A Path That Could Reach the Immortal Emperor Realm!

Chen Du had already spent quite a few days in these mountains and forests.

He couldn't say exactly how many days, nor did he need to count.

What had become of the world beyond the mountains, and what frightening conclusions had the Spiritual Qi Revival Administration reached?

None of that concerned him. He was doing only one thing now: absorbing, then evolving like mad.

He sat cross-legged deep in the dense forest, where the vegetation was growing wildly, surrounded by spiritual qi so thick it had nearly condensed into mist.

Pollen and plant factors visible to the naked eye floated in the air. Every breath was like swallowing a mouthful of liquid essence.

His Spiritual Power at the Transcendence Realm meant he didn't have to filter out impurities as carefully as an ordinary evolver.

His body was a furnace of terrifying efficiency. However much came, it swallowed, and however much it swallowed, it refined.

His body grew stronger at a speed visible to the naked eye. At first, his muscles and bones rang in unison, and his blood and qi surged like tides.

Later, a faint glow began to spread across his skin. He had easily surpassed the physical strength of the Xiantian Peak and was steadily advancing toward a higher level.

But the changes were far from over!

One day, Chen Du suddenly opened his eyes. He felt the Evolution Factors in his body boiling; something deeper had been stirred.

It was as though a door that had lain dormant within him for countless ages had finally been knocked upon.

A crack opened in that door, and a force so violent it was almost overbearing erupted from the depths of his genes, charging recklessly along his meridians and through every inch of his flesh.

It felt as though something had come alive inside him, as though the most fundamental code of his existence as a living being had been forcefully switched to "activate."

Chen Du's muscles began to swell, every muscle fiber growing stronger!

The strength throughout his body soared... onefold, threefold, fivefold, tenfold.

He even felt that if he returned to the Xuanye Realm in his current body, he could slap himself to death with physical strength alone!

Along with the surging strength came impurities!

Large amounts of thick, black filth seeped from his pores, giving off a pungent stench.

These were the mundane deposits that had accumulated in his body over more than twenty years, dark substances even he couldn't name.

After these impurities were expelled, Chen Du's skin began to dry and curl, peeling away in flakes like old plaster scorched by the blazing sun.

But the flakes of skin didn't fall to the ground. Instead, they were drawn along by an invisible force.

They rearranged themselves over the surface of his body, winding around him layer upon layer until they gradually formed a gray cocoon, sealing him completely inside.

Like a stone statue forgotten by time, he sat quietly in the gray cocoon, waiting for the moment he would break out of its shell.

The moment it was cut open, a panel popped up. By the faint light filtering through the cracks in the cocoon, Chen Du made out the words on it.

[Name: Chen Du]

[Realm: Third-Tier Evolver · Transcendence Realm in the Martial Dao path / Third-Tier Evolver · Cocoon-Breaking Realm in the factor path]

[Note: At the third-tier Cocoon-Breaking Realm, the Evolution Factors within the body are fully activated, the level of life undergoes a transformation, bodily filth is expelled, and an evolutionary ability is gained.]

Cocoon-Breaking Realm!

It seemed the tenfold increase in strength was the ability he had gained from activating his Evolution Factors. Was his ability simply to increase his strength?

That was fine too. With one overwhelming force, he could break ten thousand techniques.

At that moment, Chen Du felt as though a raging river were rushing through his blood vessels, every pulse carrying an unprecedented sense of power.

He slowly rose to his feet. Fragments of the gray cocoon shell rustled off his shoulders, forming a small pile of ash-like debris at his feet.

The mountain breeze swept the debris away into the depths of the forest. Chen Du looked down at his hand and remained silent for a long while.

He gently clenched his fist, without circulating any technique or drawing on any Spiritual Power. With nothing but an instinctive contraction of his muscles, he squeezed the air in his palm into a brief sonic boom!

He had burst the air with physical strength alone.

The thought flashed through his mind, and then he began to assess his current state in earnest.

In the Xuanye Realm, a Martial Arts Myth stood at the very pinnacle of the entire Martial Dao system, a powerhouse capable of founding a sect and dominating an entire era.

And the Transcendence Realm was a realm he had personally opened up, one that stood above the Martial Arts Myth and was without equal throughout the Xuanye Realm's history.

But now, he could effortlessly draw one conclusion: with this body alone, he could crush a Martial Arts Myth and even contend head-on with the Transcendence Realm.

What did that mean?

It meant that on Blue Star's Evolution Factor Path, one's physical strength had already surpassed the highest limit of the Xuanye Realm's Martial Dao system upon reaching just the Third Tier Cocoon-Breaking Realm.

And beyond that, this path still had the fourth, fifth, and sixth tiers, and even tiers beyond the twelfth.

Chen Du took a deep breath, temporarily suppressing the shock in his heart, and began a more practical test.

He stepped back twice, found an open space, and assumed an opening stance.

This opening stance didn't belong to any particular martial art... it came from the Martial Canon.

The Martial Canon was neither a palm technique, nor a sword technique, nor an internal cultivation technique. It was a transcendence-level martial art he had forged from the culmination of the Xuanye Realm's Martial Dao, with the fusion of Spiritual Power and martial intent at its core.

Back in the Xuanye Realm, he had been able to smash Great Sheng Taizu to pieces with a single palm strike by using his Transcendence Realm cultivation to unleash the Martial Canon.

But at the time, his physical strength had lagged far behind the level of his Spiritual Power.

Now things were different.

Chen Du closed his eyes. His Spiritual Power surged out like a tide, merging with his martial intent and circulating through his body along the Martial Canon's route.

At the same time, his Cocoon-Breaking Realm body was truly brought into play for the first time. Every cell responded, and every tendon trembled.

That pure strength, amplified tenfold, surged along the Martial Canon's path like a raging dragon fitted with reins, which he then held firmly in his hands.

He struck out with his palm. There was only force in its purest form: Spiritual Power, martial intent, and physical strength combined into one, becoming an invisible shock wave that blasted from his palm.

Ninety meters ahead, a granite boulder three people tall silently turned to dust, crumbling into powder finer than sand. A sweep of the mountain breeze scattered it without a trace.

The ground beneath the boulder remained unharmed; even the turf hadn't been disturbed.

His control of the force was perfect, not a fraction too much or too little.

Chen Du withdrew his hand, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. Just as I thought.

Using the Martial Canon back in the Xuanye Realm had been like a master swordsman wielding an unparalleled sword, but with a body so weak that he was left gasping after only a few swings.

No matter how strong his Spiritual Power or how lofty his martial intent, his body could bear only so much. Even a fraction more might have torn his meridians apart.

But now, his Cocoon-Breaking Realm body allowed him to unleash his Spiritual Power and martial intent to their utmost without restraint.

His current strength was far more than ten times what it had been when he first returned to Blue Star!