In the blink of an eye, several days passed.
On a training ground within Mu Mansion, littered with stone pillars, Mu Chen darted out in a cloud of dust. Dark-black spiritual energy coiled around his palms, faintly emitting sharp ripples.
Whoosh!
He curled two fingers together. Wrapped in dark-black spiritual energy, they resembled an incomparably sharp black spike as they struck a stone pillar heavily.
Crack!
Broken stones shot out in every direction as cracks rapidly spread across the stone pillar.
Then, with a bang, the stone pillar exploded.
Seeing this, Mu Chen grinned. Only then did he slowly retract his leg and calm his breathing, while the dark-black spiritual energy on his palms quietly dissipated.
"Brother Yuan, ever since we were children, you've always looked out for me. I won't let you down. On the day of the Academy Trial, if you lose, I'll reclaim every bit of humiliation you suffer!"
Over the past few days, Mu Chen had devoted all his energy to cultivating the Great Pagoda Scripture.
It was precisely this unrelenting perseverance that had earned him great renown even on the Spiritual Road, where freakish geniuses emerged one after another. In the end, he had caused that earth-shaking incident, leaving countless genius freaks dumbfounded.
Naturally, Mu Chen's gains had been remarkable as well.
Not only had the spiritual energy within his qi sea rapidly grown denser, but his understanding of the Great Pagoda Scripture had also deepened somewhat.
After the Great Pagoda Scripture had gotten on track, Mu Chen had also searched the secret chamber for several attack-type spiritual arts that suited him and began cultivating them.
After all, if he wanted to increase his combat strength, offensive spiritual arts were indispensable.
What he had just used was a mid-grade Mortal-tier spiritual art—Bone Shattering Finger!
That Liu Yang was no ordinary person either. His father was the lord of the Liu Domain.
The Liu Domain was the strongest domain in the Northern Spiritual Territory.
Liu Yang himself was quite talented, and he also had the full support of the Liu Domain behind him.
Still, if Liu Yang wanted to trample over the two brothers, how could it be so easy?
Clap, clap.
Applause came from nearby. Mu Chen looked over and saw Mu Feng standing outside the training ground with a smile on his face. He was quite satisfied with Mu Chen's earlier performance.
"Dad."
Mu Chen brushed the dust from his arms and walked toward Mu Feng.
"These are the Mysterious Origin Pills you asked me to prepare. They come from the Endless Fire Domain and are highly effective at healing injuries. Are you hurt?"
A jade bottle appeared in Mu Feng's hand.
"The Endless Fire Domain?"
Mu Chen secretly clicked his tongue.
The Endless Fire Domain was renowned far and wide for its pill-refining arts and was one of the great powers of the Great Thousand World.
Its ruler was the Flame Emperor, who had come from a lower plane and broken through the shackles of his plane.
It was said that he had once visited the Fire Spirit Clan, a force with an extraordinarily deep foundation even within the Great Thousand World.
The Fire Spirit Clan had invited out their ancestor, who had lived for tens of thousands of years, yet even he had failed to gain the upper hand against the Flame Emperor, allowing the latter to leave unhurriedly.
Besides his invincible strength, the Flame Emperor of the Endless Fire Domain possessed a uniquely brilliant pill-refining art. Even Sovereign experts could only dream of obtaining a single spiritual pill refined by him.
Mu Chen's gaze immediately swept toward the jade bottle.
Several pills lay within it. They were dark green in color, round and plump like longan fruit.
"No. Today is the day Brother Yuan and I agreed to fight. He'll be here soon, and I'm afraid he'll get hurt, so I had Dad prepare the pills in advance..."
Mu Chen shook his head, looking eager to give it a try.
Upon hearing this, Mu Feng fell silent.
He recalled the scene of Mu Yuan breaking through to the Spiritual Movement Realm that day.
This match should have had no suspense at all, but now, the outcome might be difficult to determine.
Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he spotted a white-clad youth standing atop a distant stone pillar at some unknown time.
Mu Feng's body jolted as he stared at Mu Yuan in disbelief.
Mu Yuan had changed considerably. His eyes had become far more spirited.
"Little Mu, these pills should be for you instead."
Big Mu, this freak!!!
Mu Feng thought to himself before looking at Mu Chen with a trace of pity in his eyes.
Mu Chen also saw Mu Yuan at that moment.
Dressed in white, he stood with his hands behind his back, gazing up at the sky with the air of an expert.
Mu Chen's mouth twitched slightly.
He really did look somewhat like a powerful expert.
Battle intent blazed across Mu Chen's face.
"Brother Yuan, you're here."
"I've been waiting for you for a long time."
Mu Yuan's indifferent voice rang out.
"Really?"
Mu Chen looked utterly confused.
He had been at this training ground for quite a while already. How had he not seen Mu Yuan at all?
"Alas!"
Mu Yuan sighed. After a long while, he slowly said,
"What a long seven days."
"Seven days is very short."
Mu Chen was even more confused.
After all, those seven days had passed in the blink of an eye for him.
Mu Yuan shook his head and spoke again.
"You wouldn't understand the loneliness of standing at the top!"
His voice, however, was proud and aloof, carrying the loneliness of someone who had yet to meet an opponent.
Mu Chen's mouth twitched fiercely.
"Brother Yuan is saying incomprehensible things again."
Whenever this happened, he knew Brother Yuan had become addicted to acting cool again.
Unfortunately, he could not keep it up for even three seconds before Mu Feng shouted,
"You brat, speak normally."
The moment those words came out, the strange atmosphere on the field was completely ruined.
"Dad, you always ruin the mood!"
Mu Yuan curled his lips.
That exchange had been a short dialogue between two experts before a duel from a novel he had read in his previous life.
He had not expected Little Mu to actually continue it.
"You brat, do you think I don't know what you're like? Don't act all profound in front of your old man at such a young age. Get down here already."
Black lines appeared across Mu Feng's forehead.
This brat loved acting cool whenever he had nothing better to do.
Mu Yuan's old face reddened. He leaped down from the stone pillar and floated to a stop before Mu Chen.
"Little Mu, let's begin!"
Mu Yuan's tone suddenly changed as he spoke seriously.
Over these seven days, he had also made great progress and had already condensed his second Dragon Elephant.
However, only after condensing the second Dragon Elephant did he learn that each additional Dragon Elephant condensed within a void aperture required twice as much spiritual energy as the last.
The God Elephant Suppressing Prison Force consumed resources far too heavily. Who knew when he would be able to condense ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine Dragon Elephants?
"Brother Yuan, then you'd better be careful."
The moment Mu Chen finished speaking, he stepped forward. A faint muffled sound rang beneath his foot, and his body immediately shot toward Mu Yuan like a gust of wind.
At this speed, anyone at the Sensing Realm would definitely be knocked down without even having time to react.
Even someone in the initial stage of the Spiritual Movement Realm would have difficulty dealing with it.
Yet Mu Yuan remained exceptionally calm.
Just as the punch was about to strike him, Mu Yuan lightly shifted one step backward.
That single step caused Mu Chen's fist to brush past him.
After his punch missed, Mu Chen was somewhat surprised.
He had not expected Brother Yuan to dodge that punch.
The year Mu Chen had spent on the Spiritual Road had not been wasted. Naturally, he was no ordinary person.
His attack did not pause. He changed his fist into a claw and reached backward toward Mu Yuan's shoulder.
"Heh heh..."
Mu Yuan smiled faintly. His body tilted slightly backward, then he dragged his feet and slid several steps away, narrowly evading the attack.
"Could it really be a coincidence?"
Mu Chen frowned tightly. Dark-black spiritual energy burst from his body, and he launched another charge at Mu Yuan with fists and feet flying.
The spiritual energy compressed the air, producing strange creaking sounds.
His speed had increased by at least twofold!
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