World-Outside Grotto-Heaven

In the vast hall, visible streams of pure white air roiled and churned again and again from Li Hai, who sat cross-legged on the ground with his eyes closed. They stirred up the dust over the surrounding several feet of floor, sending it swirling without pause.

Li Hai had actually finished cultivating those two techniques in the blink of an eye, reaching their peak.

The scene now was merely a minor phenomenon caused by the immensely abundant true force in his body surging through him.

Though force was not like the innate qi in martial arts tales, which could strike things from afar, it could still work wonders—provided it landed a direct hit on a physical object.

But when someone like Li Hai cultivated his force to an exceptionally high level, the flow of true intent and force through his body could set his whole frame trembling at high frequency. Those tremors then stirred the air around him, ultimately creating the sight of air boiling and roiling as it had just moments ago.

Only a top-tier Steel-Grade Martial Artist could accomplish something like that.

Besides these outward signs, Li Hai's body had also undergone an exceedingly strange transformation after he finished cultivating the Iron Barrel Bell-Coiling Manual.

His build had grown another size, and he now stood a full two meters tall. His skin had abruptly turned a bloodless jade white, without the slightest trace of pores.

Strangest of all, Li Hai's hair, eyebrows, and every last bit of body hair had fallen out, scattering all around him.

"What the hell..."

Li Hai felt his bald head and grinned. "I trained in a martial art and turned straight into a monk. How's that for efficiency?"

To be honest, only Li Hai himself thought he looked like a monk.

He had always looked fierce and overbearing. Now, with his bloodless complexion and no eyebrows, he didn't merely look like some big bad guy. At first glance, he seemed more like a gigantic evil ghost that had just broken out of the Netherworld.

"Let's see how this technique turned out."

Muttering to himself, Li Hai stuck out a thick finger tipped with a long, sharp nail and jabbed it into the nearby stone wall.

Scree—

Without using much strength at all, his finger sank into the wall to the knuckle, as easily as piercing tofu.

Then, using that finger like a blade, Li Hai dragged it across the heavy wall before him. With a series of ear-splitting scraping sounds, he carved out a perfect circle about the size of a washbasin.

"I feel no pain or heat. It's as if the rocks have lost their strength."

Li Hai drew back his finger and ran a hand over it, pondering. "No, they haven't lost it. It's because my body is far too hard now."

As his thoughts turned, he opened his personal interface—

Master Name: Li Hai

Level and Rank: Orthodox Martial Arts → Steel Sinew Iron Bone, Bloodline Divine Ability → Mid Grade, Ghost Path → Fierce Soul

Skills: Five Animals QigongBeast Intent Demon ClawBlood Soaked Sinking HeartGhost Body Soul Remains<Evil Spirit Earth Yin Absorption Method (Incomplete)>Evil Sha Yin DescentResentful Sha Yang ExtinguishingSavage Bull FistIron Fan PalmIron Barrel Bell-Coiling ManualMoon Marrow Refining Technique

Traits: [Soul Strengthening Level 2][Finger Claw Level 2][Berserk Level 2][Wildness Level 2][Ghost Body Level 2][Ghostly Image Level 2][Twin Sha Level 2][Iron Body Level 2][Stone Heart Level 2]

Stronger Fragment: None

"Iron Body and Stone Heart should have come from the Iron Barrel Bell-Coiling Manual."

Li Hai mulled it over. "I'm still in the Steel Sinew Iron Bone Realm, but with two extra Level 2 traits, I can clearly feel my combat strength has jumped up a notch. I could probably beat the crap out of my old self. Tsk, interesting."

From this, he understood that one's level might not fully represent one's strength.

Even if he remained in the same realm, he could keep growing stronger by cultivating enough powerful martial arts at that level and accumulating enough traits.

Then Li Hai looked up at the wall before him. He felt the circular section, its cut marks clearly visible, and gave it a sudden shove.

Thud!

With a muffled bang, Li Hai forced the circular stone slab outward, leaving behind a pitch-black round hole.

Strangely, the heavy thud had come from far behind him.

Following the sound, he looked over and saw another round hole in the opposite hall wall, dozens of yards away. It was just as black inside.

At the foot of the wall, where the hole had been made, lay a circular stone slab with a jagged, uneven edge.

Li Hai understood at a glance.

"Haha, that's interesting."

Grinning, Li Hai raised his arm and reached it through the dark hole in the wall before him.

Then he turned around. Sure enough, a thick jade-white arm was sticking out of the hole in the wall behind him.

It was his own hand.

"That's amazing."

Li Hai smacked his lips and pulled his arm back. "I wonder what kind of miraculous method could have made all this possible."

"So..." He rubbed his smooth, bald head. "How am I supposed to get out?"

Li Hai glanced around, thought for a moment, then strode over to the black table and picked up the Red Light Scroll.

After spending so long here, he had more or less guessed that the hall he was in was the small rectangular image in the scroll—the so-called Naihe Mansion Guiyou Grotto-Heaven Side Hall.

As for the righteous organization this side hall belonged to, it was probably called Naihe Mansion.

The other buildings beyond the hall were all lifeless and dilapidated. Maybe they had been destroyed in an internal conflict or an enemy invasion. Whatever the cause, the place had been reduced to ruins.

"Doesn't matter. It has nothing to do with me."

Li Hai glanced around and muttered, "This place would make a pretty good portable warehouse, too. I could store a lot of stuff in here."

Then, without hesitation, he sent his true force into the Red Light Scroll.

"Since the Naihe Token reacted to true force, this scroll might react, too. There's no harm in trying."

That was what Li Hai had thought.

As it turned out, he had been right.

When Li Hai poured true force into the scroll, large swathes of hazy, fragmented information suddenly appeared in his mind. Along with them came a cool, familiar voice:

"Would you like to be transported outside Naihe Mansion?"

"Yes."

Li Hai's eyes gleamed as he answered silently.

Whoosh—

In an instant, a huge gray vortex opened across the scroll and swallowed him whole.

Outside, on the ash-covered rocky slope deep within the ruins of Ghost Forest, the Naihe Token lying there began to tremble faintly.

Hum—

In a flash, Li Hai's figure emerged from the ancient token, growing from small to large and shifting from insubstantial to solid. He landed steadily on the rocky ground a yard away.

"Whew..."

Li Hai let out a long breath. "The information hidden in that scroll... was a real feast."

His earlier guess had been right. The organization that owned that hall was indeed called Naihe Mansion.

And the domain where the hall stood was a World-Outside Grotto-Heaven, existing beyond the mortal world.