At that moment, Jiang Chen’s Spirit Sea, having undergone a baptism akin to a tumultuous storm, now shone with the spectacular beauty of a rainbow after rain.
"Is this… is this the charm of the Earth Spirit Realm?" Jiang Chen felt his Spirit Sea—ethereal, powerful, brimming with infinite vitality.
Compared to his previous state in the Small Spirit Realm, the qualitative leap was palpable!
"Boom, boom, boom!"
Jiang Chen gently stirred his Spirit Sea and heard faint sounds of wind and thunder emanating from within.
The Spirit Sea of the Earth Spirit Realm truly possessed an imposing presence.
Jiang Chen felt that his Spirit Sea had increased in capacity by at least two or three times over.
Right now, Jiang Chen felt bursting with life energy. Countless streams of vitality surged within him, like restless beasts straining against their cage.
"Good, good, good! A breakthrough before battle. The bad luck from these days of fierce combat should finally be swept away!" Sensing the clear boost in his power, his heroic spirit soared.
He formed a hand seal and unleashed a powerful palm strike.
Boom, boom, boom!
As this seal was executed, the move carried a momentum like a dragon’s roar and a tiger’s growl. His spiritual energy vibrated like thunder tearing through the sky, overwhelming his opponent with sheer force.
The breakthrough to the Earth Spirit Realm had indeed granted Jiang Chen a fundamental leap in power.
Boom!
The mechanical puppet, struck by his palm seal, stumbled back several steps.
Jiang Chen felt like a fish in water. A torrent of inspiration flooded his mind. His previous understanding of the "Azure Underworld Life and Death Seal" seemed to undergo a complete sublimation in this moment. Ideas came one after another. His strikes became free as a galloping horse, as elusive as a goat’s horn hanging on a cliff—each move written with effortless artistry, smoothness, and natural grace.
He moved with the casual ease of a celestial being descending from the heavens, ethereal yet magnificent in scope.
The "Azure Underworld Life and Death Seal" contained the myriad phenomena of heaven and earth. All the seals were born from comprehending these phenomena, arising from the heart and taking form through hand gestures.
Suddenly, his seal was like an ancient mountain, suppressing evil.
Suddenly, it transformed into a vast ocean, devouring the land.
Now like a dragon soaring in the highest heavens; now like a tiger roaring in the wild.
At times like a sudden clap of thunder; at times like the aurora descending upon the world.
This majestic display of life-and-death seals, shifting through an infinite array of forms, allowed Jiang Chen to unleash the "Azure Underworld Life and Death Seal" to an unprecedented limit.
Coupled with the two-to-three-fold increase in offensive power after his breakthrough into the Earth Spirit Realm, and the restraining effect of the magnetic field, the mechanical puppet was almost instantly trapped in a completely passive, defenseless position.
The situation was as if the puppet had always been Jiang Chen’s training dummy, enduring his relentless bombardment.
Countless seals struck the mechanical puppet one after another. Even though the puppet was forged from extraordinary materials with astonishing defensive capabilities, it could not withstand such sustained devastation.
Boom!
The final seal, carrying the force of wind and thunder, utterly destroyed the mechanical puppet.
Jiang Chen slowly ceased his cultivation. Gazing at the puppet he had demolished on the ground, he couldn’t help but let out a silent sigh of relief.
By his estimation, not much time remained until the ten-day assessment deadline. If he hadn’t achieved a substantive breakthrough at the last possible moment, he would have had absolutely no chance of destroying the mechanical puppet.
The joy of breaking through to the Earth Spirit Realm, combined with successfully clearing the gate at the final instant, gave Jiang Chen double happiness and massive gains.
As he pushed the door open, countless eyes focused on him almost instantly.
"What? He… he’s out?"
"Did he… did he defeat the mechanical puppet?"
"Hasn’t the time run out? When time’s up, the puppet stops on its own. The puppet hasn’t stopped, so how did he get out?"
"Could it be… he really defeated the mechanical puppet?"
According to the rules, the secret chamber door would not open unless the puppet was defeated. The only exception was when time ran out, causing the puppet to halt automatically, which would then open the chamber.
Although the current moment was close to the deadline, there was still a small half-hour left. By the rules, the puppet would not stop before its time was up.