The white-haired elder was none other than Venerable White Fang. His expression shifted momentarily, and he finally let out a soft sigh, muttering under his breath, "I never expected to misjudge him so completely. This child's growth rate is simply inconceivable; he must have encountered some extraordinary fortune! Back on Earth, he was less than a mere Ghost God realm ant, and now, after only a few short years, he has become this terrifying. With no backing whatsoever, he has relied entirely on his own efforts!"

"One can only imagine the sheer magnitude of his destiny, something rarely seen throughout history. I wonder which great figure he is the reincarnation of, to be this formidable! Those eight from the Blazing Dragon Hall are all reincarnations of peerless Divine Emperors, yet even they pale in comparison to this child now. When he recovers his full memories, what an unimaginably terrifying being he will become!"

With that thought, he gazed out at the sky, his expression complex. After a long pause, he sighed gently, rose to his feet, and with a movement that rippled the air, vanished.

On Celestial Dragon Star, the great battle had concluded, yet the crowd remained stunned, unable to process what they had witnessed. They stared blankly at the devastation upon the stage.

Ye Chen’s figure flashed across the star-strewn void. Before long, he arrived before the vortex of a cosmic passage, stepped through, and returned to the Ancient World.

Leaving the Blazing Dragon Hall’s subsidiary cosmos, Ye Chen flickered a few times, reappearing atop the peak of the Supreme Genius Hall. He ascended the slope, casting a glance toward Mickey's residence. The door was shut tight, and there were no servants outside; it looked rather desolate.

His eyes flashed, but he did not approach. He quickly made his way to the old villa halfway up the mountain, entered directly, cleansed himself, and returned to his cultivation chamber. Putting on his helmet, he resumed his training, as if the recent great battle were nothing more than a minor incident.

In truth, for Ye Chen, that battle had been quite manageable. By combining the secrets of the Blazing Mystery Canon, the Heavenly Dao Scripture, the Blood Mystery Grimoire, and the Nine Palaces Manual, and layering on the Meteorite Profundity, he had unleashed a staggering combat power exceeding ten billion at that final moment!

This was already a terrifying number! Hua Zhan, though a mid-to-upper-tier powerhouse in the Blazing Dragon Hall, had a maximum manual amplification of only around two billion. Facing Ye Chen’s final strike, he possessed no ability to resist and was instantly obliterated.

As his strength grew, Ye Chen's state of mind gradually became placid and composed; unflustered and self-possessed. He had only one goal in mind: in two months, he would head to White Spirit Peak for the Young Hero Battle!

While Ye Chen engaged in frenzied training, the outside world erupted. The entire Blazing God Empire, along with the border cities of surrounding empires, echoed with gasps of astonishment and disbelief, sensing the imminent rise of a terrifying prodigy in this world teeming with powerhouses.

One must remember that reaching Hua Zhan's level meant it was already exceedingly difficult to fight him to a draw among peers, defeating him was harder than scaling the heavens, and killing him was pure fantasy. To achieve a one-hit kill was simply unimaginable!

It was easy to see what a horrifying degree Ye Chen’s manual amplification had reached!

"Who is this person?"

"Too terrifying!"

"Damn it all, if this person doesn't perish halfway through his rise, won't he be a guaranteed Divine Emperor expert?"

"A Divine Emperor! Tsk tsk, his future is limitless!" "That's not necessarily true. Becoming a Divine Emperor is an incredibly arduous path. Great talent doesn't always guarantee longevity; some with average talent actually advance further. Cultivation demands relentless perseverance, diligence, and hard work!"

The entire Blazing God Empire, across its thousands of vassal states and major cities, buzzed with discussion of that peerless battle. Originally, people had only expected to see Hua Zhan of the Blazing Dragon Hall display some spectacular technique, never anticipating he would be killed outright.

The various factions that had previously extended invitations to Ye Chen watched the scene with astonishment, privately lamenting that their initial offers were far too meager. Had they known this beforehand, they would have recruited him at any cost!

But...

If they sought to recruit him now, the competition would be even fiercer.

Ye Chen returned to the resting area of the War God Tower and immediately received a flood of invitation emails. He glanced over them briefly, closed them all, and returned to his cultivation.

About a day passed.

Bang bang!

Ye Chen was currently locked in fierce combat within the simulated Sun Star against an expert from the Guqin Civilization on the upper tiers of the War God Tower. He instantly pushed his Blood God Mode to its limit, incinerating his entire 1.05 million years of lifespan to generate a 10,500-fold amplification. Layering this with the 100-fold amplification from the Blazing Mystery Canon and the threefold boost from the Heavenly Dao Scripture, his amplification instantly soared to 1.05 billion times!

Then, utilizing the 50-fold amplification of the Nine Palaces Manual, followed by the 10-fold boost from the Blind Heaven combat technique, and a double stack of the Meteorite Profundity, his personal amplification surged instantaneously to an alarming figure!

Fifteen trillion times!

This was an absolutely terrifying number; anyone who learned of it would likely have their jaw drop clean off.

Boom!

The ancient war hammer, wreathed in the self-destructive power of the Nine Palaces, tore through the air, ripping open the restricted and frozen space around it. The hammerhead crashed down upon the head of the delicate young girl opposite him.

This girl held an ancient zither, and an insignia of a four-stringed zither rested between her brows, signifying Divine level power—the four blue strings denoting Water element affinity. Now, facing this ancient war hammer, her pupils contracted sharply. With a sudden roar, her chest cavity exploded, and her entire body blew apart.

Bang!

A violent hum, lacking any discernible energy, yet stirring the void into a thousand layers of ripples—it was a chord that made the heart and lungs seize with terror. Ye Chen’s mind instantly went blank, and his head exploded.

"Draw." A cold voice echoed in Ye Chen’s ears. His body dissolved into white light and vanished. The last image before death was seeing the entire Sun Star violently rupture under the assault of that single zither note, spewing sparks and magma, the entire planet seeming to shake as its tectonic plates split apart.

Crystalline white light reformed him in the resting hall. Ye Chen lowered his head, brow deeply furrowed. "My limit strength is fifteen trillion times amplification. In terms of raw power, I rival a peak Deity. However, every tier within the Deity realm possesses unique abilities. At the peak Deity level, the domain world is nearing completion; breaking past it allows one to forge their own universe and ascend to the Divine Emperor realm!"

"This girl from the Guqin Civilization was only a High-level Deity, just shy of the Peak level. Even so, the binding force of her domain world was tens of thousands of times stronger than that of an Early-stage Deity! Furthermore, the Guqin Civilization's final self-destruction used her heart as the zither, transforming it into the most terrifying offensive weapon!"

Ye Chen sighed internally, "The most powerful sound in the world is the heartbeat."

"If I could unlock the innate talent of the Spiritual Civilization, my own power would surely become even greater!" Ye Chen clenched his fist, his brow tight as he pondered the issue.

Just then, Beep beep!

A loud email notification suddenly sounded, followed instantly by a direct pop-up communication window addressed to him: Esteemed Mr. Ye Chen, Greetings! In light of your outstanding performance, you are cordially invited to the Elder Hall of the Blazing Dragon Hall. The Grand Elder wishes to meet you. Please ensure your arrival within 24 hours. Sender: Blazing Dragon Hall Official G0!

Seeing this email, Ye Chen’s eyes flashed. After a brief contemplation, he immediately exited the virtual world, stood up, tidied himself slightly, stored away the Demon God Palace in his Rune Space, gave brief instructions to Little Black and Kaba, and departed the villa, heading toward the Blazing Dragon Hall’s cosmic passage entrance.

Leaving the villa, Ye Chen immediately spotted several individuals resting casually on the square halfway up the mountain. Upon seeing him, they jumped up in alarm, hastily standing up and observing from a distance, their expressions filled with reverence. No one dared approach.

Ye Chen proceeded normally, preparing to glide towards the distant transit route, when he suddenly heard a thunderous sound erupting from the mountain summit, like a massive clap of thunder. Immediately afterward, dark storm clouds amassed overhead, accompanied by flashing lightning and torrential wind and rain across the entire peak. Ye Chen paused, surprised by how rapidly the weather had changed here; one moment it was clear skies, and now it was as black as night.

Just then, he overheard a young man nearby exclaim loudly, "Everyone, look! Someone is breaking through!"

The crowd followed his pointing finger. They saw that above the summit, the dark clouds hung low, and within the inky black mist, a vortex slowly began to form. From within, a dazzling pillar of golden light descended. This pillar carried energy of supreme purity, imbued with a sacred aura, seeming real yet illusory, ethereal and elusive.

Ye Chen focused his gaze and saw a young man in white sitting cross-legged halfway up the mountain peak. His crimson hair was bright as fire, and his expression was calm and composed, his entire body enveloped in a golden radiance, obscuring his true features.

"It’s Senior Brother Skoda!"

"Why is he breaking through now? Doesn't he plan to stay in the Genius Hall?"

"What a huge phenomenon. Senior Brother Skoda's Body Strengthening Manual must be of an extremely high grade to trigger such a reaction—truly terrifying!"

"Judging by the scale of this reaction, his Body Strengthening Manual must be top-tier."

The crowd began to chatter excitedly, momentarily forgetting Ye Chen was standing right beside them.

Ye Chen paid them no mind, gazing at the summit for a moment before shaking his head and turning away. He arrived at the transit point, retrieved his Rune Warship, boarded it, and flew toward the entrance of the Blazing Dragon Hall’s exclusive cosmos.

Before long, he reached the entrance of this secret cosmic passage. From a distance, he saw several space fortresses stationed there, surrounded by countless signal webs, with ten Divine-level warships perpetually patrolling the area.

Ye Chen arrived at the passage entrance, presented his Genius Medal for authentication, and was smoothly granted entry. Following the map provided in the email, he flew directly into the depths of this small cosmos. After several hours of travel, he finally arrived above a dark red star deep within the subsidiary cosmos.

This star was thousands of times the surface area of the Sun and hundreds of thousands of times its mass. Upon it were numerous palaces and dwellings, tended by countless servants pruning the planet's flora. Since these servants were all Pseudo-God realm experts, they could traverse the entire planet—which was the size of Earth—in mere minutes, making tending to the vast gardens feel far from burdensome.