Mu Chen stood where he was, watching the silver-haired figure recede into the distance until she vanished into the dusky glow at the city gates.
He did not follow her.
There would be plenty of time ahead.
Mu Chen entered the city, where the sights were entirely different from those outside.
Bluestone slabs paved the streets, flanked by stone houses and wooden buildings of varying heights.
Mu Chen found a stone house where he could rest and sat cross-legged beside the bed.
He sank his consciousness into his sea of consciousness and activated the Chaos Divine Mill Contemplation Method!
"Within chaos, a divine mill is born. With one revolution of the mill, gods and demons alike perish..."
"Visualize the divine mill, draw upon the soul, and submit to the mill's grinding..."
"Nine revolutions of the divine mill, each revolution a new heaven..."
Vast chaos stretched without end.
At its center, something hovered.
It was a divine mill so immense that words could not describe it!
Ordinary soul-tempering techniques mostly relied on gentle nourishment and refinement, but the Chaos Divine Mill Contemplation Method took the exact opposite path-
Cast one's own soul into the divine mill, endure its grinding and shattering, seek rebirth within destruction, and extract the essence through utmost agony.
Simple. Brutal!
Mu Chen's spectral soul took shape within the chaos. Without hesitation, he plunged straight into the mill!
Was he afraid? Perhaps a little.
Would he retreat? Never!
Without the scourging of wind and rain, without a thousand hammerings and a hundred temperings, how could he become steel? How could he reach the highest peak?
In the Great Thousand World, absolute strength alone was the foundation for controlling his own destiny and protecting everything he wished to protect!
The instant he entered the divine mill's range, Mu Chen felt as though his soul had struck an invisible barrier of chaos. Then an indescribably immense pressure crushed down on him from every direction!
Two ancient, weathered millstones slowly turned above and below, trapping his tiny spectral soul between them...
Indescribable agony instantly drowned all of Mu Chen's senses.
It was as though every strand of soul-light, every conscious thought, had been placed beneath the roughest stone mill of chaos to be ground down bit by bit, inch by inch!
As the millstones turned, his spectral soul twisted and trembled violently. Its light flickered like a dying candle in the wind, ready to go out completely at any moment.
His spectral soul struggled to hold on between the millstones, like a tiny boat in a raging storm, liable to capsize at any moment yet never sinking.
Each time its light dimmed to the utmost limit, a glimmer from the saint body dao embryo's origin clung desperately to the brink of collapse, keeping the spectral form from dissipating completely.
This continued until the divine mill's second revolution, when Mu Chen's spectral soul finally burst apart, reduced to dust!
The next instant, Mu Chen's spectral soul was reforged, countless times more solid than before!
"Again!" Mu Chen recovered his senses and plunged into the divine mill once more!
He repeated the process until he reached the limits of his cultivation!
In the days that followed, Mu Chen's life settled into a routine.
During the day, he accepted missions at the City Lord's Mansion in the Safe Land, killing Spirit Beasts and gathering spiritual herbs.
At night, he sank his consciousness into his sea of consciousness and faced the Chaos Divine Mill that seemed capable of grinding everything to dust.
The pain never lessened.
Every time he cast his soul into it and those ancient, weathered millstones slowly ground down upon him, his consciousness was stripped away inch by inch to its limit, then forcibly pieced back together by the origin light of the innate chaos saint body dao embryo. Each time was like walking the border between life and death!
Yet Mu Chen's gaze grew ever calmer as he gradually became accustomed to this extreme agony.
The cycle continued.
The clearest effect of his strengthened soul was the expansion of his perception, whose range had grown far more than severalfold.
His control over his own body also reached an entirely new level. Every twitch of muscle, every movement of blood and vital energy, answered to a single thought!
Meanwhile, repeatedly killing Spirit Beasts on his missions and absorbing their soul essences allowed Mu Chen to successfully advance to a fourth-grade spirit body!
One day, at dusk.
Mu Chen had just slain a high-tier Spirit Beast, a Shadow-Spewing Lizard skilled at concealment and spraying poisonous mist, in a toxic marsh ten li outside the city.
Then he saw a dazzling seven-colored firework shoot skyward from the City Lord's Mansion, soaring straight into the clouds!
It was clearly visible even from dozens of li away—the signal to assemble in the Safe Land.
"It's finally here." A flicker of understanding crossed Mu Chen's eyes, without any surprise.
He wasted no more time. His figure blurred as he pushed off the ground, tearing through the air toward the city like an arrow loosed from its bow.
By the time Mu Chen returned to the city and reached the spacious square paved with enormous blue-black stones before the City Lord's Mansion, it was already crowded. At a rough glance, well over a hundred people had gathered!
Most eyes were fixed on the gates of the City Lord's Mansion. Mu Chen did not have to wait long.
About half a cup of tea later, the gates of the City Lord's Mansion slowly opened inward.
Three figures strolled out at an unhurried pace: two men and one woman, all appearing young.
These three were the instructors dispatched by the Five Great Academies to oversee this Guardian Land!
As the three appeared, the crowd instantly fell silent. A dropped pin could have been heard.
"In three days, the Safe Land will open the Trial Grounds for half a month..." one instructor began.
This was a trial of life and death before the Final Spirit Road opened. Only the top thirty would qualify to enter the Final Spirit Road.
The sole measure of their ranking would be points, earned by killing Spirit Beasts, finding spiritual herbs, and even seizing tokens!
Nothing was forbidden. Everyone could use whatever means they possessed!
After announcing the rules, the three instructors turned and returned to the City Lord's Mansion. The heavy stone gates slowly closed, shutting all questions and unrest outside.
At first, the square was deathly silent. Then scattered conversations rose like a tide, swiftly swelling into a clamor of discussion.
Everyone knew exactly what this trial of life and death meant.
Every person beside them could be prey-or a hunter!
Mu Chen stood where he was, calmly surveying the square.
Some eagerly sought companions, speaking with earnest sincerity; others watched coldly and withdrew alone into corners.
His gaze finally passed over the shifting crowd and settled on the silver-haired figure who had remained motionless throughout.
Luo Li.
She simply stood there with her eyes lowered, as though all the noise around her had nothing to do with her.
Appraising, wary, and greedy gazes swept over her, yet no one dared casually approach within three zhang of her.
It was an invisible boundary.
Mu Chen smiled and walked over, stopping in front of Luo Li.
Luo Li's long eyelashes trembled as she raised her eyes. Her glasslike gaze, clear to the point of transparency, reflected Mu Chen's handsome face and faint smile.
"You're Luo Li, right?" Mu Chen asked.
Luo Li did not answer. She merely watched him quietly.
"Interested in working together?" Mu Chen looked at her and continued, "Work with me, and I can help you grow stronger!"
A few barely audible scoffs and sharp intakes of breath came from those in the crowd who had yet to disperse.
Help Luo Li grow stronger? The strength the silver-haired girl had displayed over the past few days had already earned her recognition as one of the strongest people here, mysterious and powerful.
Who was this boy in black? He certainly talked big!
Luo Li's gaze lingered on Mu Chen's face for a moment. For some reason, compared with the others, the boy before her seemed rather more pleasing to the eye.
"You're strong."
She finally spoke. Her voice was like her: cool and calm, like an icy spring flowing through a mountain ravine.
Mu Chen raised his brows slightly and waited for her to continue.
"But my cultivation," Luo Li said slowly, enunciating every word clearly, "doesn't allow others to disturb me."
Her gaze left Mu Chen's face and returned to some nonexistent point on the ground.
"If you help me grow stronger, I'll always be thinking about repaying you."
"So, I refuse."
Before you continue