Chapter 563: Factions

There were several hundred million kilometers between Planet Taibai and the Sentinel.

Yu Jianglong hovered above the sky, with a stretch of phantom images reaching several thousand kilometers in diameter behind him.

Countless starlight flowed within the shadow, with the power contained in each beam far surpassing any Tier Three Legend.

Even if thousands or tens of thousands of Tier Three Legends rushed forward, they would be instantly crushed into dust by the starlight that leaked out.

At this moment, all of this starlight poured into Yu Jianglong's body, making every move of his resemble a star's explosion. Any release of energy could shake the Sentinel beneath him, which had a diameter of over ten thousand kilometers.

However, facing such overwhelming terrifying energy, Li Pin stood firm, looking like a lone boat in a storm. It almost seemed like he would be capsized by the tsunami-like energy flow at any moment, but he remained unaffected, drifting with the current.

Whoosh

Suddenly, a faint red glow flashed across Li Pin.

Stage Two Limit Break State.

His speed surged exponentially.

Following the torrent of energy, he cleaved through obstacles, riding the wind and waves, and in the blink of an eye, appeared before Yu Jianglong.

Seeing Li Pin suddenly appear, Yu Jianglong's eyes dilated, and he immediately pressed his hand down.

Behind him, a vast Starlight Domain projected down over thousands of kilometers, seemingly containing the weight of a star.

However, before the starlight could suppress Li Pin, Li Pin struck out decisively. He formed sword fingers with his hand and thrust forward.

The sword aura vibrated like a swimming dragon, striking the vast starlight and destroying the internal structure of the starlight. By the time this starlight reached Li Pin, it had already collapsed on its own, causing no harm to him.

He arrived before Yu Jianglong just like that.

With one more strike, he could penetrate Yu Jianglong's fused Natal Planet and destroy the body that condensed all the energy and essence of a Divine Being.

Li Pin stood right in front of Yu Jianglong, staring at him. "Is this all you have?"

Yu Jianglong sucked in a breath. "The Perfect Realm!?"

He had anticipated that he wouldn't be a match for Li Pin after hearing about the latter's glorious achievements from the patriarch. But he never imagined that the gap between them could be this vast.

Li Pin had already defeated him without even using the Solar Flare Divine Weapon.

It was worth noting that Yu Jianglong was a strengthened Divine Being! At his peak, his observable combat strength reached 195,000!

Even though reaching that figure depended on perfect conditions and precise timing, he nonetheless maintained a Power Level of over 180,000 in his normal condition.

This was the level of a standard Astral God's avatar.

Compared to ordinary Divine Beings, He could fight against three or four of these easily.

If it were not a siege or defensive battle but an encounter battle where terrain didn't matter, he alone would be worth ten Divine Beings.

But when he actually fought Li Pin... he discovered that the difference between them was vast!

Without any Divine Weapons, Li Pin's Power Level still exceeded 250,000.

Li Pin remarked, "The energy intensity you possess is indeed very high, but your application is poor. It's like Demigods and Legends above Tier Four. Even if your size is countless times greater than a Legend, you would still be at a disadvantage against Legends of the same stage."

Yu Jianglong nodded. " Indeed. The control of a Divine Being is inherently weak because our power comes from external sources instead of being something we cultivate step by step. There's a saying, 'Any gift already has a price secretly marked.'

"If you pursue lifespan and power, walking the Demigod path, you must make up for it later. That is unless you settle into complacency after reaching the Demigod Realm. At that point, there would be no desire for progress anyway."

Li Pin nodded.

Yu Jianglong's total energy capacity was truly very high.

Li Pin had a very good understanding of his own state.

With the Stage Three Limit Break State, the Perfect Realm brought by the World Heart, and the Ruoxi Sword, his combat strength would reach over 300,000. As for the specific value, he wasn't sure, but he was certain it wouldn't exceed 350,000.

He couldn't measure the exact number because he had never seen anyone stronger than him.

If the enhancement of the Perfect Realm brought by the World Heart and the Solar Flare Divine Weapon were excluded, his energy difference would still make him only slightly stronger than Yu Jianglong.

At least, he wouldn't be able to get an absolute advantage.

Li Pin thought,

If I also had energy intensity like Yu Jianglong's, combined with the Stage Three Limit Break State and some time to adapt to this Perfect Realm of energy....

Li Pin made a rough estimate.

At that time, his combat strength would definitely exceed 400,000. With the Ruoxi Sword, reaching 450,000 wouldn't be a dream.

450,000 combat strength would be the real ceiling in the material world. An ordinary Astral God's avatar would be easily crushed in one strike. The combat-specialized avatar of an Astral God would only require some additional effort. Moreover, as my energy intensity increases, my ability to withstand it will also grow, and at that time, I could further develop the Stage Four Limit Break State...

Thinking about it, Li Pin found it rather unreasonable.

His Limit Break State had already become normalized. Thus, he should downgrade the existing state. In other words, the future Stage Two Limit Break State would be called the Limit Break State, and the Stage Three Limit Break State would be called the Stage Two Limit Break State.

Next, he would continue to develop the Stage Three Limit Break State and work on further normalizing the previous Stage Two Limit Break State to achieve the goal of rapid upgrades.

Just as he thought of this, his gaze turned to the Starlight Domain behind Yu Jianglong. "This Starlight Domain is limiting you. You should increase your energy level while maintaining the same intensity."

Yu Jianglong sighed. "It's about improving control and compressing the range, but achieving this is easier said than done.

"When a cultivator comprehends inner spirit power, it is akin to walking the path of absolute control. Tier Four Legends are stronger than Tier Three Legends because they have stronger control, enabling them to accumulate more energy intensity.

"However, we, on the other hand, choose to increase energy intensity and control it piece by piece. Especially for Divine Beings like me who have refined large amounts of Astral World Fragments, we almost have to give up enhancing control and focus on energy intensity."

Yu Jianglong paused before continuing, "In fact, this also involves the ideological conflict of the entire universe."

"Ideology?" Li Pin thought for a moment and said, "You're referring to the Dao Lineage War?"

"It can be understood that way," Yu Jianglong replied. "The mainstream of the human race is to enhance control, but the vast universe is not just inhabited by humans. Some races focus on increasing their energy intensity and constantly expanding their size, until they transform into incomparably massive beings that overwhelm others with sheer quantity."

He glanced at Li Pin and asked, "If a Tier One Legend mastered the Perfect Realm, could they defeat a Demigod?"

"That's impossible," Li Pin replied.

"This is the difference," Yu Jianglong explained. "In the universe, the reason for the wars between humans and other races is, on one hand, a dispute over material and energy, and on the other hand, a struggle for space. Even the void of space, as long as it is large enough, still possesses immense power. A strike that can destroy a star would cause no ripples in the vast universe."

Li Pin nodded.

He had learned about alien races from the scriptures in the Divine Treasury Hall.

𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

The entire universe could be divided into two main factions—Existence and the Void.

The Transcendent Path Astral God Mi Meng once mentioned actually belongs to the Void faction.

Humans, unfortunately, belonged to the Existence faction.

This was why ordinary cultivators couldn't access the scriptures related to the Transcendent Path.

Additionally, those races that increased their total energy and expanded their size belonged to the Existence Faction too.

However, that didn't mean that humans and those other races would cooperate harmoniously or win together merely because they were from the same faction.

Aliens were still aliens.

"Then, what will happen if we keep increasing our energy and size limits?" Li Pin asked.

"It will collapse," Yu Jianglong explained. "Human beings, as intelligent lifeforms, are far inferior to those born divine or mechanical beings. Their emotions are too rich. Even though humans later mastered the inner spirit power and chose a single emotion to dominate, suppressing others to complete a mental loop and prevent emotions other than the main one from affecting them, over long years, the emotion they chose would still crush them."

He said with some emotion, "The higher the energy and size limits, the more you will encounter, and eventually, it will only accelerate this situation."

Li Pin pondered thoughtfully.

"The simplest example is in a completely fair society, where two life forms exist. One is an employee with a regular lifestyle, able to work nine to five. But what would happen if the other existence were a head of state? Can a head of state live like that? Can they ignore everything after work hours? Even if they manage to do so at work, what about in their social interactions?"

Yu Jianglong sighed. "Ordinary employees are left alone, living a simple life, but a head of state... has all sorts of social obligations. Eventually, time will not belong to them, life will not belong to them, and neither will their thoughts. After years, decades, centuries, who can bear such torment?"

Li Pin understood that Yu Jianglong's metaphor was meant to describe the concept of social circles.

Compared to having absolute control over their path and freely choosing their circle, those who continuously increase their energy and size limits could only passively expand their circle.

When the circle expanded to a certain degree, unless it was a mechanical mind or a divinely holy being, no intelligent life could withstand this way of life.

If they couldn't withstand it, they would inevitably collapse.

"Humans... have almost no notable talents in the universe. At least on the spiritual level, they're too weak," Yu Jianglong said.

"It's just that the paths are different," Li Pin disagreed.

Li Pin did not agree with Yu Jianglong's statement. If humans were truly weak, they wouldn't occupy such vast territories in the universe.

"These are just problems we need to be puzzled by and solve," Yu Jianglong said.

Yu Jianglong changed the topic and said with some envy, "With your precise control over your own energy, Sacred Li... I believe you're already ready to enter the Astral World. When do you plan to give it a try?"

"I plan on waiting a little longer," Li Pin replied.

Although he indeed had the qualification to integrate into the Astral World now, with high chances of success, he still had room to grow. Since he hadn't reached his limit yet, why rush into the Astral World and risk becoming an Astral God?

Yu Jianglong smiled. "Then I'll wait for your good news."

Li Pin nodded.

The conversation with the Yu Clan's patriarch was overall quite pleasant.

On their way back, Yu Jianglong discussed many things with Li Pin to build rapport. He spoke of the interesting things about the great clans of the Yuan Yang Star Domain, giving Li Pin sufficient knowledge about it.

However, despite being the head of the Yu Clan, Yu Jianglong was still only a Divine Being. Most of the information he mentioned was focused on the Divine Beings and Tier Six Legend stages, with very little information on the Astral Gods.

Astral Gods and the Divine Beings—one being active in the Astral World, the other in the Material World—were ultimately two different worlds.

And the true rulers of the major star domains and star abysses in this world had always been the Astral Gods.

No matter how powerful the Divine Beings or Legends were, they could only assist the Astral Gods, helping them maintain their rule and influence in the Material World.