To be honest, Shen Mu had expected that breaking through to Planet-Level within a year and comprehending artistic conception before reaching Planet-Level would already be quite good.
He had simply never expected the Azure Dragon Avatar's memories from the past few decades to give him such a huge surprise.
"It's only early June now. There is still some time before August, just enough to spend two months consolidating my gains and fully integrating my understanding of the sea into my spear techniques and movement techniques."
According to the training camp's rules, every August was the month for life-or-death adventures on the Australia Continent.
With the Ten-Thousand-Year Willow Heart's assistance, two months would be enough for Shen Mu to raise both his physical fitness and mental power to the limits of the War God-level.
"Perhaps I can try challenging a King-Level Monster then!"
The few King-Level Monsters on the Australia Continent were all first-stage Planet-Level. After all, this was a place for training camp students to gain experience. There could not possibly be powerful monsters comparable to his Azure Dragon Avatar.
Inside the secret chamber, Shen Mu opened the combination case containing the Ten-Thousand-Year Willow Heart. The Ten-Thousand-Year Willow Heart was a fist-sized crystal, with jade-gold liquid flowing within it.
"This Ten-Thousand-Year Willow Heart is probably the one Luo Feng obtained on Mist Island."
According to the medicinal effects described in the instructions, the Ten-Thousand-Year Willow Heart could increase a War God-level expert's physical fitness by three to five times.
Shen Mu's physical fitness was currently around 73,000 kilograms, placing him at the entry War God-level. As long as he could increase it fourfold, he would easily reach the Advanced War God-level.
Whoosh!
Shen Mu skillfully controlled a throwing knife to slice open the crystal shell, then consumed the jade-gold essence liquid.
The dense life energy rapidly spread through his body, merging into the countless cells throughout Shen Mu's body at an astonishing speed.
This transformation lasted the entire night.
The next morning, Shen Mu stood before the strength-testing machine. His current strength data had already appeared on the screen.
349,000 kilograms. Advanced War God-level qualified!
"As expected, it increased by more than four times, nearly five."
Shen Mu could still sense that his cells were in an incredibly saturated, overstuffed state. He could not even absorb cosmic energy through the guiding technique.
That was the essence energy of the Essence of Flora lying dormant in his body. For the next less-than-two-month period, Shen Mu's main task would be to fully digest the medicinal effects of the Essence of Flora.
The fifth lunar month, the season of cicadas.
The temperature in Hongning Base City, located in the Northern Hemisphere, gradually rose, and the monsters in the wilderness zones became increasingly restless.
As a result, quite a few training camp students were injured in June, though Shen Mu was naturally not among them.
With Shen Mu's Advanced War God-level physical fitness and War God-limit mental power, he was absolutely invincible below King-Level Monsters. Even if he encountered a true King-Level Monster, he could easily escape.
That evening, inside the training camp's leisure hall, where students of the China faction often gathered.
More than a dozen people sat in groups of two or three, either chatting or sparring and exchanging pointers in the martial arts hall. The atmosphere was relaxed.
Meanwhile, Shen Mu stood before the strength-testing machine, testing his physical fitness.
Boom!
Following a dull thud, Shen Mu's current strength data appeared on the punching target.
"I say, Junior Brother Shen Mu, you're already an Invincible War God. Why are you still working so desperately? You're making us too embarrassed to slack off."
Zhao Ruo lounged on the sofa in the posture of someone ready to give up entirely. Looking at the 463,000-kilogram punching-force figure on the screen, her face was full of envy.
In terms of strength, Zhao Ruo was barely considered middle-tier among the training camp students. Both her Combat Technique and movement technique were only at the major accomplishment stage of the second realm, her force-generation technique was a little over double, and she had only stabilized within the top hundred of the Black Dragon Rankings this year.
When Shen Mu had first begun training in martial arts, he had sparred with Zhao Ruo the most due to their similar strength, so they were fairly familiar with each other.
Shen Mu shook his head slightly. "I'm still far from enough. Today's strength increase hasn't even reached 4,000 kilograms. After all, I've taken Essence of Flora, and I'm already an Advanced War God. It doesn't count as working desperately."
This figure looked exaggerated. The strength gained in a single day was equivalent to the peak strength of a mid-level Warrior-level martial artist, but it was actually not much.
An ordinary Warrior-level martial artist could only improve by a few dozen kilograms a day, and that was under the condition that their bodily potential had not yet been fully developed and they had not encountered a growth bottleneck.
But for a Warlord-level martial artist, a single day's improvement could reach over a hundred kilograms, because the higher one's physical fitness, the more cosmic energy one's cells could absorb each day.
After reaching the War God-level, the cosmic energy absorbed each day became extremely astonishing. As long as one's bodily potential had not reached its limit, gaining several hundred kilograms of strength in a day was perfectly normal.
So-called bodily potential was a manifestation of cellular vitality. The lifelong limit for the vast majority of martial artists was merely Advanced Warrior-level. With external medicines and potions, they might perhaps become a Warlord-level martial artist.
Those figures were only for normal circumstances. Shen Mu had the support of both the Ancient Civilization Gravity Chamber and the medicinal effects of the Essence of Flora.
Twenty minutes of training in the Ancient Civilization Gravity Chamber was equivalent to an ordinary martial artist's full day of training.
Shen Mu could use the Ancient Civilization Gravity Chamber for a full ninety hours each month. His monthly improvement was comparable to half a year of conventional training, and that did not even include the Essence of Flora's support.
"Haha, Xiao Ruo, are you trying to compare yourself to Shen Mu? He improves by 100,000 kilograms a month. In terms of talent, perhaps only Luo Feng can compare with Shen Mu."
The speaker was Shi Jiang of Jiangnan Pavilion. He had a lean build, muscles seemingly forged from steel, and his entire body exuded a sharp aura.
Shi Jiang and Chu Qiang had both joined the training camp in year 53. This year was their final year at the training camp.
"Speaking of which, Luo Feng still hasn't come out of the Ancient Civilization Ruin..."
Zhao Ruo's expression dimmed slightly. Although Luo Feng had only spent half a year in the training camp, she had gotten along fairly well with him.
"No. There are still three months... until it has been a year."
Hearing them talk about Luo Feng, Shen Mu picked up a towel and spoke as he wiped away his sweat. "The head instructor spoke with me some time ago and asked whether I was willing to enter Ancient Civilization Ruin No. 9 to see if I could find clues about Senior Brother Luo Feng."
After Shen Mu took the Ten-Thousand-Year Willow Heart and became an Invincible War God-level Mentalist, Hong told him about Ancient Civilization Ruin No. 9.
If Shen Mu was willing to explore Ancient Civilization Ruin No. 9, not only would he be given a Black God Suit, but he would also receive a handbook of experience for breaking through to the domain realm.
"What?"
As soon as Shen Mu said this, the dozen or so China faction students present immediately turned their gazes toward him.
Chu Qiang directly walked up to Shen Mu. "Junior Brother Shen Mu, don't act rashly. Ancient Civilization Ruins are filled with too many unknowns. No one can predict what accidents might occur inside."
Shen Mu nodded slightly. "Mm, that's what I think too. Ancient Civilization Ruins are simply too dangerous. Dying on the battlefield would be one thing, but dying in an Ancient Civilization Ruin would be far too suffocating."
To be honest, Shen Mu had indeed planned to take a trip into Ancient Civilization Ruin No. 9 before this.
He would put on an attitude of being willing to disregard his own safety to rescue Senior Brother Luo Feng. It would not be for the rewards Hong offered, but simply to earn some goodwill and make it easier to rely on someone powerful.
After all, Luo Feng wasn't a Tang. If you built a good relationship with him, he would genuinely help you. Luo Feng's childhood friend Wei Wen had only ordinary talent even among Earthlings, yet after Luo Feng rose to prominence, he was forcibly piled up to Immortal with resources.
This was simply an investment guaranteed to turn a profit.
Moreover, as a transmigrator, Shen Mu knew the details of Ancient Civilization Ruin No. 9. As long as a Mentalist did not trigger the death trial, there would be no danger at all.
But even if it was triggered, Shen Mu was not afraid. Even if he could not complete the trial within three years, Luo Feng would be able to take control of Ancient Civilization Ruin No. 9 through Babata by then.
At that point, he would not be in danger, and he would also gain Luo Feng's goodwill because of it, with a chance to join Yunmo Star just like Hong and Thunder God.
Shen Mu's cheat was only a King-Level Azure Dragon Avatar. In the universe, it was truly nothing at all, not even as useful as a transmigrator's advantage of foresight. Therefore, joining Yunmo Star was necessary.
Even though Shen Mu had confidence in himself, he only set his sights on Hong and Thunder God. He would be fully satisfied if he could reach their heights in the future.
As for rivaling Luo Feng, that basically had little to do with talent. It entirely depended on whether his cheat could compare to Luo Feng's cheat.
One had to know that throughout Luo Feng's path of growth, cheats linked together one after another: an Immortal inheritance, Body Snatch, becoming a God King's disciple, the supreme secret technique Liyuan Technique, and so on. If he lacked even one of those cheats, he would not become City Lord Luo.
Of course, that plan to earn goodwill had only been Shen Mu's previous idea.
Now, thanks to his mother Chen Wen, Shen Mu had a new and more reliable plan for earning goodwill.
"Senior Brothers, Senior Sisters, carry on. I'll head back and rest first." Shen Mu smiled at the others.
"All right!"
"Take care, Junior Brother Shen."
The many China students warmly called out their farewells to Shen Mu.
After returning to his own villa, Shen Mu poured himself a glass of water, then picked up his phone and requested a video call.
"Beep... beep!"
A few seconds later, the video call connected. A woman in a white lab coat appeared on the screen, with what seemed to be a laboratory at some research institute in the background.
She wore black-framed glasses, but even they could not conceal her exceptional beauty. Instead, they gave her an additional air of intellectual scholarship.
"Ah Mu, you're done training!" Tang Yongqing's eyes curved into crescents as she looked at Shen Mu with some surprise.
Shen Mu nodded slightly, then asked, "Sister Yongqing, Wang Xing'an hasn't continued bothering you, has he?"
Tang Yongqing nodded slightly, a faint smile appearing on her face. "No. After Auntie Chen stepped in, he immediately apologized and never came to the research institute again."
Shen Mu looked at Tang Yongqing and spoke softly. "Sister Yongqing, after this August, I plan to graduate."
Tang Yongqing was Luo Feng's cousin. Her mother had been his mother Chen Wen's high school classmate, and she was now his blind date, having just become his girlfriend.
Tang Yongqing was slightly stunned. "I heard Auntie Chen mention it. Isn't the Elite Training Camp a five-year program?"
"Mm, but my strength is too high now. The training camp doesn't want me anymore. Sister Yongqing, would you be willing to take me in?"
"Smooth talker!"
"..."
Half an hour later, Shen Mu ended the call. His gaze passed through the floor-to-ceiling window as he watched the setting sun on the distant horizon.
Since transmigrating, whether in his previous life or this one, he had always been cautious. The more he knew, the more insignificant he felt, and the more he lacked a sense of security.
"All this scheming is only for the sake of living better."
Shen Mu could only be this way. Born into such a world, even his every word and action could not escape the eyes of others.
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