The tapping of his fingers stopped. Chen Mo picked up his pen and began working through the calculations on his draft paper. His movements were steady and fluid, his gaze focused and resolute, as if the thrilling projection of the next two months had been nothing more than an ordinary break between classes.
Only Chen Mo knew that from this moment on, the passage of time had taken on an entirely new and far weightier meaning for him. Every minute, every second was no longer just time passing, but a brick on the path to the Gate of Martial Artists. He would use his sweat, willpower, and perseverance to lay those bricks one by one with his own hands, until they formed a road leading to the summit.
Once he had finished sorting out his thoughts, Chen Mo quickly added up the sessions in his head: once at dawn, once at noon, four times in the afternoon, twice during evening study, and once late at night. Under ideal conditions, he could complete as many as ten effective training sessions a day! That meant Black Tiger Stance and Body Tempering Fist could each gain 10 points of proficiency daily, for a total of 20 points!
The number made Chen Mo's heart beat a little faster, but he soon calmed down. He knew perfectly well that this was only the theoretical maximum; in reality, all kinds of variables were bound to arise. He had to account for fluctuations in his condition—people weren't machines, and he couldn't stay in peak shape every day. The occasional bout of fatigue could lower his training efficiency or even prevent him from completing a full effective session. He also had to consider unexpected interruptions, such as a teacher keeping the class late and eating into break time, a classmate coming over with a question and delaying his training, or a change in the weather making it impossible to train outdoors. More importantly, the limits of his body's recovery and his mental endurance were lines he couldn't cross. Overtraining would only lead to injury, interrupting his training plan and doing more harm than good.
With these considerations in mind, Chen Mo adjusted his expectations and made a conservative estimate: he would cut his two evening-study sessions down to one and a half—one full session and one half session, counting as 1.5 points of proficiency—and reduce his one late-night session to half a session as well, ensuring his body had enough time to recover. That left him with a relatively realistic and sustainable goal of completing eight effective training sessions and earning eight points of proficiency each day.
"From the early Proficient stage to Major Accomplishment, Black Tiger Stance needs 488 points of proficiency (500-12), while Body Tempering Fist needs 492 (500-8). At eight points a day, it'll take about 61 days." Chen Mo worked out the crucial figure in his head, and a glint flashed in his eyes. Sixty-one days—that was about two months. Pushing both core foundational skills to Major Accomplishment within two months was an astonishing pace, not just for the senior class at Sixth Middle School, but even among all the city's key high schools!
After a brief rush of excitement, Chen Mo's gaze returned to the Qi and Blood Value on the System Panel: 78.6. If Skill Proficiency was the ladder leading to the Martial Artist path, then Qi and Blood Value was the strength he needed to climb it—and, more importantly, the key credential for obtaining school resources. The qualification for "Key Cultivation Student" that Instructor Xu had mentioned hinged primarily on breaking 90 points of Qi and Blood Value. Reaching that threshold was his most urgent short-term goal.
He closed his eyes and carefully sensed the circulation of Qi and Blood within him. He could clearly feel that ever since breaking through to the Proficient Realm, his body had become markedly better at generating and controlling Qi and Blood. At the Minor Accomplishment stage, his Qi and Blood Value had risen by a steady 0.1 points per day. After breaking through to Proficient, that figure had increased to 0.13–0.16 points. It might seem like an increase of just 0.03–0.06 points, but those small gains added up. Over a month, they meant an extra 0.9–1.6 points of Qi and Blood—a very welcome improvement.
However, Chen Mo didn't let this make him complacent. He clearly remembered that when he had first awakened the system, his Qi and Blood Value had been very low. With the system's assistance, it had risen incredibly fast, and he could see obvious improvements almost every day. But once his Qi and Blood Value passed 65, the rate of growth began to slow. After it broke 70, the growth curve became exceptionally steady, with his daily gains settling into a fixed range. This didn't mean the system had stopped working. It was simply an objective law of Qi and Blood growth. Instructor Xu had warned him about it, and the original host's memories contained the same common knowledge: the closer one's Qi and Blood Value came to the mortal limit of 100, the harder it became to increase. The feeling of hitting a bottleneck would tighten like a noose, squeezing harder the farther one went.
Chen Mo traced the growth of his Qi and Blood in his mind: at the current daily increase of 0.13–0.16 points, it would take around 10–11 days to go from 78.6 to 80. Going from 80 to 85 would take 33–42 days at that rate, though the actual time might be longer given the expected slowdown. After 85, growth would slow further, perhaps to just 0.1 points a day or even less. Above 90, every additional point of Qi and Blood might take several days or even more than a week of hard work. As for pushing from 95 to the mortal limit of 100, that would be a major hurdle requiring long-term accumulation, the right opportunity, and perhaps even a willingness to risk everything. It was certainly not something he could achieve in the short term.
"Using the most optimistic linear estimate—it'll actually be harder..." Chen Mo's mind raced. "I need to gain 11.4 points of Qi and Blood to get from my current 78.6 to 90. Even if growth slows later, I might still reach it in a little over two months if I average 0.14 points a day. And once Black Tiger Stance and Body Tempering Fist both reach Major Accomplishment (Lv. 5), they'll draw out my physical potential to a whole new degree. My body's capacity for Qi and Blood and its ability to generate it may both increase significantly again, possibly even helping me break through the growth bottleneck in the later stages!"
At the thought, Chen Mo's heart began to race, and an irrepressible excitement surged through him. A crystal-clear path of growth unfolded before his eyes: he would use the next two months to accumulate proficiency at an almost brutal pace and push both skills to Major Accomplishment. At the same time, he would steadily raise his Qi and Blood, break through 90 as soon as possible, and secure Key Cultivation Student status and the monthly Qi and Blood subsidy. Then, with both skills at Major Accomplishment giving him a powerful boost, he would launch an all-out final assault on the 100-point Qi and Blood threshold for becoming a Martial Artist!
Reach 100 Qi and Blood before graduation, and even try to break into the Martial Artist Realm! A goal that had once seemed impossibly distant now felt tantalizingly within reach. If he succeeded, he would leave the original host's mediocre fate behind for good, enter the true world of Martial Arts, and embark on an entirely different path in life.
Of course, Chen Mo knew perfectly well that all these bright prospects rested on two solid foundations. First, he had to follow this nearly brutal training plan with the precision of a clock, sticking to a set routine for training, studying, and resting every day. He couldn't slack off in the slightest, much less let an unexpected event derail his plans. Second, he had to keep his training resources up to par. After breaking through to Proficient, each session consumed far more Qi and Blood and Mental Strength than before, and his need for "fuel" had risen accordingly. The Nutritional Meals Zhao Peng had brought him were a timely help and could replenish some of his Qi and Blood, but they were nowhere near enough for such intensive training. He still needed plenty of resources like Qi and Blood Capsules and Qi and Blood Powder to make up for what he used. The key to getting those resources was reaching the school's 90-point Qi and Blood subsidy threshold.
"I have to go faster!" A scorching flame suddenly blazed in Chen Mo's eyes as he cast aside his earlier conservative estimate. He didn't want to leave himself any leeway. He wanted to test his limits and get as close as possible to the theoretical maximum of ten training sessions a day, as long as his body could handle it! He had to make sure he got his noon session in; it was the crucial link between the morning and afternoon. He would find a way to squeeze more time out of evening study and aim for two and a half or even three sessions. He also had to make sure his late-night Standing Meditation was done properly, rather than slacking off just because it was late. Every additional effective session meant more proficiency, another step closer to Major Accomplishment, and another step closer to his goal of 90 Qi and Blood!
He took a deep breath, pulled his thoughts back from his calculations, and turned his attention to the math paper spread out before him. Cultural Classes were the stabilizer on this aggressive path of training, a bottom line he absolutely couldn't afford to let collapse. The system's "Knowledge Solidification" effect was his greatest advantage. He had to make good use of every minute of class time and every spare moment—not only to maintain his edge in Cultural Classes, but also to improve as much as possible and leave himself another path forward.
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