Top-Tier Perception Starts From Basic Fist Techniques

As the days passed, the Dark Star meteorite drew steadily closer to the planet. By now, it was no longer something visible only through professional observatories. Even many astronomy enthusiasts could make out the enormous object in the night sky.

Three days after the Jade Dragon Kingdom announced its plan, the launch finally began.

Seven nuclear warheads had been prepared for the operation. Experts had spent days calculating the meteorite's structure and trajectory, selecting the points where each warhead might have the greatest effect. Destroying the meteorite was considered impossible, so the objective was simpler: strike it hard enough to alter its course and make it miss the planet.

The entire world held its breath. With the Jade Dragon Kingdom permitting live broadcasts, millions watched as seven nuclear warheads thundered into the sky.

Lu Changsheng watched it play out on television like everyone else. The warheads soared beyond the atmosphere, igniting their final thrusters in space—a feat made possible through close technical integration with the Golden Eagle Empire.

The Golden Eagle Empire possessed the world's most advanced aerospace technology. Faced with an existential threat to humanity, both nations had set aside their rivalries and shared their most guarded secrets, driven by a single, desperate mandate: save humanity at all costs.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

One after another, the seven warheads followed a carefully calculated trajectory toward a different point on the Dark Star fragment. Everything that could be calculated had already been calculated. What no expert could determine with certainty was whether seven nuclear warheads would be enough to move something so enormous.

Then the first warhead reached its target.

Boom!

A nuclear explosion blossomed against the edge of the fragment. Compared with the colossal mass of the Dark Star fragment, however, even a nuclear detonation looked almost insignificant.

Then the second warhead struck, followed by the third, the fourth... And when the fifth warhead detonated, astronomers monitoring the meteorite suddenly noticed a change.

"The trajectory moved!"

"It's deviating! The Dark Star meteorite has shifted off course!"

"It's working!"

Cheers erupted across the world as the sixth and seventh warhead finally detonated.

Once all seven warheads had been expended, observatories around the world immediately began recalculating the fragment's new path. The trajectory had indeed shifted; the numbers confirmed that much, but the deviation was too small.

The fragment was still approaching close enough to fall within the planet's gravitational influence. Once that happened, gravity would pull it back toward the world and effectively erase much of the deviation they had fought so hard to create.

In the end, after so much effort, the meteorite would still strike the planet.

The observatories fell quiet, and every face watching turned ashen.

"It's over..."

"We really did alter the fragment's trajectory, but the deviation was not enough. Once it enters the planet's gravitational field, it'll be pulled back in, and still hit us.

"If that fragment hits, humanity may be wiped out completely."

There was no need to spell out the stakes. Humanity had spent days steeped in the stark reality of the situation; the math was clear, and the outcome absolute. If this operation failed, the world was finished, along with everyone in it.

Chaos erupted almost overnight. Social order, already hanging by a thread, shattered completely. With barely twenty days left before absolute extinction, the rules of civilization ceased to matter. Law enforcement was useless; no amount of armed force could contain the madness, nor did anyone care to enforce it. Even the glittering streets of New Capital dissolved into lawless anarchy.

"Master, is there truly no other way?" Senior Sister Xiang asked, her face pale.

Lu Changsheng extended his senses across New Capital and immediately perceived the chaos spreading through the city. The same scenes were undoubtedly unfolding throughout the rest of the world.

The psychological weight of a doomed countdown was simply too much for human minds to bear. Nuclear weapons, evolvers... none of them seemed to mean anything anymore. If the Dark Star meteorite could not be stopped, then no amount of power or status would save anyone.

Everyone would die together.

Lu Changsheng closed his eyes and pondered the situation. Fine. Since I've come to this world, and I'm about to obtain the Martial Dao fragments regardless, I might as well help you one last time. The meteorite is still more than twenty days out. I only need seven more before my true body can project its power into this world. There's more than enough time.

Lu Changsheng opened his eyes. "Notify the Jade Dragon Kingdom, then announce it to the entire world. In seven days, I will personally deal with the Dark Star meteorite. But until then, the Jade Dragon Kingdom and every other nation must maintain order."

He did not like a chaotic world. If this world surrendered itself to chaos, he had no interest in saving it. If he was going to intervene, then the people of this world could at least preserve some semblance of civilization until he did.

Senior Sister Xiang stared at him in disbelief. "Master... you are going to deal with the Dark Star meteorite personally?"

Lu Yuan stood as the undisputed ruler of this new era, an evolver who had reached Fourth Growth and reached transcendence. But against an apocalyptic harbinger like the Dark Star meteorite, his immense power felt brutally insignificant.

Could one person truly stop something that seven nuclear warheads had failed to divert? Senior Sister Xiang's mind was full of doubt.

Lu Changsheng offered no explanation, issuing the command with cold, absolute finality. So Senior Sister Xiang swallowed her doubts, bowed deeply, and retreated to execute his will.

She notified the highest authority of the Jade Dragon Kingdom before broadcasting the decree worldwide under the official seal of the Extreme Martial Dao Center. The Center's name—now synonymous with supreme, godlike power—instantly ignited a global storm.

Skepticism and disbelief flared across every network, but moments later, the Jade Dragon Kingdom's government echoed the decree across all channels, distilling the message into a single, chilling line.

In seven days, Lu Yuan, the founder of the Extreme Martial Dao, will personally act to neutralize the Dark Star meteorite and avert the global crisis.

The news swept across the world almost instantly, and the global community exploded into frantic speculation.

"I-Is... this real?"

"Both the Extreme Martial Dao Center and the Jade Dragon Kingdom government confirmed it. How could it be fake?"

"Lu Yuan can survive a nuclear explosion, sure, but this is completely different. That meteorite is enormous. How is he supposed to stop it?"

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Exactly. Seven nuclear warheads could not divert it enough. What could one person possibly do?"

"Forget stopping it. How is Lu Yuan even going to get to outer space?"

"Could he have already broken through to Fifth Growth?"

Moments later, the Jade Dragon Kingdom released a stern ultimatum, calling on all world governments to restore total stability. World leaders responded without delay, deploying heavy military force to crush the rioting in the streets.

Almost miraculously, the madness receded, and a semblance of civilized society returned. Yet beneath the calm, everyone recognized the fact that this peace was merely borrowed time.

Lu Yuan had handed humanity a single thread of hope, and hope alone was keeping total collapse at bay. If he failed to destroy the meteorite in seven days, however, chaos would return as extinction remained absolute.

***

One day passed, then two, three, four, and five...

In these days, countless influential figures tried to meet Lu Yuan. Government leaders, military officials, and other prominent figures all wanted to know exactly how he intended to deal with the Dark Star meteorite.

However, Senior Sister Xiang turned them all away. Lu Changsheng had already given his instructions—no one was to disturb him.

Meanwhile, the Dark Star meteorite continued drawing closer. With each passing day, it became more clearly visible in the sky. By the seventh day, the planet's gravity had begun to pull on it, causing its speed to increase even further.

At this rate, in roughly twenty more days, it would hit the planet. And when it did, humanity would be wiped out almost instantly.

It's been ten days...

Inside a quiet chamber of the Extreme Martial Dao Center, Lu Changsheng slowly opened his eyes, straining every fiber of himself toward his true body in the Immortal Martial World.

According to the Secret World Pavilion's precise calculations, this was the exact moment the two worlds would briefly intersect, and it would be his sole window to exert his true power.

However, the two worlds did not seem to be in contact yet.

An hour passed, then two, then three... and finally, at around eleven in the morning, a low hum rolled out.

Lu Changsheng felt a subtle ripple pass through the fabric of space itself. The disturbance was so faint it would have eluded every living soul on the planet; only the heightened consciousness of an Earthly Saint, attuned completely to the surrounding space, could capture such a fleeting anomaly.

At that precise juncture, a powerful connection snapped into place. Nestled within the Immortal Martial World, inside the Secret World Pavilion, his true body opened its eyes in perfect synchronization. It gazed into the distant void toward his other self and smiled in quiet recognition.

Inside the quiet chamber of the Extreme Martial Dao Center, Lu Changsheng opened his eyes. Contact with his true body had been made, and the connection was growing stronger by the moment. After three years of waiting, the day had finally arrived.

Lu Changsheng rose and pushed open the door.

Beyond the doors stood a host of influential figures. Every eye snapped to him the instant he stepped into view. No matter their rank or prestige, not a single person could hide the surging excitement on their face.

Senior Sister Xiang stepped forward and bowed respectfully. "Sect Master."

Lu Changsheng looked at the people waiting outside. "Seven days have passed. Let's go."

Without further explanation, he led them out of the Extreme Martial Dao Center, where an enormous crowd had already gathered. Tens of thousands of people packed the surrounding streets and open spaces, all waiting for Lu Yuan to fulfill the promise he had made seven days earlier.

Lu Changsheng walked a few steps forward before stopping. "All right. This will do."

The people around him looked at one another in confusion. They were still standing outside the Extreme Martial Dao Center, while the Dark Star meteorite was far beyond the planet itself. How was Lu Yuan supposed to deal with it from here?

Lu Changsheng stepped forward. And his foot, instead of returning to the ground, came to rest upon empty air as though an invisible surface existed beneath it.

Under the stunned gazes of everyone present, he climbed higher and higher into the air, walking through the sky as naturally as though he were ascending a staircase.