Chapter 791: A Mythical-Level Being Born Daily, Where All Are as Dragons (I)

As Chen Chu and the others walked away, the thirty-plus youths cultivating nearby paused. Among them, the eldest boy glanced at a girl beside him and asked curiously,

"Yueyue, is that the guy Big Sis Rou brought back?"

The girl, dressed in a black training uniform with sword-like brows and delicate features, arched a brow and snapped, "Wu Ze, how many times have I told you to call me ‘big sister?’ I’m the oldest here."

The ponytail-wearing boy shrugged indifferently. "You’re only a week older than me. Why make such a big deal out of it? Besides, who knows if you faked your birthdate?"

At once, the girl narrowed her eyes. Sensing the subtle murderous aura, the boy instantly caved, raising both hands in surrender. "Alright, alright, you’re older. Happy now, Big Sis?"

The girl, Zhuo Xinyue, nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Yeah, he’s the one that Big Sis Rou brought back, but back then he looked really terrifying."

As she spoke, the fourteen-year-old girl’s eyes showed a trace of awe.

Two days ago, Chen Chu’s chest had been slashed open with a massive gash, and his face had been streaked with dozens of blood-red scars—he had looked like a shattered porcelain doll that would break with a touch.

Suppressing the lingering fear, Zhuo Xinyue thoughtfully murmured, "Big Sis Tong said he’s really powerful. He crushed a tyrant monster with a single punch."

"What? Just one punch?!" Gasps erupted from the group of children behind them.

"So strong!"

"That’s amazing—no wonder he’s so handsome." A ten-year-old girl’s eyes sparkled with adoration.

A young boy beside her wiped his nose and asked in a puzzled tone, "...Chengcheng, what does being handsome have to do with being strong?"

The girl glared at him and retorted, "Who says it doesn’t? All the heroes in those old DVDs were both handsome and strong."

"Yeah! I watched them too, and that big brother from just now looks even better—way better than any movie star." The surrounding children immediately burst into excited chatter.

As the overall conversation shifted toward which past movie hero was more handsome, Zhuo Xinyue returned to her thoughts. "Wu Ze, do you think that guy will stay in our base?"

Wu Ze indifferently replied, "Whether he stays or not doesn’t matter. Mr. Jiang always says we shouldn’t rely on others for hope. Only our own strength is the true foundation.

"I’m a genius who’s achieved body enhancement in less than half a year after all. Give me a few more years and I’ll be a top expert, bringing back tons of dragon meat for everyone."

Looking at the smug Wu Ze, Zhuo Xinyue coolly replied, "Alright, stop dreaming and keep cultivating. By the time you become an advanced body enhancer, the base might not even exist anymore. And for the record, it only took me four months to break through to the first tier."

The boy’s triumphant expression froze instantly.

***

Along the corridor circling the mountainside, the tall and graceful Shi Feirou spoke in a courteous tone. "Mr. Chen, Little Tong should’ve already told you about the base’s situation."

Chen Chu’s gaze remained calm as he nodded slightly. "She gave a basic overview."

Compared to the budding Shi Feitong, Shi Feirou appeared more mature, due to being in her twenties. Her strength was also greater, comparable to a Fifth Heavenly Realm cultivator.

She had even dared to venture into the perilous ruins of the city, and had drawn her weapon when Chen Chu descended from the sky.

Now, having become slightly more familiar with him, her voice was soft and gentle during their conversation. A warm smile never left her face—true to the gentleness of her name[1].

It wasn’t just when facing Chen Chu. Earlier, when she had been teaching the children, her demeanor had been just as tender, a little similar to the gentle Lin Yu.

"Mr. Jiang used to be a university professor. After the apocalypse broke out, he joined our base and began cultivating the body enhancement arts. His cultivation is at the second tier.

"He’s in charge of managing supplies and taking care of the children. As body enhancers, we’re responsible for going out to gather resources."

As the three chatted, they soon arrived at a room resembling a storage vault. Inside, an elderly man with a refined demeanor, glasses, and only one arm was sorting through some materials.

Shi Feirou knocked lightly on the half-open door and respectfully said, "Mr. Jiang, we need a moment of your time. This is Mr. Chen Chu."

The old man smiled and extended his right hand. "Hello, Mr. Chen. Little Rou has already told me about you. Thank you for saving them the other day."

Chen Chu shook his hand politely. "It was nothing. I happened to be passing by. Honestly, even without me, they could’ve made it out safely."

Shi Feirou had told others that Chen Chu had saved them—likely to help him integrate better into the base.

However, Chen Chu knew very well that the tyrant monster and the mutated creatures had been drawn in by the disturbance caused when he fell from the sky. He hadn’t really saved them so much as accidentally endangered them.

Shi Feirou got straight to the point. "Mr. Jiang, Mr. Chen is interested in our body enhancement art and would like to take a look."

"Of course. One moment." The old man nodded, turned, and carefully pulled out a well-preserved book from the shelf in the back.

The title alone gave Chen Chu pause.

Simplified Version of Red Sun Calisthenics, Thirteenth Edition.

Published on October 8, 9081, by Yuhua Publishing House.

The elderly man handed the book to Chen Chu with a smile. "This is the body enhancement art we practice—the Red Sun Body Refinement Art. I’ve annotated many of the classical passages.

“It consists of six stages, though it’s said that the complete version has ten. Once someone cultivates it to its advanced stage, their vitality would burn like a furnace, or a blood-red sun capable of destroying heaven and earth."

Chen Chu frowned slightly. "Why only six stages?"

Mr. Jiang smiled wryly. "Because it’s too ancient. The chaos of the past ten thousand years and the onset of the declination era meant no one believed in these arts anymore, so they naturally fell into obscurity.

"This version survived only because many of the movements and breathing techniques had some exercise value, so they were passed down orally and eventually compiled and printed.

"Though, while there’s no full inheritance of ancient arts among the general population, the noble families of the great empires, as well as national libraries, still retain a few isolated volumes.

"Beyond that, remnants of ancient civilizations from ten thousand years ago, such as sealed ruins and warships left behind by fallen powerhouses, also preserve parts of their legacies.

"I’ve heard that the people in the five major survivor bases obtained complete inheritances from those ruins. That’s how they could cultivate so quickly and possess such overwhelming combat power."

Well then, it seems like this ordinary cultivation method is the only one available for now.

Chen Chu accepted the book and asked politely, "Mr. Jiang, do you have a dictionary here?"

Shi Feirou blinked. "A dictionary? Mr. Chu, you can’t read these characters?"

Although the Lost World had been separated from the expeditionary armies for ten thousand years, its cultural and linguistic traditions had remained intact. The Shi Sisters, who assumed he was a powerhouse from the Ancient Civilization, were surprised.

Unaware of the mistake, Chen Chu casually replied, "Your written language differs a bit from what I’m used to. It must be because—"

At that moment, Chen Chu suddenly fell silent. Right then, he sensed an invisible force of rejection from the fabric of time itself—one that seemed to have been triggered by what he’d just said, something apparently bordering on a temporal paradox.

Though he was currently only half a time-based entity due to the erosion of time energy, it didn’t change the fact that he came from the future. Between the past and the present, a paradox could arise. If someone traveled to the past and performed even the smallest action, it could trigger a butterfly effect.

If Chen Chu killed someone here who wasn’t supposed to die, that person’s son, grandson, descendants for dozens of generations—everything tied to them—would be thrown into chaos.

In the long run, even an empire that was meant to exist could vanish. The ripple would grow larger down the river of time, eventually collapsing the entire structure of space-time and history.

Of course, another possibility was that Chen Chu’s arrival had always been fated—that the timeline had always included him falling into the past during the temporal storm, and that hypothetical person had always been destined to die by his hand.

There was also the chance that his presence hadn’t caused any major disruption to this space-time yet, so the temporal rejection was still mild.

However, if he revealed too much critical information or made actions that altered events too drastically, he would be forcibly rejected from this space-time without delay.

Setting aside those speculations, Chen Chu took the manual and dictionary and sat at the desk, casting all thoughts about time from his mind as he flipped them open.

Time was far too profound. Touching the infinite past, present, and future—it was far beyond what he could comprehend now.

To scientists, time and space were simply forms of material motion. To transcendent beings, however, time was a measuring rod that recorded everything, a ruler of the countless worlds' histories.

Even the Time Dragon and other time-based entities knew little about time. In their understanding, it was a force, an immense and supreme power. Yet even they merely dwelled within the rifts of time, unable to touch it freely, let alone roam the timelines of past, present, and future.

Rustle!

Shi Feirou, Shi Feitong, and the old man watched as Chen Chu casually flipped through the dictionary. In less than half a minute, he set it down and picked up the Body Refinement Art manual.

He rapidly turned through the hundred-plus pages—complete with illustrations, summaries, and notes—and in just a single minute, he had finished reading it.

Seeing him lower the book and sit there thoughtfully, Shi Feitong couldn’t help but blink. "Mr. Chen, you’re finished?"

Chen Chu came back to himself and nodded. "Mhmm. I’ve finished."

Is... that even possible?

The three of them exchanged looks, momentarily dumbfounded.

Not only had Chen Chu grown stronger and faster after repeated rounds of evolution fueled by the avatar’s feedback, but his overall faculties had also improved significantly.

His mind now processed thoughts faster than a computer—analyzing, calculating, simulating at unbelievable speeds. In that single minute, he had already committed both the dictionary and the manual to memory and completed his analysis and comprehension.

If Chen Chu became a scientist, he alone could fill the role of an entire research institute. However, science wasn’t just about raw computational power; his talent was more suited to cultivation. Of course, this didn’t change the fact that, in that short moment, he had almost fully deciphered the Red Sun Body Refinement Art.

Noticing the three still stunned beside him, Chen Chu calmly said, "I’ll begin cultivating this art now. Please don’t let anyone disturb me."

Though they didn’t understand why someone of the ancient war general level like Chen Chu would bother with a body enhancement art, Shi Feirou quickly responded, "Mr. Chen, the base has a dedicated cultivation room..."

"No need. Anywhere is fine." With that, Chen Chu moved to a corner of the warehouse, sat down cross-legged, and closed his eyes.

1. the "rou" in Shi Feirou means “gentle” in Chinese. ☜