"Looks like I'll have to wait until Scholar levels up."
He recalled the perception he had experienced during his last Spiritual Power increase, as well as the direct impact brought by the Scholar Profession's comprehensive enhancement of "comprehension"—or rather, thought, understanding, and control.
The fifty percent increase in comprehension provided by lv5 [Absolute Focus] had already reached its limit. It couldn't help him break through in a short time.
Of course, he could still succeed if he spent enough time on it.
However, if he wanted to quickly break through this Blade Art bottleneck and reach Greater Accomplishment, the Scholar level had to rise first. Otherwise, this bottleneck might hold him back for a very long time.
As for the cultivation method bottleneck?
Compared to the critical Blade Art bottleneck that determined his future ceiling, Li Wen wasn't in a hurry. He only needed an opportunity, and he would break through naturally.
Li Wen's focus was undoubtedly on breaking through in Blade Art.
Countless thoughts drifted through his mind, and Li Wen shut off the alarm a moment before it was due to ring.
He got up, washed, ate breakfast, and finally headed to school.
Qingshi No. 3 High School.
On the first day of the new semester, the entire Grade 12 division was already permeated with an unusual tension and fervor. Discussions could be heard everywhere.
The enormous announcement posted at the entrance of the Grade 12 teaching building had already made the subject clear: the Flying Star Class selection had officially begun!
The Flying Star Class was where the elites of the entire Grade 12 division at Qingshi No. 3 High School gathered—the springboard leading to a first-rate martial arts university.
There were only sixty places, and the competition was far more intense than the final assessment.
Today's event was the first stage of the selection: the cultural assessment.
Everyone who had submitted an application report at the end of the previous semester had been assigned to a huge classroom.
Li Wen was among them.
After spending six focused hours studying every day throughout the winter vacation, Li Wen's foundation in every subject had long since undergone a complete transformation.
In particular, Galactic Common Language, which had once dragged him down, had also made substantial progress under his concentrated efforts.
The spacious, brightly lit examination room filled with the rustle of papers being handed out.
As usual, Li Wen first completed the simpler questions on his own, leaving the difficult ones for last.
Time flew by amid the rapid scratching of pens.
"Whistle! There are only fifteen minutes left in this examination."
When the warning whistle sounded, Li Wen took a deep breath and subtly stirred his thoughts.
"Activate—[Absolute Focus]!"
The lv5 Absolute Focus descended in an instant.
The world fell silent. The examination paper before him seemed to be infinitely magnified and dissected.
The words transformed into clear chains of logic, formulas flowed like streams, and every distraction was cast aside.
Li Wen's pen flew across the page, his handwriting vigorous and forceful. His thoughts operated like a precision computer running at high speed, processing every question under the fifty-percent comprehension boost from [Absolute Focus].
He was no longer answering passively. It was more as if he were actively dismantling the questions and taking control of the threads of knowledge.
The feeling of divine assistance guiding his pen was even stronger and clearer than during the final assessment.
Perhaps because Li Wen's foundation had improved, he finished all the remaining difficult questions in less than fifteen minutes this time.
Adhering to the principle of not wasting his mental energy, he shut off [Absolute Focus] ahead of time.
The same happened with the next five subjects.
At five in the afternoon, the final subject finally ended.
Everyone stood and left the classroom.
"This damn exam was even harder than last year's final assessment. There were so many questions I couldn't answer."
"Just don't let your cultural score drag you down in the end."
Deng Yuefei left alongside Xue Jun, his brows furrowed in misery as he complained about how unreasonable the exam papers were.
"Cultural scores only account for twenty percent. What's there to worry about?" Compared to Deng Yuefei, Xue Jun looked completely composed.
His skills had consistently ranked among the top thirty in the entire grade, so he truly had the right to say that.
Li Wen shook his head with a smile and left the classroom confidently.
He still had to continue cultivating the Basic Method that evening. Besides, he had run out of Qi-Blood Potions, so Li Wen didn't go home this time.
After eating a High-Energy Dinner in the cafeteria, he arrived at the Grade 12 Class 21 martial arts classroom, which he had been away from for a month.
The familiar classroom and familiar faces.
Because of his performance in the skills assessment at the end of the previous semester, Li Wen was no longer the invisible nobody he had once been.
As soon as he entered the martial arts classroom, quite a few people greeted him of their own accord.
Li Wen replied to each of them with a smile.
He had just finished his High-Energy Dinner and planned to sit and rest for a while.
He walked to his usual spot and half-reclined on the long bench.
Every now and then, he chimed in with a few words, chatting and joking around with everyone.
More than ten minutes passed in a flash.
Feeling that the food in his stomach had mostly been digested and was no longer affecting his cultivation much, Li Wen stood up.
He had just reached for a Standard Quick Blade from the weapon rack when he felt more than a dozen messages pop up on his panel in succession.
[You completed a Chinese examination. Excellent result. Scholar experience +60] [You completed a mathematics examination. Excellent result. Scholar experience +60] [You completed a foreign-language examination. Excellent result. Scholar experience +60] [You completed a history examination. Excellent result. Scholar experience +60] [You completed a politics examination. Excellent result. Scholar experience +60] [You completed a geography examination. Excellent result. Scholar experience +60] [You ranked first in this selection examination. Scholar experience +140] [Profession: Scholar lv5 (1280→1780/1600)] [Profession leveling up...] [Profession: Scholar lv6 (180/3200)]
He had leveled up!
Almost the instant the level-up was completed, Li Wen felt an even more vigorous and nimble warm current surge from deep within his brow and spread throughout his body.
His brain seemed to have been cleansed by a clear spring. His thinking speed, depth of understanding, and mental capacity all leaped onto a new level.
The changes brought by the Spiritual Power of lv6 were more significant than those of any previous level-up.
"Now!" Li Wen didn't hesitate for even a moment.
He drew the Standard Quick Blade that had accompanied him for so long, and in a blur, he arrived at an empty area where no one was present.
"Activate—[Absolute Focus]!"
The concentration of lv6 [Absolute Focus] instantly far surpassed that of lv5.
With a sixty-percent boost to comprehension,
Li Wen gripped the hilt, and every profound principle of Rainbow Light Blade Art seemed to come alive.
The minute stagnations that had troubled him before, the final trace of disharmony in exerting force, and the thin membrane impeding the circulation of Qi and blood—
under this brand-new, highly concentrated radiance of thought, they were as fragile as thin ice.
The blade silently cleaved through the air!
There were no dazzling visual or auditory effects, only a sharpness that suddenly condensed to the extreme.
Buzz!
An unmatched, razor-sharp aura seeped from the blade. It was no longer the keen edge of Minor Accomplishment, but a truly biting coldness that had touched the threshold of Greater Accomplishment.
The panel information changed at the same time.
[You broke through the Blade Art bottleneck. Skill advanced!] [Skill: Blade Art: Peak (Greater Accomplishment 1/100)]
He had done it!
Blade Art: Peak, Greater Accomplishment!
From the moment Li Wen activated [Absolute Focus] to the moment his Blade Art reached Peak, Greater Accomplishment—
only three short minutes had passed.
The others in the martial arts classroom had only just sensed a trace of something unusual and were preparing to turn their heads when Li Wen had already returned the Standard Quick Blade to its sheath.
The comprehension boost from lv6 [Absolute Focus] was only ten percent greater than that of lv5.
Yet the final result it produced was far beyond that difference.
When comprehension was insufficient, a bottleneck was like the moon reflected in water: visible, yet impossible to touch.
The sixty-percent boost to comprehension was terrifying indeed.
No wonder some geniuses encountered no bottlenecks at all when cultivating.
In addition, the shortest activation time of lv6 Absolute Focus had dropped from five minutes to three.
Before you continue