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

A week may feel like an eternity to viewers around the world waiting for the live stream, but for Jiang Chen, it was just a routine seven days.

Three days before the Apostle Temple Challenge, in the abandoned factory area south of Jiangzhou City.

Wang Kai stood on a wrecked open space, his feet resting on shattered concrete slabs and twisted steel bars. He was shirtless, sweat dripping from his lean muscles, his chest heaving violently like an engine nearing its limit after being overloaded. His right fist remained in the position it had thrown, its surface stained with concrete debris and dark red blood.

But he didn't stop.

He took a deep breath, and the meager spiritual energy within his body circulated again along the path Jiang Chen had taught him. This time, he tried to concentrate the spiritual energy three inches below his fist, rather than on the fist itself. The spiritual energy passed through muscles, bones, and skin, forming a tiny, almost imperceptible vortex three inches from the fist.

Then he punched the two-meter-diameter abandoned concrete block in front of him.

The concrete block was completely intact, without even a single crack.

Wang Kai was stunned for a second.

Subsequently, the concrete block began to disintegrate from the back.

"Brother Chen! I did it! I did it!" Wang Kai turned around, his expression a mix of excitement and disbelief, his voice cracking with emotion. "Look! I didn't even use my full strength on the surface; inside, it wasn't even powder, it turned into mud!"

Jiang Chen leaned against the wall not far away, his hands in his school uniform pockets, a blade of grass he'd picked up somewhere dangling from his mouth. He glanced at the pile of gray powder, then at Wang Kai's bleeding, scraped fist, and said, "Not bad."

Just two words.

Wang Kai's smile froze for a moment: "Not bad? Brother Chen, this is a block of concrete! Three days ago I could barely even break a cement slab, but now I can turn concrete into powder!"

"That's not powder, it's mud," Jiang Chen corrected him, his tone as calm as if he were grading homework. "Powder means the spiritual energy permeates evenly, mud means you didn't control it well when you finished, and the spiritual energy dissipated. Powder is a killing technique, mud is for demolishing houses. Do you want to learn how to kill or demolish houses?"

Wang Kai's smile vanished completely, and his face fell: "Kill...kill people."

"Then let's practice some more." Jiang Chen spat out the foxtail grass and walked over from the wall. He raised his right hand, put his index and middle fingers together, and casually pointed at another concrete block.

Silence. The concrete block still stood there, seemingly undamaged.

Then a gust of wind blew by. The concrete blocks, like sand sculptures awakened by the wind, turned into extremely fine dust starting from the edges, which was then swept up by the wind and drifted into the distance.

"Powder." Jiang Chen withdrew his hand and put it back in his pocket. "When you reach this level, then come talk to me about progress."

Wang Kai stared at the empty ground and swallowed hard. His fists were still bleeding, his spiritual energy was almost depleted, and his legs were trembling slightly from the overtraining, but his eyes shone with an alarming light.

"When will I be able to become like that? In a month? In a year?"

Jiang Chen glanced at him. The excitement and longing in those eyes were all too familiar—just like when he first entered the world of cultivation a thousand years ago.

"Don't rush," he said. "I've been cultivating for a thousand years to get to this point. You've only been cultivating for a few days?" He turned and walked out of the factory area, his voice coming from ahead, "Today's training is over. Go back and treat your hand injury."

"Brother Chen!" Wang Kai called from behind, "You're going to fight the Twelfth Apostle in a few days, can you take me with you? I can help! I'm not the same Wang Kai I used to be, I'm different now—"

"no."

Jiang Chen didn't turn around. "You're still too weak."

Wang Kai felt as if he had been doused with cold water. He looked down at his bleeding fist and the pile of gray powder he had kicked on the ground, and suddenly felt a little lost.

Jiang Chen stopped in his tracks. "It's not that you can't, it's that you're not ready yet. The path of cultivation is not something that can be accomplished overnight. Do you think I was born this strong? I started as an ant too."

Wang Kai looked up at his back.

"A thousand years ago, when I first entered the world of cultivation, I was even weaker than you. I was bullied, humiliated, and treated like trash. But I didn't give up. I climbed step by step, from the lowest level of Qi Refining to Tribulation Transcending, from being chased by demonic beasts to slaying demons like cutting vegetables. Over the past thousand years, I have become stronger every day."

He turned around and looked at Wang Kai. The afterglow of the setting sun shone from behind him, casting a faint golden hue on his silhouette.

"You've only been fixing it for a few days, what's the rush?"

Wang Kai was stunned. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

"Besides, everyone has their own pace. My path isn't suitable for you. You need to walk your own path." Jiang Chen looked at him. "Your most important thing right now isn't accompanying me to the Apostle Hall, but laying a solid foundation. Spiritual energy circulation, fist techniques, body tempering—these are what you should be practicing now. Once you've mastered these, I'll teach you more advanced techniques."

"Really?" Wang Kai's voice trembled slightly.

"real."

Wang Kai was silent for a moment, then nodded vigorously. His eyes were a little red, but he held back his tears.

"I'll wait for you to come back."

"Um."

Jiang Chen turned and took a few steps, then stopped. "Oh, right."

Wang Kai raised his head.

"Your punch had good surface control, but the depth of spiritual energy penetration wasn't deep enough. The concrete is only two meters thick, and you only penetrated 1.8 meters. The remaining 20 centimeters are your blind spot. If you encounter an enemy with stronger defenses, those 20 centimeters could be your death zone."

Wang Kai paused for a moment, then nodded vigorously: "Understood! I'll practice extra tonight!"

Jiang Chen didn't say anything more. He strode out of the abandoned factory area, his figure quickly disappearing into the twilight.

Wang Kai stood there, looking in that direction, and remained silent for a long time.

Then he looked down at his bleeding, bruised fist and suddenly laughed.

"Brother Chen, I'll wait for you to come back." He muttered to himself, "When you come back, I'll definitely be able to make up for those 20 centimeters."

He readjusted his stance, took a deep breath, channeled the last bit of spiritual energy remaining in his body, and punched another piece of concrete.

A muffled thud. The concrete block blasted open a shallow crater from its back—about twenty centimeters deep.

Wang Kai looked at the shallow pit, and the corners of his mouth slowly widened.

.....

On his way home, and even at his doorstep, there were many reporters waiting. They had been doing this for days, but Jiang Chen passed by them silently, giving them no time to react.

I had hoped to see more of the scenery in my hometown, but now that it's famous, it seems rather dull.

This week has passed in the blink of an eye, and the day to challenge the Twelfth Apostle's Hall has arrived.