The spiritual power provided to Yang Ying by the God and Insect races in the past was predominantly from the Gods. Within the Zhìrè () faction, the High Council shared this significant portion with Yang Ying, but every individual God could contribute spiritual power many times, even dozens of times, greater than that of the Insect race. This only accounted for a small fraction of their strength; as individual Gods delved deeper into cultivating their own spiritual power, they grew stronger, and the contribution they offered to the High Council increased accordingly.

If the spiritual power provided by the Gods to Yang Ying were divided into two parts—one originating from individual cultivation and the other from population growth—it could be said that, currently, the contribution from the Gods' individual cultivation had already surpassed that from population growth.

The Insect race did not cultivate spiritual power; the contribution from each individual Insect to Yang Ying would not increase. In this aspect, they seemed weaker than the Gods. However, the spiritual power provided by both races now showed the Insect race surging ahead, greatly exceeding the combined total from the Gods' population growth and individual cultivation.

This was entirely due to the unparalleled reproductive capacity of the Insect race, which allowed them, solely through the explosive growth of their swarm numbers, to surpass the sum total of the Gods’ population growth and individual cultivation combined.

The terror of the Insect race could be glimpsed from this fact alone.

After reading Du Neiháo’s () autobiography, Yang Ying shifted his research focus, no longer concentrating on concocting potions of extreme difficulty, but instead beginning the search for the essential nature of material changes hidden deep within the potions themselves.

Every method of spiritual refinement involved changes in material properties. Yang Ying was now a Grand Alchemist, his understanding of various spiritual refinement techniques reaching an extremely profound level, allowing him to grasp the principles behind every material change involved.

However, after several days of deep contemplation, Yang Ying realized that the principles he had once believed described material changes with great clarity were meaningless things—mere descriptions draped in the guise of principles, yet still remaining superficial.

Of course, spiritual refinement was inherently like this. Some profound and subtle matters could only be understood intuitively, not articulated. After mastering those spiritual refinement techniques, Yang Ying had assumed he had grasped the essence. But looking back now, he began to feel that his intuitive understanding was insufficient; he had only grasped a trivial essence, enough to satisfy the requirements for compounding medicine, and he had been content with that.

Yang Ying shook his head inwardly, beginning a deep self-reflection. The reason this had occurred was that the experience gained from using countless clones had brought him hundreds of times the progress, leading him to advance too quickly. This had caused him to become somewhat arrogant recently, leading him to underestimate the discipline of Pharmaceutics—a profound science that the Empire had taken hundreds of thousands of years to develop to its current state.

After this self-examination, Yang Ying rectified his attitude, viewing himself only as a beginner, discarding all superficial notions, and dedicating his entire focus to delving into the deeper essence within various potions. He searched for the fundamental nature of material change, yet the essence remained hidden within layers of thick mist, seemingly present and seemingly absent, which caused him considerable distress.

Another month passed. The Imperial Army had begun a full-scale counteroffensive into the Perseus Arm. A fleet numbering two million crossed the border, marching toward Perseus.

Do not be deceived by the number two million; when the Imperial Army annihilated the combined forces of the fifteen races of Perseus—thirty-five million warships—the previous time, they had deployed a fleet of only two million ships.

News from the front lines reported that all battle lines were advancing smoothly. Two of the fifteen allied races in the Perseus Arm had already been exterminated, vanishing from the Milky Way galaxy. The remaining races were flocking to surrender, but within the Imperial court, Regent Sandeworth () vehemently pushed for the continuation of the war, refusing all surrender requests, thus the conflict raged on.

Yang Ying paid attention to the distant war, though he did not devote much of his focus to it. He only monitored official dispatches. The Imperial virtual network carried numerous reports regarding the front-line engagements.

Upon receiving the intelligence, Yang Ying relayed it to the General Staff and then paid it no further mind. The staff would analyze and summarize this information, and upon reaching a conclusion, they would notify the planet Yìluòsī (), where Yang Ying commanded several dozen Blade Emperors. When the opportunity arose, they would lead the Insect swarm out from Yìluòsī to advance on the other planets of the Perseus Arm.

On this particular day, Yang Ying continued his exploration into the fundamental nature of material change. In the virtual laboratory, various medicinal herbs were processed using his spiritual refinement techniques. These techniques did not necessarily adhere to the requirements of any specific formula; mostly, Yang Ying was experimenting wildly. He hoped that by observing the phenomena arising when different materials were mixed, he could gain a deeper understanding of material properties.

Suddenly, his eyes brightened, and a flicker of realization flashed through the depths of his heart, like a beam of pure light illuminating the path toward the essence of material change. Yang Ying did not allow this fleeting insight to vanish; he immediately entered a deep meditation to dredge up this realization and hold onto it tightly.

He seized it. Perhaps luck had granted him this sudden enlightenment, or perhaps the accumulation of quantitative change had finally reached a qualitative breakthrough—who could say? Regardless of the reason, Yang Ying now felt as if a new world had appeared before him: a world composed entirely of various material properties.

It was bizarre and wondrous, boundless and immense; yet, he only perceived a minuscule corner of it.

Zero and one are differences of quality, while one and one hundred million are mere differences of quantity. With this corner in hand, he had truly stepped through the door of Pharmaceutics, and the deeper world of potions would be continuously unearthed by him.

Having firmly grasped this shred of understanding, Yang Ying used it as a foundation to reorganize every lesson in Pharmaceutics he had ever learned.

It was like dry kindling meeting fierce fire, or a catalyst encountering a reaction. The previously learned knowledge of Pharmaceutics now appeared entirely different to the current Yang Ying.

The sensation was as if that knowledge had suddenly sprung to life, organically integrating around the essence of material change. What was once rootless duckweed had now sunk deep roots into the soil, becoming vibrant and forming a true system.

The virtual laboratory had expanded to include eight hundred personnel. The moment Yang Ying grasped that flicker of insight, all eight hundred immediately set aside their current tasks and dedicated themselves entirely to the great endeavor of integrating their knowledge of Pharmaceutics.

For five days and five nights, Yang Ying did not step out of his room. His three classmates and friends had visited to check on him. However, Yang Ying’s door remained locked, and the robotic servant informed them that Yang Ying was logged into the virtual laboratory conducting an important experiment—such occurrences were frequent. The robotic servant was long accustomed to it, and when Lái Yǎ () and the others learned this, they did not disturb him.

At dawn, Yang Ying slowly opened his eyes. His gaze, compared to five days prior, held a knowing confidence.

He had not yet advanced to the Fourth Level, but the path toward it was no longer concealed in mist. He distinctly sensed where the opportunity lay.

“Potions, potions; in the end, it still comes down to potions,” Yang Ying walked slowly toward the balcony.

The east was gradually brightening, but the eternal snow clouds perpetually shrouding Yǒngxuě City () blocked the sunlight, leaving the sky still somewhat dim.

The conclusion Yang Ying reached during his five-day seclusion was this: the path of his spiritual power cultivation had been too smooth, with many aspects falling short of ideal. The situation with Pharmaceutics was similar; though he knew the knowledge acquired by his clones differed slightly from that of his main body, he had still used a vast number of them. While progress was fast, his foundation was unstable.

If his foundation had been sufficiently solid, perhaps that moment of spiritual clarity during his sudden enlightenment could have propelled him directly to the Fourth Level breakthrough.

Fortunately, he now understood the fundamental nature of material change. As long as he was willing to start anew and rebuild his foundation, he could still enter the Dao through Pharmaceutics in three to five years and become a Fourth-Level expert.

However, he was desperately short on time. During his five-day seclusion, two critical events had occurred.

The first was intelligence arriving from the Solar System sector. It reported the discovery of Kustar () observer craft in several star systems surrounding the Solar System. That area was where Yang Ying had established mining planets and was protected by a fleet. Upon discovering the Kustar observer craft, the patrol ships naturally moved to intercept. However, the Kustar occupants ignored them, leading the patrolling battlecruisers to fire a Yamato Cannon and destroy the craft. Such incidents occurred in several star systems on the same day, forcing Yang Ying to consider the possibility that the Kustar race might move against him. In truth, Yang Ying felt it was already late for the Kustar to finally make a move against him.

Previously, their inaction might have been due to their struggle with the Gē () race over the Flin Kingdom, or perhaps apprehension over the death of the Fourth-Level expert Hādékè () at the hands of the Trann Mercenary Group, leaving them unable to ascertain the true strength of the Trann Mercenaries.

Perhaps they, like the Gē race, viewed the Trann Mercenary Group as genuine humans. The Gē race claimed that Earthlings had independently developed space-jump technology. The Kustar, creators of the ancient legions and the race with the second-most comprehensive knowledge of the Solar System after the Gē, obviously would not believe this.

Regardless, after nearly two years of silence, the Kustar race was once again approaching the Solar System. This fact put Yang Ying on high alert.

The second event involved a Burket () exploration vessel arriving in the star system where Planet Ài’ěr () resided. Planet Ài’ěr was already near the Burket’s stellar territory. The Burket, the ninth largest race in the Orion Arm, was the most powerful race surrounding Ài’ěr.

The Burket were extremely territorial and tended toward domineering behavior. Yang Ying had always assumed that for the God race to develop, a war with the Burket over living space was inevitable, and he had never considered fostering friendly neighborly relations with them.

As soon as the Burket exploration ship appeared, Planet Ài’ěr detected it. The Light and Shadow Executive Officer Kǎsī () immediately authorized a photon turret to shoot down the Burket vessel. The exploration ship was reduced to cosmic dust before it could send out a single distress signal.

However, the arrival of one ship suggested that a second might follow. Contact with the Burket race was becoming increasingly imminent.

Under these circumstances, waiting three to five years was simply too long. Therefore, Yang Ying decided to utilize the alternative path he conceived during his seclusion to quickly mend the deficiencies in his foundation and ascend to the Fourth Level! If you wish to know what happens next, please log on to Xīnbā (). More chapters are available, supporting the author. Support genuine reading!