Top-Tier Perception Starts From Basic Fist Techniques

Lu Changsheng's enormous palm had already extended beyond the planet and into outer space. Without slowing down, it continued straight toward the approaching Dark Star meteorite.

The meteorite was still so distant that it ought to have taken another twenty days to reach the planet, but the massive palm crossed that enormous stretch of space so fast that what was supposed to be an unfathomable distance became nothing at all.

"Heaven! Turning! Seal!" Lu Changsheng declared, enunciating each word as his voice reverberated through the air.

Anyone who knew even a little about him recognized the technique immediately. The Heaven-Turning Seal was one of his signature moves, and he had used it more than once in the past on his opponents. Only this time, his opponent wasn't a human being. It was an apocalyptic meteorite with enough destructive force to end humanity forever.

No one on the ground could see the confrontation directly. Through satellites and astronomical telescopes, however, countless people watched as the enormous palm shifted slightly in the darkness of space. Then, with absolute power, it made a single, crushing slap—as though an ancient deity standing in the cosmos had casually reached out to swat a pebble from the sky.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

When the giant palm struck the Dark Star meteorite, it shattered with a loud bang. To those watching, it felt as though heaven and earth had been overturned and the cosmos itself had been turned upside down.

The meteorite did not merely break into several large pieces. It was pulverized; its enormous figure burst apart into countless tiny fragments, which hurtled toward the planet and then were pulled into the atmosphere by gravity.

Moments later, the first brilliant streaks of light pierced the upper atmosphere. One after another, they multiplied, fanning out until the entire night sky was ignited by a vast, shimmering meteor shower.

The fragments had been reduced to such tiny pieces that they burned away in the atmosphere long before they could reach the ground. What had once been a meteorite capable of destroying the world had become countless brilliant trails of light sweeping harmlessly across the night sky.

People across the world watched the lights streaming through the heavens.

"Look! It's a meteor shower!"

"How beautiful..."

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"Those are pieces of Dark Star meteorite! Lu Yuan really destroyed it!"

"We're saved. We're really saved!"

At last, the catastrophe hanging over this world had ended, and the remnants of the meteorite now illuminated the sky in a breathtaking meteor shower.

A faint smile rested on Lu Changsheng's face. With the threat to this world now gone, there was only one thing left for him to do. He turned his attention to the void, where the Martial Dao had grown increasingly powerful over the past three years.

Then he raised one hand and pointed at it.

Crack!

With a single finger, Lu Changsheng shattered the Martial Dao.

At that same moment, some martial artists who had reached the Second Growth felt a strange disturbance deep within themselves. They could not explain what had happened, only that an inexplicable restlessness suddenly swept through their hearts.

High in the void, the shattered Martial Dao broke apart into several fragments. Lu Changsheng reached out and gathered them into his hand.

Although he had shattered the Martial Dao itself, the people's faith in it had not disappeared. More importantly, he had already planted the seeds necessary for its rebirth. Given a few decades, perhaps a century, the Martial Dao would gradually recover. After several centuries or even thousands of years, it could grow beyond its former limits and reach an even higher level.

Lu Changsheng looked down at the world beneath him. "I've obtained the Martial Dao fragments I came for, so it's time for me to leave. I've already shown you the path forward in the Martial Dao. How far you go from here is up to you."

His gaze swept across the people below and settled briefly on the familiar faces among them. Senior Sister Xiang was there. And so was Fei Qianliu, along with many others he had come to know during his years in this world.

Three years was not a short time. Lu Changsheng was not devoid of human emotion or empathy, and after spending so long among them, it was impossible for him to feel nothing.

However, he had always known that this day would come. He was only a traveler passing through this world. No matter how many people he met or how many memories he left behind, this was never truly his home.

He had come from elsewhere, and now that everything he needed to accomplish here was finished, it was time to return.

Lu Changsheng raised his fist and struck forward. Space trembled, and a dark, indistinct gateway slowly emerged. Then, he began walking toward it.

The moment Senior Sister Xiang saw the gateway and realized what he intended to do, the color drained from her face. "Master, where are you going?!"

Others quickly realized what was happening, too.

"Where is Lu Yuan going?"

"What is that dark gateway?"

Countless people stared at him in shock, but Lu Changsheng gave no further explanation. He continued forward and stepped through the dark gateway, one step after another, until he was gone.

The gateway then faded away, and the disturbed space gradually returned to normal, leaving behind an empty sky that looked almost as though nothing had happened.

At that moment, everyone knew that Lu Yuan was not coming back.

In the years that followed, the story of his departure became known as "shattering space."

Some scholars believed that he had broken through the boundaries of their world and traveled to another.

Others concluded that it had to have been another ability exclusive to the Seventh Growth, and the belief gradually spread that anyone at that level could transcend the limits of a single world.

Many theories were passed down in the generations that followed, but none of them mattered to Lu Changsheng anymore. He had already left this world behind, after all.

***

Inside a secret chamber of the Secret World Pavilion in the Sacred Region of the Immortal Martial World, Lu Changsheng's eyes suddenly opened—he had returned to his true body.

His consciousness that had occupied Lu Yuan's body had withdrawn completely, leaving the vessel behind as nothing more than an empty corpse. He flicked a finger, and flames immediately engulfed Lu Yuan's body, reducing it to ashes in mere moments.

"I'm finally back..." Lu Changsheng murmured with a long sigh.

Only three years had passed, yet the experience felt far longer. He had entered another secret world, begun again from nothing, and lived an entirely different life there. Three years spent that way could hardly be compared to three ordinary years of cultivation.

"Fellow Daoist Lu, have you returned from the secret world?" asked the Martial Saint of the Secret World Pavilion from outside the chamber.

"I have."

Lu Changsheng rose and opened the door.

The Martial Saint was already waiting outside. Upon seeing Lu Changsheng, the man smiled. "You returned successfully after only three years. It seems Fellow Daoist Lu gained quite a lot from there."

The Martial Saints of the Secret World Pavilion understood better than most how difficult such journeys were.

Three years was generally far too short to accomplish much in these secret worlds, yet Lu Changsheng had not only established the Martial Dao there, but had also developed it far enough to project the power of his true body across worlds and obtain its Martial Dao fragments.

Compared to most, his progress had been astonishingly fast.

"The Secret Pavilion's timing is certainly impeccable," said Lu Changsheng with a smile. He understood why the Martial Saint had appeared the moment he returned. His transaction with the Secret World Pavilion was complete, which meant the secret chamber had to be returned as well. These secret chambers possessed far too much strategic value for the Pavilion to leave them occupied a second longer than agreed upon.

However, Lu Changsheng did not mind. This journey had already given him everything he wanted; he had obtained a complete set of Martial Dao fragments from Secret World No. 18.

Although the energy level of that world had admittedly been low, reaching only the Dao Foundation Realm, that did not diminish the value of the fragments themselves. They were real, authentic Martial Dao fragments, and he had gotten a substantial amount of them.

"Farewell." Lu Changsheng clasped his hands goodbye, then left the Secret World Pavilion. The moment he stepped outside, he sensed numerous gazes settling upon him. This time, whoever was watching him made almost no effort to conceal it.

"Hmph!" Lu Changsheng snorted coldly.

He had little doubt that these people were connected to the cultivator robbers who had ambushed him before. Those robbers clearly did not operate alone; behind them was most likely a large and deeply hidden organization.

Anyone targeted by these cultivator robbers inevitably met a tragic end. The only exceptions were those who commanded overwhelming power or hailed from a background too terrifying to provoke. The sole refuge was Sacred Star City itself; no matter how ruthless these robbers were, none possessed the courage to strike inside its borders.

Ignoring the lingering gazes of the robbers, Lu Changsheng turned away and headed straight toward his cave residence inside the city.