Emily Thompson waved her hand as if shooing away a fly, dispersing the image of Bruce about to lose his temper, then turned to look at the massive Mars and the layer of flickering ochre runes glowing around it.

On Mars, Kevin Walker, who had just completed a full cycle of that complex and primitive true solution in one breath, was gasping for air, looking at the grade-one Qi Gathering Pill he had completely consumed, then glancing up at the terrifying scene above his head—a vortex formed as the primordial energy within several kilometers had been sucked dry. Even he couldn’t help but feel a wave of lingering fear.

Just the first time completing this full cycle of the primitive true solution had consumed an unimaginable amount of primordial energy, almost turning Kevin Walker into jerky and causing him to collapse halfway. He was so angry he wanted to drag out Little Tyler and give him a good beating.

But in the next moment, a tremor and a rustling sound made him instantly alert, and he saw some arm-thick reptiles approaching after he finished cultivating, with even larger primordial beasts seemingly drawing near.

Kevin Walker jumped up in shock and immediately looked around, finally understanding his situation. It turned out that his cultivation had drained the surrounding primordial energy, making many primordial beasts unwilling to come close, which had unexpectedly saved his life.

Thinking of the scene after the primordial starry sky behemoth was killed, Kevin Walker knew that soon the area would become a land overrun with giant beasts and rife with danger. Looking around again, when he saw the corpses of the elderly men and women who had just come to Mars with him on the spaceship, who had wanted to introduce him to someone and take photos together, he suddenly felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

Everything had happened so suddenly before, and he hadn’t even had time to think before starting to cultivate. Now, though, he felt a kind of bewildered, cold pain, so intense that he couldn’t even cry out loud.

They weren’t family, but it was the first time he had seen so many living people die before his eyes, and the shock was still overwhelming for Kevin Walker. With his spiritual consciousness expanded, he was aware of everything within a dozen meters around him; he didn’t even need to look to know they were all gone.

It wasn’t fear, just a strange shiver, a coldness—life was so fragile. No wonder so many people wanted to become stronger and stronger, to defy fate, to take control of their own lives...

He stood there for a long time, until he heard what sounded like fighting in the distance, and Kevin Walker suddenly snapped out of it.

Chapter 3: A Thought Between Life and Death

Kevin Walker immediately moved all the corpses of the tour group into the base, but because of the massive tremor, the base had mostly collapsed and shattered. In the end, Kevin Walker found a room that was still relatively intact, placed all the bodies inside, and used huge stones to completely block the door.

After sealing everything off, Kevin Walker suddenly noticed that the tour group’s information wristbands were still flashing. With a gentle touch, the moment of their group photo instantly appeared before him.

There were dynamic videos, three-dimensional images, and even frontal portrait photos...

At that moment, all the strength he had just shown—having lost his family and become an orphan from a young age, thinking he was used to everything—suddenly vanished from Kevin Walker. He sat down right there, and tears fell uncontrollably.

Kevin Walker himself couldn’t even describe what he was feeling, only that the strength that had just filled his body seemed to be draining away.

At this moment, what Kevin Walker didn’t notice was that, because so many people had just died and left behind a lot of blood, several half-meter-long primordial sawtooth centipede bugs, resembling centipedes but with long serrated legs, had appeared, drawn by the scent of blood.

With dozens of sawtooth-like legs churning, they could even grind stone to pieces, and they were crawling toward Kevin Walker along the trail of blood.

Kevin Walker was in a completely dazed state, and even when these sawtooth centipede bugs entered the range of his spiritual sense, he didn’t react.

“There are bugs coming, kid, what are you spacing out for...”

One of the bugs was about to coil around Kevin Walker’s feet, and another was about to rear up and strike at his neck. If it caught him, even ordinary steel would be shredded.

“Hmph...”

Having failed to get a response, Little Tyler, seemingly resigned, sighed, and suddenly his black and white eyes flashed with light. With his cold snort, the Taiji diagram on Kevin Walker’s chest suddenly radiated light again.

It seemed as if it was about to spin open. With just this small movement, countless primordial energies surged in from all around, but in less than a second, it abruptly stopped.

“Bang!”

Although the birthmark on his chest only trembled slightly, the vibration was like a jolt to Kevin Walker’s heart. He snapped awake, and instantly—without even looking—everything within his spiritual sense was crystal clear.

Fortunately, he relied on his spiritual sense, and at that moment, Kevin Walker realized that the sawtooth centipede bug at his feet and the one aiming for his neck were aligned, or else he wouldn’t have known how to dodge.

He rolled to the side at lightning speed, but still, a gash appeared on his ankle as if it had been sliced by a sawtooth, the pain snapping Kevin Walker fully awake.

The sawtooth centipede bug reacted quickly too, instantly springing at Kevin Walker like a projectile.