Eternal Heavenly Emperor

Chu Hao abandoned the axe for his fist, thump, and as he punched out, hitting the tree trunk, the giant tree merely trembled for a moment then stopped, staunchly remaining unbroken.

It's really very tough.

It seems that I can only whittle it down slowly with the axe.

But how long will that take? Probably several hours for one tree, ten trees would be ten hours; I wouldn't need to sleep at all, spending the entire day cutting wood and hauling water.

Wait a moment.

Chu Hao extended his palm, remembering he had another weapon.

The Power of Flame.

On Earth, there's a technique called oxygen cutting, which essentially uses the thermal energy of flames to burn through material, creating a break. Although his palm didn't carry an oxygen stream, he didn't need to make cuts as neat as that.

——As long as he could make a cut, that would be sufficient.

But this wasn't just about releasing high temperatures; it had to be intense enough but also as focused as possible on a single point or line to create an effect similar to that of a blade's edge.

Chu Hao stroked his chin, thinking that if he could indeed do this, it wouldn't just be about cutting wood—used against an enemy, it would be an overwhelmingly powerful weapon. He couldn't help but smile; being confined here for hard labor was actually a reward for him, as the pressure pushed him to delve deeper into his own potential.

He was a man of action.

Concentrating the Power of Flame onto a single point or line would require extremely high control capabilities. Fortunately, over the past few days, Chu Hao had been working on just this. But whereas before he had been keeping the Power of Flame controlled within a very small area, now he was trying to enhance it.

Compressing the limited power into a unity, generating a stronger force.

He kept trying, and quickly an afternoon passed without success.

At dusk, the person delivering food came by and also checked his work, seeing the overflow of water but not a single piece of wood, naturally marked him as failing again. After emptying the water pool, the person turned and left.

Chu Hao remained indoors, every moment dedicated to studying the enhancement of the Power of Flame, and after three days, he finally made some progress.

Hum.

He raised his right hand, to reveal a flame's edge, no more than an inch long, at the fringe of his palm. Unlike the normal red of flames, this flame's edge was astonishingly green.

The temperature was even higher.

He had succeeded.

Chu Hao smiled; he harnessed the strength of every cell in his body to form this blade of fire on the edge of his palm, but it couldn't be maintained for long—only about two minutes. After that, he would have to stop and rest, probably for a couple of hours before he could try again.

First, he went to fetch water, which was quickly handled; he finished before noon. Still, he rested a bit before setting out for the forest in the afternoon.

It was the same giant tree.

Chu Hao turned his palm into a blade, and with a humming sound, the flame's edge ignited. He gathered his strength and, whoosh, slashed with his palm.

The flame's edge, like a divine sword beyond compare, easily sliced through the trunk, and with a thunderous crash, that towering giant tree toppled over.

Chu Hao couldn't help but laugh loudly; he had mastered a new skill.

He moved back and forth, his palm continually making cuts, boom boom boom, tree after tree crashed to the ground. Within two minutes, he had felled a total of twenty-one giant trees.

Even tomorrow's quota was met.

He dragged ten of the giant trees to the clearing beside his cabin, and what happened to them after that was none of his concern.

At dusk, when the food delivery person came by and saw the ten giant trees lying in the clearing, he was incredibly astonished.

But he assumed Chu Hao must have stayed up all night cutting wood to achieve the ten-tree quota. That was normal; others who had been punished before did the same, or they would cut down trees but not drag them back, amassing the efforts of three or four days to count as one day's work.

In that case, the seven-day penalty term would turn into about a month. And Chu Hao was originally to stay here for a month, which meant it would take three or four months to get out.

Or even longer.

It seemed unlikely that he would fall ill from the cold.

This time, one day of Chu Hao's one-month punishment period was finally marked off.

The next day, there was still a full pool of water and ten giant trees. The third day, the same. The fourth day was no different.

The person delivering food was astounded.

How could it be the same every single day?

Could this kid really be just a Martial Disciple?

Day by day, Chu Hao honed himself in the extreme cold, and over half a month, not only had his physique improved markedly, but his control over the Power of Flame within him had also advanced.

On the 23rd day, he entered the forest in search of trees to cut. The temperature here was so low that the trees grew extremely slowly, taking hundreds of years to reach a hundred meters in height.

But with few human visitors, these trees had plenty of time to grow.

"Eh?" He arrived at the base of a giant tree and was about to strike when his gaze swept over the roots and noticed inscriptions.

"Moroccodas... What's this?" Chu Hao read the characters, and to his surprise, they were deeply etched into the wood, demonstrating the terrifying strength of the carver.

Chu Hao reckoned that unless he could further compress and enhance the might of the Power of Flame and focus it onto a single finger, perhaps then he might manage to inscribe characters onto such a hard tree trunk.

Alternatively, if his Cultivation broke through to the Martial Master Realm with the aid of Star Force, then his attack power would surge by tons.

The person carved five inexplicable characters at the Outer Sect Disciples' punishment area. What did that mean?

After a moment of surprise, Chu Hao wanted to swing his palm again, but as he just raised his hand, a flash of inspiration suddenly struck his mind.

"This is the vernacular of the Lower World."

His hand immediately paused. Back when he was in Eastern Cloud City, in order to make up for the previous Chu Hao being slow on the uptake, he had perused many classics and even went to learn new characters. With his memory, anything he saw was indelibly etched in his mind.

The Lower World, although also a part of the Sky Martial Star, had been separated for several thousand years, naturally boasting a different course of civilization. Besides, the Sky Martial Star was vast; it was normal for different areas to have their unique cultural features.

Looking at these five characters again in the vernacular of the Lower World, the meaning completely changed: "Dig beneath the tree."

What was under the tree roots? Why use the Lower World's vernacular to mark it?

It was certain that the message leaver must be a predecessor from the Lower World, and moreover, several years must have already passed. The five characters had all warped to various degrees, which was the growth of the tree at work.

But the growth rate of such trees was extremely slow. Even without much research, Chu Hao could affirm that the characters were several hundred, even thousands of years old.

By marking it in vernacular, it meant the writer didn't want the Native Faction to see it. Even if a disciple of the Native Faction being punished chopped down the tree, the five characters carved at the root would remain undestroyed and their meaning unfathomable.

It was like a secret code, understood only by those from the Lower World.

Chu Hao couldn't help but grow curious about what exactly was hidden beneath the tree.

He started digging, but the frozen soil was extremely hard, and it took him a long time to dig just about one meter deep. That's when an iron box suddenly came into view.

Chu Hao retrieved the iron box but didn't open it immediately. Instead, he used a tree branch as a probe and nudged the box open, only to find a ring inside and nothing else.

A Mustard Seed Ring?

Chu Hao picked up the ring and, using Star Force as a medium, he poured his consciousness into it.

Indeed, it was a Mustard Seed Ring, and the space inside was much larger than the one he had at hand, nearly ten times as big. Within that space, there were numerous Star Stones, along with a book and a piece of letter paper.

With a thought from Chu Hao, both the book and the letter paper appeared in his hands.

Flowing Water Jue.

The book bore three characters. Chu Hao opened it and could immediately determine it was a Cultivation Technique. However, he could not yet judge whether it was superior or inferior to the Nameless Technique because he had not yet stepped into the Martial Master Realm.

Putting aside the Flowing Water Jue for the moment, he picked up the letter and began to read.

"To the one who comes after, if you can read this message, it means you too are from the Lower World, and I too am no longer in this world. Pay close attention, for I am about to tell you something very serious, but first, it is imperative that you remain calm."

"If you are not a composed person, I advise you to stop reading now, as it may cost you your life."

That serious?

Chu Hao simply blinked in mild astonishment, then continued reading: "My name is Lin Cheng, from Yue City in the Lower World. With my high martial arts talent, I was selected by the Yunliu Sect."

"I worked diligently, tirelessly cultivating from an Outer Sect Disciple to an Inner Sect Disciple, and as my strength increased, I noticed the disdainful rejection of those here towards us disciples from the Lower World. The way they looked at us... as if we were mere dogs."

"When I reached the fifth-tier Martial Sect level, the Sect presented me with two choices."

"First, join the Chi Family who had brought me into the Yunliu Sect, marry one of their kin, change my surname to Chi, and sever all ties with the Lower World forever. Second, enter the Land of Yin Demons."

"I didn't know exactly what the Land of Yin Demons was, only that those who entered... never came out alive."

"In other words, the Sect had actually left me no way out."

"I feigned agreement to join the Chi Family while probing the reason behind the Sect's actions."

"After seven long years, I finally uncovered the truth."

"As it turned out, the Yunliu Sect had invaded our Lower World six thousand years ago, killing all our powerful figures, bringing the martial arts development in the Lower World to a standstill at the Martial Disciple stage."

"For so many years, they have been mining the Star Stones that rightfully belonged to us, luring away many talents to serve them. In the shadows, more women are covertly brought here each year to become playthings."

"Moreover, in order to control the population of the Lower World, they would even deliberately provoke ferocious beasts to attack cities."

"Also, when we first arrived at the Yunliu Sect, we were poisoned with a strong toxin that required an annual dose of antidote to suppress, an effect that could last for a year. Of course, we were kept in the dark, and even after joining the Chi Family, this information was not disclosed to me. It was only by a rare chance that I discovered it."

"Although I had joined the Chi Family, both the Sect and the Chi Family remained wary of me, never imparting the Earth Level Cultivation Technique and preventing me from advancing to the Warrior tier."

"I was trapped here, unable to bring the truth back to the Lower World, nor dare I tell other people from the Lower World, for it would only bring them a fatal disaster."

"Years later, I finally got an opportunity to steal the one and only Earth Grade Middle-Grade Cultivation Technique, the Sect's treasure, Flowing Water Jue, and hid it here."

"If you are reading this message, it means I have already taken my own life, because I don't think I could withstand their harsh torture. After all, I have a wife and children here, all innocent. If the Yunliu Sect threatened me with them... I don't know how long I could hold out. And being poisoned without an antidote, I wouldn't live longer than a year."

"To you who come after, you now know your fate in advance. How you choose to proceed is up to you. I hope you find a sliver of a chance for survival."

"Lin Cheng, this is my final message."