Name: Chen Yuan
Age: 19
Strength: 17,423 kg
Realm: Intermediate War General
Life Gene Level: 1.1
Brain Domain Width: 19
Neural Reaction speed: Excellent Elementary War God
Speed: 240 m/s (maximum 979 m/s)
Hibernation Method: Crystal Meditation: Cultivation-type secret technique, rated B-class. Current progress: Great Accomplishment Level (6.58%)
Gale Sword Art: Combat-type secret technique, rated ultimate. Current progress: Great Accomplishment Level (10.46%). speed increase: 70%. Neural reaction speed increased by 1 level.
Combat Technique: Conception Level
Force Exertion Level: 3.2
Kill Points: 40,896
After a month of training, Chen Yuan's strength had advanced by leaps and bounds.
Aside from the substantial increase in his strength, the two secret techniques he possessed had both entered the Great Accomplishment Level. In particular, his breakthrough in the Meditation Method allowed Chen Yuan to successfully enter the third stage of Deep Sleep—Sleep in Motion.
This meant that while Chen Yuan practiced his swordsmanship, he was also using Deep Sleep to restore his body. Not only had his endurance improved further, but his cultivation efficiency had also increased significantly.
Before the breakthrough in his Meditation Method, Chen Yuan could gain roughly 80 kilograms of strength per day through training. Afterward, that number had soared to more than 120 kilograms a day!
That was precisely why his strength had increased by over 3,000 kilograms in just one month.
Of course, the increase in strength was only one part of it. More importantly, his force exertion technique had improved, rising from double force exertion a month ago to 3.2 times now.
All of this was thanks to the improvements brought about by the Gale Sword Art entering the Great Accomplishment Level.
As a secret technique rated "ultimate" by the system, the Gale Sword Art might not compare to Earth's other two ultimate manuals, World Destroyer and Thunder Blade, in terms of force exertion techniques. But when it came to speed, its advantage was unmatched.
There was no need to mention Conception first; that was the core of the Gale Sword Art, granting him a 50% boost to his base speed.
As an Intermediate War General, Chen Yuan's base speed was 160 meters per second. Yet with the enhancement of Wind Artistic Conception, his base speed could reach 240 meters per second!
But the Gale Sword Art's improvements did not stop there. As the secret technique's proficiency entered the Great Accomplishment Level, its bonus to movement technique and sword-drawing speed had reached an astonishing 70%.
In other words, without using force exertion techniques, Chen Yuan's maximum speed was 408 meters per second.
Using force exertion techniques was even more terrifying. A 3.2-fold force exertion could bring a 2.4-fold speed increase, directly raising Chen Yuan's theoretical maximum speed to 979 meters per second.
Of course, with Chen Yuan's current strength, he could not yet fully apply his force exertion technique to his movement technique and found it difficult to reach that speed limit. Even so, he could still achieve the terrifying speed of over 900 meters per second.
One had to know that even Advanced War God-level experts only had a base speed of 600 meters per second. Chen Yuan had already surpassed that level.
Of course, War God-level experts generally also mastered force exertion techniques. According to records on the Limit Home forum, Advanced War God-level experts generally had an average force exertion level above 3.
In other words, a true Advanced War God could run at over 1,300 meters per second.
However, Elementary and Intermediate War Gods had average force exertion techniques of only around twice their normal output.
Taking an Intermediate War God's base speed of 460 meters per second as an example, an above-average Intermediate War God could only reach a running speed limit of 690 meters per second, far below Chen Yuan.
This showed that there was good reason for the system to rate the Gale Sword Art as an "ultimate" manual. It was a secret technique that pushed speed to the extreme, and it was also what allowed Chen Yuan, with only Intermediate War General strength, to kill an Elementary Overlord.
Relying on this sword art, Chen Yuan had slain thousands of Beast Soldier-level Monsters, 337 War General-level Monsters, and one Overlord-level Monster in just one month!
Such astonishing slaughter had also allowed Chen Yuan's Kill Points to successfully surpass 40,000.
"Perfect. Once I finish harvesting the materials from this Fire-Scaled Trident Boar, I'll go back, sell some of them, and buy new manuals."
This was the most important matter at hand!
After both Chen Yuan's Gale Sword Art and Meditation Method entered the Great Accomplishment Level, he understood that optimizing new secret techniques had become urgent.
Otherwise, once both secret techniques reached Completion Level, the rate of his strength growth would become fixed. He would no longer improve by greater amounts with each passing day of training.
Chen Yuan knew that with his current cultivation speed, he was confident he could advance to the Planetary Level even without relying on outside help. But the process would take a long time.
The peak Apprentice Level possessed 512,000 kilograms of strength. Chen Yuan was still 490,000 kilograms away from that realm. At his current cultivation efficiency of 120 kilograms a day, he would need more than eleven full years of training.
That was terrifying, but this was the most frightening aspect of this world—advancement through realms was exponential.
Back then, Luo Feng had rapidly crossed the Apprentice Level by relying on Dragon Blood, Spirits of Vegetation, and his own talent as a Psychic Master.
In terms of cultivation efficiency, Chen Yuan now far surpassed Luo Feng at the same stage. But that was useless, because Luo Feng's advancement at the Apprentice Level had not relied solely on arduous cultivation.
Thus, Chen Yuan urgently needed Dragon Blood, which could save him a great deal of time. He also needed to optimize new manuals to further improve himself.
The Gale Sword Art was powerful, arguably the number one manual for speed, but it only offered speed.
A fivefold force exertion was not weak, but compared with the other two ultimate manuals, it still seemed mediocre.
Therefore, Chen Yuan urgently needed funds to purchase a large number of manuals and provide the Optimization System with more material.
So, Chen Yuan spent two hours finally dismantling the core materials from this Fire-Scaled Trident Boar—including its fiery red scales and its conspicuous trident-like horn.
After packing everything up, Chen Yuan hoisted a backpack several times larger than his entire body onto his back and headed in the direction from which he had come.
Three days later, at the Northern Military Region encampment.
Zhou Jie, the HR Alliance's North District Manager, stood at the entrance of the encampment, waiting quietly.
People constantly came and went through the encampment entrance, and Martial Artist squads returning from the Wilderness Zone passed through from time to time.
Because Zhou Jie was quite well-known in the encampment, many Martial Artists greeted him as they passed by. Some squads with bountiful harvests even tried to persuade Zhou Jie to purchase their spoils.
"Sorry, please contact Manager Li regarding purchases. I have other important business today. My apologies."
Zhou Jie had no idea how many times he had said those words today. As an HR Alliance manager, conducting business was normally part of his daily routine. Under ordinary circumstances, he would have accepted deal after deal with a broad smile, but now he could only refuse them with a polite smile.
Because he was waiting for a client—a major client, in his eyes.
Though this major client was merely his conjecture. He had never personally seen the young man make a move and had only inferred from his equipment that he was quite formidable.
But after receiving the man's call that morning, a powerful premonition had surfaced in Zhou Jie's heart once more. That feeling had made him abandon all of today's work just so he could contact the other party at the earliest opportunity.
Otherwise, if the man found someone else, Zhou Jie felt that he would definitely regret it.
That said, as the wait dragged on, Zhou Jie could not help but grow uneasy.
Could I have guessed wrong? That person is so young. Could he really be an expert of that level? I've turned down so many clients today. I don't know how much effort it'll take to rebuild those relationships later...
The more Zhou Jie thought about it, the more anxious he became. He feared that he had misjudged the situation and that his career in the HR Alliance would end because of it.
Time passed bit by bit. Zhou Jie waited from dawn until noon, turning away wave after wave of old clients.
Finally, just as Zhou Jie's unease reached its peak and he was nearly despairing, the familiar figure he had been waiting for so long appeared within his field of vision.
Zhou Jie's spirits lifted. He hurried over at a light jog, wearing a perfectly measured smile that made him seem warm and approachable. He said to Chen Yuan, "Mr. Chen, congratulations on your safe return from the Wilderness Zone. The Northern Military Region welcomes you."
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