Chapter 27: Chapter 24: Furious Thunder Force

This Golden Copper Bell was perfectly round. Inside, a thin red string suspended a golden iron pearl—the Bell Heart. Mu Chen gently shook his wrist. The Bell Heart swung with the movement, striking the Bell Wall and letting out a crisp DING.

In that instant, the Profound Old Ghost’s words suddenly surfaced in his mind. Mu Chen tentatively slowed the speed at which he shook the Copper Bell. Sure enough, as the speed decreased, the Bell Heart no longer touched the Bell Wall, so naturally, it made no sound. However, while this reduced his superfluous movements, his attack speed also slowed. The trade-off wasn’t worth it.

As he continued to shake the bell, Mu Chen’s thoughts drifted. ’No, slowing down to eliminate extra movements is definitely the wrong approach. This line of thinking is flawed.’

Suddenly, Mu Chen’s wrist twitched, and the Bell Heart in his hand shot toward the Bell Wall. Subconsciously, Mu Chen jerked his hand in the opposite direction. The Bell Heart only brushed lightly against the Bell Wall, producing a very, very soft scraping sound, but the crisp chime was gone.

"This is it," Mu Chen said, pleasantly surprised.

It wasn’t that the bell couldn’t make a sound, but a matter of controlling the sound’s volume. It was like a person’s strength. If you used too much, pouring all your power into one strike, it would be difficult to retract the move. If an enemy dodged that strike, you would expose a massive opening. Conversely, if you used too little power, you wouldn’t achieve any offensive effect; it would be a wasted effort.

Therefore, to keep the Copper Bell from making a sound, every movement had to bring the bell to that critical tipping point. It had to just barely touch the Bell Wall, but without the movement being so large that it caused the Bell Heart to strike it.

Having figured this out, Mu Chen re-hung the bell on his waist with a slight smile. He wanted to start with the simplest thing: walking. He took a light step, his senses completely locked on the Copper Bell, trying to feel the movement of the Bell Heart with his entire being.

DING!

A crisp chime rang out; the Copper Bell had made a sound again. But Mu Chen wasn’t discouraged. Dragging the heavy iron chain and blocks, Mu Chen walked slowly, step by step. Every movement caused the bell to ring, but he never shortened his stride. He knew the Copper Bell rang not because of the length of his step, but because of superfluous movements in the act of stepping itself.

DING!

Ding.

Ding... 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

SCRAPE...

Failure after failure. As Mu Chen experimented and constantly made adjustments, the sound from the Copper Bell grew fainter and fainter. Finally, around noon on the fourth day, after Mu Chen had taken a few steps, he suddenly heard only a very, very faint scraping sound.

"I did it," Mu Chen exclaimed, overjoyed. He clearly memorized the feeling—it was a step infinitely close to perfection. Of course, if even that "scrape" sound disappeared, his step would be truly perfect.

To prove that this wasn’t a coincidence, Mu Chen followed the feeling from before and took another step.

SCRAPE...

Again, there was only an extremely faint scraping sound. He had done it. The next step was to move from simple to complex, constantly practicing various simple movements and then progressing to more difficult ones. He had to admit, now that he had grasped the trick, making the bell stay silent didn’t feel all that hard.

Inside the Extreme Spirit Pearl, the Profound Old Ghost watched the young man in the Outer Realm with some surprise. He suddenly smiled. "It seems my judgment was correct. It took even me three days to master this trick, yet this kid only took one day longer than I did. This child is destined to shock the world one day."

Of course, Mu Chen didn’t hear the Profound Old Ghost’s praise at all. He was completely immersed in the world of the bell. To be honest, keeping the bell silent was a conscious effort on Mu Chen’s part. If he took the bell off, he would naturally revert to his old habits. Therefore, he had to break his old habits and get used to his new ones. This would be a long process.

But Mu Chen had already made up his mind. ’From now on, I will only practice basic movements every day, like walking. As long as my foundation is solid, the habits I built before will naturally crumble.’ This was tackling the problem at its root.

「Ten days later」

A strange figure appeared on the road to the Demon Beast Forest. His left hand was bound by a ten-foot-long Locking Chain, with two black iron blocks of equal size hanging from the end. He walked toward the Demon Beast Forest with brisk, steady steps. Needless to say, this person was, of course, Mu Chen.

As he reached the outskirts of the Demon Beast Forest, the number of people around gradually increased. Seeing Mu Chen’s bizarre appearance, many Mercenary squads hunting Magical Beasts gave him puzzled looks. But after probing his strength, their expressions immediately turned to disdain. Some even looked at Mu Chen as if he were already a dead man. However, Mu Chen seemed completely oblivious, finding a small path and plunging headfirst into the Demon Beast Forest on his own.

"Master." Mu Chen scanned his surroundings. Seeing no one around, he called out softly.

The words had barely left his lips when the Profound Old Ghost, with his long, ice-blue hair, appeared beside Mu Chen. Gazing at the familiar scenery, a flicker of light shone from within the Profound Old Ghost’s closed eyes, and a look of deep nostalgia crossed his face. But the expression appeared for only an instant before he concealed it.

"Master, we’ve arrived at the Demon Beast Forest. What’s wrong?" Mu Chen asked quickly, seeing the Profound Old Ghost staring silently into the distance after appearing.

The Profound Old Ghost grunted in acknowledgment and nodded, then chuckled. "Heh, it’s nothing. I was just suddenly reminded of some things from the past. Xiao Chenzi, you are much tougher than I imagined. However, I must tell you, everything up until now was just an appetizer. Now that you’re here, it’s time for the main course. You still have a chance to turn back and go home. I can guarantee you will reach the Emperor Realm. But if you continue forward, you could lose your life at any moment. The reward, however, is a future without limits. Tell me, what is your choice?"

The corners of Mu Chen’s mouth lifted, his still-youthful face filled with confidence. "Master, I, Mu Chen, swear an oath here and now! In this life, I will become one of the strong! I will look down upon the Azure Sky, shatter the universe, and stand at the very pinnacle of power! This is my choice! This is my resolve!"

"Good! Good! Good!" Mu Chen’s tone was forceful and unshakably firm. The Profound Old Ghost looked at that youthful face, his heart filled with immense gratification, repeating the word three times.

Mu Chen clenched his fists and asked, "Master, what do I need to do now?"

The Profound Old Ghost turned to look at Mu Chen. "You don’t need to do anything else. Just keep heading northwest. One hundred thousand years have passed, so that thing should be mature by now. If you’re lucky and no one has found it, then you must obtain it."

Mu Chen looked confused. "What thing? Mature? Is it some kind of medicinal herb?"

The Profound Old Ghost laughed. "You have quite the imagination. Medicinal herbs aren’t the only things that mature. There are also some special Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. But you were right about one thing—there are indeed medicinal herbs, but they are only companion herbs."

"Companion herbs." Mu Chen was taken aback.

The Profound Old Ghost was speechless. He flicked Mu Chen hard on the forehead and barked, "You brat, where do all these damn questions come from? Get moving! Every moment you save gives you a better chance. If someone else finds that thing, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life!"

Mu Chen yelped in pain and quickly rubbed his forehead, pouting. "I get it, I get it. Ouch, that really hurt."

Mu Chen took out a Ring Wheel. This was a common directional tool. The four words for ’East,’ ’South,’ ’West,’ and ’North’ were inscribed on the wheel with Primordial Qi. These words weren’t fixed in place on the wheel; no matter how you turned it, their positions wouldn’t change. In other words, they always pointed in their respective cardinal directions.

"Northwest." Mu Chen glanced at the wheel and strode off in that direction, his left hand’s Black Iron Lock Chain dragging on the ground, leaving a trail of marks. Watching Mu Chen run off into the distance, the Profound Old Ghost smiled and shook his head, his body dissolving into a puff of smoke and quickly following.

On the Extreme Martial Continent, humans were not the only species. In other Domains, there were also two other species: Magical Beasts and Beastmen. Magical Beasts, as the name implies, possessed formidable physical bodies. Like humans, they could also absorb the Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi to continuously advance and grow stronger. However, their ranking distribution was different from humans; their ranks were referred to as "Levels."

The weakest are Level 1 Magical Beasts, roughly equivalent in rank to human Martial Artists. However, it’s certain that a single Level 1 Magical Beast could fight two human Martial Artists to a standstill. It might even gain the upper hand by relying on its powerful body.

Level 1 Magical Beasts tend to have low intelligence. Aside from some instinctual reactions, they possess almost no advanced intellect. This is the disadvantage of Magical Beasts; the heavens gave them powerful bodies but not powerful minds.

However, once a Magical Beast reaches the realm of a Level 5 Magical Beast—equivalent to a human Martial King—it will unlock most of its intelligence, perhaps even reaching the level of an adult human. The higher they advance, the greater their intellect becomes. A thousand years ago, a Beast King even appeared among the Magical Beasts. Her power was definitely not the strongest, but her wisdom surpassed that of any human.

However, a dozen or so years ago, for some unknown reason, a great upheaval occurred among the Magical Beasts. To protect the life of her wife, this peerless intellect exhausted ninety percent of her lifespan to unleash her innate Talent Secret Technique. With her power alone, she held off a Demon Beast Army of a million for a quarter of an hour before finally falling. It is said that the battle was world-shaking, leaving an indelible impression on all the powerful human experts. In the end, her wife was also unable to escape the pursuit of the Demon Beast Army, and no one knows what happened after that. As for who this peerless intellect was, Mu Chen couldn’t find her name in the historical records he’d read. But her race was mentioned many times in the texts. People called her race... the Snow Moon Spirit Fox.

As for Mu Chen, he had never thought he would come to a place like the Demon Beast Forest, so he had only skimmed through that story. Now, finding himself in the thick of it, he could only smile wryly. ’If I had known I’d be coming here, I should have read that text about Magical Beasts more carefully.’ Unfamiliar with the people and the place, Mu Chen had no choice but to put on a brave face and feel his way through.

After walking for half a day, Mu Chen remained vigilant. He had now completely formed the habit, and the bell hanging at his waist didn’t make the slightest sound. Of course, this was only when walking. If he were to attack or was in a state of anxiety, Mu Chen would still instinctively use his old, habitual movements.

Just then, something occurred to Mu Chen, and he quickly called out, "Master!"

The Profound Old Ghost’s figure appeared ethereally behind Mu Chen, startling him. After seeing clearly that it was the Profound Old Ghost, Mu Chen said angrily, "You old coot, can you not scare people like that?!"

The Profound Old Ghost, however, ignored him completely and said flatly, "Kid, what did you need me for?"

Mu Chen’s mouth twitched fiercely, and a vein bulged on his forehead. "Didn’t you say you were going to teach me a Combat Skill? It’s been over forty days! Without a Combat Skill, how am I supposed to survive here with just this iron chain?"