-----
-----
Although Meteor inherited all of Liuying's physical abilities, he definitely didn't inherit her combat skills. They might have the same hardware, but Liuying had been fighting insect swarms ever since she was born.
When it came to battle experience, probably no one on the entire Douluo Continent could match her. Her real strength wasn't in her physical traits—it was in her instinct, her gut feeling, and her fighting reflexes.
In her memories, when the Silver Stingers descended on a planet, it looked like a dazzling snowstorm. After every battle, the ground would be left in ruins, covered in silvery fragments of insect carcasses and the cold remains of Molten Knights.
That kind of war swept across entire planets—hundreds of them, not just one or two. It defined Liuying's entire life. Compared to that, the battles on Douluo were child's play, not even worth mentioning.
That's why Liuying cherished her time with Nan Qiuqiu and the others so much. Wasn't this the life she'd always dreamed of? Living in a healthy body, making new friends as Liuying, running and jumping around freely—this was exactly what she'd been searching for, the meaning of life itself.
Liuying was soaking up every moment of the life she'd hoped for, and Meteor felt the same. He was fascinated by extraordinary knowledge. Even though his martial soul hadn't awakened yet and he couldn't use soul power, it didn't stop him from laying the groundwork and learning as much as he could. Sure, the Earth Dragon Sect's library didn't have any rare soul power secrets, but even the basic stuff kept him hooked.
Bit by bit, he pieced together the current situation on the Douluo Continent using what he found in books and the fragmented memories in his mind.
With that info, he and Liuying could grow more smoothly in this world, and eventually inherit the divine seat of the Goddess of Life. He never forgot that Liuying had "Entropic Decay Syndrome"—a condition that was guaranteed to break out with age. Once it did, she wouldn't be able to run around so freely anymore. She'd be stuck most of the time in "S.A.M.", her life-support pod.
Since he shared everything with Liuying—memories, consciousness, even fate—he figured he'd be affected too. The only real solution was for them to become gods, specifically the God of Life. That was the only way to truly get rid of the syndrome.
Meteor loved reading. He really enjoyed the feeling of discovering new, mysterious knowledge. He wanted to keep learning, to see if maybe there was another way to cure the syndrome. After all, they couldn't put all their eggs in one basket.
What if becoming the God of Life didn't fix it? What if they failed to inherit the divine seat? You always need backup plans, right?
Back in the Stellaris Railway universe, the Gramer Republic was a powerful nation that had already stepped off its home planet and was strong enough to fight the swarms. It was way more advanced than the whole Douluo planet combined. The "safety lock" in Liuying's genes that they left behind wasn't going to be easy to undo. Meteor never fooled himself into thinking he could break it either. He wasn't some kind of genius. He just wanted to do what he could—for Liuying's sake.
After all, this second life of his came from her.
From the data he'd gathered, Meteor had a theory: since soul power could power soul tools, maybe it could also power the Gramer Iron Cavalry "S.A.M."—specifically, the Firefly IV Strategic Assault Armor. According to Liuying's memories, once she understood the essence of life and broke through the mech's limits, that mass-produced armor could unleash full output.
At full power, Liuying could literally punch a star into pieces. Even in the God Realm, only a Divine King might be able to pull that off.
At least, based on his memory of the original Douluo Dalu, the protagonist in the first timeline who became a god couldn't do anything like that. The so-called "Three God War" felt kinda exaggerated. A hundred-thousand-jin Sea God Trident breaking down city walls with one swing? Come on.
Then again, this was a real world now. Maybe the images in his memory were just poorly described by the author, which ended up making the gods look lame.
So, Meteor didn't jump to conclusions about how strong the gods really were.
No matter how powerful the gods here were, the ceiling was set. With Liuying's talent, she'd reach the top sooner or later. Meteor was sure of it.
After all, not all people are born equal. Liuying came from a much more advanced world than Douluo. For her, most people here were like dealing with a lower-dimensional version of reality. She was literally on another level.
With her abilities, once she inherited the God of Life's divine seat and hit level 150—which was the standard for a Divine King—and reactivated "S.A.M.", even the legendary Supreme God King or the so-called only Dragon God in the universe might not be able to beat her.
From what Meteor understood, the ultimate power ceiling in this world was the Dragon God. The Supreme God King was supposedly one level above the Divine Kings—but only just.
Of course, all of this was just Meteor's speculation based on memories. How far things could actually go? Well, they'd have to fight and find out.
Also, using S.A.M. in battle originally consumed Liuying's life force. That's part of why Molten Knights didn't live long—not just because of Entropic Decay Syndrome.
Liuying only reached that insane level of power after fully understanding the truth of life, stepping onto the Path, and becoming a Fatewalker. The feedback she got from the Path gave her imaginary energy, replacing her life force and allowing her to go beyond the mech's limits.
But in this world, there were no Star Gods, no Paths, and no imaginary energy. If Liuying transformed now, she'd be burning her actual life force, and that was the last thing Meteor wanted to see.
Right now, it seemed like soul power might be the best candidate to replace imaginary energy and life force. But whether that actually worked or not—well, they'd have to wait until both of them awakened their martial souls.
In this world, martial souls were inherited through bloodlines. Based on all the info he'd gathered, Meteor guessed that he and Liuying might have insect-type martial souls, since she had insect genes in her body, and her S.A.M. armor was built using insect swarm corpses as raw material.
If that was the case, then there was no need to worry about them having weak martial souls. After all, the origin of the swarms was the Breeding Star God—a being so powerful that even the supreme gods of this world couldn't touch it.
From what Meteor had read, aside from the old protagonist stealing the mysterious Xuan Tian Technique and a few other martial arts from his sect, this world didn't have many weird or powerful cultivation methods.
Even if there were, they were super rare. Most people just used a method called "Meditation," where they absorbed natural energy to convert into soul power and boosted their spiritual strength.
Pretty basic stuff, without all the magical effects that you'd see in the novels Meteor used to read.
"....."