Chapter 1 Breaking Through

A shooting star streaked across the pitch-black cosmos, plummeting toward a dark brown planet and landing atop a desolate, precipitous peak.

Fiery sparks scattered, revealing Han Xiao's form. He surveyed the boundless dark brown land and then glanced up at the sky draped with magnificent, mystical auroras, nodding in satisfaction.

"This is the place to level up."

Han Xiao focused his mind, opened his interface, and poured the experience he had painstakingly accumulated into leveling up. His level, which had been stagnant for a long time, finally soared again like a rocket, and panel notifications flooded his screen like a rushing waterfall:

[【God Throne Mechanic】 has been upgraded to Lv49, Stamina +500, Strength +5, Agility +5, Endurance +18, Intelligence +25. You have gained 20 free attribute points and 1 Awakening Point.]

…

[【God Throne Mechanic】 has been upgraded to Lv60 (max), Stamina +2000, Strength +5, Agility +5, Endurance +18, Intelligence +25. You have gained 20 free attribute points and 1 Awakening Point.]

[You have reached the level cap of your main class. You have triggered the class advancement mission – 【Godsmith】.]

[【Godsmith】: Possess over 10,000 blueprint skills and have crafted a cumulative total of 100 different types of Universe Treasure-grade mechanical equipment.]

[You have reached level 360. You have triggered the advanced mission – 【Godslaying Refinement】.]

[【Godslaying Refinement】: Completely kill five Super-A Grade individuals with Divine Metamorphosis, one from each of the five major systems: Martial Arts, Esper, Mechanic, Magic, and Psychic.]

"Whoa, this is pretty ruthless."

Han Xiao's eyes flickered, and he clicked his tongue inwardly.

The difficulty of this mission was countless times harder than his previous class advancement and job change. The level of harshness was on a completely different scale. Just the 【Godsmith】 requirement of crafting 100 different types of Universe Treasure-grade items would leave a normal mechanic dumbfounded. Even Han Xiao himself was still somewhat short of that number. Although the Sanctuary's storage provided enough blueprints, he hadn't crafted them all yet.

Furthermore, the 【Godslaying Refinement】 mission required killing five peak Super-A Grades, which was extremely dangerous. And the inclusion of the word "completely" meant that Han Xiao guessed that the type of individual long-term survival methods used by World Tree and Underworld might not work. Entering the Sanctuary probably wouldn’t count as death; the targets probably had to be chosen from normal individuals.

Too bad... no matter how harsh the missions were, he had Settlement Cards!

Han Xiao had been hoarding some mission Settlement Cards these years precisely to avoid such advancement missions. Even if these two missions were difficult, he would only be surprised; he wouldn’t actually feel troubled.

"These two missions are too much of a pain. Good thing I can skip them."

Han Xiao breathed a sigh of relief and solemnly used the mission Settlement Cards. The names of the two missions immediately transformed into golden sub-bodies labeled "Completed."

He had thought that this would be like before, where completing the advancement mission would be the same as successfully advancing, but this time, the situation seemed different than before. The panel popped up with a message that surprised him.

[Level 360 Advanced Mission Complete!]

[You may choose to advance at any time.]

[Note: This advancement carries extremely high risk. There is a 90%~96% chance of advancement failure. Once failed, you must complete a new advancement mission to re-advance. Additionally, there is a chance of unknown mutations during advancement, posing a life risk.]

[It is recommended to meet the following conditions before choosing to advance.]

[1. During this advancement, your life form will be extremely unstable and prone to mutations. Possible occurrences include, but are not limited to, infinite proliferation, genetic collapse, cellular independence, and cosmic assimilation. Therefore, you need to use certain special items to stabilize your life form – Triggering this condition during advancement will increase the success rate of advancement by +33.3% and reduce the rate of malignant mutation by -33.3%.]

[2. During this advancement, you need some external assistance. The power of one person is always limited and one-sided. You need four non-affiliated transcendent individuals as assistants, and they must have activated Divine Metamorphosis with a super power system bias. The higher the level of Divine Metamorphosis, the better the auxiliary effect – Triggering this condition during advancement will increase the success rate of advancement by +33.3% and reduce the rate of malignant mutation by -33.3%.]

[3. For this advancement, you need a wisp of Transcendent Remnant Force as a catalyst. When a transcendent individual who has completed Divine Metamorphosis attempts to break through to a higher level, they may die due to malignant mutation. The life essence, soul consciousness, and core energy dissipated during the advancement process will condense into Transcendent Remnant Force. It cannot be observed by normal life forms; only transcendent individuals in your current state can perceive it – Triggering this condition during advancement will increase the success rate of advancement by +33.3% and reduce the rate of malignant mutation by -33.3%.]

[Note: If all conditions are not met, even if the advancement is successful, the grade will not change. If all three conditions are fully triggered during advancement, Divine Advancement will be enabled.]

"So it's this kind of mode..."

After reading the panel message, Han Xiao's spirit lifted, his eyes shifted, and his gaze flickered.

Before today, he didn't know whether the level 360 advancement could reach a new grade. Everything was just speculation. Now, he finally confirmed that this advancement could indeed break through to a new grade; otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many changes.

This made him slightly excited.

Han Xiao's mind sank into his body, clearly sensing that every cell was in a "critical" state. As long as he was willing, he could start the advancement at any time.

However, after reading the warnings on the panel, Han Xiao was also afraid that something would go wrong during the advancement. He looked down at the contents of the three conditions, all of which were in a gray "untriggered" state.

He tried to use mission Settlement Cards on these three conditions, but they didn't complete like the advancement mission. The prompt stated that the Settlement Cards were ineffective against the target.

"As expected, it won't work. It seems I can't take any shortcuts this time."

Han Xiao frowned, then released it. He wasn't too surprised. When he saw the three conditions, he faintly guessed that the mission Settlement Cards might not work on them.

Mission Settlement Cards were special items used for the interface. They didn't exist physically, and their effect was to skip the mission content to obtain the most basic interface rewards. They wouldn't actually change the external environment, nor would they generate physical objects out of thin air.

These three prerequisites all required physical objects as an aid during advancement. Mission Settlement Cards couldn't create them, and these three conditions didn't exist in the form of missions.

However, the mission Settlement Cards had skipped the previous advancement mission, already saving him a lot of time. And if the advancement failed, triggering a new advancement mission again, he could still use the Settlement Cards to skip it without spending any effort.

Of course, it was best to succeed in the advancement in one go. Han Xiao naturally didn't want to fail. Since there was no shortcut to breaking through to a new grade, to improve the safety of the advancement, he had to calm down and carefully study the three conditions. He quickly gained some clues.

The first condition required a special "stabilizer." Presumably, there would be a reorganization of his life form during this advancement, which would be more intense than previous advancements, so it would be "extremely unstable," like melting a piece of steel and casting it into another shape, requiring a mold.

Han Xiao had a few ideas about this. Special items related to information states could act as this "mold," but it would probably need to be a Universe Treasure; ordinary information state devices might be ineffective.

Another option was to obtain the blessing of a Universe Treasure with "stabilizing" properties. Han Xiao knew of one that was readily available, the Void Spirit's national treasure with the "Unbreakable" characteristic, which should achieve a similar effect.

"But that thing is on Urnos, and it's a treasure of the Void Spirit Order. I don't know if they would be willing to lend it temporarily."

Han Xiao shook his head.

The second condition was that he needed the assistance of four other peak Super-A Grades from other systems for his advancement.

In civilizations where individual power was not well-developed, he might not even be able to gather enough people. But the three great civilizations should be considered prosperous in the universe and had enough strong individuals to choose from.

With his connections and the cohesion of the Sanctuary, finding four assistants wouldn't be difficult. This should be the easiest of the three conditions.

However, the sense of cooperation revealed by this condition made Han Xiao somewhat emotional.

Growing to this point alone seemed to be the limit. Advancement didn't seem to be a matter for one person anymore. To become a stronger individual at a higher level, one needed more external assistance. The level of development of the civilization also affected whether an individual could take it a step further.

In the vast universe, the power of one person was ultimately limited. Without external help, it would be difficult to continue to move up after reaching a certain stage.

"Is there ultimately a limit to individual life forms..."

Han Xiao shook his head.

Additionally, the requirement to gather the other four systems made Han Xiao think again of a saying that circulated in his previous life, that the five major super power systems each represented five aspects of a "god" in the true sense.

——The Martial Arts system represents "Godly Body," the Psychic system represents "Godly Soul," the Magic system represents "Godly Authority," the Esper system represents "Godly Power," and the Mechanic system represents "Godly Artifact"!

This saying was widely circulated, but there was no real evidence. But now, looking at this condition, Han Xiao felt that the saying might not be entirely false, and at least had some correlation.

"Could it be that the new grade is really a unification of the five systems?"

Han Xiao subconsciously flashed this thought, but quickly shook his head and denied it, feeling that he was thinking too much.

The difference in stamina attributes of the five major systems was unlikely to be broken. Even if he broke through to the level of a "true god," he estimated that he would specialize in one, and it should be impossible to be omnipotent.

Compared to the other four systems, he felt that the Mechanic system, which represented "Godly Artifact," seemed to be a special one.

The development history of basically every civilization was the evolutionary progress of tools. This represented the spark of wisdom and the germination of civilization. Knowing how to use tools was, to some extent, the biggest difference between intelligent life and beasts. And for so-called "gods," there was probably a similar significance.

If "gods" only used the power of the other four systems to fight, removing the fancy outer clothes, it was not much different from fighting empty-handed, at most with different moves and routines... Only magic and Esper abilities had some special uses... And using so-called "godly artifacts" was like ordinary people picking up knives, swords, and guns. The danger was completely different.

It was like two max-level heroes, one a blank slate and the other equipped with six godly items. Even if their skills were different, their strength was simply not on the same level. And in many Xianxia and mythology stories that Han Xiao had read in his previous life, the status of "magical treasures" was extremely important, even representing strength, especially in the Honghuang setting he had read.

In his opinion, the "Godly Artifact" represented by the Mechanic system was probably such a concept; otherwise, the advantage of mechanics in the later stages over the other four systems would not be so obvious.

Han Xiao composed himself, gathered these guesses, and his expression became slightly solemn.

He had some clues about the first two conditions, but the last condition gave him a headache.

Transcendent Remnant Force came from peak Super-A Grades who had failed to break through to a new grade and died. In the explored universe where the three great civilizations were located, as far as he knew, the only Super-A Grades with similar experiences seemed to be the former Sisters of Life and Death.

But Oniseiru said that the previous sisters were pursuing the true meaning of death, so they took the initiative to extinguish themselves. Han Xiao didn't know if that was an attempt to break through to a new grade.

Even if it was true, the physical remains of the previous sisters had already been burned by Oniseiru as firewood, and the two Esper abilities that retained their information states were inherited by Hela and Aurora. He didn't know if that counted as the so-called "Transcendent Remnant Force," and even if it did, how should he use it? Could he extract their abilities?

...Wait, thinking about it that way, if Hela and Aurora grew to this level in the future, wouldn't they inherently trigger the third condition?

"Tsk, comparing people is infuriating."

Han Xiao's eyelids twitched.

He had once tried to use the Underworld imprint as a medium to revive the previous sisters with the Sanctuary, but ultimately failed. It was possible that they were still alive, or that they retained their information states and integrated them into their abilities, so they lost the Sanctuary revival. Now, Han Xiao had another guess: that a peak Super-A Grade who failed to break through to a new grade and died might not be able to accept Sanctuary revival?

Perhaps the information state record in the Sanctuary had changed as a result, or perhaps those who failed to break through survived in another unknown way, such as this so-called Transcendent Remnant Force...

No one had set foot in the higher levels, and everything was full of mystery. Han Xiao could only guess at this time.

"However, the introduction says that only peak Super-A Grades in my current state of being able to advance can sense the Transcendent Remnant Force. I'll go to the Underworld to verify it later. If it's not there, I'm afraid I'll have to search the entire universe. In the worst case..."

Han Xiao's eyes sank.

The worst case was that the current iteration didn't have the so-called Transcendent Remnant Force. No one had failed to break through to a new grade and died. In that case, he would have to find another way.

Anyway, he had decided to trigger all the conditions as much as possible, and he would overcome any difficulties.

After all, the note reminded him that as long as one condition was missing, it would only be a normal advancement, and he wouldn't be able to break through the grade. According to his understanding, this meant that he wouldn't get the new grade bonus, and he wouldn't be able to open up the essential gap like Super-A Grades and Calamity Grades.

Various thoughts turned, Han Xiao composed himself and exhaled:

"In any case, I'll try to sense the Transcendent Remnant Force first."

After speaking, he calmed down and tried to find the Transcendent Remnant Force sensing mentioned in the introduction through the throbbing of the critical state.

Soon, Han Xiao felt his consciousness fall into an indescribable mystery. There seemed to be layers of mist in front of him, and vague shadows flickered in the mist, which were not clear.

He didn't know how long it had passed before Han Xiao suddenly captured a fleeting inspiration, widened his eyes, and finally found this sense. The fog dissipated, and everything became clear.

He originally thought that his senses would be barren, unable to sense several Transcendent Remnant Forces. However, at the moment of entering this sensory field, Han Xiao was shocked and knew that he was terribly wrong.

Buzz!

In an instant, dozens of sensory sources appeared in his senses, distributed in different directions. He only knew the direction, not the distance. They were all Transcendent Remnant Forces!

Han Xiao's eyes widened slightly, and a look of surprise flashed across his face. A bunch of thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant.

Did this mean that throughout the universe, at least dozens of peak Super-A Grades from unknown regions had reached his level and died due to impacting the new grade?!

Han Xiao's mood suddenly became complicated.

The story center he knew in his previous life was the three great civilizations, but that didn't mean that this was the center of the universe.

There were people beyond people, and skies beyond skies. In places he couldn't see, how many powerful civilizations were breeding and flourishing in the universe, and how many things were happening.

No one in the explored universe had broken through to a new grade. Was the more vast unexplored universe really the same?

Was this iteration... really just the beginning?

After a long time, he let out a strange sigh.

"...The universe is really big."