Lu Zhen walked out of the palace with a mixture of expressions, but after a few steps, his face became expressionless again.

"Whatever," he thought, his expression turning cold and impassive as he returned to his palace.

Suddenly, as he walked casually, he felt a familiar chill, causing his senses to tingle with danger for a few seconds before it disappeared as if it hadn't happened.

Lu Zhen looked around to his right and left, but he couldn't see anyone, which left him confused. If it weren't for his keen senses and the sweat dripping from his back, he might have thought it was a dream.

"Could it be…" Lu Zhen thought, realizing something, and he just stood there, waiting.

Tick, tick.

Time passed as Lu Zhen stood there for a straight ten minutes. However, the white-haired figure he had sensed still didn't appear.

"As expected…" Lu Zhen sneered in his thoughts.

"Better luck next time, whoever you are," Lu Zhen said in an almost whisper-like sound as he continued walking.

At the unassuming corner outside of Lu's estate, a bird chirped loudly as Lu Zhen uttered those words, as if it could understand him. The bird perched on the shoulder of Ji Ju, the white-haired girl, and wagged its tail in anger, a faint red color visible in its dark eyes. Eventually, the bird settled down with a huffing sound.

"Damn it, if it weren't for that first-stage martial artist I sensed in that house, I would have shredded that kid to pieces by now.

No, if I was in my prime, I could have slaughtered that kid and his entire family if he had disrespected me so much," a voice echoed from underground, coming from an old dilapidated temple in the forest where a crack appeared in a coffin-like iceberg covered with glass.

"You can't stay there forever. When you come out, you will be dead for sure," the voice grew even angrier.

"At that time, I will boil you alive," it echoed in the metallic room before gradually becoming silent, looking at all the cracks it had created in the iceberg.

Achoo! Achoo!

Lu Zhen rubbed his nose a little.

"Oh, did someone remember me…" Lu Zhen thought as he opened his door immediately. The soft aroma of delicious food entered his nose.

"Young master, you're here," Little Lily said excitedly, proud of herself for seeing Lu Zhen's hungry eyes.

Lu Zhen just nodded as he ate until he was full. However, even after consuming 30 kg of meat and rice, he still didn't feel full, which caused him to frown.

"Young master, this is all," Little Lily said, a bit surprised to see Lu Zhen's enormous appetite. She checked the bowl containing all the meat and rice.

"What should I do now…" Lu Zhen could still taste the food, but the energy he gained from it felt meager. It barely satisfied his appetite.

Actually, this amount of food should be enough to satisfy even a third-stage martial artist's appetite. But Lu Zhen barely felt any satiety with just this much food.

If it weren't for Lu Zhen's incredibly powerful physique, he wouldn't have needed so much more nutrition than others to maintain his physique.

Thinking about this, Lu Zhen frowned.

"Little Lily, Old Bai should be coming back from the forest soon. When he returns or if any trouble arises, contact me," Lu Zhen said as he entered his room with an unsatisfied expression.

When Lu Zhen and Yu Bai had separated, he had instructed Yu Bai to return the snake using the escort of the Lu family.

The true value of a third-stage beast lay in its meat, as it contained invaluable energy that could greatly help martial artists maintain their bodies.

Although even second-stage martial artists didn't need the meat of a third-stage beast, they could still satisfy themselves with the meat of regular martial trainee beasts grown in the forest, personally owned by the Lu family.

This forest was a breeding ground personally owned by the Lu family, where rare animals and plants were bred for consumption. The forest also contained some third-stage martial beasts.

However, even Lu Zhen needed contribution points, and even the Patriarch of the family needed contribution points to obtain the meat of a third-stage martial beast.

That's how rare the resources for these beasts were, coming second only to cultivation techniques and combat arts.

And it was even more critical for Lu Zhen, who desperately needed meat to maintain his robust body.

As he returned to his room, he sighed, but then he cracked his knuckles.

"Let's train, and then I will deal with those two girls," Lu Zhen thought with an evil smirk as he started doing push-ups.

However, he didn't do ordinary push-ups since he hardly sweated after reaching divine physique. So, he did dynamic push-ups, also known as explosive push-ups.

Lu Zhen positioned himself on the floor, placed his hands firmly on the ground, shoulder-width apart, and straightened his body from head to toe. He took a deep breath and lowered his body towards the ground.

With each explosive motion, the muscles in his arms, shoulders, and chest rippled. His chest nearly grazed the floor, and then, in an instant, he exploded upward with a burst of power that sent him soaring into the air.

1

8

17

29

"This should be quite helpful for building my muscle memory as well as warming up my body," Lu Zhen thought, satisfied by the pressure he felt in his body.

He hadn't felt pressure like this in a long time since reaching the divine physique constitution.

"One thousand... Two thousand... Three thousand... Four thousand and ninety-nine," Lu Zhen said, sweating profusely as even his clothes were soaked from the pressure he experienced.

Looking at his sweat, Lu Zhen felt satisfied, he has always considering sweat as the path to his power.

"Let's stop for now," Lu Zhen thought with some satisfaction.

"That's enough warm-up for the main event," Lu Zhen said as he stretched his warmed-up, sweat-covered body.

He turned the statue, and a rumbling sound filled the room as the door opened. However, he could smell that the disgusting odor from before had lessened somewhat.