Three-Word Secret

A sharp intake of breath swept through the entire venue.

"It really was one punch and one palm strike!"

"Why do I feel like Zhang Fu is so pitiful, yet kind of funny? He fought tooth and nail to make it into the top sixty-four, and then..."

"Funny aside, isn't Xu Xiaoshou a little too strong? His strength is no less than that of the first- and second-ranked contenders!"

"Can't you tell by now? This guy might really have an innate body!"

"An innate body?"

"I don't know. Someone analyzed it a few days ago and said there was a seventy percent chance. After that punch and palm strike today, it's probably ninety percent now."

Those words plunged quite a few people into silence. An innate body—it was universally acknowledged as exceedingly difficult to cultivate. Sometimes, even the effort invested did not match the return. Had someone actually managed to cultivate one?

"Maybe it's because Xu Xiaoshou took pills? Look at that scorching heatwave; it clearly isn't his original ability!"

"Right, right! That's what I think too. Someone like him should be banned from competing! He even applied to be banned himself, so why aren't the referees doing anything?"

Jealousy arose in some hearts, and naturally, this chorus of protest reached Xiao Qixiu's ears.

He disdained it, too lazy even to explain.

Everyone had their own fortuitous encounters. Who had ever decreed that one could not cultivate some overwhelmingly powerful technique before a competition? By that logic, were people not allowed to cultivate before a match, break through during one, or reflect and improve afterward? Xu Xiaoshou was exactly such a case. The Emberlight Fire Seed Elder Sang had given him could not even be considered a fortuitous encounter. One misstep, and it would mean death and the dissipation of one's Dao.

If you had the skill, cultivate an innate body yourself. Maybe someone would use you for human experimentation too!

Xu Xiaoshou returned to the waiting area on his own, while the competition continued. There were still many matches left in the round of sixty-four to thirty-two, so he had plenty of time to rest.

As he consumed Red-Gold Pills and kept an eye on the information panel, he could not help but beam all over.

"Admired, Passive Value +142."

"Envied, Passive Value +874."

"Mocked, Passive Value +113."

"Attacked, Passive Value +1."

Line after line, what was scrolling by was not Passive Value, but human hearts! Listen to how many people in the arena were saying good things about him; then look at how many were secretly jealous of him. Tsk, tsk!

Xu Xiaoshou casually glanced downward.

"Passive Value: 42888."

Clang!

He slammed his head into the railing. Mockery rose from the audience, and the number soared to 43003 once more.

"How could there be so much?!"

Xu Xiaoshou was dumbfounded. He remembered that after finishing three matches in yesterday's breakout round, he had only accumulated a little over ten thousand. How had it skyrocketed so much in just one morning? He racked his brains, yet could not remember doing anything so enraging to heaven and earth.

Killing Wen Chong? Impossible. He had still been inside the barrier then, so he definitely had not received the bulk of the Passive Value. Even if he had, it would only have been several hundred, a thousand at most.

How could it have shot up by more than thirty thousand?! Xu Xiaoshou hurriedly turned back to inspect the information panel. Line after line, everything was objective and real—only tens or hundreds at a time. There had been no huge influx at all!

Could the system have malfunctioned?

The thought surfaced in his mind, only to be dismissed the next instant. He would rather believe a meteor had fallen from the sky.

Sitting cross-legged on his chair, Xu Xiaoshou took a sip of water to calm himself. For a moment, he sat frozen, unable to figure out what exactly had happened to him.

"Attacked, Passive Value +1."

"Attacked, Passive Value +1."

"..."

Even as he sat there dazed, the information panel continued refreshing once every second without interruption. Xu Xiaoshou watched it groggily, then suddenly smacked his forehead.

"Emberlight Fire Seed?!" He seemed to understand something.

After swallowing that thing at dawn, his body had been continuously scorched without pause. As for burning, the system's judgment probably counted it as one attack per second.

In other words, he gained one point of Passive Value every second.

Yes, the increase came point by point, looking utterly insignificant. Xu Xiaoshou had not even paid much attention to it.

But time added up!

Let him calculate. When he encountered that dead old man, it should have been around the Hour of the Dragon. About three hours had passed by now.

Xu Xiaoshou began counting on his fingers, then brought his toes into service as well.

Three hours meant six hours. One hour had sixty minutes, one minute had sixty seconds...

More than twenty thousand seconds!

More than twenty thousand Passive Value! Hiss! Two streams of vapor puffed from Xu Xiaoshou's nostrils. The chair beneath him, no longer wrapped in spiritual energy due to his lapse in attention, was completely melted through.

With a bang, he crashed to the ground.

The staff immediately ran over and asked what had happened.

Xu Xiaoshou blankly waved to show that he was fine. The staff member was about to leave when Xu Xiaoshou hurriedly called out, "Wait! Help me calculate how many seconds there are in a day."

"A day?"

The staff member's eyes rolled. "Eighty-six thousand four hundred!"

Crack! The cup in Xu Xiaoshou's hand was crushed. His body, which had just struggled to rise, went limp and collapsed to the ground again. "What did you say? Say that again!"

Seeing steam rise from Xu Xiaoshou's body, the staff member did not know whether to help him up or not. He could only answer, "Eighty-six thousand, four hundred!"

"Gulp!"

Xu Xiaoshou swallowed. More than eighty thousand?! His expression instantly became a spectacle—pain one moment, bliss the next, then shock, then foolish giggling...

The staff member had no idea what kind of madness had seized him. Recalling the instructions that had come from the referees' platform earlier—that no matter what Xu Xiaoshou requested or what state he was in, they need not bother with him and could simply treat him like an idiot—he quietly left.

As expected of the referees, they truly saw everything coming! Xu Xiaoshou took a deep breath while holding a Red-Gold Pill, using the trembling of his body to suppress his excited heart. Then he discovered that his Red-Gold Pills were nearly gone.

In just over half a day, he had finished both bottles of pills Elder Qiao and the referees had given him.

Xu Xiaoshou's heart ached terribly. These were life-saving treasures!

Yet this also showed just how powerful the Emberlight Fire Seed truly was. It really was extraordinary.

However, after realizing the value of this thing, Xu Xiaoshou no longer wanted to vent from the pain. Instead, he began to rejoice beyond measure.

Pain?

Heh heh, endure it, and it would pass.

Behind every successful person lay immense suffering. If one focused only on the pain, how could one savor the joy of spending freely?

He beckoned, summoning the staff member back, and instructed him, "Go find the elder—the chief referee on the arena—and ask him for some Red-Gold Pills. Remember to get plenty."

The staff member stared at him as though looking at an idiot.

What nonsense are you dreaming of? Xu Xiaoshou was already red-faced, so naturally he felt no embarrassment. "I'll tell you the Three-Word Secret. Remember it well!"

"First, if he refuses, say, 'The medical staff refuses to give them to me, but surely you can give me some Red-Gold Pills? I'm a competitor too—I won't be able to hold on!'"

The staff member was practically going insane. Who would dare speak to the elder like that? He was the Grand Elder of the Spirit Law Pavilion, not some vegetable seller on the street.

And give them away for free? Keep dreaming!

"Second, if he still refuses, say, 'Heh heh, don't think I don't know that you two are working together, using human bodies as experiments.' Your tone has to be heavy, and your words have to be fierce!"

The staff member's head was spinning. Xu Xiaoshou really dared to say that? Heavy tone, fierce words? Why didn't he just fly up to heaven?!

"Third, by then he'll definitely agree. There's no way he won't. Then say one last thing: 'You're giving them anyway, and you have the nerve to offer only this little? Add another zero!'"

The staff member let out a cold laugh. "Go yourself!"

"What do you mean, I should go myself?!" Xu Xiaoshou was instantly displeased. "I'm a competitor, you're a staff member. We should each perform our own duties!"

"I still have a battle to fight later. I need to recover my condition now, so hurry up."

"Go on, don't chicken out. That guy isn't scary. You have to know that the higher a person's status, the more they cherish their own identity. Without a reason, there's no way he'll make a move against you."

The staff member staggered. Isn't the reason you gave for courting death already enough?

"Go!"

Xu Xiaoshou waved his hand. The staff member did not know how to refute him, so he could only leave with a bitter face.

This is too hard!

I'm changing jobs!