As the most popular training ground in the Battle Martial Department—and the one that basically props up its finances—the Magma Chamber really did deserve its reputation.
Deep beneath it ran a vein of molten lava, a fire-vein that pierced upward through the entire mountain and downward all the way beneath Greenwood Lake.
Its history was long. Records stated that a thousand years ago, there was no lake here at all—only a volcano that shook the world with its fury.
Over the past millennium, the terrain shifted, the volcano slumbered, and Greenwood Lake gradually formed, burying the fire-vein deep underground. Only when Ethereal Dao College was established here, and the Lingyuan Era's technology and cultivation base were high enough, did people finally have the ability to draw that buried fire back out and build the Battle Martial Department's Magma Chamber.
The chamber complex was enormous; from afar, it looked like a colossal beast's head.
On the beast's brow burned a flame totem—one that seemed to blaze on even at night. Entering through the beast's gaping maw, one plunged deep into the innards of Battle Martial Peak, where over a hundred sealable training rooms were carved into the rock.
Each training room was inscribed with formations. Once activated, they would divert lava-fire inside, instantly driving the room's temperature to a terrifying level.
Generally speaking, only those at the peak of the Blood Qi stage were qualified to cultivate here. They used the intense heat to forcefully close every pore on their bodies, isolating themselves from external temperature, and thus assisting their breakthrough into the Body-Sealing layer.
After all, the three layers of the Ancient Martial Realm were all about laying foundations. Under current conditions, the goal was to forge one's mortal frame to absolute perfection.
The Blood Qi layer was to fuel life-force, to give a mortal enough strength to support the heaven-defying leap of "fish turning dragon."
The Body-Sealing layer, on the other hand, required sealing every pore on the body, cutting off any exchange between inner and outer, fully containing one's Qi and blood. Once you could control that to the level of the finest detail, your explosive power far surpassed Blood Qi, and you could move forward toward the Meridian-Supplementing realm.
Because of the unique nature of the Body-Sealing Realm, the Magma Chamber's assistance was truly remarkable. Theoretically, if someone had enough endurance, and was willing to place themselves in a life-or-death situation, they could activate a certain level of lava-fire, then—under that hellish temperature—either be cooked alive…
Or bite down and break through Blood Qi to Body-Sealing in one shot.
Of course, people that ruthless were rare.
Under normal circumstances, anyone who could last more than an hour was already impressive. Even Zhuo Yifan had only managed three.
Since the start of the Lingyuan Era in Ethereal Dao College, over thirty years had passed. Only one person had ever broken that record.
That person had shut himself into the Magma Chamber for three whole days and nights—creating a legend that still stood unbroken.
His identity? The previous Federal President.
Rumor had it that when he finally staggered out of the Magma Chamber, he'd left behind a single sentence that shook the entire college—and later became a famous saying in the Dao Comprehension Department, passed down by countless mouths:
"I am comprehending the Dao!"
At this moment, deep in the night, as Wang Baole's massive figure came thundering over and charged straight into the beast's maw, there were still plenty of people cultivating inside the Magma Chamber.
There were fewer than in the daytime, but the training rooms were still about ninety percent full. On the display panel outside, only seven or eight room indicators remained dark.
Students came and went near the "beast head" entrance. Strictly speaking, the place didn't need guards—every training room required a student ID jade token to open.
The spirit stones used were also deducted directly through the ID. To this day, no one had ever dared to stiff the Battle Martial Department's musclebound maniacs on their spirit stones.
Even though students were streaming in and out of the chamber entrance, Wang Baole was simply too fast. Most people only felt a gust of wind rush past and vaguely thought they saw a red human-shaped blob rolling by. Before they could see clearly, the figure had already vanished.
But Wang Baole still underestimated his own "brand recognition"…
"I feel like I just saw… a red meatball roll past…"
"Looked kind of familiar… Like I've seen it somewhere before…"
Outside the Magma Chamber, a few Battle Martial students who were just leaving froze at the same time. They looked at each other—and then all of their eyes went wide.
"Wang Baole!! He's fat again?!"
While the exclamations were rising outside, Wang Baole rushed through the beast's mouth into the depths, found an empty training room, and hurriedly pulled out his ID token to open it.
He squeezed and shoved his way through the doorway, smearing the walls with his bulk, and only after he wriggled fully inside did he let out a long breath and shut the door.
"If I get any fatter, I won't even be able to get in…"
Rubbing his aching belly, Wang Baole's grief deepened.
The training room wasn't large—less than ten square meters. It felt spacious to other students, but once Wang Baole sat down, he looked around and felt like he was sitting in a tiny cage.
The sensation was suffocating.
He instinctively reached for snacks to vent his emotions—only to realize, to his horror, that he'd rushed over so fast he hadn't brought any.
That nearly drove him mad.
"I'm going to LOSE WEIGHT!!"
He gnashed his teeth, fuming, then stomped over to the formation control panel and slammed his palm down.
In an instant, a wave of heat surged up from the floor, flooding the whole room. Aside from the central seating area, which still felt "barely acceptable," the surrounding walls all faintly reddened.
In that blazing temperature, even with an air vent, Wang Baole found it hard to breathe. It took him a long while to steady himself—but the sweat, once it started, simply wouldn't stop.
Other people came here to try and seal their pores.
Wang Baole did the exact opposite.
He stretched his whole body out as much as possible, straining to open every pore and drink in the heat…
"Not enough!"
Wiping his sweat away, he sensed the spirit fat in his body, then adjusted the temperature again.
The already scorching heat rose to an entirely new level.
Still not satisfied, Wang Baole continued to increase it step by step.
At last, when even the walls glowed a bright red, he was so parched his tongue felt like sandpaper, and his internal organs all seemed half-cooked. But in that agony, he suddenly noticed—with wild delight—that the spirit fat inside him was actually starting to break down as the heat seeped through his pores!
"Heaven has eyes!!"
Overjoyed, Wang Baole locked the temperature in place and sat down cross-legged, eyes shut, enduring the torture as he carefully savored the feeling of his fat melting away.
The high temperature made him feel like he was being steamed alive, but watching his body fat reduce, however slowly, filled him with savage satisfaction.
An hour passed. Wang Baole was still hanging on.
Then two.
Then three…
Outside, dawn broke.
The Magma Chamber was never lacking in students. Every morning, the line of people waiting to get in never once thinned. At the moment, those queuing outside were in no rush. With over a hundred rooms, most people wouldn't last an hour inside.
The line would naturally move.
Soon, people began filing out in singles and pairs, faces bright red, replaced by fresh students heading in. Those still waiting passed the time chatting or glancing at the indicator panel overhead—each time a light went out, it meant a room had opened up.
Slowly, noon came. Then evening.
One batch after another went in and came out.
Around that time, a student who'd been waiting for a long while and happened to be more observant than most suddenly frowned.
"That's weird… Has Room Thirty-Nine's light… ever gone out? Have any of you seen it turn off?"
He'd meant it as a casual remark. But as more people thought back and realized they hadn't seen that light go out either, expressions began to change.
Then, under their focused stares, they watched the indicator for Room Thirty-Nine stay lit for yet another hour.
By then, the shock in their hearts could no longer be contained.
"Look, look at Room Thirty-Nine—holy crap, I've been watching it for two hours and it's never gone off. I'm pretty sure it was already lit this morning!"
"Seriously?"
"You guys must be seeing things. The longest record is Zhuo Yifan's, and he only lasted three hours."
With all the talk, this rare phenomenon quickly led to curiosity.
A whole group of students simply gave up cultivating for the day and sat down outside the Magma Chamber just to watch.
Their breathing grew shallow.
Their eyes grew rounder and rounder…
Hours later, night fell again.
By now there were easily several hundred students gathered outside the Magma Chamber, all of them staring at that single glowing indicator for Room Thirty-Nine as though they were looking at a ghost.
The murmurs never stopped. Some people immediately began sending transmissions to their friends, and very soon the Spiritnet exploded.
"Monster spotted in the Battle Martial Magma Chamber!!"
"Rough calculations suggest that whoever is in Room Thirty-Nine has already lasted more than ten hours!!"
"Record broken! Zhuo Yifan's record is utterly shattered!!"
In an instant, the posts spread across the entire Lower Courtyard Island. Students of every department drew in sharp breaths.
Everyone knew the Magma Chamber's reputation. To last more than ten hours inside?
That kind of maniac had only ever appeared once in history.
Now there was a second!
If the light for Room Thirty-Nine had gone off at this point, that alone would've been enough to make the entire island buzz for days.
But under the eyes of practically everyone in the Lower Courtyard… the light for Room Thirty-Nine stayed on straight through until dawn!
The entire college went into an uproar.
Even the instructors started paying attention, not to mention the students. No one wanted to cultivate in the chamber anymore—they were all gathered outside instead, staring at that one stubbornly glowing light.
"Good heavens, it's been almost two days, hasn't it…"
"He's challenging the previous Federal President!!"
"Who is he? Ten spirit stones to anyone with solid intel—once confirmed, I'll pay immediately!"
In both real life and on the Spiritnet, comments exploded. Finally, the Battle Martial students who'd glimpsed something the night before posted their announcement.
"The monster in Room Thirty-Nine of the Magma Chamber is… Wang Baole from the Armament Department!!"
"I swear it—I personally saw him, in a special-recruit robe, rolling toward the entrance!"
When that message went up, the other departments weren't sure what to make of it and took it with a grain of salt.
But for all the Battle Martial students who'd already been traumatized by Wang Baole in the past, it was like someone had dumped oil onto a bonfire.
Especially Zhuo Yifan and his crowd—their rage instantly boiled over, and they stormed toward the Magma Chamber in a group.
"Damn you, Fatty Wang! You don't go to the Beast-Taming Department's Jingyun Mountain, you don't go to the Formation Department's Eight-Treasure Diagram, you don't go to the Mechanist Department's Frozen Tower—why do you have to fixate on our Battle Martial Magma Chamber?! Are you targeting our department on purpose!?"
In their eyes, this stunt of Wang Baole's was nothing less than a third declaration of war—right after his island-running and weightlifting…
Yet another full-frontal provocation!