Chapter 19: The Sky Falls

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Indian Team: “We need support immediately! The hull is badly damaged, oxygen is leaking! Hurry!!!”

American Team: “Damn it, you used missiles to stall us! Join in the pursuit!”

Indian Team: “Damn it, our ship is badly damaged, can’t you hear me?”

British Team: “I’ve already activated the engines to maximum power. All weapons on board are primed and ready to engage.”

Japanese Team: “I’m already in pursuit!”

Indian Team: “You damn bastards!!!”

Korean Team: “Even if my ship is damaged, I’ll make them pay the price!”

The battered Indian spacecraft suddenly twisted at an odd angle and fired all its missiles at the other four nations’ ships.

The Americans and Japanese reacted first, firing their defense guns at high speed, intercepting the missiles. The British were a step slower, and their ship sustained minor damage. The Korean team, already in bad shape, suffered a catastrophic blow—their engine failed. Drawn by Earth’s gravity, their ship started drifting slowly toward the planet...

The Indian team listened to frantic distress calls and curses from the Korean team over the channel, then fired off a few more shells, though none hit their mark.

With the Americans, Japanese, and British now attacking them, the Indian ship, stripped of all maneuverability, broke apart in space!

With the Indian squad eliminated, the British team spoke up: “Enough. Focus on the pursuit. Don’t repeat the foolishness of the Indian team. This is a covert chase. Even if you die, that’s it. Don’t expect your countries to go to war for you! On the other hand, if we succeed in stopping them and seize what’s left from Earth, we’ll be heroes!!!”

The ships trailed long tails of flame, slicing through the void.

Through the isolation window, everyone could already see, with the naked eye, the vast blue-and-white sphere of Earth coming into view.

Liu Yinyun glanced at the instrument panel: “In half an hour, our ship will enter the atmosphere! All the equipment on Earth is still running normally, with all kinds of signals crisscrossing. We need to shake off the other teams before we land. As long as we reach the surface, we’ll be safe. With thousands of surveillance cameras and billions of online viewers watching, they won’t dare to try anything.”

Wu Fei’s voice was anxious: “It’s no good, they must be using high-powered engines—their speed is way beyond ours, and they’re right behind us!”

Four red blips appeared on the radar: the British, American, Japanese, and Korean teams. They were about to enter the atmosphere. Once Earth’s gravity took hold, the difficulty of pursuit would rise sharply...

The effective attack range was barely enough, but there was no other choice!

At the same moment, all four ships opened fire at full strength—over a hundred missiles, and even a barrage of bullets, all aimed directly at their ship...

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Without hesitation, Liu Yinyun pressed the button beside the main controls, his eyes cold and determined: “Take them down with everything we’ve got!”

Four mini escort ships separated from the main team’s vessel, spiraling toward the four national ships, weapons blazing! Every missile on board was launched as well...

Near the boundary of Earth’s atmosphere, the sky lit up with a violent, dazzling firestorm!

The British vessel was destroyed on the spot, reduced to fragments in a hail of bullets and flames as it plunged into the atmosphere and ignited. The American, Japanese, and Korean ships were also badly damaged, their hulls trailing smoke and catching fire as they entered the atmosphere. All escort ships were lost, and the main vessel took several hits as well, losing power and falling toward the planet under gravity...

It was like a meteor plummeting from the sky...

Meanwhile, Chen Chushi strolled leisurely along the coastal avenue in Egret City. He had just left a famous Daoist mountain on an island, reaping a fine harvest. The mountain contained many spirit stones, and the pictographs within them were entirely new—he’d added more than a dozen characters to his pictograph notebook...

Holding a spirit stone as round and smooth as a basketball, he gazed out over the sea. The blue water, the free-flying seabirds, the sound of waves crashing—all of it brought a sense of deep contentment...

This kind of weather was perfect for cultivation.

There wasn’t another soul around, just himself, free from any disturbance—how wonderful!

There was a round stone table by the shore. He climbed onto it, sitting cross-legged, hands supporting that basketball-sized spirit stone. This size was the perfect volume to break the pictographic seal, a fact he’d confirmed after repeated testing.

He began circulating his Qi-refining technique, savoring the banquet of spirit energy. Strength and power flowed endlessly into him. Chen Chushi relished the sensation...

He cultivated from dawn to the next dawn, feeling indescribably refreshed.

Cultivation wasn’t just about reckless or bitter training—it required balance.

A new idea struck him...

Based on his experience reading novels in his previous life, every fantasy cultivation story had its own schools or factions.

For example, body refinement—specializing in the physical body, turning flesh and bone into living artifacts and making the body the ultimate trump card. When perfected, it could even become a path to enlightenment, the body becoming divine!

Then there were sword cultivators—able to wield any blade of grass or tree as a sword, slicing stars with a casual swing, and, for the truly powerful, even cutting the river of time itself.

There were also pill cultivators, who refined the essence of all things into elixirs, granting longevity, greater power, even immortality. Then there were formation masters—past, present, and future, all filled with arrays. At the pinnacle, their formations could trap or destroy gods, men, and ghosts alike...

And many more schools besides.

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In short, exaggeration was no crime: whichever school was taken to the extreme, its practitioners would challenge Heaven itself, or at least the endless river of time...

But just as with studying, people had different aptitudes—some excelled at math, some at literature, others at physics. And then there were the true geniuses, acing every subject...

Chen Chushi’s goal was to survive the solar helium flash and, if possible, save all of humanity...

Naturally, he had to consider all options. So while he had some leisure, he worked hard to create and write as many secret manuals as possible, to see which path best suited his own abilities... At the very least, he might even unlock an achievement or two.

From among the many little notebooks in his pocket, he pulled out one labeled “Secret Manual Creation Handbook.” Flipping it open, he hesitated a moment before the first line, pen poised.

He wrote the title: “Art of Body Refinement.”

Instantly, all the viewers in the live stream were wide awake!

[Phoenix Flute Melody: “Here it comes, here it comes, the master is finally writing something new!”]

[Dreaming of Qi-Refining: “Body Refinement Technique—it sounds painful just from the name.”]

[Charming Songs of Chu: “Relax, it won’t hurt.”]

[Dreaming of Qi-Refining: “You have experience?”]

[Charming Songs of Chu: “No, but if you’re scared, just use a local anesthetic first!”]

[Dreaming of Qi-Refining: “Damn! The age-old problem of body cultivation’s pain, solved with one line—just use anesthetic!”]

Beneath the title, Chen Chushi wrote the opening line: “Body Refinement takes the flesh as its foundation, gathering the great powers of Heaven and Earth into oneself...” The first few sentences had to be like a supermarket sales pitch—no holding back, hype it up!

If he wrote honestly: “My friend, this training is excruciating. Without ten or twenty years, you won’t even get started. And even then, success isn’t guaranteed. If you do succeed, you might still get skewered by a sharp artifact... It’s not as amazing as you imagine,”

—then no one but himself would bother with the manual.

Just then, Chen Chushi sensed something unusual in the sky. He looked up—“??!!!”