Cosmic Professional Gladiator

"Top ten among the Primordial Research Institute?" Xu Jingming smiled. "Nine, don't flatter me. I know very well… Those in the Primordial Research Institute's top ten mostly have high-dimensional mental strength. They have accumulated a lot more than me!"

"Take Senior Brother Yijiu for instance. He can unleash high-dimensional powers on two paths! His mind is already high-dimensional, but he isn't in the top ten," Xu Jingming said. "Compared to Senior Brother Yijiu, my accumulation is much weaker."

"What did I rely on to enter the top ten? It's because my high-dimensional treasure is powerful enough!" Xu Jingming said. "Of the entire Primordial Research Institute's Origin lifeforms, excluding cosmic legends, the high-dimensional treasures I use should be the best, right?"

"Yes," Nine agreed. "Only the treasures used by Primordial One are comparable. The others have treasures much worse than the two of you."

Xu Jingming nodded.

Primordial One was once on par with Redmond, so it was normal for the dean to give her treasures.

"I only entered the top ten by having the best high-dimensional treasures. What's there to be proud of?" Xu Jingming smiled and said, "Many of the high-dimensional treasures my senior brothers and sisters use are only worth tens of millions of credits."

"If I didn't rely on external objects, it would be impressive if I could enter the Primordial Research Institute's top 100 with my strength," Xu Jingming mused.

"Those with high talent like Redmond and Primordial One will be groomed," Nine said. "If your talent is high enough, you will naturally have resources invested in you. The deeper your accumulation, the higher your chances of becoming a high-dimensional lifeform."

"Master, in the history of the human race, there were people more talented than you, but they ended up failing to become high-dimensional lifeforms," Nine said. "Going from this universe to high-dimensional is the crossing of dimensions!"

"I'm aware of that." Xu Jingming nodded.

From Lv. 1 to the limit of Lv. 10, they were all lifeforms in the universe that could slowly be improved. However, it was too difficult to cross dimensions!

Redmond's talent was dazzling to such an extent, but he still reached a bottleneck after figuring out three high-dimensional powers. He even took some time off and got married to have a son.

It was the cosmic fruit that Xu Jingming accidentally obtained that benefited Redmond. Otherwise, it would take Redmond a long time to become a high-dimensional lifeform. He might even fail even when his lifespan came to an end.

This was the difficulty of reaching high-dimensional.

Not only was this the case for the humans, but it was also the same for the Hellions! Other than the Hellion Progenitor, there was only one high-dimensional lifeform—the emperor. Even for a species as powerful as the Void Celestials, there were only a handful of high-dimensional lifeforms.

It wasn't easy for any species to become a high-dimensional lifeform—no matter which path they took.

I'll make a trip to the auxiliary universe. Xu Jingming took a step and disappeared into space.

******

In the auxiliary universe.

The outermost flaming world was no longer attractive. After all, all the cosmic fruits had been plucked. Xu Jingming only took three steps before arriving near an intact stone pillar with patterns.

Buzz!

As he approached, an invisible fluctuation spread out from the 1.6-light-year-tall patterned stone pillar and attacked Xu Jingming's mind and consciousness.

However, Xu Jingming had consumed the Abyss Fire Lotus Seed, and his mind had reached Lv. 11. With the Primordial Battle Armor blocking and weakening the external mental impact, Xu Jingming resisted the influence and approached the patterned stone pillar.

Boom!

Xu Jingming suddenly turned into a flaming figure and continued walking step by step.

The patterned stone pillar had a powerful repulsive force, making it harder for Xu Jingming to walk. Moreover, the rising temperature made him feel uncomfortable.

Transform into the Primordial Star.

A large amount of flames condensed around the flaming figure, completely turning into a miniature Primordial Star. This miniature Primordial Star continued flying slowly toward the patterned stone pillar.

Boom!

When the terrifying repulsive force and the powerful heat waves emitted by the patterned stone pillar reached Xu Jingming, flames were naturally ignited!

Xu Jingming—who had turned into a miniature Primordial Star—resisted the heat waves, flames, and repulsive forces. He failed to advance further once he reached 100 meters. This was because the repulsive force was too great!

My strength can be ranked in the top ten of the Primordial Research Institute, but I can't surpass the patterned stone pillar? Xu Jingming thought to himself. The obstruction should be weaker if I try the collapsed stone pillar.

The 36 patterned stone pillars protected the huge palace in the center, but nine of them had collapsed.

Boom!

The repulsive force around a fractured stone pillar was clearly much weaker.

Xu Jingming approached before transforming into a miniature Primordial Star and continuing his approach.

"I…" Xu Jingming looked at the collapsed patterned stone pillar in front of him.

90 meters, 80 meters… 50 meters… 30 meters… 10 meters…

The distance narrowed, and Xu Jingming felt inexplicably nervous.

I touched it.

The repulsive force of the collapsed patterned stone pillar was clearly much weaker. Although flames rose under the impact of the heat waves, the flames couldn't break through the Primordial Battle Armor despite their immense intensity.

The Primordial Battle Armor had a strong advantage when blocking the impact of energy and matter. It was at a disadvantage when facing high-dimensional methods like mind and binding.

"Wh—" Xu Jingming's mind rumbled when his palm touched the patterned stone pillar! It was as if he had touched the surface of a behemoth.

Xu Jingming's consciousness felt as though he was viewing something in awe due to its massive size!

Ten light-years? 10,000 light-years? 100 million light-years? No, it couldn't be accurately described by length. It was massive at a high-dimensional level!

The behemoth gave Xu Jingming a sense of oppression that even exceeded the Primordial Star he had seen when accepting the legacy.

Xu Jingming knew that it was an illusion! After all, he had never really seen the Primordial Star and only comprehended some projections. As for this behemoth… Xu Jingming felt it very strongly.

These patterned stone pillars were actually a part of the behemoth's body. However, these were nurtured in the inner universe, so they bore this look after its death.

I once bought three wisps of the Primordial Star Flame and looked at them with my own eyes. What I saw… is far inferior to the flames on the body of this great existence. Xu Jingming touched the patterned stone pillar and continued sensing it with his mind.

There were wisps of black flames on the behemoth's body, but these black flames gave Xu Jingming a different feeling.

Flames—it's the source of this great existence's strength! Or rather, it's one of the sources. Xu Jingming somewhat understood.

…

Having touched the patterned stone pillar, he looked at the great figure with his mind.

Every wisp of fire on the great figure's body carried infinite knowledge. It attracted Xu Jingming more than the Primordial Star Flame.

Xu Jingming tried interpreting and comprehending it. With the Primordial Star Conjecture and human scientific knowledge as the foundation, coupled with the cosmic fruits he had eaten for years, he deciphered a lot of information.

More than three months later.

Xu Jingming felt his consciousness tremble uncontrollably. He could only retract his palm and stop touching the patterned stone pillar.

He couldn't sense it without touching it.

Xu Jingming's mind and consciousness began to stabilize.

This terrifying flame? Xu Jingming fell into thought. His mind and consciousness seeped into the Primordial Fire Bead, which was refined according to the Primordial Star, in his body.

However, they still had many things in common! Especially in the early stages, they had many things in common.

Xu Jingming seeped into the outermost layer of the Primordial Fire Bead, and a portion of his strength even seeped into the inner layer.

Buzz.

Suddenly, a wisp of black flame appeared in Xu Jingming's palm.

Although it's inferior to the flames controlled by that great existence, it's already a little similar. Most importantly… I can use this flame to my heart's content. With a thought from Xu Jingming, a large number of black flames spread out from his body, and his entire body was completely enveloped by them.

Terrifying black flames burned in all directions, obliterating everything.

"Master, the might of these flames doesn't seem inferior to Maxon's flames," Nine said in surprise. "However, the range of the flames you release is inferior to Maxon's."

Xu Jingming nodded.

Maxon was roughly number one among the Primordial Research Institute's Lv. 10, and his mental strength was high-dimensional. The flames he released had an extremely wide range, and he could send flames down from afar. In terms of operability, it exceeded Xu Jingming's.

"But with this flame, your strength will increase even further. You should be able to enter the Primordial Research Institute's top five." Nine exclaimed in surprise. "Master, the path of the auxiliary universe's creator is very suitable for you."

"Be it the dean or the creator of the auxiliary universe, they are all from the Primordial Star lineage." Xu Jingming said, "I'm just borrowing from both and slowly figuring it out."

As his educational level reached Lv. 99, his accumulation in the universe was actually about done. He was now working hard to advance to high-dimensional in every aspect—none of them could truly break through to high-dimensional for the time being.

I'm 381 years old now, and I've accumulated enough knowledge in all aspects. Next is to figure out how to cross over to high-dimensional.

The first step is a high-dimensional mind.

I've cultivated for more than 300 years to reach Lv. 11. According to the Primordial Research Institute's historical data, it will probably take me thousands of years to break through to Lv. 12, Xu Jingming thought.

For example, Jane was also honing his mind.

Attainment of a high-dimensional mind usually took more than 50,000 years in the Primordial Research Institute! Of course, Redmond, Primordial One, and the other geniuses weren't among them, but it still took Redmond thousands of years to attain a high-dimensional mind.

There's no shortcut to breaking through mentally. I have to undergo all kinds of honing, Xu Jingming thought.

How could he hone himself? Cultivating the Primordial Star Conjecture's 'Dark Volume' honed the mind in the dark to ensure that it wasn't corroded. This was one way, but it was also playing with fire. Even if one relied on this method to reach Lv. 12…. Someone like Eternal Academy's Inzel—whose mind had reached high-dimensional—still took the initiative to plummet his mind into the abyss again, hoping to get closer to the abyss and grasp greater strength.

Being used to finding strength in the darkness, he might continue after acquiring certain gains.

Xu Jingming didn't enjoy the Dark Volume, so he wasn't willing to spend time on it.

There will be two main directions in the future.

First is mental tempering.

Second would be to familiarize myself with high-dimensional powers and borrow all kinds of high-dimensional powers. The higher the level, the better! With a greater frequency of usage, I'll gain a deeper understanding. I stand a chance of completely comprehending them and using them myself, Xu Jingming thought.

Only by clearing these two paths could he be qualified to construct a high-dimensional lifeform.

No step was easy.

A peerless genius in the history of cosmic humans? If he couldn't become a high-dimensional lifeform, he would have only been an unrealistic rosy story. Xu Jingming didn't feel smug at all; he knew very well that what followed was the true obstacle!