The Gravity Chamber hummed like a living thing.
Not loud.
Not violent.
Just a deep, bone-rattling vibration that seeped into flesh and marrow alike.
The dial on the chamber wall glowed crimson.
50× Earth Gravity.
Inside, agony had no filter.
Jiang Rou was curled on the floor, her body trembling uncontrollably. Veins bulged beneath flushed skin, steam rising from her like heat from molten steel. Every breath felt like her lungs were being crushed flat, reinflated, then crushed again.
Her bones cracked.
Then cracked again.
Then reformed.
"It hurts—!" she screamed hoarsely. "Boss— it feels like I'm drinking lava—!"
Su Chen's voice came through the intercom. Calm. Flat. Merciless.
"Drink all of it."
Jiang Rou's fingers dug into the floor plating as another surge of Dragon Blood burned through her veins.
"The blood is rewriting your DNA," Su Chen continued. "If you stop now, your body collapses into genetic sludge. If you endure—"
A pause.
"You evolve."
Beside her, Saeko Busujima moved.
Slowly.
Painfully.
Each sword swing felt like lifting a mountain. The air itself resisted her, pressing against her muscles, her joints, her will. But her eyes burned with something feral—joy.
The Dragon Blood fed her Blood Asura talent, and it responded eagerly.
A crimson mist coiled around her body, every swing of her blade dragging lines of red through the air.
Further back, Esdeath sat cross-legged, encased in a block of ice she continuously regenerated. Frost bled from her skin as she balanced the internal inferno of Dragon Blood with her absolute cold.
Cracks formed in the ice.
She didn't move.
She didn't scream.
Xiao Yi Xian floated in the corner, suspended in a swirling pool of violet poison vapor. She had converted the chamber into something between a sauna and an alchemical furnace. The Dragon Blood merged with her Woeful Poison Body, refining instead of destroying.
Her skin became translucent, jade-like, veins glowing faintly beneath the surface.
The weak screamed.
The strong endured.
The monstrous adapted.
---
48 Hours Later
The hum died.
Gravity released.
The chamber doors hissed open.
Su Chen stood outside, arms crossed.
Jiang Rou stepped out first.
She looked… different.
Taller.
Denser.
Every movement carried weight, like gravity followed her personally.
She grabbed the metal doorframe to steady herself.
The steel crumpled.
Jiang Rou froze, staring at her hand.
"I…" Her voice shook. "I feel heavy. But also… light?"
Su Chen scanned her.
"You're operating at Wargod Level now," he said. "Bone density comparable to tank armor. Muscle fibers compacted beyond human limits."
He met her eyes.
"You won't be crushed in the Central Domain."
Saeko followed.
She rested her Indigo Blade on her shoulder casually—too casually. The weapon that once demanded respect now felt like a toy in her hands.
She smiled, baring slightly sharper teeth.
"I could cut a building in half," she said softly.
"You probably could," Su Chen replied. "Get to stations."
He turned.
"We're crossing the Wall."
---
The Wall of Storms
The Black Dragon Fortress hovered before it.
A vertical boundary of chaos stretching beyond sight—lightning of every color ripping through condensed storm matter, gravity waves distorting space itself.
The line between worlds.
"Mortal Domain behind us," Saya reported, fingers dancing across the interface. Her Dragon Blood–enhanced mind processed data faster than the ship's AI. "Structural integrity reinforced. Void Skin holding. Spirit-Fusion Drive at one hundred twenty percent."
Su Chen leaned back on his throne.
"Punch it."
The ship accelerated.
Mach 10.
They slammed into the storm.
Lightning wrapped around the hull like chains. The turbulence would have liquefied an ordinary human instantly—but the upgraded crew barely flinched.
"Gravity rising," Lin Xiya called out. "Ten times… twenty… fifty… eighty…"
The hull groaned.
Metal screamed.
Runes flared.
"Three," Lin Xiya said.
"Two."
"One—"
POP.
The chaos vanished.
Silence replaced violence.
Blinding, crystalline sunlight flooded the bridge.
The Central Domain.
No one spoke.
"My god…" Natasha whispered.
They were flying over a jungle—but the word felt insulting.
Trees stretched five kilometers into the sky, trunks wider than city blocks. Leaves spread like floating continents. Mountains pierced the upper atmosphere, their peaks lost in nebula-like clouds rather than mist.
Even the air was wrong.
It shimmered.
Liquid mana.
---
[Location: Earth – Central Domain | Ancient Wilds]
Gravity: 100×
Atmospheric Density: 50×
Average Lifeform Level: 60+
---
"If we stepped outside without the upgrade," Jiang Rou murmured, watching the engines strain, "we'd be flattened instantly."
"Radar," Lin Xiya said.
A dot approached.
A bird.
Tiny—until it passed the ship.
It was the size of an aircraft carrier.
Golden feathers. Crowned head.
It snatched a hundred-meter serpent from the canopy and tore it apart mid-flight.
---
[Golden-Crowned Eagle – Level 65]
---
"A Level 65 mob," Su Chen said quietly. "In the outer world, that's a calamity."
He smiled faintly.
"Here, it's a pigeon."
Babata appeared, eyes glowing.
"Master, I'm detecting refined alloy signatures. Five hundred kilometers east. Artificial construction."
"Civilization?" Su Chen stood. "Take us there. Full cloak."
---
The City of Scales
The fortress drifted silently above an obsidian valley.
Below lay a city carved directly into the mountain itself. No concrete. No steel beams. Just black stone shaped by claws and fire.
Dragon statues lined the walls.
The inhabitants were not human.
Three meters tall.
Scaled bodies—red, blue, green.
Tails. Horns. Weapons etched with glowing runes.
---
[Race: Draconian – Dragonkin]
Average Level: 50
Society: Warrior-Tribal
---
"Dragonborn," Su Chen muttered.
A horn blared.
Ballistae rotated—not toward monsters.
Toward the sky.
"They can sense us," Natasha said.
"They don't see the ship," Su Chen replied. "They smell the Dragon Blood."
The first projectile fired.
A black iron spear the size of a telephone pole.
Hypersonic.
Wrapped in fire.
CLANG!
The Void Shield flared violently.
"Shields at eighty percent!" Saya shouted. "That was physical and magical!"
More weapons turned.
Figures launched from the city—winged Draconians.
---
[Draconian Warlord – Level 80]
---
Su Chen exhaled.
"I'm going down."
Xiao Yi Xian tossed him a vial. "Translation potion."
He drank it.
Then jumped.
---
The Challenge
Su Chen fell like a golden meteor.
He struck the ground before the gates.
BOOM.
The crater was fifty meters wide.
The Warlord landed opposite him—four meters tall, red scales, smoke pouring from his nostrils.
"Tiny thing!" he roared. "You stink of Ancient Wyrm blood!"
Su Chen dusted off his coat.
"I hunted it."
Laughter shook the walls.
"Lies!"
The hammer came down.
Su Chen raised one hand.
---
[Gravity Manipulation]
500× Local Field
---
"Kneel."
Stone shattered.
The Warlord's knees slammed into the ground.
Su Chen moved.
One punch.
The giant folded, lava spraying from his mouth.
"I'm not here to conquer you," Su Chen said calmly. "I'm here to trade."
He dropped a Spirit Stone.
The Warlord stared.
"…Star Heart?"
"I want maps," Su Chen said. "And the location of True Dragons."
Silence.
Then respect.
"I am Drakon," the Warlord said slowly. "Come."
As Su Chen entered the city, system scans flooded in.
Forge techniques. Rune logic. Armor metallurgy.
Babata whispered excitedly.
"Master… that metal is Orichalcum."
Su Chen smiled.
He wasn't just visiting the Central Domain.
He was about to copy it.