Scholar lv3

Five days had passed in the blink of an eye.

Galactic Calendar 226, January 6.

Early morning, the sky was pale with light, and the cold wind still howled fiercely outside the old building's window.

"Mm..." Li Wen's eyes snapped open a moment before the alarm's piercing buzz was set to explode, and he instinctively reached out to silence it.

The bedroom fell back into silence, with only the steady thump of his heart and the faint creak of his bones stretching to remind him that a new day had begun.

With a flicker of thought, the familiar pale blue light panel materialized clearly in the depths of his mind:

[Name: Li Wen]

[Age: 18]

[Class: Scholar lv2 (188/200)]

[Realm: Unranked (6.1)]

[Skill: Blade Art · Advanced (Mastery 99/100)]

[Technique: Fracture Edge Gold Sha Method (Minor Success 30/100)]

Five days had slipped by quietly under near-crazed pressure.

The numerical panel for his physical level stubbornly still read "6.1," but Li Wen could clearly feel that the power within him was slowly but steadily inching toward "6.2," with every surge of blood and qi bringing a subtle sense of fullness.

The Fracture Edge Gold Sha Method, thanks to the stability of Minor Success and a deeper understanding of the new realm, had been pushed from its initial breakthrough all the way to Minor Success 30 points—the efficiency boost from cultivation feedback was tangible.

But the fastest progress, without a doubt, was still the scholar experience representing his core potential—188/200, just one step shy of the 200-point threshold for leveling up.

Perhaps today, he would achieve a double blessing.

Scholar promotion to lv3, and that bottleneck in Blade Art that had plagued him for five full days—seeming as thin as a cicada's wing yet tougher than refined steel—would be shattered in one go.

An indescribable heat rose from his chest, mingled with fierce anticipation and resolve. Li Wen got up quickly, his movements fast and precise as he dressed.

Cold water splashed on his face brought brief clarity. In the living room, the familiar purple-brown empty medicine box sat quietly on the table, with a note in his mother's elegant handwriting tucked under its edge: "Good luck in the new day! —Mom."

Warmth brushed through his heart. He carefully put the note away, wolfed down the breakfast his mother had kept warm, slung his worn but sturdy canvas schoolbag over his shoulder, and plunged into the winter wind, heading for Qingshi No.3 High School.

In the cultural studies classroom of Class 21, Grade 12, history class was underway.

On the podium, the nearly fifty-year-old history teacher adjusted his reading glasses, his voice carrying a seasoned charm but unable to hide its seriousness:

"...This lesson focuses on reviewing the origins of the New Martial Era. This knowledge point is tested every year without fail! Students must engrave it into your bones!"

He pointed to the light panel behind him, where a massive timeline marked key nodes:

"...Before Galactic Calendar Year 1, there was the long Dark Era. Human civilization once struggled in a cosmic desert starved of spiritual energy.

It wasn't until 226 years ago that our Milky Way, while orbiting the supercluster, finally left the spiritual energy barren zone and entered the 'low-concentration spiritual energy belt' of the surrounding star region—this was the landmark 'Spiritual Energy Tide'!"

The teacher's voice suddenly rose: "It was this great and perilous turning point that heralded the dawn of spiritual energy recovery! The martial potential suppressed in humanity for a thousand years was finally unlocked..."

He paused, a hint of heaviness flashing in his eyes. "But it was also the beginning of disaster! Because the savage speed at which demonic beasts absorbed and converted spiritual energy far exceeded our fragile bodies!

They welcomed the terrifying 'Awakening Tide' earlier than humans, undergoing a more rapid transformation! What we lost was not just the peace of the old era, but the land countless of our kin depended on to survive..."

The history teacher explained in meticulous detail, breaking down the era's tragedy and opportunity with clarity.

Yet the response from the podium was sparse. Of the forty-plus students in the class, fewer than half were truly paying full attention.

Those on the martial track had long since let their minds drift to the afternoon's martial arts class and the final martial exam just three days away;

Even those on the scholarly track, like Wei Wu, mostly viewed history as a chore of memorizing dry facts rather than a memory bearing the weight of civilization.

The teacher on the podium seemed long accustomed to this scene. He didn't get angry, but a faint, barely noticeable sigh flickered in his eyes.

Under the weight structure of the martial arts college entrance exam, history's share indeed struggled to spark enough interest in these hot-blooded youths dreaming of breaking the heavens with their fists.

[You studied earnestly for ten minutes, Scholar Experience +1]

[Class: Scholar lv2 (199→200/200)]

[Leveling up...]

[Class: Scholar lv3 (0/400)]

Just as Li Wen was once again immersed in his book, silently organizing knowledge points along with the teacher's voice, the panel's notification jumped out without warning.

An intangible ripple swept through his sea of consciousness in an instant.

Hum!

A wave of coolness, far stronger and more condensed than when he'd leveled from lv1 to lv2, surged like a mountain stream thawing in early spring, cutting through the canyons of his thoughts.

It was a strange sensation of his mind being thoroughly cleansed, expanded, and optimized. It was as if dusty glass had been wiped clean, the sluggishness of his thoughts dissolved, and the entire world suddenly became sharper and clearer.

[Scholar lv3]—Achieved!

"Hah..." Li Wen couldn't suppress a faint, almost imperceptible exhale of breath in his seat, the sharp gleam in his eyes quickly concealed.

He swiftly glanced up at the electronic clock at the front of the classroom—thirty-seven minutes remained until class ended.

Without a moment's hesitation, even with a solemnity akin to a pilgrimage, Li Wen's mind raced: "Activate—[Absolute Focus]!"

The moment the thought settled, an invisible force even more condensed and thorough than before enveloped him. LV3 [Absolute Focus], when activated, was nearly flawless and traceless.

Li Wen felt the world before his eyes suddenly strip away all irrelevant colors and sounds.

The rustling of his deskmate Wei Wu flipping through history notes, the whimper of branches scraped by the cold wind outside the window, the suppressed yawns of the classmates in front... all the noise was instantly peeled away, blocked out.

Within his field of vision, there were only the incredibly complex historical timeline nodes, the vein analysis diagrams, the key term explanations on the book—and the copy of Advanced Math Problem Analysis he had deliberately spread open, pressed beneath his history textbook.

The history teacher was still narrating "the great catastrophe triggered by the first appearance of the 'Beast King' Sky-Rending Mystic Lion," but at the core of Li Wen's consciousness, these crucial historical events were rapidly analyzed, categorized, imprinted, forming solid memory modules.

At the same time, those few math problems that had made him frown and rack his brains without finding a path forward when he flipped through them yesterday were now like gems cleared of fog, their internal logical chains exposed with crystal clarity.

A thirty percent boost in comprehension—this was a qualitative leap!

In the past, at LV2, deducing blade techniques required repeated mulling over the details of power application, the key nodes of force transmission, the subtle angles of transition between variations... but now, the torrent of information flooding his mind was like being enlightened and refined by an invisible grandmaster.

Countless sparks of inspiration crackled in his mind, colliding, combining, and verifying wildly.

The twenty-six forms of the Tiger Guard Blade Art—the application scenarios, hidden variations, extreme angles of each form and each change, the hidden tricks of resonating power with the metal-element basic technique Fracture Edge Gold Sha Method—were like a scattered puzzle, under this terrifying mental deduction, rapidly assembling toward that perfect "seamless unity" at an unprecedented speed.

The bottleneck of 99 points that had plagued him for five whole days, that seemingly solid membrane, under the continuous, precise scraping of the "mental scalpel" of Absolute Focus stacked with a 30% comprehension boost, began to emit faint groans of strain.

Blade light crisscrossed in his mind; a silent yet breathtaking transformation was taking place in his spiritual world.

Thirty-odd minutes, to an ordinary person, was half a boring review class. To Li Wen, it was a storm of thought raging fiercely in the depths of his soul.

Every high-speed collision of thought was accompanied by an infinite approach to the "perfection" realm of advanced blade techniques.

Time, in absolute focus, lost its measure.

"Ring—" The piercing bell for the end of class exploded like a thunderclap.

Buzz! The transcendent focus field enveloping Li Wen receded like a tide. The noise and color of the world suddenly flooded back into his senses.

"Hiss..." A violent dizziness and a huge spiritual emptiness struck instantly.

Li Wen grunted, his hands instinctively pressing hard against his temples, fingers interlocked, rubbing forcefully to try to relieve the splitting pain.

LV3 Absolute Focus consumed several times the mental energy of LV2.

His body, especially his brain—the "hardware" supporting the calculations—was finally sending him a strong warning signal.

"Hey, Li Wen, you okay?" His deskmate Wei Wu, packing his bag, saw Li Wen pressing his temples in pain and glanced at the Advanced Math Problem Analysis on his desk, only a few pages open and covered in complex martial formulas. He immediately misunderstood, mixing a hint of teasing with genuine concern.

"Damn, bro, do you have to push yourself that hard? If you really want to do math problems, don't pick history class! Look at you, your face is white... If you really can't understand the hard problems, start with the easy ones, yeah? Don't make yourself dizzy."

"...Mm," Li Wen's temple-pressing slowed. From between his fingers, he glanced at the problem set and gave a tired, slightly stiff smile.

"It's nothing, just a bit of a headache... Mm, just trying it out, didn't work." He answered vaguely, not explaining the truth.

It wasn't until the students had all left after class and the harsh bell for third-period Chinese rang that Li Wen felt the swelling pain recede like an ebbing tide, his mind regaining some clarity.

He shook his head to dispel the lingering heaviness, his gaze sharpening again.

The cost was great, but the brief, frenzied deduction just now... the gains were incalculable.

Almost by sheer willpower, he took out the corresponding books and placed them on his desk, suppressing the urge to rush straight to the martial arts training ground, and continued to "diligently" study the textbook content—after all, every ten minutes was precious Scholar experience.

Time passed in the rustling friction of pen against paper.

"Ring—" The bell for the end of morning classes rang on time.

[Scholar Experience +24]

[Class: Scholar LV3 (0→24/400)]

Li Wen put down his pen, looking at the updated panel with a mix of fatigue and deep anticipation.

"400 points... At 36 experience per six hours, the next level-up would be eleven days from now." He frowned, then relaxed again.

"But... it probably won't take that long. Next week's final exam is a grade-wide unified test!" A thought leaped into his mind.

The core of gaining "Scholar" experience was learning and mastering knowledge.

And exams were the most authoritative test of learning outcomes! The larger the exam, the more participants, the higher the difficulty and discrimination, the richer the experience from achieving excellent results.

This hidden mechanic was a key patch the game designers had implemented to balance the astronomical experience required for later Scholar class levels.

After all, the higher the class level, the exponentially more experience needed. The total from LV1 to LV10 might be far less than the single level from LV10 to LV11.

If one relied solely on burying their head in books, the leveling speed in the later stages would be despairingly slow.

Therefore, achieving top rankings in open, fair assessments became the necessary shortcut for high-level Scholars to advance.

"The final exam... will be the first experience accelerator after LV3." A calculating gleam shone in Li Wen's eyes.

He stretched his arms and legs, a series of faint cracks sounding from his joints.

The classroom quickly emptied, the noise fading away, leaving only the sound of the cold wind outside the window and the slightly old-fashioned, inspirational song playing over the campus broadcast.

Li Wen didn't get up immediately. He sat quietly in his seat for about twenty minutes, until the broadcast finished three songs and fell silent, the midday stillness settling over the teaching building.

His physical strength had mostly recovered, and his mental fatigue had been suppressed.

Time to go verify.

A powerful impulse surged in his chest—the thirty percent comprehension boost under LV3 Absolute Focus, this brand-new "mental scalpel"—what edge would it show in real-world blade technique training? Could that wall that had blocked him for five days be...

Li Wen stood up and rolled his shoulders. Without any further hesitation, he strode quickly out of the classroom and headed toward the cafeteria.

His goal was clear: this afternoon's training, he had to completely shatter that final layer of paper blocking the threshold of Perfection!

After a simple, quick, but energy-dense lunch, Li Wen was the first to arrive at Class 21's martial arts training room.

It wasn't even one o'clock yet.

The room was spacious, quiet, the familiar scent of equipment mixed with a faint trace of sweat. He didn't pick up his blade immediately—the food from lunch needed time to digest.

The churning of energy in the stomach and intestines would disrupt the flow of qi and blood, as well as the precision of his movements.

He walked to the rest bench in the corner and lay down flat on his back.

Closing his eyes, he emptied his mind, using only his body's sensations to guide the peristalsis of his stomach, accelerating the digestion and absorption of the high-energy food.

It wasn't deep meditation, just the most basic rest.

Twenty minutes passed. The uncomfortable fullness in his stomach was finally replaced by a warm sensation of power flowing outward to his limbs and torso.

Li Wen opened his eyes. There was no longer any hesitation or confusion in them, only pure focus and intense confidence.

He stood up and began to warm up! Stretching, joint rotations, a brief foundational stance to mobilize qi and blood... every step was meticulous.

After warming up, Li Wen walked to the familiar weapon rack. His gaze swept over the various weapons and landed precisely on the standard-issue fine-steel quick-blade, its handle already worn smooth from his grip.

Clang! The cold, metallic friction sound was especially crisp in the empty room. The hilt felt heavy and icy in his hand, as if extending the bones of his arm.

He stood in the center of the open space, his toes slightly gripping the worn floor tiles. His body sank slightly, his center of gravity as stable as a rock.

Taking a deep breath, it was as if he drew all the available oxygen and stillness in the space into his lungs.

The next moment, his mind moved like a flash of lightning.

"Activate—[Absolute Focus]!"

Hum!

There was no external sign, and even the momentary extreme concentration in his eyes was nearly perfectly hidden beneath his already intensely focused expression.

The world was instantly purified and reconstructed!

The howling of the cold wind outside the window, the noise of the distant playground, the surging rush of blood through his body, the last faint churning of his stomach... all irrelevant information was ruthlessly stripped away and isolated.

In his field of vision, there remained only the cold, gleaming quick-blade in his hand! In the sea of his thoughts, only the twenty-six forms of the Tiger Guard Blade Art flickered and flowed in a frenzy of deduction, combination, and optimization.

Thirty percent insight boost!

This "mental carving knife," now thirty percent sharper, began to dissect, deconstruct, and reassemble the moves he had practiced tens of millions of times at a microscopic level within his consciousness.

Swish—!

A single slash exploded outward!

The movement was not a mere repetition; it carried the newly born "understanding" forged under the blessing of lv3 [Absolute Focus].

The sound of the blade tearing through the air was sharper than usual, with a hint of a trembling whine—a direct manifestation of a more cunning angle, more condensed power transmission, and faster execution speed.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The blade moved with his mind; his body followed the blade!

The first form, "Tiger's Roar in the Mountain Forest," began with the momentum of wind and thunder!

The roar was no longer a brute-force shout, but more like the low, warning growl of a living beast about to pounce, full of oppressive power held in reserve.

The blade's edge trembled, as if craving more air resistance to release the torrent of power hidden within.

Before the blade's momentum was spent, his footwork had already stepped forward!

As his center of gravity sank, the second form, "Fierce Tiger Descends the Mountain," seamlessly connected!

This time, the chop was no longer a simple vertical drop relying on inertia. The spiral force generated by Li Wen's waist and hip twist, combined with the precise inward rotation of his wrist, perfectly integrated into the foundational power, instantly igniting the downward potential into a diagonal slash.

The blade's path through the air was smoother and more ruthless, like the fatal claw of a pouncing tiger tearing sideways into its prey's throat.

Not a single ounce of power was wasted; every muscle's tension and relaxation was under control.

The third form, "Serpent Spits Its Tongue"!

The long, upward flick, which used to briefly stiffen during its return arc, now became a phantom image of a venomous snake's instant strike.

The "drilling force" led by the little finger side of his wrist was perfectly exploited. The tip of the blade quivered and vibrated like a snake's tongue, its angle of coverage suddenly expanding, directly targeting the hard-to-defend armpit of an opponent.

The change was as swift as a snake instantly retracting its neck and then suddenly striking out like a thunderbolt.

Every slash was accompanied by a violent eruption of inspiration in his mind.

Every shift of his footwork honed the timing of his center-of-gravity transitions to greater smoothness through deduction.

The blade was no longer a mere extension of his arm; it had become the convergence point and core of the power flowing through his entire body.

The bottleneck? That membrane that had blocked him for five days?

Under the relentless scouring and pressure of the terrifying "mental storm" formed by lv3 [Absolute Focus] stacked with a 30% insight boost, it was already covered in countless cracks.

Like a dam that had endured too long under wind and rain, it only awaited the push of one final force...

One cycle! The blade light was like a dragon, his movements astonishingly smooth, leaving behind only trails of condensed, lingering afterimages!

Two cycles! Sweat instantly covered his forehead, but Li Wen's eyes were brighter than ever, as if flames were burning within them! Every inch of muscle memory was being overwritten and optimized by new understanding! In his mind, the flawless radiance of the "Perfection" realm was already within reach!