Everything Is Ready

Chu Fei had a sudden idea: he watered the Wisdom Tree Seed with a Wisdom Dewdrop, and sure enough, he received feedback.

After sensing it carefully for a while, he deciphered it.

Chu Fei had indeed encountered a bottleneck, but a bottleneck was never caused by just one problem!

Just as disasters were never caused by a single factor.

A bottleneck was likewise the result of a series of accumulated problems.

To break through a bottleneck, he had to resolve those problems one by one.

But before resolving them, he first had to analyze them and identify them.

Otherwise, if he just charged ahead blindly, he would never break through even in a lifetime!

"Many people remain trapped at a bottleneck for a long time, miss the golden years of cultivation, or even squander their entire lives because they cannot correctly recognize the root cause of their bottleneck."

But now, Chu Fei had found the reasons for his own bottleneck. There were mainly two:

First, his body could not provide his brain—especially during high-intensity thought training—with enough energy.

Second, his brain's thought processes were too crude, resulting in excessively low energy efficiency!

Chu Fei recalled the three breakthrough methods Liu Tingyun had described:

First, train madly and fight madly. This offered the greatest chance of a breakthrough, but also the greatest risk of death.

Second, train madly with very little actual combat. The chance of a breakthrough was somewhat lower, but it was safer.

Third, strengthen physical training while adding thought training. It was the safest method, but had the lowest chance of a breakthrough.

At the time, Chu Fei had only vaguely felt that the third method suited him best.

Only now did he fully confirm that the seemingly most ordinary third method was actually the correct one.

Chu Fei also recalled Huang Gang saying that the core of combat using implants was—counterintuitive thinking!

The essence of both Big Data Cultivation and implant combat was scientific research.

Science required many qualities: a love of learning, thought, research, testing, summarizing, correction, deep study, exploration, perseverance, and the ability to enjoy monotony...

The only things it did not require were laziness, mindless fanaticism, and baseless intuition.

But Liu Tingyun and the others could not be blamed for this either. Thought training was truly difficult.

"If you slack off in cultivation, cultivation will cut corners on you."

"Precisely because it is difficult, Awakened are so rare, and Fully Awakened are even rarer!

Conversely, if you want to become an Awakened, you must take the hardest road!

This is the only correct path!"

"Actually, the so-called First Limit and the so-called Life's Lock sound unattainable, but after carefully analyzing them, they don't seem like much."

A smile appeared on Chu Fei's face, and the faint heaviness on it vanished.

"Starting tomorrow, I'll strengthen my physical training to build a powerful body and provide my brain with enough energy.

At the same time, I'll continue intensifying my thought training and try to construct efficient, precise thought processes.

Tonight, I'll get some proper rest.

Ever since entering Dawn Academy, I haven't rested properly."

It was only around eight in the evening, with two hours left before lights-out.

Chu Fei left the dormitory.

Under the streetlights, he saw Zhang Xuan, Li Honggang, and the others reciting formulas.

In the brightly lit square, two of the four old men were playing chess.

At the edge of the cliff, he saw the brilliant lights below the mountain, glittering like stars.

In the dining hall, he saw Sun Xiangqing and more upperclassmen eating late-night snacks in clothes soaked through with sweat.

In a pine grove, he saw Cao Liwen staring blankly at the night sky.

Chu Fei walked quietly onward, leaving the small area assigned to his class and arriving at the area where other classes lived.

Dawn Academy admitted students once a month, with twenty to forty students forming a class each time.

It had already been two months since Chu Fei entered Dawn Academy. Yet the classes seemed relatively independent, each with its own residence, route down the mountain, and so on.

Still, the academy did not prevent students from visiting one another.

In another equally rough square, two more old men were playing chess.

When one of the old men saw Chu Fei approach, he nodded and continued his game.

The weekend night was peaceful yet full of life, with no trace of the atmosphere of the apocalypse.

Chu Fei wandered around for more than an hour and saw all kinds of scenes at Dawn Academy. The lower-year students rarely played around, while upper-year students like Sun Xiangqing trained as if their lives depended on it.

Seeing Chu Fei wandering about like this, no one even had the spare attention to greet him.

Until Sun Xiangqing came running over. "Chu Fei, Director Zhou Haiyi is looking for you."

When Chu Fei arrived at the Academic Affairs Office, he saw Zhou Haiyi sending off Liu Tingyun, Feng Yuan from the Flying Cloud Battle Team, and two other people he did not know.

Of them all, Liu Tingyun was the most eye-catching. She glanced at Chu Fei, spread a pair of snow-white wings, and flew away.

Chu Fei could not help rolling his eyes. You can fly, so you're amazing.

The other three went their separate ways.

Feng Yuan passed by Chu Fei with a cold expression. Her gaze toward him was somewhat unfriendly, and Chu Fei vaguely seemed to hear the sound of teeth grinding.

Chu Fei held his head high and his chest out, looking straight ahead, but he recalled how Liu Tingyun had once slapped Feng Yuan into a seven-hundred-and-twenty-degree midair spin.

He walked to the Academic Affairs Office and knocked on the open door.

"Come in." Zhou Haiyi stood in the middle of the room. There was tea spilled across the floor, shattered glassware, and quite a few dents in the tabletop.

It was obvious that everyone had thoroughly exchanged opinions here just now and had a frank discussion.

But before Chu Fei could speak, Zhou Haiyi placed a handwritten document before him. "Take a look. This is the 'menu' provided by the Greedy Wolf Team.

The items checked off here are the ones you can currently exchange for.

For now, you can exchange for supplies worth a total of 242,100 yuan.

Take it back tonight and look it over. If there's anything you don't understand, ask me or Teacher Cao."

Chu Fei accepted the list and happened to notice three identical lists beside it. He vaguely guessed what had just happened.

Most likely, Zhou Haiyi had ridden on his coattails to make new demands of the battle team.

But that did not matter. What mattered was that he benefited.

This list in front of him was truly enticing!

The first two items were clearly listed as:

Superbrain Potion, 8,000 yuan (original price: 10,000 yuan)

Supernatural Potion, 10,000 yuan (original price: 12,000 yuan)

Just those two items alone delighted Chu Fei.

Clearly, a considerable amount had been squeezed out of the battle team's investment padding.

That meant his investment of more than 240,000 yuan could be exchanged for more cultivation resources.

After looking for a while, Chu Fei frowned—the resources were plentiful, but unfamiliar.

After thinking for a moment, Chu Fei asked, "Teacher, can I show this to someone else?"

"Yes. This list will be made public later."

Chu Fei asked again, "Teacher, do you have any recommendations or good combinations?"

"Look it over first. We'll discuss it in detail during evening self-study tomorrow."

After thanking Zhou Haiyi, Chu Fei turned and found Sun Xiangqing.

See? It came in handy right away.

Sun Xiangqing wholeheartedly gave Chu Fei advice.

In the end, Sun Xiangqing summarized:

"Try to eat the flesh and blood of low-level exotic beasts.

High-level ones overstimulate the body, drain your potential, and are absorbed inefficiently. The losses outweigh the gains.

Use potions only when necessary. The main concern is drug resistance.

After breaking through the First Limit, drug resistance will increase rapidly, causing the cost of medication in the later stages to soar."