Chapter 257: Hellish Training

“What exactly do you want!” Rod had seen through this madman—Melon was nothing but a lunatic, a sadist in disguise. His words and expression made Rod ask warily.
“Nothing, hehe, I’m just thinking about how to train you next!” With a sinister grin, Melon spoke excitedly, his gaze toward Rod completely changed.
“Heaven, great Beast God, please protect this poor guy!” Behind them, Rubio, who had witnessed everything, prayed devoutly, as if he had seen something terrifying.
As expected, the days that followed were like entering hell. Rod didn’t even remove that dark object after returning; instead, Melon, the pervert, went even further and forced him to wear a set of extremely terrifying equipment.
The material of this set was identical to that dark object. Under their combined effect, Rod’s combat energy almost stopped flowing, and the weight borne by his body exceeded 5,000 units—all he could do was endure it.
Every step required every ounce of his strength. That wasn’t all—worse still, Melon demanded that Rod train underwater in this gear.
He trained underwater in the morning and fought in that terrifying cave in the afternoon. Although the opponents sent were weak, barely at the Imperial or early Saint level, Rod was utterly overwhelmed. His strength was suppressed, and if it weren’t for his strength and the equipment protecting him, he would have been killed long ago.
He would rather face opponents at the late Divine level without the gear—it would be at least more straightforward, allowing him to fight freely without restrictions.
For ten full days, Rod lived in hell. Even Rubio, watching from afar, could no longer bear it. He didn’t understand why Melon’s personality had changed so drastically, turning his training methods so violent. Seeing Rod’s pale, weak appearance, Rubio’s heart ached, fearing he might be the next target.
Because of this, he found an excuse to leave that terrifying place and train elsewhere, returning only briefly before leaving immediately to avoid Melon and prevent himself from being implicated.
“Old man, what exactly do you want? Damn you, what are you trying to do?” One day, Rod finally exploded. He glared fiercely at Melon and demanded an answer. He had had enough—enough of this inhumane life, enough of this abuse.

“How’s your explosive power now?” Melon asked indifferently in response to Rod’s question.
“I’ve trained! Didn’t I train in the water last time?” Rod replied confidently after a brief pause.
“Hmph, that’s called training too? It’s just superficial. I haven’t seen any real evidence of your explosive power. If it were truly strong, you wouldn’t have lost so badly in that fight against Duan Tianren. With your Dragon Roar technique and sufficient explosive power, you could easily kill a divine-level advanced warrior without even breaking a sweat. But your technique was blocked by him? Even Zi Yang could easily counter it. What’s that supposed to mean?” Melon continued, sneering.
After hearing this, Rod stood there at a loss for words.
“You think the fifth level of physical cultivation is impressive? Let me tell you—for others, physical cultivation only goes up to six levels. The fifth level is already quite good, as those who reach it are usually strong warriors at the Yin Yellow realm, and there are only a handful of them in the entire demon race. But you’re different. Maybe Sognar and the others didn’t tell you, but I can assure you that your physical cultivation is actually at the ninth level. The fifth level? That’s barely half! Satisfied?” Melon said mockingly after giving Rod another disdainful glance.
“You…” Rod, being mocked repeatedly, couldn’t say a word. A huge doubt arose in his mind: Why was his physical cultivation at the ninth level? Why such a huge gap? Could there be some secret?
“Don’t ask me. Go to the Netherworld and find out. What I can tell you is that if you encounter a true fifth-level physical cultivator from the demon race now, you’ll be utterly defeated. Take Zi Yang, for example—he’s just reached the fifth level. What chance do you have against him? None at all!” Melon kept revealing shocking truths, leaving Rod stunned.
“What’s going on?” Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Rod finally asked hesitantly, realizing there must be some huge secret he didn’t know. What was the Netherworld? Why would he need to go there to find out?
The Scorpion King clan said the same, as did the Black Phoenix clan and the Dragon clan. Now Melon said the same. Who was he really? Why was he connected to the Netherworld? Who was his father? The more he thought about it, the more things seemed wrong! He felt like he was trapped in a huge game, seemingly just a pawn.

What exactly lies hidden within? Why does everyone else know while I’m the only one in the dark? Rod found it all rather amusing.
“Cough, cough, cough… That’s all I can tell you. Once you go to the Netherworld, you’ll understand. I still want to live a few more years, so I can’t say too much. Hehe, but don’t worry—there are no more than ten people who know about this, and they won’t reveal it. You can be 100% sure of that!” Melon said soothingly, covering his helplessness with a dry cough.
“Practice your explosive power hard these next few days! The other things can wait. With these two skills, it will greatly benefit your cultivation. I believe you’ll realize it. Although we don’t know what exactly happened to you that brought you so close to the upper mid-stage of the divine realm—just half a step away from the upper stage—we believe that with such cultivation and your talent, it’s not impossible to reach the upper stage in two months!” Changing the subject, Melon shifted the conversation to cultivation, seemingly unwilling to continue on that topic.
At the same time, he felt a hint of excitement and anticipation, eager to see how many miracles this young guy could bring about. Two months—going from mid-stage to upper stage, completing divine-level cultivation in less than half a year. An unprecedented feat that no one else had ever achieved. He must witness it with his own eyes.
“Explosive power!” Rod murmured to himself, lost in thought, recalling the competition. It seemed, as Melon had said, that his explosive power had improved a lot compared to before, but it was still insignificant. He was still behind people like Ziyang, especially when facing Ziyang’s terrifying strength, which made him feel powerless.
“Hmm, explosive power. Your explosive power is far from enough. What I want is for it to be so powerful that when it’s used, it’s astonishing. Calm as the wind, but once it acts, it’s like a storm that can destroy everything,” Melon said gravely, nodding.
This had always been his goal. Unfortunately, he might never achieve it in his lifetime. But now was different. He saw hope—hope that a goal he couldn’t achieve himself might be possible for Rod. All he had to do was help Rod achieve this goal, shaping him into a terrifyingly strong warrior.

“Still as the wind, yet with the power of thunder!” He murmured under his breath, then looked up at Melon after a moment: “I understand. Don’t worry—I’ll show you my strength before entering the Netherworld!” With that, he turned and left, leaving behind Melon’s long silhouette.

“Perhaps…” Melon stared at Rod’s back, his lips moving slightly as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, only a sigh escaped him. His expression was complex: “Have I put too much pressure on him? After all, he’s still just a 20-year-old boy!”

From that day on, Rod’s training became frantic. Not only was Rubio terrified to watch, but even Melon felt pity. The relentless daily training left him pale, yet the determination in his eyes made it impossible to interrupt him. He got up after falling once, and again after falling twice—still stubborn. Morning training by the pond, afternoon training in the black hole, and evening training with combat energy—never stopping.

A month later, when Rod could move more easily, everyone realized one thing: at this point, Rod was like a dragon stranded on land. Once he returned to the sea and shed his shackles, he would soar through the skies, creating terrifying waves.

Melon’s excitement grew stronger as he looked forward to it, while Rubio’s admiration deepened—admiring Rod’s terrifying perseverance and firm resolve. Effort and reward are usually proportional; surely, after this, Rod would make another leap forward. By then, perhaps he himself would be nothing more than a pebble at the foot of that dragon’s mountain.

One and a half months later, at Melon’s request, Rod shed his shackles. In an instant, elements surged around him, spinning wildly around Rod like a terrifying tornado—unstoppable and awe-inspiring.

Yet Rod felt light as a swallow. At that moment, he felt as if he could float, driven by an urge to roar. Suppressing that urge, he leaped upward, reaching dozens of meters into the air. With his eyes tightly closed, he remained motionless. Suddenly, he opened his eyes wide, and a beam of light, tangible as solid matter, flashed by. Then, like a dark dragon drawn from its sheath, he swung his sword!

Boom… The ground shook, waves surged, the entire pond trembled, the land trembled, and the sky lost its color.

The pond was strangely split in two, revealing the bottom. There, a terrifying crack appeared, sinking dozens of meters deep. Water rushed toward the shore, creating a flood that doomed the creatures in the water.

Ahh… Finally, Rod let out a long cry as his emotions found release, the sound reaching every corner of the sky. His explosive power was astonishing—enough to cut through water currents and even divide a pond. No one dared imagine the strength of that strike; everyone was filled with horror. Even Melon, with his skills at the Yin Yellow level, might be able to do this, but not so easily. This was the power of an explosive strike—a terrifying blow.