Snowy Night: Gene Potion

Ever since everyone learned that the assessment would take place in one month, they all began training even more frantically.

Training—insane training!

Tian Lin no longer went out at night, the Tan Family Five Brothers spent less time arguing, and everyone trained for more than twelve hours a day.

But Li Yang remained the same as before, without the slightest change. If there was any change, it was that he set slightly greater demands for himself, while his training hours remained unchanged. After all, he had already cultivated for fifteen hours every day in the past; now, he was merely continuing as before.

Li Yang rose at four every morning, absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to cultivate his internal arts until six, then went out for a walk, breakfast, and so on.

From seven onward, he trained his body, mainly his wrist and leg strength, constantly challenging his limits. There were many methods—for example, gripping a hundred-pound iron bar horizontally with both hands, forcing his wrists to bear its full weight, then continuously doing frog jumps. He trained until nine in the morning, by which time Li Yang's arms were sore, his legs numb, and he had almost no strength left.

But at that very moment, Li Yang had to practice throwing knives, hurling them without pause. Internal Energy had to be infused into every throwing knife, every knife had to pierce the steel plate, and every one had to strike a tiny red bullseye for it to count as a success. Only after landing three thousand successful throws could Li Yang begin lunch.

Every knife had to carry Internal Energy and hit the red bullseye on the steel plate. The requirements were extremely harsh. Li Yang's internal arts had only just reached the first level, leaving him with that pitifully tiny amount of Internal Energy—enough for only a few dozen throws. Three thousand knives forced Li Yang to constantly pursue his limits.

At the beginning, after Li Yang finished three thousand throwing knives, including the time spent recovering Internal Energy along the way, it was already evening by the time he truly succeeded. But after a year of such cultivation, Li Yang generally finished those three thousand knives a little after noon.

This had made it so that although Li Yang possessed little Internal Energy, his recovery speed was incredibly fast! Being able to supply the Internal Energy needed for three thousand throwing knives within three hours showed just how terrifying that recovery speed was.

In the afternoon, he sat cross-legged and meditated to cultivate his internal arts, from one to three—two full hours.

After cultivating his internal arts, Li Yang began practicing combat skills, from three in the afternoon until nine at night, a full six hours!

Then came time for rest and dinner. At nine-thirty, it was time for Li Yang's phone call with Jiang Xue, a full half hour. This was Li Yang's happiest time every day.

After ten at night, Li Yang took a walk around the residential complex, then entered the base to cultivate a little more, or chatted and joked with the other team members. At midnight, he officially went to sleep!

His daily training time never fell below fifteen hours! This also caused Li Yang's energy to soar. When he had first entered Security Bureau Group 9, Li Yang's energy test had been only 12 Crystals, barely reaching double digits. He could only just be called a Level Two Master. Yet in just two short years, he had already reached 80 Crystals, five or six times stronger than before!

And so, Li Yang continued training...

The major powers of the world all recognized the same classification method for masters.

The number of digits in one's energy crystal count determined what level of master one was! For example, Li Yang currently had only 80 Crystals of energy. Eighty had two digits, so Li Yang was still a Level Two Master.

It could be said that masters of the same level could differ enormously. For example, a master with 1,000 Crystals was a Level Four Master, while a master with 9,000 Crystals was likewise a Level Four Master. But when their energy was compared, the gap was simply heaven and earth.

The "Six-Level Pure Yang Art" was the standard cultivation method within the Security Bureau. Everyone cultivated the "Six-Level Pure Yang Art," which was also why there were so few women in the Security Bureau. After all, very few women were able to cultivate a pure-yang technique.

The "Six Extremes Pure Yang Technique" had six levels in total. If someone cultivated only Internal Energy without madly training their body, reaching the first level would roughly make them a Level One Master. Reaching the second level made them a Level Two Master... reaching the sixth level made them a Level Six Master...

At the beginning, during the early stages, training the body could increase quite a bit of energy. Through frenzied cultivation, bodily energy could reach several dozen Crystals.

Thus, although Li Yang's Internal Energy was only at the first level, he had reached around 80 Crystals because of his body.

But once one's cultivation grew high, training the body had almost no effect. For example, for a Level Three Master with several hundred Crystals of energy, the few dozen Crystals gained through bodily training were basically useless!

Not to mention Level Four Masters or even stronger experts. To a top expert possessing tens or hundreds of thousands of Crystals, did several dozen Crystals of bodily strength have any meaning?

Li Yang was a little over 1.8 meters tall, with a very standard build. He looked as though he weighed only around 170 jin, but anyone who weighed him would discover that Li Yang had already reached 200 jin. Once he took off his clothes, one would discover that Li Yang's body was practically all muscle, yet it was sleek and streamlined rather than protruding in huge bulges like those bodybuilders.

Inside the training room of Star Net, the Shanghai base of Security Bureau Group 9.

Under double gravity, Li Yang was sparring with Tan Jin. Naturally, Tan Jin was not using Internal Energy; he was relying entirely on bodily strength to fight Li Yang.

Both men were bare-chested, wearing black trousers on their lower bodies. The muscles on their upper bodies were not obvious, yet they made one feel the immense power contained within.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! ... The sounds of their legs colliding rang out without pause, and sweat covered their bare upper bodies.

Boom! The two men suddenly used the same side kick, their legs crashing together as they both staggered backward.

"Li Yang, not bad. You can actually fight me to a draw now. I was the one who had you learn the leg techniques of the Underground Boxing Ring, yet I never expected you to catch up to me so quickly. Sigh, what a pity. You train your body, but your muscles haven't bulged out like those bodybuilders'! I, Tan Jin, still can't surpass you and become the most handsome man in Security Bureau Group 9's Shanghai branch!" Tan Jin shook his head and sighed, looking utterly depressed.

"Oh? So when you had me train my muscles back then, you were trying to turn me into a gorilla-like hulk? Your heart is truly worthy of condemnation!" Li Yang laughed and cursed. "Still, those bodybuilders are all pretty to look at but useless in a fight! Take Hei Yan, for example. His bodily energy is definitely the strongest among us, but while his muscles are developed, they don't bulge excessively."

Tan Jin nodded as well. "A true master's muscles can't possibly bulge like that! Muscles that protrude too much have a major impact on movement and slow down one's speed. Speed is incredibly important in battle. Looking across the top experts of the Underground Boxing Ring, although their muscles are developed, not a single one bulges like those bodybuilding champions. Those top Underground Boxing Ring fighters are not only fast, but monstrously strong. But the strangest thing is that they're all relatively large too!"

Li Yang merely smiled. "There's nothing strange about that. Don't you know how miserable the training of Underground Boxing Ring fighters is? They train as if training themselves to death. Many fighters can exceed one hundred Crystals through bodily strength alone! The highest was even said to have reached around five hundred Crystals! If the fighters' natural physiques were poor, how could they endure that kind of training? Of course every one of them is a hulking giant."

Li Yang suddenly mocked himself. "Five hundred Crystals... I really don't know how they train. It's not as though we aren't working hard, yet we only have a few dozen Crystals. Just thinking about the training they endured is terrifying."

Tan Jin nodded as well. "Yes, those fighters each crawled out from heaps of corpses. But before these fighters enter the Underground Boxing Ring, there's another hurdle! Nearly half the fighters die at this hurdle. That hurdle is taking the A1 Gene Potion and undergoing a bodily transformation."

Li Yang nodded. "I know about that. Ever since the breakthrough in genetics four years ago, several major powers successively developed the A1 Gene Potion. A1 starts from the genes, transforming the human body to make it stronger. But A1 is very incomplete, and its death rate is extremely high, close to fifty percent! I heard that one dose of A1 Gene Potion costs five hundred thousand US dollars."...

Tan Jin laughed. "That's right. Later, A2 came out. It's more complete than A1, and the death rate for users is only ten percent! A single dose costs an astonishing five million US dollars. According to internal news last year, the United States also developed A3, which has almost no flaws. Its death rate is zero. As long as one takes it, success is guaranteed one hundred percent. But the cost of producing one dose is also extremely high. If one wanted to buy a dose of A3 Gene Potion, it actually cost five hundred million US dollars! A hundred times more expensive than A2. Yet many super-rich people still buy it, supposedly so they can become healthy and strong and, at the very least, live several decades longer."

The three grades of Gene Potion—A1, A2, and A3—became better and more complete with each step, but also more expensive. A3 Gene Potion had reached five hundred million US dollars; anyone who was not an unimaginably wealthy tycoon simply could not afford it.

"Mm. The strongest people in the Underground Boxing Ring are now Level Four Masters. They originally had several hundred Crystals of energy, then after taking A1, their bodies transformed and they possessed over one thousand Crystals of energy. But there are also quite a few who originally had only one or two hundred Crystals. Even after taking A1 and transforming, they only have seven or eight hundred Crystals of energy. Still, those who survived were the lucky ones. Many whose bodies were originally very strong still died at the hurdle of taking the potion. After all, A1 is still very incomplete!" Li Yang sighed, seeming to regret those fighters who had achieved success in training only to die while taking the Gene Potion.

Tan Jin nodded. "That's easy to understand. Those fighters' training camps won't spend too much money, since A2 is simply too expensive—five million US dollars! If an Underground Boxer fails to make it, the training camp probably can't even recover its investment. A1 Gene Potion is already the limit these training camps can bear. Heh heh, cultivating internal arts is still better. Breaking through a level is far better than taking such an expensive Gene Potion, and there are no side effects whatsoever!"

Li Yang nodded in agreement.

Yet a trace of gloom lay in Li Yang's heart. Sigh, it's a pity I started cultivating internal arts too late. My meridians have already taken shape! No matter how many benefits internal arts have, they're of little use to me.

Suddenly, Li Yang's heart hardened. Hmph, even without taking Gene Potion, the strongest experts of the Underground Boxing Ring have reached five hundred Crystals of energy. I refuse to believe I can't reach it too! Once my bodily strength reaches five hundred Crystals, my wrist strength will be far stronger than it is now, and my Internal Energy will be even stronger. The power of my throwing knives will rise by at least two levels. By then, even a super expert at the Xiantian Great Accomplishment Stage won't be able to catch my throwing knives!

Li Yang immediately made his decision... cultivate diligently and train his bodily strength, thereby raising the attack power of his throwing knives to an astonishing realm.

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