A New Light Orb

[Perception: LV2 (1/100)]

At the iron mesh entrance of the basketball court, the moment Perception successfully leveled up—

Chen Feng's head buzzed, and the world before his eyes suddenly shifted.

The ground's texture rapidly magnified; the metal bracket behind the basketball hoop was mottled with rust.

The rotting black stains in front of him were filled with insect ant corpses—outlines he could only vaguely see before were now crystal clear.

They looked like ants, with wings sprouting from their backs, faint gray patterns tracing across them.

Seeing this, Chen Feng instantly understood the change after Perception's upgrade.

"It's clearer!"

Everything had become incredibly sharp, as if viewed through a magnifying glass.

The range of Perception had also expanded accordingly. With him as the center, an area of a full thirty meters was now no different from close-up observation.

Whether in front or behind, even without turning his head, he could conjure the corresponding scene in his mind.

"Three hundred sixty degrees, no blind spots."

A trace of sharp light flashed in Chen Feng's eyes.

He did not expect the effect of Perception Talent's upgrade to be this powerful.

The range increase went without saying—it meant he could detect anomalies in his surroundings earlier, leaving more time to think and react.

As for all-round scene perception, whether it was tailing or a sneak attack from behind, as long as it entered the thirty-meter range, it would be hard to hide from him.

Even when facing situations where he was surrounded, it would allow him to respond more calmly, with no blind spots in his line of sight.

"It seems like there's more than that."

His eyes bright, Chen Feng felt that Perception's upgrade had other effects.

With that thought, he quickly turned and walked toward the Extreme Martial Arts Gym.

Standing by the street, within the thirty-meter range.

Carefully sensing, even through the barrier of walls.

He soon detected, within the Extreme Martial Arts Gym's building, an extremely vigorous Life Force existing.

It was like the sound of a heartbeat, or like an extra point of light appearing in the darkness.

Without a doubt, that was the Masked Man's aura.

"Aura! The sensing of Life Force!"

His eyes blazed, and Chen Feng knew—this was the final effect of Perception's upgrade.

It allowed him to keenly detect the intensity of others' auras, and even, within the range, instantly notice whether there was any life fluctuation.

This would clearly be of no small use for his future exploration of the Dream World.

"Good."

Nodding in satisfaction, Chen Feng suddenly realized that he was now like a human-shaped radar.

No blind spots, all-round sensing.

Shaking his head to dispel such stray thoughts, he soon contentedly returned to the basketball court and collected the three Limit Breaking Light Orbs.

[You have picked up three (Limit Breaking Light Orbs)!]

[Limit Breaking Light Orb: Remnant Will of a Martial Artist]

[Quality: Basic]

[Effect: Can increase martial skill proficiency to a certain extent]

The prompt appeared, and Chen Feng quickly looked at his panel.

[Limit Break: 5]

Two of these were from yesterday's haul, still unused.

Then, Chen Feng looked at his skill list.

[Judo: Proficient (10%) +]

[Exploding Fist: Beginner (11%) +]

[Flame Tiger Stance: Beginner (22%) +]

"Five Limit Breaks should be enough to push Flame Tiger Stance to the Tiger Form realm."

Whispering to himself, Chen Feng's gaze unconsciously lingered on Judo for a moment.

He felt a trace of hesitation.

If he used them to boost Judo, it would certainly reach the Mastery level.

But—

He was curious about the effect of leveling up his stance skill, especially since his performance at Yan Wu Academy already placed him among the geniuses.

Dragging it out any longer would go against his previous performance.

"Upgrade!"

Without further hesitation, Chen Feng chose the Flame Tiger Stance.

Hum!

Instantly, under the consumption of four Limit Breaking portions.

Insights surged in, like hundreds of days and nights spent standing in the stance and practicing punches, enduring the grinding of solitude alone.

Until a certain moment, the bottleneck was broken.

A wave of heat flowed through his body, the cells in his limbs and torso greedily absorbing it, even the flesh and skin seeming to be tempered.

[Flame Tiger Stance: Tiger Form (1%)+]

"Succeeded!"

His gaze sharpened, Chen Feng clearly felt his current change.

His muscles were stronger, firmer.

Just like iron being hammered, more refined and powerful.

He then looked at the attribute panel in his mind.

Chen Feng couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

[Strength: 9.9→10.3]

[Agility: 9.5→9.9]

[Physique: 9.8→10.2]

[Will: 10.1→10.5]

A full 1.6 attribute increase.

Even slightly stronger than the effect after mastering Sanshou.

"No wonder it's a Martial Dao School's inheritance, and this is just breaking through to Tiger Form."

Gripping his fists tightly, Chen Feng estimated that his current punching power was at least 150kg.

This already surpassed the level of Amateur Ninth Dan.

"The minimum requirement for Professional Level One is two hundred kilograms per punch, increasing by thirty kilograms for each subsequent level."

"If I were to use Exploding Fist again, with forty percent explosive power..."

His gaze shifted, and Chen Feng suddenly realized that he could already unleash strength at the Professional Level One standard.

Even if it was limited by Exploding Fist's physical stamina consumption and couldn't be sustained.

That was still enough.

"Good."

A surge of strong confidence rose in his heart. Chen Feng couldn't help but turn his head again, looking toward the distant Extreme Martial Arts Gym.

He hadn't forgotten the grudge from that arm-breaking incident.

Not to mention, inside that Extreme Martial Arts Gym, there were still several Limit Breaking Light Orbs.

But yet—

"No rush, no rush."

Taking a deep breath, Chen Feng returned to calm, forcing himself to hold back for now.

The Masked Man's aura was far stronger than Coach Lu's, likely at least at Professional Level Two or Three.

He himself was probably still a bit lacking.

"But soon."

Suppressing his stray thoughts, Chen Feng was well aware that the gap between them was shrinking rapidly.

The top priority was to continue searching for Light Orbs and break through to Professional Grade as soon as possible.

With that thought, he quickly released his Perception and began searching the surroundings.

The park near the basketball court was large, covering at least three to five kilometers.

Some of the mist inside was slowly dissipating. Seeing this, Chen Wei's mind stirred, and he immediately turned to walk into the park.

Tap, tap!

Footsteps echoed, Perception enveloped the area.

All the surrounding greenery had withered, gray gravel paths weaving through the park.

Looking up, Chen Feng spotted an extremely tall tree.

Over ten meters high, with gnarled roots and a thick trunk that would take three to five people to wrap their arms around.

But yet, even such a massive tree was completely withered, without a trace of life.

"Is this caused by the Black Calamity... or something else?"

Withered and dead, the gray tree branches held not a single leaf.

Chen Feng's eyes held both doubt and awe, and his wariness toward this world's plight only deepened.

Until finally, his steps halted.

His heart stirred as he looked toward the center of the park, at a single, even larger withered tree.

Its gnarled roots were a full one to two meters thick, and it stood thirty to fifty meters tall, overlooking heaven and earth like a giant.

Surrounding withered trees clustered in droves, as if paying homage to their king.

Seeing this, Chen Feng's gaze sharpened.

Because, following the line of that tallest withered tree upward—

At the very top, tangled branches formed what seemed to be a canopy.

And yet, precisely within this gray, withered desolation, there was a cyan light orb the size of a human head, wrapped in a Unicorn Beetle Shadow, quietly suspended.

"A Cyan Light Orb?"