Chapter 252.2: Lu Changsheng Creates the Extreme Martial Dao and Shocks His Master by Unleashing Two Bursts of Hidden Force! (II)

Lu Changsheng, playing as Lu Yuan, had been back home for some time now. His family was a simple one; there were only his parents and a younger sister. Both of his parents were intellectuals who worked as university professors. Lu Yuan, however, had developed an interest in martial arts and secretly trained throughout his university years. If not for his participation in the Martial Dao tournament, his parents might never have discovered that he practiced martial arts at all.

After what had happened, his parents had strictly forbidden him from continuing his training. Lu Changsheng did not take their prohibition seriously, but his body genuinely needed time to recover, so he was content to stop for a while.

Of course, that did not mean he had stopped thinking about how to condense Martial Dao in this world. This world had the internet, which made gathering information remarkably easier. Everything from Visible Force to Fortification Force could be found online.

Although Lu Changsheng had never practiced this world's martial arts himself, his Perception and cultivation realm allowed him to examine them from a far higher level. Before long, he had grasped their underlying principles.

From Visible Force all the way to Fortification Force, martial arts ultimately remained a collection of combat techniques. Their purpose was to use skill and force more effectively in a fight. Put more plainly, they were arts developed for actual combat and killing. However, this world was mostly peaceful, and lethal techniques did not really have a place in times of peace. The decline of martial arts was therefore hardly surprising.

Even if the martial arts of this world had never declined, however, Lu Changsheng would not have thought much of their current path. As far as he was concerned, that path had gone astray from the very beginning.

No matter how far the martial arts goes here, all they improve is fighting technique. Even reaching the Fortification Force Realm changes very little, especially against guns and artillery. There is an old joke in the martial arts community here: beyond ten paces, the gun is faster; within ten paces, the gun is faster and more accurate.

Joke or not, it makes the problem perfectly clear. Martial arts here are powerless against firearms because it isn't from the Martial Dao, and as a result, they can never step onto the path of transcendence.

Lu Changsheng knew if he wanted to condense Martial Dao in this secret world, he first had to push its martial arts beyond the limits of ordinary mortals.

In the Sacred Earth, reaching the Divine Strength Realm already counted as stepping into transcendence. Unfortunately, there was no way to cultivate the Divine Strength Realm here. The Martial Dao cultivation methods of the Sacred Earth were useless because this world did not contain even a trace of spirit energy.

That explained why its overall energy level was so low. Without spirit energy or any existing system that could transcend mortal limits, creating a Martial Dao capable of reaching transcendence would be extraordinarily difficult.

Still, it was not entirely impossible.

If this world's martial arts can't lead to transcendence, then I'll build a path that can!

Throughout his recovery, Lu Changsheng had been considering how such a cultivation method could work.

Our worlds are different. The rules are different, and even our physical bodies are not entirely identical. But still, certain things remain universal.

All living creatures require energy, and the most fundamental source of that energy is food. Since there's no spirit energy to absorb around here, I'd have to obtain the energy I need through eating.

This human body might be fragile, but it still possesses the ability to grow and develop. Each person's growth differs sharply from each other, but if I can make use of this natural growth, then perhaps I can push this body beyond its normal limits.

By consuming large quantities of food and extracting as much energy from it as possible, I can continuously nourish this body and promote its growth. And once the body reaches its natural limit, I can deliberately stimulate the process again while continuing to provide it with vast amounts of energy.

Under the right conditions, perhaps the body could undergo a second growth. And if a second growth was possible, why stop there? It could go through a third growth, a fourth, maybe even a fifth.

The more Lu Changsheng considered the idea, the more feasible it seemed. He already knew a Divine Strength Realm martial art that worked along similar principles, continuously unlocking the body's potential and stimulating further growth and development.

In the Sacred Earth, however, such a method had little practical value. The Divine Strength Realm was followed by the Divine Treasury Realm, and beyond that lay the Dao Foundation Realm. Every breakthrough brought an enormous increase in power, sometimes ten times or even a hundred times over.

Against advances of that scale, making the body grow a second time meant almost nothing. Even ten or twenty additional periods of growth would still be insignificant.

Here, however, achieving a second growth would mean surpassing the body's natural limits for the first time. If Lu Changsheng could then trigger a third, fourth, and fifth growth, each one would push those limits further. Eventually, enough quantitative accumulation might produce a qualitative transformation, and at that point, the body itself could cross the boundary into transcendence.

With this approach in mind, Lu Changsheng used his extraordinary Perception to modify the Divine Strength Realm martial art, stripping away the parts that depended on the Sacred Earth's conditions and gradually reshaping it into a method suited to this world. By the time it was ready, his body had also recovered completely. And so, it was time for "Lu Yuan" to take his first true step into cultivation.

Whether it's the Martial Dao or Immortal Dao, both are forms of cultivation. Any path that leads toward transcendence is cultivation.

And now, Lu Changsheng was about to test out the path he had created. No matter how sharp his Perception, how high his realm, how carefully deduced his method, none of that guaranteed that it would actually work. Practice was the ultimate test of truth, and he would have to practice it on his own body to find out.

So, sitting in his room, Lu Changsheng began the process. He closed his eyes and his consciousness swept through his entire body, observing everything from the surface of his skin to the deepest parts within. His Perception was so precise that it could reach the cellular level and even probe genes and microscopic particles.

This was an ability that came from Lu Changsheng's Earthly Saint consciousness. Consciousness alone could not alter his body, but he could use it to monitor every organ and control his body's functions with extraordinary precision. It made for a perfect instrument in the practice of martial arts.

Under Lu Changsheng's control, his stomach and intestines rapidly absorbed the food he consumed, breaking it down and sending the nutrients throughout his body. He then guided them toward his muscles, skin, bones, and organs, every other part that needed strengthening.

The amount of food required was enormous. A large plate of raw beef sat before him, and Lu Changsheng steadily ate his way through it.

One jin, two jin, three jin...

Before long, he had eaten ten jin of beef, yet his stomach showed no sign of becoming full. Everything he swallowed was digested almost immediately, with the useful nutrients absorbed and transported throughout his body while the waste was continuously expelled.[1]

In theory, as long as food remained available, he could keep eating and continuously supply his body with the enormous amount of nutrition required for growth.

Lu Changsheng "cultivated" like this for an entire day. By the end of it, he could already feel that his muscles had become thicker, while his bones, organs, skin, and the rest of his body had all improved to varying degrees. His strength, speed, endurance, and overall physique were rising together too.

At this rate, he estimated that his physical capabilities could double or even triple within only a few days.

A look of satisfaction appeared in Lu Changsheng's eyes.

Now, this is cultivation! This is what Martial Dao should be! The practice of martial arts is not merely learning how to fight. It's improving oneself, breaking free from the shackles of mortal life, and pushing beyond the limits of the body. Only then can it be called Martial Dao. Otherwise, no matter how refined the techniques become, they will remain nothing more than martial techniques, and there will never be a Martial Dao to condense.

What I've built here is true martial art. But it'll need to grow, spread, build influence, and even reshape the direction of this entire world, before Martial Dao can be condensed from it.

It also needs a name. Since this art is built around breaking the limits of mortal life, I'll call it the Extreme Martial Dao!

I don't have much time, though. Within three years, I need the Extreme Martial Dao School to reach the transcendent level and spread throughout the world. Once that happens, there should be Martial Dao in this world.

After three years, Lu Changsheng would be able to summon the power of his true body in the Immortal Martial World. Once the power of an Earthly Saint was projected into this world, breaking apart the condensed Martial Dao and obtaining its Martial Dao fragments would be easy. But of course, the Martial Dao had to come into existence first. If he failed to condense it within those three years, there would be no Martial Dao fragments for him to obtain, no matter how powerful his true body was.

So, Lu Changsheng began dividing the Extreme Martial Dao into distinct stages.

The first stage will be called First Growth. At this stage, the cultivator must fully develop the body's existing potential and push their physical condition to its natural limit. Only after reaching that limit can they attempt to break through it and enter the Second Growth stage.

At this point in time, Lu Changsheng was still not certain whether the Second Growth alone would be enough to cross the boundary into transcendence, but he was not worried about that for the time being. If getting to the Second Growth stage was not enough, he would just create a Third Growth stage.

With a thought, he summoned the Status Panel. When his consciousness first descended into this Secret World, he had already discovered that the panel had followed him here. Apparently, it was bound to his consciousness rather than his physical body.

[Status Panel]

Host: Lu Yuan

Crane Style: Visible Force

Extreme Martial Dao: First Growth (8%)

Lu Changsheng studied the information before him. His Extreme Martial Dao had already entered the First Growth stage, but his progress was only at eight percent. With his extraordinary Perception, he had a fairly accurate idea of where its current physical limits lay; he understood that this eight percent represented how far his body had developed toward those limits.

At this moment, there was no need to think about the Second Growth stage yet. If he could simply push his body to a hundred percent during the First Growth stage, the result would already be tremendous by this world's standards. Even Fortification Force martial artists would be completely outclassed. After all, no matter how refined their techniques were, what could they do against a fist carrying several thousand jin of force?

That was the fundamental difference between Lu Changsheng's Extreme Martial Dao and the conventional martial arts of this world. One focused on refining techniques within the limits of an ordinary human body, while the other sought to break those limits altogether.

1. What a scene! ☜