Time flew by. A full half year had passed since Dai Mubai and Cuihua formed their alliance.
Jiangnan Base City, Extreme Martial Arts Hall.
Inside the training room.
Dai Mubai stood bare-chested, his lean, solid muscles exposed as sweat dripped from his golden hair onto the alloy floor.
He drew a deep breath and fixed his gaze on the punch-strength testing machine before him.
He did not activate his White Tiger Martial Soul, nor did he draw upon even a trace of Soul Power within his body.
His waist suddenly exerted force, his spine snapping upward like a fully drawn bow. His right fist tore through the air with a sharp whistle and slammed heavily into the testing target.
Bang!
The number on the screen jumped rapidly before finally settling at: 905 kg!
Dai Mubai stared at the number, unable to suppress the wild joy curling across his lips.
Nine hundred kilograms!
That was the threshold for a Junior Martial Artist in this world.
Over the past half year, he had thoroughly learned all the rules of this world through the Extreme Martial Arts Hall. Only then did he learn that the Five-Heart-to-Sky Cultivation Method was not something just anyone could cultivate. If someone whose physique failed to meet the standard forced themselves to practice it, the result would only backfire.
At best, they would suffer backlash and be injured. At worst, they would die on the spot!
Thinking of the hardships of the past six months, even Dai Mubai felt his eyes welling up.
He had swallowed his pride and guarded Cuihua's side like a lackey every day, all in exchange for the high-grade nutritional meals distributed by the martial arts hall and a portion of low-grade Gene Serum.
Only then had his physical fitness finally been strengthened to the point where he could cultivate.
He walked over to a mat, sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and skillfully assumed the Five Hearts Toward Heaven posture.
This time, there was no longer that agonizing pain that had nearly made his body burst apart.
The Cosmic Origin Energy of this world, so abundant it was almost outrageous, flowed smoothly into every corner of his body like countless rivers returning to the sea, continuously nourishing and strengthening each of his cells.
The thrill of his strength rising madly at a visible pace utterly intoxicated Dai Mubai.
Just then, the training room's sensor door made a soft sound and automatically slid open to both sides.
Dai Mubai immediately stopped cultivating and rose to his feet. Upon seeing the newcomer, a trace of instinctive restraint appeared in his expression.
The one who entered was a young girl dressed in a dark blue, form-fitting Combat Suit.
Who could have imagined that this fair-skinned, radiant girl with a straight, poised figure and even the faint authority of a superior between her brows was the village girl who had once endured everyone's scorn on the streets of Suotuo City half a year ago?
Cuihua entered the training room and casually swept her gaze over the screen of the punch-strength testing machine.
"Nine hundred kilograms. Not bad. You've finally reached the threshold."
Cuihua's voice was cool and clear, carrying absolute confidence and composure.
She walked over to the testing machine and, without even deliberately adjusting her stance, casually threw a punch with her slender arm.
A dull impact echoed through the training room. The machine shook violently, and the number on its screen froze at: 1320 kg!
Dai Mubai's eye twitched, his heart filled with mixed emotions.
Thirteen hundred kilograms!
In terms of pure physical strength alone, he, a prince of the Star Luo Empire, had been left far behind by a former village girl.
What made him feel even more helpless was that physical strength was merely Cuihua's weakness.
At Cuihua's side, two handleless throwing knives forged from refined steel hovered in the air, quietly circling like swimming fish.
Junior Spirit Master!
Over the past half year, with the massive investment of resources from the Extreme Martial Arts Hall, her spiritual talent had been fully developed.
The current Cuihua could stand perfectly still and effortlessly use her throwing knives to instantly kill an elite squad equipped from head to toe!
That former village girl had long since gained the right to look down upon him.
Meanwhile, on Douluo Continent beyond the Sky Screen.
Half a year was enough for earth-shaking changes to occur in a world that had remained silent for countless years.
Heaven Dou Empire, on the streets of a market town outside Suotuo City.
A mortal teenage boy in tattered hemp clothes was using a pair of iron fists to beat a twenty-second-level Soul Grandmaster, who usually lorded over others, into a steady retreat.
The Soul Grandmaster's face was filled with terror. His prized Soul Power shield shattered inch by inch like fragile glass beneath the youth's heavy fists carrying the force of a thousand jin.
Accompanied by a scream, the youth drove a straight punch fiercely into the Soul Grandmaster's chest.
The Soul Grandmaster flew backward, coughing up mouthfuls of blood before collapsing limply to the ground, unable to get up for a long while.
The watching civilians erupted in earth-shaking cheers.
Over the past half year, the Five-Heart-to-Sky Cultivation Method had spread across every corner of the continent like a prairie fire.
Countless commoners who had once been regarded as worthless weeds and possessed no Soul Power talent had tried day and night to absorb Cosmic Energy. Some had actually succeeded in drawing it into their bodies, and their physical fitness underwent astonishing transformations.
Although the concentration of Cosmic Origin Energy on Douluo Continent was low, the commoner population was simply too vast.
In just half a year, an entirely new class had risen from the ground on this continent.
They possessed no Soul Power and no Soul Rings, yet they had terrifying brute strength capable of moving bricks and smashing stones.
They called themselves—Martial Artists!
Within Spirit City.
Bibi Dong sat upright upon the Pope's throne, reading intelligence reports sent in from various regions, unable to conceal the exhaustion in her eyes.
Spirit Hall had acted the fastest and most decisively.
Since it could not stop the rise of this new class, it would seize complete control of it.
Three months ago, Bibi Dong had directly issued an order to set aside a vast area within the grand Spirit City and establish an entirely new facility—the "Spirit Hall Martial Artist Branch."
Large numbers of stewards from various regions were dispatched to villages and towns. They were no longer responsible only for martial soul awakenings; they also began conducting "Martial Artist rank assessments" for mortals who had achieved success in cultivation.
As long as they passed the assessment and registered their names, they could receive a generous monthly salary from Spirit Hall.
Bibi Dong had once again used the methods she had employed to win over low-level Soul Masters on these emerging Martial Artist classes. It had to be said that the effect was exceptionally good.
After all, no one would turn down money.
Meanwhile, within the territories of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan and the Clear Sky Sect, the atmosphere was much calmer.
Both great sects specialized in powerful assault techniques, and their disciples were already physically robust. Their higher-ups adopted an extremely open-minded attitude toward the Five-Heart-to-Sky Cultivation Method.
Disciples who wished to try it could practice it, while those who did not were left alone.
After all, the sects possessed deep foundations. With top-tier weapon martial souls and beast martial souls as their base, they did not lack frontal combat power in the first place.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's response, however, was the most proactive and aggressive of all the factions.
Ning Fengzhi directly issued a strict order, making this cultivation method a mandatory assessment criterion for the sect's direct-line disciples.
On the white marble plaza outside the main hall, hundreds and thousands of support-type disciples could be seen every day, sweating profusely beneath the blazing sun as they performed push-ups and weighted squats before sitting down in neat formation to absorb energy.
Progress in Martial Artist cultivation had even become an important standard by which the sect measured the potential of its younger generation.
Compared to the orderly arrangements of the sects and Spirit Hall, the imperial families of the two great empires, Heaven Dou and Star Luo, had recently fallen into unprecedented distress.
The poor bred cunning schemes; the rich grew a conscience.
In a world where Soul Masters ruled everything, power, wealth, and land were all firmly controlled by the nobility and Soul Master class.
Those useless people without Soul Power had been born beneath others, condemned to remain so for generation after generation. But now, those whom others had once slaughtered at will had suddenly gained strength.
When a farmer who tilled the land discovered that he could shatter the sturdy blue-brick gate of his landlord's home with a single punch, how could he still be willing to continue living like an ox or horse?
Uprisings and riots broke out one after another across the provinces of both empires.
Although the empires could still deploy elite ordinary armies and Soul Master legions to forcibly suppress these scattered rebellions, both Xue Ye and the Heaven Dou imperial family understood clearly that the rise of the Martial Artist class had become unstoppable.
Moreover, because Soul Masters possessed superior physiques, they were the group that cultivated the Five-Heart-to-Sky Cultivation Method the fastest.
After many low-level Soul Masters came into contact with the Martial Artist system and tasted the sweetness of their doubled strength, their way of thinking also began to change subtly.
This entirely new Martial Path system was gradually dismantling the Soul Master community from within.
The world was about to descend into chaos!
Before you continue