Chapter 209: Breakthrough (Part 1)

Hearing Rod’s voice coming from inside the cave, Melon was stunned, unable to believe it. Was this kid crazy? he thought to himself. But after a moment, he understood and wore a relieved smile. It was rare to see a young person working so hard, especially one who had already achieved great success. Such determination was even more precious. It was no exaggeration to say that Rod now had the strength to outshine everyone of his generation. Across the world, there was no one who could match Rod among his peers—his rivals had now risen to the level of the older generation.

“I’m going out for a while. Wait for me!” After pondering for a moment, Melon said to the inside before turning to leave, obviously to make some preparations. Finding a divine-level early-stage magical beast wasn’t easy, especially when it came to keeping such a beast at its peak combat readiness.

About half a day later, Melon returned with a satisfied smile, leading a magical beast as tall as a person, resembling a small mountain. Its massive body, bell-sized eyes, and fierce appearance, along with its long fangs, gave off a menacing aura.

Upon reaching the cave entrance, he kicked the poor beast inside without hesitation. “Hmm, at the peak of divine-level early stage—not bad. Keep working hard, kid!” Then he sat by the entrance, muttering to himself, never relaxing his vigilance. He closely monitored everything inside, worried that Rod might be in danger.

After all, although there was only one rank difference between late-stage quasi-divine and divine-level early stage, the gap was enormous—completely incomparable. To put it bluntly, even ten late-stage quasi-divine beasts would find it extremely difficult to kill one of divine-level early stage, almost impossible. This showed just how vast the difference between the two was.

The next moment, with a flash, a thunderous roar echoed! The sound of clashes was incessant—the battle was fierce.

Rod moved skillfully through the darkness. It had to be said that this magical beast was extremely powerful, but perhaps due to the environment, its strength had slightly diminished.

But Rod no longer cared about the environment. He unleashed his mental power, activating his Mind’s Eye, allowing him to clearly perceive everything around him. Even a drop or two of water fell under his control.

The Dark Dragon moved with fierce momentum, executing its moves with perfection—fluid and effortless, utterly seamless! Sword strikes came one after another without pause, like waves rolling in one after another, their force multiplying exponentially with each impact, full of variation and dynamic movement, with light steps.

Rod was now worlds apart from before he came here to train. If Rod before was like a hedgehog, full of sharp edges, now he was like a smooth rainflower stone, utterly smooth. Over the past month of training, Rod’s sharp corners had been smoothed out, and his mindset had stabilized. If sharp edges represented youth and recklessness, then his smoothness symbolized maturity, calmness, and composure.

As a peak early-stage divine-level magical beast, it quickly regained its composure after a brief moment of panic. Though Rod’s attacks were fierce, they lacked true power—after all, his strength was still confined to the mid-stage quasi-divine level. After pondering for a moment, he opted to switch to defense and counterattack, identifying the opponent’s weaknesses and fatal points before delivering a deadly strike—this was the most efficient and effective way to fight.

His mind was as firm as a rock, unshaken by any wind. Despite the magical beast’s fierce assaults, Rod simply dodged casually, yet each seemingly random dodge allowed him to easily avoid the most dangerous attacks. He moved with agility and ease, delivering occasional powerful strikes that hit vital points, causing the magical beast to cry out in pain.

“Good, you beast! I’ll have some fun with you today!” With a cold snort, remembering the purpose of this training, Rod put away the Dark Dragon and decided to engage in a wild and intense close-quarters battle.

Fighting a magical beast, especially one at the peak of early-stage divine level—would people think he was crazy if they heard about this? Anyway, it would surely stun everyone.

Suddenly, two figures moved swiftly, each collision seeming to shake the entire area, and each clash produced a roaring sound. Rocks from the cave ceiling kept falling, as if the cave might collapse at any moment.

As expected of a magical beast, its physique was truly formidable. If not for having reached the fourth form of his physical strength, Rod wouldn’t have been able to withstand such battles—even now, he was at a disadvantage.

His internal energy surged, bringing true numbness and pain throughout his body. Under such circumstances, his combat energy was fully unleashed, surging powerfully.

Boom… The sound of collisions echoed through the sky like thunder. Rod seemed to enjoy this brutal and direct form of combat, and the magical beast was equally thrilled, exerting all its strength with each collision.

They collided, then separated, collided again, and separated once more—a bizarre battle with an even more bizarre approach that left everyone in awe.

“That kid!” Melon shook his head with a wry smile. Naturally, he couldn’t miss what was happening inside. What could he say to such a fighting style? He could only be stunned and secretly admire the courage and madness involved.

If he hadn’t known something about him, he might have simply seen him as a madman, an abnormal being. He knew better than anyone just how formidable the magical beast’s physique was.

Aah… It was unclear which collision it was already. The magical beast let out a pained cry, furious at having lost to a human in a physical confrontation—a thing utterly unacceptable and a huge humiliation for a physical being like it.

Giving up on attacking, it focused entirely on the collisions. Now, two figures moved back and forth in the darkness, colliding endlessly. Thunder roared, the ground shook, and even the hills trembled. A madman and a mad beast, engaged in a mad battle.

Sent flying once again, Rod wiped the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. His surging energy filled him with excitement. Turns out, combat could be this thrilling and intense.

Rod could clearly feel the flow of his combat energy inside him moving many times faster than before, like a raging river, eager to break free from its constraints and plunge into the vast ocean.

“As expected!” he murmured, overjoyed. This feeling gave him hope for a breakthrough, a glimmer of hope for reaching the mid-stage divine level. So he redoubled his efforts.

Leaving Melon outside, sighing in amazement as he watched the battle.

That day, within a kilometer of that hill, the atmosphere was overwhelming. That day, all the magical beasts in that area lay prostrate, too afraid to move. Days of shaking ground and thunderous roars.

“Hahaha… Good! Do it again, harder! Give me a boost! I, Rod, will remember this kindness!” In his heightened excitement, Rod couldn’t help but roar with laughter. As he got closer, he felt the bottleneck beginning to loosen. Seeing himself on the verge of breaking free, how could he not be excited? He couldn’t stop now—or all his efforts would be in vain.

Rod was excited and happy, but the magical beast on the other side was not. Could it really be excited to be used as a punching bag? With its whole body numb and sore, it had never experienced such a situation before. It called the guy in front of it a pervert while also feeling extremely frustrated—when had it ever been in such a miserable state?

Fortunately, it could sense that the human in front of it didn’t seem to have any ill intentions; it seemed to be using it to break through its limits. Thinking of that terrifying existence outside, it could only fight hard despite its discomfort. No, it should be said it fought by colliding hard—each collision sent shivers through its body and filled it with fear. It could only pray that these days would end soon, that time would pass faster, and that it could achieve breakthrough sooner. pleasing that existence outside would bring many benefits to it.

Half a day had passed, and the chaos inside still hadn’t ended. Melon began to worry about the magical beast he had tricked into coming here. He knew a bit about that pervert Rod, so he guessed the magical beast wouldn’t get anything out of this.

“It should be almost time!” With the stars filling the sky, Melon murmured to himself as he calculated the time. A day had passed—should be about right. If it still didn’t work, there probably wasn’t much hope left.

With that thought, he lazily got up, stretched deeply, and walked toward the inside. Moments later, he arrived at the place where Rod was fighting. The scene was utterly gruesome. Thankfully, there were restrictions placed by the elder in this cave; otherwise, it might have collapsed long ago. Even so, the sight still filled Melon with fear.

“Hahaha… Good! Keep going, harder!” Eager and unbothered by the blood dripping from his mouth, Rod felt his blood boiling and his spirit ascending. It was almost there—he had reached the critical point and was on the verge of success. At this moment, he felt as powerful as if he had taken stimulants.

Hearing these words, the magical beast on the other side almost collapsed. It no longer felt anything in its body and was probably swollen all over. It had never been in such a miserable state before. If other magical beasts found out it was still alive, would it even survive?

Under the pressure of the stronger beings outside, it could only grit its teeth, close its eyes, and increase the force. All these deaths were just bad luck for it. It thought to itself that it was truly a ridiculous situation—magical beasts fighting humans through the most brutal and direct means, colliding until death. There had never been anyone like this before, and there would never be again. It was truly a huge joke.

If that’s really the case, there’s no choice but to accept it. After all, it was one’s own laziness in the past. If lucky enough to survive, the benefits would be immeasurable; who knows, one might even reach the intermediate stage of the divine level during this time. This is actually why this magical beast fights so hard.