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Chapter 358: The Next Step

However, Bai Mo, who was regarded as the world's public enemy, clearly lacked any such self-awareness. Extremely egocentric, he didn't much care for the opinions of beings who weren't on his level.

At present, the only ones truly within his consideration were a small circle of individuals—those who, perhaps, possessed the ability to thwart his plans.

As for everyone else, a simple "Oh, really?" was sufficient to handle all situations.

"When my main body returns, Gaia and Red World will surely seize the opportunity to leave. Without the infinite gravitational pull generated during the creation of space, there's no way I can stop them. What's more, according to their intelligence, there's another equally mysterious Creator still dormant somewhere on Earth."

"In the worst-case scenario, I'll have to face at least three, perhaps even four, opponents of the same level. However, they are either severely wounded or haven't even fully developed their self-awareness, so my chances of victory remain high."

Watching the live streams of hundreds of people's lives, Bai Mo simultaneously pondered the adversaries he was soon to encounter—those who could truly be called enemies.

"That ball of light might gain true self-awareness in a few more decades, but it won't have the luxury of those decades to spare."

...

One contingency plan after another formed in his thoughts, yet this vibrant and diverse world held even more astonishingly talented individuals who would far exceed his expectations.

"Boom!" A sudden clap of thunder sounded from flat ground, and a man, like a Golden Arhat from Buddhist legends, emerged from the rolling smoke. Each step he took seemed to resonate with the surrounding environment. In a xuanhuan description, it was "each step giving rise to a lotus," with the "sound of the Great Dao echoing endlessly."

Of course, in reality, it wasn't quite that exaggerated; it was merely because he hadn't yet fully mastered his surging power, leading to an unconscious influence on everything nearby.

As a Martial Artist in the Dharma Body stage, Shi Huachong, who created the {Yi Shen Jue}, had taken a great leap forward on the foundation laid by his predecessors, reaching a new realm.

"I've finally become the first!" Shi Huachong roared to the sky, expressing the exhilaration in his heart. Gale-force winds raged under his will, whipping up sand and stones across dozens of meters around him.

Among the dozen or so individuals attempting to open a new chapter in the Martial Path, he, relying on the {Yi Shen Jue} to catch up from behind, had surpassed Zhang Xu, who was the first to advance to the Dharma Body stage, and was the first to find the path to a higher level. How could this not thrill him?

Unlike most extraordinary individuals, the pursuit of power had become the most important part of his life. Power, money, beauty—these were nothing but fleeting clouds and smoke.

Those Unmelting Realm ability users who were lost in a life of decadent pleasures, hesitant to take the step of undergoing the Dao Assimilation Tribulation—a gamble between life and death—were the ones he understood the least.

Although their cultivation paths differed, Shi Huachong's pursuit of power, in a sense, outweighed life itself. If it were him facing such a tribulation, as soon as he was fully prepared, he would immediately begin without the slightest hesitation.

When one should act decisively but hesitates, one will suffer for it! He believed that once one's sharp spirit was worn down, the chances of success would become even lower.

To drastically accelerate the accumulation of quantity, he ingeniously devised the method of the {Yi Shen Jue}, allowing his will to disperse among more people. Through more battles, he sharpened his will, eventually surpassing the other dozen or so peers in the Dharma Body stage and becoming the first to find the path forward.

"Will controls everything!"

Compared to the Spirit Hub System's emphasis on external control, the Martial Path placed greater importance on self-control. Each sublimation was an enhancement of the martial will's control over the body.

At Shi Huachong's level, he could already control a portion of his cellular physiological activities, manually optimizing his body structure while simultaneously healing old hidden injuries.

As long as he still possessed power, cellular-level manipulation allowed him to recover the vast majority of his injuries almost instantly, making him a nightmare for opponents in prolonged battles.

But this was merely one facet of Shi Huachong's power.

His Dharma Body transformed once more, becoming a mass of dark red airflow, which began to attempt combining with his physical cells, continuously undergoing round after round of comprehensive reinforcement.

As for what it would ultimately become, even the owner of this body remained completely clueless. Yet, one thing was undeniable: he was growing stronger with every passing moment!

And with just a thought, his Dharma Body could revert to its original mode, participating in intense combat without any loss of fighting capability.

"Next time I see it, I won't be suppressed so utterly." The Red World Chaos a year prior, where the projections of the Red World Disciples had easily trapped Shi Huachong, left him intensely displeased. He constantly yearned to reclaim that pride and achieve inner satisfaction.

"And you, I want to know, among those of the Six Tiers, who is truly stronger!" He looked towards the sky, seemingly searching for Bai Mo's traces, but then immediately turned his gaze towards Chen Bo's direction.

After Chen Bo completed his breakthrough, he publicly revealed the detailed descriptions of the Six Tiers that Bai Mo had left behind "before his death," officially establishing the Six Tiers as a level above the Five Tiers.

However, from the Four Tiers onwards, the evaluation of combat power had once again become subjective, unlike the preceding stages where the virtual reality system could provide quantifiable assessments.

The system's simulation technology was insufficient to simulate powers at the Five Tiers and above, so everyone could only initially gauge their own position by feel, determining whether they belonged to the upper, middle, or lower echelons of the Five Tiers.

Of course, this wasn't particularly important for the time being. No one was truly qualified to judge this small group of high-and-mighty individuals; ranking themselves was merely a form of self-amusement.

Although Shi Huachong did not participate in the politics of the Huaxia Federation, his status still granted him access to much internal intelligence—for instance, that Bai Mo was very likely not dead but was plotting his return, and that various major factions within Huaxia, and indeed many people across the entire world, were secretly preparing plans to cope with certain "natural disasters."

However, at this moment, another titan emerged, shattering the balance and adding several layers of suspense to the already gradually clarifying Huaxia political landscape.

The Martial Arts Symposium, where Shi Huachong was based, had always maintained countless intricate connections with Cheng Mu's faction. Upon learning that Cheng Mu had entered the Six Tiers, they, who had been increasingly suffocated by Chen Bo's political pressure, seemed to have found a turning point.

After being conferred godhood, Cheng Mu and the others discovered that while their power was indeed growing slowly and showed no bottlenecks, its growth rate lagged far behind those who had chosen other paths, which left them somewhat helpless.

Nevertheless, reaching the Five Tiers was already an immense stroke of luck from the heavens, so the few of them had no grounds for complaint. They simply chose to compensate in other areas..