Planetary Level 9
Wanda exhaled softly as she and Xu Mo left Skye behind. Relief mixed with surprise—she hadn't expected Xu Mo to let Scott go so easily. Based on what she'd seen of him before, he wasn't usually the type to show mercy.
After saying goodbye to Skye, Wanda drove her Ferrari out of the university grounds.
As the car slipped into traffic, she asked suddenly, "Have you and Skye known each other long?"
"No, of course not," Xu Mo replied smoothly. He wasn't lying. He truly hadn't known her. If not for Skye's startled expression earlier, he wouldn't have recognized her at all.
Wanda clearly didn't believe him, but she let it drop.
---
A Gift
That evening, after dinner in their villa, Xu Mo took out a palm-sized black glove and set it before Wanda.
"This is…?" she asked, puzzled.
"Try it. Put a drop of blood on it."
Her eyes lit up immediately. The storage ring she wore—a treasure that had also bonded through her blood—was still on her finger. She understood at once what this meant.
Without hesitation, Wanda drew a dagger from her ring, nicked her finger, and let a drop of blood fall onto the glove.
The black material absorbed it instantly, liquefying and flowing over her skin. In seconds, it reshaped itself into a crimson windbreaker, elegant yet protective.
Wanda's lips parted in awe. "Honey, this is… amazing."
---
Sonya's Secret
Xu Mo stayed with Wanda for two days before departing.
At the villa entrance, Sonya watched him leave, rubbing her dark-circled eyes with relief. Wanda had convinced her to stay at the house, but Sonya hadn't expected the sleepless nights that followed. Every evening, the sounds from the next room went on and on, forcing her to wash sheets in the morning before heading to class exhausted.
Thankfully, Xu Mo only remained two days. Any longer, and she feared she might break.
When Wanda returned home, she immediately noticed Sonya's fatigue. Blushing, she apologized. "I'm sorry, Sonya. I haven't let you rest properly these past few nights."
Sonya waved it off quickly. "No, this is your home. I'm the guest—I'm the one disturbing you."
But when she looked at Wanda's radiant, flushed face, she couldn't help thinking, Is it really that magical?
As a mutant with the ability to read and alter memories, Sonya—codename Dreamer—felt a dangerous curiosity stirring. Part of her wanted to glimpse Wanda's thoughts and uncover the truth.
But she quickly shook her head. No. Wanda took me in out of kindness. I can't betray her trust.
Just then, Wanda let out a startled cry while staring at her phone. She turned the screen toward Sonya.
"Look at this!"
The headline read:
> A freshman named Scott from Pennsylvania State University has been arrested for armed bank robbery. He faces up to 25 years in prison.
Sonya blinked. "Isn't that the guy who was bothering you?"
Wanda nodded grimly.
---
Death Island
Meanwhile, Xu Mo returned to his beach villa on Death Island and went straight into the Star Tower.
Inside the training chamber, he activated tenfold time acceleration and pulled out a sleek silver-white nutrient pod nearly three meters long. Its interior glowed with pale green liquid—the key to advancing his body to Planetary Level 9.
After studying the manual, Xu Mo disrobed and lay inside. The hatch sealed, and the liquid surged into him, stimulating his cells as he began cultivating the Atlas of Gods and Demons.
---
Fifteen Years Within
A year and a half passed in the outside world. But in the Star Tower's accelerated flow, Xu Mo experienced over fifteen years.
Death Island had changed drastically. New buildings dotted its center. Most of the soldiers trained under Xu Mo had already been deployed by Sauron and the others to hunt beasts across the globe, gathering points.
In that time, Sauron and his core group had risen to general-level, while even the weakest of their men had become junior warriors. They ate beast meat daily—their strength growing monstrous. Even the smallest trained hound could now wrestle a tiger to the ground.
Only a handful of mutants—like the White Queen—and researchers remained on the island, their defense now fully automated by sentinel robots.
Within the Star Tower, Xu Mo opened his eyes at last. His body and mind had been reforged, climbing steadily to the ninth planetary level.
Yet he could not break through.
His Thunder Blade had reached the 20th stage, and the Atlas of Gods and Demons the 40th. But the bottleneck held firm. The more he advanced, the more obvious it became—his reliance on external resources had created resistance. The leap from Planetary 9 to Stellar Level was a wall that could trap warriors for decades—or for life.
Few ever surpassed it. Even the mighty City Lord Luo had needed the aid of a nutrient pod to climb so fast.
But Xu Mo had long anticipated this. He already had a countermeasure: the Golden Horn clone. As long as the clone's inner world expanded, Xu Mo's human body could ride that growth, avoiding the bottleneck.
By now, the apocalyptic world had been fully purged of zombies. Xu Mo drew a deep breath.
"System," he muttered. "Open the properties panel."
Visit patreon.com/Akeyno to get 30+ chapters