Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse

Chapter 445: Planet Destroyer

Earthen Gemini was a desolate, uninhabitable planet. It looked like a red ball covered in fumes, with pillars of smoke occasionally escaping into space. Its atmosphere was low in oxygen and rich in heavy metals, which the nearby sun heated to unhealthy degrees.

Due to these reasons, this planet was unfit for life. Simultaneously, it was rich in previous ores—just the diamonds near the surface were estimated to be millions of tons. The Animal Kingdom wouldn’t let such a treasure trove be.

The atmosphere was hot and toxic, but with the proper equipment, even E-Grade cultivators could survive here. Millions of them filled the planet, wearing specialized masks and suits, wielding heavy pickaxes to gather everything they could into leather sacks.

Earthen Gemini was a large source of wealth for the Kingdom. The ores they extracted from here were often traded to other constellations for massive sums of credits. It was their greatest mine operation.

Naturally, such an important place wouldn’t be left unguarded. Besides the E-Grade miners, hundreds of D-Grades were stationed at various spots, alongside two early C-Grade Enforcers. Just like Hell, there was also an Elder supervising this place, though their status and strength were inferior to the Warden of Hell’s.

Even the miners were members of the Animal Kingdom—outer disciples eager to contribute. While the Kingdom leaned heavily into slavery, it wouldn’t use outsiders at such an important outpost.

That all goes to say, Earthen Gemini was a critical and very well-guarded location. It had existed for tens of thousands of years and should continue producing ores for many, many more.

But every future is only as good as the next moment.

On this day, Elder Caran was resting in a special room isolated from the fumes outside—though they wouldn’t hurt him, they were still unpleasant. Therefore, not only had he sealed them outside his walls, but he was also using the planet’s heat to warm the waters of his bath, making it similar to a hot spring. It was exactly in this hot spring that he liked to relax while young maids massaged and bathed him.

“More water,” he groaned, and a thinly-clad girl slowly poured a bucket over his back. Elder Caran moaned, his canines showing.

Of the Animal Kingdom’s five noble species, canines were the weakest and least prestigious. They remained, however, noble. Elder Caran was one of the Elders hailing from the canines, and it was precisely because of his species that he was delegated to such an ugly post. An Elder like him could be a king anywhere on the constellation, but being the king of a mine meant little. He couldn’t even look outside the window without drowning in noxious fumes.

Of course, the canines were uniquely suited to such posts. They were all a bit insane, so their tolerance exceeded the others’. They always found a way to make do.

“You,” the Elder said, glancing at a maid. “Massage me.”

She beamed with joy. These maids were also disciples of the Animal Kingdom—to them, hugging the thigh of an Elder was an excellent opportunity to rise. Just as she was about to begin, however, she sensed the Elder tense up. She hesitated.

“Is everything okay, oh great Elder?” she asked.

Caran growled. “No.”

He then tore through space and disappeared, leaving behind screaming girls and a vacuum which the hot water was quick to fill.

Elder Caran reappeared over his building, still surrounded in all directions by fumes. He teleported five more times in quick succession, escaping the planet’s atmosphere to reach the space above. Finally, he could see—endless black surrounded him in all directions, barring the planet below him and the blazing sun to the left.

He frowned.

Just now, he’d sensed something—a sharp sense scanning the planet and locking onto him. It was like being stared at by a wild animal. Cold killing intent washed over this Elder in waves, drenching him in sweat.

Yet, now that he was in space, he couldn’t see anything. He was alone. What was going on?

“Show yourself!” he roared into the void. “In the name of the Animal Kingdom, declare your intentions!”

“Hmph!” A cold snort was the only reply. Just this snort alone distorted space for thousands of miles, and Elder Caran felt his organs vibrate. He was instantly filled with fear.

“I apologize, senior!” he quickly shouted. “I didn’t recognize your noble aura! Please accept the apologies of me, Elder Caran!”

Though he said that, he could still feel no aura. He just knew that whoever had released that snort was far, far stronger than himself.

“All you can do is oppress and grovel,” a cold voice echoed in response. “I’m sorry, Elder Caran, but some things cannot be fixed with apologies. All you dogs of the Animal Kingdom…should just die.”

Elder Caran, for better or for worse, was still an Elder of the Animal Kingdom. When had anyone spoken to him in such a tone? “Senior!” he exclaimed, barely containing his rage, but he didn’t have more time to speak.

Space distorted a hundred miles away. A dark starship appeared behind a single man. He wore brown pants and a gray cloak which left his chest exposed. Just by standing there, the aura he exuded was like a living god, the center of the universe. The laws bowed around him—the starlight curved. His fist contained such power that simply clenching it strained the surrounding space, like an ancient titan born anew.

Elder Caran’s legs went cold. He’d met an Ancestor before, but even he hadn’t carried such aura. This was the single strongest cultivator he’d ever encountered. He felt like a child—they weren’t even on the same level.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Before Caran could respond, the man drew back his fist and punched it out. The world lost its colors. The stars disappeared. Endless purple converged from deep space to form a massive fist a hundred miles wide, blotting out the sun and radiating extreme power.

The fist flew towards Caran and the planet behind him.

“No!” he roared. This had been too sudden, too abrupt! He tried to teleport away, immediately abandoning his post in the face of such a terrifying adversary, but he discovered to his horror that space around him had been sealed. Let alone teleport, he couldn’t even fly away. There was no avoiding this fist!

Caran shouted in frustration. He realized that, most probably, he was about to die. He had no idea why. He should have several more millennia to live—for his life to end like this was simply a joke.

All that bitterness fed into his insanity, which, at the precipice of life and death, erupted with all its power. “Five Star Warp!” he cried out, pushing a palm forward. Five points glittered in space—the tips of his five sharp fingernails. The strike tore through the spatial lock and shot forward, carrying undeniable momentum.

At the end of the day, Caran was a middle C-Grade. In front of his strike, even a mountain range would have no choice but to collapse.

His palm clashed against the fist. There was barely an impact. Before this massive purple fist, Caran’s attack simply shattered like a glass ball thrown against a wall. The fist only slowed down for an instant before resuming its advance, slamming into Caran, breaking all his bones, and effortlessly carrying him backward. He couldn’t even scream.

The fist carried on, falling towards Earthen Gemini like a flaming meteor. Before it even arrived, the force of its advance pressed against the planet’s atmosphere, forcefully pushing the fumes aside like plumes of smoke against the wind. For the first time in the planet’s history, the sky was clear. Thousands of people below looked up in surprise, seeing all the way to space above and to a massive, purple, fist-shaped meteor falling towards them. The ones with the sharpest gazes saw the broken body of Elder Caran plastered on its middle finger. They screamed.

The fist came down. The world shook. The planet groaned. A massive shockwave erupted, sending large quantities of fumes into space and replacing them with raised dust. The area a thousand miles around the point of impact was directly annihilated, and the planet itself compacted under the force, cracking all around. The shockwave quickly traveled around the planet, killing almost everyone. Those who survived perished to the extreme heat and vibrations that followed. Even the two early C-Grade Enforcers, who had the bad luck of being near the crash site, were instantly slain.

The impact was so powerful that it shook the planet’s core and forcefully changed its shape. Looking at it from far away in space, Earthen Gemini folded around the point of impact, the land rising to form new rings of mountains which immediately collapsed, and then was compressed towards the planet core. A massive explosion occurred on the other side, sending millions of tons of rocks flying into space and creating a massive crater. Endless ravines opened across the planet,hundreds of miles in depth. Lava shot out.

Soon afterward, Earthen Gemini could no longer take it. The cracks spread past the point of no return. Entire pieces of the planet broke away one by one, and Earthen Gemini fractured into a collection of roughly nine moon-sized pieces which flew off in different directions, escaping their previous orbit around the sun. They would soon become large asteroids aimlessly crossing space, fall into the sun, or be absorbed into another celestial object of this solar system.

Where there used to be a planet, there was now only a humongous cloud of dust.

Jack watched coldly from his vantage point in space. In a single strike, he had destroyed a planet. He was not terrified by his powers, nor was he regretful about the many lives he’d taken. None of them was innocent—all were cultivators of the Animal Kingdom, soldiers of the enemy.

All he felt was fulfillment and dark satisfaction. He looked at his hand, then slowly clenched it into a fist. All this power he possessed… He was glad for it. He needed it to destroy his enemies, avenge his son, and protect his family.

Eight years of cultivation. Eight years of moving from one catastrophe to the next and using them to grow stronger. From struggling to defeat a goblin, Jack had reached the point of punching planets into oblivion. He had slowly but surely stepped into the highest echelons of the universe.

Suddenly, he smirked. An old memory came to mind. A couple years before the Integration, he’d gone to an interview for a job he later refused. They’d asked him where he saw himself in ten years. He didn’t remember what he’d answered then, but he certainly hadn’t gotten it right.

Planet destroyer, he thought, smiling to himself. Not quite part of the corporate ladder.

As for the people in the starship behind him—Brock, Salin, Nauja, Bomn, and Vashter—they were shivering without exception. Not due to the brutality of all this, but because of the power he’d exhibited.

Was this really the power of a cultivator?

All of them were forced to look at themselves and acknowledge that this was a level they could never hope to reach. The only exception was Brock, whose chest ballooned with pride and ambition. Soon, he too would possess such power. The way of the bro would resound across the universe, ushering a brighter, happier era.

Of course, that would all be meaningless if they lost themselves in the process… Brock’s face darkened, but he said nothing. Not yet.

Jack looked up. A number of notifications rang in his ears. The System acknowledged his efforts.

Level up! You have reached Level 319.

Level up! You have reached Level 320. Further levels locked until the development of your next Dao Fruit.

He smiled. This was the first time he got so many levels that the System had to withhold a few. It was natural—he’d just killed a great number of cultivators, and while most of them were too low level to give him any experience at all, there were a few at the C-Grade. Elder Caran, specifically, was at a similar level to Jack. The only reason he’d seemed so weak was that Jack’s battle power was an entire Grade beyond what his level indicated.

But that wasn’t the end of the notifications.

Congratulations! For single-handedly destroying a planet, you are awarded the Title: Planet Destroyer.

Planet Destroyer: A Title awarded to those who have destroyed a planet. Efficacy of all stats +5%.

A rush of power flooded Jack. His body grew denser, his mind sharper, and his heart clearer. No matter how strong he got, a percentage increase was always significant. If anything, it mattered even more to him because of his inflated stats. A five percent increase at this point was more than three hundred points worth of Physical.

Amidst his joy, however, he frowned. This wasn’t a hard title to get. Since it didn’t specify doing it in one strike, most B-Grades should be able to achieve it given a bit of time. Maybe destroying a planet was a secret initiation ritual for B-Grades at high-level factions. He only hoped they went for uninhabited ones.

Of course, the System wouldn’t have done this by accident. It encouraged people to destroy because it wanted to make them into callous warriors who would stand up to the Old Gods. It was nothing but a war machine.

Whatever the case, Jack had gotten another increase in power. That was always nice. He shook his head and flew back to the Trampling Ram.

This was just the beginning.

The Animal Kingdom would pay.