Divine Martial Emperor, Barros

Deep within the Imperial Hall.

Barros's condensation of the Heavenly Pillar acupoint had reached a critical moment.

Starlight poured down like a waterfall, vast and boundless.

That star pillar, towering between heaven and earth, blazed with radiance, as though an entire galaxy had been forged within it.

The Heavenly Pillar acupoint was the crucial nexus where the body's heavenly and earthly forces converged, linking the hundred acupoints of the cosmic circuit.

A planetary-grade star core rapidly withered and shrank beneath the continuous infusion of stellar power.

As the star power surging through the star pillar and the dormant energy within the star core poured into the Heavenly Pillar acupoint together—

All one hundred and eight cosmic acupoints within Barros's body solidified!

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Deep, heavy pulses like ancient war drums reverberated from his chest cavity and even between his bones and marrow.

The one hundred and eight cosmic acupoints recorded in the Dragon Elephant Prison Suppression Sutra fully took shape. The planetary-grade star core before him abruptly dried up, as though its very essence had been drained, collapsing and shattering at a visible rate.

A vast surge of stellar power, wrapped around the heaven-piercing star pillar, violently flooded into every limb and bone of Barros's body.

The instant the stellar power entered his body, muffled thunder rolled and exploded within him. His bones crackled and boomed in rapid succession.

Heaven and earth were silent, yet it was as though thunder had split the skies; all sounds had fallen still, yet dragons roared and tigers howled in unison!

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

"Roar! Roar! Roar!"

Had any well-informed grandmaster of martial arts been present, they would have been utterly shaken and drained of color!

The resonance of sinews and bones, the thunderous roar of tigers and leopards—those who had reached mastery could accomplish that much. Yet to remain motionless, without even stirring one's thoughts, while one's entire body resonated on its own and dragon roars and tiger howls arose with every breath—such a realm was beyond even the reach of those See-God-level grandmasters who had spent their lives shattering the void!

Awooo—Roar—Awooo—Roar!

The tiger-and-leopard thunder that had once lain dormant deep within his flesh had, at this moment, transformed into genuine dragon roars and tiger howls. The soundwaves shook the dome of the Imperial Hall and soared furiously into the heavens!

Outside the Imperial Hall.

Xuesaiya, Xuesaili, and the others, who were standing guard for Barros, exchanged looks as their expressions changed drastically.

That strange roar seemed to explode right beside their ears, yet also appeared to rip forth from the deepest depths of their hearts.

It not only threw their minds into disarray, but also left them dazed and helpless.

Meanwhile, inside the hall, the three planetary-grade star cores before Barros had long since crumbled into ash, drifting through the air in fine particles, yet he remained completely unaware.

The thirty-six Heavenly Gang acupoints had been stabilized, and the seventy-two Earthly Fiend acupoints had condensed.

He was now linking the immense powers of the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiend into one, truly forging the grand foundation of the cosmic acupoints.

First condense the acupoints, then temper them; cleanse the sinews and marrow with stellar power, and forge the bones and body with vital energy and blood.

The day the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiend both reached completion would be the day the shackles of the flesh shattered completely.

Every word recorded in the Dragon Elephant Prison Suppression Sutra was engraved in Barros's mind. He dared not make the slightest mistake, much less show even a trace of slackness.

"The Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiend are ready. Cosmic acupoints—connect for this Emperor in one breath!" His eyes flew wide as he shouted sharply. Like an enraged ancient sovereign, he twisted all the stellar power and vital blood accumulated within his one hundred and eight acupoints into a monstrous torrent and slammed it ruthlessly toward the central nexus!

"Crack!"

A soft sound rang out, like jade shattering, like a bell tolling, like the first fissure when heaven and earth first opened—the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiend connected completely, and all one hundred and eight cosmic acupoints joined as one. From that moment onward, the grand foundation of the cosmic circuit was forged!

At that very instant, the shackles of his flesh shattered in response.

From deep within his spine, a force of bone marrow as thick as mercury and heavier than the stars surged forth, flooding every bone in his body in an instant.

It did not stop there—the vast vital blood that had already been like a sea of stars began compressing of its own accord. Beads of crimson-gold blood quietly formed one after another within his veins.

Transform the skin, transform the flesh, transform the sinews, forge the bones, temper the blood, cleanse the marrow, condense the body.

With the shackles broken, the power of the Dragon Elephant Prison Suppression Sutra erupted explosively, madly devouring the stellar power filling the heavens as it mercilessly reforged Barros's already terrifying body.

The heaven-piercing star pillar flickered erratically, as though its flow had been forcibly intercepted and drawn backward—the starlight that should have poured down gradually now seemed to be violently dragged into his body.

Buddhist chants drifted through the air as the resonant tones of great bells and chimes shook the void with a continuous hum.

Mixed within them was a thread of suppressed, teeth-clenched howling—low, rough, and intermittent, yet every sound pierced straight into the heart.

His spine was reforged, while his skin, flesh, sinews, and veins were all crushed apart and remade. The pain was like countless steel needles stabbing into his marrow;

The cleansing of marrow and tempering of blood repeatedly washed his marrow and purified his blood layer by layer—it itched like ants crawling beneath his skin and hurt as though he were being flayed alive. The two tortures intertwined and compounded, twisting his face beyond recognition!

At this moment, Barros's face was drenched in cold sweat, bloody marks crisscrossed his body, and his robes were completely soaked through.

Transform the skin, transform the flesh, transform the sinews, forge the bones, temper the blood, cleanse the marrow, condense the body.

This was the beginning of his rebirth, so he had to endure it—even if ten thousand ants gnawed at his bones and ten thousand insects devoured his heart, even if the pain was thousands or tens of thousands of times worse than death by a thousand cuts, he could not afford to relax for even a moment.

Though the pain nearly made him pass out, he could clearly feel that he was undergoing a transformation that remade him from the ground up.

This transformation made his body increasingly indestructible, comparable to eternal stars; it made his vital blood ever more surging and abundant, brimming with life force and approaching immortality.

Outside the Imperial Hall.

Xuesaiya, Xuesaili, and Palanti listened to the heavy, stifled roars from within the hall. Their slender fingers clenched until they turned white, their eyes brimming with anxiety. They wished they could break down the doors and rush inside at once.

Jiyande, Kamosi, Meisu, and the other top Saiyans had long since sweated through their palms. Even their hearts, forged of iron, ached fiercely under the strain of those roars.

The Divine Martial Emperor, Barros.

He was the emperor they truly revered and had sworn to follow unto death.

Hearing those agonized roars, they wished they could suffer in his place, endure in his place, bear this hellish trial for him.

Barros sat upright as a pine. The transformation brought by the shattering of his physical shackles, along with the soul-rending agony, had already pushed the long-enduring Barros to the brink of losing consciousness.

His heart was like a frozen abyss, unruffled even if the heavens collapsed; though countless tribulations descended upon him, his spirit remained calm!

At the line between life and death, Barros had no other choice. He could only grit his teeth and silently recite the Ice Heart Formula, desperately clutching the last shred of clarity in his mind.

The transformation of Dragon Elephant Prison Suppression was already an arrow on the string. It could not be stopped, nor could he turn back.

If Barros's consciousness collapsed and he fell unconscious at this crucial moment, just before success—

More than ten years of relentless cultivation would vanish in an instant, and his path toward the pinnacle of this life would be cut off for good.

Time crawled by inch by inch. The Ice Heart Formula he recited in silence gradually slowed, breaking off and resuming, until it was nearly inaudible.

The pain was a hundred, a thousand times worse than being cut by a thousand blades. It was as though countless red-hot steel needles were piercing through the gaps in his bones and plunging into the depths of his soul.

Barros's consciousness was sinking into chaos, inch by inch.

Anyone could see that it would not be long before he fell completely into a dark abyss without awareness or sensation.

At the instant his mind was about to collapse completely, the Saiyan bloodline that had lain dormant within him for so long suddenly began to boil—a furious roar of a giant ape that shook the soul exploded from the deepest depths of his bloodline and pierced straight into his sea of consciousness!

Barros's heart jolted, and that roar forcibly dragged a shred of clarity back into his scattered thoughts.

That tiny shred of awareness would ordinarily have been insignificant, but at this moment, it was exactly like a lifeline—just in time!

Boom—!!

A deafening explosion, as if the heavens and earth had first been split apart and primordial chaos divided, erupted from within Barros's body!

His consciousness already blurred, Barros finally crossed the last threshold of transformation before he could lose himself completely.

Bzzzz—!!

At the instant he completed his transformation, a furious tremor suddenly came from the depths of the vast cosmos, as though it were roaring—someone had violently shattered the prison of the flesh, shaking the immutable balance of this world since time immemorial!

The shackles of the flesh shattered completely, and heaven and earth raged in fury.

Only when that soul-shaking hum struck his ears did Barros truly confirm it: the transformation had succeeded.

All one hundred and eight acupoints of the Heavenly Cycle had fully solidified. The second level of Dragon Elephant Prison Suppression had now reached complete mastery.

From this day onward, crossing the boundless sea of stars was no more than a step away for Barros.

The pillar of starlight that pierced heaven and earth slowly faded above his head, yet he remained completely unaware of it.

His eyes lightly closed, he carefully examined this terrifying body that even he found unfamiliar—one that filled him with a trace of dread.

A heroic spirit that looked down upon the universe surged from his chest.

One fist could shatter stars; one palm could shake the nine heavens.

To the current Barros, these were neither empty boasts nor distant dreams—they were simply things that would come naturally.

Not to mention that once Dragon Elephant Prison Suppression advanced another step in the future, this body alone would be enough to achieve feats that would leave all living beings dumbstruck and beyond imagination:

A drop of blood becoming a lake, a severed hair slicing apart a star;

or even... rebirth from a drop of blood, transforming into countless incarnations!

And as all one hundred and eight acupoints of the Heavenly Cycle were thoroughly condensed, and the transformation of his body settled into place, that realm he had yearned for so long, yet had long suppressed himself from touching lightly—Super Saiyan—had finally reached the critical point for breaking through.

He swallowed a Senzu Bean. His injuries were fully healed, and his condition returned to its peak.

Barros slowly rose to his feet, his back straight and unbending.

Then—

"Hah—ah—!!!"

A furious roar that tore through the sky erupted!

As Barros threw himself fully into becoming a Super Saiyan, he felt as though an ocean had burst through its dam within his body, unleashing boundless power!

Rumble—!!

His aura flared up, incandescent white, instantly enveloping his entire body.

In that instant, the skies over the entire Divine Martial Battle Star were dimmed by the pressure of the aura he released without restraint!

Black clouds churned, lightning serpents danced wildly, and bolts of lightning as thick as mountains tore through the heavens and slammed viciously into the ground, blasting out enormous charred craters with no visible bottom.

The Divine Martial Battle Star had completely erupted!

In the haze, an indescribably vast pressure rose from Barros, as though it would overturn the entire planet, pierce deep into the river of stars, and shake countless celestial bodies!

At that instant, every Saiyan on Divine Martial Battle Star—and indeed every living creature—clearly sensed that suffocating force and presence that crushed all things.

Countless Saiyans' legs trembled, and innumerable creatures cowered on the ground, utterly devoid of the courage even to raise their heads.

Though they had fought across the starry seas for years and faced innumerable peerless experts, those Saiyan powerhouses with combat power often reaching hundreds of thousands could not even summon the slightest thought of resistance before this pressure.

At that moment, the same name surfaced in the hearts of all Saiyans—

Divine Martial Emperor, Barros!

At this moment, with his power fully unleashed, Barros crushed the ground within a hundred meters around him several meters deep through sheer presence alone, while spiderweb-like cracks spread madly outward!