Swallowing the Stars: Starting from Late Bloomers

(PS1: This is the story of an ordinary genius, and also the prequel to the story of Lu Qingshan, the "Banquet Venerable". He is Nabini, Fenglun, Uka, the Fire Venerable, the Lord of Youhou, the Lord of Chaos City...)

(PS2: Readers who haven't read the original novel "Swallowed Star" should proceed with caution, as should readers who came from the anime. Readers who want to see a super genius should go to "Swallowed Star: Time Simulation")

The Qin state, Yongning City.

Yongning City was incredibly prosperous; within the entire Qin Kingdom, perhaps only the Qin capital could rival it.

In the very heart of Yongning City, there stands a vast city lord's mansion.

The city lord's mansion was bustling with activity, seemingly hosting a grand banquet.

However, the innermost area of ​​the city lord's mansion was completely silent, seemingly unaffected by anything.

Just then, an old man dressed in a black robe appeared in this core area and quickly walked to the door of a quiet room.

"master!"

After walking to the door of the meditation room, the old man in black robes quickly and gently knocked on the door.

Inside the quiet room, a young man dressed in a yellow robe was sitting cross-legged in meditation.

The young man had short black hair, a resolute face, and looked extremely dignified.

This person is none other than Lu Qingshan, the strongest man in Qin and the strongest man in the world, known as the "King of Yongning"!

Upon hearing the commotion outside the quiet room, Lu Qingshan quickly asked, "What is it?"

Upon hearing Lu Qingshan's words, the old man in black robes outside the quiet room hurriedly said, "Master, the Third Young Master's Martial Saint Banquet is about to begin!"

Time really flies!

Lu Qingshan couldn't help but sigh, and then he fell into a memory.

Although he still looks like a young man, more than three hundred years have passed since he transmigrated to this world.

When he first transmigrated here, he was just an infant in swaddling clothes.

As he grew older, he naturally gained a deeper understanding of this world.

Martial arts flourished in this world, so Lu Qingshan quickly embarked on the path of cultivation after he was able to do so.

Cultivation in this world is divided into three levels: Martial Apprentice Level 3, Martial Master Level 9, and Martial Saint.

In this world, ordinary people can generally become third-tier martial apprentices after reaching adulthood, but it is quite difficult to step into the realm of martial master.

As for the Martial Saint, he is one in ten thousand!

The Chu Kingdom now has a population of over one billion, but there are only about eight hundred Martial Saint level experts!

As a transmigrator, Lu Qingshan was born with the destiny of a late bloomer; the longer he lived, the higher his comprehension would become.

Originally, Lu Qingshan, who was destined to achieve great things later in life, felt that he would have a difficult time when he first embarked on the path of cultivation, but he would definitely become stronger and stronger as time went by.

To Lu Qingshan's surprise, he displayed an incredibly terrifying talent for cultivation as soon as he embarked on the path of cultivation.

He began cultivating at the age of twelve, became a martial arts master in half a year, and reached the ninth level of martial arts master by the age of eighteen.

After only two years at the ninth level of Martial Master, Lu Qingshan successfully broke through to become a Martial Saint, becoming the youngest Martial Saint in the thousands of years of Chu Kingdom!

But it wasn't until he broke through to the Martial Saint realm that Lu Qingshan suddenly realized that he had actually transmigrated to the World of Swallowing the Stars.

The so-called ninth level of martial arts master and the realm of martial saint are nothing more than apprentice-level martial artists and planetary-level martial artists in the world of Swallowed Star.

As for the so-called third level of martial arts apprentice, it is even less than that, equivalent to the junior, intermediate, and senior students of Earthlings in the original work!

After discovering this, Lu Qingshan was initially excited, but then became quite depressed.

He was excited because he had transmigrated to the world of Swallowed Star, an incredibly vast world where even immortal gods with eternal lifespans were not considered particularly powerful beings.

Since he has transmigrated here and has the advantage of being destined to achieve great things later in life, he definitely has a great chance of becoming a top expert in the future.

As for his frustration, it stemmed from the fact that he wasn't born on a life-bearing planet connected to cosmic civilizations, but rather on this native planet named Xuanhuang.

Based on the extensive explorations of countless powerful individuals over many years, this native planet has no trace of any extraterrestrial civilization. Therefore, connecting with and entering into extraterrestrial civilizations would undoubtedly be an extremely difficult task.

Even when Lu Qingshan had just transmigrated here, the humans on this planet were still living the ancient life that Lu Qingshan had lived in his previous life, except that there were more martial artists and monsters.

That's why Lu Qingshan waited until he broke through to the Planetary level (Martial Saint) realm before he guessed, because of the special miniature planet in his dantian, that he might have transmigrated to the Swallowed Star world. The Martial Saint's lifespan of a thousand years and the legendary Martial God who could live for ten thousand years also proved this point once again!

After realizing he had transmigrated to the world of Swallowed Star, Lu Qingshan naturally made many efforts to connect with and enter the cosmic civilization.

After he entered the Martial Saint realm, he began to use some of the knowledge he had learned in his previous life to enlighten the people on Xuanhuang Star!

Although this matter encountered some resistance at the beginning, Lu Qingshan was, after all, a Martial Saint-level expert, and there were only about two thousand Martial Saint-level experts on the entire Xuanhuang Star. Therefore, even if some resistance was encountered, it was still possible to continue to push forward.

After the enlightenment ended, the entire Xuanhuang Star benefited from the advancement of technology, and the Qin Kingdom, where Lu Qingshan was located, surpassed the originally more powerful Chu and Wei Kingdoms to become the most powerful of the three kingdoms.

Of course, Lu Qingshan was not a scientific expert in his previous life. He only had a superficial understanding of the products of technological civilization such as steam engines, generators, and atomic bombs. He only knew a little about those basic knowledge because of the country's basic education.

Fortunately, the humans on Xuanhuang Star are also very intelligent. After enlightenment, they are able to continue to develop these technological civilizations even with the emergence of geniuses. So, as time goes by, the technology on Xuanhuang Star is constantly progressing.

Now, more than three hundred years have passed, and the technology on Xuanhuang Star has even surpassed the peak of Lu Qingshan's previous life. Even artificial intelligence has begun to take shape.

Unfortunately, so-called artificial intelligence is still far from being as advanced as the intelligent light brain in the Swallowed Star world that can create virtual worlds. The spaceships researched by the humans of Xuanhuang Star can only reach a maximum speed of 2700 kilometers per second, which is still a long way from reaching the speed of light that can enter the dark universe.

Moreover, even if Xuanhuang Star develops spaceships capable of traversing the dark universe in the future, it will be extremely difficult for Lu Qingshan, who lacks cosmic coordinates, to discover other life-bearing planets or even connect with genuine cosmic civilizations.

Even so, Lu Qingshan never gave up.

"No matter what, I've finally made it to this world of Swallowing the Stars, I absolutely must go and see what it's like in this vast universe teeming with powerful beings!"

Lu Qingshan thought to himself, "Now that I've cultivated to the eighth level of the Planetary level, and with the blessing of a late bloomer's destiny, even on a native planet like Xuanhuang, reaching the Constant level will be no problem at all!"

"With a lifespan of ten thousand years, technology will definitely advance even faster, and we might even be able to connect with interstellar civilizations!"

"Furthermore, if ten thousand years isn't enough, then we can break through to the cosmic level, at which point we'll be able to have a lifespan of one hundred thousand years!"

Of course, breaking through to the cosmic level on this Xuanhuang Star is also an extremely difficult thing.

Throughout the long history of Xuanhuang Star, there have been Martial God-level, or Eternal Star-level, powerhouses who have survived for ten thousand years, but there has never been a more powerful, or Cosmic-level, existence.

But that's normal!

After all, under normal circumstances, a star system with hundreds of thousands of inhabited planets can only produce one or two cosmic-level powerhouses within 100,000 years.

On a typical life-bearing planet, the appearance of even one star-level powerhouse is an extraordinary event.

The last time a Martial God-level expert (Eternal Star) appeared on this Xuanhuang Star was 60,000 to 70,000 years ago.

It's not that the martial artists born on Xuanhuang Star are incompetent, but rather that the cultivation resources on Xuanhuang Star are limited and simply cannot provide enough resources to produce a cosmic-level powerhouse. Even the resources available for planetary-level powerhouses to cultivate are not plentiful!

According to historical records, a martial god-level expert on Xuanhuang Star cultivated for nearly ten thousand years, but at most only reached the second or third level of the Hengxing level. As for the planetary level (martial saint) experts on Xuanhuang Star, even if they cultivated for a thousand years, most of them could only reach the fifth or sixth level of the planetary level.

Only true "super geniuses" have the opportunity to enter the seventh level of the planetary level, but entering the eighth or ninth level of the planetary level, or even breaking through to the constant level, is still an extremely difficult thing.

Lu Qingshan has reached the eighth level of the Planetary Realm in just over three hundred years of cultivation, which is unique on Xuanhuang Star. His cultivation speed even surpasses that of a Martial God-level expert on Xuanhuang Star.

"master!"

Just as various thoughts flashed through Lu Qingshan's mind, the voice of the old man in black robes came from outside the door again.

Upon hearing the call, Lu Qingshan quickly shook his head to dispel these thoughts from his mind, and then slowly walked towards the outside of the quiet room.

Whoosh!

The metal gate opened, and Lu Qingshan quickly saw the old man in black robes waiting outside: "Uncle Zhong, have all the guests arrived?"

This Zhongbo, whose original name was Xu Zhong, originally carried a deep-seated blood feud. Later, Lu Qingshan avenged him, and he voluntarily became Lu Qingshan's steward, following Lu Qingshan for nearly three hundred years, always working hard without complaint.

"Everyone's here!"

Upon hearing Lu Qingshan's words, Xu Zhong, dressed in black, immediately said respectfully, "Now everyone is waiting for you to appear, sir!"

"Let's go then!"

Lu Qingshan nodded slightly, then walked towards the banquet hall.