Yan Ruoyi, with silver hair cascading down her back and a pair of small horns on her head, pushed open the doors of a villa in Tiannan City and walked in with Chen Hu and Li YIyi.
"Little Hu, this is the official residence arranged for you," she said with a warm tone. "Since Tiannan City is the site of the national competition, each of the top ten competitors from every provincial region has been given a private villa to facilitate focused cultivation."
Chen Hu grinned with a simple, honest smile. "Thank you, Sister Ruoyi. You're so busy and still brought us over personally."
Yan Ruoyi gave a gentle smile. "It's nothing. Ah Chu and I are good friends, and since you're his younger brother, there's no need to be so formal about something like this."
She then explained a few important things to note before taking her leave. Only after that did Li Yiyi, with her pink backpack still on, stick out her tongue and pat her chest. "I always thought Sister Ruoyi was just really pretty on TV, but I didn't expect her aura to be so overwhelming. When she was standing there just now, it felt like the air around us solidified. I could barely breathe. So scary."
Chen Hu nodded. "That's normal. Sister Ruoyi is a peak Ninth Heavenly Realm cultivator. They say she's about to break through to the mythical level. Even if a powerhouse like her restrains her aura, ordinary people can't bear to look directly at her. But once you break through to the second stage of the body enhancement art and step into the transcendent realm, that feeling will be much easier to handle."
"Mhmm, I'll work hard to cultivate, Ah Hu." Li Yiyi nodded earnestly.
As a middle school student, Li Yiyi wasn't supposed to start cultivating until next year. However, because Chen Chu had released the body enhancement arts to the public, the Federation had since lowered the cultivation threshold to the middle school level.
Once someone cultivated the body enhancement art to the second stage, they could choose to transition to true martial arts or continue deepening their body cultivation. Thanks to being in the same class as the younger brother of the arts' creator, Li Yiyi, Jian Meiling, and their group had all made rapid progress with Chen Hu's help and support from her family.
Among them, Li Yiyi had progressed the most. After a month and a half of cultivation, she had already reached the middle stage of the first level, equivalent to the middle stage of the First Heavenly Realm for cultivators.
After exploring the villa's living room, Chen Hu and Li Yiyi casually sat down. Li Yiyi picked up the remote and turned on the TV.
"I'm your host, Xiao Xiao. We interrupt with a major breaking news report. Just ten days ago, the Federation clashed once more with the Purgatory Demon Clan in a civilization-level war of unprecedented scale. Over a hundred kings and demon kings participated in this battle, along with dozens of heavenly kings and great demon kings. We were also joined by allied forces from the Heavenly Feathered Race and the Alliance of Gods. Countless brave warriors fought with everything they had under the leadership of our strongest cultivators, and after eight days of brutal combat, the war finally ended with a Federation victory.
"In this war, our forces killed four demon gods, seven great demon kings, twenty-nine demon kings, and annihilated countless elite legions, and our battlefront has advanced by 2.15 million kilometers. This is an unprecedented victory and has cemented our dominance around the borders of the mythical world. In addition, our number one genius, peerless in talent and bearing the title 'Divine Might,' His Excellency Heavenly King Chen Chu, personally slew three demon gods in this war.
"Demon gods are the strongest beings within the Purgatory Demon Clan. Each one wields the power of principles and can unleash destruction capable of annihilating planets. Even such planetary explosions can barely scratch them. One can only imagine the sheer power of His Excellency Divine Might. His achievements are peerless across the ages. He is the backbone of our people, and his name is hereby declared to the world..."
Watching the broadcast and the battle footage montage that followed, Li Yiyi sat with her mouth agape, unable to believe her ears.Okay, I know Chen Chu's strong, but wasn't he just recently at the mythical level? How has he suddenly become a heavenly king? And he actually killed three demon gods? The kind that wouldn't even die if a planet exploded?
Even Chen Hu was visibly excited. He couldn't help but shout out, thrilled, "Yiyi, my brother is insane! He can kill demon gods now! Those things are as strong as our supreme powerhouses."
It wasn't just Tiannan City's television stations. The news was being broadcast across the three great empires and countless small- and middle-sized nations around the globe.
Chen Chu's name once again echoed across the entire world. Although everyone had already been shocked by his display of strength in the previous Tiannan City battle, where he suppressed alien mythical-level beings with a flick of his hand as a newly ascended king, it carried a completely different meaning this time. Everyone who had ever known Chen Chu was left stunned.
At the top floor of Tiannan's tallest tower, Yan Ruoyi stood in front of a floor-to-ceiling window, gazing down at the bustling city below with a touch of emotion. "Aunt Bai, did you ever imagine that the elegant young man from back then would grow into a blazing sun in just half a year?"
Standing behind her, Bai Yunfeng bitterly smiled. "Who could have imagined this?"
Back when she had first met that calm and composed young man, Bai Yunfeng's first impression had been that he was no ordinary boy. Even then, however, she had only thought that he had a bright future ahead of him.
Breaking through to the mythical level in a few months, reaching the level of a heavenly king, or even slaying demon gods... The idea of him doing any of that had never even crossed her mind.
After all, at the time, Chen Chu's cultivation had only been at the beginning stage of the Sixth Heavenly Realm, not even a high-level cultivator. If not for the fear that the cult god's avatar wouldn't appear with the presence of stronger guards, they probably wouldn't have had any interaction at all.
"Hahahaha... Incredible! Chen Chu is just too amazing. As his classmate and closest friend, I feel honored." On the street, Bai Mu laughed heartily as he held up his phone.
Beside him, Liu Feng was also visibly excited. "Seriously, this is insane. That video I saved on my phone just became way more valuable."
"What video?" asked Li Meng through a mouthful of food, confused.
With a smug look, Liu Feng said, "Obviously, the video of Chen Chu back on the southern battlefield, where he dominated all the martial arts students from the high schools. At the time, Xia Youhui and I recorded it, with the plan to play it at our future weddings. You guys laughed at us back then, but now look who's ahead of the curve. That video captured the rise of Divine Might, the great human pioneer and supreme figure of our race's myths and legends. One battle crushed the entire southern young generation. From that moment on, Chen Chu's rise never stopped. It's gotten more and more unbelievable, which makes the video historically significant."
"Damn, send me a copy," Li Meng said, dropping his skewer of grilled meat in excitement.
"No way. That video is going to be a family heirloom." Liu Feng refused without hesitation. "With Chen Chu's talent, he's bound to become someone beyond anything we can imagine, maybe even live for hundreds of millions of years. This video proves I had ties with the ancestor of humanity, the great and supreme, eternal Emperor Divine Might. If anyone dares bully my descendants in the future, I'll show them this."
Caught up in the excitement, Liu Feng was already fantasizing about the future and even giving Chen Chu a long string of titles.
Bai Mu, standing beside him, scoffed jealously. "Fine, don't share it. I remember Xia Youhui recorded one too. We'll just get his copy. And honestly, Liu Feng, you only have a video. Li Meng here is the real winner."
His eyes filled with envy. "His little sister is super close with Little Hu. If she ends up marrying Chen Hu, then their family will be directly related to Chen Chu."
"Damn, that's true. Li Meng, you lucky bastard." Liu Feng's excitement over his video immediately dimmed.
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