Eight Days Later, Knock Open the Door to the Martial Arts Examination!

"Cultivation Technique Rapid Mastery Panel? Acquire talents? Requires an uninterrupted supply of energy?"

Lu Jue muttered to himself, immediately understanding the purpose of his golden finger.

Put simply, the panel could compress the time needed to cultivate a technique to perfection to the absolute limit, but the price was that it had to be supplied with all the energy it required within an extremely short period.

The key was, just how short was this "extremely short" period? If it took too long, it still would not solve the crisis before him.

After trying to select Basic Fist Arts, the system displayed another prompt.

Based on the host's current talent and progress, after deducting other losses, if you focus solely on cultivating Basic Fist Arts and always practice in the correct direction, it will still take 132 days to reach perfection.

Based on the host's current physical strength, the time required for rapid mastery: 1 hour!

Energy Requirement difficulty: 1

Activate rapid mastery?

Warning: If the energy supply is interrupted, rapid mastery will immediately terminate! You may also suffer an energy backlash!

Looking at the crystal-clear data, Lu Jue's heart skipped a beat before pounding wildly with unprecedented force, like thunderous war drums!

Unbelievable! A way out of a desperate situation!

Countless emotions instantly washed away his previous despair, nearly suffocating him!

One hour! Just one hour was all it would take to push Basic Fist Arts, whose progress had remained at only 61 for so long, to perfection!?

But the scarlet warning on the final line was like a bucket of cold water, instantly waking him up.

Insufficient supply! Energy backlash!

Rapid mastery did not come without a price. It required an ocean of energy to sustain such an unnatural cultivation speed!

If he wanted to rapidly master a technique, he had to prepare sufficient energy—in other words, food.

And to buy food, he needed money!

Money! That was exactly what he lacked most right now!

At that moment, he suddenly recalled his father's words before leaving. He immediately went beneath the bed, dug out a small box, and took out more than nine thousand yuan.

Yet the sight of that nine thousand yuan made his heart turn cold instead.

Before heading out, his father had only said that he had left some money beneath the bed for Lu Jue to use as he pleased.

He had never expected there to be more than nine thousand yuan.

This was definitely all the savings their family currently had!

His father had never intended to give up on registering as a Scavenger!

Leaving all the money here, he had likely already prepared himself to go to his death.

Use it, or not?

The answer was obvious!

Only by immediately raising his strength and proving that he was qualified to compete for one of those twenty Exemption Quotas could he stop his father from registering as a Scavenger.

"I'll stay home for the next two days. Once Father has completely given up on the idea, I'll return to the martial arts school!"

"Forging Exercise and Breathing Technique are more difficult, which means they require even more energy for rapid mastery. With my current limited resources, I'll try the simplest one first—Basic Fist Arts!"

"As for talents, there's no room to choose right now. I'll first use the cheapest food to replenish energy. Rapidly mastering cultivation techniques is the royal road!"

Without further hesitation, Lu Jue pulled out eight thousand yuan, stuffed it into his pocket, and rushed resolutely out the door, his figure quickly merging into the deep night of the eastern city slums.

His goal was clear—head to the night market and look for cheap, near-expiry Energy Powder.

Two hours later, Lu Jue returned home carrying a sack of near-expiry Energy Powder on his shoulder.

He dug out every usable container in the house—more than twenty bowls and basins of all sizes, even the old bucket normally used to catch leaks from the roof—and filled them all with the inferior gray powder. Then he mixed it with warm water, stirring it into a thick, murky solution.

This stuff could not even be considered a proper nutritional product. It was merely a mixture made by forcibly fusing all kinds of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats through industrial methods, mockingly called "human feed" by the people of the slums.

Only the lowest laborers, those who worked themselves to death at construction sites, would pinch their noses and force down a cup.

Even mixed with warm water, it could not conceal that pungent, astringent stench. It not only stuck to the throat when swallowed, but also caused bloating and discomfort afterward.

Lu Jue had tried it three times out of curiosity before. The result was that not only had it completely ruined his appetite, but even when he looked at the long legs of the commoner School Belle next door—the legs that stirred endless fantasies in countless boys—his mind had felt pure and clear, utterly free of stray thoughts. This stuff could practically purify desire!

But now, his expression was calm, and his eyes held only the resolve to smash the cauldrons and sink the boats.

"Panel, begin rapid mastery!"

The moment the thought fell—

BOOM!!!

It was as though an invisible ten-thousand-jin sledgehammer had brutally smashed into his brainstem!

Countless fragmented scenes of painstakingly cultivating Basic Fist Arts through endless days and nights—the feeling of every punch, the path of every drop of sweat—were forcibly and frantically poured into his mind by a tyrannical force!

His body reacted violently. The skin over his entire body instantly turned crimson, as though he had been thrown into a furnace to be tempered, while his bones let out unbearable creaks.

The meager reserves of energy in his body were exhausted in just a few breaths!

Hungry!

A hunger that sank into his very bones!

Without hesitation, Lu Jue immediately gulped down two bowls of energy solution.

The energy that could sustain an ordinary laborer for an entire day only halted his heart-searing, bone-eroding hunger for less than ten seconds!

Yet in those few seconds, Lu Jue's mind remained remarkably clear, and he abruptly realized a hidden ability of the panel.

Ordinary people had limited efficiency in converting the energy from the food they consumed. No matter how pure the food, metabolic waste would still be produced.

But while he used the panel for rapid mastery, his stomach seemed to transform into a bottomless black hole that could devour everything, achieving a one-hundred-percent energy conversion rate!

Consume one hundred units of food, and it would become one hundred units of energy, truly and completely!

"Not enough! Far from enough!"

Soon, an even fiercer sense of emptiness swept over him again!

Lu Jue's eyes turned crimson once more. A nearly beastlike growl rose from his throat, veins bulging across his arms. He acted entirely on instinct, with only one thought left in his mind—eat! Drink! Fill that damned hunger!

One bowl, two bowls, three bowls.

He had no time to taste that nauseating industrial bitterness. He simply swallowed mechanically, frantically.

It was as though his insides had turned into the most violent furnace, burning with unprecedented efficiency and madly squeezing every scrap of energy that poured in.

The only thing he could feel was the progress bar for Basic Fist Arts on the panel crawling forward bit by bit at a slow yet unwavering pace!

The bowls and basins on the table emptied one after another, and the solution in the bucket rapidly dwindled as well.

Forty-five minutes later, Lu Jue had swallowed every drop of energy solution mixed with warm water, yet the technique's progress still remained at 89, while the hunger in his stomach continued to strike wildly.

Without time to think, he directly picked up a can of Energy Powder and viciously stuffed the coarse, dry powder into his mouth!

The powder instantly absorbed all the saliva in his mouth, sticking to his throat and choking him so badly he nearly suffocated.

He hurriedly gulped down some water and continued eating.

Until, fifteen minutes later, only the last half-can remained from the sack of Energy Powder—

HUM!

His body suddenly shuddered, as if some crucial shackle deep within his soul had been blasted open by a surging, overwhelming force!

Rapid mastery complete!

You consumed low-quality Energy Powder. You have obtained the talent: Tough Hands!

In his mind, those countless cultivation scenes that had been forcibly crammed into him—the loneliness of throwing punches alone late at night, the irritation of being unable to understand a particular technique of exerting force no matter how much he pondered it, the wild joy when inspiration occasionally struck—all the fragments of memory were perfectly linked and connected by an invisible force at this moment!

The entirety of Basic Fist Arts had transformed into an almost instinctive reaction, deeply branded into every inch of his muscles and every bone in his body!

Not only that, his flesh had undergone earth-shattering changes!

He subconsciously moved both arms, and his muscles instantly swelled and bulged, their lines hard and distinct, brimming with strength.

Then he threw several punches into the air, followed by a series of fine, crisp cracks from his bones!

"This arm strength..."

A trace of surprise flashed through Lu Jue's eyes. He turned and strode toward the large tree outside that he usually used for boxing practice, its trunk thick enough that one person would need to wrap both arms around it.

He took a deep breath, spread his feet slightly, lowered his center of gravity, twisted his waist and hips, and drove his strength through his spine.

The next moment, his right fist shot out violently!

BANG!!!

The instant his fist struck the trunk, Lu Jue felt an incomparably rough recoil force, yet he did not feel much pain.

The Tough Hands talent perfectly offset most of the impact, and the skin over his fist carried a resilient sensation, as though it were tightly wrapped.

The spot on the trunk he had struck had actually sunk inward, leaving behind an unmistakably clear fist mark!

Retracting his fist and looking down at the knuckles that had only turned slightly red, Lu Jue's chest filled with indescribable excitement and heroic spirit!

The power of that punch far exceeded his imagination!

Before Entering Force, martial artists had no specific realm divisions. They could only roughly judge their own strength through a force meter or a Blood Qi Meter.

Lu Jue's home had no such professional equipment, but judging by the fist marks he had left behind while practicing before, his strength had increased by at least thirty percent!

Basic Fist Arts focused primarily on forms and techniques. The increase in strength was merely the result of "training without fail day after day."

His true combat strength had definitely risen by more than sixty percent!

"Not only that, the toughness of my palms has improved considerably. I used the cheapest food, yet gained such a practical talent. If I consumed the flesh and blood of top-tier Calamity Beasts, what kind of powerful talent would I obtain?"

Lu Jue muttered, unable to hide the excitement flashing in his eyes.

His first use of the panel had already brought a qualitative leap in strength!

Becoming a martial artist was no longer a distant, unreachable dream, but a road he could see clearly before him!

Tomorrow, he would let his father witness his complete transformation with his own eyes and thoroughly dispel that life-or-death notion!

Eight days later, he would swear to seize one of those twenty free slots and knock open the door to the Martial Arts Examination!