Star Energy Aptitude Improved

Qin Chen sat on the living room sofa, staring at the white box in his hands, his eyes brimming with excitement.

Although he had only learned about the Burning Meridian Merging Spirit Art yesterday, he had gotten his hands on it today.

Yet for some reason, it felt as though a very long time had already passed.

Maybe he had been looking forward to it too much!

Without hesitation, Qin Chen immediately pressed the button on the box.

The next second, a small pale-blue screen suddenly appeared before his eyes. Then, a thin beam of light swept out from the pale-blue display and scanned Qin Chen's pupils.

This was the most common form of identity verification in this world—determining one's identity by scanning the pupils.

After just a second, the pale-blue beam vanished, and a mechanical female voice sounded at the same time.

"Identity verification successful! Opening..."

"Opening successful!"

The moment the voice faded, the lid of the white box slowly opened on its own.

Inside lay a pale-red manual, with five large characters clearly printed on its cover.

Burning Meridian Merging Spirit Art

Qin Chen picked it up and opened it with eager excitement.

At that moment, the system's timely voice sounded as well.

[Burning Meridian Merging Spirit Art. When this combat skill is activated, it is like lighting a fire of destruction within the body. Star Energy Aptitude is ignited and consumed like fuel, forcibly dragging Star Energy into the body and causing the absorption rate to skyrocket!]

[Side effect: The word "Burning" makes its destructive nature clear. Every "burn" permanently incinerates a portion of the "essence of talent" that resonates with Star Energy. Aptitude melts away like ice and snow, never to recover.]

[Side effect reversal: Every "burn" permanently increases a portion of the "essence of talent" that resonates with spiritual energy. Aptitude rises continuously, like grains of sand piling into a tower!]

The contents were not much different from what he had seen last night.

After reading through the cultivation method for it, Qin Chen immediately began trying it out.

However, even after quite a while, Qin Chen still failed to activate it.

This situation gave him a bit of a headache.

With the help of his Side Effect Reversal System, combat skills with high difficulty were practically effortless for him.

But ones with merely average difficulty were instead harder to cultivate.

Because the difficulty was not high enough, it did not even qualify to become a side effect.

The problem was that Qin Chen's comprehension could only be considered average. Even if the combat skill was not difficult, it would still take him some time to comprehend it to Entry Level.

"Guess I can only take it one step at a time!"

Qin Chen shook his head, then began comprehending it once more.

Who knew how much time passed...

Qin Chen, his eyes closed, suddenly felt his body begin to grow warm.

As time passed, the heat became increasingly distinct.

Then, suddenly, he snapped his eyes open. He felt as though a tiny flame had ignited within his body.

The flame made his body feel hot, yet there was no scorching pain.

At the same time, he vaguely sensed that something within him was vanishing at an astonishing rate.

Qin Chen immediately understood. This was the "essence of talent" that resonated with Star Energy—the so-called Star Energy Aptitude.

The next moment, he felt countless traces of Star Energy being forcibly dragged into his body.

It felt similar to when he activated the Star Energy Cultivation Method, both forcibly pulling in Star Energy, but the effect was far more powerful.

A mere few seconds equaled the results of several hours of cultivation in the past.

Yet a few seconds later, that immense pulling force vanished in an instant, as if it had never existed at all.

At that moment, Qin Chen discovered that other than the Star Energy inside his body, which he could still sense, he could not sense any of the Star Energy in the outside world.

It was as though he had become an ordinary person.

Qin Chen understood that this was caused by his Star Energy Aptitude vanishing completely.

Ordinary people—those whose Star Energy Aptitude was zero—were also known as Waste Star Users. They were utterly incapable of sensing the existence of Star Energy.

Just like his current condition.

In other words, in the brief span of less than ten seconds, his Star Energy Aptitude had already been burned clean.

So this was what even a single point of Star Energy Aptitude was worth?

It really held out for quite a long time!

Qin Chen was not worried about the disappearance of his Star Energy Aptitude, because he knew it was only temporary.

Sure enough, before long, he felt his Star Energy Aptitude begin to recover.

He could sense the existence of Star Energy again.

He could feel his Star Energy Aptitude slowly rising. Although it had yet to reach even a fraction of his previous aptitude, that was only a matter of time.

Qin Chen tried circulating the Burning Meridian Merging Spirit Art again, but found that it had no effect.

He did not know whether his current Star Energy Aptitude was too low to "ignite," or whether it was because his Star Energy Aptitude was still in the process of recovering.

After thinking for a while, Qin Chen stopped dwelling on it.

He would know exactly what was going on once his Star Energy Aptitude finished improving.

For now, his priority was to use the Star Energy he had just absorbed to quench his body.

Honestly, it really hurt...

Who knew how much time passed~

Streetlights spilled warm yellow halos, scattered headlights tore through the ink-dark night, and the night wind swept down the empty streets, carrying the lingering warmth of the city.

Qin Chen sat cross-legged on the floor of his living room, his eyes tightly shut.

The cold touch brought him not the slightest discomfort.

Suddenly, a muffled boom sounded from within Qin Chen's body. At the same time, a wave of air erupted from him and swept outward in every direction.

Then came the sounds of objects crashing to the floor.

In an instant, the entire living room was a complete mess.

Qin Chen opened his eyes, and a sharp gleam shot out from them.

Body Tempering Third Layer!!

In just a few days since awakening, Qin Chen had gone from an ordinary person too weak to truss a chicken into a martial artist at the Body Tempering Third Layer.

This speed could not be called anything but astonishing.

One had to know that the vast majority of martial artists spent a long time struggling in the Body Tempering Realm.

Yet, relying on two combat skills with powerful side effects, he had shortened that time by an unknown amount.

Qin Chen glanced at his wristband and discovered that it was already two in the morning, a hint of surprise appearing on his face.

"So much time has already passed?"

He had been cultivating nonstop, to the point that he had overlooked the passing of time.

The Burning Meridian Merging Spirit Art, the Star Energy Cultivation Method, and the Seven Injuries Fist.

He had constantly switched between cultivating these three combat skills, practically without stopping.

During this time, he had finally figured out the usage pattern of the Burning Meridian Merging Spirit Art.

Each time he cultivated the Burning Meridian Merging Spirit Art and completely "burned up" his Star Energy Aptitude, he could not "ignite" it again during the period when his Star Energy Aptitude began recovering until it reached its peak.

He had to wait until the growth of his Star Energy Aptitude stopped before he could begin a new round of "ignition."

At first, after his Star Energy Aptitude dropped to zero for the first time, it did not take long for it to rise again.

But after igniting it several times in succession, the recovery time grew longer and longer.

Qin Chen guessed that this might have something to do with his Star Energy Aptitude becoming higher.

Just like leveling up by killing monsters—the early levels came quickly, but later on, progress gradually slowed.

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