High Martial Arts: Gains one point of health per second, sweeping across the heavens.

He gritted his teeth, enduring the oppressive force that threatened to crush him, and took a sudden step forward, straightening his spine, and shouted:

"Stand up, all of you! The backbone of our human race will rather break standing than live on our knees! Listen up, you beasts over there, even if we shed our last drop of blood today, you will never make us bow our heads!"

"Huh?" The demonic beast high in the sky seemed to have discovered an interesting toy. "Strange insect. Your life structure... is quite interesting. How can such a weak body contain such potential?"

A terrifying pressure, far exceeding anything seen before, was directed at Su Jie alone!

The space around him froze instantly, his knees creaked painfully, and his soul screamed wildly, urging him to kneel down and submit to this absolute power!

"Confess your secrets." The command was direct. "Or, lower your soul's defenses and offer your mark of loyalty. Surrender is your only way out."

The surrounding martial artists looked at Su Jie, who was being targeted alone, with horror. Some felt sympathy, some were numb, and some had a complex look in their eyes.

Su Jie felt that every inch of his flesh and every bone was wailing and being crushed.

The shadow of death had never been so clear. He could even "see" the flickering flame of his soul under that oppressive force.

A way out? Surrender?

These two words, like sparks, fell into the sea of ​​oil in his heart, which had already been ignited by countless sacrifices, by the despair before him, and by the raging fire of fury!

He suddenly raised his head, his face contorted with extreme pressure, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, but his eyes shone like a ferocious beast on the verge of death!

He mustered all his strength to resist the oppressive force that was almost suffocating him, and squeezed out his answer, word by word, through clenched teeth:

"My...secret..." He took a deep breath and let out a hoarse roar, "...is called...Hard Bones!!"

"You want me to kneel?!" His eyes were bloodshot as he stared intently into the pair of blood-red, star-like pupils deep within the void. "Fine! Do whatever you want with me after I'm dead!"

"As for submission?" A crazed and ferocious smile stretched across his face. "My knees, Su Jie's knees, will only kneel to my parents, my teachers, and the righteous spirit of heaven and earth! You, a mere beast, what are you?! You dare to challenge me?!"

"Let's see if your claws are harder, or my bones are harder!!"

He stopped wasting words and gathered all his will, all his resentment, and all his anger, pouring them into his left arm, which was now fused with the Immortal Martial Bone!

He swung his sword fiercely at the source of destruction! This was his final answer to fate!

The being deep within the starry sky fell silent.

The scene changed in the next moment.

Su Jie found himself standing in a stone hall. Inside the hall, there was only an ordinary futon and a hazy painting hanging on the stone wall.

Just as Su Jie was wondering, a mechanical voice, seemingly from nowhere, rang out, echoing clearly throughout the hall:

"Congratulations to the test taker for passing the 'Myriad Manifestations Heart Refining Array' test."

Su Jie suddenly looked up, his sharp eyes scanning his surroundings, his entire body tensing instantly.

The voice continued calmly:

"Everything you have just experienced was an illusion, designed to test the trial participant's character, will, and integrity in absolute adversity."

"What?!" Su Jie blurted out, his face showing disbelief for the first time. The scenes he had just witnessed were so real that he really thought he was about to die!

However, Su Jie immediately laughed: "So, there were no monsters invading, and those people are all still alive?"

"nature."

"That's good." He let out a long sigh of relief, his tense shoulders finally relaxing. "I almost really thought we were going to die."

The mechanical voice continued: "The Myriad Manifestations Refining Heart Array points directly to the heart; all experiences arise from the heart. You previously gained the qualification to enter this place, and you were able to uphold your heart even in dire circumstances, remaining unyielding. You have passed the test."

"Congratulations, you have officially become a prospective disciple of the Myriad Manifestations Celestial Sect."

Myriad Manifestations Celestial Sect? Prospective disciple?

Upon hearing the words "Myriad Manifestations Heavenly Sect," Su Jie's heart stirred, and he couldn't help but ask, "Myriad Manifestations Heavenly Sect? What is its relationship with this Myriad Manifestations Heavenly Palace?"

The mechanical voice seemed to have anticipated his question and calmly explained, "The 'Myriad Manifestations Heavenly Palace' that you see is not the real entity, but one of the millions of projections of the main body of our sect's supreme treasure, the 'Myriad Manifestations Heavenly Palace'."

And I am the spirit that maintains the operation of this Myriad Manifestations Heavenly Palace projection; you may call me the 'Palace Spirit.'

"The Myriad Manifestations Heavenly Palace has countless avatars scattered across the heavens and the starry sea, traveling through the myriad realms. On one hand, it is to leave behind various martial arts foundations for the human race in this starry sky, spreading martial arts across the starry sky. On the other hand, it is to search for and assess disciples with extremely high potential like you for the sect."

Upon hearing this, Su Jie was greatly shocked!

He had always believed that this mysterious and unpredictable Myriad Manifestations Palace, which contained countless opportunities and was highly valued by the Federation, was a fixed and incredibly powerful secret realm or relic.

Who would have thought it was just a projection of a supreme treasure? And there are thousands upon thousands of such projections in the starry sky?

What kind of incredible divine artifact must the true body of the Myriad Manifestations Heavenly Palace be? And what kind of terrifying behemoth must the Myriad Manifestations Heavenly Sect be to possess such a divine artifact?

No wonder I could only become a prospective disciple; after all, my current cultivation level was only at the half-step Body Tempering Realm.

As Su Jie pondered, a flash of light appeared in the stone hall, and an ancient jade tablet with the words "Prepare" appeared out of thin air on the futon in front of Su Jie, along with three bottles of liquid flowing with a jade-like luster, the bottles engraved with the ancient character "Quench".

"This is a top-grade bone-tempering liquid specially provided by the Myriad Manifestations Heavenly Sect for prospective disciples in the Body Tempering Realm. It can help you accelerate the tempering of your bones," the mechanical voice explained. "The stone hall you are in is exclusively for prospective disciples of the Myriad Manifestations Heavenly Sect."

This meditation cushion has the effect of calming the mind and accelerating energy absorption; the scroll on the wall is the first volume of the sect's core inheritance, "The Myriad Manifestations of Gods and Demons Suppressing Prisons," a visualization diagram that can nourish the soul and is of great benefit to the cultivation of the soul.

Furthermore, you can use your prospective disciple token to teleport to this stone hall at any time, or to any place on this planet you have ever been.

Su Jie then realized that the prospective disciple token and this simple stone hall were both great treasures!

Su Jie sat cross-legged on the futon in the stone hall, his gaze filled with curiosity and solemnity as he looked at the first volume of the "Myriad Gods and Demons Suppressing Prison Map" on the wall, which was said to contain supreme inheritance.

"The Myriad Gods and Demons Suppressing Prison Diagram... Just the name exudes domineering power. I wonder what kind of earth-shattering divine and demonic scenes it depicts?"

He took a deep breath, focused his mind, and slowly immersed his consciousness into the image, preparing to receive the overwhelming information.

however--

The anticipated grand spectacle of roaring gods and demons did not materialize.

Before his eyes, or rather, within his conscious perception, there was only a void of darkness. And in the center of that darkness, suspended... a curved hair?