Chen Guan saw within Xiu Jie Ming's body, primordial energy spilling out once again.

As the primordial energy drained away, his body didn't shrink again this time, but instead suddenly expanded.

The primordial energy surged out of his body in waves, and his body swelled up circle by circle. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

A body that had grown lean now became more robust than usual, even breaking the armor on his body, revealing a physique as exceptionally strong as a crystal statue.

Strangely, some bizarre patterns began to emerge on Xiu Jie Ming's crystal-like statue body.

It shouldn't be called patterns; it was more like protrusions growing from the flesh, like relief carvings slowly emerging from his flesh, forming various different relief patterns.

These relief patterns continued to grow, gradually covering the entire body, finally merging to form a shell like armor, covering Xiu Jie Ming entirely.

At this moment, Xiu Jie Ming's body emanated primitive, wild power, as if his body had transformed into its most primal form.

"Returning to the True Self... Third Stage..." Chen Guan was astonished; it was his first time seeing someone develop the absolute secret state to the third stage.

"Come, use your strongest power." In Xiu Jie Ming's eyes, wrapped by the shell, a strange light flickered.

Chen Guan uttered no word; the Pure Yang Sword Aura exploded again, rushing at Xiu Jie Ming's body.

To Chen Guan's surprise, the strength seemed weakened in this third stage of Returning to the True Self.

Before, in the second stage, the Pure Yang Sword Aura couldn't hurt him.

But now the Pure Yang Sword Aura directly pierced through the shell, stabbing into it forcefully.

In the next second, the shell wounded by the Pure Yang Sword Aura healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Once the shell healed, Chen Guan's Pure Yang Sword Aura struck it again but seemed completely ineffective, unable to leave even a mark on the shell.

Chen Guan changed his strategy, opting to use other secret skills to attack Xiu Jie Ming.

Xiu Jie Ming simply stood there, watching him, allowing the attacks without the intention of a counterattack.

Chen Guan used several different secret skills to attack Xiu Jie Ming's body, confirming his thoughts.

Indeed, different secret skills were effective only in their first attack on Xiu Jie Ming, able to hurt his shell.

But only this once; after the shell was wounded, regardless of the location, the entire shell would be immunized correspondingly.

Meaning, the same ability works only once on Xiu Jie Ming, and after that, it's completely useless.

"The third stage of absolute secret state is absurdly strong." Chen Guan admired internally.

The stronger Xiu Jie Ming's absolute secret state, the better for Chen Guan, as his Spirit of the Cheerleaders had recorded it fully; whatever Xiu Jie Ming could use, he could, too. Of course, the stronger, the better for Chen Guan.

If the ability of Returning to the True Third Stage is similarly effective against the Secret Law, would that mean that any Secret Law used on him once would be ineffective on him thereafter?

Chen Guan thought about this, but for now, there was no way to verify; he'd have to wait until entering the Great Cave Heaven to experiment.

In the current situation, it's a bit challenging to defeat Xiu Jie Ming.

Based on the current judgement, there seems to be only one way to defeat Xiu Jie Ming at the Returning to the True Third Stage.

A single fatal blow, destroying his body entirely on the first attack, otherwise the second attack wouldn't work.

This condition might be difficult for others, but not for Chen Guan.

Chen Guan has at least three ways to break him: My God, Creation World, and Empty Leaf.

My God can directly destroy Xiu Jie Ming's body, leaving no second chance.

Creation World can decompose his body, but whether it can be successfully decomposed, and how much primordial energy is needed for Creation World to work, is still unknown.

Empty Leaf has a fifty percent chance of being ineffective; it's somewhat of a gamble, which is uncertain.

My God is the most direct and best method to break the ability of Returning to the True Third Stage, and the power of My God wouldn't be repeated.

This time, Chen Guan can use My God to enhance a secret skill and break him; even if he doesn't die and gains immunity, next time he can enhance another secret skill to deal with him.

However, the primordial energy from the Secret Collection hasn't recovered yet, making it temporarily unusable.

Chen Guan doesn't want to kill Xiu Jie Ming, so he didn't bring out heavy weapons like Empty Leaf either.

Moreover, Xiu Jie Ming hasn't used the Celestial Destiny Star or the Celestial Destiny Secret Treasure yet; winning with Empty Leaf might not feel satisfying enough.

"Time is running out; use your strongest power now." Xiu Jie Ming stood there, enduring all of Chen Guan's attacks, yet seemed to grow stronger.

"Try this." Chen Guan threw a punch at Xiu Jie Ming, this time with restrained primordial energy, appearing like an ordinary punch, hitting Xiu Jie Ming's chest.

Such a punch didn't harm even Xiu Jie Ming's shell, making it seem inferior to previous attacks.

However, Xiu Jie Ming, who was indifferent until now, suddenly changed his color.

That punch seemed to do no damage to Xiu Jie Ming's body, but Xiu Jie Ming suddenly felt darkness before his eyes, as if he were blind.

Seeing the Disabling Fist was effective, Chen Guan punched Xiu Jie Ming repeatedly.

Xiu Jie Ming's vision, hearing, smell, sense of pain, all soon disappeared completely.

He now seemed truly like a crystal statue, unable to speak, move, or feel, standing there upright.

"Looks like the third stage of Returning to the True Self isn't omnipotent; at least, the Disabling Fist can still take effect." Chen Guan grew more fond of the sinister secret skill created by Mei Qingta.

"Capturing Xiu Jie Ming alive seems like a good outcome, though it's a bit unfair to Xiu Yingmei." Chen Guan stepped forward, preparing to lift Xiu Jie Ming and drag him out of the abyss, directly shattering the psychological defenses of the Celestial Court Army, certainly making their morale drop drastically, potentially causing them to retreat entirely.

Although he and Xiu Jie Ming had some tacit understanding, this understanding was based on them being evenly matched.

If Xiu Jie Ming had such a chance, he probably wouldn't miss it either.

Thinking this, Chen Guan pinned Xiu Jie Ming with his arm, intending to drag him out.

Yet, when Chen Guan exerted force suddenly, he felt his arm sink; despite his power, he couldn't lift Xiu Jie Ming's body.

"Why is it so heavy?" Chen Guan frowned slightly, changing his position, wrapping both arms around Xiu Jie Ming's statue-like body, attempting to lift him like uprooting a tree.

As Chen Guan kept applying force, Xiu Jie Ming's body seemed rooted, unable to be lifted.

"Strange, his Sixth Sense is already sealed, with no way to utilize power now. Why is the body so heavy?" Chen Guan retreated a couple of steps, staring at Xiu Jie Ming in silent contemplation.