After a thousand years of cultivation, he returns at the pinnacle!

My name is Astra.

The moment the name was uttered, the world changed color.

The entire void—this boundless, seemingly eternally still dark space of the hundredth level—came alive at this moment. Like a colossal beast that had slumbered for billions of years finally opening its eyes, every inch of the void trembled, every wisp of darkness surged, and countless dark golden lines emerged from the depths of the void, like blood vessels, like meridians, like some ancient and enormous life form awakening.

Astra stood there, arms outstretched, her long, silvery-white hair flying wildly behind her.

His injuries—the shattered bones Jiang Chen had broken, the sunken cheekbones, the shattered eye sockets—healed instantly in the light. The broken bone fragments flew back to their original positions like iron filings attracted by a magnet, the severed blood vessels were stitched together as if by invisible needles and thread, and the torn skin was re-covered as if it had never been injured. The entire process took less than a second.

Jiang Chen's brow twitched slightly.

Astra lowered his arms and slowly raised his head. His golden pupils had completely changed—no longer the gentle, languid gold of before, but a fiery, molten color, like liquid gold boiling. Deep within his pupils, countless tiny runes flowed, flickered, vanished, and were reborn, each rune representing a law, an unchangeable absolute law etched into his very essence.

"Jiang Chen." He spoke, his voice no longer coming from his throat, but from the entire void, deep, resonant, carrying an ancient echo that had endured countless ages, "You just asked me if it should be more than that."

He took a step forward.

In the void, a dark golden shockwave exploded beneath his feet. The shockwave spread in all directions, and wherever it passed, the void itself began to twist, fold, and shatter.

"You're right."

Another step.

The shockwave intensified. The shattered fragments of space were further pulverized within it, transforming into countless tiny specks of light, suspended in the void like an inverted sea of ​​stars. Each speck of light represented a fragment of shattered space, each fragment bearing a fraction of the power of these hundred-billionths of the previous layers. They hovered there, silently awaiting their master's summons.

"I am immortal."

third step.

Astra stopped. She was about thirty paces away from Jiang Chen.

He stood there, his black robes fluttering in the air, his long silver hair billowing behind him like banners. The aura he exuded was completely different from before. If he was a sword sheathed before, then at this moment, he was a peerless divine weapon unsheathed, burning, capable of cleaving stars.

He raised his right hand, fingers spread, palm facing upward. In his palm, a ball of dark golden light was gathering, its color deeper, richer, and darker than before, as if an entire star had been compressed into the size of a fist. "This is one of my rules—on this hundredth level, my existence is etched into this space itself. As long as space exists, I will not perish. As long as space is immortal, I will not die."

He clenched his fist tightly.

The dark golden sphere exploded in his palm, transforming into countless rays of light that shot out in all directions. The rays struck the suspended fragments of space, activating, illuminating, and giving life to each one. They spun, danced, and converged in the void, like countless fireflies, like countless stars, like a silent and vast army arrayed in formation.

"Three hundred years." Astra's voice echoed in the void, deep and calm, yet carrying an undeniable authority. "In three hundred years, no one has been able to force me to use this state. You are the first."

His gaze fell on Jiang Chen, the figure in the school uniform reflected in his golden pupils.

You should be proud.

Jiang Chen remained silent.

He simply stood there, his right hand hanging at his side, his left hand in his school uniform pocket, his posture as casual as if he were taking a stroll in his own neighborhood. But his eyes—those eyes that were always calm and still as water—had a slight change at that moment.

It's been a thousand years.

He lived in the cultivation world for a thousand years, shattering the void, splitting the heavens, comprehending the three thousand Great Daos, and ascending to the pinnacle of the world. He had seen countless powerful figures and slain countless opponents, from the initial ants to the final gods and Buddhas, but no one could make him truly take them seriously.

He assumed the world would be no exception.

But at this moment, the apostle standing before him—this being who claimed to be "immortal"—stirred a long-lost restlessness in his blood.

"Immortal and indestructible?" Jiang Chen's lips curled up slightly, the curve more pronounced than ever before, carrying a dangerous, almost provocative meaning. "Then I'll see how many times you can resurrect."

He moved.

There was no charging, no warning, not even an afterimage. One moment he was standing thirty paces away, the next his fist had already slammed into Astra's chest.

That punch was more powerful than any of the previous ones.

Astra's chest was smashed open, leaving a dent the size of a bowl. The sound of his ribs breaking was crisp and rapid, like a series of firecrackers exploding in the void. His body flew backward at such a speed that he shattered a large portion of the floating spatial fragments, turning them into countless specks of light.

He flew three times the distance he had before.

But he stopped.

The bowl-sized dent in his chest was visibly healing. The broken ribs were rejoining, the collapsed sternum was rising again, and the torn muscles were re-weaving. By the time he reached Jiang Chen, his chest had completely returned to normal, even the wrinkles in his clothes had disappeared.

"I have said it before, I am immortal."

His right fist, enveloped in a dark golden light, slammed towards Jiang Chen's face.

Jiang Chen turned his head to avoid it.

The punch grazed past his ear, the force of the blow creating a crater tens of meters in diameter in the void behind him. At the edge of the crater, space was slowly repairing itself, but at an alarmingly slow pace—the power of Astra's punch had exceeded the upper limit of this void's self-repairing ability.

Jiang Chen's eyes lit up.

"good."

He raised his right knee and pressed it against Astra's abdomen.

The force of that knee strike was enough to pulverize a mountain. Astra's abdomen was dented deeply, dark golden liquid spilled from the corner of his mouth, his body arched into a shrimp shape, and he was sent flying backward once more.

But this time, he flew a shorter distance.

He steadied himself less than fifty meters away, grabbed the air with both hands, and his ten fingers dug deep into the space itself, as if he were grabbing an invisible curtain, forcibly pulling himself to a stop.

He straightened up, the indentation in his abdomen rapidly healing. He wiped the dark gold liquid from the corner of his mouth, looked at Jiang Chen, and a smile appeared on his lips.

"Your fist is heavy."

He moved his shoulders, and his bones made a cracking sound.

"But your fists can't kill me."

He spread his arms, tilted his head back, and his long, silvery-white hair flew wildly behind him.

"Come on, let me see how many times you can break me."