A flash of light on the martial stage, and Ye Chen reappeared, a bitter taste in his heart. He hadn't expected that this person from the Thunder Civilization would be so swift, a step ahead of him.

"Challenge again!"

Ye Chen made his selection anew. His muscles tensed. Just as the gong was about to sound, the Divine Blood power gathered in his fingertip, held back, and at the very instant the gong struck, it erupted outward: Pfft!

The Divine Blood power struck precisely between the Thunder Civilization man's eyebrows, penetrating slowly.

The cheers from below seemed to hold their breath instantly.

Not long after, shortly after the Divine Blood power was infused, the Thunder Civilization man suddenly opened his eyes, cast a cold glance at Ye Chen, and then raised a hand, tapping out a faint golden light that flew out, hitting Ye Chen squarely on the chest. Boom!

Even after layers of attenuation by the Divine Flame Set, only the OP's power—infused into Ye Chen’s body—carried a formidable tearing force that shredded his entire body, causing it to explode apart.

"Defeated!"

Ye Chen had failed once more, only to revive shortly after.

"How is this possible!" As soon as Ye Chen materialized, he stared fixedly at the youth from the Thunder Civilization, shock etched on his face. "It's completely ineffective against the Divine Blood power. Has the Demigod power within him accumulated to its absolute limit?"

One had to know that the Divine Blood power was the essence left behind by an incredibly terrifying expert. Its quality was exceedingly high. Although the quantity was small, killing a Pseudo-God realm expert was hardly difficult. Yet, entering this Thunder Civilization man, it caused no harm at all; instead, it was torn apart by the divine power within the opponent!

Through the preceding battles, Ye Chen slowly began to understand the stratification of the Nine Heavens of the Demigod realm.

Peak Demigod: 100,000 points of Demigod Power. First Heaven of Demigod: 1,000,000 points of Demigod Power. Second Heaven of Demigod: 10,000,000 points of Demigod Power. With every ascending Heaven, the Demigod Power increased tenfold!

This meant that an expert at the Ninth Heaven of the Demigod realm possessed a staggering 10 Trillion points of Demigod Power!

Given such a terrifying quantity, even Pseudo-God realm experts would be slaughtered. When ascending from the Demigod realm to the Pseudo-God realm, 10,000 points of Demigod Power condensed into one point of Pseudo-God Power.

An initial-level Pseudo-God expert housed between 10 and 100 points of Pseudo-God Power.

Due to the change in quality, if Demigod Power were used to attack Pseudo-God Power, 10 million points of Demigod Power would be required to match the destructive force of just 10 points of Pseudo-God Power!

The breakthrough in constitution caused the divine power to transform, resulting in a hundredfold increase in potency—this was the gap between a Demigod and a Pseudo-God!

"The Divine Blood power has no effect; it's utterly useless." Ye Chen frowned, feeling a knot of frustration. All along, the Divine Blood power had been his greatest reliance. Now, it was completely ineffectual. Relying only on his intrinsic strength, how many years would it take to pass the challenge trial?

Moreover, in this virtual world, there was no way to enhance his strength.

Thinking of this, Ye Chen fell silent, lowering his head, his fists clenched. As far as his gaze could travel, the entire world shrank to the patch of ground just before his toes.

In his ears, the image eternally etched in his heart seemed to linger...

That promise made long ago...

He suddenly clenched his fists, his internal divine power erupting violently. He slammed a heavy punch into the ground, causing the entire martial stage to tremble slightly, the floor cracking apart.

"Damn it!"

Ye Chen's eyes blazed with ferocity as he stared at the shattered stones near his fist. Gritting his teeth, his figure flickered, and he left the combat stage, arriving in the Universe Zone of the virtual system's rest area.

"Cannot give up!"

"No matter what, I cannot give up!"

Ye Chen roared internally. Biting his lower lip, he clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug deep into his palms, driven by a fierce, resolute willpower as he stepped into this Universe Zone.

With the tempering of his mind, even a desperate situation could not shake his conviction.

"The requirement for this stage! It must absolutely only be completable by a Deity-level expert. But the previous assessment could be easily completed by any Pseudo-God realm expert."

"The gap between these two levels cannot be this absurd!"

"There must be some mystery. Whatever it is, as long as I uncover it, I will certainly be able to pass the assessment!"

Ye Chen repeated the mantra silently, reminding himself over and over. Though he knew the probability was slim—perhaps the last stage truly required Pseudo-God level power, and this one needed Deity level or even higher—still...

He was unwilling to quit just like that!

Upon entering the Universe Zone, Ye Chen saw a sky full of brilliant starlight and the vast expanse of the cosmos. If one used a detector, they would discover this was merely a spacious large room, perhaps a thousand feet in diameter. It was just that the surrounding walls and floor were forged from special crystals, displaying images that created the illusion of floating in space.

Whoosh! In the distance, a meteor howled past, accompanied by a piercing whistle.

Ye Chen frowned slightly and hesitated. Finally, he stood perfectly still. The meteor whistled by, not hitting his body, but vanishing on the other side.

Ye Chen walked to the center of the room, looking around. He seemed to be standing in the heart of the universe, with stars and constellations brilliant around him, near and far. Some stars were orbited by asteroid belts, appearing exceptionally beautiful from a distance.

"Welcome to the Universe Zone. You may freely observe the Great Profound Meanings and numerous Secret Manuals." An electronic voice sounded in Ye Chen's mind, and immediately, a window frame appeared in his consciousness.

"The Twelve Great Profound Meanings!"

"Swift Light Profound Meaning, Golden Armor Profound Meaning, Cosmos Profound Meaning..."

The names and functions of each Profound Meaning materialized in Ye Chen's mind. Upon observation, he was astonished to find that the effect of the Swift Light Profound Meaning was identical to his own Meteor Profound Meaning—it could double the speed of anything! Whether it was the speed of divine power release or physical movement.

Doubling the speed of divine power release might not sound like much, but in duels between experts of similar strength, it was crucial. Imagine if the opponent could only release one attack while you released two. If they released ten, you released twenty. This effectively doubled the power!

And the Golden Armor Profound Meaning was the same as the Stellar Profound Meaning Ye Chen had comprehended—it could reduce the power of incoming attacks by fifty percent. If he encountered an attack, the Divine Flame Set would weaken it by 99.9%, and the remaining 0.1% would be halved again, resulting in only 0.05% lethality.

Ye Chen slowly scanned through and discovered many other interesting Profound Meanings, such as the Invisibility Profound Meaning, which could confuse an opponent's sight through positioning, and the Shuttle Profound Meaning, which could sense spatial fissures and allow for short-distance traversal, somewhat similar to teleportation, though the distance was extremely short, only a few miles. In a battle between experts, a few miles was merely the distance of a blink, making this traversal ability of little use.

Ye Chen glanced over them casually, finding no Profound Meaning that seemed directly helpful for passing his assessment, causing his brow to crease slightly. Although these Profound Meanings were enticing, mastering them relied on serendipity; sometimes they were learned instantly, and sometimes they took a lifetime to grasp. Profound Meanings were not like cultivation techniques that simply required diligent practice; they demanded comprehension.

After a brief look, Ye Chen paid them no further heed and turned to the Secret Manual section.

"Secret Manuals are divided into three categories: Ranged, Melee, and Willpower!"

"Secret Manuals are divided into three tiers: Demigod Level, Pseudo-God Level, and Deity Level!"

Ye Chen casually clicked open the Demigod Level manuals. Since he was currently a Demigod, learning Demigod Level manuals was quite simple; usually, a few repetitions allowed him to master them completely. Pseudo-God Level manuals, however, were considerably more challenging to cultivate, requiring arduous study just to achieve rudimentary entry, and even then, full mastery wasn't guaranteed.

Take the Nine Palaces Secret Manual, for instance—a supreme treasure among Deity-level manuals! With Ye Chen's current strength, he could only master the first three layers.

"'Thousand Kill (Demigod Level Secret Manual),' capable of instantly releasing a thousand stacked attacks, multiplying power and increasing combat strength by two times!"

"'Dark Moon Slash (Demigod Level Secret Manual),' expends fifty percent of the body's divine power to form a moonlit slash, its power comparable to a single full-force strike..."

"'Wind Breaking Art...'”

Ye Chen sat cross-legged and slowly read through them from beginning to end. After reviewing about a thousand Secret Manuals, he gradually lost patience. Compared to the Nine Palaces Secret Manual, the power output of these attack-oriented texts was insignificant, like ants before a mountain.

Ye Chen paused for a moment, skipping the Pseudo-God Level manuals entirely and moving to the Deity Level specialization.

"There are nine Deity Level Secret Manuals in total."

"'Starlight Shatter (Deity Level Secret Manual),' manifests the body's divine power into starlight. At its peak, it can simulate 49 streams of starlight, each equivalent to a full-force strike... (49x combat strength amplification)."

"'Blue Dragon (Deity Level Secret Manual),' manifests the body's divine power into a divine dragon, possessing 180,000 scales. At its peak, it can increase combat strength by 42 times...'"

Ye Chen continued scrolling. These manuals were all incredibly powerful and highly tempting, but the difficulty of mastering them was immense, and compared to the Nine Palaces Secret Manual, they appeared rather ordinary.

"'Blood God Secret Manual (Deity Level Secret Manual),' Upon complete mastery of the Blood God Secret Manual, one can enter Blood God Mode, causing a soaring surge in combat power!"

Ye Chen suddenly stopped, momentarily stunned, then clicked on this manual and began studying it intently.

"'The Blood God Secret Manual' cultivation is extremely arduous, requiring the entire body's essence blood and vitality as fuel for burning, erupting with immense power. The more vitality burned, the greater the burst in combat strength—the amplification is limitless..."

"'During cultivation, immense willpower is required to relocate and fuse the body's entire musculature and bones, and to temper the flesh by executing the Blood God Secret Manual. The perceived pain is approximately one hundred million del!'”

One needed to understand that ordinary people in the Spiritual Civilization endured a pain level of about one del. The agony of childbirth for a woman was 57 del. The pain experienced while cultivating the Blood God Secret Manual was 2 million times that of childbirth!

Seeing this, Ye Chen's eyes instantly lit up. "Limitless? As long as lifespan permits, one can burn out the greatest combat strength?"