Swallowed Star | The Catastrophe-Level Mission: Nine Smoke Marsh!

Name: Swallowed Star | The Catastrophe-Level Mission: Nine Smoke Marsh! | Episode 264
Uploaded: 2026-10-25T15:37:22+00:00
Duration: 48 min 46 s
Channel: Novel King

00:00Two-thirds of the people who tried to enter this army are dead, and the ones who survived are

00:04laughing about it. Out in a scorched desert, the survivors whooped and cheered. We made it into

00:09the East Army. One of them shuddered at the memory of a terrifying swordsman who would

00:14have wiped them all out if he hadn't been busy fighting Wu He of Northern True Ocean.

00:20Pure luck, and they knew it. Only a few mourned the companions who had been annihilated.

00:25That isn't coldness. In the world of Jyn, everyone knows one legend by heart. Annihilation

00:31is just reincarnation showing its face, so the dead get a quiet blessing instead of a funeral.

00:36These warriors had watched scores of friends vanish since childhood, and anyone walking

00:42the path of great beings accepts a high chance of the same fate. Just getting into the army

00:47had already killed two-thirds of the contenders. If that's the entrance fee, you can guess the

00:52price of staying. That's why the celebration is worth watching. The cheering assumes the

00:56hard part is over. Keep that thought in mind, because the next few minutes will quietly take

01:01it apart. A giant arched door appeared in the empty desert, and three true gods strode

01:07out, bellowing at everyone to hurry. The survivors rushed over without complaint.

01:12Another round of selection was coming. One of the true gods wore dark red armor, had a thick

01:18tail, and carried a single red eye in the middle of his forehead. He fixed it on Luo

01:23Feng and his battered, strange-looking beast companion. You two, follow me. I'm taking you

01:28to the Python River Army. Both answered at once, and both followed him through the door.

01:34Behind them, a voice called out.

01:36Milky Way, good luck.

01:38Luo Feng shouted the same thing back, and that was the last he'd see of Northern Wind for a while.

01:43Inside the army, nobody chooses their own path. Northern Wind was an elite, but not the genius

01:50Python River Army wanted, so he wouldn't be accepted at first. Strong performance later could

01:56still win him a place in a special troop. The catch was that by then it might be another special

02:01troop altogether. The army doesn't wait for you to be ready. Luo Feng and the beast flew behind the

02:06one-eyed true god at the speed of light. Luo Feng noticed that the space around them was sealed

02:11completely. Inside the army camp, teleportation simply didn't work. Then the beast spoke up proudly.

02:17I'm Wu. He from the Northern True Ocean. My father is the master of Northern True Ocean.

02:23Luo Feng grinned. I'm Milky Way. Anywhere can be home to me. That line fits the world.

02:29Tribes and beasts go to war all the time, and some tribespeople lose their homes and become refugees.

02:36Others choose to roam, using the road as a way to sharpen themselves.

02:39Wu he nodded his hideous head and offered a compliment, and Luo Feng returned it. Then Wu he

02:45got down to business. The East Army, he explained, has many special troops, and Python River Army is

02:52just one of them. During the first screening, the army spots the extraordinary talents, and most of

02:58them get scattered to other troops. Only a rare few land in a special troop like theirs. That's why the

03:04two of them were the only new recruits. Newcomers get looked down on by veterans, so he said they should

03:09join forces. Luo Feng was startled. Join forces. A soldier's life, Wu he said, is a life of battle.

03:16The veterans were outstanding before they were even accepted. Since then, they've had the army's

03:21inheritance. Years of cultivation, and a stockpile of experience from fighting battles where mistakes

03:27mean death. Put those together, and you get warriors who are truly formidable. Luo Feng nodded politely,

03:33but privately, he scoffed. Impressive? Maybe. But someone carrying the inheritance of Duandong?

03:39River still ranked above them. They could only close that gap if they held automaton-type treasures,

03:45the kind that let a warrior skip past levels and unleash greater power. The camp was said to be

03:52endlessly vast. They flew when the true god flew, and rode wormholes when he did. After half a day,

03:58they reached a towering hall crowded with people and beasts. Wait here, the true god ordered,

04:04and he went in alone. Luo Feng asked what the place was. Wu he swayed his head, and the two

04:09wings

04:10on his neck began to fan. It was a military point, he said, where Python River Army's supplies were kept,

04:16and the warriors streaming in were changing their military arms. Then he lowered his voice and explained

04:22how the whole system works. Every warrior in this army grows through battle, and battle means the

04:28risk of annihilation. An ordinary warrior facing a dangerous fight has a high chance of dying. A

04:34Python River Warrior facing the same fight has a much better chance of surviving. But Python River Army

04:40gets sent into far more dangerous fights, so the advantage cancels itself out. Here's the real shape of

04:46the deal. The stronger you are, the harder the army pushes you. The reward is military credits.

04:52Warriors earn them from the spoils of victory and spend them on armaments. The more credits you have,

04:58the more outstanding you're considered, and the more benefits you can claim. You can even buy a team

05:04of true gods as personal bodyguards, though the price is fearsome. Luo Feng smiled at that.

05:10Bodyguards? What a pity natives would die the moment they stepped out of the world of Jin.

05:15So he asked about automaton-type treasures. Woo, his cold eyes lit up. Powerful ones exist,

05:21he said. But the credit cost is outrageous, and the more magical the treasure, the more precious.

05:27His own father once seized a powerful one, and even after retiring from the battlefield,

05:32he was still a dominating figure across northern true ocean. But even true gods need an extremely long

05:39time to save up that much credit. For mere lawmasters like them, it would be slower still.

05:43Possible? But it would take a long, long time.

05:47Luo Feng took every word to heart. The world of Jin is incomparably ancient. A place where one

05:53reincarnation era counts as an ordinary stretch of time, and where true gods are common and true

05:59gods of void space aren't rare. If even Wu He called this wait very, very long, then it truly was

06:05long.

06:06And Luo Feng, who came from Universe Ocean, was short on exactly one thing, time.

06:12He's coming, Wu He said. The one-eyed true god walked out of the hall and waved a hand,

06:18sending two streams of light down before the pair. You're only lawmasters. But you're joining the

06:24Python River Army. So you get true god-level armor? The Python River Armor. It will keep you alive longer

06:31in a life-and-death fight. And as new recruits, you'll need it. Survive. Now follow me. Notice how

06:37the armor is described. Not as a prize, but as a way to keep you alive. Because the army expects

06:43your

06:43life to be on the line. Luo Feng felt its oppressive force in his hands. In Universe Ocean, this would

06:49be

06:49supreme true treasure armor. Here it was a true god-standard issue. An ordinary lawmaster normally

06:56wouldn't qualify to own it. But a special troop plays by special rules. He murmured to himself,

07:02working it out. If armor comes in grades, like true god-level and true god-avoid space-level,

07:08then supreme true treasures must vary in strength, too. This one was an ordinary supreme true treasure.

07:14In the same class as Black Prison Tower and Yan Jun Rod, Shu Wu Wings and Star, tower were plainly

07:21a cut

07:21above. Bind it to yourselves quickly, the true god said. Every warrior of Python River Army wears it.

07:29Wu He sent a private message to Luo Feng. It wasn't even as good as his own. Luo Feng smiled

07:35quietly.

07:35He hadn't brought Shi Wu Wings or Star Tower into the army, so he really did need this armor.

07:41Binding it was easy. About as hard as binding Yan Jun Rod, he stored away his crazy demon extermination.

07:48Godly armor and the Python River armor spread across his body. It was dark red, covered in circular

07:55black lines, and the helmet was a skull shaped like a strange python. Beside him, Wu He's whole body

08:02turned dark red with the same black lines. After three more days of travel, they reached a vast lake

08:08dotted with islands. There were as many as trillions of them, and the lake was so wide it had to

08:14be

08:14measured in light years. Dark red figures moved across the islands, and Luo Feng knew exactly who

08:20they were. Warriors of Python River Army, all in the same armor and the same Python helmets.

08:27New recruits for you? The one-eyed true god boomed across the entire lake. Split your large team into

08:33six smaller. Groups and assign them, he glanced. At Luo Feng and Wu He. I hope I'll see you too.

08:40Again. Then he blurred into a streak of light and was gone. Soon, more than twenty figures appeared

08:47in the distance, teleporting in. The camp forbade teleportation, but in this part of the lake it

08:53worked. Humanoids and beasts alike took positions around the two, recruits, and studied them closely.

08:59Wu He raised his chin. My father is the master of northern true ocean. A tall, burly man answered

09:06flatly. In this army your father can't help you, however impressive he is. Both of you give your

09:11names and tell us what you're good at. That sentence is the army's whole philosophy in miniature.

09:16Status doesn't matter here. Only what you can do does. Wu He roared his name, then stumbled.

09:21His specialty was... Well, his godly body was big, more than a million kilometers long.

09:27Big certainly, the burly man said and turned to Luo Feng.

09:31Milky Way, I'm stronger than Wu He overall, and I'm better at evading in close combat.

09:37Gray eyes gazed down from beneath a gigantic pair of curved horns.

09:42Both of you have talent at the ordinary standard of Python River Army, but in half a month.

09:48Six of our troops go out on a mission. You've got that long to sharpen yourselves as much as you

09:52can.

09:53The moment you join us you land a mission-rated catastrophe.

09:56He paused. How unlucky can you be? So much for the celebration in the desert.

10:02They had survived selection, and as a reward, they'd been sent somewhere worse.

10:06Their first assignment is a catastrophe-level mission, and they have half a month to get ready.

10:12Catastrophe level? Wu He's voice cracked. Nobody answered.

10:17The giant at the front, captain of the sixth squad of the first team, spoke coldly.

10:21Everything a soldier. Needed to know about the army's rules was in what he was about to hand over.

10:28Learn it yourselves, and unless something truly special happens, don't disturb the others.

10:33Two crystal balls, each the size of a finger, floated over, and Luo Feng and Wu He took one apiece.

10:39Back to training!

10:40Prepare!

10:42The captain barked.

10:43Some soldiers answered.

10:45Others simply didn't.

10:46That small gap said plenty.

10:49The captain's rank was real.

10:50But his authority didn't reach every soldier under him.

10:54Then a clear voice cut in from a woman with green skin and green wings, reminding everyone that the catastrophe

11:00-level task was coming.

11:02Someone asked what everyone was thinking.

11:04Could two newcomers possibly survive it?

11:06They hadn't received the basic inheritance, and there was no time to train.

11:10It wasn't cruelty.

11:11It was arithmetic, done out loud by people who had watched others fail.

11:16One by one, the veterans shook their heads, teleported away, and wanted nothing to do with the pair.

11:22The captain gave the two a last look, told them to prepare, and vanished too.

11:27Luo Feng murmured that they seemed to have terrible luck, then asked what catastrophe-level really meant.

11:33Terrible luck, Wu He agreed, bellowing it.

11:36He laid out the army's rhythm.

11:38Every era, the army carries out a prepared task, ordered to attack a specific place.

11:44Once every ten thousand eras, a very dangerous task arrives, and that is catastrophe-level.

11:50Once every one hundred million eras, a more horrifying one arrives, incarnation-level.

11:55It means you're going to your incarnation, he said, glancing at Luo Feng.

12:00In the world of Jin, incarnation is the polite word for death, so the name alone tells you how dangerous

12:07that task is.

12:08Then Wu He's nerves revealed the real shape of this army.

12:11In an ordinary army, even an incarnation-level task would be tolerable.

12:16But Python River Army isn't ordinary.

12:18Its everyday tasks already match an ordinary army's incarnation level.

12:23So a catastrophe-level task is a true catastrophe for talents like them.

12:28And an incarnation-level one is a nightmare.

12:31Half of the experienced soldiers die in those.

12:34In an ordinary army, those who train long enough become supreme beings among law universes.

12:40Strong enough to survive incarnation-level tasks.

12:43But the stronger you grow, the harder the tasks get.

12:46And at the law universe level, there's a ceiling no matter how strong you are.

12:50Many die anyway.

12:52Luo Feng felt the chill of it.

12:53Only a few out of a hundred who joined the ordinary army lived to retire.

12:57And a special army was worse.

12:59The godly king of the world of Jyn had built a mad screening process.

13:03And it was now showing its second layer.

13:06The first filter was selection.

13:08The second is simply the work.

13:10But Wu He's eyes glinted madly and not from fear.

13:13More dangerous, yes.

13:15But also easier to win a precious inheritance and powerful valuables.

13:19The supreme beings of the world of Jyn, the true gods of void space, were all picked from special armies.

13:27Ordinary armies stay mediocre for life.

13:29His father was master of northern true ocean.

13:32And Wu he meant to become as strong as him, or stronger.

13:36That's the army's bargain.

13:38Stated without disguise, danger is the price.

13:41And the top of the ladder is where it gets paid.

13:44Wu He accepts it out of ambition.

13:46Luo Feng smiled at him.

13:47Let's go.

13:48We need to pick an island first.

13:50The crystal balls held complex information, though not much of it.

13:54Covering the army's rules and regulations.

13:56Both grasped it at once with their godly power.

13:59The lake belonged to Python River Army, which had three teams, each holding its own area.

14:05The first team had nine squads, each with its own territory.

14:09And any soldier could claim an island without an owner and practice on it.

14:13They teleported, two red streaks crossing the sky.

14:16This is how special armies are treated differently.

14:19A soldier can own an island while other great beings are banned from entering.

14:24Luo Feng looked down, satisfied.

14:26Wu He chose one farther away.

14:28Luo Feng's island was a little over 100,000 kilometers across.

14:32Small by this lake's standards.

14:34At its center stood a plain stone house.

14:36He could rebuild it if he wanted, but he didn't care.

14:38He only needed a place to rest.

14:40His godly power spread into the island's depths.

14:43He touched a prismatic crystal stone, and it changed color.

14:47From that moment, the island had an owner.

14:50On the roof, his godly body swelled to a hundred kilometers, and he stretched out on a giant stone

14:56chair like a bed.

14:57Endless lakes and islands stretched in every direction.

15:00He had entered the world of Jyn and the Python River Army.

15:04And in a year, a task would come.

15:07His thoughts turned to the road ahead.

15:08Supreme true treasures and machine-type valuables all required military credits.

15:14The army owned every door he wanted and charged for each in the same currency.

15:19Danger.

15:20What he wanted most, though, were the blood and scale armors of true gods, and as many

15:26true god bodies as he could gather to carry back to his original universe.

15:30His reason runs deep.

15:31Over eight million eras, he had devoted most of his energy to the composition of life forms.

15:37Humans are flesh-and-blood life.

15:39And even once he becomes a true god and merges all his bodies into one, he'll remain flesh

15:44and blood.

15:45That's the life he understands best.

15:47Using the structure of life genes, he could convert the new remote, ocean body into flesh

15:53and blood and push its life.

15:54Gene level to 10,081 times.

15:57The Moshe body was another matter.

15:59It's an energy-type life.

16:00He had spent less time on it.

16:02His understanding was elementary, and its life gene level sat at only 5,000 times.

16:08That worried him.

16:09He had improved too slowly.

16:11He hadn't passed 10,081 times, let alone reached 90,000, and the higher the gene level,

16:17the harder the next climb.

16:19Cracking his original level had been quick work.

16:21Once he fully analyzed it, he reorganized the remote ocean body, as if turning wood into

16:27diamond, into a godly body at the perfect level.

16:30But pushing beyond 10,081 to 15,000 and higher was a different order of difficulty.

16:37He saw it as four steps.

16:39First, surpass the perfect level.

16:41Second, reach 30,000 times.

16:44Third, 60,000.

16:46Fourth, 90,000.

16:47True gods understand gene structure far better than universe masters, and their bodies could

16:53show him how to break through.

16:54But he held only the body of Great Thunderstar Master in the hair and blood of Sitting Mountain.

17:00Guest and Primal Chaos City leader.

17:02Nowhere near enough.

17:03He knew the steps.

17:05First, analyze billions of life forms and billions of material structures.

17:10Second, create life forms.

17:11And creation comes in grades.

17:13The Life 9 remoteness master made born in the ocean.

17:17Was energy type and couldn't procreate.

17:19That's the easiest kind to make.

17:21Life that can procreate is the hardest.

17:23Because it requires studying the origin of life itself, which is far more complicated.

17:29Though analyzing many life forms helps.

17:31He estimated his godly body could evolve to at least 50,000 times.

17:36And only then could he create procreating life.

17:39Which would lift him higher along the godly power path.

17:42True god bodies and military credits.

17:44That was the whole list.

17:46And both items sat at the end of the same dangerous road.

17:49He decided to check the basic inheritance and flew off like a streak of light.

17:54At the island's center, pillars ringed the ground.

17:56Each holding a crystal ball, around a hundred in all.

18:00Wu-hi was already there, coiled around one, shaking his head.

18:04Seeing Luo-feng, he released the pillar.

18:06Claws gripping the ground.

18:08Neck wings fluttering and shot over.

18:10What took you so long?

18:11He demanded.

18:12The catastrophe-level task was coming, and every moment mattered.

18:16Basic or not, the inheritance was a lot.

18:19And even his father couldn't have taught him this.

18:22Inheritance in the army is bought with military credits.

18:24A special army gets the basic one free the moment a soldier enters.

18:28The more complicated the inheritance, the more credits it costs.

18:32Then he hurried back to his comprehension.

18:35Luo-feng spread his godly power through every crystal ball.

18:37And information flooded in.

18:40True treasure-making.

18:41Machine-making, close combat, illusions, combination techniques, and burning godly power techniques.

18:48He had expected something mediocre, but it was truly useful.

18:51The combat, combination, and burning techniques could all raise his fighting strength.

18:57And the training covered how to become a true god.

18:59The burning godly power technique, though, held only one level.

19:03Like the first volume of Duan-mi, lawmasters could learn the first level.

19:09True god's the second.

19:10Anything beyond required military credits.

19:12The first taste is free.

19:14Everything after it has a price.

19:16And the army has already said what the price is.

19:19Every line of the Python River.

19:21Army's fundamental inheritance now sat in his memory.

19:24And what he found there made him go quiet.

19:27Beside the Duan-dong River pulse inheritance, it ranked a notch lower.

19:31But he had spent time inside a memory stone of staggering size, and measured against that.

19:37And against everything he understood of ancient civilization, this was top-notch.

19:42In a world that old, powerful inheritance doesn't circulate freely.

19:46An army's inheritance is guarded harder than most.

19:49And Python River armies count it as superior.

19:52Even so, it was only the first, most basic slice.

19:55Everything past that line had to be bought with military credits.

19:58Meanwhile, the Duan-dong River inheritance was classed as a super-inheritance.

20:03And Luo Feng held the entire set.

20:06So he was a man with a mountain, studying a hill, and the hill could get him killed.

20:10Inside it lay the secret technique of blazing godly power.

20:14Master it.

20:15And he could carry out the first stage of extermination.

20:18But the world of Jin polices its inheritance without mercy.

20:22If he burned his godly power and couldn't say where he'd learned the method,

20:26the sentence was death.

20:27That was why he studied in the open, putting on a show for anyone watching.

20:32Learning the army's own version in plain sight meant that when the day came,

20:36he would have an answer to the one question that could end him.

20:40Where did you learn that?

20:41While he performed his lesson, someone was already crossing a great distance to speak with him,

20:47far away in the human territory of the primal universe.

20:50Inside Milky Way, Holy Land, his new remote ocean body sat cross-legged in a tall hall on the ninth

20:57story, with nothing around it but open space.

21:00It opened its eyes at once, stood, and looked into the distance.

21:04A streak of light arrived.

21:06It was double-faced ancestral god of the ancestral god school,

21:10stepping onto the black jade floor with a smile.

21:13Why come calling?

21:15Luofeng asked, smiling back.

21:17We're good friends.

21:18Can't I visit with no reason at all?

21:20Of course.

21:21Stay as long as you like.

21:23Luofeng meant it.

21:24This ancestral god had once saved his life,

21:27and of the three great ancestral gods, he liked this one best.

21:31That warmth matters, because it made what came next cut deeper.

21:35I do have a purpose, said double-faced ancestral god.

21:40You've gained a great deal, horde leader, so much that it alarmed the willpower of the primal

21:45universe origin.

21:46I'm here to speak for it.

21:48Luofeng froze.

21:49Speak for the origin's willpower?

21:51And who had been counting his gains?

21:53The answer was uncomfortable, and he had half seen it already, when he'd tried to comprehend

21:58the memory.

21:59Stones in the boat of mausoleums.

22:02Inheritance space.

22:03The deeper content stayed sealed.

22:05That told him the origin's willpower still held influence over him, and the world of

22:09jinn lies inside the universe ocean, under that same guidance, so total absence of control

22:15would have been the strange thing.

22:17He had felt unconstrained there.

22:19That feeling he now saw proved nothing.

22:22I've gained a lot, how so?

22:24You should know, the ancestral god said, unbothered.

22:27By the origin's reckoning, among all the great beings of the first batch to enter the universe

22:33ocean, you are one of the biggest gainers.

22:36Luofeng squinted and counted.

22:38The first thing in his hands was the Python River armor.

22:41It was true god level.

22:43Counted as a supreme true treasure.

22:45But when he extended Shuwu wings into a suit of armor, that suit was clearly stronger.

22:50Here is how that works.

22:52Attacks are measured in tiers of combat power, and armor guarantees safety only against attacks

22:57below a certain tier.

22:59Shuwu wings' armor kept his godly body safe from anything weaker than the eighth tier,

23:04while the Python River armor covered only what fell below the seventh.

23:08Their weakening effect was equal, but the Python River armor's limit of endurance fell far short.

23:14He wouldn't have known without the comparison.

23:16A gift measured against what he already owned showed him two things at once.

23:20What the gift was worth, and how rare Shuwu wings truly was.

23:25But armor wasn't the real prize.

23:27The real prize was identity.

23:29A warrior of a special, troop gets far better access to both military,

23:33credits and exchangeable inheritance.

23:35About two hundred great beings from the universe ocean's top powers had entered.

23:40Some were already annihilated.

23:42A few had slipped into the army.

23:44But into a troop as special as this one?

23:46Only Luofeng.

23:47His thoughts sharpened.

23:49Ancestral god, what's your true intention?

23:52The ancestral god's whole being pressed down on him with a

23:55force far beyond a true god of void space, bordering on transcendence.

24:00It wasn't something he'd earned.

24:02The origin had bestowed it.

24:04Remember that detail.

24:06The origin doesn't act itself.

24:08It lends power to hands it chooses.

24:10I've come under the origin's orders to guide you, he said slowly.

24:15In a normal reincarnation era, a fourth most dangerous land never appears.

24:20This era isn't normal so one has.

24:23It's a great opportunity and it's a great disaster.

24:26The last words landed like a hammer on Luofeng's heart.

24:29He frowned and laid out the evidence.

24:31The humanoid life form had appeared.

24:33The origin's willpower had guided them and shown them the way into the world of jinn.

24:39For, something so detached, such effort was out of character, so it had a reason.

24:44And its record was plain.

24:46It had once suppressed teacher origin.

24:48It had killed Yuan Ao Master and banished a strange object.

24:52It had wanted to annihilate three great beings like Great Thunderstar Master.

24:56A power with that history isn't neutral.

24:59It has a side.

25:00Say it plainly, Luofeng said.

25:03What do you want from me?

25:04You will become the number one master of the entire universe ocean.

25:09You can't deny it.

25:10In time, your power will exceed teacher origins.

25:13The coming disasters fall to you and you will meet them through the world of jinn.

25:18Follow its rules and take every benefit.

25:21That makes you stronger.

25:23Your strength is the origin's hope.

25:25You're a child of the primal universe and whatever harms it harms you, too.

25:29Everything is in the world of jinn.

25:31You must get stronger.

25:32Then he smiled, became flowing light, and was gone.

25:36Luofeng stood silent, watching the empty sky.

25:39The willpower of the origin truly values me, he murmured.

25:43But he understood what that kind of value means.

25:45The origin cannot make moves on its own, so everything it wants done must pass through

25:50other hands.

25:51It had marked him as the strongest being of the future, and that was why it kept helping

25:56and guiding him.

25:57It wanted a keen tool, something sharp that could cut down its enemies.

26:01Even the line about being a child of the primal universe, where what harmed it harmed him,

26:06was built to say they stood on the same side.

26:09He asked himself again and again whether that was true.

26:12Should he simply believe it?

26:14Before Great Thunderstar Master was annihilated, the power he wielded had been something entirely

26:19different from godly power.

26:21The guidance had arrived unasked.

26:23Everything had a purpose.

26:25Yet his conclusion was practical.

26:27Whatever the origin's motive, the instruction was one he would follow anyway.

26:31If he grew strong enough to be number one in the universe ocean,

26:35he would hold the right to speak, and the one being used would become the one deciding.

26:40He felt no resentment.

26:41He would wait, watch, and sharpen himself.

26:44There was nothing wrong with becoming stronger.

26:47Meanwhile, in the virtual universe, on the peak of Thunder Island,

26:51Luofeng met Primal Chaos City leader.

26:53He had stored the record of the Python River Armies,

26:56inheritance there, and sent it to his teacher.

26:59The secret technique of blazing godly power.

27:01Even among ancient civilizations, he explained gravely,

27:05only an extremely strong being could create such a method.

27:08But once the teacher entered the world of Jin, he must never use it.

27:13The army would investigate with the most severe scrutiny,

27:16and anyone unable to name the source would be put to death.

27:20Inside the army especially, the world of Jin is strict with its inheritance.

27:24Rest assured, the teacher said, nodding.

27:26Then Luofeng reported the visit.

27:28A great disaster was coming, and he was told to raise his power in the world of Jin.

27:34Primal Chaos City leader gave a hostile snort.

27:36He had already spoken with Teacher Origin.

27:38There was no need to fret over a disaster.

27:41The Origin's willpower was only trying to frighten him.

27:44Even if one came, it might not be aimed at them.

27:47East Emperor Holy Land had survived countless reincarnation eras,

27:52and it was still thriving.

27:53According to Teacher Origin, the Origin's willpower was not invincible.

27:57But growing stronger?

27:59That was never wrong.

28:00Luofeng nodded.

28:02Here were two readings of the same message.

28:04A threat meant to frighten, or an honest warning.

28:08Both led down the same road.

28:10And the Origin might want him as its weapon,

28:13but a weapon only works if the hand wielding it consents.

28:16Whether he'd be used depended on whether he was willing.

28:19The teacher added a warning.

28:21More and more great.

28:23Beings were being annihilated.

28:25In the world of Jin, the Divine Eye Clan had sent in its army,

28:29and the moment it arrived it was killed in the military camp,

28:32with only a handful surviving.

28:34The top powers of the Universe Ocean would have to wait another century to enter.

28:39In the meantime, Luofeng held a lead,

28:42and he had to seize the right opportunity.

28:44Luofeng smiled.

28:46The pitiful Divine Eye Clan killed inside the camp?

28:49That told him the ordinary army was looser and more scattered,

28:52and its discipline against killing inside the camp was weak.

28:56The special army forbade its soldiers from killing each other there.

29:00Standing out to reach a special army wasn't only about better cultivation.

29:04It meant the difference between facing enemies only outside or facing them within.

29:08Only those who rose above the crowd earned truly specialized training.

29:12Back on the island of the Fundamental Inheritance,

29:15in the Python River Army's camp for lawmasters,

29:18the top powers might be anxious.

29:20But Luofeng had arrived in calm.

29:23Wu Ha flew over from afar.

29:25Milky Way, tomorrow's the day we receive our military mission.

29:28A catastrophe level one.

29:30Have you gained anything from cultivating the inheritance?

29:33I've mastered the secret technique of blazing godly power.

29:37Luofeng said casually.

29:39Wu Ha's eyes flew wide and the wings on his neck stopped fanning.

29:42It had barely been any time.

29:44Then half-dazed, he said what he really thought.

29:47Even before Luofeng had that technique, he had beaten him.

29:51That blade of his was terrifying.

29:53So tightly condensed that it pierced.

29:56Wu Ha's armor without leaving a mark outside,

29:58yet burned his godly body down from within.

30:01And his close combat dodging let him shift so quickly that Wu he had no time to resist.

30:07After enduring blow after blow, half of Wu, his godly body, was gone.

30:12Luofeng only grinned.

30:14They had fought for half an hour.

30:16Three thousand had turned up for the selection.

30:18And fewer than a thousand survived to the end.

30:21It was hard to imagine how long Luofeng's killing had taken.

30:25Or how fast his blade moved.

30:27How many cuts landed on Wu he was unknown.

30:30But they had destroyed fifty percent of his godly body.

30:34Let's rest.

30:35Wu he said, the swagger gone.

30:37We head out tomorrow and I really hope we make it back alive.

30:40That sentence is the measure of the task ahead.

30:43The partner who had half-erased him with a blade was standing next to him.

30:46And still he was praying to survive.

30:49A catastrophe-level task never asks whether you are strong.

30:53It only asks whether you come back.

30:55And nobody there could promise it.

30:57Luofeng lay on the stone roof of his island and did the arithmetic of survival.

31:02It came out ugly.

31:03In this army, everyone lives on military credits.

31:06A soldier who sits still and earns none has only one fate waiting.

31:10Normally, a soldier heading out on a task spends credits first.

31:13On valuables that restore a godly body in an instant.

31:17And on true treasures and machine-type valuables built for escape.

31:21Credits buy the ability to run away.

31:24Luofeng owned none.

31:25The army had handed him a catastrophe-level task and not a single coin to prepare with.

31:30He told himself the task was also a great chance to earn credits by the thousand.

31:35It was the kind of thing a man says when he has nothing else to hold.

31:38Outside the arms palace, the picture was just as stark.

31:41The eighteen soldiers of the sixth squad pooled.

31:44Everything they owned and came up with about twenty-six hundred credits, barely a hundred and forty each.

31:50Their captain reminded them why that mattered.

31:52A task like this comes once every ten thousand eras, so every credit had to become something that saves a

31:58life.

31:59Even veterans were counting pennies.

32:01Then six beings strolled past, glanced at them with open scorn, and said,

32:05A bunch of morons!

32:07They were Yu Luo and his people.

32:09The eighteen seethed.

32:11Let them gloat!

32:12Someone muttered.

32:13Luck runs out.

32:14And one day they'd spring a trap.

32:16It is a small flash of ill will, but it reveals something.

32:19Even among soldiers of the same army, trust runs thin, and that matters for what comes next.

32:25A voice rolled out to the whole first team.

32:27Gather!

32:28Luo Feng opened his eyes.

32:30So it begins, he said with a smile, and he flew off, teleporting toward the island of basic inheritance, the

32:36army's assembly point.

32:38Wu He met him there, wings shaking, and had already done his homework.

32:41There were thirty-nine soldiers in all.

32:44The original thirty-seven lacked unity.

32:47So they'd been split into three small teams.

32:50The captain's eighteen, Kufa's ten, and Yulo's nine.

32:54Luo Feng looked at him in surprise.

32:56No wonder he was the child of Northern True Ocean's master.

33:00Wu He had mapped the army's internal relations while Luo Feng hadn't thought to.

33:04The beast with the big talk had better instincts for politics.

33:08On the island, thirty-odd soldiers stood in three tight circles, and their looks said plainly,

33:14Don't come close.

33:15Wu He sketched the leaders.

33:17The captain was fair.

33:19Kufa, with a gentle appearance, had the best temper.

33:22Yulo, green-skinned with eighteen hooves, was aggressive, and more than half the strange beasts followed him.

33:29Normally, such leaders would recruit fresh talent.

33:32But with a catastrophe-level task about to start, and with no combined attacks ever practiced together,

33:38none of them would take the pair.

33:40Luo Feng understood, and it wasn't cruelty.

33:43These three squads had survived countless life-and-death battles side by side.

33:47Their coordination was their armor, and adding strangers would only weaken it.

33:52Kindness can't change that logic.

33:54The captain said it coldly.

33:57You're on your own for this catastrophe-level task.

33:59Understood?

34:01Wu He smirked.

34:02Of course.

34:03It was bravado, and it wouldn't last.

34:06Luo Feng simply nodded.

34:07The captain nodded back and said nothing more.

34:10Because in his mind, the matter was closed.

34:12The newcomers had no time to practice the inheritance.

34:15No credits for valuables, no credits for better inheritance.

34:19Without extraordinary luck, they were already dead.

34:22Go, let's fetch this task!

34:23He ordered.

34:24Four groups moved out and teleported.

34:27The captains, Kufas, Yulos, and the smallest of all, the squad of two.

34:33After nearly a day, all thirty-nine arrived before a strange black palace ringed with sculptures,

34:40crowded with great beings.

34:41A pillar of light shot toward them, and voices poured into their heads with the details.

34:47The target was nine smoke.

34:49Marsh.

34:49Killing a true god was worth.

34:51Ten thousand military credits.

34:53Killing a lawmaster was worth one.

34:55The proof for a true god was its body, and the proof for a lawmaster was its plundered weapons.

35:01The deadline was the next task.

35:03Miss it, and there would be punishment.

35:05Six simple lines, and they froze both newcomers.

35:08We're in big trouble, Wu he said, shaken.

35:12Nine Smoke Marsh wasn't as strong as northern True Ocean, but it was still a great power.

35:17With many true gods and countless lawmasters, going there was suicide.

35:21The beast who had been so confident before the briefing, sure he could finish any task if he gave it

35:26enough time, fell apart in an instant.

35:29Luo Feng ran the numbers, too, and they were no kinder.

35:32On the way, he'd flown over the marsh.

35:34A swamp wrapped in smoke and mist, and spotted many true gods.

35:39Given eight hundred eras of training, killing one true god within an era would have been possible for him, as

35:45long as the god didn't hide in a supreme true treasure palace.

35:49But that's not the real obstacle.

35:51The other true gods wouldn't stand by.

35:54Thirty-nine lawmasters against a group of true gods meant slaughter.

35:58Lawmasters looked easier, until he did the math.

36:00At one credit apiece, he'd need ten thousand of them to equal a single true god.

36:06He might drop ten quietly.

36:07More would alert the true gods, and once surrounded, even the boat of mausoleum might not carry him out.

36:13In Universe Ocean, he'd been encircled by supreme masters.

36:17But there were few of them, and all were suppressed.

36:20Here, hundreds of true gods could ring him in, none restrained.

36:24Only one thing gave him room to breathe.

36:27True gods of void space don't meddle in army tasks.

36:30Because the army and the tribal and beast powers hold a hidden agreement.

36:35Squads sent against a power are sent for training, and a squad this small posed no threat.

36:40But ordinary true gods were free to join the fight.

36:43And failure had its own price, under military rule, execution.

36:48With the army's authority, a single order could turn every tribal and beast power against the failed squad.

36:54And they'd have nowhere to run.

36:56There was one escape.

36:58One hundred thousand credits.

36:59Because merits offset faults.

37:02But that sum is exorbitant.

37:03Even veterans don't hold it.

37:05And whoever does would rather spend it on strength.

37:08That is the trap built into the system.

37:10Failure is punished with death.

37:12And the one escape clause is priced beyond almost anyone's reach.

37:16The army doesn't offer a way out of a catastrophe.

37:18It offers a way through one.

37:20Or nothing.

37:21Outside the palace, the whole team stood silent under the weight of it.

37:25Then the captain spoke.

37:27The task named a location, he said.

37:29So every true god and lawmaster they killed had to be from Nine Smoke Marsh.

37:34And the army would contact Nine Smoke Marsh to confirm the credits when they returned.

37:39Anywhere else, individual squads could pick off true gods one at a time.

37:44And persistence alone would eventually succeed.

37:47But here, they could be surrounded by a flood of true gods with no way out.

37:51He looked around at every face.

37:53I think we need to cooperate.

37:55Notice what he didn't say.

37:57He didn't call the task impossible.

37:59He said it needed more hands.

38:01The same man who had told two newcomers they were on their own was now saying,

38:06We.

38:07Whether that word stretched far enough to include them, nobody yet knew.

38:12Join forces?

38:13Yulo laughed coldly.

38:15Green covered every inch of him.

38:17And his gaze raked across the captain and the seventeen warriors behind him.

38:22Why would I dare, captain?

38:24When I was a new recruit on an ordinary mission,

38:26I stuck to you and worked so hard to please you.

38:29And what did I get?

38:30You used me as bait.

38:32If not for my instinct for self-preservation,

38:35and the few treasures my grandfather gave me before I joined,

38:38I'd have died on that very first mission.

38:41Join hands with you?

38:42Never, duh.

38:43The eight warriors behind him watched the captain with open sarcasm.

38:48The captain's growl was low.

38:50Every warrior has different abilities and standing, he said.

38:54Yulo had been a new recruit who knew little.

38:56So how could he be blamed?

38:58Besides, this was a catastrophe-level mission.

39:01And in everyone, many warriors are annihilated.

39:04Did nine soldiers alone think they had a chance?

39:07Listen to what that reply does and doesn't do.

39:10He never denies the bait.

39:12He explains it away as a matter of rank.

39:14We don't need your concern, Ruyulo said.

39:17The nine of us have been through thick and thin.

39:19We've sworn an oath.

39:21And we put our lives in one another's hands.

39:24You?

39:24We wouldn't trust you with ours.

39:26A beast warrior behind him snapped.

39:29Save your effort.

39:30Rope us in now.

39:31And at the crucial moment, you'll use us again.

39:34Yulo turned to Luofeng and Wu He.

39:36Just your luck.

39:37Accepted.

39:38Then handed a catastrophe-level task.

39:41Remember this.

39:42If Kufa takes you in, you'll be fine.

39:45This captain will use you.

39:46Then leave you to your fate.

39:48And captain, so that we aren't used, we move first.

39:51He led his eight warriors to a twisted wormhole near the great evil hall.

39:56One created by a great being.

39:58One that leads out of the military camp.

40:01Nine figures stepped in and vanished.

40:03The captain and his men boiled with anger.

40:06Yulo's exit shows how trust works in this army.

40:09A single betrayal on an ordinary mission was enough to spend it for good.

40:14And a squad bound by oath was the only kind of safety he still believed in.

40:19It also left the captain with eighteen of the thirty-nine,

40:22facing a marsh with tight security.

40:25The squads had split three ways.

40:27And now two of those ways were gone.

40:29The captain turned to Kufa.

40:31And you?

40:32Ha, no need have us, she said, smiling.

40:35And her smile was incomparably beautiful.

40:37She turned to the two newcomers.

40:39She couldn't help with the catastrophe-level task itself, she said.

40:44But the road to Nine Smoke Marsh was long and dangerous.

40:48She owned a true God-level battleship.

40:50So they could travel together, and she would carry them safely there.

40:55Once they arrived, they'd part ways.

40:57She asked for nothing in return, and she promised nothing past the marsh's border.

41:02All right, Wu, he said at once.

41:05Luo Feng nodded.

41:06At her command?

41:07Her ten warriors and the two newcomers raced to the wormhole and went through.

41:12Her kindness has a clear shape.

41:14A ride, not a rescue.

41:16It's the one kind of help a squad can offer without loosening its own cohesion.

41:20And it matches what Yu Luo predicted.

41:23Only the captain and his warriors remained.

41:26Captain, don't let it bother you, one said.

41:28We can finish the army's mission without them.

41:31The captain sneered at the empty wormhole.

41:34How long had Kufa and Yu Luo been in the army?

41:37How many catastrophe-level missions had they actually survived?

41:41Did they think everyone was the same?

41:43Nine Smoke Marsh had recently fought a great battle with Zhuanyu Mountain,

41:47so its security was extremely tight.

41:49Success required joining forces.

41:52Fine.

41:52If they're so confident, we'll see how many of them are left when this ends.

41:57You've survived an incarnation-level mission, Captain, another said.

42:02How can those two compare?

42:03Another predicted they wouldn't last an era.

42:06These warriors believed in him, and the reason is plain.

42:09His ability was the best.

42:10He had lived an immeasurable length of time and even owned an automaton-type treasure.

42:15He was selfish, yes, but under him, perhaps a few would be annihilated in a dangerous mission.

42:21Under Kufa or Yu Luo, an entire team could be wiped out.

42:24Their faith was a bargain, except being expendable one by one, to avoid dying all at once.

42:30The irony is sharp.

42:32The captain had said they needed to cooperate, yet the distrust he'd planted made that impossible.

42:38Let's go!

42:39He ordered, and they vanished in a flash.

42:41Through the wormhole, Kufa's group emerged over a vast stretch of mountains and forests.

42:47She shook out a black battleship, a palace-type supreme true treasure, and everyone boarded.

42:53Luo Feng and Wu He without hesitation.

42:55At their fastest, she announced in her clear voice, the trip to Nine Smoke Marsh would take

43:00twelve days.

43:02Luo Feng stood in the cabin, not worried in the least.

43:05And the reason lies in how this world is built.

43:08In Universe Ocean, boarding another being's palace treasure was dangerous.

43:11If the owner turned hostile, he could pull the palace into his own miniature universe and

43:17kill the passenger.

43:18In the world of Jyn, that fear doesn't exist.

43:21Every great being here, from undying to law knight to law master, and even true gods and

43:26true gods of void space, keeps a god country or miniature universe.

43:30In the core space of the entire world of Jyn, that core holds an immense space of the origin,

43:37and the great beings of this world cannot enter it.

43:40So they can't enter their own god countries and miniature universes either, and can't

43:45use them to kill.

43:46There's another difference.

43:48No one here has a second body.

43:49The ability to divide bodies was a gift the primal universe gave its living souls, and the

43:55living souls of the world of Jyn never received it.

43:57The result is that even if Kufa suddenly turned on them, the most she could do was trap everyone

44:02inside.

44:03Killing was beyond her, and when the next round of the mission arrived, one era later,

44:08the army would hunt for warriors who hadn't returned.

44:12Dead ones would be found dead.

44:13Captives would be found captive, and Kufa would face a military sentence.

44:18Betrayal in this world is a bad trade by design.

44:21While Kufa's group set out back in the East Army camp, outside the main hall at one of the

44:26military arms points, a beast with a huge golden shell raised its head to stare up at

44:31the gigantic building, a serpentine coiling beast beside him asked,

44:36Rampaging, you've already taken true god-level armor.

44:39Why are you still at our arms point?

44:41The golden-shelled beast was rampaging devil god.

44:44His arrival in the world of Jyn had been rough.

44:46He'd provoked a true god-level beast, and on purpose, fought it for a while to master

44:52the language of the ancient civilization.

44:54Then came worse luck, a whole pack of true god-level beasts on his tail.

44:58His defense saved him, and he escaped unharmed, then wandered.

45:02In this world, true gods are great beings, while a true god of void space, though a super

45:07overlord, stays in his own territory and doesn't roam.

45:11That's why a wandering, rampaging devil god, careful though he was, made friends among the

45:16beasts and slowly learned how things worked.

45:19He soon understood that the world of Jyn's countless inheritances and treasures were all

45:24in the army.

45:25So he came to join, ordinary lawmasters can enter the army, but that's only the baseline.

45:30Some cultivate quickly into true gods first, then join later, and the army welcomes them

45:36gladly.

45:36For true gods, the chance of being eliminated in selection is far lower.

45:41Only three in ten fall.

45:43With his strong defense, he made it through the grueling process and even received a standard

45:48armor.

45:49Why are you so bothersome?

45:51He snapped.

45:52Wait for me.

45:53I'm going in for a while.

45:55And he charged inside.

45:57Inside the hall, time and space shifted, as if he'd entered another world.

46:02It felt like the human's virtual universe, he thought.

46:05But more magical, because the virtual universe only carries consciousness.

46:10And here the entire body entered.

46:12Many warriors bustled about.

46:14Each shone as a golden figure and one drifted up to him.

46:17Every warrior looked alike, a golden figure.

46:21So the only difference between them was what they carried.

46:24True god warrior, state your demands.

46:26I want to trade this treasure for military credits.

46:29Then trade those for another treasure.

46:31He was tense as he held his bloody sea devil armor.

46:35The supreme true treasure that had let him run rampant in universe ocean.

46:39One with strong willpower and real influence.

46:42Now he wore standard armor, and the difference in effect seemed small.

46:46Standard armor nullifies attacks below the seventh tier.

46:50And bloody sea devil armor nullifies attacks below the eighth, with a higher tolerance limit.

46:55But to him, even the limit of a standard true god armor was at least a true god of void

47:01space's blow.

47:02And universe ocean never demanded armor that strong.

47:05Besides, what true god would throw an attack below the eighth tier anyway?

47:10To him, the gap was meaningless.

47:12The golden figure's eyes shot golden rays across the armor.

47:16True god of void space level armor.

47:18Were three hundred thousand military credits.

47:21Do you wish to trade?

47:23Rampaging devil god went rigid, eyes wide, rooted to the ground.

47:27Asked again, he blurted, trade, trade, trade, drunk on joy.

47:30A big win.

47:31The figure took the armor without further.

47:34Ado enfloated a large screen before him, filled with lists of treasures to choose from.

47:39Soon he sauntered out of the arms point, and his friends gathered around.

47:43I made a killing, he said.

47:46He'd bought a supreme true treasure palace, and four sets of supreme true treasure attack

47:51treasures.

47:52Now he held a complete set of attack.

47:54Defense and escape, with every ability he needed.

47:58Back in universe ocean, he could rampage to his heart's content.

48:01Notice what a difference a point of view makes.

48:03Six, three hundred thousand credits, the kind of sum that would have saved a failing soldier's

48:08life, landed in his hands in moments, for armor he considered nearly pointless, yet he

48:13wasn't wholly happy.

48:14The only pity, he said, is that I'm not in the special army.

48:19If I were, I could trade for an automaton-type treasure.

48:22There is the whole bargain of the army laid bare.

48:24A soldier can grow rich in credits, and still be locked out of the finest shelf, because

48:30the best treasures are reserved for the special army, and the special army is where the catastrophe-level

48:35tasks live.

48:36And Luofeng, who had arrived with nothing to trade, was at that moment crossing the sky

48:42toward the marsh in someone else's borrowed ship.

48:44I'm not going to leave.

48:44But I'm not going to leave.

48:45We'll see you next time.

Swallowed Star | The Catastrophe-Level Mission: Nine Smoke Marsh! | Episode 264

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