he Blackwood Forest was not a place of mercy. It was a mathematical equation: Strength minus Weakness equals Survival.
Wuxu stood in a clearing, surrounded by the corpses of a Wind Wolf Pack.
There were six of them. They had surrounded him, thinking a lone human was easy prey. They didn't know that inside his 3-Chi radius, their speed meant nothing. He had simply waited for them to pounce, canceled their momentum, and snapped their necks while they floated helplessly in zero-inertia stasis.
He held six glowing green spheres in his bloody hands. Six Rank 1 Beast Cores (10 Entropy each).
[Current Entropy: 60/100]
[Current Body State: Artificial Layer 3]
Wuxu looked at the glowing spheres.
"System," Wuxu commanded. "Process towards maximum threshold."
[Logic:] Current Upgrade Cost is 20 Entropy per Layer.
[Calculation:] 4 Cores required to reach Domain Evolution Threshold (100).
Wuxu crushed the first four cores.
[Entropy: +40]
[Total Lifetime: 100]
The changes hit him simultaneously—a double breakthrough.
[Threshold Reached: Artificial Qi Layer 4 (at 80 Entropy).]
[Threshold Reached: Artificial Qi Layer 5 (at 100 Entropy).]
The Body of Iron (Layer 5)
The pain was absolute.
Layer 5 was the peak of the initial stage. It was the boundary where flesh became something more.
[Refining Skin... Complete.]
[Refining Marrow... Complete.]
Wuxu fell to his knees, his jaw clenched so hard a tooth cracked. His body was being dismantled. The System forced his pores to tighten, turning his skin into a dense, leather-like armor. His bones were compressed, shedding their organic weakness to become semi-metallic.
He slammed his fist into the ground.
BOOM.
The impact pulverized the rock, sending a shockwave through the dirt.
[Status Update: Artificial Qi Layer 5.]
* Physical Strength: 2,000 kg.
* Durability: Immune to standard steel.
* Speed: 25 m/s.
He gasped, steam rising from his overheated muscles. He was strong.
But the System wasn't done.
The Domain Evolution (Level 2)
[DOMAIN UPGRADE THRESHOLD REACHED (100/100).]
[Initiating Evolution: Level 1 \rightarrow Level 2.]
[Resetting Counter for Next Tier...]
[New Target: 0/400.]
The world went silent.
The cramped 3-Chi (1 Meter) sphere began to vibrate.
[Law: Expansion.]
ZHOOOM.
The invisible barrier exploded outward. It pushed past the 1-meter mark. It pushed past 2 meters. It settled with a heavy, atmospheric thud at 10 Chi (approx. 3.3 Meters).
Wuxu looked around. He finally had room to breathe. A circle of absolute sovereignty nearly 7 meters in diameter.
[Domain Level 2 Unlocked.]
[New Feature: Void Inventory.]
[Shift Cooldown Reduced: 7 Days \rightarrow 3 Days.]
[System Alert: New Physics Detected.]
[Entropy Scaling Adjusted.]
Wuxu frowned. He looked at the blue text flashing in his mind.
[Logic Update:] As the Domain expands, the energy required to sustain the Host's Artificial Shell increases exponentially. The "Cheap Energy" of the early stages is no longer sufficient.
[New Conversion Rate:]
* Previous Cost: 20 Entropy = 1 Layer.
* NEW COST: 100 Entropy = 1 Layer.
Wuxu stared at the notification. The difficulty hadn't just spiked; it had hit a vertical wall.
He looked at the two remaining cores in his hand.
"Consume," he rasped.
He crushed the final two.
[Entropy: +20]
[Current Counter: 20/400 (For Domain Level 3)]
[Body Upgrade Progress: 20/100 (For Layer 6)]
Nothing happened to his body. No jolt of power. No breakthrough.
[System Message: Insufficient Entropy for Layer 6. Need 80 more.]
Wuxu let the dust of the cores fall from his fingers.
"I see," Wuxu whispered, his voice cold. "To go from Layer 1 to 5, I needed 100 points. To go from Layer 5 to 6 alone... I need another 100."
The free ride was over.
The Test
Wuxu stood in the center of his new 10-Chi Kingdom.
He felt the power humming under his skin. Layer 5 Body. Level 2 Domain.
"System," Wuxu said. "Inventory."
He pointed at the wolf carcasses. A rift in reality opened, swallowing them instantly.
[Inventory: Wind Wolf (6). Stasis.]
He checked the map in his head.
He was deep in the Blackwood Forest. He had reached a plateau of strength. Layer 5 was enough to survive the outer rim, but if he wanted to face the Mercenary Captains (Layer 8 or 9) or the Sect Elders (Foundation Establishment), he needed Layer 9.
Calculation:
* Layer 5 \rightarrow Layer 9 = 4 Layers.
* Cost: 4 \times 100 = 400 Entropy.
* Resource: 40 Rank 1 Beast Cores.
"Forty lives," Wuxu calculated.
He looked at the Shift Cooldown.
[Time Remaining: 2 Days, 23 Hours.]
He had three days before he could move his territory. Three days to turn this section of the forest into a wasteland.
Wuxu sat down in the center of his expanded web.
"The price of godhood has gone up," he whispered, closing his eyes. "Time to work harder."