Lin Feng tucked away the pouch and headed deeper into the Wilderness.
The sky was still dark. It was the perfect time to hunt monsters.
After reaching Martial Disciple Rank 8, his body had become much more agile. Even his footsteps landed more lightly. When he stepped on a loose rock, he simply tapped it with his toe and used the momentum to move forward. If he'd tried that yesterday, he would've twisted his ankle.
He hadn't gone far when something stirred among the rocks.
Three Rock-Back Toads, F-Class, Martial Disciple Rank 9, crouched in a crevice, breathing out a foul stench.
Lin Feng charged straight in.
His blade swept across, cutting the first one in half at the waist. Its body was still flying forward when its head hit the ground.
He spun around and struck again. The second toad's head flew three meters, then rolled into a crevice and disappeared.
The third had just leaped when his blade came down from above, piercing its back armor and pinning it straight into the dirt.
Three toads. Six seconds.
[Defeated F-Class Exotic Beasts: Rock-Back Toad ×3] [Received Martial Path Points ×9]
Lin Feng pulled out his blade, flicked the slime off its spine, and continued on.
The deeper he went, the more creatures he found.
A Poison-Claw Centipede crawled out of a crack in the ground, moving fast.
Lin Feng waited until half its body had emerged, then cut off its tail. He pinned its middle with his right foot and finished it with a thrust through the throat.
[Defeated F-Class Exotic Beast: Poison-Claw Centipede ×1] [Received Martial Path Points ×3]
Two Shadow Leopards crouched behind a dead tree up ahead, their tails sweeping back and forth.
Lin Feng casually picked up a stone and tossed it. It struck one of them beside its left ear. Startled, the leopard darted sideways, straight into the other.
Lin Feng had already rushed in. One blade stroke apiece, and it was done.
A third leopard circled around from the side. Lin Feng didn't look back. He sidestepped and struck behind him, piercing its throat.
It had taken less than ten seconds from start to finish.
[Defeated F-Class Exotic Beasts: Shadow Leopard ×3] [Received Martial Path Points ×9]
Deeper in, he came across an Armor-Splitting Bear. Its hide was thick, and a head-on fight would wear down his blade.
Lin Feng circled around. The bear was slow to react, and before it could catch up, he had already leaped onto its back. He shoved his blade into a gap in its spine and twisted it halfway around. The bear's legs buckled, and it crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
[Defeated F-Class Exotic Beast: Armor-Splitting Bear ×1] [Received Martial Path Points ×3]
The dust had yet to settle when the grass to his right rustled. Two Iron-Hide Boars burst out, both Martial Disciple Rank 9, their tusks capable of piercing armor.
Lin Feng stepped left, dodging the first boar's charge. He casually sliced off half its ear. The boar squealed and staggered sideways, crashing right into the second one. With the two piled together, Lin Feng struck twice from above, finishing them off.
[Defeated F-Class Exotic Beasts: Iron-Hide Boar ×2] [Received Martial Path Points ×6]
The system chimed nonstop. Lin Feng spent a full two and a half hours roaming the Wilderness, wandering wherever he pleased and killing whatever he came across.
[Current Martial Path Points: 180]
Lin Feng found a spot by a sheltered rock wall and sat down to look at his points in the system.
What was the point of saving them? He'd have to be an idiot.
Half a second later, he decided to go all in!
[Consumed Martial Path Points ×80] [Realm increased: Martial Disciple Rank 8 --> Martial Disciple Rank 9]
A surge of heat rushed through him, fiercer than before. Lin Feng braced himself and waited for it to pass.
[Consumed Martial Path Points ×90] [Realm increased: Martial Disciple Rank 9 --> Martial Disciple Perfection]
This time, it hit even harder. It was as if his whole body had been burned from the inside. He clenched his teeth and didn't move a muscle. Only after fifteen minutes did the heat finally dissipate.
Lin Feng lowered his head and looked at the Body Tempering Pills in his pouch. There were ten of them, deep red and hot to the touch.
He'd keep the momentum going.
If he could break through to Martial Artist before entering the Rift, his chances of survival would improve by far more than just a little.
He took one pill and tossed it into his mouth.
The next moment, his entire esophagus burned. Heat burst from his dantian and shot through his limbs, sinking into his bones and coursing through his blood vessels. A rapid series of tiny sounds came from within his bones. They weren't breaking; they were being reforged.
Every vertebra tightened, the spaces between them growing smaller and firmer, as if his skeleton were being nailed together all over again—each nail driven deeper, each joint bound more tightly.
A little over three minutes passed.
The final wave of heat escaped from the top of his head.
Lin Feng slowly straightened his back.
[Breakthrough successful!] [Martial Disciple Perfection --> Martial Artist Rank 1]
He clenched his fist, then casually picked up a stone. When he squeezed it, fragments trickled between his fingers.
Good. That was exactly the effect he wanted.
Just as he was about to get up, the system chimed again, louder than ever.
[Host detected entering the Martial Artist realm for the first time. Hidden reward triggered.] [Talent unlocked: Steel of the Blade (SS-Rank)]
SS-Rank.
Lin Feng stared at the words, stunned.
Talents were inborn. You couldn't grind them out.
At the garrison, out of several thousand people, the vast majority would never even get close. Unlocking a B-Rank talent was already enough to make people green with envy. A-Rank talents were rarer still, and the higher-ups might transfer someone who had one at any time. Everyone wanted them.
S-Rank talents were few and far between!
And SS-Rank talents were unheard of!
Before enlisting, Lin Feng had looked through some old records. In the fifty years since the Rifts had opened in the Northern Territory, only two documented holders of S-Rank talents had ever been recorded.
One was the legion's strongest fighter. The other had died in a deep-Rift accident two years ago.
Two people.
Fifty years.
The entire Northern Territory.
Just two.
He looked down at the blade in his hand, then at the System Panel.
[Steel of the Blade: While wielding a blade, each Exotic Beast killed adds a stack, with no limit to accumulation. Maximum: 500 stacks.] [Current stacks: 0/500] [50 stacks: Blade speed increased by 100%, with an Armor Piercing effect.] [150 stacks: Every strike gains an armor-piercing effect, ignoring 100% of the target's defense.] [300 stacks: Blade Momentum Penetration; penetrating power does not diminish.] [500 stacks: Blade Critical Strike. Power equals the full-force attack of a peak Martial Artist one major realm higher. No cooldown.]
Lin Feng stared at the System Panel for a full five seconds.
He read it from top to bottom, then from bottom to top.
Then he lowered his head and looked at the blade in his hand again.
At 50 stacks, his attack speed doubled. At 150, every strike dealt true damage.
At 500, every strike was a critical hit, with no cooldown, and the power of a peak Martial Artist one major realm higher. In other words, as a Martial Artist, if he maxed out his stacks, one strike could deal Martial Master-level damage.
Every strike. No cooldown.
What the hell? This was absurdly overpowered!
But after thinking it over, Lin Feng accepted it calmly. Maybe he was just naturally talented.
At the thought, Lin Feng began to itch with anticipation.
Just imagining how good it would feel to land a Blade Critical Strike was thrilling.
The prerequisite was building up stacks, which wasn't too difficult.
He just had to make another trip through a Rift. The stacks would build up quickly enough.
After thinking for a while, Lin Feng slid his blade back into its sheath, brushed the dust off his pants, and headed back to Base Camp.
The sky was already turning pale.
The sound of someone landing after vaulting over the wall still startled Wang Tie, who was coming on shift.
Wang Tie had been dozing against the wall. At the sound, he jerked his head up and saw Lin Feng standing five paces away.
The perception of a Martial Disciple Rank 9 was good enough.
Lin Feng stood there without doing anything, yet Wang Tie's back inexplicably went cold. His aura was like that of a different person from the Lin Feng of last night, though Wang Tie couldn't say what had changed. All he knew was that it made his blood run cold.
"You... broke through again?"
"Got a little stronger after a nap."
Wang Tie stared at him, his voice dry. "You're at Rank 8?"
"Rank 1."
"??? How'd you go backward?"
"I'm Martial Artist Rank 1."
"..."
Wang Tie thought he must have misheard.
"Last night, when you went in, you were Martial Disciple Rank 7."
"Right."
"This morning, you come out as a Martial Artist Rank 1."
"Right."
Wang Tie fell silent for a long time.
He knew better than anyone how wide that divide was. It wasn't something you could overcome by sheer stubbornness. It was a transformation, a threshold that the toughest veteran he knew had spent three years trying to cross without success.
Lin Feng had done it in one night.
He stepped back twice to make way, then finally managed to choke out, "You don't actually have some kind of cheat, do you?"
Lin Feng walked past him without looking back. "Maybe. Cover my shift today. I'm going to get some sleep."
After a whole night of fighting for his life, Lin Feng was utterly exhausted. Crawling into bed and getting a good night's sleep was all he could think about now.
Wang Tie stood in place, watching him walk away. Then he looked down at his own calloused hands and suddenly felt as if all his training over the years had been for nothing.
He sighed and leaned against the wall again.
Forget it. No point thinking about it.
Comparing yourself to others was enough to drive you to an early grave!
(Note: The realms are Martial Disciple, Martial Artist, Martial Master, Martial Ancestor, Martial King, Martial Venerable, Martial Saint, Martial Emperor, and Martial God.)
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