Basic Method: Minor Accomplishment

Li Wen's gaze swept over the glaring golden numbers on the panel:

[Technique: Blade Technique · Advanced (Greater Accomplishment 99/100)]

That final "1" was like an invisible yet unyielding barrier, lying across his path to the realm of Perfection.

He took a deep breath. So long as he broke through this barrier, he would truly touch the threshold of Peak Blade Art and begin an entirely new journey.

Yet this mere single point of experience had trapped countless people.

Looking across all of Class 21, five or six people besides him were stuck at the "Greater Accomplishment 99" bottleneck.

If expanded to the entire senior year, the number would probably multiply several times over. More than a hundred people would not be an exaggeration.

This was why the Flying Star Class's minimum threshold was reaching Initiation in a Peak Technique. One winter break was neither long nor short.

That span was enough for those who had accumulated deeply while trapped at the edge of a bottleneck to break their shackles and begin studying Peak Techniques.

Those powerful students who were already ahead would use this chance to widen the gap even further. The Flying Star Class had only sixty slots, and the competition was so fierce that not a shred of slackness could be tolerated.

He had to get a head start! Before this winter break officially began, he had to be the first to poke through this paper-thin window and step into Perfection.

Only then could he gain a lead over the vast crowd of competitors at the same level right from the starting line of the technique assessment, adding a crucial weight to his bid for those precious slots.

Time! The sense of urgency was like an invisible whip lashing at his heart.

With that thought, Li Wen cast aside every stray distraction, his gaze sharp as a blade's edge. His right hand clenched the refined-steel swift blade as he lowered his stance once more, exerted force, and flicked his wrist.

Swish~ Swish~ Swish~ The swift blade sliced through the air with sharp tearing whistles. Every move contained his deeper understanding and command of the Tiger Guard Blade Art.

Sweat soaked through his faded school uniform, pressing tightly against his somewhat lean yet taut back. He immersed himself completely, trying to seize that fleeting opportunity to break past the critical point.

"Ding-a-ling~~"

The afternoon dismissal bell rang like thunder, violently tearing through the heavy stillness in the Martial Arts Room. The students who had been gritting their teeth and sweating profusely felt as if they had been granted amnesty, their taut strings instantly loosening.

"Ha... It's finally over!"

"I'm dead tired!"

"Come on, come on, I'm starving!"

Amid a chorus of relieved groans and calls to one another, everyone shoved their weapons back onto the racks with clank and clang, then streamed out of the classroom in twos and threes with hurried steps.

The lively clamor receded like the tide, leaving behind only the silence unique to an empty space and the scent of sweat hanging in the air.

In the spacious martial arts classroom, in the blink of an eye, Li Wen was the only one left standing with a blade in hand. The setting sun slanted in through the tall glass windows, stretching a long, lonely shadow beneath his feet.

He had long grown accustomed to this. One might even say he deliberately chose to stay until the very end. This quiet was precisely the atmosphere he needed to assault the bottleneck.

The swift blade in his right hand continued to move—chopping, lifting, blocking. His movements were steady and precise, without the slightest trace of impatience.

Move after move unfolded in perfect order, like the most precise machine repeatedly grinding away its final rough edges, striving to reach a state of flawless perfection.

Not until the sky outside had fully darkened and the mellow music from the campus broadcast had played through four or five complete times did Li Wen slowly sheath his blade. His chest rose and fell, his breath slightly hurried as he wiped the dense beads of sweat from his forehead.

Clang— With a clear metallic scrape, the swift blade slid precisely back into the weapon rack.

Li Wen slung his faded canvas backpack over his shoulder and became the last person to leave the martial arts classroom, which had already gone completely dark. The heavy door lock clicked shut, temporarily separating him from that empty expanse.

Night fell, and cold seeped into the empty martial arts classroom. During evening self-study, another twenty or thirty students from Class 21, determined to sprint toward Martial Arts University, gathered there once again.

Li Wen still occupied his corner. As usual, he began with blade practice.

More than an hour passed. Sweat had long soaked his back, and the swift blade seemed to become one with his hand. Blade light streamed without end, displaying the power of the Greater Accomplishment realm to the fullest.

It was at this moment that the few classmates who were likewise stuck at Advanced Greater Accomplishment 99 could no longer conceal the shock and confusion on their faces.

While training, the corners of their eyes kept unconsciously drifting toward the sweat-drenched figure in the corner.

At first, they only felt that Li Wen's blade technique seemed somewhat smoother. Later, they were startled to discover that his methods of exerting force and the seamless flow between his moves had both undergone a qualitative leap!

At this moment, they clearly realized it: Li Wen... had actually reached the same platform as them!

"How... how is that possible?" Deng Yuefei lowered his voice as he spoke to Yue Ruijie beside him, his face full of disbelief. "Didn't he only... only reach Minor Accomplishment last week? On the physical assessment day?"

"I remember it clearly. Teacher Wang even encouraged him, saying he was close to breaking through to the later stage of Minor Accomplishment... How many days has it been? Three days?!" Zhang Li's throat bobbed as he looked at Li Wen as though he were looking at a monster.

"He must be faking it!" Deng Yuefei's voice carried a trace of panic and unwillingness that even he himself had not noticed, the words nearly bursting out of his mouth.

"This guy must have reached this level long ago! He was hiding it before, playing the pig to eat the tiger! Now, for the Flying Star Class, he can't keep it hidden anymore!"

As classmates who had spent two and a half years together day and night, their impression of Li Wen ran too deep. He was indeed hardworking, and his impoverished family circumstances were as plain as day.

His techniques had always been unremarkable before. He was the typical example of someone diligent but ordinary in talent. Yet now, he had suddenly shot up to the same realm as people like them, who had better resources and invested more time? It overturned everything they knew.

It was not as if no one had considered the inspiring tale of "awakening overnight and shedding one's mortal frame." But deep down, the first thing that surfaced within them was resistance—a refusal to believe it.

The sharp edges of youthful temperaments had not yet been worn smooth by worldly experience.

Over the past two and a half years, when facing Li Wen, who stood at the bottom of the class and kept to himself, they might not have deliberately bullied him, but varying degrees of contempt, indifference, careless mockery, and disregard had always existed.

It was human nature to defer to the strong and trample the weak. Even unconscious ripples of it were commonplace.

Now, the person they had knowingly or unknowingly looked down upon had suddenly displayed such alarming potential and charged upward? That was absolutely not something they wished to see.

If Li Wen truly succeeded in his comeback, what could they former "lookers-down" gain? It would already be fortunate if he did not hold a grudge, much less let them bask in his glory.

For both personal and practical reasons, they fiercely resisted the possibility that "Li Wen had truly awakened."

They would rather Li Wen were a deeply calculating "schemer" who had endured in silence for years, merely waiting to soar into the heavens in a single bound at the college entrance exam.

That way, their sense of defeat might lessen somewhat, and they could even console themselves: it was not that they were inadequate, but that someone else was too good at acting.

Even if Li Wen had truly awakened... they secretly prayed that this was merely one of those common, short-lived "minor bursts."

Every year during college entrance exam season, there would always be a few students who had seemed unremarkable before but suddenly seemed blessed by the gods. At the final moment, their techniques would advance by leaps and bounds, turning them into Dark Horses.

This was hardly strange among high school students in the stage of martial arts development. Physical growth, the sudden activation of some region of the brain, and a temporary improvement in comprehension were all possible.

Only...

"Three days, from Minor Accomplishment to Greater Accomplishment... and almost Perfection?" Deng Yuefei muttered under his breath, his gaze upon Li Wen impossibly complicated. "That's one hell of a 'minor burst'... Isn't that a little too damn minor?!"

Faced with those gazes from afar, full of surprise, scrutiny, and even hidden doubt, Li Wen had no desire to explain anything.

Two years of solitude, along with the natural divide brought by his family circumstances, had left him alone in Class 21. Other than Wei Wu, who would occasionally come over and exchange a few words with him, he scarcely had anyone who could be called a friend.

Li Wen steadily inserted the swift blade back into the weapon rack, then walked to his mat. Compared with his stalled blade technique, he had a small breakthrough point here.

[Method: Rending Gold-Sha Method: Basic (Initiation 99/100)]

After cultivating continuously last night, his Basic Method proficiency had also risen to 99 points of Initiation. He only needed one final step to enter the Minor Accomplishment realm.

Had he not feared that excessive cultivation would drain his blood qi and affect his condition today, he would definitely have pressed on in one burst and ground out that final point of experience last night.

Li Wen spread his legs slightly and bent his knees, forming hand seals as he closed his eyes.

"Exhale~ Inhale~" A strange rhythm of breathing guided the not-so-abundant blood qi in his dantian into slow circulation.

The cultivation process remained difficult. More than ten minutes slipped away in silence. Sweat once again covered his forehead, and the school uniform clinging to his skin could already be wrung dry of water.

The muscles in his limbs began to tremble faintly beyond his control. The overly circulating blood qi had turned his skin bright red, like a giant shrimp that had been steamed alive.

"Hng..." A low, muffled groan carrying the edge of pain escaped his throat.

He forced himself to persist for another half minute or so. At last, his body could no longer maintain that standard yet strength-draining posture, like a taut string suddenly snapping.

"Hah—!" A long, scorching breath of foul air, thick with the fishy scent of sweat, burst from deep within his chest and formed a fleeting cloud of white mist.

Li Wen staggered a step and dropped to one knee, bracing both hands against the cold mat. He lowered his head and gasped violently, every inhale tugging painfully at his lungs.

The instant his breathing method was forcibly interrupted, the familiar pale-blue screen automatically appeared in his consciousness:

[Rending Gold-Sha Method experience +3]

[Method: Rending Gold-Sha Method: Basic (Initiation 99 → Minor Accomplishment 2/100)]

He had succeeded! A comprehension far clearer and more condensed than when he had entered Initiation flowed into Li Wen's mind without warning like a trickling stream, instantly merging perfectly with his existing understanding.

Several subtle deviations in the force-exertion techniques of the Rending Gold-Sha Method, certain seemingly insignificant movements that affected blood qi circulation efficiency, and the deeper coordination between breathing and blood qi transport... all these understandings emerged as naturally as water flowing into a channel.

Minor Accomplishment!

A faint, gratified smile appeared on Li Wen's exhausted face.

Though his blade technique was stuck at a bottleneck, the breakthrough in his Basic Method was just as significant! It meant that when he circulated this method in the future, the efficiency with which he used his blood qi would rise slightly!

The efficiency with which his body absorbed and transformed the thin spiritual energy in the air would also improve! Put simply—his baseline speed of raising his Flesh Rank had finally begun to move upward!

This was currently the only proper path by which he could improve the speed of raising his Flesh Rank without spending additional money. Every breakthrough was incomparably precious.

He struggled to prop himself up and staggered over to a bench in the resting area. He collapsed onto it like a puddle of mud, feeling every muscle in his body ache with unbearable heaviness.

Only after gasping for several minutes and recovering a little strength did he rummage out a bottle of quick energy-replenishing fluid from the old backpack on the floor beside him.

Twisting open the cap, he tilted back his head and gulped it down.

The icy liquid, sweet with a faint salty, fishy trace of electrolytes, slid down his throat. It brought a brief coolness and comfort, like a parched land receiving a weak drizzle.

The entire bottle was quickly drained. This was a rapid energy supplement specially designed for martial artists undergoing high-intensity training, and its price was not cheap.

One small 150-milliliter bottle cost ten Huaxia Coins—even that was the discounted price after the subsidy granted to students.

Li Wen silently calculated: in one night, he would generally cultivate the Basic Method for four rounds. After each round, he needed one such energy drink to ease the enormous strain on his body and barely support the next round of cultivation.

After four rounds, the drinks alone cost forty Huaxia Coins. In a month, calculated at thirty days... that was twelve hundred Huaxia Coins.

This did not even include the three Level 1 Blood Qi Potions he could only barely afford each month, costing fifteen hundred Huaxia Coins. Blood qi potions and energy drinks alone pushed his fixed monthly expenses close to three thousand Huaxia Coins!

And that did not include the nutritional meal costs, far beyond those of ordinary people, that he needed to maintain high-intensity training, nor the expensive tuition weighing upon his parents' shoulders...

Poor scholars, rich martial artists! Those four words seemed so cold and heavy at this moment. Every increase in strength was a road paved with countless sums of money.

He had to enter the Flying Star Class! That thought had never been clearer or more scorching! It was the only shortcut to escaping this bottomless economic pressure and obtaining vast cultivation resources!

Otherwise, with only his own meager resources, trying to push his Flesh Rank to the threshold needed to apply for a top Martial Arts University before the Martial Arts College Entrance Exam... the hope was as faint as a firefly in a frigid night!

After resting in place for more than ten minutes and feeling some of his strength return, Li Wen walked toward the mat once again. The second round of Basic Method cultivation began.

The comprehension of the Minor Accomplishment realm began to show its effects. With the same limit of cultivation time, he actually lasted twenty minutes this time!

Although he still ended drenched in sweat and trembling all over, it felt as though the total amount of vitality, energy, and focus consumed in completing one round was slightly less than it had been at the peak of Initiation.

This was the initial manifestation of increased efficiency—using the same physical strength and energy as fuel, he could gain more results in "tempering the flesh" from cultivating the Basic Method! The needless dissipative losses during blood qi circulation had decreased by a tiny amount.

[Rending Gold-Sha Method experience +4]

[Method: Rending Gold-Sha Method: Basic (Minor Accomplishment 2 → 6/100)]

The panel's feedback verified his feeling.

During cultivation, he could even vaguely sense that the power transformed from every bit of energy absorbed into his body seemed to produce a slightly stronger feedback of stimulation upon his flesh—a faint warmth too subtle to detect.

These tiny currents of warmth would eventually gather together and reveal themselves clearly the next time his Flesh Rank panel refreshed.

Drops of water make a river; grains of sand build a tower. On the martial path, not a single drop of progress could be overlooked.

He believed that so long as he persevered, this improvement would eventually be repaid in those cold numerical values.

Time slipped quietly by in the cycle of breathing, gasping, resting, replenishing, and throwing himself back into cultivation.

When the bell marking the end of evening self-study rang melodiously, Li Wen had also just finished his final round of Basic Method cultivation for the night.

He leaned against the wall in exhaustion, taking small sips from his fourth bottle of energy drink that night.

The cold liquid, carrying the heavy cost of reality, slid into his stomach. It dispersed the heat brought on by cultivation, yet also brought a thread of bone-deep exhaustion and a clear, resolute determination.

Outside the window, the night was thick as ink, reflecting in his tranquil pupils.