Extreme Spirit Chaos Technique

"What happened?"

Suddenly, two beautiful figures appeared behind Mu Chen. Looking at the bare-chested man with long, bluish-purple hair, Mu Junwu frowned and asked tentatively, "Mu Chen?"

Slightly turning his head, Mu Chen flashed a cool smile, trying to act suave. But the moment the smile appeared, Chu Aoqing raised an eyebrow and brought a chop down on the top of his head. "What in the world has gotten into you?" she chided. "If you disturb us again, I can’t guarantee I won’t beat you to death!"

With those words, she grabbed a bewildered-looking Mu Junwu and vanished from sight, leaving Mu Chen to stare miserably at their backs, speechless. ’What did I do to deserve this?’ he wondered. ’Still, it seems like their relationship has improved a lot during the five days I was cultivating. Women really do warm up to each other quickly.’

Turning his focus inward, Mu Chen was overjoyed to discover that his physical strength had already surpassed his previous peak, directly reaching the level of the Seven-Ring Emperor Realm!

Just imagine: as a Third-Ring Martial Sect, he already possessed the physical strength of a Seventh-Ring Martial Emperor. If he actually reached the level of a Seventh-Ring Martial Emperor, how terrifying would his physical strength become!

With this unconcealable joy, Mu Chen’s expression focused. He set off, sprinting down the stairs and crossing dozens of tiers in the blink of an eye.

’Two-thirds of the way is a Martial Artist’s limit...’

Feeling the ever-increasing gravity on his shoulders, Mu Chen showed no fear. Instead, a confident smile played on his lips, and his speed didn’t slow in the slightest. He crossed sixty tiers before the gravity on his shoulders finally felt like a mountain range pressing down on him. His speed dropped abruptly, and he was reduced to taking one stair at a time, no different from when he had been ascending earlier.

However, when Mu Chen set foot on the ninety-ninth step of the sixty-second tier, he could no longer take another step. Sweat dripped endlessly from his hair. Even though he had just broken through the Martial Artist Realm and his physical strength had been augmented, the Dazzling Stars would always adjust the gravity around a person according to their peak condition.

’As expected, this is my limit.’

Mu Chen thought to himself, taking a few deep breaths and doing his utmost to straighten his back. He didn’t try to stubbornly force his way past his limit. At the very least, he now knew where that limit was.

At this thought, Mu Chen did something unexpected. Right there on the ninety-ninth step of the sixty-second tier, he began to practice the most primitive and fundamental Body Techniques: punching and kicking. There was nothing flashy, no imposing aura—only simple, unadorned movements.

He knew that a person’s limits couldn’t be broken through just by wanting to. It required a catalyst, a process of adaptation. If you live on the edge of your limits every day, then once you adapt to that edge, the limit will naturally be broken the next time you take a step forward.

His movements were not fluid in the slightest. It wasn’t that Mu Chen didn’t want his punches and kicks to be connected; rather, the gravity pressing down on him made even standing upright an immense struggle. He had to hold his breath and muster all his strength just to keep from hunching over. To then perform intermittent punches and side kicks—actions that shifted his center of gravity—was undoubtedly placing an overwhelming strain on his muscles.

HUFF... HUFF...

He threw a punch, and sweat dripped slowly from his knuckles. Mu Chen gasped for a few breaths. His muscles were already sore and numb, but he didn’t stop. To adapt to this level of gravity, he had to force his muscles and bones to constantly endure and resist the pressure it exerted. If he won, he would adapt. If he lost, he would rest and then continue to resist until he did.

Time passed, second by second, minute by minute. Although the sky of the Eternal Holy Domain was a kaleidoscope of colors, this didn’t affect the cycle of day and night. During the day, the colors in the sky were incredibly vivid; at night, they became very dim. Mu Chen alternated between resting and performing his Body Techniques, never tiring of the routine.

In the evening, Chu Aoqing and Mu Junwu woke from their sleep. Their first thought, naturally, was to look for Mu Chen. But when they arrived at the Ten-Colored Lotus Platform, they found it completely empty. Mu Chen was nowhere in sight.

"Jun Wu, it looks like Mu Chen isn’t in there," Chu Aoqing said, puzzled, as she gestured toward the Ten-Colored Lotus Platform.

Mu Junwu replied, "He probably went to the Dazzling Stars. He looked like he was about to head down earlier."

"What’s he doing there?" Chu Aoqing muttered. Just as she was about to go check near the Dazzling Stars, she saw a bare-chested, sweat-drenched man emerge from them. It was Mu Chen.

"Hey!"

Forcing a smile, Mu Chen laboriously raised his hand. He wanted to wave but found he couldn’t muster a shred of strength. His arms were now numb, so numb that he couldn’t use them properly.

"Sorry, I’m about to collapse," he said. "I need to enter a state of Cultivation quickly to recover my stamina, or I’m afraid I’ll waste a lot of time."

With those words, Mu Chen gave Mu Junwu and Chu Aoqing an apologetic look and began to trudge laboriously toward the Ten-Color Lotus. As he approached it, perhaps because he had absorbed the Primordial Power from within, the lotus petals opened on their own, forming a circular doorway.

He wasn’t surprised—or rather, he had no time to be. Bracing himself against the sides of the doorway, Mu Chen used every last bit of his strength to step through the circular entrance and into the Ten-Color Light Shield.

He sat cross-legged, and the Extreme Spirit Chaos Technique began to circulate with fluid speed. Countless streams of Primordial Power once again surged into his body, continuously restoring his utterly depleted stamina. The pallor on Mu Chen’s face finally began to subside.

"He...?"

Chu Aoqing opened her mouth, but before she could ask her question, Mu Junwu, standing beside her, frowned and said, "He must have been using the unique properties of the Dazzling Stars for Body Forging."

"Body Forging?" Chu Aoqing suddenly recalled the gravity and Primordial Power-sealing properties of the Dazzling Stars. She realized it was indeed a viable method for Body Forging—and an exceptionally good one at that. "He seems to be pushing himself really hard," she said.

"’Pushing himself hard’ doesn’t even begin to cover it." Mu Junwu shook her head. "His entire journey of Cultivation has been one where he puts his very life on the line."

"Cultivating... with his life on the line?"

"Three days ago, I used the privileges of my position to look up his information—specifically, from when he was one year old to twelve," Mu Junwu said. "Did you know? No one has ever shocked me so profoundly. Six years ago, before he was twelve, he was called ’trash’ by everyone in his town. Not only because his Dantian was shattered and couldn’t contain Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi, but also because he was born with a disability, missing his right arm."

"A crippled body, chronic illness, and a shattered Dantian—any one of these three disasters would be enough to make an ordinary person lose the will to live. On the Extreme Martial Continent, the strong are revered. As direct descendants of the Nine Hidden Families, you and I should understand how someone without any power is treated within a clan. But he, after enduring twelve long years of cold shoulders, insults, ridicule, physical wounds, and the torment of illness, still managed to persevere through his own unyielding spirit and tenacity."

Hearing this, even Chu Aoqing was visibly moved. Her crimson eyes stared at Mu Chen in disbelief, her face a mask of utter shock.

Mu Junwu sighed. "He’s only eighteen this year, but he possesses a mind and temperament far beyond his peers. He’s calm, composed, and methodical in everything he does. These traits aren’t innate. To gain them, he had to lose far, far too much—like any precious childhood memories."

"But isn’t his Dantian shattered? How is he now..." Chu Aoqing snapped out of her shock. She knew Mu Chen could regenerate his limbs, but a Dantian was completely different. Even her grandfather couldn’t restore a shattered Dantian.

"I don’t know," Mu Junwu answered with blunt certainty. "The only possible explanation is that he must have encountered a heaven-defying opportunity six years ago. You know as well as I do that without the help of an Emperor Realm expert, it’s impossible to restore a Dantian. Forget a Dantian—even a severed arm can’t be restored. Yet he did it. This can only mean he encountered something that changed his entire life and set him on the path of the Martial Dao."

"However, in the six years that followed, eighty percent of his records are blank. We only know that he entered the Demon Beast Forest at the age of twelve and only reemerged three years later. He spent three whole years in a place as perilous as the Demon Beast Forest with less than the strength of a Martial Disciple."

As she spoke, Mu Junwu gave a bitter smile. "Can you imagine? While we were still growing up under the protection of our families within the clan, he had already started cultivating alone in the Demon Beast Forest. We have no way of knowing how many times he came to the brink of death. Three years later, he reappeared before everyone as a Grand Martial Master! In just three short years, with no Cultivation Resources, no skilled elders to guide him, and no support from Cultivation Techniques or Combat Skills, he relied solely on his own luck, diligence, perseverance, and intellect to grow from a ’trash’ who wasn’t even a Martial Disciple into a Grand Martial Master—and one with nine Dantians at that."

"After that, he entered his Empire’s Imperial Academy and went from being an ordinary student to a core student. At this point, he still hadn’t recovered his arm. But his entire time at the academy lasted only half a year. After that, he once again left his Empire and vanished from the Extreme Martial Continent. This period is another blank..."

"The next time he appeared was when I first met him, at the Imperial Competition just a month ago." Tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear, Mu Junwu continued, "By then, he had already become a Martial Sect—a First-Ring Martial Sect. You already know what happened after that. He entered Holy Tomb Mountain with a complete body and a level of strength that shocked the Four Great Dynasties, steadily making his way to the Inner Mountain to stand before us."

"Can you really say all of this was just luck?" Mu Junwu’s voice trembled slightly as she forcefully suppressed the emotional turmoil within her. Taking a deep breath, she said, "How much his heart has endured, we don’t know. How much pressure his slender body has shouldered, we don’t know either. But it won’t be long before he becomes an existence that even we, his seniors, can only look up to..."