Swallowed Star: Reboot

Chapter 17: The Gap!

When it comes to city numbers, one cannot ignore the most famous region on the Eurasian continent — City 003, which used to be the economic center of the former Hanxia nation, commonly known as Modu.

Located near the ocean, the city is plagued by countless sea monsters that roam the riverways. The city also houses one of Asia's largest and densest clusters of buildings — a perfect breeding ground for monsters. The number of creatures entrenched there is astonishing.

Hanxia is defined by two major rivers of roughly equal size.

One flows into the sea through City 003, making the area extremely dangerous.

The other — Tai River — flows through City 009, and the dangers lurking in its waters are no less intense. The Bohai Bay region, too, has become a famous den of beasts.

City 009's lower ranking is merely due to its less dense infrastructure, resulting in fewer monsters entrenched in the city itself.

That's where Jiang Zhe and his grandfather were flying to — City 009.

Halfway there, Jiang Zhe exhausted his mental energy and they stopped to rest in the Taiyi Mountains.

His grandfather took a liking to a waterfall there, believing it to be a perfect spot to practice spear techniques. Taking into account the surrounding terrain and environment, he decided to stay for a while and help Jiang Zhe push his spear mastery to new heights.

This would also give Jiang Zhe a chance to achieve his goal — battling a Lord-level monster.

Although, regarding this goal, Grandpa remained conflicted.

---

Inside a cave a few dozen meters from the waterfall, Jiang Zhe sat cross-legged, studying rare spear technique scrolls stored on a family tablet.

Many of these notes came from the chaotic era one or two centuries before the Great Cataclysm. In that time, firearms had rapidly risen in power, pushing traditional martial arts toward extinction — the final flourish of ancient martial arts.

While the martial artists of that era were physically inferior to even today's mid-level students, in terms of technique, they had achieved unmatched levels of mastery.

Jiang Zhe found the origin of the training program his grandfather had crafted for him and memorized the essential insights. He also reviewed the advanced stages of training.

"Pierce soybeans" → "Pierce incense tips" → "Pierce mirror flies!"

The second stage used thin incense sticks, not the fancy ones with bamboo cores — just the cheap, fragile kind.

Sometimes, even lighting one would cause it to break. A slightly larger movement while holding it could snap it in half.

After hundreds of attempts, Jiang Zhe felt like he was on the brink of a nervous breakdown.

Every half hour, he would head to the pool beside the waterfall to meditate. The crashing water and cool mist hitting his face helped him restore a calm, tranquil mindset.

Then, back under the shade, he resumed his training.

Jiang Zhe never showed frustration — because compared to the insanity of the third stage, this was nothing.

"Pierce mirror flies" — it meant skewering a fly sitting on a mirror with a spear without cracking the mirror.

Jiang Zhe's inner voice screamed: "Are you serious? Is this spear training or medieval torture?!"

---

While he was training, Grandpa called home and asked his eldest son Jiang Chengbo to bring over more than a hundred bundles of incense sticks — he clearly anticipated that Jiang Zhe would be stuck at this stage for a while.

Only the Jiang family would use a War God as a delivery boy.

Oh, and he wasn't just delivering incense — Jiang Chengbo would also serve as a sparring partner and help Jiang Zhe polish his technique.

Even completing all three training stages would only mean mastering precision spear thrusts, which barely qualified as spear technique specialization — far from true mastery.

To reach the realm of a Spear Master, real combat was irreplaceable.

Fighting monsters could help, sure — but it wasn't efficient. You wouldn't learn nearly as much as from sparring against another spear master.

Yet even Grandpa underestimated Jiang Zhe's talent.

---

By evening, after nearly eight hours of intense training, Jiang Zhe successfully pierced the incense tip without breaking the stick.

"Unbelievable!" Grandpa looked at his grandson as if staring at a mythical beast. His eyes were practically glowing with excitement.

"This is my grandson!"

"He's destined to become the legend of the Jiang family!"

"No — with talent like this, he will be a legend of the entire planet!"

Jiang Zhe muttered to himself, "I guess I really am gifted when it comes to training the body."

Grandpa paused — then thought back and realized it was true. Jiang Zhe had a natural affinity for controlling power.

---

Jiang Zhe seized the momentum and requested, "Grandpa, I want to challenge a Lord-level beast."

Grandpa sighed and flew out of the valley, disappearing into the night.

Jiang Zhe could tell — Grandpa didn't want him confronting Lord-level monsters too soon. He feared something might go wrong, and he wouldn't be fast enough to intervene.

"I have the Proto-Core. I'm not that easy to kill. Even the head or heart — they're not critical."

"High-level Beast Generals are just punching bags at this point. Even if I kill hundreds, it won't help me improve anymore."

It was just like when Luo Feng climbed the trial tower in the training camp — even surrounded by hundreds of Beast Generals, as long as your explosive strength was high enough, you could slaughter them all.

Right now, brute strength gave him a certain dominance.

"A Stage-4 trainee against a Stage-7... shouldn't be too hard, right?" Jiang Zhe muttered.

---

Ten minutes later, a cold gust swept into the valley. Grandpa descended from the sky, carrying a massive block of ice.

Under the moonlight, Jiang Zhe could make out a ten-meter-tall humanoid monster encased in the ice.

A Primary Lord — the Golden-Furred Ape!

Among the mutant primate-type monsters, this species ranked in the top five.

One reason they had chosen to stay near this waterfall was precisely because of the local Golden-Furred Ape tribe. Their leader, nicknamed the Monkey King, commanded several Lord-level beasts.

From above, Grandpa called out, "Get ready. This was your choice."

Jiang Zhe nodded and gripped his spear, standing firm.

---

As the massive ice block plummeted, the monster broke free before it could even hit the ground.

ROAR!

The Golden-Furred Ape howled in fury, thumping its chest with its remaining right arm. Its left chest had a gaping hole — a fatal injury.

It looked up warily at Grandpa, recognizing the danger.

By the Lord-level, these beasts weren't stupid. It also noticed Jiang Zhe standing ready — it understood what was happening.

"I may die, but I'll make sure you pay for it!"

The ape launched forward like a speeding train, right arm swinging down like a giant pillar.

Jiang Zhe thrust his spear out, cranking his power output to 10x — attempting to block the blow head-on.

This was the fundamental "block and thrust" combination.

If he could parry the arm, the spear would stab right into the ape's throat.

80 tons of force, fully unleashed!

But Jiang Zhe had overestimated himself.

He did have the strength to match a Primary Lord-level beast — but his body couldn't handle the strain.

The spear successfully deflected the ape's arm.

But the recoil from the impact traveled back through the shaft — tearing his palms, numbing his arms, and straining his muscles and joints to the brink of collapse.

The spear flew from his hands.

Weapon lost — he had completely lost the fight.

But the crisis wasn't over — the ape's charge was still coming.

It was like a freight train at full speed — one hit, and Jiang Zhe would be pulp.

Thanks to his heightened reflexes, Jiang Zhe could even see the beast smirking. But his brain also found the perfect counter in that instant.

---

"DIE!!"

His dormant spiritual power exploded from his Proto-Core.

He grabbed the airborne spear with telekinesis, spinning it toward the ape's eye.

The ape instinctively shielded its face with its giant hand.

At the same time, Jiang Zhe used his telekinesis to boost his battle suit, shrinking his body and diving between the ape's legs, dodging the charge and appearing behind it.

Six throwing knives flew from his belt pouch, becoming silver streaks.

They stabbed into the gaping wound on the ape's back, shredding its internal organs, piercing through its throat, and exploding into its brain.

The beast's death cry stopped short.

The ten-meter monster collapsed with a thunderous crash.

---

Countless shimmering light particles surged into Jiang Zhe.

Even more than he had gained from wiping out an entire Beast General colony.

But he couldn't feel joy.

As the adrenaline faded, his limbs turned weak, his body trembling, cold sweat soaking his back.

He began reviewing the fight:

"My tactics were flawed. I overestimated my body and shouldn't have clashed head-on."

"Should've played evasive, waited for an opening?"

No — that wouldn't work either. Only full-power attacks had a chance to break through, but that also made him vulnerable.

In the end, he'd face the same situation.

"The root issue is my physical body — it's too weak."

"If I could withstand the recoil..."

But there's no if.

Jiang Zhe sighed — still craving the defensive amplitude that Babata mentioned.

"Ten times force? If it were the universal standard ten times, I'd be able to fight Primary War Gods head-on!"

It's like wearing a high-tier alloy battle suit. In theory, even a Lord-level beast couldn't break through.

But if your body can't handle the shock, you'd die from internal trauma even if your armor's intact.

---

"You're not dumb. You found the 'correct answer' I left you." Grandpa descended from the sky.

That "answer" was the massive wound on the ape's chest — the perfect entry point for his throwing knives.

"I get it now. I'm a glass cannon." Jiang Zhe finally understood.

"Grandpa, I'll focus solely on spear training now."

He closed his eyes, visualizing the star at his shoulder — now glowing nearly 60% bright.

He pushed down his inner impatience.

Craving that twofold genetic level boost had made him reckless.

Forget about training through life-or-death combat.

For now, it was better to focus on Beast Generals. Maybe after killing a thousand more, he'd finally reach the breakthrough.

As Babata told Luo Feng — between stages three to four, or six to seven — there's a real bottleneck.

Earth's flawed secret techniques simply couldn't support over-the-top leapfrog combat.

On Earth, even 10x force wasn't enough for a Primary War General to defeat a Lord-level beast — the body just wasn't strong enough.

Just like how Wang Tong fought the Ironclad Dragon — a High War God against a High Lord-level beast...