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Chapter 221: Rewards from the Gods

As their true power absorbed the crystals’ energy, the aura emanating from the two sisters grew stronger and stronger. Suddenly, a burst of breakthrough aura erupted.

Whoosh!

A powerful wind enveloped the sisters, and their long hair flowed as they broke through to the late stage of the Third Heavenly Realm.

Under the shade of some nearby trees, Lin Mei crossed her arms. She smiled and said, "They’ve finally broken through. Now, they just need to continue working hard to get to the Fourth Heavenly Realm."

A sturdy-looking third-year girl nearby expressed her admiration. "They\'re only in the second semester of their first year and they’ve already reached the late stage of the Third Heavenly Realm. They\'ll definitely break through to the Fourth within a year. Their talent’s more than enough to rank in the top three of our year."

Lin Mei shook her head. "It\'s not just talent. They’ve been working very hard this whole time, fighting against level 4 mutated creatures every day and pushing their limits. They’ve worked hard to squeeze out every single drop of their potential. And after each battle, they make sure to absorb resources and cultivate, so that\'s why their progress has been so rapid."

She continued with an expression of gratitude. "Wang Juan, thank you for going through all this trouble to accompany me around the outskirts."

The sturdy-looking Wang Juan shook her head. "There’s no need for this type of talk, Lin Mei. We\'ve been through life and death together for several years. Your matters are our matters."

Luo Ling also nodded. "We’ll just take it as a chance to relax. But Wang Juan is right. Lin Xue and Lin Yu have excellent talent. No matter how hard they push to the limit, it would be useless if they couldn’t cultivate the absorbed resources. It’s too bad there are so many freaks in their year. As talented as they are, they still aren’t in the spotlight."

"That’s true. Just in Nantian alone, there are several geniuses who have already reached the Fourth Heavenly Realm. Compared to us, who have been training for three years and are only at the late stage of the Fifth, it\'s quite a difference. I have a feeling that before we graduate, these youngsters will surpass us."

"That’s not possible. After the Fourth Heavenly Realm, the will needs to be sharpened, and that requires comprehension. At this stage, you can’t advance quickly with just resources anymore.

"So, Wang Juan, rest assured, as freakish as they are, they still need to take it one step at a time. Even that second-year student, Ji Changkong, the one with talent comparable to Xia Bawang from a few years ago, took a very long time to break through to the Fifth Heavenly Realm. He had to really train in the Fourth for quite a while."

Just as Lin Xue and her sister broke through, Chen Chu returned to the edge of the Jiuhuan Mountains.

In the distance, as the sun rose, a golden beam of light pierced through the clouds and shone upon Chen Chu, who stood at the edge of the mountain cliff. His black and red crystal armor emitted a dazzling light, making Chen Chu seem like a deity.

At that moment, a squad emerged from the forest below. There were three men and two women, and two of the men were carrying a mutated beast corpse, about twenty-nine meters long. Based on its aura, it was estimated to be at the beginning stage of level 6.

Seeing the figure standing on the cliff, shrouded in golden light, the squad was momentarily stunned. One of them blurted out, "What the hell?"

Chen Chu also noticed the squad below and couldn\'t help but murmur to himself, "What\'s this? Are the gods trying to make me look cool?"

He had just arrived at this spot when a golden beam of light broke through the clouds in the distance; it had hit him too suddenly for him to react.

Amid his musings, Chen Chu suddenly felt a warm current coursing through his body, and wherever it passed, his muscles and bones strengthened. A faint smile appeared on his lips.

This significant enhancement had occurred three times since last night. As the Thunder Fiery Colossal Beast continued to grow by digesting the ancient crocodile and absorbing growth crystals, Chen Chu was also reaping the benefits in his main body.

With this upgrade, his four major attributes had increased by about 40 points. Currently, his highest attribute, Strength, had reached 1,200 points, and his Physique exceeded 1,100. This meant that the limit of Chen Chu’s arm strength had increased to 30 tons.

With his current strength, he didn\'t even need to exert any true power; he could easily lift a bus as if it were a toy.

That wasn’t even getting into the true abilities of dragon-like creatures. It could be said that the true characteristics obtained when breaking through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm were the ones best suited for Chen Chu, as they allowed him to maximize the terrifying advantage of his physical body.

As Chen Chu pondered, the sunlight dispersed, and the squad followed the ridge up the mountain.

When they had gotten close enough, Chen Chu couldn\'t help but greet them. "What a coincidence, we meet again."

Huh!

Surprised, the five members turned to look at Chen Chu. The leader of the group exclaimed, "It\'s you!"

The ordinary battle armor Chen Chu had been wearing a week ago had transformed into a magnificent dark red crystal armor, so they hadn’t recognized this calm and steady student at first. They had thought Chen Chu was another senior until he spoke up.

"I didn\'t expect that just a few days later, we would meet here again. It seems like fate." Ji Changkong smiled. "Nice to meet you. I\'m Ji Changkong from Nantian. What’s your name? And what school are you from?"

"Ji Changkong!" Chen Chu\'s gaze flickered. They’d met twice before, and Ji Changkong had left a strong impression on him. However, Chen Chu didn’t expect this young man to be the freak who was dominating all the second year students in the southern mutated battlefield.

After that moment of surprise, the faceplate on Chen Chu\'s face cracked open with a click, retracting to the sides and revealing his handsome and charming face.

"I didn\'t expect it to be you. I\'m also a student of Nantian, but only a freshman. You can call me Chen Chu."

Zhang Ling, clad in red battle armor, was somewhat surprised. "Chen Chu, that name sounds familiar. Where have I heard it before?"

Zhang Baili, who had a burly figure, said in a deep voice, "He’s ranked sixth in the freshman year, and the first freshman in our school to break through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm. Lao Feng mentioned it when we went back a few days ago."

"Ah, that Chen Chu!"

Their gazes toward him became much warmer. Although they were all from the same school, the students from the first, second, and third years each had their own circles, and didn’t interact with each other much on a regular basis as a result. On top of that, most of Chen Chu’s time had been spent trekking through the mountains, so he had never encountered Ji Changkong and the others at base.

After exchanging greetings, they had a quick chat before Ji Changkong and his group continued on their way. As they reached the foot of the mountain, Zhang Ling suddenly said, "Do you guys feel like this Chen Chu is much stronger than he was a week ago?"

Zhang Baili and the others nodded solemnly. They had noticed it a long time ago.

After condensing an Invincible Battle Will two nights ago, Chen Chu’s aura emanated an intimidating pressure, even though he was restraining it.

Ji Changkong chuckled. "As the strongest genius of the new generation, this junior\'s progress is faster than normal. It\'s like that An Fuqing we encountered a couple of days ago."

Hearing this, the other four couldn\'t help but recall the figure sitting on the edge of the cliff with the soaring sword will, and they couldn\'t help but smile bitterly. It seemed like there were more and more freaks around.

After Ji Changkong and the others left, Chen Chu dashed into the opposite mountain range, slowing his pace down when he was further in.

While mutated creatures and spatial rifts posed a threat, the mist here also wasn’t to be underestimated. It was partly composed of a haze that was specific to this place and couldn\'t be dispersed by the wind. In many places, they obscured any vision beyond a few meters ahead; if one ran too fast, there was a risk of running off a cliff. Even Chen Chu could get injured from something like that.

The coordinates Li Fei had given this time were on the other side of the Yunwu Mountains, within a smaller mountain range several hundred kilometers away. When Chen Chu arrived, however, he found that this small place was somewhat different.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

??With each slice of his halberd, hundreds of venomous bees the size of human heads exploded in the air within a radius of ten meters. Juices mixed with debris splattered everywhere as they fell to the ground.

Hmm! Chen Chu frowned as he looked at the scattered remains.

There were too many venomous insects and snakes in these mountains. In addition, many places were filled with miasma of various colors; something about the black miasma in particular was enough to make even Chen Chu feel unsafe around it.

Buzz!

The black and red patterns on his Flame Crystal battle armor began to glow, and a scorching aura spread from his body, burning away the miasma in the air immediately surrounding him with high temperatures. As that air went through his filtered mask, it would be purified again with the power of the wind, instantly clearing if of any stuffiness.

Chen Chu went on his way, following the coordinates. By the time he reached the end of the mountain range, it was already dusk, and he had traveled about 1,200 kilometers in a day.

Just like last time, Chen Chu found a tree that was around a hundred meters tall. He jumped onto a branch ten meters above the ground and dug out a hole in the trunk as his resting spot.

Soon, as darkness fell, the mountains came to life. The sounds of crawling, flapping, and fluttering could be heard everywhere in the forest, including around the large tree where Chen Chu was.

There were no roars or howls from ferocious mutated beasts, just the hunting and feeding of tens of thousands of insects. There were centipedes over a meter long and toads the size of sinks with pustules covering their back, while half-meter-tall praying mantises with arms like sharp curved knives flew between the branches.

The insects in this mountain range were terrifyingly abundant, and almost all of them had undergone mutations. Some had even reached level 1, becoming true mutated creatures. Compared to the outside world, the mutated beast battlefield was almost completely devoid of non-mutated species from the Old Era.

While these insects were a bit disgusting to look at, they posed no real threat to Chen Chu. After swatting down a dozen crawling mutated creatures that had climbed up, the night passed. In the morning, Chen Chu ate some dried meat and drank some warm water heated up by his battle armor before setting off once more.

After crossing mountains, traversing valleys, and killing hundreds of venomous insects and mutated creatures along the way, Chen Chu arrived near the coordinates. Standing at the edge of a cliff hundreds of meters high, Chen Chu looked around for reference points, his gaze falling on a location about a dozen kilometers to the left.

"It should be there, between those two peaks, with red clouds swirling around them." With that, Chen Chu jumped straight down from the cliff.

With the obvious landmark, Chen Chu arrived at the entrance of the distorted hidden realm in just a few minutes.

Here, the earth was split open, forming a slot canyon that was dozens of meters wide and stretched forward for an unknown length. The inside was filled with heavy moisture, creating dense red clouds that were so thick that even his vision could only see a dozen meters ahead. There were obvious traces of spatial distortion around, and transcendent energy was raging.

As soon as he approached the entrance, he felt uncomfortable. From the depths of the canyon, invisible infrasonic waves spread out. This kind of low frequency vibration made creatures instinctively feel uncomfortable, which explained why there were hardly any signs of life nearby.

No wonder Li Fei didn\'t dare to enter, even after realizing that it was a hidden realm that was very likely to possess natural treasure.

"I wonder what kind of art this guy is practicing. How can he go so deep into the mountains and sense the danger inside without going in?" As he pondered to himself, Chen Chu\'s figure disappeared into the red mist.

Once inside the canyon, he found that the terrain was going in a downward slope, and as he continued deeper, a heat wave rolled in while the red mist continued to surge. All the while, the infrasonic vibrations grew stronger.

Then, beside him, a red light flashed in the mist. A red figure shot out at an astonishing speed, only to be caught by Chen Chu with a snap of his hand.

It was a mutated red python six meters long. It was covered in red scales, possessing both a twisted head and a body that was as hard as steel rods. It frantically struggled in Chen Chu’s grasp with a powerful force.

"There are mutated creatures here." Surprised, Chen Chu pinched it, and the python\'s body exploded with a bang, scattering flesh and blood all over the ground... among which was a thumb-sized white crystal.

This was certainly an unexpected gain, and he bent down to pick it up. Although it was only a Level 1 Life Crystal, it was still a good find for him.

Smack!

After descending only about a dozen more meters along the terrain, his right hand instantly reached out and grabbed another incoming red python, crushing it with a slight amount of force.

Bang!

Another white crystal fell to the ground among the explosion of flesh and blood.

"These pythons are all at the peak of level 1?" Chen Chu was somewhat surprised as he picked up that crystal as well, then continued down with some anticipation.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

As he journeyed down, he encountered many attacks from the red pythons, all of which he then crushed. The most important thing, however, was that all of these red pythons were at the peak of level 1, and almost each one contributed a Life Crystal to him. Soon, he had accumulated more than twenty crystals.

This drop rate made Chen Chu somewhat excited. It was the first time he had encountered such a lucky thing. As he continued to delve deeper underground, however, the force of that invisible vibration became stronger and stronger, making him feel more and more uncomfortable.

Strangely, the pythons seemed unaffected, perhaps an adaptation from living here long term.

As Chen Chu went deeper underground, the surrounding terrain became narrower. Red hot streams of poisonous gas flowed out from the surrounding cracks, with the air temperature reaching over a hundred degrees Celsius.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

After descending a kilometer underground, the air temperature soared to over two hundred degrees Celsius, and the surrounding rocks emitted a faint red glow.

By this time, the level 1 red pythons had disappeared, almost all of them killed by Chen Chu. Along the way, he had harvested thirty-eight level 1 Life Crystals, almost equivalent to 200 contribution points. He couldn\'t help but feel excited.

Was it because he had been enlightened this time? Chen Chu thought back to the scene at the edge of the Jiuhuan Mountains. Had he been blessed with a hundred percent drop rate because the gods shone upon him with that golden beam?

As Chen Chu was lost in thought, the terrain ahead suddenly widened, and not far away, a huge cliff appeared. Rolling hot air and a red glow came up from below.

When he arrived at the edge of the cliff, he saw a lava river flowing hundreds of meters below, winding its way into the darkness in the distance.

A giant serpent, engulfed in flames, lay coiled on the rolling lava river, emitting a terrifying aura. The infrasonic vibrations emanated from the river beneath the dragon, shaking the entire underground space. In here, even the air emitted a low hum.