This mysterious power is in no way inferior to the Five Elements Technique; Su Mu felt a bit astonished, yet he did not immediately try to comprehend it, instead stowing all the contents of the box into the Sumeru Ring before leaving.

Afterward, Su Mu entered a dense forest and walked up to a tree so thick it would take one person’s arms to encircle it. Halfway up the trunk, just about level with Su Mu’s waist, there was a sudden opening in the wood—its diameter just a shade smaller than Su Mu’s current fist.

"Dark Force."

This was the old tree Su Mu used back when he tested his Dark Force.

"Let’s try again."

Su Mu’s eyes shone brightly; he turned to the back of the big tree, clenched his fist, and struck out. The punch looked utterly calm, floating and seemingly without strength, like a three-year-old child throwing a playful punch.

"Sss!"

At the very instant his fist landed, the tree just a few inches away gave off a crisp tearing sound. One punch—Su Mu drew back his fist and stood quietly, eyes shimmering and flickering with sharp light.

"Crash!"

A cool mountain breeze swept by. Suddenly, a tree more than ten feet away snapped sharply in the middle. Branches tumbled noisily to the ground, dust swirling up in the air.

That tree, whose trunk was thick as a man’s waist, was shattered from a distance by Su Mu’s light, effortless strike. On close inspection, one would find that the broken surface was as smooth as a mirror, as though cleaved straight across by a treasure saber sharp enough to slice iron as if it were mud.

If anyone else had witnessed this scene, they would surely feel chills down their spine. Such a casual blow could break a tree as thick as a man’s waist; what fate would a flesh-and-blood body meet if facing such a strike?

Yet if someone sharp-eyed were present, they’d find something ordinary people could not perceive: before the sound was made, the tree had already been thoroughly cut in two.

The invisible thing that severed the giant tree was none other than the terrifyingly condensed Gang Force; when Su Mu punched, the force left his body, forming an inch-thick invisible Gang Force that instantly split the giant tree more than ten feet away.

The power leaves the body, cleaving the massive tree in two from a distance of several inches.

All this was simply astonishing!

Earlier, by combining the Rock Shattering Fist and Gale Fist, Su Mu managed to create the Thunder Shock Fist, able to unleash fist force through the air, striking enemies up to nine feet away, like the Thunder Spear. But in truth, those attacks didn’t purely harm by power alone.

Rather, it was blending force with the air and leveraging crafty skill—turning air into invisible blade soldiers, launching them out with force. It was just a change of medium, using the intangible "air" to harm.

Here, however, Su Mu used no tricks at all. He truly pushed his power out past his body, letting it condense outside into unbroken Gang Force. Even if only an inch, it went from nothing to something—opening the door to a brand new world.

Given time and effort, once Su Mu restored the force burned away within him to its peak, this mere inch would be only the beginning, the first step!

Su Mu slowly raised his right hand. A red glow stretched out from his five fingers, condensing into a one-inch thick, semi-translucent red "little shield."

"This is Gang Force... Right now, mine is only an inch thick; it still needs to be nourished and strengthened!"

Compared to Pill Force, Gang Force is a whole level higher in terms of solidity—unyielding and unstoppable, able to easily destroy the toughest meridians and the hardest armor bones!

But Gang Force is not limited to that—Pill Force’s greatest point lay in its explosive burst after condensation, while Gang Force is overwhelming in all respects and exceeds even that!

Unhurried, Su Mu lifted his right leg and channeled Gang Force to his foot before stomping down hard.

Thud!

The instant his foot hit the ground, Gang Force erupted explosively.

Rumble!

The earth reacted as though hammered by a hundred thousand heavy blows; fractures spread out from beneath his foot, massive cracks ripped open the ground, and the nearby trees and weeds were shattered by the resulting shockwaves, completely reduced to dust and splinters.

It was as if a bomb had gone off at his feet.

With Su Mu as the center, the ground for several yards all around sank downward, dust billowing into the sky, the whole mountain hill shuddering from the force.

The spectacle left even Su Mu himself shocked; at the start of his martial cultivation, he could never have imagined that after only a few short years, he could unleash such terrifying power from mere flesh and blood.

"So strong... Deserving of the Gang Force attained through the Fifth Refining Force above Pill Force!"

Even Su Mu himself could not disguise his astonishment and delight at the scene before him. Such Gang Force was well worth all his painstaking condensation.

The burning of Fire Sparrow Force had left the total power in his body less than one-twentieth of his peak.

But this current "weakness" was only temporary: the Lower Three Grades is the Body Tempering Realm, and Refining Force is the First Body Tempering Realm—also the first realm of Martial Dao.

Just as Su Mu stubbornly believed that the initial forging and folding of iron in Artifact Refining was critically important, so too did he regard Refining Force as absolutely crucial in Martial Dao.

Just like the beam supporting the sea for a mighty pillar, only by building a solid foundation can one later hope to grow into a towering giant tree.

"Let’s test the power of refining a pill."

After experimenting with the explosion and lethality of Gang Force, Su Mu turned his attention to its cultivation method. He sat down where he was, swallowed a Jade Bone Pill, and urged Gang Force to break open its medicinal power,

Soon, Su Mu slowly opened his eyes, visibly satisfied.

"Not bad; after Pill Force’s transformation into Gang Force, my efficiency refining Jade Bone Pills has multiplied several times. In future, refining three or five Jade Bone Pills will take no more time than one used to take."

So it was with refining Jade Bone Pills; likewise with Muscle-Toning Powder, and in days to come, even Middle Third Grade Elixirs would be refined this way.

"Time to leave."

Su Mu departed, quite pleased.

After dawn, several brave villagers from Dongbian Village showed up at the foot of the mountain; last night they’d all heard an earth-shaking crash in the middle of the night.

"An earthquake—it really was an earthquake last night!"

The villagers saw the collapsed ground, each with expressions of sudden realization.

...

Deeper inside the mountain.

Spiritual light flashed in Su Mu’s hand as he once more retrieved the sandalwood box he’d buried earlier, taking out the ancient text with a yellowed cover and beginning to read it again.

The moment he flipped it open, Su Mu was briefly stunned, but his eyes soon grew bright—with not a trace of lewdness in them.

On every page of the ancient text, vivid and alluring figures met his eyes—Su Mu turned the pages one by one, his brow tightly furrowed.

After going through it once, Su Mu still could not gain entry-level understanding.

"This Simurgh Phoenix Painting is extraordinary... It’s definitely more than just an Erotic Painting—there must be other secrets hidden within."

Staring at the ancient text in his hands, Su Mu’s gaze hardened with resolve.

He started his comprehension anew from the beginning.

On his second attempt, the vivid paintings of courtly beauties seemed to change, turning hazy; yet with the haze, their allure only deepened.

Su Mu’s heart could not help but race, his cheeks tinged faintly red.

Then came the third attempt.

The fourth.

...

By nearly the twentieth time, Su Mu shuddered all over; as he comprehended, the delicate skin of the gorgeous figures before him seemed to crumble inch by inch, drifting away as wisps of cyan smoke.

The maids soon turned into rosy skeletons; after piercing through the erotic illusion—

The Hidden Dragon in the Abyss between Su Mu’s brows burned scaldingly hot as he plunged into a realm of nothingness.

Within this land of nothingness, Su Mu "saw" an enormous, supernatural beast.

Azure-blue plumes glimmered with radiant light; the long tail-feathers trailed a shining green arc.

Phoenix eyes held stars, proud in frost and snow; spreading its wings, clouds parted and glowing colors greeted it.

Just a glance, and Su Mu felt his very soul tremble—the beast shimmered with colored light, like an embodiment of auspicious omen. As its wings flapped, even space itself seemed to shudder!

"This supernatural beast... Could it be the Simurgh Phoenix?"

Su Mu’s mind stirred, speculating about the identity of the beast in the land of nothingness. Just then, the wind and clouds shifted; a sky-shattering phoenix cry echoed through the vault of heaven.

Azure light burst forth—the supernatural beast transformed into an immortal-like Elder Qing Mei, dressed in blue robes.

"Transformed into a human?!"

Su Mu felt even greater awe. To create such a realm of nothingness within an ancient text, and even transform into a human form—the profound mysteries here surely exceed the abilities of a mere Middle Third Grade Demon Beast.

"This Elder Qing Mei must be... an Upper Three Grades of Great Demon?!"

So Mu mused to himself. This Simurgh Phoenix Painting could not have originated from a remote place like Cyan Cloud; it must have come from Qingzhou.

Thinking rapidly, Su Mu remembered Shangguan Feng and his brother from Qingfeng Gang; they had drifted from Qingzhou all the way to Cyan Cloud, and there was also Vajra Temple.

Vajra Temple holds unrivaled sway among the Qingyun Three Counties; for centuries, no matter how the power dynamics shift, the temple remains unshaken—the reason being its legacy from Qingzhou’s Dao lineage.

Calming his thoughts, Su Mu quietly sensed Elder Qing Mei, transformed from the Simurgh Phoenix. Soon, he felt the profound power of his 126-point Dragon-and-Phoenix Level Enlightenment at work, as he began to glimpse some profundity.

He saw Elder Qing Mei, lips slightly parted, as if reciting something.

"Cyan Simurgh Phoenix Transformation Scripture..."