Intent · Domain!

Morning!

A streak of dawn light slipped in through the somewhat weathered window lattice, illuminating the entire room.

On the bed, Chen An's eyelashes trembled slightly before his half-closed eyes opened. A flash of silver light vanished in an instant.

Sitting up in bed, Chen An looked at the room, which had been tidied up yet still appeared cluttered and filled with an air of ruin. The corner of his eye twitched slightly.

"Once the county examination is over, I'll move to a different house!"

No matter how carefully he controlled himself during cultivation, there would inevitably be oversights.

And with his cultivation, even the slightest leak of aura was practically a devastating blow to this room.

Shaking his head, Chen An suddenly had a thought.

"System!"

Host: Chen An

Age: 17

Aptitude: Mid-grade Martial Bone

Cultivation: Grandmaster Realm (Perfected)

Current Balance: 176000

Last night, after deducing the Spirit-Concealing Art, he had spent another ten thousand Origin Crystals to deduce the Azure Mystery Force-Congealing Art.

In the end, he had only deduced the Azure Mystery Force-Congealing Art to the peak of Earth rank, failing to reach the Heaven rank he had anticipated.

Still unwilling to accept it, he threw in another fifty thousand Origin Crystals and continued the deduction. Only then did he finally raise the Azure Mystery Force-Congealing Art to the lower Heaven rank.

Afterward, he spent another fifty thousand Origin Crystals cultivating the Azure Mystery Force-Congealing Art, yet he did not feel the slightest sign of breaking through to the Great Grandmaster Realm.

He had thrown in a total of one hundred and ten thousand Origin Crystals, yet still had not raised the Azure Mystery Force-Congealing Art to the lower Heaven rank. He did not dare spend any more.

He felt that breaking through to the Great Grandmaster Realm might require more than two hundred thousand Origin Crystals.

He had that many Origin Crystals!

But he was afraid that his guess might be wrong. What if even two hundred thousand Origin Crystals were not enough?!

So, he decided to wait a while longer. His current cultivation at the perfected Grandmaster Realm was more or less sufficient anyway. Once the recent storm had passed, he would sell off that batch of treasures from the Bai Family, spend several hundred thousand more Origin Crystals, and break through then. It would not be too late.

After that, he spent four thousand Origin Crystals to raise the four intents—Ninefold Overlapping Waves, Void Aspect, Shadow Pursuit, and Sky-Piercing—to the subtle level.

Looking at the remaining two hundred thousand-plus Origin Crystals, he pondered for a moment. To verify his guess, he selected the "Mountain-Crushing" intent and raised it twice in succession, taking the Mountain-Crushing intent past Manifestation and into the Domain level.

And just as he had guessed, the consumption for raising intent did indeed increase tenfold.

Raising the "Mountain-Crushing" intent twice in succession had cost him a full one hundred and ten thousand Origin Crystals.

As a result, his original balance of five hundred thousand had been reduced to only one hundred and seventy-six thousand.

"Domain!!!"

Chen An's eyes closed slightly at first, then abruptly flew open a moment later. Dazzling silver light burst from them.

The next instant, an invisible, formless ripple of intent surged wildly outward in every direction with him at its center.

Bzzzzz!!!

The surrounding void seemed to freeze solid in an instant, while a terrifying, invisible gravity, like a mountain pressing down from above, silently spread outward.

Centered on where he stood, the earth sank slightly within a radius of ten li. The airflow stilled, grass and trees bowed low, and all things came beneath the pressure of this Mountain-Crushing Domain.

Within the Domain's range, it was as though mountains weighing ten thousand jun had descended from thin air. One's body, blood and qi, and martial cultivation would all be restrained by this space; even the mind could not escape the shackles of this force.

At that very moment, throughout the Domain's coverage—whether on the streets, inside rooms, or even in the most secluded corners—whether martial artists, common townsfolk, or ants crawling upon the ground, every living creature felt an immense and chilling pressure envelop their entire bodies, as though even their breathing would stop.

No matter how they circulated their true qi, no matter how terrified they were in their hearts, they could not move a single fraction.

Yet in only an instant, before anyone could react, the sensation receded like the tide and vanished without a trace, leaving many to believe it had merely been an illusion.

Only martial artists above the Qi Condensation Realm could clearly sense that what they had felt just now was no dream.

But the more certain they were, the more horrified they became.

They simply could not understand what kind of existence could possess such terrifying power, covering living beings across such a vast area.

Terrifying beyond measure!

Precisely because they understood the horror of such power, the martial artists grew even more wary. They did not dare discuss it too much, afraid that they might inadvertently offend the powerful expert who possessed this dreadful ability and suffer a calamity that would bury them beneath the waves in an instant.

"What a Domain!"

Retracting his intent, Chen An recalled the feeling of using a Domain-level intent just now—as though he controlled heaven and earth, controlled everything, as though he himself had become an omnipotent god. A look of shock flashed across his face.

One had to know that this was only the result of him deliberately holding back and suppressing the Domain intent.

If he unleashed it without reservation, driving it with all his strength and adding the support of his perfected Grandmaster Realm innate true force, the Domain's intensity and range could increase severalfold, perhaps even tenfold.

By then, the Mountain-Crushing Domain could stretch outward to cover an area over a hundred li away.

With such a terrifying range of coverage, combined with the Domain's inherent suppressive and binding force, its might like mountains pressing down overhead—once fully unleashed, it could slaughter millions, even tens of millions of living beings in an instant. Destroying an entire city would be no more than a wave of his hand.

Such power likely surpassed even the nuclear bombs from his previous life, those weapons said to destroy heaven and earth.

More importantly, a nuclear bomb might only explode once, while he could now use Domain-level intent at any time, without limit.

That was why even Chen An himself had been shocked after learning about the Domain tier of intent.

"Martial arts in this world really are terrifying beyond measure!!!"

A mere fourth-tier Domain-level intent possessed such power. He could not imagine what divine might the two later realms of Dao One and Origin-Returning intent possessed.

Unfortunately, even with the system, comprehending Dao One-level intent required at least one million Origin Crystals, while the Origin-Returning Realm might require ten million Origin Crystals.

With such an enormous quantity of Origin Crystals, even if he sold himself, he could not afford it right now.

Taking a deep breath, Chen An stopped dwelling on it. He got up, took a new set of dark-black martial clothes from the wardrobe, changed into them, and only then went outside to wash up.

A short while later, he finished washing up.

Chen An raised a hand to straighten his collar, picked up the floating ticket previously distributed by the county academy, then pushed open the courtyard gate and slowly walked out.

Today was the Great Luo Dynasty's annual martial arts county examination.

Although Chengtian Prefecture, where Wurong County was located, lay in the southwest of the dynasty and was a remote region—

The Great Luo Dynasty had always promoted its national policy of universal martial cultivation, and the custom had long since taken root in the hearts of the people.

Even ordinary townsfolk generally cultivated their bodies to the first or second level, possessing the strength of several hundred jin. Everyone had a foundation for practicing martial arts.

For that reason, whenever the annual county examination arrived, the entire Wurong County became as lively as during a festival. The streets and alleys bustled with voices, carts and horses came and went without cease, and an atmosphere both festive and tense permeated every corner.

Young martial artists throughout the city dressed themselves and hurried toward the examination grounds. Commoners gathered along the streets to watch and discuss. The whole county was immersed in the clamor of this grand martial arts event...