The “Falling Star” title for a Sixth Stage Evolver is significant within the Universal Human Alliance.
If placed within the Martial Path World or Dragon-Tiger World that Lin Yuan traverses, it would be equivalent to a World-Destroying Level.
However, regardless of being Falling Star Level or World-Destroying Level, it currently has nothing to do with Lin Yuan.
The Goddess of Wisdom, with her vast computational power, deduced that the theoretical limit of the Taiji Path is at the Sixth Stage.
Yet, a theoretical limit remains just that, a potential for the future.
This indicates that the Goddess of Wisdom holds Lin Yuan in high regard.
To be precise, she highly values the 'Yin-Yang' chapter of the Martial Evolution Path.
The reason the Goddess of Wisdom judged that Lin Yuan’s uploaded continuation of the Martial Evolution Path was worth twenty thousand merit points is mainly due to the ‘Yin-Yang Chapter’.
If it did not involve fusion and conversion of yin and yang, but was simply a ‘Sun Chapter’ or ‘Moon Chapter’, even if ranked in the Third Stage, its ultimate value would only be a few thousand merit points, nowhere near the astounding twenty thousand.
The power of the sun and the power of the moon are high-level energies by nature.
Mastering either one holds the potential for Third Stage, not to mention the fusion of both? It directly elevates its potential to the Sixth Stage level.
“I currently have a total of twenty-four thousand merit points.” Lin Yuan thought to himself.
Twenty thousand were the points Lin Yuan just acquired, while the remaining four thousand were leftover from his last traversal.
During his first traversal, Lin Yuan uploaded the 'Innate Chapter' and 'Grandmaster Chapter' of the martial canon, earning two thousand merit points.
Later, he continued to upload the 'Supreme Grandmaster Chapter', 'Mythical Chapter', and 'Carefree Chapter', earning an additional three thousand merit points.
After using up one thousand merit points to upgrade to a second-class citizen, Lin Yuan now accumulated a total of twenty-four thousand merit points.
“Directly upgrade the citizen rank.”
With so many merit points, there was no need to hesitate.
Lin Yuan directly chose to upgrade his citizen rank.
“Congratulations, Citizen Lin Yuan, your citizen rank has been upgraded to level three.”
In an instant, five thousand merit points were deducted, and Lin Yuan’s citizen rank was lifted from second-class to third-class.
“Third-class citizen now.”
His spirit soared.
Across the Azure Wave Star, a third-class citizen was considered a notable figure, as currently, the highest citizen rank in Eastern Peace City was merely second-class.
“To upgrade from third-class to fourth-class citizen, requires ten thousand merit points.”
Lin Yuan checked the citizen rank information, feeling a stir in his heart.
He still had nineteen thousand merit points left, fully capable of upgrading his citizen rank once more.
A fourth-class citizen was no longer a merely important figure on Azure Wave Star, but a giant, a big shot.
Only the governor had reached this rank on the entire planet.
If Lin Yuan became a fourth-class citizen, his status could directly parallel the planetary governor.
Of course, Lin Yuan understood well that having an equal status didn’t equate to having the same power or influence.
Nevertheless, a fourth-class citizen had a dramatically significant influence, especially considering the many privileges offered by the Human Alliance that left regular citizens in awe.
“Upgrade, upgrade.”
Just as Lin Yuan was about to continue upgrading his citizen rank, he glanced at other information on his personal panel, like his name, account balance, loan limit, and so on.
“Huh!”
Lin Yuan suddenly noticed his loan limit was full.
After becoming a second-class citizen, Lin Yuan had a ten million loan limit from the Universal Human Alliance’s Central Bank.
This loan was a benefit offered to high-ranking citizens, an interest-free loan with a repayment term extending several decades, essentially akin to gifting money to high-ranking citizens.
Even if they didn’t spend this money, they could withdraw it and invest in some finance products to earn passively.
Given this, most of Lin Yuan’s expenditures before his second traversal primarily relied on loans, from purchasing residences in the Water Moon District to other nutritional supplies and even a military-grade nutrition chamber.
Originally, the ten million loan limit had been mostly used up by Lin Yuan.
Yet now, his personal loan limit was back to full.
Simply put, the loans Lin Yuan had previously taken were paid off somehow.
This was strange, as Lin Yuan was clear he hadn’t actively repaid any loans.
As for automatic deductions, so little time had passed; besides, his account balance hadn’t gone down.
“Goddess of Wisdom.”
Lin Yuan reached out to connect with the ‘Goddess of Wisdom’.
“Respected Third-Class Citizen Lin Yuan, sir,”
The Goddess of Wisdom promptly explained the reason to Lin Yuan.
As it turns out, every time a citizen’s rank is upgraded, their personal loans are automatically cleared by the Central Bank on their behalf.
However, this was only for official loans; private loans didn’t count.
This repayment mechanism was one of the hidden benefits for high-ranking citizens, not openly disclosed.
Elevating a citizen's rank denotes having contributed to the Human Alliance.
Hence, it's not unusual for the Central Bank to repay loans in recognition of that.
“There’s such a good thing?”
Lin Yuan blinked, glancing at the loan limit for third-class citizens in the Central Bank.
It was a hundred million.
He initially intended to immediately upgrade to a fourth-class citizen, but that thought was restrained.
If he spent this hundred million loan limit first and then upgraded, wouldn’t he essentially gain this hundred million for free, without having to repay?
Clearly, Lin Yuan’s deduction was correct.
According to the Central Bank’s repayment mechanism, this stood true.
It wasn’t a loophole in the citizen rank system since merit points were extremely challenging to obtain.
Generally, once citizens collected enough points needed for an upgrade, they would certainly upgrade immediately because the benefits and privileges of being a high-ranking citizen were too tempting.
Lin Yuan contemplated how to spend the hundred million, while browsing through an email sent by the Universal Human Alliance after his upgrade to a third-class citizen.
First, there were felicitations and a transfer of ten million.
When he was upgraded to a second-class citizen, he received five million from the Human Alliance.
Now, upon becoming a third-class citizen, the Alliance transferred ten million.
The jump wasn’t as huge as the increase in loan limit, but it made sense—after all, this was free money, which Lin Yuan gladly accepted wholeheartedly.
Following that, there was an update on various privileges.
Compared to the privileges of a second-class citizen, a third-class citizen gains an added ‘appeal’ privilege.
This allowed him to directly contact the local planetary governor to appeal if he faced any unjust treatment or witnessed any unfair incidents.
After familiarizing himself with all the privileges, Lin Yuan immediately opened the mall option to begin purchasing various ‘spirit items’ to restore his strength.
With the increased access granted by his third-class citizen status, he saw a list that was multiple times larger.
Countless ‘spirit items’ and ‘rare items’ he had never even heard of appeared.
“These two, then.”
After half an incense stick of time, Lin Yuan finally confirmed his choices.
Yang Liquid: a cosmic spirit item costing thirty million civilization coins per portion.
Yin Marrow: a cosmic spirit item costing twenty million civilization coins per portion.
Having created the Taiji Path that encompassed both the moon and sun essences, the spirit items Lin Yuan needed to restore his strength had to be of extreme yin and extreme yang natures.
In this regard, Yang Liquid and Yin Marrow seemed most suitable.
Yang Liquid originated from stars in their dying phase.
The difficulty of collecting it led to its high cost.
Meanwhile, Yin Marrow came from a few special cold planets, often guarded by alien races, posing extreme danger.
In truth, considering the fusion characteristics of the Taiji Path, Lin Yuan could simply continue using high-grade nutrient solutions to replenish his full strength.
He could gradually refine their energy, transforming it into moon essence and sun essence through the Taiji Path.
However, such a method would be time-consuming, and since a bottle of high-grade nutrient solution cost two hundred thousand, Lin Yuan had previously used over twenty bottles for recovery.
Now, with his realm reaching the peak of the Second Stage, restoring his full strength would require at least two hundred more bottles, costing four to five million, which wasn’t far off from the expense of Yin Marrow and Yang Liquid.
Confirming the purchase of ‘Yin Marrow’ and ‘Yang Liquid’ and setting the payment method to the Central Bank’s loan limit, Lin Yuan couldn’t help but stretch comfortably with a satisfied smile.
“There are still fifty million left to spend.”
Lin Yuan calculated silently.
“Perhaps I could purchase some Evolution Paths to study.”
He mused to himself.
With his unmatched comprehension talents, analyzing other Evolution Paths might allow him to further perfect the Martial Evolution Path.
Thinking of the Martial Evolution Path led his thoughts back to the Azure Wave Evolution Rankings.
This ranking chart recorded the top hundred Evolution Paths in the history of the Azure Wave Star.
Before his second traversal, Lin Yuan had uploaded the subsequent levels of the Martial Evolution Path, including the 'Supreme Grandmaster Chapter' and 'Mythical Chapter', etc. Supplementing the subsequent levels slightly boosted the potential of the Martial Evolution Path, reflected in its ranking rising from ninety-third to seventy-eighth on the Azure Wave Evolution Rankings.
And just now, he had uploaded the ‘Heavenly Phenomenon Chapter’ and ‘Yin-Yang Chapter’, especially the ‘Yin-Yang Chapter’, which was the key that prompted the Goddess of Wisdom to reevaluate the Martial Evolution Path from scratch.
“Goddess of Wisdom, where does the Martial Evolution Path rank now on the Azure Wave Evolution Rankings?”
Connecting once more with the Goddess of Wisdom, Lin Yuan asked curiously.
The Azure Wave Evolution Rankings updated every midnight, but as the creator of this Evolution Path, Lin Yuan could naturally inquire about the real-time ranking from the Goddess of Wisdom.
“Respected Third-Class Citizen Lin Yuan, sir, the comprehensive ranking of the Martial Evolution Path stands eighth on the Azure Wave Evolution Rankings.”
(End of Chapter)