For Breaking Through Bottlenecks

The reason for investing EXP into martial arts rather than Blood Essence was that comprehension of martial arts is difficult to measure visually.

It was also simple for Zhang Wan to conceal this.

However, any sudden changes in his Blood Essence wouldn't escape the eyes of his instructor, Instructor Liu.

Zhang Wan didn't possess any means to hide changes in his Blood Essence.

Coupled with various concerns, Zhang Wan had been holding back from investing EXP into the Blood Essence realm.

"However, this situation will soon be improvable," Zhang Wan opened his eyes and cast a subtle glance at Xu Hui.

Once the little geniuses among the fifth-grade students, like Xu Hui, began to break through to the Postnatal realm, he would be able to gradually invest EXP into his Blood Essence.

With Xu Hui and others growing and breaking through, their progress would attract the attention of Instructor Liu and the other instructors, making his own growth and maturation appear less abrupt.

"With pearls and jade in front, dazzlingly bright, a rough stone can masquerade as uncut jade and fish in troubled waters," Zhang Wan said with a faint smile.

Soon, the break time was over.

The instructor responsible for teaching the fundamentals of the martial path arrived.

The students of class Wu, fifth grade, began their morning academic class.

Zhang Wan studied and memorized diligently.

This martial arts knowledge was fundamental; if he wanted to avoid taking a wrong turn in the future, this knowledge had to be firmly imprinted in his mind.

Furthermore, if he wanted to navigate the martial arts world in the future.

If he didn't want to miss out on treasures or be ambushed by insidious methods, this knowledge was indispensable.

Over the past five years, Zhang Wan had devoted considerable effort to this area.

But the more he studied, the more Zhang Wan understood his own ignorance.

The martial arts world was vast, with too many insidious methods, and countless heavenly materials, earthly treasures, poisonous creatures, and demonic beasts. In five years, what he could understand was merely a drop in the ocean.

This was destined to be a task that would consume countless hours and energy.

After the morning academic class, lunch was another meal that wasn't lavish but had ample rice and meat, satisfying and filling, accompanied by a cauldron of medicinal soup.

Zhang Wan and the others ate much more this meal than they had for breakfast.

If they didn't eat more now, they wouldn't be able to endure the afternoon martial arts class.

In terms of martial arts, Zhang Wan and the others had only learned the complete Ox Demon Body Tempering Fist.

However, Instructor Liu had also taught them some other methods.

In particular, Instructor Liu had taught them some other body-tempering techniques.

These were used in conjunction with the Ox Demon Body Tempering Fist to train their physiques and refine their Blood Essence.

Those exercises were grueling; at the beginning, Zhang Wan had been tortured to the brink of death.

Even now, Zhang Wan found them difficult to endure.

However, those exercises were indeed effective, providing significant improvement to the physical body.

After an afternoon of training, Zhang Wan was utterly exhausted.

Even Xu Hui, who had already reached the Mortal Limit, was dead tired.

Of course, that was because Xu Hui's training volume far exceeded that of Zhang Wan and the others.

Otherwise, with Xu Hui's physique and Blood Essence, with the same training volume, Zhang Wan would be exhausted while he would still have plenty of energy left.

After the afternoon martial arts class, the students had another hearty meal, and then they returned to the communal sleeping quarters to rest.

The communal sleeping quarters where Zhang Wan stayed housed as many as sixteen children.

All of them were students from class Wu, fifth grade.

Zhang Wan also had the best relationship with his dorm mates.

However, they were all just children, and their relationships weren't based on any mutual benefit, remaining quite pure.

Although sometimes Zhang Wan found the children's ignorance and immaturity a bit unbearable.

He didn't dislike them, though, and still enjoyed these pure relationships.

And at the stroke of midnight, as a new day dawned.

A small gift box popped up on the system panel. The box opened, yielding three points of EXP.

The available EXP also increased from seven thousand eight hundred and eighty-six to seven thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine.

Waking up the next morning, Zhang Wan saw the change in his EXP and knew he had randomly received three points of EXP at midnight.

A small wave of joy immediately washed over him.

He randomly received one to three points of EXP every midnight, but most of the time it was one or two points, and it was rare to get three points.

Each time he received three points of EXP, although it was only one extra point, it was still something to be slightly happy about.

After the joy, came another day of study and training.

Time flowed like water, quietly passing.

Soon, Zhang Wan and the others were promoted to sixth-level scholars.

And just two months after being promoted to sixth-level scholars, some people among Zhang Wan's cohort for this academic year began to break through and advance to Postnatal martial artists!

Following the first person's breakthrough, the scholars ranked ahead of Zhang Wan in this generation began to advance one after another.

Xu Hui also advanced quickly, breaking through to the Houtian Realm.

After these scholars became Postnatal martial artists, they became outer disciples of the Jade Bone Sect, but they still remained at the Beginner Martial Arts Academy to continue their studies.

In the mornings, they still studied martial path knowledge with the other scholars, continuing to lay the foundation for their future paths. In the afternoons, they were separated from the other scholars for the cultivation of outer disciples.

Zhang Wan had only heard a little about this part, and he would only know the specifics after he also became an outer disciple.

After Xu Hui and the others broke through to the Postnatal realm, Zhang Wan no longer had any reservations.

He could use his EXP to improve himself without holding back.

During this period, Zhang Wan had also made some progress through his own cultivation. Currently, he only needed one EXP to raise his Blood Essence to its limit.

At the same time, his available EXP had grown to eight thousand and ninety points.

One point of EXP was truly insignificant compared to this huge sum.

Some time had passed since Xu Hui and the others broke through. Some scholars ranked in the top hundred of the same level had already broken through, so his current improvement was no longer surprising.

He directly used one EXP to raise his own Blood Essence to its limit.

With his Blood Essence raised and tempered to perfection, Zhang Wan felt no discomfort whatsoever, nor did his Blood Essence show any signs of losing control. It was as if this Blood Essence had been cultivated and tempered to its extreme through his own efforts.

Zhang Wan marveled at the mystery of EXP.

With his Blood Essence at perfection and raised to its limit, Zhang Wan vaguely sensed the door that stood before him.

At the same time, new changes appeared on the system panel.

Host: Zhang Wan (Ten years old)

Realm: Peak Mortal Qi and Blood Realm (Thirty EXP to raise Qi and Blood to Mortal Limit / Perfected)

Realm Bottleneck: Houtian bottleneck (Three EXP to break through bottleneck)

Cultivation Method/Martial Skill: Mortal Martial Art Ox Demon Body Tempering Fist (Seven EXP to perfect / Perfected)

Available EXP: Eight thousand and eighty-nine

Zhang Wan looked at the new line that appeared on the panel, a slight surprise in his heart.

He hadn't expected that EXP could be used to break through bottlenecks, but he wasn't too surprised.

Being able to improve one's realm and enhance one's comprehension of martial arts was already beyond imagination, so it wasn't too shocking that it could now be used to break through bottlenecks.

He felt more joy than anything.

If EXP could be used to break through bottlenecks, then his martial path would be infinitely smoother!

Combined with the function to improve his cultivation.

As long as he had enough EXP, he could completely soar to the top!

Unfortunately, the only way to obtain EXP was still through random daily gains.

The amount of EXP he could accumulate remained limited.

He had to plan its usage carefully.