[Expert Realm Limit]

"Enough. Stand down."

Meng Qingshuang's hoarse, chilly voice rang out. His brows drew together slightly, a trace of displeasure showing.

"Yes, I was rash."

The one-eyed overseer's eyelid twitched. He immediately put away his ferocity, bowed and scraped, and retreated.

Click, clack~

Meng Qingshuang rolled the iron pellets in his hand, his serpent-like eyes sweeping over the mine slaves as he said coldly:

"I know what you're thinking, but it isn't up to you. Two choices: eat, or die."

The moment his words fell.

His gaze turned cold. With a flick of his toe, an egg-sized stone on the ground shot out like a fired bullet!

In the blink of an eye, swift as thunder.

Whoosh!

Bang!

After a brief explosive crack through the air.

The pebble instantly blasted apart half the head of a frail mine slave ten meters behind them. Red and white matter sprayed over the surrounding people, sending them stumbling back in terror.

That power, that accuracy!

He was practically a human-shaped heavy sniper rifle!

Wu Dao shrank behind the crowd. Seeing this scene gave him a new understanding of Meng Qingshuang's strength.

Judging from that move alone, a Heaven Stealer would need to liberate at least fifty percent of the human body's potential, with their physique entering the Great Accomplishment Beast King realm and reaching the pinnacle of natural lifeforms, to pull it off so effortlessly!

He had personally ended a life.

Yet Meng Qingshuang looked as if he had merely stepped on an ant. His expression did not fluctuate in the slightest, and his voice remained frost-cold. "I'll count to three. If no one moves, I'll kill again. One!"

The thick stench of blood spread through the air. His snake-cold presence coiled around every mine slave, and the crushing suffocation made even breathing difficult.

"Two!"

Rustle, rustle~

Meng Qingshuang had barely counted to two when the mine slaves, their legs weak and their courage shattered, scrambled over in a panicked flood, terrified of falling behind.

Crack!

Before the long table covered in bowls of meat, the overseer immediately lashed his whip and shouted, "Line up properly! One bowl per person, and you must finish it on the spot!"

This move.

Completely crushed the hopes of those, including Wu Dao, who had wanted to pass off fish eyes for pearls.

I hope the poison isn't too potent!

At the back of the line, Wu Dao stared intently at the mine slaves at the very front who were "taste-testing" the food.

The core of the Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique, the "Myriad Healing Fluid," came from the various substances carried in the food consumed by the human body.

As long as enough potential was liberated.

The human body could digest most natural and chemical toxins, converting them into Myriad Healing Fluid beneficial to the body.

After liberating one hundred percent of his potential in his previous life, Wu Dao could drink nuclear wastewater like a beverage without issue. It was even a powerful tonic.

Though he had only just begun in this life and liberated merely thirty-five percent of his potential, he could still ignore simple natural toxins.

The Four Seas Gang could not possibly use extraordinary resources just for a group of mine slaves who had nothing left but flesh on their bones, could they?

"Next!"

"Next!"

Perhaps because they wanted to die with full bellies, the line moved quickly.

Every mine slave wolfed down the food, grabbing and swallowing. Many choked until their eyes rolled back. Fortunately, buckets of water had been prepared beside the table, or several people would have choked to death on the spot.

Wu Dao kept watching the first batch of mine slaves who had eaten the meat.

More than ten minutes passed.

Apart from being somewhat stuffed and lying on the ground burping nonstop, those few showed no signs of poisoning.

A slow-acting poison?

Wu Dao let out a soft breath, and the heavy stone in his heart lowered somewhat.

After a while.

It was finally Wu Dao's turn.

He lowered his head, accepted the huge bowl without a word, and looked at the jelly-like braised pork inside. Squatting to one side, he grabbed chunks of meat with mud-caked hands like everyone else and began devouring it.

Hm?

The first bite entered his mouth.

Wu Dao's heart stirred. It was not because he detected poison, but because the flavor of this meat was wrong.

A faint yet concentrated medicinal fragrance mingled with the aroma of the meat. With just one bite, Wu Dao identified several different herbal flavors.

Ginseng, goji berries, eucommia bark, fleeceflower root...

And several other medicinal ingredients whose names Wu Dao could not identify. They were likely specialties of this world.

This was a Medicinal Meal!

A Medicinal Meal for replenishing a weak body and deficient qi and blood!

Moreover, it had been expertly formulated. It could quickly pull someone out of weakness and invigorate their qi and blood in a short time. So long as one was not excessively frail, they would not be too weak to receive such nourishment.

Why did Wu Dao know so much, enough to list them like family treasures?

That was because after the Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique reached forty-five percent Potential Liberation, Heaven Stealers needed to consume all kinds of Medicinal Meals every day to meet the body's nutritional needs. The further they progressed, the greater the required age of the medicinal herbs.

It could be said that every Heaven Stealer was both a medicine jar and half a medicinal-herb master. The instant a Medicinal Meal entered their mouth, they could tell which herbs had been used.

Strange...

After carefully identifying the medicinal ingredients in the meat, that was the only thought that surfaced in Wu Dao's mind.

There was no poison.

It was purely a body-strengthening Medicinal Meal!

What exactly was the Four Seas Gang planning with such extravagance?

Wu Dao was filled with doubts, but he did not dare refuse to eat. Before long, the huge bowl of medicinal meat had gone into his stomach.

And just as the final piece of meat went down.

Wu Dao narrowed his eyes.

He clearly felt as though an icy seed had taken root and sprouted in his stomach. The foreign sensation was extremely distinct—it was no illusion!

But before he could focus and sense it.

That ethereal, hollow notification sounded in his mind once more—

"Evolution Point +0.05."

The instant that voice sounded.

The foreign sensation in his stomach vanished at once.

!!

Wu Dao felt no joy at the increase in Evolution Points. Instead, his scalp went numb.

Evolution Points came from the abnormalities of this world.

The "ghost" he had encountered yesterday was one such abnormality.

Then what exactly had he just eaten?

The corpse pit, the ghost, Meng Qingshuang, the abnormality hidden within the Medicinal Meal...

In a flash of insight, the pieces linked together.

Wu Dao seemed to have grasped something.

But his understanding of this world's extraordinary matters was simply too limited, and he had no god's-eye view. The truth remained like flowers seen through fog, impossible to discern clearly.

But no matter what.

It could not possibly be a good thing.

Whatever the Four Seas Gang is plotting, the Root of Disaster inside me has already been removed. And if the next ten days are all filled with such nourishing Medicinal Meals...

Wu Dao crudely licked the grease from the bottom of his bowl. Having sensed the Four Seas Gang's deep malice, he was not only unafraid—he even had the urge to ask for several more bowls.

The second stage of the Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique.

The prerequisite for forty-five percent Potential Liberation was for a Heaven Stealer to eat lavish meals of fish and meat every day, using abundant nutrition to create enough Myriad Healing Fluid to break through the dam and reshape the physique.

As long as the standard of food remained unchanged.

If he performed Extreme Training once every day to digest the Myriad Healing Fluid, then in as little as one month or as much as half a year, he could completely tear apart the shackles and break through the first limit barrier.

However.

Where there was slow tempering over a gentle fire, there was naturally fierce forging over a blazing fire.

If he used the powerful nourishment of the Medicinal Meals required for the next stage of Potential Liberation ahead of time to strengthen himself, the time needed to break the limit would be greatly reduced. At most, he could break through in half a month.

The only drawback was that it was easy to overnourish himself and pull up seedlings to help them grow. If his body could not adapt to the increased strength, he might end up in the hospital before breaking through the limit.

But if a master of Chinese medicine formulated the Medicinal Meal personally, nourishing without harming the body, then it would be different.

The Medicinal Meal provided by the Four Seas Gang clearly came from the hand of a renowned expert. It could rapidly replenish the body without making anyone too weak to receive the nourishment.

As for time.

As the creator of the Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique, no one understood Stealing Heaven's Secret better than Wu Dao. He was confident he could shorten half a month to less than ten days.

On the condition that.

Every meal from now on was a Medicinal Meal of the same quality.

Don't disappoint me.

Feeling the vigorous medicinal power steaming from his stomach, Wu Dao wished he could immediately run into the underground cavern and train fiercely. For the first time, he felt that this hellish Red Fire Mine had some warmth to it.

Too bad I can't confirm whether Meng Qingshuang has a way to monitor abnormalities. Otherwise...

Wu Dao glanced at the swollen bellies of the mine slaves around him, then regretfully licked his grease-smeared lips.

Although Meng Qingshuang had shown no reaction after the abnormality inside Wu Dao disappeared.

It was better to be safe than sorry.

If the disappearance of abnormalities planted in a large number of mine slaves drew Meng Qingshuang's attention, then Wu Dao, the culprit, would immediately be exposed. The loss would outweigh the gain.

Night.

A bright moon hung in the sky, and not a cloud stretched across ten thousand miles.

Pure moonlight blanketed the earth, making the great desert as bright as day.

One corner of the Red Fire Mine.

An inner wall enclosed rows of filthy, low shacks within, like a vast pigsty.

It was already deep into the night.

Thunderous snores filled the air. The fifty mine slaves who had eaten meat, full and satisfied, enjoyed a good night's sleep for the first time in ages.

No one thought about what tomorrow might bring.

They were nothing more than wretched lives, with no hope of escape. Better to leave it to fate and live one day at a time.

Huff—

Inhale—

Amid the noisy snores, a deep, muffled-thunder-like rhythm of breathing rose and fell.

Wu Dao's lean, panther-like body was concealed in the darkness of the shack. The muscles all over his body were taut, his internal and external tissues and organs constantly vibrating. Veins writhed like snakes, his skin burned red-hot, and he practiced the Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique in a Horse Stance.

Yes.

It was the most basic Horse Stance!

The Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique was unlike the secret cultivation arts in martial arts novels, with all sorts of bizarre postures that seemed determined to twist the human body into a pretzel.

On the contrary.

Cultivating the Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique was very simple. A thousand words could be summed up in two—

The limit!

Even with only the simplest exercise posture, once the brain's protective mechanism was removed, the vibrations throughout the body, from within and without, would quickly exhaust one's strength and push one into a limit state.

Extreme Training "tore apart" the flesh!

The Myriad Healing Fluid rebuilt it!

Again and again!

Iron forged into steel!

Huff~

Half an hour later.

He exhaled a long breath of turbid air.

Wu Dao sprawled on the ground, the godlike clarity in his eyes fading. His violently pounding heart, surging qi and blood, and crimson skin gradually returned to normal.

He closed his eyes and sensed within.

After several breaths, a thick warm current, far greater in quantity than usual and clearly perceptible, spread from points to surfaces and flooded through his limbs and every part of his body. It healed fatigue and injuries, strengthened cells, and reorganized muscle fibers!

Throughout the process.

It was as though Wu Dao had opened a third-person perspective. He could not feel any pain.

The only thing he could feel was that the muscles, bones, tendons, veins, organs, and everything else throughout his body were like inferior iron on a blacksmith's anvil, gradually transformed into steel beneath the hammering and tempering of the Myriad Healing Fluid.

Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack—

He rose, clenched his fist, and rolled his neck.

His bones and joints crackled like beans popping in a pan.

Like a brand-new war chariot that had just been assembled, his strength surged dramatically. His entire body felt light and comfortable, and the sensation of rebirth brought the first smile Wu Dao had shown since transmigrating.

He opened the Attribute Panel.

[Physique: Expert Realm (Limit)]

[Extraordinary: Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique (36%)+]

[Evolution Points: 0.15]

After consuming a Medicinal Meal that produced Myriad Healing Fluid, the 35% potential progress that had stagnated for a month finally increased by 1%!

The progress was minuscule.

But the word "limit" displayed after his physique meant that Wu Dao had completely entered the stage of tearing open the first of the Human Body Shackles.

As long as he successfully completed the next nine steps,

he would completely break the first limit shackle of the human body, steal back the potential Heaven had locked away, usher in his first Rebirth Realm, and gain inhuman strength!

Calming his blood and qi, he put away the Attribute Panel.

I really want to see how high the sky is and how vast the land is in this world—and what the beings at the top of the food chain look like.

Wu Dao lay on the cold, hard wooden boards, squeezing the increasingly full and tough muscles all over his body. His bright eyes, brimming with fiery longing, slowly closed. He adjusted his breathing and soon entered a state between sleep and wakefulness.

There were three mine slaves in his room who had eaten meat today.

He was unsure whether the mine slaves would undergo any dangerous changes after eating the "abnormality" that might threaten him.

Therefore,

he could not fall completely asleep.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The next day.

At noon, urgent, resounding gong beats once again rang through the Red Fire Mine.

Wu Dao stood at the entrance of the mine tunnel, his hair hanging loose, his ever-more-muscular body shrouded in a filthy, foul-smelling black robe, looking every bit like a savage.

"Damn, that smells good!"

He took a deep, intoxicated breath of the meaty fragrance permeating the air, bared a mouthful of yellow teeth, and smiled.