze to his planet. “In that case, we have one remaining option.” “What is it?” Cheng Yuan asked. The man’s eyes held a trace of reluctance. “To tear apart our own planet. We’ll exchange space for enough time. But our descendants will face an even more powerful It.”

As he spoke, many dungeons around them began to glow with swirling vortices, and the once-mighty planet became faint, almost illusory. The man looked at Cheng Yuan, traced a finger through the air, and a vortex representing a dungeon appeared. He bowed deeply. “Thank you, merciful Master of Spiritual Perception. Next time, I hope you’ll come a little earlier.”

Before Cheng Yuan could react, the man strode through the dungeon’s entrance. Cheng Yuan saw the light reappear between the planets. As the light neared another planet, that planet faded, becoming transparent. When the planet vanished entirely, Cheng Yuan heard a furious curse, as if someone was spitting dirt while swearing, and many dungeons around him disappeared on the spot.

The scholar beside him looked up at the sky. “Is it over? Did they change the future?”

...

This exceptional dungeon event left the world feeling both absurd and deeply unsettled. It also prompted every nation to take seriously skills like meditation, which they had previously treated as little more than calisthenics. Techniques such as Qi Refining Methods and Visualization Diagrams were now formally taught, with strict instructions not to spread them carelessly in dungeons. The event was named “Civilization and Calamity.” For the first time, Cheng Yuan’s name appeared in the textbooks.

Cheng Yuan listened attentively in class, while his classmates watched him, the one who had caused such a stir. A week had passed since the dungeon incident, but the commotion around Cheng Yuan had yet to subside. Now, his classmates looked at him as if he were a mythic figure. In most dungeons, all you had to do was release the monsters and kill them—simple as that. Yet Cheng Yuan, when his turn came, seemed to follow a storyline, as if he’d brought a mind to the task and changed everything.

Wang Ningning was a little unwilling. Her childhood friend had always been stronger than her, but now he’d made such a sensation that he was even written into the textbooks. Her long-cherished dream of outshining Cheng Yuan and making him call her “big sister” seemed even more distant now.

After class, Cheng Yuan pulled out a ruler to measure his companion’s length. The little tiger had already mastered the clan’s divine skill, Piercing Claw, and now faced the Bladed Claw Skeleton in simulated dungeons with mixed results—winning with Cheng Yuan’s guidance and losing when left to its own instincts, as it tended to charge in without thinking.

Measuring from nose tip to tail tip, the tiger was now 1.3 meters long—considered large for a juvenile Golden White Tiger. At this stage, they could reach up to 1.64 meters, with wild ones averaging 1.4 meters. The little tiger was four levels away from evolving, and with each level, it would grow longer. Cheng Yuan believed it could eventually reach the 1.6-meter mark.

Piercing Claw deserved its reputation as the racial divine skill of the Golden White Tiger, with an upper limit of level 65. This surpassed the known cap for all current king-ranked monsters. Wild king-ranked beasts ranged from level 35 to 60; anything above level 60 was disaster-class, those who had successfully unleashed their ecological field and begun assimilating their surroundings.

Now, with its skill maxed out, the little tiger’s offensive power could rival that of high-attack, low-defense monsters like the Bladed Claw. Next, Cheng Yuan planned to have the tiger train in Wind Bind, a skill that inflicted negative effects on enemies.

The Barbarian Swamp Giant Lizard was also progressing quickly, having maxed out its Climbing skill and gained the “Terrain Ignorance (Land)” trait and the new skill “Tread Lightly.” It had reached level 8, but at the lizard’s own request, Cheng Yuan stopped training gecko-like abilities and started focusing on offensive skills such as Water Gun, which improved rapidly.

That afternoon was the monthly combat exam. Cheng Yuan decided to test the capabilities of the repeat-year students in the adult stage. The event quickly arrived. In the grand hall, Cheng Yuan barely stood on his own stage for a moment before heading toward Wang Ningning.

Wang Ningning was eager, her two turtles beside her raising their heads to watch Cheng Yuan approach. He noticed the Explosive Overlord Turtle breathing fire from its nostrils, its size having grown—likely now at level 10. Considering the skill pool of the Explosive Overlord Turtle, Cheng Yuan chose not to comment further.

The little tiger glanced at its old rival, the Explosive Overlord Turtle, and yawned in boredom. Compared to the thrilling duels with the Bladed Claw Skeleton in simulation dungeons, the turtle no longer aroused its interest.