Zhentian’s bleeding palm pressed firmly against the cold, jagged surface of the Origin Fragment.The gray stone did not feel like normal rock beneath his raw skin.It felt like touching a live, pulsing nerve exposed to the open ocean.The agonizing heat in his chest and the crushing water pressure vanished in a single heartbeat.The dark subterranean cavern simply ceased to exist around him.His consciousness was violently ripped from his physical body and thrown into an endless void.There was no tunnel of light and no gradual fading of his mortal senses.He was just suddenly somewhere else entirely.He did not have time to panic before a new reality slammed into his mind with the force of a falling mountain.Zhentian found himself floating above a sprawling galaxy that looked nothing like the night sky he knew.Massive structures made of silver metal and clear glass drifted through the stars.Rivers of pure, glowing spiritual energy connected the planets like shining highways in the

"Shatter it?" Zhentian echoed, staring up at the old assassin.He touched his own chest, wincing as the fractured root pulsed against his ribs."If you break my root, I won't have a center," Zhentian argued, his voice raspy from the boiling water."I won't be able to hold any Qi.""That is exactly the point," Ye Canghai replied, crouching back down in the mud.The old man picked up a handful of dirt and let it wash away in the ocean current."The Azure Dragon Hall taught you to gather all your power into one single spot in your core."Ye Canghai tapped a scarred finger against Zhentian's chest again."They turned your center into a massive, glaring target."Zhentian frowned, his mind struggling to push past the lingering pain and the sheer exhaustion."Mo Wudi proved how flawed that system is," Ye Canghai continued smoothly."He slipped a dagger into your chest, broke your Indigo cup, and left you powerless in seconds."Zhentian looked away, the bitter truth of the words sinking deep

Zhentian lay face-down in the freezing mud.The weight of the ocean was actively flattening his ribcage.His internal organs ground against each other under millions of tons of water pressure.Ye Canghai stood a few feet away, watching the boy bleed out in the dark.The old assassin did not step forward to offer any help.If the boy could not anchor himself to the world, he deserved to die in the dirt.Zhentian could no longer hear the ocean currents.His consciousness was slipping into a dark, quiet void.But the gray fire running through his veins refused to let its host perish.The hollow void in his chest reacted to the fatal crushing force.It opened like a starving mouth acting on pure survival instinct.A violent magnetic pull erupted from his dying flesh.The dormant gray stone resting in the center of the cavern twitched.It tore through the heavy water, kicking up a massive cloud of silt.The Origin Fragment slammed directly into Zhentian’s chest.There was no bright flash o

The rhythmic thudding from the dark trench grew louder with every passing second.The sound was not just a noise echoing in the heavy ocean water.It was a violent physical vibration that traveled through the ancient bedrock and shot straight up through the soles of Zhentian's boots.Small pebbles and loose dirt began to dance erratically across the muddy floor of the hidden cavern.The ocean itself seemed to hold its breath in anticipation of the approaching nightmare.Zhentian did not move, and he did not try to find a place to hide among the shadows.He stood perfectly still in the freezing mud, testing the unfamiliar mechanics of his newly reconstructed body.He trusted the heavy, dense power that was now woven permanently into his bones.A massive, jagged crack suddenly shot across the solid stone ceiling directly above their heads.The noise was deafening, sounding exactly like a mountain breaking in half under its own weight.Thousands of tons of rock began to buckle as an unim

"You don't even know how to throw a punch with that energy," Ye Canghai warned him."I will figure it out.""Figuring it out usually involves getting your head torn off," the old man pointed out.Zhentian ignored the insult and spread his boots shoulder-width apart.He dropped his hands into a loose, ugly brawler's guard.He threw away every rigid, perfect stance Elder Bai had ever drilled into him.This was not a sparring match in a sunlit courtyard.The Abyssal Warden clicked its massive mandibles together.The sound bounced off the cavern walls and rattled against Zhentian's ribs.The beast dragged its right claw forward, pulling the thick anchor chains through the dirt.It displaced a wall of water the size of a house just by shifting its weight.The resulting current whipped around the room, threatening to sweep them both away.Zhentian planted his feet harder.He commanded the gray liquid iron in his veins to hold him down.The heavy energy responded instantly, anchoring him to