Taking a Gamble

The lingering sleepiness completely vanished.

Lu Heng slowly opened his eyes. The clear sunlight streamed into the room through the cracks in the stone walls of the Astrology Room, landing on the edge of the bed and dispelling all the gloom.

He gently stretched his limbs, his muscles and bones working together, producing a series of soft, soothing sounds.

All the soreness and fatigue that had been building up throughout my body disappeared.

This sleep was extremely sound, the most thorough relaxation after days of fighting and tense nerves. My mind completely rebounded from the numb state of exhaustion, becoming full and clear. The residual external injuries in my body, after a long period of rest and the medicinal power of the lotus seeds, only left a very faint ache, and did not affect my movement at all.

Lu Heng sat up, slightly stunned.

Looking up at the light-filled crack in the stone, and judging from the angle of the shifting light, he realized that he had slept for far longer than he expected.

I only intended to take a short break to recover from my mental fatigue, but I ended up sleeping for more than a day.

But the long sleep did not cause drowsiness; on the contrary, it allowed his physical and mental state to return to its peak.

Lu Heng landed steadily and stood up, his feet firmly planted on the flat stone ground. He moved his wrists and neck, feeling the full and steady power within his body.

He is in excellent physical condition, with abundant energy and stable blood circulation. His physical condition is impeccable.

But the more I felt it, the clearer the strange feeling in my heart became.

The power is abundant, yet it remains stagnant and immobile.

There is no room for improvement whatsoever; all combat strength, physique, and foundation are stuck at a fixed critical point.

He has completely reached the pinnacle of the Silver Tier, touching the absolute bottleneck of his current realm.

Promotions in the past were always passive.

Before reaching the Silver Tier, whether it was physical enhancement, combat power improvement, or realm advancement, he never needed to deliberately study or explore. As long as he accumulated enough resources, experienced enough battles, and absorbed enough Origin Energy, his realm would naturally and effortlessly rise.

By waiting patiently and accumulating experience quietly, one can steadily grow stronger.

This passive promotion method is stable and reliable, and has never gone wrong, which has supported him all the way to where he is today.

But at this moment, this outdated logic of growth has completely failed.

Lu Heng frowned slightly, a sudden sense of crisis surging in his heart.

He recalled the battle at the Withered Reed Plain, and the strange mark attack that came from across the spatial barrier.

That wasn't the executioner's own power, but rather a remote empowerment from an unknown entity in Other Plane. With a single strike, its power was terrifying. If the Forest Will hadn't secretly erased the continuous reinforcement, and if it weren't for his own dual-system survival in dire straits, he wouldn't have been able to hold out until the very end and turn the tide.

That attack was definitely on a level far exceeding the upper limit of the Silver Tier.

It is a genuine Gold Tier combat capability.

The feeling of helplessness I felt at that moment is still vividly etched in my heart.

It's not a difference in techniques, nor a difference in experience; it's an absolute crushing defeat in terms of realm and dimension.

The opponent was bound by the rules of space and could not cross boundaries in his physical form. He only had one chance to make a move, and he barely survived by fighting with all his might.

What if we were to encounter a fully-formed Gold Tier being head-on?

There are no rules to limit it, no covert checks and balances, and no room for maneuver in dire situations.

They didn't even have the right to run away, let alone fight back.

A dead end.

Once the thought was made up, Lu Heng's mind settled completely.

He was very clear about his future path.

The eradication of the local Withering Source is only a temporary end. Soon, he will inevitably step into the Green Demon Plane and head to a wider and more dangerous Other Plane battlefield.

The Green Demon World is a diverse world with numerous powerful beings. Bronze and Silver Tier monsters are merely cannon fodder at the bottom, and there must be a large number of stable Gold Tier combatants holding sway over each region.

If he were to enter Other Plane his current Silver- level peak cultivation level, all his combat experience, top-tier equipment, and system advantages would be completely wiped out by the difference in cultivation level once he encountered high-level demons.

Passively waiting for promotions to accumulate experience is too slow.

It simply couldn't keep up with the speed at which the crisis arrived.

He must take the initiative to break the deadlock and find the right direction to break through to the Gold Tier.

No more blindly accumulating resources, no more passively waiting for advancement.

Having figured this out, Lu Heng raised his Wristband Space.

He took out several heavy-looking treasure chests and neatly stacked them on the ground.

There are ultimate treasure chests for destroying Other Plane Portal, battle chests for killing high-level executioners, and exclusive reward chests specially granted by the Forest Will after the battle. Each one is a high-level spoil of war he fought to the death, containing extremely rich resources and opportunities.

In addition, he unearthed a pile of old items buried deep inside the space.

The items include early-used broken battle axes, obsolete standard crossbows, severely worn armor, as well as surplus resources and low-level essence crystals left over from previous battles.

These things were once his means of survival, but as his cultivation level improved and his equipment was upgraded, they were completely idle and no longer needed. They have been stored deep in his space, unattended.

Normally, he would open the treasure chest immediately to absorb resources, strengthen his foundation, gradually build up his strength, and slowly refine his realm.

But at this moment, looking at the harvest scattered on the ground, Lu Heng had no desire to open the boxes at all.

Opening boxes is a gamble; what you get and whether it can help you break through are completely unknown.

It will most likely just be a bunch of ordinary resources, which are meaningless to him who is stuck at the bottleneck of his cultivation level.

What he needs is not scattered supplies, nor temporary boosts to combat power.

It is the direction for breakthrough, the path to advancement, and the answer to stepping into the Gold Tier.

His gaze passed over the supplies scattered on the ground and landed on the Sacrificial Altar deep in the Moonview Valley.

The ancient and dignified stone altar stands quietly in the center of the valley, having witnessed numerous sacrifices and never disappointed him.

A bold and extremely adventurous idea took shape.

Do not open the box, do not utilize existing resources.

He offered all of this—the high-level treasure chests he had risked his life to obtain, the idle military equipment he had stockpiled throughout the campaign, and the surplus spoils from previous battles—as sacrifices to the Sacrificial Altar.

Let's take a gamble.

He gambled that the Sacrificial Altar could guide him to a breakthrough to the Gold Tier.

The moment the thought arose, a tremendous risk also weighed on my mind.

This is his most extravagant and reckless gamble to date.

If the gamble is lost, the sacrifice will not bring a breakthrough opportunity or a direction for advancement.

All the gains from that desperate battle at the Withered Reed Plain, and all the previous accumulations, will be instantly wiped out and completely wasted.

All the gains from several life-or-death battles were lost.

There is no way back, no room for redress.

If he fails, he will not only be unable to break through to the Gold Tier, but he will also directly deplete his own resources, causing his combat power to stagnate, his resources to be cut off, and him to fall into a longer period of dormancy and decline.

Lu Heng stood quietly, staring at the supplies scattered on the ground, weighing the options in his mind.

Hesitation is fleeting.

He recalled the surprises the Sacrificial Altar brought him during every desperate situation.

From initial survival supplies and rare medicinal herbs, to mid-game exclusive items and system enhancements, and finally to game-changing trump cards in crucial battles.

Since acquiring this Sacrificial Altar, every offering has precisely provided him with what he needed most at that moment, never betraying his trust and never making the slightest mistake.

The countless times he had been guaranteed a safe haven and received generous gifts in the past were enough to support his recklessness this time.

The risks are extremely high, but it's worth the gamble.

Rather than sitting idly by with resources and facing certain death when confronted with Gold Tier combat power, the current gamble is the only way to survive.

Lu Heng's eyes became completely resolute, all hesitation vanished, leaving only determination.

Without further hesitation, he bent down and gathered all the treasure chests, unused weapons, and surplus supplies, then walked step by step toward the Sacrificial Altar.

Today, he stakes everything he has on a path to break through to the next level.

Seeking a future capable of countering high-level Other Plane forces.