Chapter 261.1: The Final Push! Lu Changsheng Walks Across the Sea and Smashes a Ten-Thousand-Ton Warship! (I)

Boom! Boom! Boom!

All of a sudden, a deafening roar shook the entire arena as flames covered the combat ring. Without anyone noticing, the Bomb Maniac had planted explosives throughout the arena, and the moment Lu Yuan agreed to face all ten experts at once, he detonated every bomb.

He had no intention of sparing the others either. The ten finalists were competitors to begin with, and whether they survived was none of his concern. All that mattered was that Lu Yuan burned with them.

The Bomb Maniac had already slipped away before triggering the explosives and retreated a safe distance. No one else had been given that chance, so he was sure that anyone still standing in the combat ring would have been blown to pieces, including Lu Yuan.

As the bombs went off, the spectators erupted in shock. No one had expected the final day of the Extreme Martial Dao Grand Tournament to end like this.

After weeks of promotion and countless matches, anticipation surrounding Lu Yuan had reached its peak. People across the world had been waiting to see whether the legendary founder of Extreme Martial Dao was truly as powerful as the rumors claimed.

They had expected him to demonstrate the strength of Extreme Martial Dao before the entire world. Instead, he had apparently been blown apart before throwing a single punch.

As the flames gradually subsided, an uneasy silence spread through the venue. The same silence seemed to settle over countless homes, restaurants, public squares, and other places where people were watching the tournament through television broadcasts and online streams.

The Bomb Maniac burst into laughter. "Dead! They're all dead! Martial Dao experts, elite marksmen, and chemical specialists, what good were any of you? One round of explosives sent the whole lot of you straight into the sky!

His excitement grew as he stared at the subsiding flames.

"Now that Lu Yuan is dead, I am the ultimate victor. That's one billion in prize money, and the Extreme Martial Dao Center better pay every last cent!"

The money had been his goal from the beginning. With one billion in his pocket, there would be no reason to keep making bombs or risking his life. He could retire immediately and spend the rest of his days enjoying himself.

"Now this... is quite the welcome." A familiar voice cut through the smoke and dust. A sturdy figure emerged from the haze, his figure blackened with soot, his clothes torn to rags, looking utterly bedraggled.

He was none other than Lu Yuan, the creator of the Extreme Martial Dao. The man rumored to be impervious to blades and bullets, capable of catching bullets with his bare hands and enduring explosions, was still alive!

The crowd broke into an uproar, and many in the audience started whispering among themselves.

"Th-This can't be real. Can a human body actually survive an explosion like that?"

"I always thought those stories about catching bullets and withstanding bombs were exaggerated. I mean, who in the world isn't afraid of bullets and bombs? How did he survive..."

"So everything they said about the Extreme Martial Dao was true. They weren't exaggerating at all."

"If the Extreme Martial Dao can make someone this strong, could ordinary people eventually train their bodies to withstand explosions too?"

Countless people around the world sat stunned, watching it unfold with their own eyes. Even prominent figures rose from their seats without meaning to, staring fixedly at the figure standing in the arena.

Lu Yuan continued forward until he emerged completely from the lingering smoke, and only then could everyone see him clearly. The other nine finalists had disappeared in the explosion, yet he alone remained standing after taking the full force of the blast.

His appearance was miserable. His clothes were ruined, and he was covered in soot. But beneath all that grime, there was not a single wound on him.

"You... H-How are you still alive?" stammered the Bomb Maniac. No one understood the destructive power of those explosives better than he did. He had planted and detonated them himself. The blast had been powerful enough to tear apart even a tank, so how did Lu Yuan walk out without a single injury? This was simply beyond the Bomb Maniac's imagination.

Lu Changsheng approached him without hurry. Reaching out, he seized the Bomb Maniac by the collar and lifted him off the ground.

"I surrender! I surrender!" cried the Bomb Maniac.

He did not hesitate for even a moment. If that explosion could not kill Lu Yuan, there was nothing he could possibly do to defeat him. Surrendering immediately was his only chance of getting out alive.

Lu Changsheng set the man down and turned to look around at his surroundings. This time he had barely lifted a finger, and yet the tournament was already over.

"It seems no one will be claiming that one-billion prize after all," said Lu Changsheng, sounding almost disappointed that the fight had ended so quickly.

Boom!

Suddenly, Lu Changsheng suddenly sensed a tremendous change in the Martial Dao. Countless streams of consciousness were now pouring into it from all directions, causing it to expand at an astonishing rate. Previously, it was only around ten percent, but in the span of a few moments, it surged beyond fifty percent.

And this was only the beginning...

After witnessing Lu Yuan survive that explosion unharmed, the world would no longer have any reason to doubt the claims surrounding Extreme Martial Dao. Its reputation had now been established beyond question, and the number of people practicing it was certain to soar. There might soon be ten times as many practitioners, or perhaps even a hundred times as many.

As more people accepted and practiced Extreme Martial Dao, the Martial Dao would continue to grow. And once it reached one hundred percent, Lu Changsheng could finally collect Martial Dao fragments from it.

Lu Changsheng turned his attention toward the cameras. "By now, all of you have seen what the Extreme Martial Dao is capable of. Becoming impervious to blades and bullets, catching bullets with your bare hands, and withstanding explosions are only the beginning.

"Once you repeatedly break through your limits and advance into Second Growth, Third Growth, or even Fourth Growth, your lifespan will increase dramatically. At its core, the Extreme Martial Dao is the evolution of life.

"Every time you break through a limit, your life undergoes another evolution. And living beyond a hundred years, two hundred years, three hundred years, or perhaps even a thousand years may all become possible in the future with the Extreme Martial Dao.

"Now, because this is an opportunity for the entire human race to evolve, I have decided to make the training methods of the Extreme Martial Dao public. Anyone can learn them, and no one will have to pay. Every person in this world will have the opportunity to set foot on this path of evolution."

Lu Changsheng then explained the principles of the Extreme Martial Dao directly to the cameras, presenting them in a way that ordinary people could easily understand, which was the concept of evolution. ℴ

Terms such as "cultivation" and "breakthroughs" could sound obscure or even mystical to those unfamiliar with them. Evolution, however, was something almost everyone understood. The Extreme Martial Dao was a means of driving the evolution of human life, and this framing transformed the way the world perceived it.

Years later, historians would look back on this day as the beginning of an entirely new era. It would come to be known as "Evolution Day," while the year itself would be remembered as "Year One of Evolution."

With that, the Extreme Martial Dao Grand Tournament came to a successful close, but the enthusiasm surrounding Extreme Martial Dao did not fade with it. Instead, it spread across the world faster than it ever had.

Countless people began practicing it using the training methods Lu Yuan had released for free. After all, who would turn down the chance to evolve? Who would not want to catch bullets bare-handed and survive explosions? And most of all, who would not want to live for hundreds, even thousands of years?

Lu Yuan had already proven—with his own fleshly body—that his claims were not empty boasts. The entire world had watched him survive an explosion that ought to have torn a human being apart. So, once he explained Extreme Martial Dao as a path toward the evolution of life, the final doubts surrounding it rapidly disappeared, and many people began to practice it.

As the Extreme Martial Dao became the defining movement of the century, Lu Changsheng himself withdrew from the public eye. After setting this transformation in motion, he became increasingly low-profile and rarely appeared before the public.