Spring Goes, Autumn Comes, Breakthrough

Time is always indifferent; no matter how many blooming flowers wither in the world, how many stars fall, it never pauses for even a moment.

Spring turns to autumn, and the leaves in the forest turn yellow then green, green then yellow.

In the blink of an eye, two years have passed since Old Ent left, yet he still hasn't returned. This fills Chen Yun with worry. He had sought out several Sages multiple times, asking about Old Ent's situation, believing they might know something. However, to his disappointment, all the Sages shook their heads, saying they didn't know.

Even though Chen Yun found it hard to believe, he couldn't detect any unusual expressions on the Sages' faces.

Siri comforted him, "Little Chen, don't worry. Your grandfather must have been delayed by something important. He'll be fine. Don't you trust your grandfather's strength? What you need to do now is focus on improving your own strength, understand?"

Chen Yun could only nod.

The dense jungle stretched as far as the eye could see, with towering ancient trees standing tall. Vines as thick as buckets coiled and twisted around them. A faint scent of decaying wood wafted through the air, punctuated by occasional roars of beasts. The entire jungle felt like an ancient, primeval forest, brimming with antiquity.

"Roar! Roar!" A burst of angry beast roars suddenly erupted, making one wonder what could have caused such fury.

A giant Fierce Beast, its body covered in scales with tiger-like patterns that were surprisingly aesthetic, stood three meters long. Its head resembled a crocodile's, and it lunged furiously at a small black silhouette like a small hill. However, the black silhouette moved with extreme speed, and the giant Fierce Beast couldn't even touch it, enraging it immensely. A fierce, impatient glint flashed in its eyes.

How dare a mere crawling insect provoke it, and toy with it like this? It was the king of this area, a Fifth Order Upper-class Crocodile Tiger Beast, with formidable offensive power. Its only weakness was its slow speed, which deterred even Fifth Order Peak Fierce Beasts from provoking it.

Generally, Fierce Beasts above Fifth Order gain titles. Like this Crocodile Tiger Beast, Sixth Order Fierce Beasts are called Emperor Beasts, and so on. Seventh Order are Imperial Beasts, Eighth Order are Sacred Beasts, Ninth Order are Venerable Beasts, and Tenth Order are Divine Beasts. However, there haven't been any Divine Beasts on the continent for hundreds of years, and even Venerable Beasts are extremely rare, with the last one appearing a century ago.

The Crocodile Tiger Beast before them was incredibly powerful. Its scales provided astonishing defense, comparable to that of a Fifth Order Peak or even a Sixth Order Fierce Beast. Its offensive power was also undeniably strong, with its only drawback being its slow speed. However, inflicting damage on it was very difficult, and killing it was even harder.

Let alone Chen Yun. Although his Physical Body had reached Fourth Order Peak, on the verge of stepping into Fifth Order, and his Battle Qi had just reached Fourth Order, it was still very difficult for Chen Yun to deal with this Crocodile Tiger Beast. If not for his extreme speed, he would have long since been defeated.

Chen Yun dodly dodged the Crocodile Tiger Beast's front claws, his gaze fixed on the massive beast before him, a look of helplessness on his face. This Crocodile Tiger Beast's entire body was like a turtle shell; even a full-power blow could only leave an indentation without causing any fundamental damage.

"Damn it!" Even with Chen Yun's gentle nature, he couldn't help but curse. He had been fighting this Fierce Beast for days but still couldn't defeat it.

Wiping the sweat from his face, Chen Yun stared intently at the Crocodile Tiger Beast's eyes. Regardless of how powerful a creature was, its eyes were always its weakness. But this Crocodile Tiger Beast was truly cunning. Several times when Chen Yun seized the opportunity to sneak attack its eyes, it always managed to close them in time. Moreover, its eyelids had extremely strong defenses, causing Chen Yun's attempts to fail repeatedly.

Sigh! What should I do? Chen Yun thought silently, causing him to momentarily lose focus. In that instant of distraction, the Crocodile Tiger Beast quickly turned, closed in on Chen Yun, and then a thunderous roar echoed. The Crocodile Tiger Beast slammed its front two paws heavily onto the ground, causing the entire earth to shake. Several cracks spread out in a circular pattern, and the immense shockwave compressed the air, creating burst sounds.

The enormous sound jolted Chen Yun awake instantly. By the time he realized the danger, it was too late. A tremendous force struck him, sending his body flying far away like a cannonball. He crashed heavily into a tree, feeling as if his internal organs were about to rupture. He couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of blood.

Careless, so careless! Chen Yun regretted in his heart.

Losing focus in a fight was fatal. Even a lion needs its full strength to hunt a rabbit, let alone Chen Yun, who wasn't a lion, and the Crocodile Tiger Beast, which seemed to be more than just a rabbit.

Although he had managed to kill a Fifth Order Lower-class Sect Master by sustaining mutual damage when those outsiders invaded his village, that was only a Fifth Order Lower-class Sect Master.

Now, although his strength had improved significantly, his momentary distraction allowed the Crocodile Tiger Beast to seize the opportunity and unleash its Innate Skill, "War Stomp." This move was quite powerful, far beyond Chen Yun's ability to resist.

This kind of Innate Skill was a talent possessed by every Fierce Beast that reached Fifth Order or above. Generally, a Fierce Beast could only have one, rarely two. More were unheard of. These Innate Skills were developed to compensate for the creature's shortcomings. This Crocodile Tiger Beast, precisely because of its slow speed, possessed this "War Stomp," an indiscriminate attack within a five-meter radius. This allowed the distracted Chen Yun to be caught off guard and heavily wounded at close range.

The physical pain made Chen Yun gasp involuntarily. He had experienced this move from the Crocodile Tiger Beast before, but at that time, he was alert and used his speed to dodge it. Now, however, he was too slow to escape due to his distraction.

Of course, unleashing such an Innate Skill consumed a great deal of energy. The Crocodile Tiger Beast had already used it twice before and was exhausted, so he thought it wouldn't be able to use it again.

But Chen Yun never expected that the Crocodile Tiger Beast would be able to use it again. Clearly, the Crocodile Tiger Beast was impatient. It couldn't believe that the human had actually lost focus during the fight, so it unleashed "War Stomp" at the cost of its own exhaustion. In its mind, that annoying fly must have died from that move. After all, it had killed Fierce Beasts of the same level with this move; that weak human must have been pulverized into meat paste.

Thinking this, it couldn't help but feel a sense of relief. This fly had been bothering it for over half a month, and now it was finally eliminated, even though it was exhausted.

However, its prediction was wrong. Chen Yun was no ordinary person; his Physical Body was as tough as a Fifth Order Fierce Beast. It was also because this was the Crocodile Tiger Beast's Innate Skill, and its power was truly immense, likely reaching Sixth Order at its peak.

This caused him to suffer severe injuries, but these wounds were not enough to incapacitate Chen Yun. Chen Yun quietly adjusted his breathing for a few minutes. Seeing that the Crocodile Tiger Beast wasn't pursuing him, he couldn't help but grin. That beast must be exhausted and unable to move! Thinking this, Chen Yun slowly stood up and quietly approached where the Crocodile Tiger Beast lay. He pushed aside the weeds with his hands and saw that the Crocodile Tiger Beast had indeed collapsed on the ground, its eyes closed in rest.

This made Chen Yun's face break into a sinister smile. Damn it, this time even with your eyes closed, I'll kill you. Chen Yun thought fiercely.

He slowly approached the Crocodile Tiger Beast, gazing at the behemoth up close. Chen Yun couldn't help but let out a sigh. This guy is really huge! He walked slowly to the Crocodile Tiger Beast's head, extended his right hand, and made a knocking gesture, his entire body's muscles tensed.

"Hey! Big guy! Wake up!" He knocked on the Crocodile Tiger Beast's eyelid, his face turning red with suppressed effort.

The Crocodile Tiger Beast was sleeping soundly. The previous battle had consumed too much energy, leaving it utterly exhausted. Suddenly, it felt a knock on its eyelid, waking it up.

Confused about what was happening, it opened its eyes and was instantly terrified.

A hand, shaped like an eagle's claw, swiftly lunged towards its eye. It could vaguely see a grinning face behind it. There was no time to think; a sharp pain shot through it, and its consciousness quickly faded.

In Chen Yun's hand appeared a Fiery Red Crystal Core. Although covered in flesh scraps, it couldn't hide its alluring glow. This was the Crystal Core of a Fierce Beast, the essence and life force of its entire being. Losing its Crystal Core meant the Fierce Beast lost its life. Generally, only Fierce Beasts of Fourth Order or above possessed Crystal Cores.

The colors of Fierce Beast Crystal Cores were usually divided into five types: Fiery Red, Transparent, Ink Green, and White. These corresponded to violent, gentle, insidious, and calm temperaments, respectively. It could be seen that the Fierce Beast's personality determined the color of its Crystal Core.

These were the most common. Of course, this classification was not exhaustive, as the War God Continent was vast and boundless, making a complete summary impossible.

Holding the Crystal Core in his hand, Chen Yun couldn't help but grin. "Finally got you! It wasn't easy!" Chen Yun exclaimed happily to himself.

He had used up his remaining strength. Now, his entire body was drained. Of course, this place was relatively safe. After all, the Crocodile Tiger Beast was the king of this area, and other Fierce Beasts wouldn't usually enter here.

Chen Yun then painstakingly crossed his legs, embraced the void, and began to skillfully form a series of hand seals.

Chen Yun could now skillfully master the cultivation method of the Body Refining Art First Level. He had initially taken only half a year to basically master it. Over the next two years, he had gained a deeper understanding of it, especially the hand seals. He felt as if the hand seals were a key. As his hands moved, streams of qi would slowly emerge within his body, seemingly from an unknown place. This set of hand seals was the key to unlocking that place.

As the hand seals danced, the space around him, centered on Chen Yun, began to ripple and rotate, like a vortex. However, it was strangely radiating outwards. The range of radiation was not large, forming a sphere that perfectly enveloped Chen Yun.

Within this radiating range, the air was filled with relatively dense Internal Qi, and the surrounding Battle Qi was also frantically converging towards Chen Yun, resulting in an equal amount of Battle Qi and Internal Qi within this area. This phenomenon was truly puzzling and astonishing. Chen Yun's divine sense guided the Internal Qi within his body to circulate along an unknown trajectory.

As time passed, Chen Yun felt his strength recovering at an extremely rapid pace. Cultivating in this state of extreme fatigue after a great battle was the most effective. In just one hour, he had fully recovered.

However, Chen Yun did not stop. His hands continued to form hand seals tirelessly. Time slowly passed, and the hand seals Chen Yun formed became faster and faster, while the Internal Qi circulating within his body also ran faster and faster. At this point, Chen Yun had unknowingly brought the First Level of the Body Refining Art to the "Achieved" state.

And as time went by, this state became increasingly perfect.

Time flew by. In the blink of an eye, two months had passed. Yet, Chen Yun's body remained motionless like a sculpture. A colorless, transparent, semi-circular shield covered an area of ten meters around him, with Chen Yun at the center.

Outside the Spatial Shield, an ancient figure was floating. Yes! Floating eerily, relying solely on himself. One had to know that only experts at the War Emperor Level could achieve this!

This spatial shield is precisely the mark of a War Emperor-level expert. It can utilize spatial power to form a protective barrier, which serves to isolate one's aura and conceal one's form, possessing considerable defensive capabilities. It is extremely difficult for Fighters below the War Emperor level to breach. This person was not unfamiliar; it was the Sage Siri.

Siri had been at the peak of the War Emperor realm for many years, and he had successfully stepped into the War Emperor realm a year ago.

About a month ago, Siri sensed an unusual fluctuation here. Driven by curiosity, he rushed over and was genuinely shocked by what he saw: the corpse of a Crocodile Tiger Beast lay on the ground, while Chen Yun was sitting in cultivation nearby.

Siri could only sigh helplessly. This kid is truly a monster. With his Fourth Order Peak strength, he actually managed to kill a Crocodile Tiger Beast, whose defense was incredibly strong and had almost no weaknesses. Looking at how the Crocodile Tiger Beast died, it was clearly killed by Chen Yun piercing directly through its eye and extracting its Crystal Core.

One must know that Crocodile Tiger Beasts are extremely protective of their eyes. Attacking from there is basically impossible. Therefore, no one usually hunts Crocodile Tiger Beasts unless their strength far surpasses it. Otherwise, no one would undertake such a thankless task.

He truly didn't know how this kid managed it. If Siri knew how Chen Yun killed the Crocodile Tiger Beast, his jaw would likely drop in astonishment.

At this moment, Siri frowned slightly, quietly observing Chen Yun, who was sitting on the ground. Chen Yun's aura had dropped to an extremely low point, but Siri showed no signs of worry, as he understood that Chen Yun was at a critical juncture of advancement.

However, two months had already passed. Usually, advancing to Fifth Order Sect Master would be completed in at most a month. Yet, Chen Yun showed no signs of progress. Instead, his aura grew weaker and weaker until it reached a minimum point, where it had remained for over half a month.

Although Siri was somewhat perplexed, he couldn't help at this moment and could only stand guard here, preventing him from being disturbed.

Just as he was watching Chen Yun, lost in thought, Chen Yun's body suddenly trembled. Immediately afterward, a vast and surging aura erupted from within him. The powerful aura radiated outwards, causing even the spatial shield to ripple with faint waves.

Siri's eyes suddenly flashed with dazzling brilliance. He knew this was a spatial shield! Chen Yun's newly advanced Fifth Order strength caused faint ripples on it. Even a peak War Emperor expert would find it difficult to break, and ordinary War Emperors couldn't shake it at all. Yet, a mere Sect Master, and one who had just advanced, could cause ripples on it. Although these ripples were faint, it was already incredible enough.

Could this be the might of a Dragon Blood Warrior? Even his grandson, Wright, a Berserk Warrior, could barely cause the slightest disturbance on it, unless he went Berserk, and even then, it would only cause a tiny, almost imperceptible ripple, appearing and disappearing.

Thinking of this, Siri felt a surge of envy towards Old Ent. Thinking of Old Ent, Siri also sighed inwardly. Old Ent's departure was likely fraught with danger! Alas!

But at this very moment, a scream interrupted Siri's thoughts. Chen Yun was convulsing all over, his face contorted in agony. His muscles writhed incessantly, and the sound of cracking bones echoed from within, sending a chill down one's spine.

Blood began to ooze from Chen Yun's body. He writhed on the ground in pain, wishing only to pass out. The intense pain coursing through him threatened to break him. The agony was soul-deep, and he felt every one of his cells shattering and colliding with each other.

This time was tens or even hundreds of times more painful than his first advancement to First Order. Chen Yun's consciousness was already growing hazy.

"Is this what a physical body advancement is like?" Just as Chen Yun was in extreme pain, Siri, about to stand up, suddenly stopped and murmured to himself.

"Alas! Now he can only rely on himself. I can't help at all; in fact, I'd probably just get in the way! He's too monstrous, this kind of pain is truly..." Even as a War Emperor-level expert, Siri couldn't help but tremble inwardly at the sight.

The pain continued. Chen Yun lay on the ground, utterly exhausted, his expression severely distorted. He didn't utter a sound because he no longer had the strength to do so, only letting out occasional groans and trembling uncontrollably.

Just then, a clear dragon's roar echoed. Immediately after, a layer of cyan dragon scales rapidly appeared all over Chen Yun's body, with occasional streaks of golden-yellow flowing on them. A two-meter-long dragon tail quickly grew from his buttocks, covered in dense, sharp, cone-like protrusions that gleamed with a cold light. One could easily imagine the consequences of being struck by it.

Two small, golden-yellow dragon horns abruptly appeared on Chen Yun's head, their tips glinting with a cold sheen. Siri, hovering in the air, had his pupils constrict. A Dragon Blood Warrior!

Although he had seen Chen Yun transform before, observing him so closely and at such proximity now, Siri couldn't help but be awestruck.

And it was clear that Chen Yun's transformation had undergone significant changes, with those two brilliant dragon horns being particularly eye-catching.

Chen Yun felt as if he was about to pass out, the pain all over his body nearing numbness.

But at this moment, a strange, inexplicable fluctuation emanated from the depths of his soul sea. Following it, a small dragon, golden with a hint of cyan light, emerged from his soul sea. Accompanied by a high-pitched dragon's roar, it shot towards the sky above the soul sea. Golden-yellow light spread throughout the entire soul sea, and a gentle energy quickly coursed through his body, miraculously healing and restoring his severely injured physique.

The gentle energy flowed throughout his body, bringing a tingling sensation that made Chen Yun feel so comfortable he wanted to...

Gradually, his injuries were almost completely healed, and the commotion within Chen Yun's body slowly subsided. The dragon scales on his body strangely receded into his skin, leaving no trace. Those two brilliant golden dragon horns also slowly retracted, leaving only a fleeting flash.

Chen Yun gradually regained consciousness and slowly opened his eyes. After blinking a few times, he slowly came back to his senses.

Suddenly, Chen Yun looked up sharply and was stunned to find Siri hovering in the air, staring at him with a dumbfounded expression.

"Cough cough... Grandpa Siri, why are you here?" Chen Yun asked in confusion.

"Uh? Heh heh, you brat, daring to attempt a breakthrough in this forest! I've been guarding you for almost two months!" Siri finally came back to his senses and said with a chuckle.

But then, as if he had discovered something, he looked at Chen Yun with a face full of teasing.

Uh? Seeing Siri's strange expression, Chen Yun immediately felt something was wrong. A chill ran down his spine, and he finally understood. His face flushed red as he got up and sprinted towards the nearby bushes.