Chapter 401: Chapter 350: Fifth Deep Evolution

Not only the journalists, staff, and bigwigs like Gu Wei and Liu Jiren in the Pillarless Banquet Hall saw the “daytime ascension” phenomenon, but the colorful beam of light as thick as a water tank standing between heaven and earth was so conspicuous that people living and working near the expo center, as well as passersby, all witnessed this scene.

“Holy cow!”

“Look quickly!”

“What’s going on with this beam of light?”

“I don’t know, it appeared suddenly.”

“Hey, look, is there a person inside the beam?”

“Whoa, there really is someone, still flying upwards continuously.”

“Why does this look as if aliens are attacking Earth, or someone is ascending to the heavens?”

“It’s so astonishing; I’ve already recorded it and posted it online!”

Malls, office buildings, streets, and other places near the expo center suddenly became crowded with people, all looking at the beam of light with shock, countless people raising their phones, frantically capturing this stunning scene.

Many people even called friends and family, hoping they could also come to witness this moment.

Unfortunately, this wondrous scene was very short-lived.

Shortly after, the beam of light dissipated without a trace.

Although many people captured the scene, they still did not know what it meant.

…

The only one who knew the specifics, Lu Li, was flying at high speed.

At this moment, he hadn’t activated his Biological Force Field, yet it was as if it was integrated into his body, greatly increasing his flying speed to about eight thousand six hundred meters per second, and as the speed of energy absorption from the outside increased, empowering himself, his speed kept rising.

Nine thousand four hundred meters per second!

Ten thousand five hundred meters per second!

Thirteen thousand one hundred meters per second!

In just a short moment, he passed through the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, ionosphere, and exosphere, speeding up to ten thousand five hundred meters per second!

Especially when passing through the ionosphere, Lu Li felt a large amount of heat energy, radiation, and other energies being absorbed into his body, as if this layer was incredibly rich in energy.

It was precisely because he passed through this layer that his body’s evolution rate became faster than before.

Quickly ascending from the initial nine thousand four hundred meters per second to ten thousand five hundred meters per second.

This process lasted about a dozen seconds.

Then, he flew in cosmic space for about ten minutes.

His speed gradually increased to seventeen thousand two hundred meters per second, temporarily staying at this phase.

At this time, Lu Li had already reached space, ahead was the Moon locked by Earth’s gravity, still far away.

Although the Moon was still far away, once Lu Li entered space, it was as if he had switched to another perspective.

Enveloped by darkness, he faced a silent emptiness.

Like sparks, lights began spinning continuously, one, three, five, even thousands and thousands of them.

Unlike looking up at a starry sky filled with stars at night.

In this vast cosmic space, every star was extremely distant.

Unable to notice shining starry light, only these scattered dots could be seen.

Boundless void.

As if time had also ceased to flow.

It was Lu Li’s first time in space, witnessing this magnificent scene, his heart was momentarily shaken.

He found it somewhat surprising that crossing the starry sky with his physical body hadn’t been disturbed by the vacuum, as if his body was incredibly strong, unaffected even by the near-vacuum of space.

The feeling of crossing the starry sky with his physical body felt utterly wonderful.

After watching the starry sky for a while and experiencing the wonderful feeling of crossing the starry sky with his physical body for a moment, Lu Li gradually shifted his thoughts to other more important aspects, such as his flying speed.

“My flying speed has unexpectedly surpassed the first, second cosmic velocities, and even exceeded the third cosmic velocity?”

Lu Li was utterly astonished.

The first cosmic velocity was seven thousand nine hundred meters per second.

The second cosmic velocity was eleven thousand two hundred meters per second.

The third cosmic velocity was sixteen thousand seven hundred meters per second.

The so-called cosmic velocity refers to the minimum speed needed to launch a spacecraft from Earth’s surface to orbit Earth, escape Earth’s gravity, and leave the solar system, respectively known as the first, second, and third cosmic velocities.

In the early days, during the exploration of aerospace pathways, three cosmic velocity concepts were introduced to estimate the minimum energy required to overcome Earth’s gravity and the Sun’s gravity.

Assuming Earth is a ring, without atmosphere around, the lowest circular orbit where an object can orbit Earth has the same radius as Earth’s radius.

At this point, the object’s speed is the first cosmic velocity, approximately seven thousand nine hundred meters per second; once an object gains this horizontal speed, it can orbit Earth without further propulsion.

To escape Earth’s gravity and become an artificial planet orbiting the Sun, a minimum speed is needed: the second cosmic velocity at eleven thousand two hundred meters per second; when an object gains this speed on the ground it can leave Earth along a parabolic trajectory.

The minimum velocity for an object on Earth to fly out of the solar system relative to Earth’s center is known as the third cosmic velocity, which is 16,700 kilometers per second. When an object on the ground makes full use of Earth’s orbital velocity and achieves this velocity, it can follow a hyperbolic trajectory to leave Earth. Once it reaches 930,000 kilometers from the center of Earth, it’s considered to have escaped Earth’s gravity and will then move under the influence of the Sun’s universal gravitation. This trajectory relative to the Sun would be a parabolic path, eventually leading to a departure from the Sun’s gravitational field and out of the solar system.

“So, you mean as long as the energy within me keeps flowing, my current flying speed might actually allow me to fly out of the solar system?”

Lu Li was truly astonished. “Is my fifth deep evolution just in its initial phase and already accelerating to surpass the third cosmic velocity so swiftly?”

Indeed, this fifth deep evolution is different from the previous four.

In the past, with every deep evolution, Lu Li needed to fall into slumber, sometimes for a short day, sometimes for several days.

Eventually, his body would undergo a qualitative change, with strength suddenly doubling, or even tripling before the sleep.

This time, Lu Li felt he had entered the fifth deep evolution, yet he didn’t fall into slumber like before.

Furthermore, the enhancement in his physical strength seemed quite astonishing this time.

He recalled the evolution process.

While traveling from Ugly Country to Niger, under the balanced state of energy income and expenditure of the Biological Force Field, his flying speed could reach 4,300 meters per second.

After staying in Niger for a few days, on his return trip to Huaxia, he discovered his flying speed had increased to about 7,140 meters per second.

At that time, Lu Li judged that during his few days in Niger, his physical strength had improved by about 0.66 times.

Then came today, from spending the morning with Liu Kexin to holding a press conference in the evening, a total of just over ten hours had passed.

“Logically, over just ten-plus hours, I should be constantly evolving, possibly nearing the first cosmic velocity of 7.9 kilometers per second, considering no other factors are involved. But reaching the second or third cosmic velocity seems unlikely.”

Lu Li recalled the morning, “That time when Liu Kexin and I were shopping, I unlocked the shackles of my mind, leading to a significant enhancement in my physical strength.”

He hadn’t tested how significant that enhancement was; it wasn’t possible to know for sure.

However, from his initial departure from the Pillarless Banquet Hall at 8,600 meters per second, he estimated that his body’s strength at that moment was more than double his strength during the flight to Niger from Ugly Country.

Then he formally entered the process of the fifth deep evolution, his body continuously morphing and strengthening, causing his speed to keep increasing.

“In short, from my flight out of the Pillarless Banquet Hall until now, within less than ten minutes, my physical strength increased by about 1.5 times?”

Feeling somewhat incredulous, Lu Li had long suspected that the fifth deep evolution would substantially enhance him, but he didn’t expect such magnitude.

“That can’t be right!”

Lu Li suddenly realized, “During this ten-minute flight, the enhancement may not have reached as much as 1.5 times because while flying within Earth’s atmosphere, I’m substantially influenced by Earth’s gravitational pull, requiring internal energy to counteract this gravity. Once outside the atmosphere, this influence diminishes or even completely ceases, allowing further speed augmentation to the current level.”

He estimated that his real enhancement might not exceed double.

Not exceeding double?

That’s still quite a remarkable feat!

After all, it had only been about ten minutes since he left Earth.

“The speed has stabilized for now, but I sense my body is still rapidly growing stronger.”

Lu Li carefully sensed and confirmed that his body was indeed strengthening. The reason for the stabilized speed was that his internal energy was extensively reconstructing his physical structure, unable to yield additional energy for flight usage.

Vaguely, he understood that if his body’s reconstruction completed, his flying speed could increase significantly.

Exactly how much more, Lu Li was temporarily unsure.

What he knew for certain was that his body was evolving from a semi-energy being toward an energy being.

The freely absorbed energy from the Cosmic Space entered his body and was transmuted into advanced energy by the ’Flame of True Self.’

Then, this advanced energy gradually replaced the old energy that was bound to ’matter’ within him.

This process lasted for about ten minutes.

And it was due to the completion of this process that his flying speed dramatically increased.

The advanced energy, having wholly replaced the old energy within, did not cease to operate.

On the contrary, it continued to assimilate the most fundamental materials like proteins and cells within, widening the strides toward becoming an energy being.

Lu Li analyzed, “If upon completing the fourth deep evolution, the energy to basic material ratio in my body was fifty percent, now it has exceeded this boundary.”

He was curious whether he would become a uniquely evolved life form entirely made of energy due to the fifth deep evolution.

While contemplating this, Lu Li noticed the pace of advanced energy remodeling his body suddenly slowed.

It felt as though energy was no longer sufficiently supplying the evolution process.

Furrowing his brow, Lu Li realized, “It won’t do; the free energy in this part of space isn’t enough to support completing my fifth deep evolution.”

He knew he needed to find a place with a richer source of energy, to absorb enough energy to finish his fifth deep evolution.

A place with a richer energy source?

Unconsciously, Lu Li gazed toward a huge source of bright light.

In that exceedingly distant place, a massive yellow dwarf star was continually emanating light and heat.

This enormous yellow dwarf star appeared not so vast when viewed from Earth.

However, in Cosmic Space, despite being 150 million kilometers away, Lu Li could still perceive its immense scale.

The Sun, as the most crucial “cradle” of Earth’s civilization, holds significant stature in both science and mythology.

With renewed determination, Lu Li declared, “I shall head to the Sun to absorb energy!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep