Wang Lan didn't waver for long before he made up his mind. Being part of the Pure Mage System was indeed cool and exhilarating, but his vision should no longer be restricted to his peers or even the Star Sea realm.

Among his peers, Wang Lan could be said to be invincible. Of the young generation he knew, only Yu Ruoyun possessed the strength to fight him on equal terms. Even facing Princess Aier, a genuine Star Sea realm combatant, Wang Lan was confident he could kill her within half an hour.

Therefore, Wang Lan ultimately set his sights on the category of Titled Strongmen.

By following the Pure Mage System, he could indeed promote all his S-grade Star Martial Skills to the Platinum level. But the raw damage output of simple Platinum-level skills still left him unsatisfied.

Earth Fire Roar and Heavenly Fire Extinguishing World were both powerful, but their area-of-effect spread the damage too thin. Take Sentient Beings, for example; even if upgraded to Platinum level, while it could kill a group of Star Sea realm fighters, it might not be able to kill a single Titled Strongman.

I still need to focus on single-target Star Martial Skills.

Having made this decision, Wang Lan set his focus on Extreme Heat Light Beam.

Extreme Heat Light Beam was supposed to be a powerful attribute developing from the Flame Attribute, much like how the Ice Attribute, upon reaching a very high level of mastery and undergoing a qualitative change, would transform into Extreme Cold Beam.

Extreme Cold Beam, commonly known as Aurora, was the ultimate dream of Ice Attribute Star Martial Warriors. It could emit a beam close to Absolute Zero, where even atomic movement could be frozen. For thousands of years, however, the corresponding Extreme Heat Light Beam never appeared. Only the legendary East Emperor Red Bird from the Mythical Era was said to possess the Extreme Heat Light Beam ability.

A week ago, Wang Lan upgraded his Flame Sword to Extreme Heat Light Beam. However, the initial temperature of Platinum Level 1 was only ten thousand degrees, just slightly higher than the purple flame. This left Wang Lan quite dissatisfied with Extreme Heat Light Beam, so much so that he didn't even use this move in his battle with Sang Guo.

Is an Extreme Heat Light Beam with just ten thousand degrees worthy of the name? In the universe, temperatures exceeding one hundred million degrees were not rare. Forget other places; in the Light Country alone, any random Warrior of Light's beam attack could reach temperatures over one hundred thousand degrees.

Wang Lan stared at the Extreme Heat Light Beam's stats panel: Extreme Heat Light Beam, Platinum LV1 (0/20,000).

I'll take a gamble. It's only twenty thousand skill points at most. If it's too far from what I expect, I might as well ditch this skill in the future.

After investing twenty thousand skill points into Extreme Heat Light Beam, it instantaneously moved from Platinum Level 1 to Platinum Level 2. Wang Lan hurriedly focused his spiritual power on Extreme Heat Light Beam.

"Extreme Heat Light Beam, Platinum LV2, beam temperature: fifteen thousand degrees. As this skill evolved from Flame Sword, it inherits all usage techniques of Flame Sword."

An increase of a full five thousand degrees? This increase finally allowed Wang Lan to feel at ease.

Is five thousand degrees a lot? Hmm, not much, if you compare it to cosmic explosions that easily reach millions or even billions of degrees. But let me ask you: do you think thirty-five degrees Celsius is bearable? What about forty degrees? At fifty degrees, you could be hospitalized within minutes.

An increase of five or ten degrees might be unbearable, so can you imagine what an increase of five thousand degrees would be like? At ten thousand degrees, metal could be instantly melted. At fifteen thousand degrees, metal could be turned into a pool of liquid on the spot.

After adding another thirty thousand skill points, the temperature of Extreme Heat Light Beam reached twenty thousand degrees. At twenty thousand degrees, it could instantly turn metal into a gaseous state, just like boiling water.

Wang Lan continued to upgrade Extreme Heat Light Beam to Platinum Level 4 before stopping. Damn it, skill points burn too quickly! A total of ninety thousand skill points were used up, leaving only one hundred and twenty thousand in the system.

Wang Lan couldn't upgrade Extreme Heat Light Beam any further; he still had Holy Shield to consider. Holy Shield was currently only at Gold Level 1. It was the Star Martial Skill he learned last, but it was so damn useful in close combat. Its activation was almost instant, and the skill had no cooldown period.

Besides its defensive power, which Wang Lan found unsatisfactory, Holy Shield greatly complemented Zanpakuto. So this time, Wang Lan spent ten thousand skill points to upgrade Holy Shield to the Platinum level without hesitation.

When a flash of white light passed before Wang Lan's eyes, the newly upgraded skill appeared in his vision.

"Holy Shield, Platinum LV1 (0/20,000)"

"Holy Light Guardian: Immunizes against three hundred percent of physical attacks, Elemental Attacks, mysterious attacks, and soul attacks!"

What does three hundred percent mean? If my threshold for enduring attacks is one hundred percent, an attack sufficient to kill me three times over could be blocked! If I had been holding Holy Shield back then, Sang Guo's attack would have been perfectly defended against, and I wouldn't have been beaten so badly.

At that thought, Wang Lan felt so frustrated that he wished he could dig Sang Guo up and fight him all over again.

If he had used up his skill points back then, he wouldn't have felt so aggrieved. But at that time, he still had thirty thousand skill points lying in his system. Damn, how could I not have thought to strengthen Holy Shield?

If Sang Guo knew this from the afterlife, he would once again be speechless with frustration.

Please, show some decency! You've already killed me; what more do you want? I am a Titled Strongman; don't I deserve some respect?

Suppressing the urge to upgrade Holy Shield further, Wang Lan's gaze moved to Crescent Arrow. In terms of single-target lethality, Crescent Arrow, Thunder Snake, and Flame Sword were the strongest. However, Thunder Snake's evolution path in the later stages might lean towards a thunder body, which was somewhat redundant for Wang Lan, who already possessed Holy Shield and Dance of the Dark Butterfly.

Crescent Arrow's ranged attack power, on the other hand, was something Wang Lan urgently needed. Crescent Arrow was now at Gold Level 7. The cost of upgrading it wasn't high, so he decided to raise it to Platinum and see the results.

After Crescent Arrow was upgraded in a flash of white light, a brand new skill appeared before Wang Lan's eyes.

"Star Sky God Arrow! When you gaze upon the starry sky, are you also moved by the vast Starlight? Star Sky God Arrow—under the stars, you become the most dazzling child.

Void Purple Eyes: Lock onto any target you see. No matter what kind of evasion they attempt, your arrows will always pursue the target until it falls.

One-Hit Kill Arrow! Pour all your life's Star Power into one shot—it's either your death or mine. Firing this arrow will leave you completely drained. If enemies are still nearby, run immediately."

Damn, so this is how an R-skill appears?

Wang Lan looked at Star Sky God Arrow and was momentarily at a loss for words. He knew that Star Martial Skills would experience a qualitative change upon leveling up to the Platinum level, but he never imagined it would be so far beyond his expectations.

So many Star Martial Skills had been upgraded to Platinum level. The first few seemed normal, but each subsequent one was more surprising than the last. This gave Wang Lan the impulse to upgrade Star Cloud Sword Dance to Platinum level too.

After thinking it over, he decided against it. With Dance of the Dark Butterfly, Star Cloud Sword Dance wasn't that useful. Plus, his battle with Sang Guo had already confirmed the practical effectiveness of Dance of the Dark Butterfly. This skill had saved his life many times from Sang Guo's attacks; its evasion capabilities were already sufficient.

There were still one hundred thousand skill points left in the system, and they had become very precious. Wasting them needlessly on anything was now out of the question. Better to wait...

With that thought, Wang Lan indulged in a good sleep.

「The next day」

The sun was already high when Wang Lan got out of bed, puzzled by the time. No one woke me up today? After washing up, he was surprised to find that some people had returned to the camp.

There were fellow students from the academy, as well as warriors from the Black Tiger Army.

"Good morning, everyone!" Wang Lan greeted them.

"Morning my ass! The sun is already up. Tell me, Wang Lan, are you always this lazy? How can you still be so strong?" Yang Xian, a classmate familiar with Wang Lan, joked.

"Well, you can't blame me. My strength seems to grow like it's breeding while I sleep, constantly rising. It troubles me too, you know."

"Damn! Well, get up and go eat in the canteen. Today, they made big meat buns."

"Really? But weren't you guys stationed in the Second Space? How come I see so many people back?"

"The Second Space was closed last night. Damn it, the spatial node was in such a godforsaken place, making us waste a whole week for nothing."

"It's closed? That's great! Which space is next? When do we leave?"

Wang Lan felt like he had slept through major events, as if he'd lost his connection with the world.

"About that... it's hard to say," Yang Xian said, his expression turning mysterious and serious.

"What happened?"

"I'm not too clear about the specifics, but it seems to be related to an asteroid. I don't know the details; Director Long didn't say. Don't you have good connections with the higher-ups? Can you ask around for us?"

Wang Lan agreed and left for the canteen. He satisfyingly devoured six large meat buns and let out a contented belch.

BEEP BEEP BEEP—His phone rang. It was a call from Yu Ruoyun.

"Wang Lan, are you still sleeping? Get up quickly and come to the command center's Meeting Room Number Three."

Full of curiosity, Wang Lan arrived at Meeting Room Number Three. This room served as Jade Country's conference room for providing aid. Only a group of Star Sea realm teachers and high-ranking members of the Black Tiger Army were present. Including Yu Ruoyun and Wang Lan, all the high-end Star Sea realm combat power was accounted for.

"Is everyone here? I'll get straight to the point. Just one hour ago, at 17:00 Jade Country time, our homeland urgently contacted Ambassador Heze. The World Space Observation Team discovered a small asteroid outside Sky Blue Star."

"The asteroid has a diameter of about fifty meters and weighs around one hundred thousand tons. The International Astronomical Observatory is closely monitoring its trajectory. As of ten minutes ago, the latest data indicates a ten percent chance it will enter the atmosphere, and a ninety percent probability it will be torn apart by the gravitational forces of the Moon and Sky Blue Star."

"If this asteroid crashes onto Sky Blue Star, based on the estimated trajectory, it's predicted to fall in the Ice Sea region of the Northern Hemisphere. The impact force would be equivalent to... fifty megaton-class hydrogen bombs."

"Uh... that doesn't seem like a huge threat, right?" one tactical teacher scratched his head. "The Arctic Ocean region is vast, and over ninety-five percent of it is uninhabited. Even if fifty megaton-class hydrogen bombs fell there, it wouldn't be much of an issue, would it?"

"Xu, have you forgotten that we are also within the asteroid's impact range?"

"Damn, such a huge area and it just so happens to be heading for us? Does it have to be this ironic?"

Getting hit by a meteorite was a chance in billions. Even with precise data, it was still a chance of one in tens of thousands.

Meteorites fall onto Sky Blue Star every day. However, most are so small that they burn up upon entering the atmosphere, long before reaching the ground.

An asteroid with a diameter of fifty meters would melt rapidly during its descent; it would be fortunate if even ten percent of it made it to the ground.

"Although the possibility is small, we still can't be careless. Current human technology allows for accurate predictions of these events. If the asteroid does indeed head for impact, there will be at least twenty hours before it reaches the ground. That's enough time to calculate the precise point of impact. Let's wait and see; we cannot disregard the unexpected."

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