Kill The Old Ones!

Chapter 177: Inhuman Realm

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Even with Ren’s willpower, the pain brought by this breakthrough still overwhelmed him for a moment.

Ren wasn’t a stranger to pain. With the kind of abuse he subjects his body to on a daily basis, pain was an old friend to him.

Practicing martial arts without feeling pain? Impossible. That is not a thing, and it will never be.

And although Ren had been spoiled by how bad it’s going to be once he reached this stage, even that hasn’t prepared him for what it’s truly like.

Ren nearly lost his grip to reality with how painful it was. His whole body practically imploded once he lifted his tight hold on his chakra.

When he said that, he was suppressing his own breakthrough. He truly meant it. Ren never dared to relax his control over his chakra because if he did, it would simply overflow and his breakthrough would commence. He’s been holding it like this for a long while now.

It was all to participate in the tournament.

But now that’s over and he practically got told to make his breakthrough by the city lord himself; he had no excuses anymore.

That’s why when he released his tight hold, his chakra did the rest. It simply crashed into the barrier that’s containing him to the Pulse Awakening Stage, effortlessly crushing it to nothingness.

Then, it spilled over and flooded every cell in his body. Unable to hold that much energy, Ren’s body practically exploded.

From the outside, Ren just blew up and was dead. But to those who are aware of what’s going on, this was the beginning of Ren’s breakthrough.

Because of how thorough he was, Ren didn’t have to do much.

Typically, a martial artist will have to ground their own body to dust using chakra. This will cause them an unimaginable amount of pain, but the more thorough they are, the better their refined body will be.

That is if they could remain conscious and clear-headed for the remainder of the process.

Usually, a common breakthrough would similarly be an explosion of blood and flesh. Commonly, there will be huge chunks of flesh and organs when this process begins. The martial artist should do their best to ground these up so that they can refine it better later.

If they don’t do this, this part will become a flaw later down the line. It might even become a bottleneck that will permanently prevent them from seeing what’s on the other side.

Ren didn’t encounter this issue.

His accumulation was enough, his foundation was perfect, and he didn’t have to force anything.

From the very start, he thoroughly became pure blood mist contained within his seclusion chamber. At the center of his bloody mist was a glowing tree of incandescent blue light—his matured chakra network, pulsating with rich and lively chakra that’s nourishing the blood mist.

And there, there was a vague shape of what looked to be Ren himself. It was faint, weak, and teetering at the edge of dissipation. Those with better eyesight will recognize his face twisting in pain in this state.

But his eyes were open and focused. He’s not making any sound simply because he couldn’t. He had no vocal cords or throat for that matter.

For the most part, Ren was just letting nature take its course. His chakra network was doing most of the work for him.

Although he didn’t leave any chunky bits behind when he started his breakthrough, this current state isn’t enough either. His remains had to be broken down even further. Ideally, not even a speck of blood should remain.

It’s easy to understand how that can be scary, but there are a lot of inexplicable things that make this possible. Hell, even though he knew that this is what’s supposed to happen, Ren himself still couldn’t believe it.

After all, how could it be easy to understand that he could remain existing as a ghost in this current state?

Currently, his chakra was working to break down his remains even further. That much was obvious with his bloody mist remains shrinking more and more as time passed.

Ren has also started getting used to the pain. At first, he found it difficult to maintain his focus because it’s simply too overwhelming. But Ren eventually got a hold of himself.

He’d admit that it’s indeed scary. Now, he could completely understand why a lot of people died during their breakthrough. Try as he might, he truly couldn’t blame them.

After all, Ren himself was spoiled. He knew what was going to happen and prepared himself as best as he could, yet even with that, he was still caught off guard.

But now that he knew what it’s like and what to expect, Ren had begun adjusting, and now he could say that things were under control again.

Eventually, his bloody remains practically ceased to exist...at least in the naked eye, that is.

Ren could still feel the shape of his body in this form. It wasn’t gone per se, just broken down to the tiniest matter that’s invisible to the naked eye.

When it reached this stage, there was a pause before his chakra began to flow again.

This time, instead of breaking down his body, it was refining it. It’s infusing his body with pure chakra, forging it into something new and more ideal for what’s to come next.

Ren could feel the stress this had on his chakra network. And had it not been for the Limitless Martial Physique, which doubled his chakra quality and reserves compared to people at the same realm as his, he would’ve needed more energy sources than this. There was no way that what he had would be enough for this whole process.

But even so, Ren believed that this was enough. Just his accumulation alone was enough for this whole process.

If it turns out that he’s wrong, there’s no problem; he could still take things out from his inventory in case of emergency.

**

Ren observed as his body started regenerating, starting from the smallest components. It started with one cell, which was multiplied to two, and so on.

Unknowingly, Ren fell into a trance during this process.

It’s largely because he had complete faith that the most difficult part was over and the rest was just the wait until he was fully restored.

Ren shifted his attention to the unknown and unseen forces that are keeping him together. The forces of heaven and earth and the conceptual rules that made this whole world and universe unique.

Before this, Ren had no contact with these forces. He knew that they existed, but he never got a close look at them; he never even felt their presence at all.

But now, in his current state, Ren could feel them. Their presence was all over him. They’re responsible for keeping his consciousness, his spirit, and his chakra signature intact while the rest of his body is experiencing rebirth.

Ren’s cheat flared to life. The Unparalleled Comprehension began feeding him information, starting with mere trickles to a steady stream.

As if realizing that Ren was trying to say hello in his own way, the mysterious forces began being playful around him. It’s like they suddenly found a new playmate and were excited to know more about him.

A communion of some sort started because of this. Which definitely is an unusual phenomenon.

Because of this, Ren’s body wasn’t just being baptized and refined by chakra into something better. The conceptual laws and the forces of heaven and earth were also sprinkling him with their blessings.

This put Ren into a deeper trance. His mind swam at the surface of this deep sea, marvelling at how vast and mystical it was.

Even with his cheat active, Ren couldn’t understand everything at once. There’s no way; it’s simply impossible.

However, his presence here was definitely leaving a mark. One that resonated with the Godly Sky Archon’s inheritance mark.

Ren didn’t know this yet, but him leaving his mark here allowed him to be recognized by the mysterious forces, which unknowingly made his future path easier.

This wouldn’t be erased or eroded because of the freedom concept that’s infused into Ren’s chakra and mark. It will stay there and keep a connection to Ren’s very own spirit, allowing him to continue communing with the mysterious forces that made up this world.

By the time Ren woke up from his stupor, his breakthrough was nearly over.

He took a look at his body and found that it’s perfectly identical to what he looked like previously. The difference is that, in terms of presence and potential, this was so much better compared to the previous one.

His chakra network fit nice and snug in his new body, as did his spirit.

When Ren opened his eyes, he felt light, too light, even. He felt like, if he wanted to, he could just fly, and it would happen.

Whether that’s an exaggeration or not remains to be seen.

However, what’s for certain is that Ren became much stronger again. Ren could easily defeat his previous self over and over again with this new body, and it wouldn’t even come close.