Sprint

They talked until lights-out. Chu Fei walked Sun Xiangqing to the square, then suddenly asked in a low voice, "What's the relationship between Teacher Cao and Captain Liu?"

I can't hold it in anymore. I need the gossip!

Sun Xiangqing furtively checked their surroundings and muttered softly, "They were classmates. At first, Captain Liu was frail and weak, while Teacher Cao puffed out his manly chest.

"Later, Captain Liu soared to great heights, while Teacher Cao got stuck at the Semi-Awakened stage.

"These past few years, Teacher Cao has been cultivating on loans. I think Captain Liu guaranteed those loans.

"Unfortunately, now that he's over thirty-five, his physical fitness has begun to decline.

"If Teacher Cao still can't break through before the Lunar New Year, he'll have to join a combat team to pay off his debts.

"A Semi-Awakened joining a combat team can only undergo implant augmentation. His life will be over."

By the end, Sun Xiangqing suddenly sighed.

Chu Fei understood that sigh—wasn't the current Cao Liwen exactly what he himself might become in the future?

Becoming an Awakened was far too difficult. In over thirty years, Dawn Academy had trained tens of thousands of students, yet there were only a pitiful thirty-six Awakened and just over two hundred Semi-Awakened.

Cao Liwen might be pitiful, but at least he was a Semi-Awakened, already standing in the upper reaches of the pyramid. He simply wanted more.

Sun Xiangqing was currently only a Quasi-Awakened—infinitely close to the Second Limit, yet unable to break through.

And breaking through was easier said than done.

After watching Sun Xiangqing leave, Chu Fei silently returned to his dormitory.

Cultivate!

Meditate!

Why sleep when you're still so young?

Stay up all night cultivating immortality!

He still had two bottles of Superbrain Potion, as well as one concentrated bottle.

Another week had passed since he last took one, so Chu Fei took another bottle.

Resistance to Superbrain Potion could be ignored, because it was only effective before the First Limit anyway.

After the First Limit, the core direction of cultivation was separating the Biological Brain from the Cosmic Brain, gradually transcending the material level.

To break through the First Limit, Chu Fei had to focus on both aspects: improving his physical fitness, which required training, and optimizing his thinking, which required learning, contemplation, and thought training!

Superbrain Potion had no direct effect on either direction. At most, optimizing the nervous system brought a little indirect benefit, but the effect was practically negligible.

Still, no matter how small the effect was, he couldn't give it up. Maybe he would get stuck precisely because he lacked that tiny bit.

That was why Superbrain Potion was so expensive.

Chu Fei steadied his mind and first meditated quietly for two hours, until the early hours of the morning.

After the effects of the Wisdom Dewdrop faded, Chu Fei carefully recalled everything and slowly sorted through the problems.

With a direction in mind, he indeed found the issue: the crude Thought Model was only a surface symptom.

The root cause was that his knowledge base was not yet complete, his calculation precision was not fine enough, and his grasp of knowledge was not solid enough.

Even with the Wisdom Tree Seed assisting him, knowledge still needed to "ferment."

Enlightenment dawned on Chu Fei. No matter how advanced the brewing technique, cellar aging can never be skipped.

My study time has ultimately been too short, yet I've learned too much. Instead, I haven't properly considered my own learning direction or organized my knowledge network!

At that thought, a confident smile appeared on Chu Fei's face. Breaking through isn't that difficult after all. Haven't I found the direction and method?

The next day was a new Monday. The remaining seventeen gathered, but after greeting Cao Liwen, Chu Fei ran off on his own.

From that day onward, Chu Fei would no longer train with everyone else.

In just one weekend, Chu Fei had achieved a small class leap—into the minor elite tier.

Li Honggang and Lu Hong watched Chu Fei's retreating back with curiosity and even more envy. Yesterday, Cao Liwen had kicked both of them out of his office, leaving only Chu Fei behind for a private talk. Today, Chu Fei was already flying solo.

But Li and Lu also breathed a sigh of relief—they had been terrified of being dragged along by Chu Fei's pace!

The class monitors and vice monitors of other classes truly took the lead.

But their class was different. Their class monitor and vice monitor were the vanguard when it came to getting beaten up.

Because their class had a Chu Fei.

Now, Chu Fei had finally left.

Wonderful.

That evening during self-study, Chu Fei was still absent, and relaxed smiles appeared on Li Honggang and Lu Hong's faces.

So where was Chu Fei?

Chu Fei was in the Academic Affairs Office, discussing supplies with Zhou Haiyi.

With Sun Xiangqing's guidance and his thoughts from the previous night, Chu Fei already knew what supplies he needed.

That night, Chu Fei collected three kilograms of low-level exotic beast flesh from Zhou Haiyi, most of it minced scraps.

Then he headed straight to Dawn Academy's cafeteria and cooked it into meat porridge.

The meat porridge did not taste good, but it worked best and was easiest to digest and absorb.

Dawn Academy's cafeteria provided paid services, which would be added to his educational expenses—the final bill would come after graduation!

After cooking it, he bought an insulated container from the cafeteria. It wasn't expensive, only ten yuan, and Chu Fei currently had several thousand yuan in cash.

The reason Chu Fei was so familiar with the process was, of course, Sun Xiangqing's guidance. Those pointers had saved Chu Fei at least a month of time and effort.

By the time everything was ready, it was already past 19:40. Chu Fei did not return to the classroom and instead headed straight for his dormitory.

After returning to his dormitory and closing the door, he began eating his "late-night snack."

He gulped down an entire kilogram of meat porridge in one go.

It truly did not taste very good. After all, it was made from leftover scraps of meat.

But the effects were excellent—one could even say immediate.

A warm current nourished his body, leaving him feeling lighter than ever, as though he had inexhaustible strength.

His heart stirred, and he immediately used a drop of Wisdom Dewdrop and began meditating on a three-dimensional Thought Model.

The moment he began, Chu Fei felt the difference—easy and swift!

It felt as if the Wisdom Dewdrop's effects had doubled.

It even seemed that the bottleneck had loosened somewhat!

After only a dozen or so attempts, Chu Fei embedded a new calculation logic into the already highly complex Thought Model—vector calculation.

His earlier model had included motion, but it had only been fixed, patterned movement, limited to several main directions: forward, backward, left, right, up, and down.

With vectors introduced, movement became unrestricted. The difficulty of calculation rose again, but the resulting benefits were beyond imagination.

His thoughts became increasingly mature, stable, precise, fluid, and efficient. The most direct result was that his mind became more nimble and sensitive.

Mathematical problems that had previously required him to write out calculations could now be solved mentally.

Suddenly, the effects of the Wisdom Dewdrop faded, yet he did not exit his meditative state.

Chu Fei frowned slightly and opened his eyes to check the wall clock. Only a little over eighty minutes had passed, yet the Wisdom Dewdrop should have remained effective for more than half an hour.

What was going on?

"Grrr..." His stomach rumbled, and an unprecedented hunger washed over him.

Chu Fei smiled.

The Wisdom Dewdrop's effects had not weakened. They had merely fallen back to their previous state because the free energy in his body had been exhausted.

Low voltage. Time to recharge.

Only comparison made the problem clear.

It seemed his previous physical condition had always been in a state of slight overexertion.

And a considerable portion of the Wisdom Dewdrop's processing power had been used to mobilize the idle energy within his body and improve energy efficiency.

Now things were different. With exotic beast flesh replenishing his free energy, the Wisdom Dewdrop's effects could finally be fully unleashed!

Then let the sprint toward the First Limit begin!