Mythical Era: My Evolution into a Celestial Beast

As Chen Chu looked up with Nashigas' corpse in hand, the entire Ancient Arena suddenly began to tremble, as though celebrating the brilliance of the battle that had just unfolded. An invisible wave of principle power spread across the arena. The statues in the spectator stands began to shake violently, and terrifying auras intertwined in the sky above the battlefield. At the same time, the principles of the Ancient Arena descended and enveloped Nashigas.

Poof!

Nashigas' body, which remained firm and powerful even in death, suddenly disintegrated. It turned into a mist of blood that filled the air before vanishing entirely. Even its battle armor, spear, and golden seal, which Chen Chu tried to hold onto tightly, were all consumed by the Ancient Arena.

Seeing this, Chen Chu frowned. These were supposed to be his spoils of war, especially the battle armor and golden seal. However, the force powering the Ancient Arena was too strong, so strong that Chen Chu couldn't even fully perceive it, much less prevent it. He could only suppress his urge to stop it and silently watch everything related to Nashigas vanish into nothingness.

With the battle ended, Chen Chu exited the Dark Star Form. His aura immediately plummeted, his body shrank, and in the blink of an eye, he returned to his normal human form. Feeling an even more intense hunger rising from within, Chen Chu let out a sigh.

At that moment, another wave of blood mist swept across the world. Stirred by the power of principles, the mist surged and twisted, then transformed into hundreds of red and white streaks of light. They shot into the sky before suddenly converging and pouring into Chen Chu.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Chen Chu's aura surged instantly, and the emptiness within him was quickly filled with a torrent of power. His physical strength began to rise at an astonishing pace. His two previously dormant principles also began to tremble slightly. They had remained inactive before, unable to absorb transcendent energy or condense enough origin power.

Crack! Crack!

The space around Chen Chu cracked once again. Black rifts began to split open, spreading outward like a spider web for hundreds of kilometers in all directions. From afar, it looked as if a black hole had formed within that region, twisting space itself with an invisible force.

Once all of the red and white light had faded and his aura had grown more than tenfold, a satisfied smile appeared on Chen Chu's face. His essence, energy, and spirit had now reached the peak of the heavenly king level.

This trip to the Ancient Arena had turned out to be quite rewarding. The reward for slaying Nashigas allowed him to bypass the long process of absorbing vast amounts of transcendent energy. He no longer needed to refine the power of the mythical world or convert it into origin to restore his true form. On top of that, his fundamental physical strength had doubled.

It seemed that the so-called random rewards of the Ancient Arena could adapt to the victor's current needs. While Chen Chu was lost in thought over this, the spacetime around him began to distort.

Boom!

Chen Chu was hurled into a spatial storm by the force of principle power. Multicolored light streamed around him as his entire body was rapidly pulled toward a specific location. It felt as though an eternity had passed, yet also like only a moment. In the next instant, Chen Chu had returned to the crystalized world.

Time, which had previously come to a halt, began moving once more. From Xie Chen's perspective outside the crystalized world, Chen Chu had never disappeared at all, because the moment he departed and the moment he returned occurred in the exact same instant. No one knew that Chen Chu had just left and slain a genius from the Eternal Golden Divine Race, an opponent who had awakened their primordial bloodline.

Feeling the restless urge to break through stirring within him, Chen Chu slowly closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his now calm gaze fell on the translucent attribute page in front of him. This time, no one interrupted his review of the breakthrough changes.

His eyes moved past the newly attained pinnacle of the heavenly king level and focused on his physique and strength attributes, which had skyrocketed from 158 and 167 to 199. It seemed that was the physical limit of his body at the heavenly king level, equivalent to the strength compressed from 199 heavenly dragons. Even the previous rewards from the Ancient Arena had failed to break past that threshold.

This included the faint traces of evolutionary energy now drifting in from the other side of the soul passage. Although it still merged into his flesh and blood, it did nothing to raise his overall strength. It was as if he had reached a certain bottleneck, or perhaps the current limit of his genetic potential.

"Looks like if I want to keep improving my strength and physique, I'll have to break through to the supreme level," Chen Chu murmured thoughtfully, his gaze falling to the next entry.

[True Form]

True Primordial Demon God Form

- Currently at the infant stage. The peak stage Innate Demon God True Form has been transformed by primordial origin, and has advanced into a primordial demon god that has existed since the beginning of heaven and earth.

- Primordial lifeforms possess absolute dominion over the laws of heaven and earth. Their innate compatibility with principles allows them to passively influence the principles within their bodies, guiding them to evolve into more refined and powerful forms.

- Note: The process of influencing the evolution of principles will continuously consume a certain amount of principle origin.

Aside from the transformation of the True Demon God Form during this breakthrough, there were no major changes to his divine abilities or other abilities. They remained top-level and high-level respectively. What had changed significantly were the Demon God Combat Skills.

[Primordial Demon God Companion Skill]

World-Ending Sun

- Manifestation of condensed law power formed from endless scorching flames. When unleashed, it can explode with a power surge of up to one-hundredfold.

Having now evolved into a divine companion artifact, the Great World-Ending Sun's power amplification had increased significantly from a mere several dozen times. Of course, this hundredfold referred to the amplification of the Great Heavenly Sun Flame's explosive output, not Chen Chu's total strength as a whole. That would be far too exaggerated.

Still, even with this clarification, the boost was astonishing. After all, Chen Chu had now reached the pinnacle of the heavenly king level, his strength far surpassing what it had been when he first broke through into the level. Under such circumstances, the explosive enhancement provided by the demon god companion skill was naturally even greater. This included the Lightning God Spear, the Death Millstone, and the Soul Chains. All three had evolved into companion skills, greatly enhancing their power while retaining their original foundations.

[Special Power]

Nine-Fold Heavenly Gate

- Nine dragons of the Dark Star are sealed behind the gate, containing endless vitality. At any moment, the Nine-Fold Heavenly Gate can be shattered to enter the World-Ending Form.

- Each time one of the nine gates is broken, the True Demon God Form's base strength and defense double, compounding with every breakthrough.

- Note 1: The vitality sealed within the Heavenly Gate originates from the True Demon God Form itself. Excess vitality and life force is constantly sealed, compressed, and accumulated by the Heavenly Gate. Therefore, each time a gate is shattered, a period of recovery is needed for the dark-gold dragon chains to reform.

- Note 2: It is possible to continue absorbing heavy material elements to construct and condense a tenth Heavenly Gate for an even greater burst of power.

When Chen Chu saw the second note, his eyes widened, and a trace of shock appeared on his face. This technique was already overwhelming in power, created through the fusion of the Dark Star, Nine Dragon, and Heavenly Gate runes with his own True Demon God Form. It was forged from the very essence of his entire martial path.

The resulting instant burst of over five hundred times his base physical strength gave him the power to crush everything in his path. He was already unmatched among those at the same level. Now, with the influence of primordial power, the upper limit of this ultimate technique had risen once again.

Although it remained the Nine-Fold Heavenly Gate for now, if he managed to condense a tenth gate and gain another boost in power, his resulting explosive power would reach an even higher level. This kind of amplification would be comparable to mastering an additional supreme principle.

Hoo!

Chen Chu let out an excited breath, trying to calm the thrill in his heart. His eyes turned to the changes in his principle.

[Principle]

Supreme Strength

- A complete supreme-level principle containing pure and absolute force. Its power is overwhelming and unstoppable, capable of crushing through anything in its path.

- Divine power has increased twentyfold from its original foundation. Suppression over the laws of heaven and earth has grown even stronger.

Power Amplification.

- The principle of Supreme Strength amplifies the power of all ultimate techniques and attacks by thirtyfold.

Principle of Strength

- This ultimate principle possesses the absolute trait of overwhelming all other techniques with raw force. With Principle Entanglement, it can shatter all things—tangible or intangible—within heaven and earth.

Supreme Descent

- Consumes the origin of the principle to push the Principle of Strength's power beyond its limits, capable of shattering worlds. It can be combined with the Dark Star World-Ending Form for an even greater burst of power.

Primordial Genesis Principle

- A complete, supreme-level principle. The original embryonic principle, once a blank form, was awakened under the influence of the Chaotic End Principle. It split open heaven and earth, giving rise to the opposing force known as the Primordial Genesis Power.

- At present, this principle is fused with the Soul Emperor Seal and is in a semi-merged state with the divine soul. The soul essence is undergoing a slow transformation under the power of Primordial Genesis.

- Note 1: This is an exceptionally rare state, one in ten million. It offers immense benefits for advancing toward the primordial level. Please avoid interrupting the process if possible.

- Note 2: Since Primordial Genesis Power cannot be actively drawn upon and remains fused with the divine soul, some of its power attributes remain unknown.

These were the greatest transformations brought about by this breakthrough. As Chen Chu had predicted, the Law of Power had evolved into a supreme principle after merging the strength of the five high-level laws. However, although it was also a supreme-level principle, it was still slightly inferior to the Dragon Emperor's Endbringer Annihilation.

This was evident in the comparison between their base amplifications. Chen Chu's principle provided a thirtyfold boost, while the Dragon Emperor's granted fortyfold.

Even so, Chen Chu's strength still surpassed that of most demon gods, especially since he also wielded six divine abilities. Among them, Temporal Reincarnation was of the supreme level, Absolute Annihilation and Absolute Force Field were top-level, and he possessed four companion skills along with a sealed ultimate technique.

Chen Chu estimated that his current combat strength in a normal state had reached the middle stage of the supreme level, nearing the late stage. Once he broke through, his base power would fully advance into the late stage. however, he wouldn't be an ordinary late-stage supreme powerhouse. He would be on par with a demon god who ruled an empire and wielded a world-level weapon.

If he shattered the Nine-Fold Heavenly Gate and entered the Dark Star World-Ending Form, burning his principle origin in the process, his combat strength should be comparable to that of a peak-stage ancient great demon god like Tyretis.

"What a pity. Right now, the Dark Star World-Ending Form only amplifies the base strength and defense of the True Demon God Form. If it also increased the might of my principles, that would be enough to step into the true spirit level." Saying this out loud, Chen Chu couldn't help feeling a bit sad.

Even after reaching the ancient level, the upper limit of a human was still slightly inferior to that of a colossal beast. However, if he condensed a tenth Heavenly Gate, then even with a beginning-stage supreme level cultivation, Chen Chu would be able to unleash power comparable to the true spirit level. Alternatively, if he recondensed the time mark and underwent a round of reincarnation, he could also reach the true spirit level, or even surpass it. Unfortunately, both of these options would take time.

With a quiet sigh, Chen Chu glanced over the other data that hadn't changed much, then slowly stood up. A vast and oppressive aura radiated from his body. The void of the crystalized world began to tremble violently under the immense pressure.

Crack!

Before Xie Chen could open the "door" to the crystalized world, a rift appeared on the crystal surface. In the next moment, Chen Chu's palm shattered the crystal wall with a boom. Of course, he didn't completely destroy the crystalized world. He had only torn open a hole several meters wide in the wall.

Immediately, Xie Chen felt the world around him darken as Chen Chu slowly stepped out. In his eyes, the entire world now seemed to consist of only that black-haired youth. He stood just over 180 centimeters, but in that moment, he appeared to tower over everything, as if his presence alone filled the entire world. The invisible pressure radiating from him shook Xie Chen to his very soul.

Suppressing the instinctive fear rising from within, Xie Chen spoke with a hint of excitement and awe in his voice. "So strong... Chen Chu, it looks like you've gained a lot from this breakthrough."

A faint smile appeared on Chen Chu's face. He withdrew the wisp of powerful aura that had leaked from his body and said in a calm and courteous tone, "Yes, I did gain quite a lot this time. I've reached the peak of the heavenly king level, and I'm ready to take the next step into the supreme level at any time."

"...Really?" Even though he had expected this outcome, hearing Chen Chu confirm it still made Xie Chen's voice tremble. It was simply too unbelievable.

Today was January 10th, 2057. Looking back, from the moment Chen Chu began cultivating until now, it had only been about one year and four months. Only that amount of time, from an ordinary human to someone on the brink of reaching the supreme level. The pace of his cultivation was so staggering it felt almost unreal, especially considering his combat strength had stayed overwhelmingly powerful the entire time. Before Chen Chu appeared, Xie Chen and the other kings would have never dared imagine that anyone could possess such talent.

"Hahaha... Congratulations, Chen Chu. From you, I see a future filled with hope for the human race." Overcome with excitement, Xie Chen burst into laughter and patted Chen Chu's shoulder vigorously. He had completely forgotten about the vast difference in their strength and status at that moment.

Looking at Xie Chen, whose eyes were turning slightly red, Chen Chu simply gave a faint smile and let him release the sudden outburst of emotion from his heart. He could feel an unease that Xie Chen had suppressed for who knew how many years. It was a deep-seated fear that was finally beginning to fade.

As a powerhouse who had stood at the peak of the human race for decades and guarded the Blue Planet for many years, Xie Chen appeared distant and untouchable, but he had always carried an enormous burden. That pressure came from the vast and mysterious mythical world, and from the terrifying Purgatory Demon Clan, beings so powerful that even the slightest effort on their part could wipe out humanity.

However, just as he had said, from a Chen Chu who had now risen, Xie Chen saw the future of the human race.

Right now, Chen Chu's strength had already surpassed Qian Tian, making him the strongest among humans. Yet in terms of his talent, this was merely the beginning. Perhaps in just a few more years, the human race would witness the rise of a civilization emperor, or even someone beyond that level, an existence capable of ruling an entire era and overpowering all others throughout history.

As long as Chen Chu was alive, the threat of the Purgatory Demon Clan didn't matter. As long as he was here, so was the human race.