Mythical Era: My Evolution into a Celestial Beast

Chapter 201: Ability Awakening in a Dual-Layered World (I)

Boom!

As the dragon’s essence flowed through Chen Chu’s body, a familiar and violent energy exploded within him.

However, compared to the previous discomfort when breaking through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm, this time, the high-quality dragon essence was causing much less damage to his body—possibly due to his now-draconic nature.

Just then, an extremely pure energy appeared out of nowhere, and the Dragon Elephant True Power in his dantian gushed out, enveloping the dragon essence.

His true power began to carve out new pathways within his body, traversing more subtle meridians and forming a more visible and intricate circulation pattern. Wherever that true power passed, the purified dragon essence fused into Chen Chu’s flesh and bones. The dragon scale pattern on his body gradually became clearer.

At the same time, that supremely pure energy split in two: half of it merged with Chen Chu's true power, continuously refining and transmuting the dragon essence, while the other half surged into his sea of consciousness, which trembled as an invisible force pulled it inward to merge with the Dragon Elephant Phantom.

Roar!

In a desolate and barren land, a Dragon Elephant as big as a mountain roared to the sky, emanating an explosive will that shattered the heavens.

As the incarnated Dragon Elephant thundered across the land, a domineering aura, distinct from the mind and spirit, pervaded Chen Chu's sea of consciousness, gradually materializing his will.

Huff! Huff!

With the breakthrough in his martial arts, Chen Chu's breathing gradually became deep and heavy, even stirring up a howling wind with each breath, resembling a slumbering colossal beast. Within him, the power resembling a dragon’s might and an enraged elephant’s ferocity grew stronger and stronger...

Half an hour later, Chen Chu slowly opened his eyes. Within them, golden vertical pupils exuded a staggering pressure. They were like statues in a temple, cold, majestic, and overlooking all beings.

This time, Chen Chu didn't immediately retract his dual-pupil vision. Instead, he looked around.

In his eyes, the world seemed to have two layers. One was the normal view visible to the naked eye, with air gently flowing and carrying fine dust particles. The other layer was somewhat blurry, with faint cracks appearing in the surrounding space occasionally, which disappeared as he blinked.

It was as if the world he was in was a bottle about to shatter. However, as Chen Chu's golden vertical pupils gradually faded, the horrifying scene of the surrounding space breaking apart also gradually disappeared.

Whew!

Chen Chu exhaled a large breath, his eyes filled with contemplation. "Is this vision a result of the Dragon Elephant Tyrant Body absorbing that high-level dragon essence? Or is it the influence of my continuously evolving physique?

"There wasn’t any mention in the description for the Tyrant Body about anyone awakening any abilities other than true martial art attributes, so it seems to be related to my body’s constant evolutions. Or perhaps it's a combination of both..."

With the feedback from his avatar, Chen Chu’s physical strength had continued to improve. He was also gradually realizing the difference between his enhancement and that of a normal true martial art cultivator.

When other cultivators improved their physical strength, they would go through a process of using true power to temper their body. It was similar to casting iron; with transcendent energy, they would transform their body to be better suited for the arts they practiced.

Chen Chu's enhancement, on the other hand, was a type of evolution. Each time his avatar provided feedback, his body would undergo evolution, where his cells would constantly divide. As they became smaller, they would also become denser.

Coupled with the cultivation of true martial arts and the absorption of high-quality dragon essence, abilities similar to colossal beasts were gradually emerging.

Of course, these were just Chen Chu’s own speculations. This dual-pupil ability was still at an awakening stage, not completely formed yet.

Chen Chu put the question aside and shifted his attention inward, feeling his vastly increased true power, which had become about six times denser.

In the late stage of the Fourth Heavenly Realm, specifically at the end of the late stage, it seemed that enhancing an art by itself was no longer sufficient to break through a realm of cultivation.

Unlike previous cultivations, this time, when Chen Chu broke into stage 5 of the Dragon Elephant Tyrant Body, his cultivation didn’t also break through to the Fifth Heavenly Realm in one go. It seemed that, when he had been enhancing the art to make it break through, half of the attribute energy had been consumed during the condensation of willpower.

The remaining half hadn’t been enough to bolster his true power to the limit of the Fourth Heavenly Realm, let alone achieve a breakthrough to the Fifth in one go.

This meant that, although Chen Chu’s art had reached the fifth stage, due to the lack of true power, he himself had been placed at the late stage of the Fourth Heavenly Realm. Now he just needed to focus on absorbing and purifying transcendent energy, and soon he would be able to break through to the Fifth without a bottleneck.

Moreover, because his art had already broken through to the fifth stage, his cultivation speed in the future would be several times faster than before. The only thing currently holding him back was energy, but as long as there was enough transcendent energy around him, he would be able to break through to the Fifth Realm easily, even faster if he used energy crystals.

There was also the method of continuing to enhance the Dragon Elephant Tyrant body to stage 6, and using that to also break through to the Fifth Heavenly Realm. In fact, Chen Chu had long been prepared for this outcome, having noticed this issue when he had been enhancing the low-level Dragon Elephant Art to its maximum enhancement.

Before the Third Heavenly Realm, true power was weak compared to the energy that came from enhancing an art. Therefore, breaking through to the next stage of an art would also allow a breakthrough to the next Heavenly Realm as a byproduct.

After the Fourth Heavenly Realm, however, true power would increase tenfold with each stage, and it also required a breakthrough in willpower. When split into two, the life energy wouldn’t be enough to drive both art and cultivation to break through together.

Even though Chen Chu’s cultivation had only reached the late stage of the Fourth Heavenly Realm, his art breaking through to stage 5 had imbued his true power with Dragon Force, significantly increasing its power. That same power was also the source of the dragon scale patterns on his skin, which made his strength and defense even stronger..

Chen Chu extended his right arm and gently pressed the space in front of him. With a faint fluctuation of true power, the ground ahead trembled silently. Then, a palm-shaped indentation, several meters in diameter, appeared on the ground.

He had just transformed mere thought into reality through willpower!

As willpower condensed, the cultivator would be able to manipulate substance as a support ability during battle. Chen Chu’s true power could now extend and unleash attacks without the need for weapons.

However, the Dragon Elephant will that he had just condensed was weak. Its combination with true power during this initial stage wouldn’t be very useful during combat, and could only serve as a catalyst for crystallizing true power when breaking through to the Fifth Heavenly Realm.

To reveal the true potential of willpower, Chen Chu would need to continue strengthening it; then, he would have to fuse it with his true power and ignite it to break through to the Sixth Heavenly Realm. Only then would he be able to unleash its full might.

Despite that, overall, this breakthrough had significantly improved Chen Chu's combat prowess. However, the exact assessment of his new strength could only be determined through actual combat.

"Unfortunately, this is the school base, and if the cultivation room is damaged, I'll have to pay for it." Chen Chu glanced at the walls of the room, suppressing the urge to immediately try out his new power.

Then, Chen Chu took a deep breath, and his voice resonated in his mind. Consume 50 attribute points to enhance the Hidden Divinity secret art.

After the breakthrough to the Fourth Heavenly Realm and the significant enhancement of his physique before, the beginning stage of the Hidden Divinity secret art couldn't fully conceal his aura. This was also why Li Hao had sensed a strong danger coming from him.

Now that Chen Chu had broken through to stage 5 of the Elephant Dragon Tyrant Body in one breath, the aura he emanated was like a colossal beast, containing a crushing pressure that pushed against the air surrounding him.

In such a situation, unless someone was blind, they would know that his cultivation had significantly improved, and that the degree of improvement was quite exaggerated.

But he had only broken through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm half a month ago, and his current display of talent was already dazzling enough. To avoid unnecessary trouble, he needed to enhance the Hidden Divinity secret art and prepare to go back to the Yunwu Mountains.

Even if hunting down higher-level mutated beasts would showcase his now even greater strength, some things were better left for others to speculate on their own.

As Chen Chu’s thought finished, the vitality runes that had once integrated into his chest emerged, then with a bang, dispersed into an invisible vortex that consumed his vitality and spirit. The three now perfected runes continued to condense even further, and then merged into his shoulders and abdomen to form a stable triangle.

A powerful and invisible fluctuation enveloped his entire body, and the terrifying colossal beast-like aura disappeared without a trace.

***

"Roasted pig trotters! Extra large roasted mutated pig trotters! Just one can last you a whole day..."

"Come check this out! Indulge in our delicious fresh and spicy Green Scale Rabbit meat, now on sale! 100 skewers for just 2 contribution points! Not 9.9, not 6.6, but just 2 contribution points to fill you up!"

"Hey folks, over here! Try these bear paws marinated in my secret sauce that I’ve been perfecting for over ten years. Tender and juicy, with a spicy aroma and a hint of sandalwood fragrance after roasting. Guaranteed to blow your mind! These are now on a huge sale! Get a paw the size of a pot lid, for only 3 contribution points! Once you taste it, you'll be hooked! Get it to share with your friends all night long..."

"Damn, you were still playing with mud ten years ago, and now your promotions are even more exaggerated than mine."

"This is a secret recipe passed down from my family. Plus, selling that tiny bit of rabbit meat on skewers for 2 contribution points, don’t you think that’s a rip off? A level 1 mutated Green Scale Rabbit weighs about five hundred pounds and yields around three hundred pounds of meat, which is enough for a thousand skewers. You swindler."

"Get lost, my rabbit meat’s as big as a fist. One skewer weighs a pound. Considering my labor cost and other expenses, one hundred skewers for 2 contribution points is a bargain. It’s called making an honest living."

On the mountain side of the school base, brightly lit lights were scattered all over. Many Second and Third Heavenly Realm seniors who had finished up their work for the day had set up stalls at night. They sold grilled mutated beast skewers, services for repairing and refining armor, even ordinary resources that they had collected outside the base

Normally, they could exchange these with the school, which bought back ordinary resources at eighty percent of their value. This wasn’t really exploitation; the resources needed to be preserved with special care in a special environment, and anything that nobody here wanted had to be transported back to the school campus, all of these incurring costs that needed to be compensated for.

On the other hand, however, the seniors could sell those same resources at ninety percent of their value to students who would rather not venture out, resulting in a little extra profit.

Beside the bustling night market stalls, Chen Chu looked somewhat bewildered at the scene.

Xia Youhui chuckled. "What do you think, Ah Chu? Not what you expected, right?"

"Indeed, not what I expected at all." He had just been preparing to go eat when Xia Youhui sent him a message to come to the back of the base. This chaotic scene was what he had ended up finding.

Isn't this supposed to be a mutated beast battlefield, filled with a tense atmosphere of slaughter? Now you're telling me these guys sweating and yelling behind the barbecue stalls are the geniuses of Nantian? The future pillars of the nation?

"Heh, that’s why I wanted to show you around today. Come on, I'll treat you. Let's go find a place and wait for Luo Fei and the others."

Chen Chu shook his head. "It’s okay. Aren't you saving your contribution points to refine a transcendent battle shield? Let me treat you today."

"Alright, today's on you!" Xia Youhui nodded without arguing. After all, this guy had earned hundreds of contribution points today, which Third Heavenly Realm students had to work for months to earn.