After Tyrant Whale Fist reached Micro-Perception,
just as expected, the information on the Attribute Panel had changed—
[Constitution: Heroic Realm (Minor Achievement)]
[Extraordinary: Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique (65% Potential Liberation) +
Tyrant Whale Fist, 150 years (Thunder Listening) +]
[Evolution Points: 40]
One hundred and fifty years of Tyrant Whale Fist skill!
Wu Dao's expression shifted slightly.
He knew the Attribute Panel measured its advancements from the perspective of an ordinary person.
As for why...
It was probably because when he arrived in this world, this body had been completely ordinary, without a single unusual quality.
What surprised him was that
an ordinary person would need a full one hundred and fifty years to cultivate Tyrant Whale Fist to Micro-Perception!
This was no longer a question of diligence.
It was a question of lifespan!
In this world, although those in the Foundation Establishment Realm could possess all sorts of superhuman abilities,
they were still mortal flesh and blood. And because they pushed their bodies too far, they suffered from countless lingering ailments in their later years. It was difficult for them to live past a hundred.
Only after undergoing Rebirth and transcending the ordinary could a person's lifespan surge. A single Martial Dao Cocoon Break through Rebirth could grant a lifespan of one hundred and fifty years.
It was easy to imagine
how unattainable Micro-Perception was for an ordinary person. It could be called the exclusive domain of monstrous geniuses; common folk had no chance of reaching it!
After sighing softly,
Wu Dao noticed the plus sign still remained after Tyrant Whale Fist.
Was Thunder Listening at Micro-Perception not the limit of Tyrant Whale Fist?
Or...
Were there different levels of Micro-Perception?
Wu Dao was somewhat puzzled.
According to the Tyrant Whale Fist manual, even its founder had reached only Micro-Perception at his peak!
That proved
that Micro-Perception was the limit of Tyrant Whale Fist!
Yet according to the Attribute Panel's judgment, this technique seemed to have no limit!
If that was really the case,
then Stealing Heaven's Secret...
Wu Dao's breathing quickened.
He had suspected that the Attribute Panel could let him break through the shackles of his previous life, but in the end, that had only been his personal guess.
Now, however,
the plus sign still lingering after Tyrant Whale Fist had dispelled all his doubts, opening up a true path to the heavens before him!
Of course,
all of this depended on one thing.
He had to find enough 'food'!
"Abnormalities..."
Wu Dao's gaze flickered. He stepped out of the cave, gazed down at the vast sea of clouds beneath the dawn sky, and began to consider the road ahead.
The next advancement of Stealing Heavenly Secrets required a full three hundred Evolution Points.
The next-tier Tyrant Whale Fist,
after reaching the limit beyond Thunder Listening at Micro-Perception, required two hundred.
That meant
each improvement from here on would require a great many abnormalities as food.
Of course,
if he followed the usual methods, the Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique would progress quickly enough with sufficient resources. But compared with the Attribute Panel, it was still slower.
Why bury himself in painstaking cultivation when there was a shortcut?
How could he become a Human Extreme powerhouse that way?
So,
he had to face a very practical problem—
How could he find and hunt abnormalities quickly and efficiently?
The abnormalities in this world
seemed to have appeared only after the Great Li dynasty rotted away and Humanity's Luck declined, when Yang Declined and Yin Rose.
They were mostly hidden in desolate mountains and old forests, lurking in the shadows of the human world. Unless they attacked people, only those in the extraordinary world ever encountered or learned about them.
Under these circumstances,
an individual's power was extremely limited until they reached a certain level.
Running around in every direction like a headless fly, searching for them, was no different from fishing for a needle in the ocean. It wasted time and was terribly inefficient.
Ride the tide!
Wu Dao gazed toward the red sun illuminating the world beyond the sea of clouds and thought of Zhao Wei.
His original plan had been to use Zhao Wei as a go-between to enter White Whale Martial Arts Hall.
He would use it as a stepping stone to make contact with the extraordinary factions of this world and learn more about it.
He could also make use of White Whale Martial Arts Hall's vast Intelligence Network to gather reports on abnormalities and safely get through his weaker days.
In Guangqing Prefecture, White Whale Martial Arts Hall was second only to the Four Seas Gang. It dominated the northern lands, with martial arts halls scattered everywhere and thousands of disciples spread throughout the prefecture.
If an abnormality appeared anywhere,
the higher-ups would learn of it at once.
After all, the extraordinary beings in this world seemed to feed on abnormalities too. They could hardly afford to ignore them.
Unfortunately,
life was unpredictable.
Zhao Wei had 'bad luck'.
That avenue had closed.
Besides,
there was another matter that carried an unsavory reputation.
Last night in Panshui Town, three White Whale Martial Arts Hall instructors had already memorized Wu Dao's appearance.
Who knew?
With Zhao Wei gone for so long, they might already be searching the mountains for him.
Wu Dao had left in a hurry the night before.
He hadn't cleaned up the battlefield, and anyone paying attention could easily uncover the truth and realize that someone had played the fisherman.
In these circumstances,
Wu Dao's sudden surge in strength made him the obvious culprit to anyone with half a brain.
Ruthless and cruel.
Vicious, devious, and willing to scheme against his own comrades—he would never live down that reputation.
Still,
these were minor matters.
How many people in the martial world didn't put profit first, with hundreds of schemes tucked away in their bellies and the belief that the victor was king? The pot shouldn't call the kettle black.
Besides,
Wu Dao and Zhao Wei had only met by chance. Why should he live or die alongside Zhao Wei? There was no reason for it.
Of course,
most importantly,
Zhao Wei had only been in the Foundation Establishment Realm!
By now, Wu Dao was already on par with a cultivator who had undergone Rebirth twice in this world!
There was no such thing as eternal friendship.
Only eternal benefit.
Especially in this extraordinary world, where competition was even more ruthless and fierce.
Which mattered more?
As long as the people in charge of White Whale Martial Arts Hall weren't idiots, they could tell.
As for why he had to choose White Whale Martial Arts Hall...
That came down to a question of where he stood.
The three great powers in Guangqing Prefecture were Fangcun Sword Hall, White Whale Martial Arts Hall, and the Four Seas Gang.
Fangcun Sword Hall was the leading orthodox faction in Guangqing Prefecture. Its Chief Hall Master, Yang Wufeng, was said to be an upright man who couldn't tolerate even a speck of wrongdoing.
For someone like Wu Dao, who had no sense of moral right and wrong and cared only about profit, going to them would be no different from walking straight into a trap.
By comparison,
the morally gray White Whale Martial Arts Hall was an excellent choice. It wasn't purely good, nor was it pure evil, and Wu Dao's mastery of Tyrant Whale Fist would make a fine calling card.
As for the Four Seas Gang, which was pure black...
To put it bluntly,
even if Wu Dao went to them and pledged himself to their service with Meng Qingshuang's murder on his back, the gang leader would probably welcome him with open arms.
After all, the more 'dark' a person was, the more seriously they took their own interests.
This wasn't because he had seen through human nature.
It was simply the wisdom of experience.
Over sixty years of storms in his previous life had taken Wu Dao from humble beginnings to the summit of the world. He had dealt with all kinds of people from every stratum, every temperament, and every side of the conflict.
What kinds of people lived by what rules in this world, and where each person's bottom line lay—
he knew it all.
Still,
he had other plans for the Four Seas Gang down the road.
His intention was to swallow it whole, and he would have plenty of chances to offend it. He would test its limits step by step.
He wasn't stupid enough to treat others like fools and go stirring up trouble right under their noses.
Why not choose a greater power beyond Guangqing Prefecture?
Wu Dao hadn't considered that yet.
Though he had achieved something,
he was at most a piranha. He could stir up a storm in a lake, but if he entered the ocean too soon, his way of doing things would make it easy to offend a shark.
Wu Dao had never been one to think himself extraordinary and everyone else a fool.
On the contrary,
he never shied away from acknowledging some of his own 'flaws'.
Naturally,
he wouldn't let those flaws lead him into danger.
"It should be about time..."
His thoughts settled.
Wu Dao looked toward the battlefield from the night before, guessing that the White Whale Martial Arts Hall instructors had already found that stretch of forest.
Their chase and battle last night had left far too many traces. It would be easy to follow them to the scene.
Wu Dao knew little about White Whale Martial Arts Hall. He didn't even know where its main hall was, so wasting time asking around was pointless.
It would be better to let those three instructors lead the way and learn a little about the organization's structure and its upper ranks in advance.
With that in mind,
clang, clang, clang—
Wu Dao faced the morning breeze and loosened up his body. His towering, iron-hard frame rumbled like a war engine, its inner parts grinding together with the clang of steel striking steel.
Then,
BOOM!!
Wu Dao bent low and drove forward with a sudden burst of force, like a giant god stomping the earth. The black stone beneath his feet collapsed, and Gale Wind trailed behind him in a long, surging wake as he rapidly entered Near-Sonic Movement, his speed per second drawing ever closer to the speed of sound.
RUMBLE—
A howling gale swept through the deep mountains. Rolling thunder boomed without pause. The air compressed around his body before bursting into a hurricane that bent towering trees this way and that, sweeping up countless plants and tearing them to shreds.
From above,
a broad furrow could be seen in the forest behind Wu Dao, whose body had turned faintly red from the friction of the air. The gale swept fragments of plants along, surging farther and farther ahead.
Near-Sonic Movement!
For a Heroic Realm powerhouse whose physical abilities surpassed those of any natural creature, it was child's play.
Once he reached the peak,
his body would grow even heavier and more indestructible, with strength beyond measure, able to withstand even greater friction and pressure from the air.
Then he could move faster than sound!
Run one lap around a modern city, and he'd be a HUMANOID NATURAL DISASTER!
Before you continue