Chapter 557 - 237: Chaos Battle Body, Parting the Earth and Opening the Heavens

He took a deep breath. Instead of returning to his apartment, he turned and walked toward a deeper, private cultivation chamber designed for closed-door training.

He was going to do it all in one go!

He would completely tear down and rebuild his foundation, pushing this Cultivation Technique straight to the minor accomplishment stage!

Only then could he truly verify if this Cultivation Technique was just as Zhu Mingyi claimed...

To slay a Celestial Human while only in the Divine Intent Realm!

...

「Ten days later.」

Outside the cultivation chamber, the atmosphere was suffocatingly tense.

Mr. Su paced back and forth anxiously before the heavy chamber door, his face etched with worry.

"Chief, it’s been ten whole days. That kid, Lin Ye... there hasn’t been the slightest movement from him."

"The readings from the life sign sensor started to decline five days ago, and now... they’re extremely faint, almost undetectable!"

Standing beside him, Zhu Mingyi’s expression was just as grave.

He stared at the tightly shut door in silence.

He knew better than anyone how domineering and perilous the Chaos Qi Formulas were.

It had been his decision to give this Cultivation Technique to Lin Ye, a decision that was both a huge gamble and a sign of his greatest expectations for this peerless genius.

But now, it seemed he had underestimated the risks involved.

’What if... what if something really happened to Lin Ye in there? It would be an immeasurable loss for all of Great Xia!’

"We can’t wait any longer," Zhu Mingyi finally said, his voice heavy with resolve.

"Notify the technical department. Use the highest clearance to open the door—now!"

He paused, then added, "And do it as quietly as possible. We can’t have any disturbances or fluctuations."

"If he’s at a critical point in his cultivation, our forced intervention would do more harm than good."

"Understood!"

Before long, a technician in a white uniform hurried over, cradling a precision instrument that flashed with complex encryption keys.

He gently placed the instrument against the cultivation chamber’s access panel.

"BEEP—Highest clearance confirmed. Beginning decryption. Estimated time: one minute."

For Zhu Mingyi and Mr. Su outside the door, that one-minute wait felt as long as a century, each second an agony.

Finally, after a nearly inaudible click, the red light on the access panel turned green.

The heavy alloy door slid silently inward, opening a crack.

Zhu Mingyi immediately made a hushing gesture to the people behind him, then held his breath and slowly pushed the door open by himself.

The sight behind the door made the pupils of even this high-ranking Celestial Human Realm expert, a man who had seen his share of storms, contract sharply.

In the center of the cultivation chamber, a figure sat cross-legged.

Or rather, it could no longer be called a figure.

It was a withered, stick-thin skeleton, its skin like a century-old, air-dried orange peel, clinging tightly to the bones and showing a bizarre, ashen gray color.

The aura around him had decayed to its absolute limit, like a candle flickering in the wind, ready to be extinguished at any moment.

"Lin Ye!"

Zhu Mingyi could no longer care about disturbing him and let out a low, anxious shout.

If Lin Ye had fallen into a coma and lost consciousness, he would not hesitate to have the medical team on standby outside rush in!

Fortunately, his call had an effect.

The "withered skeleton" trembled slightly.

Then, he slowly opened his eyes.

The moment he saw those eyes, all the anxiety and worry in Zhu Mingyi’s heart were instantly replaced by an indescribable shock.

What kind of eyes were those?

The young man’s flame of life had clearly decayed to its very limit.

But the spirit deep within his eyes was frighteningly bright!

That was no ordinary light. It was like a boundless sea of stars, the first ray of light at the dawn of chaos, containing the supreme mysteries of creation and destruction!

With just one look, Zhu Mingyi instantly understood.

Everyone’s worries had been for nothing.

’This young man knew exactly what he was doing!’

Zhu Mingyi calmed himself and then carefully sensed Lin Ye’s current state. The shock in his heart, however, only grew.

He couldn’t feel the slightest trace of a Gang Sha aura on Lin Ye.

Even the immense fluctuation of Qi and Blood inherent to a Martial Artist’s body had vanished without a trace.

At this moment, from any level of perception, Lin Ye was no different from an ordinary person who had never cultivated.

No, he was even weaker than an ordinary person.

This could only mean one of two things.

Either the reconstruction of his foundation had failed, and the Chaos Qi Formulas had completely drained him of his cultivation, forcing him back to square one.

At best, he would have to start over from the beginning; at worst, his path as a Martial Artist would be severed for life.

Or...

He had succeeded!

He had truly, completely, reshaped his own martial foundation!

Just as Zhu Mingyi’s thoughts were racing, Lin Ye let out a long, turbid breath.

He looked at the complex expression on Zhu Mingyi’s face—a mixture of concern, doubt, and shock—and his cracked lips parted slightly, letting out a hoarse voice.

"Chief, I’m fine. I’ve made you worry."

At that moment, Lin Ye was also sensing his own condition.

On the system panel, his Life Value, which had originally been over five million, now had less than twenty thousand points remaining, teetering precariously on the edge of the dangerous red line.

To complete this step, he had voluntarily turned off the [Healing out of combat] mechanic, pouring all his focus into remodeling his foundation.

Over these ten days, the physical pain hadn’t actually been that great. The truly difficult part was the weakness and solitude that came from feeling his body being disintegrated and annihilated inch by inch, his life force constantly draining away.