Joy

Li Miaomiao said helplessly, “Didn’t you get me to keep tabs on our daughter?”

“Any results?”

“I talked to her half a year ago, but she refused to admit it,” Li Miaomiao said. “Later on, I carefully observed her daily schedule and some of her behavior when she was with me. I’m more than 90% certain that she’s in a relationship, but the person she’s in a relationship with… isn’t in Blood Rain World. It’s likely in another virtual world.”

“Who’s the man? Have you seen him?”

“No.” Li Miaomiao shook her head. “I think… she will probably tell us if we sit down together and have a chat with her.”

Xu Jingming thought for a moment and nodded. “Then, let’s have a good chat with her today.”

That night, the family gathered at dinner.

“Ooh, this is good.” Xu Lixing beamed with joy as she ate. She even glanced at the butler, Five. “Auntie Five, your culinary skills are getting better and better.”

“Thanks.” Five smiled. Her AI core had been updated, and her intelligence had increased significantly.

“Dad, Mom, why are you eating so slowly?” Xu Lixing was almost done eating when she noticed that her parents hadn’t eaten much.

“Lixing, we would like to talk to you about something,” Li Miaomiao said.

Xu Jingming also had his eyes on his daughter.

“What’s up with the seriousness?” Xu Lixing looked at her parents and smiled. “Has something important happened?”

“Have you been dating recently?” Xu Jingming asked with a smile.

Xu Lixing was stunned.

“It’s just a yes or no.” Xu Jingming gazed at his daughter. “Your mother and I just want to know.”

Xu Lixing thought for a moment and nodded. “Yeah, sort of.”

“Sort of?” Li Miaomiao asked in confusion. “What do you mean ‘sort of?'”

“We get along quite well in the virtual world, but we’re only hanging out,” Xu Lixing explained with a smile. “Cosmic lifeforms have very long lifespans. Ordinary cosmic lifeforms have a lifespan of 3,000 years, and Lv. 8s have a lifespan of 10,000 years. I’m not even 30 yet, so I’m not in a hurry to get married! I think I should get to know more people in the virtual world.”

Xu Jingming and Li Miaomiao looked at each other.

His daughter wasn’t in a hurry at all. That’s not bad!

“Your father and I were aiming for marriage back when we dated, but you aren’t in a hurry at all.” Li Miaomiao smiled.

“Times have changed,” Xu Lixing said. “Many cosmic citizens don’t get married their entire lives. Children? There are all kinds of technological solutions.”

“As long as you’re not going in blind.” Xu Jingming nodded. “But I think that… even if you did get to know each other in the virtual world, you will start having true feelings for each other after spending a long time together. You can also get some idea of their situation in reality.”

“This is because the virtual world can create many illusions. Even your appearance can be fake,” Xu Jingming said. “If you invest too much emotion into it and suffer a blow because of reality, you might get very hurt.”

After all, it was their daughter’s first time in a relationship, so it was best to prevent her from investing too much emotion into it.

Dating for half a year and dating for ten years were naturally different.

Xu Lixing fell into thought when she heard that. “Okay, got it.”

“There are countless kinds of people in the countless civilizations in the universe,” Xu Jingming said. “There are even people who deliberately create all kinds of illusions in the virtual world to deceive others. There are also people who deliberately toy with others’ emotions and manipulate their minds in order to put their humanities into practice. In short, there are all kinds of scumbags! Of course, there are also many outstanding people in the universe.”

“Don’t easily trust things in the virtual world,” Xu Jingming reminded. “Because it might be the complete opposite in reality.”

“Dad, chill. This is long known on Earth.” Xu Lixing chuckled. “Our generation was exposed to the virtual world since we were young.”

This gave Xu Lixing some thoughts as well.

Her parents were right. She had to understand the other party’s situation in reality before deciding whether to continue.

She was also worried that the contrast between reality and what she knew from the virtual world was too stark.

This was also what many people were most worried about when dating in the virtual world.

******

In his personal space in the virtual world.

I lost again today. Xu Jingming watched the replay of the battle. He was used to losing more than winning.

Looking at the battle replay, my movement technique was better. The profundity of my spearmanship wasn’t inferior to the other party’s. The only problem is… its might is weak. The other party easily blocked my moves, but it was very difficult for me to block the other party’s moves. Xu Jingming frowned as he watched. To have greater might? My physical strength is already at its limits, so I have to think of a way to draw on more Cosmic Force.

In terms of using Cosmic Force, many people in Battle of the Universe’s Apex are stronger than me. Xu Jingming waved his hand gently and selected nine combat replays.

They were videos of him fighting nine different experts.

The nine of them can draw up enough Cosmic Force. As Xu Jingming watched, an idea suddenly flashed in his mind.

He quickly tapped.

Books appeared in front of him.

There were books from Light Rays, but they also came with auxiliary information. The Primordial Research Institute’s database had a massive amount of precious content, and it was all available for free. Of course, Xu Jingming couldn’t copy, record, or spread it; the access was limited to him.

Xu Jingming’s brain worked extremely quickly as he flipped open one book after another.

There are records here, here, and here. Xu Jingming read. The evolution of the Primordial Star Rays. A single beam of light can evolve into Infinite Light.

The Primordial Star was a great celestial body in high-dimensional space, and it had all kinds of incredible characteristics.

Primordial Star Conjecture was one of the cosmic human race’s three strongest legacies, but it was only the dean’s conjecture. He hadn’t fully understood the Primordial Star.

The light from the Primordial Star had one characteristic.

The innermost light appeared very weak, but when the light in the inner layer spread, it was as if it had undergone the folding of space and time. Layer after layer of light constantly overlapped, and the light intensified until it became the most dazzling and greatest existence.

According to this book’s conjecture, the Primordial Starlight Rays can naturally assimilate other energies into light rays. One can be assimilated into 100, and 100 into 10,000… They become stronger and stronger until they attain Infinite Light.

Xu Jingming read the theories in the books, and they inspired him as his understanding deepened.

In fact, he had a certain understanding of Infinite Light back in the mysterious land, but his understanding back then was very rough and superficial. Now, there was a qualitative change.

Perhaps I can give it a try.

Xu Jingming was standing on the shoulders of the dean after all. He had studied Light Rays for years and had accumulated quite a bit of knowledge. Now that he had a new understanding, he immediately began practicing.

Whoosh.

The surroundings changed into a cosmic scene.

Xu Jingming stood in space, and his entire body turned into energy, turning into a figure of light.

Light swirled around his body, and Xu Jingming used his majestic body’s energy to draw upon the Cosmic Force according to his new understanding.

Boom!

Infinite Cosmic Force was drawn to him and injected into his body. The light on Xu Jingming became even more dazzling, and with a thought from him, the energy turned into a robe.

With the robe draped over him, his strength increased, and the strength he could draw on continued to increase.

It’s as I guessed. If my strength is 1, I can directly draw up the strength of 3! After completely grasping 3’s strength, I can use it as a foundation to grasp 9… Then, I can continue improving. 27, 81, 243, 729, 2187… In theory, it can be improved indefinitely.

Although my improvement isn’t as fast or vast as the Primordial Star’s, it’s indeed constantly improving. The only thing that limits my improvement is my mental strength?

Xu Jingming took it in. He wore a gorgeous robe of light, and the strength he swept up began to seep out and fill his surroundings. My mental strength can’t perfectly control this strength, much less continue increasing.

He had to have perfect control before he could draw more. Once it started leaking, this mode of tripling couldn’t proceed.

I seem to have touched the essence of Infinite Light in Light Rays. Xu Jingming’s heart burned.

Light Rays contained many branches.

The speed lineage could reach the speed of light—this lineage also led to the Paramount realm.

In theory, the Infinite Light lineage’s energy could increase to infinite levels, and it also led to the Paramount realm. Xu Jingming had only figured out a superficial portion and felt that his mental strength limited him. He would discover more restrictions in the future.

It was too difficult to really have infinite energy.

Xu Jingming continued experimenting and perfecting the light robe model, hoping to use it to grasp more energy. He only stopped after a long period of exciting experimenting.

I’ll try visualization. I feel that my understanding of the Primordial Star has changed. Xu Jingming immediately went offline.

…

In reality, in the cultivation chamber.

Xu Jingming sat cross-legged and visualized the Primordial Star.

After years of cultivation, he had already pushed Light Rays’ Visualization to the seventh level. It was precisely because of this that his mental strength could grow to his current level.

The light from the Primordial Star rapidly expands. According to my current understanding of ‘1 becomes 3, 3 becomes 9, 9 becomes 27, and so on,’ it’s more stable. Xu Jingming visualized the Primordial Star. As he had a deeper understanding of the principles behind the evolution, the countless rays he visualized were more realistic and clearer.

Countless beams of light were visualized—they were massive and vast.

Layers of light seemed to spread out from the depths of spacetime. Every layer rapidly expanded until it was infinite—it illuminated everything!

It was the greatest celestial body known to cosmic humans! The most incredible celestial body.

Boom!

When he visualized it, he felt his entire body and mind burn.

The Primordial Star he had visualized was burning his body and consciousness, changing and affecting him.

I’ve reached the eighth level of Light Rays’ Visualization? Xu Jingming was pleasantly surprised. Although his visualization achievements were nothing compared to powerful Origin lifeforms, he was a cosmic lifeform after all. It was very rare for him to reach the eighth level of the visualization method.

Moreover, the seventh level of visualization meant having a chance of reaching the threshold of an Origin lifeform.

At the eighth level, one’s mental strength could increase further.

The eighth level’s visualization method can greatly strengthen my mental strength, he thought. Today is the first time I’m visualizing at the eighth level, and the improvement is the most obvious. Perhaps I’ve already exceeded 10,000 points?