After fully comprehending the "Heavenly Calamity Demonic Fist Scripture," Li Hai unhesitatingly advanced it from the zeroth level to the tenth level, reaching max Rank in one go.
Then, at the very instant he perfected this cultivation method, his entire body, from head to toe, inside and out, underwent a series of astonishing qualitative changes across all its layers and parts.
He surged and leaped to a new Realm with almost no discernible process.
The resulting improvements in physical strength, muscle power, and vitality were incredibly drastic, essentially skyrocketing by a huge margin in the blink of an eye.
At the same time, Li Hai's Martial Arts Will, which had previously been so ethereal and insubstantial that it could only reside within his own mind, instantly solidified, 'liquefied,' and converged into an almost tangible entity.
It became so tangible that it could manifest in external reality, subsequently affecting the five senses of ordinary people, reaching an arcane level.
Therefore, from now on, even just a glance, a movement, or even his silhouette will inflict a terrifying, Soul-destroying impact on those of lower Realms.
It can easily cause people's thoughts to become Chaos and illusions to proliferate; in severe cases, it can even make them experience the realistic sensation of being burned by fire, frozen by ice, or cut by a Dao or axe.
And the most crucial True Force transformation and sublimation occurred synchronously with all the above changes, ultimately leaping from a state of being formless and insubstantial to a state of being formless yet substantial.
Thus, Li Hai immediately advanced to become a Void-Reality Grandmaster.
However, his changes, as reflected on his personal interface, only showed the words after Zhengchuan Martial Arts changing from Thousand Army Grade to Void-Reality Grandmaster.
And the characteristics of Strong Soul, Finger Claws, Iron Body, Stone Heart, Spiritual Focus, Strength, and Technique merely increased from Rank 3 to Rank 4.
Overall, the changes were not significant.
Regarding this, one can only say that the gap between Ranks is truly immense, so vast that even a single increase in Rank is like the difference between Heaven and Earth.
"It's done."
Li Hai slowly opened his eyes, a burst of Divine Power flashing in them for an instant before returning to calm.
And if any ordinary person, Steel Grade, or even Thousand Army Grade Martial Artist below the Great Grandmaster Realm were present and saw that fleeting glint of his gaze, they would be lost in a daze for a long time.
If Li Hai harbored ill will, they might even instantly fall into a Dao Mountain or Hellfire and die tragically.
Yet, this effect was merely a slight overflow of Li Hai's powerful Martial Arts Will, and it was only the most insignificant part of his terrifying abilities as a Void-Reality Grandmaster.
Only Li Hai, who truly stood in this Realm, knew that the most important power of a Void-Reality Grandmaster was not some outwardly manifested Martial Arts Will, nor some so-called powerful physique, nor even the terrifying Strength that starts at tens of millions of jin.
Instead, it was the ability to strike enemies from a thousand zhang away with a void strike.
It can be said that a Void-Reality Grandmaster with this terrifying ability, even if severely wounded and on the verge of death, with significantly diminished physique and Qi, could still instantly kill a large group of attacking Thousand Army Grade Martial Artists.
As for why Great Grandmasters possess such immense dominance over those of lower Realms, it is because, no matter how great their strength or how strong their defense, as long as their brains and internal organs cannot withstand a sudden, void-borne critical strike of tens of millions of jin, they can only become lambs to the slaughter when facing a Void-Reality Grandmaster, allowing themselves to be massacred.
Conversely, a Void-Reality Grandmaster, whose entire body, from head to toe, inside and out, is completely 'immersed' in their own formless yet substantial Force, can easily become immune to such void-borne attacks from those of the same Realm.
Therefore, Li Hai inferred that in the Great Jing Dynasty to the north, duels between Great Grandmasters would likely still be conducted in a fist-to-flesh manner until the opponent's body, True Force, and Martial Will all collapsed.
However, if a lower-Realm individual happened to pass by and unluckily witnessed a Great Grandmaster battle, they would likely suffer physical and mental trauma, or even complete annihilation of body and Soul.
"Void strike..."
Li Hai slowly raised his hand and spread his five fingers, a faint Divine Power flickering in his eyes.
In fact, upon officially advancing to the Void-Reality Grandmaster Realm, his mind power had suddenly broken through the limitations of the five senses, allowing him to effortlessly scan and survey all directions.
Therefore, this massive underground palace, with its more than ten levels, each spanning a hundred zhang, was as clear as lines on his palm to the current Li Hai.
"Old Ghost Lang, I know you've been watching me, wanting to see me at my wit's end and utterly despairing, hehe, what a pity."
He raised his head and chuckled softly, "It's a pity that your words just now reminded me and made me realize that by using the Void-Reality Grandmaster's void strike ability to attack from the outside, I can easily break this Formation."
"So now, you watch, watch if what I use... is a void strike."
With that, he suddenly curled his five fingers into a tight fist.
Boom!
It was as if an invisible giant hand had descended from outside the heavens, piercing through the earth, grasping the hundred-zhang secret chamber where Li Hai was, and then violently pulling it upwards, rapidly 'Ascending' towards the ground, which was an unknown number of zhang away.
As for the countless red threads densely wrapped around the four sides of the secret chamber, they snapped and disappeared instantly.
And during the entire process of this secret chamber 'rushing' towards the surface, all the layers of the underground palace pressing above it collapsed and disintegrated into Crumbs, as if they had been furiously chopped and smashed by thousands of hammers and axe blades simultaneously, creating a neat and long straight tunnel in the void before the chamber even reached them.
Then, upon piercing through all the structural layers of the underground palace and directly facing the even thicker and harder rock layers above, this secret chamber was like an invisible drill, directly and forcefully drilling, exploding, and penetrating large chunks of unknown amounts of rock and soil from bottom to top, finally completely flying out of the underground and reaching the surface above.
"How is this possible?! This is impossible!"
In the vast wasteland of the Wolf's Nest ruins, surrounded by a full twelve Dao Essences and nearly a hundred magical puppets, Lang Yun-sheng, dressed in white robes, white armor, white hair, and white beard, looked up at the gray rock secret chamber that had swiftly flown out from underground and reached a height of a hundred zhang in the sky.
His trembling face was filled with disbelief, incredulity, and terror intertwined.
He stared with wide eyes, his voice distorted as he roared, "You, Li Hai, you... how could you suddenly ascend to the Great Grandmaster Realm?! This, this... this is impossible!"
Amidst his wide-eyed roars, Lang Yun-sheng wildly waved his arms, continuously forming hand seals, and finally gritted his teeth and whispered, "Chasing Moon Startling Soul, Escape!"
Swish—
In an instant, his entire being suddenly dimmed and flattened, narrowing into a thin, crescent-shaped phantom, and he abruptly and silently fled rapidly into the distance.
His escape speed was incredibly swift, traversing more than half of the Wolf's Nest in the blink of an eye.
But just as Lang Yun-sheng was about to escape the stronghold and vanish into the distance, Li Hai's voice suddenly appeared all around him:
"What a formidable escape Technique. Hey, didn't you say you wanted to chat with me earlier? Why are you running now?"