Life Leap, A New Era Arrives

"Eighth-Order Initial Realm? That's..."

Lu Yuan was stunned, disbelief written across his face.

In his past life, how much time and cost had he spent, how much hardship had he endured, just to become an Awakener? Even at the moment of his death, he had only reached the Ninth Order, utterly unable to take the next step. That had been a full ten years of suffering.

Even so.

He had still been nothing more than a small fry.

But now? Simply fusing with the Bodhi Ancient Tree matched nearly ten years of effort back then.

Moreover, reaching that step in his previous life had drained all of his potential.

Now, it was only the beginning.

After the ancient tree's fusion.

His physical body had broken through its shackles, and the treasure trove of his human body had fully opened. It was as if, before building a skyscraper, he had forged an unprecedented solid foundation for himself—one that likely surpassed everyone else on the planet.

"At my current rate, I should be able to enter the next realm soon—the Awakening Realm!"

Lu Yuan muttered to himself, sharp glints flashing in his eyes, confident and powerful.

As for the so-called Awakening Realm.

As the name implied, it meant truly becoming an Awakener.

In this realm, a person fully adapts to the environment after the global mutation and embarks on the path of evolution.

At the same time, deeper Mythical Genes within the body awaken, giving rise to all sorts of incredible and formidable powers.

If the Initial Realm merely enhanced strength and physique, then the Awakening Realm was entirely different. Some gained Flame Power, some gained Ice Power, some gained Thunder Power, and so on—each one unique.

In short, it could be said to be all sorts of strange and varied, with abilities differing based on the Awakener's constitution.

And this was the second realm of an Awakener's evolution.

But unlike the Initial Realm, which was divided into nine stages.

The Awakening Realm had only one stage.

If one reached the pinnacle of this realm, they might break through to the third realm—the Shackled Realm.

Living beings' physical bodies are bound by heaven and earth, so there are many shackles within the body, limiting people from achieving a higher Life Leap.

Thus, this realm was about breaking through layer after layer of shackles, continuously unlocking the body's potential, elevating life itself, and shedding the bounds of humanity.

Legend had it.

The Shackled Realm was extremely powerful, reachable only by a rare few.

It could ignite deeper potential, and with a single strike, crushing a mountain was well within reach.

"They say the human body has a total of 108 Shackles. For an ordinary Awakener, breaking twelve shackles is enough. But the higher one's potential, the more shackles they break. I wonder, with my current foundation, how far I can go."

Lu Yuan muttered to himself, but soon shook his head. He was still quite far from that realm.

Thinking about it so much now was probably unnecessary.

With that, he reined in his thoughts.

Just as he was about to check the next divine object, he suddenly noticed it was daylight.

Had fusing with the Bodhi Ancient Tree taken me an entire night?

He immediately picked up his phone.

The time displayed on it was September 10th.

Not one night, but a full ten days?

Lu Yuan was stunned, but quickly let it go. After all, the Bodhi Ancient Tree was an unparalleled divine object of the age—how could it be fused in just a day or two?

Thinking it over, he began using his phone to see what had happened over these ten days. He hadn't checked before, but once he did, he found that the entire world seemed to have gone haywire. Strange phenomena cropped up everywhere—a great river appearing before someone's door, seawater flowing back into rivers.

But more of the news was about people.

Someone had suddenly gained immense strength overnight, their body as hard as raw iron.

Another person, after eating a strange fruit, grew horns on their head and stood three meters tall.

Like the Bull Devil King from myth and legend.

Yet another person, after coming into contact with an extremely vivid flower, grew thin wings on their back, able to fly at high altitudes, coming and going like the wind.

In this situation, some wealthy individuals began spending huge sums online, begging for a strange fruit or food in hopes of gaining supernatural power, offering sky-high prices—only to be mocked and ridiculed.

Because not long after the mutation, currency had rapidly devalued. In some remote places, a hundred thousand couldn't even buy a single steamed bun.

[World mutation, humanity will embark on the path of life evolution. Make your move early, and you might become a god later!]

A topic appeared on some forum, its author unknown.

But it sparked all sorts of speculation.

They believed it was real.

So those who hadn't gained supernatural power also started posting, hoping to find companions to go with them.

Then head into the deep mountains and forests together to search for those strange fruits.

Hoping to change their fate.

And ultimately become the gods described in those posts.

Meanwhile, netizens began calling the days after September 1st the New Era.

At the same time, Lu Yuan saw his classmates in the group chat, led by Li Hansheng, also heatedly discussing this matter. The bolder Wang Zibo even spoke up, hoping someone would join him in searching for those strange fruits.

But everyone was hesitant, undecided, because some places outside were now quite dangerous, making it hard for ordinary people to survive.

"Just like the previous life—the world upheaval, the New Era arriving. After a brief moment of panic, everyone starts chasing supernatural power."

Lu Yuan shook his head. He remembered being one of them back then, but his reaction had been too slow, causing him to fall behind step by step.

But now he was one step ahead of everyone else, because he had planned ahead.

As for after the mutation.

Those strange flowers and fruits that could trigger evolution were merely conduits.

But almost all were the lowest grade. Even if one fused with them, the benefits were minimal—not even reaching the Initial Realm.

The truly top-tier conduits either remained undiscovered, or a large portion was already controlled by certain mysterious organizations, like the Wuzhou Group. Of course, some had appeared, but no one paid them any attention.

Conduits were a peculiar existence. It wasn't that the more ancient or rarer they were, the more useful—they needed to be verified.

But Lu Yuan was different. His mind held far too many memories of this kind.

That was his greatest advantage in staying ahead in this life.

He didn't dwell on it any longer. He stopped paying attention.

Lu Yuan cleared his thoughts and turned his head.

In the courtyard, the Bodhi Ancient Tree had completely fused and vanished.

But before him, ten divine objects remained, each radiating a different light, every one of them looking extraordinary.

"After the New Era arrives, there will be a period of chaos that takes months to settle. During this time, no peerless divine objects will appear, which gives me the perfect chance to study and familiarize myself with these things."

Lu Yuan understood that the items he had gathered over the past three months were already the best available right now.

Any one of them, if taken out, would cause a massive uproar and be fought over by those mysterious organizations.

But now, they were all in his hands.

He could explore them at ease.

So he didn't need to worry about what was happening outside. He just had to follow his plan and quietly grow stronger.

At this moment, Lu Yuan looked at the ten divine objects before him. After a brief moment of thought, he focused all his attention on the ancient book at the far right.

That was the complete Classic of the Way and its Virtue!