Planet Pulverizer: A Mortal's Ascent-Chapter 433: Business

The Solar Radiance Sovereign, revered as the world's number one, had an undeniable talent. He mastered the Divine Radiance Beam, the Great Sun Furnace, and the Atomic Barrier in just a few months. In contrast, other Legends—or rather, Heavenly Realm Experts—took at least six months. Some even took a full year to achieve the same.

As each Heavenly Realm figure fully grasped their power, their battle strength surged. The Gaia Alliance began clearing the surrounding perilous regions.

Forget ordinary perilous regions like the Shadow Forest or Underground Palaces, even the Demon-Sealing Fortress, the Degenerate Temple, and the Slave Valley—places that had been nightmares to ordinary people—were systematically flattened within a year.

Under the leadership of the Solar Radiance Sovereign, the Gaia Alliance entered an unprecedented era of glory. Everyone celebrated the removal of these perilous regions.

With the Heavenly Realm figures now wielding strength far superior to demonic creatures or perilous regions, they could simply push through without needing Martial Saints or Martial Gods to investigate. Many Martial Saints were on the brink of unemployment, with some even facing marginalization.

Fortunately, during this time, the Solar Radiance Sovereign introduced a new training method. Though difficult to master, this method allowed anyone—even those without the talent to become Astral Cultivators—to step onto the path of Astral Cultivation.

Interest surged worldwide, and countless practitioners joined the Astral Cultivator system.

The hope of becoming an Astral Cultivator—a status far above others—led nearly everyone to abandon the idea of training their children in martial arts.

Even though becoming an Astral Cultivator was extremely difficult, once the barrier of "talent"—that unsolvable obstacle—was removed, ordinary people and families eagerly followed the path.

They dreamed of raising an Astral Cultivator to honor their ancestors and elevate their status.

In this environment, the decline of martial arts became painfully clear.

If not for Yuan Zhenchuan's insistence that Gaia civilization had to hold onto the two paths—martial arts and astral cultivation—local martial arts associations might have been abolished entirely.

***

At the outer space outside of Gaia, a figure quietly floated in Gaia's synchronous orbit.

The sun's rays radiated through the dark expanse of space, illuminating a figure and filling him with an ineffable sense of holiness.

It was Li Pin.

He looked down, gazing at the planet below. Though larger than Blue Planet, its terrain and structure felt distinctly unfamiliar.

Li Pin's expression remained calm. He murmured, "To think it could be this easy to exploit."

When he first realized that the rise of Legends was gentler than the breakthrough to Supreme Experts, he wondered, Could Martial Gods evolve in a more peaceful way?

Following that thought, which had emerged while he was in the alternate dimension, he came to outer space to experiment on Gaia's Celestial Force Field.

The result? It worked.

A Martial God's Natal Planet could indeed undergo evolution in outer space. However, the process took a lot of time. Moreover, the Martial God couldn't return to Gaia after evolving. If they returned, they would be absorbed, like a satellite captured by its primary planet, merging into it as part of the planet.

Of course, if the practitioner were powerful enough to challenge Gaia, that might be a different story.

In reality, a magnetic field strength of 250 to 300 was only the threshold for the Celestial Breaker phase, similar to breaking the escape velocity.

The notion that a magnetic field strength of 300 was enough to rival a plant weighting countless quintillions of tons was laughable. Anyone with this thought couldn't be farthest from the truth.

A Heavenly Realm figure using their most powerful Astral Technique could destroy a few hundred miles at best.

Some Heavenly Realm practitioners could unleash more devastating force, but these were the people on the cusp of reaching the Legendary realm.

They commanded even stronger Astral Techniques and wielded powerful astral equipment. However, even they could at most extend their range of destruction to thousands of miles. Compared to Gaia, that was nothing more than a drop in the ocean.

Li Pin glanced at the boundless, radiant star behind him.

"Time to go back."

With a swift turn, he began his descent toward the planet's surface.

As he fell, he generated intense heat due to the friction between him and the atmosphere. Soon, he burst into flames, resembling a meteor falling from the sky.

If Li Pin fully activated his Celestial Magnetic Field, the collision of his own field with Gaia's would result in an impact that could rival a meteor.

Should he disregard all consequences, seeking total destruction, he could accelerate to the absolute limit. The impact would release energy equivalent to an explosion of a hundred trillion tons of TNT. The searing flames would blot out the sky, and the oceans would evaporate.

The thick ground and rocks would be thrown into the air, millions of tons of earth and rock soaring up, perhaps even drifting beyond the atmosphere.

Exterminating humanity was no longer beyond his reach.

Li Pin sighed inwardly. "I'm not yet at the peak of a Supreme Martial God, meaning I haven't reached the pinnacle of the Heavenly realm. There is still some distance to go before becoming a Legend.

"But I am already more than capable of wiping all life and civilizations from the surface of a celestial body. I can't even imagine how powerful Legends must be."

At the same time, he split his focus to check his physical condition.

[Qi and Blood: 912.44], [Mental Spirit: 310.25], [Magnetic Field: 124.16]

Over the course of the year, his qi and blood had grown the fastest.

As he continued studying the techniques in the Peach Blossom Secret Domain, his qi and blood had grown significantly, bringing him closer to the physical strength of a lord-level demonic creature.

In actual combat, thanks to the battle techniques mastered by humans and the Spirit Force drawn from his mental spirit, he could easily defeat any lord-level demonic creature—even without relying on his magnetic field strength.

Of the two other attributes, he controlled the magnetic field strength carefully to avoid triggering Gaia's Celestial Force Field.

As for his mental spirit... it had grown rapidly in his early stages of cultivation.

But the Spirit-Essence Orb, Bodhi Seeds, Celestial Fruits, and other resources were completely depleted.

Additionally, the remaining similar resources in the Legendary Treasure Vault were taken by the Heavenly Realm figures and Supreme Experts, who had regained hope in their cultivation.

As a result, his growth had significantly slowed over the past month or two.

The Innate Primal Chaos Technique had undergone three version updates in the past year, but the increase in his mental spirit attribute over the last month was only 4.81.

Such a modest improvement was far from the four-digit mental spirit value Li Pin had envisioned. It would still take him dozens of years before he could even begin probing the atomic domain.

Fortunately, Li Pin's hopes of entering the atomic domain were mainly pinned on his inner spirit. As long as his mental spirit was sufficient, he would attempt it, without needing to wait for it to exceed a thousand.

As he pondered, Li Pin—carrying a blaze of fire and thunder—slowed his speed. By the time he reached the skies above Hualong Mountain, the flames surrounding him had completely fizzled out. He landed steadily in his courtyard.

The moment his feet touched the ground, he sensed something. He quickly turned his gaze toward the direction of the main hall of the Celestial Martial God Hall on the mountainside.

"Xing Ying," Li Pin called out. "Are we expecting guests?"

"Yes," Xing Ying replied quickly. "It's Long Xiang from the Solar Radiance Gate. He's here for the skill crystals."

"Skill Crystals?" Li Pin was surprised. "Isn't it too early to auction the Skill Crystals?"

"Yes." Xing Ying nodded. "But over the past few months, we've been rewarding key figures in the Celestial Martial God Hall with one or two Skill Crystals. They must have realized that we have other channels for acquiring the crystals, and that's likely why they've come."

Li Pin nodded in understanding.

Skill Crystals were exclusive to the Celestial Martial God Hall. The Celestial Martial God Halls' rapid growth over the past year, which had produced nine Top-Tier Martial Gods, was largely due to them.

The mystical properties of the Skill Crystals and the extraction techniques for Primordial Electric Crystals and Thunder Stones that Great Shang provided had played a crucial role. Thanks to these two factors, some of the High-Class Martial Gods had already broken through, entering the Top-Tier Martial God realm.

There could have been more than nine Martial Gods making the breakthrough. However, limited resources constrained the outcome. With more materials, the number of top-tier Martial Gods in the Celestial Martial God Hall could have easily doubled.

Li Pin said, "You may consider expanding the sale of the Skill Crystals a little, but not by too much. After all, it's the only item the Celestial Martial God Hall can offer. At the very least... the price of one should not go below thirty-thousand Primordial Electric Crystals."

Xing Ying paused briefly. She then replied, "That is indeed our bottom line. However, recently there have been rumors internationally that Great Shang, due to the depletion of Primordial Electric Crystal mines, intends to reduce production.

"Furthermore... they have raised objections to the price of 30 thousand Primordial Electric Crystals per Skill Crystal. They plan to lower it to 10 thousand per crystal...."

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"Ten thousand?" Li Pin was somewhat surprised. "If I remember correctly, during the first auction, the Skill Crystals sold for 50 thousand Primordial Electric Crystals each. We lowered the price to 30 thousand due to the large demand for Primordial Electric Crystals."

Xing Ying nodded. "Yes."

Li Pin shook his head. Greed knows no bounds.

But, as this was a business matter, he didn't wish to say too much.

At that moment, a trace of spiritual fluctuation suddenly spread from below, carrying the unmistakable signal from Long Xiang, a follower of the Solar Radiance Sovereign.

Hall Master Li, we have traveled from afar as guests. Yet, despite being at the Celestial Martial God Hall, you have only sent a few Top-Tier Martial Gods to receive us. Isn't this somewhat disrespectful to the people of the Solar Radiance Gate?

Li Pin focused on the spiritual fluctuation for a moment and soon sensed several auras along with Long Xiang's.

The lineup hardly seemed disrespectful, with the Vice Hall Master Xie Longcheng, Core Elder Yue Yng, and several other High-Class Martial Gods present.

Long Xiang said, "Please, Hall Master Li, come and speak with us. It concerns an important matter regarding us Gaians."

Li Pin replied, "I don't get involved in the specific operations of the Celestial Martial God Hall. If there's anything urgent, you can discuss it with Xie Longcheng and the others."

Long Xiang insisted, "Xie Longcheng and the others don't have a say in this. It must be you, Hall Master Li."

He briefly held back his spiritual fluctuation, followed by a subtle shift in emotion. "What? Do you think I'm unworthy of speaking with you?"

Li Pin fell silent for a moment after hearing Long Xiang's words.

After a long pause, he spoke.

"I sense there's more to your words... Should I finish your sentence for you? Are you implying..." Li Pin slowly rose into the air. "Are you tough enough to challenge me?"