This information, which clearly presented Fang Yu's Life Level, martial technique, and Soul Level, was not the kind of "system panel" found in some novels—a single verification that lasted forever.
It was more like a message passed to him by that slumbering star aspect, which had peered into his body and soul.
Like a precision life-detection instrument, it let Fang Yu know his own condition at any time.
It offered no other direct help.
"I wonder just what Life Level I'd have to reach before I can see this Void Star Aspect clearly," Fang Yu mused.
The Void Star Aspect was the source of the flourishing of star-sky martial arts over the past century and more—the source of martial arts reaching the divine.
According to what was recorded in the Martial Arts General Knowledge courses Fang Yu had studied since childhood:
Before the Great Sky-Burning Era,
in ancient martial arts there were some unbelievable grandmasters whose martial technique surpassed the Inner Scene and reached the state where "before the autumn wind stirs, the cicada senses it first." They could even lock all the qi and blood in their bodies, drive it up to cleanse the marrow, and overturn heaven and earth, easily pushing their own lifespan past two hundred years.
But!
Their punch force was at most two or three thousand kilograms—enough only to compare with an Intermediate Martial Artist of this era.
Why?
What they lacked was the Void Star Aspect.
"According to scientific research and what we were taught in Martial Arts General Knowledge, there is a mysterious energy in the rivers of stars—'star force'—that we humans can hardly absorb on our own," Fang Yu thought. "Only after one's Life Level reaches level 10 and one awakens a 'Void Star Aspect' can one visualize the star aspect, use it to reflect the hundred stars of the body, and thereby open the star acupoints to gradually absorb star force from the cosmos."
"This is star force entering the body."
Once star force merged into every cell of the body, it drove evolution in every direction: bone strength, the toughness of the periosteum, cell vitality, muscular explosive power, skin resilience, and more would keep soaring, constantly breaking through the limits of life.
It even caused the very essence of one's genes to keep transforming.
That was the reason human life evolution had advanced so rapidly in the hundred-odd years since the Great Sky-Burning Era.
Until, decades ago, beings whose flesh could withstand a nuclear bomb were born—Star-Sky Martial Artists!
"In terms of martial technique, Sky-Patrolling Martial Artists may not even match some of the grandmasters produced over thousands of years of ancient martial history," Fang Yu sighed inwardly. "But those grandmasters would die if they ran into an ordinary firearm."
A Sky-Patrolling Martial Artist, however, could fly at supersonic speeds and even briefly live in outer space.
The two were no longer the same species.
The difference lay in the Void Star Aspect.
"If I had no Void Star Aspect, or awakened a low-tier one," Fang Yu thought silently, "then I wouldn't ask for much from the martial path."
Not everyone in the Blue Moon Alliance could visualize a Void Star Aspect.
A considerable portion of people had no Void Star Aspect at all.
Even among those who could, most people's Void Star Aspects were utterly ordinary and offered little help; the star acupoints they reflected were usually weak, and their efficiency at absorbing star force was extremely low.
Age mattered greatly in a martial artist's cultivation.
If one could not reach a fairly high level of martial cultivation before the Silver Age Bracket ended at thirty, one's future in martial arts would only grow dimmer afterward.
That was also why martial artists were relatively few.
Parents and students alike had to consider the "return on investment."
Even with substantial state support, under normal circumstances it took an investment of hundreds of thousands of Star Coins for a student to get into a Martial Junior College; getting into a Martial Undergraduate program cost even more.
If in the end one could not even reach level 15, and had not studied any other academic field, the investment would be a total loss.
So,
once many parents found that their child had shown no great talent in middle or high school, they would give up on the martial path for them, asking only that the child reach level 10 to obtain the "parent certificate."
"And yet, I can visualize a Void Star Aspect," Fang Yu thought.
It was just that Fang Yu's Void Star Aspect was not merely asleep.
When Fang Yu visualized it, the star aspect was also extremely blurry... Over the years, as his strength improved, it had gradually become clearer, and only recently had he been able to see it in full.
"My Void Star Aspect, while asleep, actually has the ability to monitor my cultivation progress," Fang Yu thought. "And it can even grant me an innate divine ability?"
"Even among the twelve superior star aspects, I've never heard of anything so extraordinary."
The Void Star Aspects martial artists awakened were wildly varied.
Each had its own strengths.
But over the decades, with technological development and the collection of all kinds of big data, the Blue Moon Alliance had gradually recorded, catalogued, and ranked the various Void Star Aspects.
Today,
Void Star Aspects were divided into lower-tier, mid-tier, and superior aspects... The higher the tier, the rarer the aspect and the greater its power generally was; there were twelve publicly known superior star aspects.
There were more than eighty mid-tier aspects, and the number of lower-tier aspects was far greater... In the required Martial Junior College course "Void Hundred Aspects," nearly a thousand lower-tier aspects were recorded.
Memorizing every star aspect in the Void Hundred Aspects and understanding star aspect knowledge was a required course for every Martial Junior College student.
Innate divine abilities were precisely the "standard equipment" of superior star aspects.
Yet judging from the blurry outward appearance he could see of Fang Yu's Void Star Aspect, and from the innate divine ability it possessed... it did not belong to any of the twelve superior star aspects.
It was an unknown star aspect.
Beyond the hundred aspects.
After all,
according to the Void Hundred Aspects, even a martial artist who awakened a superior star aspect had to reach level 30 before they could begin to awaken an innate divine ability; until then they at most had some "innate traits,"
such as greater cell activity, greater strength, greater speed, stronger soul power, or stronger star acupoints.
"And I had the innate divine ability 'Devour' when I was only level 8."
For a moment, Fang Yu's thoughts drifted. "Without this innate divine ability, relying only on the funds my father gave me and my martial technique... I could never have cultivated my Life Level to 15.9 using nothing but the Basic Twenty-Four Fist Forms."
"I'd probably have topped out at level 12 or 13."
The New Calendar era was different from ancient times.
After the great excavation of the Primordial Star, many incredible heaven-and-earth treasures emerged, allowing many wealthy people—even without a Void Star Aspect and without any profound martial technique—to raise their bodies to level 20 or even level 30.
Only,
without star force entering the body to strengthen the flesh, relying purely on rare treasures to raise physical toughness cost an astonishing amount; the money required was astronomical.
Precisely because of this, Fang Yu had long ago concluded that the slumbering Void Star Aspect he possessed was far from ordinary.
"But no matter how unusual the star aspect is, if it never fully awakens, it's ultimately a flower in a mirror," Fang Yu thought. "Even with the innate divine ability's help, the cultivation benefits of the vital-energy compound and the Bone-Strengthening Pills are growing weaker and weaker."
"Because of the networks, my father's business keeps getting worse and worse."
"My younger brother and sister are both fifteen already and will soon formally begin cultivating martial arts; the family's expenses are going to climb sharply..." Fang Yu frowned slightly. He had been somewhat anxious all along.
True, his visualization of the Void Star Aspect was growing ever clearer.
But who could say what level would be needed for it to awaken? Level 18? Level 20? Even level 30?
"Great Accomplishment of Entering the Minute has improved my chances considerably," Fang Yu thought. "I hope the Junior-College-to-Undergraduate Upgrade application succeeds... If I can get into an undergraduate program, I'll have state resources supporting me."
"That will take a lot of pressure off my father, too."
As Fang Yu was lost in thought,
"Dear passenger, the Shenzhou driverless car reminds you that your destination has been reached. Please check your belongings..." The taxi's notification sounded.
Only then did Fang Yu come back to himself.
He got out of the car.
He looked up at the residential compound not far off, made up of one detached villa after another—Zhonglin Yujing.
It stood on the edge of Guangling's urban district, a rather out-of-the-way villa community; most of the people living here were middle-class families with some money, but not much... This was where Fang Yu's home was.
Chapter 5