Can Spiritual Essence Break Limits?

At first light in the east, the rooster crowed three times.

Chu Fan rose from his bedroll, every bone and muscle in his body aching unbearably.

When he lifted his clothes, he saw bruises all over his arms and chest, left behind by the beatings from Liu Da and the others.

Strangely, he had slept exceptionally soundly that night, without even a nightmare disturbing him.

He washed the two sweet potatoes Aunt Wang had given him and put them into a pot.

Then he took a wheat cake, crumbled it, and boiled it with them.

In the past, sweet potatoes that large would have had to be divided between two meals. He would never have been willing to add an entire wheat cake, either.

But today, he had to train hard in Chopping Wood Saber Technique. He needed to eat his fill to have the strength.

When the sweet potatoes were done, Chu Fan stared at the bowl of sweet-potato and wheat-cake porridge and froze—it was exactly the same as the diet meals from his previous life.

Chu Fan smiled bitterly and shook his head before glancing at the Mountains and Rivers Map in his consciousness space.

The Spiritual Essence on it was still 0.1, without the slightest change.

After he wolfed down the food, the Spiritual Essence finally changed...

[Spiritual Essence: 0.2]

It had increased!

The Spiritual Essence had increased by 0.1!

Just as I thought!

Seeing the change in the Spiritual Essence on the Mountains and Rivers Map, Chu Fan's expression shifted.

This Spiritual Essence truly came from food...

But what exactly was it used for? Could it also be extracted from other objects? He had no way of knowing.

He found some torn cloth and wrapped it around the wound on his right hand, then headed straight for Granny Wang's house.

The old woman had already risen and begun working. When she saw Chu Fan arrive, even her wrinkles rippled with a smile. "Xiao Fan, aren't you going fishing today?"

"Not today," Chu Fan said. "I'll chop all the remaining dry wood for you."

"Oh, oh, then I'll be troubling you!" Aunt Wang nodded and turned to go inside.

Chu Fan moved his muscles and bones a little, then looked toward the pile of firewood in the yard.

His family still had over a hundred copper coins, seven wheat cakes, and several small fish.

Even if he did not go fishing for the next few days, he would not starve to death.

Besides, helping people chop wood would always earn him some food.

[Skill: Chopping Wood Saber Technique (Minor Accomplishment) (Trait: None)]

[Progress: (199/300)]

Chu Fan estimated that, with his current strength, he could finish the three hundred experience points in under two hours.

He did not know what realm came after Minor Accomplishment.

But every increase in realm was bound to bring about tremendous changes, filling his heart with anticipation!

His hand was wrapped in cloth, and the places where the blisters had burst yesterday were not particularly painful.

Chu Fan drew a deep breath. With the Cleaving Knife in hand, a flash of cold light appeared, and the firewood split with a crack...

[Chopping Wood Saber Technique Experience +1]

He had to chop four times to gain a single point of progress.

Chu Fan did not care. He merely stared at the round wood on the ground, treating it as the heads of his enemies Liu Da and Huang Shouliang. His saber flashed fiercely, the wind howling around it.

Just as he had expected...

After his saber technique improved, his experience increased faster and faster!

As he was chopping wood, he suddenly heard approaching footsteps. Aunt Wang came over carrying two roasted sweet potatoes that gave off an enticing, charred fragrance.

"Xiao Fan, take a break and eat something first."

The old woman spoke kindly as she handed the two roasted sweet potatoes to Chu Fan.

Chu Fan accepted them and smiled bitterly to himself.

These things were good, but eating too many would easily give rise to turbid qi.

When Granny Wang turned around, he quietly stuffed the sweet potatoes into his pocket, treating them as his midday meal.

Dusk deepened.

"Kachaa!"

At the entrance to Uncle Zhao's house, Chu Fan's final saber stroke fell, and Chopping Wood Saber Technique reached its next milestone once more.

[Skill: Chopping Wood Saber Technique (Perfection) (Trait: None)]

[Progress: (1000/1000)]

The instant Chopping Wood Saber Technique broke through to the limit of Perfection, Chu Fan suddenly felt the meridians all over his body tremble, as if an electric current were coursing through his limbs and bones.

Compared to the changes when he had advanced from Entry to Minor Accomplishment and from Minor Accomplishment to Major Accomplishment, this sensation felt even more like an infusion of enlightenment!

His right arm in particular was filled with waves of tingling numbness.

He closed his eyes and focused his mind. Hundreds of saber moves flowed through his thoughts. Every move, seemingly swung at random, now appeared like a reflection in a clear mirror, with every detail distinct.

Countless saber shadows crossed and overlapped in his mind before finally merging into one fierce blade light that cleaved the void in two!

When he opened his eyes, bright light burst from Chu Fan's pupils, exactly like the blade light that had appeared in his mind.

A cold wind suddenly rose in the courtyard, as though it had truly been split apart by that invisible Blade Qi!

The pleasure of such rapid progress in his saber technique made him feel as if he had drunk fine wine.

"Entry, Minor Accomplishment, Major Accomplishment, Perfection... So these are the cultivation realms of a skill? Perfection should be the limit, right?"

Chu Fan forcibly suppressed his excitement and casually picked up a piece of wood to chop again...

With a crisp smack, the firewood split apart.

The accumulation from before had indeed undergone a qualitative change once that final point of experience was added.

He had used only seventy percent of his strength for that stroke, yet it was even fiercer and more precise than before.

His saber speed had increased by thirty percent.

The force behind his stroke had also increased by thirty percent.

Holding the saber in his hand, he felt as though his blood was connected to it, as if man and saber had become one!

In his memories, chopping wood had been one of his regular chores, but he had never once felt that it could be so easy and simple!

For Chopping Wood Saber Technique to improve so dramatically in just one day made Chu Fan unable to stop smiling.

Suddenly, a moth-gnat covered in fine hairs flitted past with a flutter of its wings...

Chu Fan's wrist jerked, and the Cleaving Knife swept diagonally outward like a White Rainbow Piercing the Sun.

"Shhk!"

With a soft sound, the blade passed through, and the moth-gnat was cleanly split in two before drifting lightly to the ground!

Chu Fan lowered his head and stared at the moth-gnat's corpse. His heart shook violently—such precise and swift saberplay would have been utterly inconceivable in the past!

If he had a sharp long saber instead, he was confident he could fight Liu Da, who had practiced martial arts for half a year!

However, Chopping Wood Saber Technique ultimately could not be considered true martial arts...

And he did not possess the legendary Qi and Blood Force.

If he wanted to deal with Liu Da and the others easily, he still had to learn martial arts capable of tempering the muscles and bones and circulating qi and blood.

Now that Chopping Wood Saber Technique had reached the limit of Perfection, his casual saber strokes were already beyond what ordinary people could match.

Could I use this to enter the Seven Star Gang?

Chu Fan looked up at the sky. Though his palm burned with pain, he had no time to worry about it. He raised the Cleaving Knife and continued chopping wood.

Yet after splitting more than a dozen pieces of round wood in succession, the progress of Chopping Wood Saber Technique on the Mountains and Rivers Map panel did not move in the slightest.

Previously, whether it was Entry, Minor Accomplishment, or Major Accomplishment, a new progress bar had appeared as soon as the current one reached its limit.

From the looks of it, Perfection was probably the end of this skill.

Suddenly, Chu Fan's gaze sharpened!

[Skill: Chopping Wood Saber Technique (Perfection) (Trait: None)]

On the panel, a tiny plus sign had astonishingly appeared after Chopping Wood Saber Technique.

He had been focused solely on watching the numerical changes before and had completely failed to notice this detail!

Chu Fan's thoughts stirred slightly, and his intention settled on the plus sign.

["Chopping Wood Saber Technique" has reached the limit of Perfection. Consuming ten points of Spiritual Essence can break this limit. A trait will emerge after breaking the limit. Insufficient Spiritual Essence. Unable to break the limit!]

Break Limit?

Once a skill was trained to the limit of Perfection, it could actually consume Spiritual Essence to seek another breakthrough?

Could this be the true use of Spiritual Essence?

Chu Fan felt his heart quake violently, hot blood surging through him. For a moment, he was too excited to speak.

Unfortunately, he had only 0.2 Spiritual Essence. No matter how much he yearned for it, all he could do was stare at that plus sign and sigh helplessly...