"Maybe next time. I'm going to my master's first so I can learn the Genetic Energy Cultivation Method."
Xu Ai waved goodbye to Xu Gang, turning down his plan to throw a banquet to celebrate her.
Even after Empress Ruthless had been brought up, Xu Gang could only nod.
"All right, I'll put it off for a few days, then."
"No rush, no rush."
Ideally, she could have canceled it altogether, but there was no way that would happen.
As the future pillar of the Xu Family, Xu Ai was sure to get a grand celebration, even if Xu Gang agreed to cancel it. Xu Yunguo and the others wouldn't let it go.
She'd deal with it later. For now, she'd just put it off.
Xu Ai waved and left.
After leaving the Xu Family's headquarters, it took her a while to reach Empress Ruthless's villa. She took out her key and let herself in, familiar with the place.
The basement was the Martial Arts Hall, where Empress Ruthless was currently training hard.
Over the past three months, the Five Qi Towards Origin cultivation method and the Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown Guidance Technique had helped her quite a bit. She had also traded knowledge of the Triple Domain to Hong for an Ancient Civilization Gravity Chamber.
Her strength had now reached the third tier of Planetary Level. She had five layers of Domain, a Force Amplitude of twenty, and a Mental Power Amplitude of twenty-five. She had also created three secret techniques: a sword technique for Genetic Warriors, an attack technique for Spirit Readers, and a flying technique for Spirit Readers.
Empress Ruthless had now surpassed Hong and Thor to become the strongest person on Earth...
Of course, even Hong and Thor didn't know. They only thought she was about as strong as Hong, unaware that she could beat them both at any time...
Xu Ai sat cross-legged opposite Empress Ruthless. She tilted her head slightly upward, with her palms and the soles of her feet facing up, and began using the Five Hearts Towards Heaven cultivation method to sense the energy of the universe.
She didn't use the Five Qi Towards Origin method because the only difference between it and Five Hearts Towards Heaven was cultivation speed. Their effects were the same.
You consumed the same amount of energy with both methods; Five Qi Towards Origin simply let you absorb it faster.
There was no need to chase efficiency during her first session. Five Hearts Towards Heaven made it easier to sense the energy of the universe, making it a surer way to get started.
With Empress Ruthless's experience to guide her, Xu Ai quickly entered a meditative state. Threads of cosmic energy flowed into her body through her five points of contact, turning into Genetic Origin Energy and strengthening her cells.
When cells first encountered cosmic energy, they had been "hungry" for a long time and gorged themselves. Under these circumstances, a cultivator would fall into a "self-forgetting" state as soon as they began training.
In that state, a cultivator couldn't circulate a Guidance Technique to expand their cells' "appetite."
But Xu Ai was different. Empress Ruthless's extraordinary state of mind kept her from getting lost in the process, and her ability to multitask let her easily circulate the Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown Guidance Technique.
The Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown Guidance Technique condensed her essence, energy, and spirit, compressing Genetic Origin Energy and speeding up her cells' "digestion." This improved the results of her first training session.
Xu Ai's first session took unexpectedly long...
At last, Xu Ai slowly opened her eyes.
"Nearly fourteen hours for a first session. Not bad."
Empress Ruthless checked the time and nodded in satisfaction.
Researchers had once studied the Five Hearts Towards Heaven cultivation method by observing many Low-level Warrior Rank Martial Artists with different circumstances.
They had ultimately reached one conclusion:
Given similar physical fitness and good condition, people who trained for the same amount of time got almost identical results.
There might be slight differences between individuals, but they could basically be ignored.
So these days, Martial Artists simply treated the time spent training as a measure of its effectiveness.
Xu Ai stood up and felt that her clothes seemed a little... short.
"My clothes and pants have all gotten shorter... Did I grow taller?"
Empress Ruthless's eye was sharp. She immediately spotted the change in Xu Ai.
"She's grown from about one meter seventy to one meter seventy-five. Her legs are longer, and her figure's become even more pronounced..."
"Could this be the so-called genetic optimization?"
After all, Genetic Origin Energy could strengthen and optimize genes.
"But the change is huge."
In Empress Ruthless's memory, her own first session had only made her legs a little longer. She definitely hadn't grown five centimeters like Xu Ai.
"Wait. Let's test her strength first..."
Xu Ai went to the Punch Strength Tester in the corner of the Martial Arts Hall. She drew back her right fist, then swung. It cut through the air with a piercing whistle and slammed into the target.
Bang!!!
The screen lit up, and a number flashed: 5,040 kg!!!
"High-level Warrior. Not bad for a first session."
It really was only not bad. After all, the Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown Guidance Technique and the Vegetation Spirit's effect on cell activity had to be factored in.
Without those, given Xu Ai's talent in physical fitness, she would have hit her limit after one or two hours at most.
Most people who could reach a punch strength of over 2,000 kg in their first session were children of councilors or War God powerhouses. A few were children of War Generals.
A tiny number of people who awakened as Spirit Readers during their first session could probably do it, too. But Spirit Readers were rare to begin with, and even rarer were those who awakened during their first session.
Even Luo Feng hadn't awakened his Spirit Force during his first session...
Xu Ai's parents had died young. They'd only just become Martial Artists, at Low-level Warrior Rank, when she was born. Naturally, she couldn't compare her physical talent to that of the people above.
But...
"She's gained over 4,000 kilograms of punch strength. That puts her among the very best of the talented."
"The most gifted usually have parents who are High-level War Gods or councilors. Their genes are already outstanding, so genetic optimization doesn't change them much.
"But my parents were only ordinary Martial Artists. My genes were average at best, so the dramatic improvement in my physical fitness after my first session would naturally bring a more dramatic change from genetic optimization.
"Or perhaps there's a hidden leap in life during the process of going from having no Genetic Origin Energy to having it."
In the original story, every breakthrough to a major level came with a leap in life, but that only started with the breakthrough from Apprentice Level to Planetary Level. It never mentioned whether becoming a Martial Artist brought such a leap for ordinary people.
Xu Ai then tested her speed as well.
The final results were: punch strength—5,040 kg; speed—68 m/s; nerve response—???
"Good. She's at High-level Warrior. Now she can keep improving in the Gravity Chamber."
Having read the original story, Xu Ai knew what resources were available on Earth at the time.
Of those resources, the Ancient Civilization Gravity Chamber was by far the most useful to Empress Ruthless and to Xu Ai in the future.
After all, once someone reached Planetary Level, there were no miraculous medicines left to be found on Earth.
Babata had some resources, but Xu Ai didn't plan to fight Luo Feng for them.
No matter how much of a sister-obsessed person Xu Ai was, she had to admit that no one was more suited to her older sister than Luo Feng. The two of them were in love, too...
As for getting married, that could wait a few dozen Reincarnation Eras!
"High-potency Vegetation Spirits like the Millennium Willow Heart still aren't safe for her. She can only drink Millennium Black Crow Root Wine or use milder Vegetation Spirits..."
Empress Ruthless looked over the instructions Hong had given her for using the Vegetation Spirits and shook her head.
It was a shame. These milder Vegetation Spirits mainly increased cell activity and had little effect on physical fitness.
And Xu Ai had been drinking Black Crow Root Wine for months. She'd probably developed a tolerance to it...
"Looks like she can only train hard in the Gravity Chamber for now. Maybe she could also drink some diluted Millennium Willow Heart...
"Forget it. Diluting it would waste some of its potency. She's not that far from War General Level anyway. She just has to work a little harder."
With that, Xu Ai and Empress Ruthless went to the room that housed the Gravity Chamber.
The Ancient Civilization Gravity Chamber took up quite a bit of space. When Hong delivered it, the storage room had been renovated along with it, and the chamber had been installed inside.
"High-level Warriors can withstand up to six times normal gravity... but that's when their physical fitness is close to Low-level War General. I've only just crossed the threshold into High-level Warrior, so I'd better be cautious and start at five times."
Xu Ai played it safe and switched on five times normal gravity. The number on the console's screen began to climb.
2, 3, 4...
When it reached 5, an invisible pressure instantly enveloped Xu Ai's entire body. Her head went "buzz," and she lost her balance for a moment before quickly steadying herself.
"I knew it. That really caught me off guard..."
Empress Ruthless stood firm. Five times normal gravity didn't affect her at all, but Xu Ai was having a hard time.
After all, the Gravity Chamber generated the full gravitational force at once instead of increasing it gradually.
When it hit all at once, a moment of disorientation was inevitable. Plenty of people were knocked straight to the floor.
There was no avoiding it. Gravity acted on every cell, so the brain wasn't spared...
That was why the Gravity Chamber wasn't used to train students.
Their bodies might be able to endure twice normal gravity.
They would feel uncomfortable, but they could bear it.
But subjecting the brain, heart, and other organs to twice normal gravity all at once could easily cause problems.
And even if nothing went wrong, training like that could leave hidden injuries...
Only Martial Artists who had cultivated Genetic Origin Energy and used it to strengthen and reinforce their bodies could train in a Gravity Chamber!
Before you continue