Chương 132: Deity in the Martial World (Part 8)

Su Chen crushed the Divine Source in his palm. A terrifying surge of power instantly coalesced into a towering vortex storm that pierced the heavens. Pure, untainted energy flooded into his body like a tidal wave. In that moment, the seated figure within his sea of consciousness—the dormant Martial Spirit—opened its eyes once more.

"Mountain River… Realm… Heaven-Slaying…" Obscure words echoed through Su Chen's mind. He grasped the general meaning. This unknown powerhouse had come from a place called the Mountain River Realm. It had participated in a great war known as the Heaven-Slaying Campaign, and during that cataclysmic battle, this being had fallen. Mountain River Realm—Su Chen had never heard of it. In the current cosmos, the strongest worlds were the Nine Great Heavenly Domains.

From the end of the primordial era to the present, several Great Emperors had arisen within them, leaving behind legacies. Su Chen wanted to ask more, but the Martial Spirit fell silent again. It seemed a mere fragment of energy could only awaken it long enough to speak those few words.

"It appears that to fully awaken this powerhouse and uncover the secrets of this world, I will need a vast amount of Divine Sources." As the Divine Source energy poured into him, Su Chen's cultivation officially stepped from the peak of the ninth-layer Spirit Soul into the Profound Connection realm. Long Tianxing stared in stunned silence. Such a cataclysmic heavenly phenomenon had erupted from a single palm-sized crystal. Before he could recover, a colossal face squeezed its way out of the sky.

A werewolf with silver fur all over its body appeared, gripping a war spear. Its terrifying aura crackled through the air like thunder.

"Human powerhouse, what audacity! How dare you trespass on the territory of King Gorba!" A werewolf that could speak human language—and at the seventh-layer Profound Connection realm! Su Chen drew his war blade. Blade-light surged like ocean waves, layer upon layer, until the final slash erupted in dazzling brilliance. The silver-furred Wolf King was cleaved cleanly in two. Blood soaked the earth. A Wolf King had fallen so easily.

Long Tianxing, witnessing a Wolf King die before his eyes, trembled with incoherent excitement. Su Chen calmly sheathed his blade.

"Boss… that was a Wolf King… and it just died like that… Boss, you're too awesome!" Long Tianxing practically shouted in exhilaration. Su Chen ignored him and searched the Wolf King's corpse. A ping-pong-ball-sized crystal appeared in his palm. Delight flickered across Su Chen's face. His guess had been correct. Even the Wolf Beast Heavenly Rift contained Divine Sources! This place was practically a treasure trove! To the outside world, the Wolf Beast Heavenly Rift was a place of dread and death.

In Su Chen's eyes, it was nothing more than an enormous chest of riches. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. For nine consecutive months, Su Chen and Long Tianxing roamed every corner of the Wolf Beast Heavenly Rift. One day, the three vice-presidents stationed to guard the rift suddenly opened their eyes at the same moment. They looked toward the depths of the rift, expressions filled with horror.

"Not good—the Wolf Beast Heavenly Rift is erupting… a great catastrophe is coming!"

"Jiang Chen is still inside. He is humanity's hope. Even if we old bones die in the rift, we cannot allow humanity's hope to perish here! Everyone else can die—only Jiang Chen cannot!" Sensing the violent disturbance within the rift, the three vice-presidents exchanged a glance and made their decision without hesitation. They plunged deep into the rift. Even if it meant igniting a full-scale war, they would not let humanity's hope fall within these depths.

Yet when the three vice-presidents entered the rift, they found corpses of Wolf Beast tribesmen strewn across the ground. Every area once marked as forbidden territory had been completely cleared—no werewolf remained alive.

"What… exactly happened here?" Even more shocking—they discovered the skeletal remains of the Wolf Beast Clan's Wolf Emperor!

"Not good… the Wolf Emperor Court…" The three vice-presidents exchanged a single glance. The same grim thought surfaced in all their minds. The Wolf Emperor Court—that old Wolf Emperor's strength was so terrifying that even the three of them together could only fight him to a stalemate. After several days of hurried travel, they finally reached the Wolf Emperor Court. What they found was utter devastation. The once-majestic throne hall lay in ruins.

At its center, the golden-furred corpse of the Wolf Emperor sat slumped on the throne, cleaved cleanly in two. The lingering aura radiating from the body sent shivers through even these veteran powerhouses.

"Vice-Presidents?" Long Tianxing spotted the arriving trio and blinked in surprise.

"Why are you here?" The three shot him exasperated looks.

"With the kind of commotion you've been causing in the rift, how could we not come? What exactly happened here? Where is Jiang Chen?" Long Tianxing suddenly understood.

"The Wolf Beast Heavenly Rift has already been pacified by Boss. Everything you see here is his doing. Boss killed the Wolf Emperor of the Wolf Emperor Court and gained some insight from the battle. Right now, he's breaking through inside the court." The three vice-presidents froze. For a moment, they suspected they had misheard, that their ears were playing tricks. The Wolf Beast Heavenly Rift—the thorn in the side of War Martial Academy's successive generations—had been completely pacified?

Long Tianxing saw their stunned expressions and secretly grinned to himself. After nine months at Su Chen's side, he had witnessed far too many impossible things. In his heart, Boss was nothing less than a savior. In this world, nothing was truly impossible. One week later. Above the ruins of the Wolf Beast Emperor Court, an unparalleled aura erupted like a newborn sun, illuminating heaven and earth.

"That's… soveregin-rank aura… someone is breaking through to sovereign rank!" The three vice-presidents stood numb. At the center of the pillar of light stood a figure—Su Chen, radiant and peerless. Su Chen withdrew his aura. He had razed the Wolf Emperor Court. From its ruins, he harvested several Divine Sources, refined them, and successfully advanced his cultivation to the Void Refining realm… equivalent to seventh-tier in this world, also known as sovereign rank. One year.

From an ordinary mortal to seventh-tier strength. If word of this spread—even in the Heavenly Profound Domain, a place overflowing with geniuses—it would shock countless people to death. The speed was simply too horrifying.

"Three Vice-Presidents?" Seeing the trio who had entered the rift, Su Chen immediately understood why they had come. He gave a faint smile.

"Thank you, seniors, for standing guard." The three shook their heads in unison.

"We don't deserve to be called seniors. It won't be long before the three of us have to address you as 'Lord'… Nineteen years old… sovereign rank… and you've only cultivated for a single year. Jiang Chen, you far surpass your father, your grandfather—by an unimaginable margin. In this world, no one can even stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you." Their expressions were complicated. They had seen countless geniuses in their long lives… yet all those so-called prodigies paled into insignificance beside Su Chen.

One man had pacified an entire Heavenly Rift. Su Chen merely smiled. Having witnessed grander eras, he knew that across the starry expanse, plenty of others had achieved similar feats. A hundred years to become a Saint—in this world, no one would even dare imagine such a thing. With the rift pacified, only cleanup remained. The three vice-presidents took charge of the aftermath. Su Chen, together with Long Tianxing, returned to the War Martial Academy.