Birth of a Heavenly God

He continued testing the next ability.

"Spit Silk"!

"Ssst!"

Countless streaks of cold light shot from his fingertips, wrapping around a towering rock not far away in the blink of an eye. He gave a hard pull.

"Puff, puff, puff!"

The Fine Silk bit deep into the rock, gouging deep marks across its surface.

Zhuang Hong drew his short blade and slashed.

The Fine Silk snapped apart one after another. It was difficult to tear apart through simple pulling, but it could not withstand blade strikes or scorching flames. Its strengths and weaknesses were both glaringly obvious.

"The Fine Silk shoots faster, in greater numbers, and its toughness has become much stronger in particular."

"Iron Carapace"!

Source Power surged from his hand, condensing into a long blade in his grip. Thick carapace also emerged across his body, wrapping him completely within it.

He first drove the blade fiercely into the carapace on his arm.

"Crack!"

With a crisp snap, the carapace shattered and blood gushed out, only to repair itself in the blink of an eye.

"The carapace forms faster now, and its defense has increased enormously as well. It can basically ignore ordinary sword and blade attacks."

He moved his body around, then kicked off the ground fiercely.

"Ejection"!

"Bang!"

His tall figure surged forward, seeming to vanish from where he stood as he swept his blade at a Stone Pillar.

"Crack-boom!"

Smoke Dust burst from the Stone Pillar as it snapped into two halves. The upper half toppled sideways and crashed to the ground.

Then he waved his hand again.

"Manipulation"!

The scattered rubble and dust immediately shot forward in a concentrated barrage, letting out piercing whistles.

His figure then darted and danced rapidly across the field, gradually becoming a blur. The surrounding Stone Pillars fell one after another with tremendous roars.

Many strange creatures living in the stone forest screamed as they fled the area.

"The Source Power that was distributed throughout my body has now condensed into a single mass. It seems that the distance over which I can draw on Source Power has increased, but in reality, the speed at which I can call upon it has improved by far more than one level. Most importantly, the Source Power is more condensed, and the force it can unleash in an instant has become stronger. This strengthening of my Source Power has greatly amplified my special abilities."

"If I faced that Dragonfly Monster again now, even if I stood still and let it claw at me, it would only be able to leave a mark on my armor."

"My overall strength has at least doubled twice over."

"Then next, I'll test my most fundamental ability—traveling through space."

At that thought, Zhuang Hong instantly vanished from where he stood and appeared in another world, only to disappear again in the blink of an eye.

Zhuang Hong began rapidly traveling between different spaces like this.

His speed of traveling through space was much faster than before.

Zhuang Hong called the power used for traveling through space Space Essence.

This substance differed from Source Power. It existed objectively and could be sensed, distributed throughout every cell of his body, yet it could not be actively controlled. It was a passive force.

It was precisely this Space Essence spread throughout his body that allowed his body to pass effortlessly through Space Barriers, as naturally as breathing.

None of the Three-Dimensional Beings Zhuang Hong had seen possessed Space Essence.

In other words, one could travel through space if Space Essence existed within the body; without it, one could not.

Space Essence could be obtained by devouring Nemeses and Zhuang Hongs from other spaces. It could also be acquired from items such as the Ivory Hairpin.

Likewise, if he bled or lost cellular tissue through severed hands or feet, he would lose a corresponding amount of Space Essence.

After devouring the Mantis Monster and the Dragonfly Monster, the concentration of Space Essence within Zhuang Hong had increased greatly again, allowing him to travel between spaces even faster.

Zhuang Hong silently estimated, "In the past, traveling from Earth to Xu Kaidong's world took at least a little over a day at my fastest. Now, if I run at full speed, I should be able to reach it in less than a day."

Such speed greatly boosted his confidence.

If he encountered an opponent he could not defeat in the future, at least he would not be too slow at running away.

After traveling for most of the day, Zhuang Hong arrived at a place he called the Raging Beast World.

This world had creatures known as Raging Beasts. They were generally enormous, came in all manner of bizarre shapes, and were not weak.

Their evolutionary path embodied "strength" and "defense" to the fullest. Meanwhile, the native humans of this world remained in a primitive stage. They simply could not confront powerful Raging Beasts head-on and could only scatter apart, hiding in cracks between rocks as they struggled to survive.

Here, there was no title of "Terrifying Upright Ape." There were only "Snack Upright Apes."

Zhuang Hong had acquired his Iron Carapace ability in this world.

He had come here to fight Raging Beasts and practice his newly acquired abilities.

He understood that if he wanted to truly master the surge of power within his body, he had to go through battles of flesh and blood.

Not long after Zhuang Hong arrived in the Raging Beast World, a Raging Beast resembling a tyrannosaurus discovered him. It charged over on powerful legs, opening its fanged jaws to bite down.

Zhuang Hong drew a deep breath and grabbed casually. A long carapace blade appeared in his hand as he met the Tyrannosaurus Raging Beast head-on. At the same time, a layer of carapace surged from within his body, forming armor that encased him.

The two passed each other.

"Pfft!"

The Tyrannosaurus Raging Beast's massive head flew into the air, then crashed to the ground along with its body.

Zhuang Hong did not slow his steps. He strode toward the herd of Fan-Horned Raging Beasts in the distance.

Slashing, dodging, leaping, piercing, side-kicking...

His figure was exceptionally nimble. Every slash of his blade drew a line of blood. The Fan-Horned Raging Beasts could only fall amid repeated furious roars, soon breaking apart and fleeing in panic.

Still unsatisfied, Zhuang Hong turned and charged toward another incomparably massive Raging Beast.

As Zhuang Hong fought to his heart's content, he disturbed a small tribe hidden within stone caves. The tribe's primitive people poked their heads out from gaps in the rocks, and when they saw Zhuang Hong's figure slaughtering Raging Beasts without restraint, they were all stunned speechless.

It was as though they had seen a heavenly god, surely the Creator who dwelled among the rivers of stars.

The primitive people could not help excitedly communicating among themselves.

"Awuu, awuu!"

"Jibber jabber?"

"Awuu awuu jabber jibber!"

Only one of the primitive people remained silent, his eyes fixed tightly on the long blade in Zhuang Hong's hand. He looked at the sharp stone in his own hand, and a glimmer of Light of Wisdom flashed through his eyes.

In that moment, he understood.

Very soon, an image of a person wielding a weapon to slay Raging Beasts was painted onto the cave wall. It was extremely crude, but the primitive people worshipped before the mural every day, clearly treating Zhuang Hong as a god.

Zhuang Hong did not stop until night had fallen over the Raging Beast World.

The Raging Beasts that had once seemed exceptionally powerful to him, impossible to confront head-on, could now only submit to his slaughter.

Zhuang Hong put away his armor and long blade, then returned to Earth.

Just as he was about to step into Earth, he sensed something and looked to one side.

His gaze pierced through space, and he saw more than twenty Mantis Monsters closing in on him from various spaces.

A man in black robes followed leisurely behind the Mantis Monsters, walking toward him.

When Zhuang Hong saw the black-robed man, his pupils constricted and every muscle in his body tensed instinctively. "Blue Nemesis!"

He could clearly feel an extremely powerful pressure emanating from the other person, several times stronger than that of the Mantis Monsters.

Moreover, the Mantis Monsters closing in on him seemed to be controlled by the black-robed man, making Zhuang Hong feel an unprecedented pressure.

He judged that the other party had come for him and possessed tracking abilities. In other words, the chances of escaping were slim...