Hong

That evening, Ji Yun returned to Yanjing Pavilion as if he were fleeing for his life.

The moment Ji Yun climbed to second place in the rankings, intelligence agents in Hongning Base City from the military organizations of various powers, special administrative organizations, family corporations, and even mercenary groups discovered the latest update to the Elite Training Camp's Black Dragon Ranking. As competent intelligence agents, all the people in charge immediately reported it to their headquarters!

Almost instantly, once the information had been confirmed, nearly every organization around the world dispatched people to invite Ji Yun to join them.

The offers were almost universally lavish, with annual activity funds of hundreds of billions! That was an astronomical sum reserved for invitations to a Peak War God, yet Ji Yun was now being offered even better terms than a High-Level War God!

Taking second place right from the start was truly unheard of.

What was more, Ji Yun was still not even nineteen.

For the five great powers and the Two Great Dojos, such enormously powerful organizations, a martial artist whose physical fitness improved rapidly was certainly surprising, but not enough to make every one of them fight to bring him into their ranks. After all, there were publicly available resources such as Dragon Blood, as well as special items that were kept secret...

But movement techniques, punching force, and weapon technique were different. Those could not be forced. They could only be improved through battle after battle and training session after training session, through "experience" and "comprehension"! In the Elite Training Camp's terms... it was "Combat Power Amplitude"! One could turn a single unit of strength into ten units of combat power, or even a hundred.

An astonishing Combat Power Amplitude at eighteen or nineteen was already beyond belief.

After returning to Yanjing Pavilion, Ji Yun first dealt with a few messages.

Then, a call came through to Ji Yun's phone out of nowhere.

"Are you Ji Yun, the trainee?" a low, hoarse voice asked.

Ji Yun couldn't help feeling startled. The caller had somehow gotten through without his consent. Whoever this was, they had to be someone important.

"I'm Ji Yun. May I ask who this is?" Ji Yun suppressed his unease and asked.

The person on the other end said, "I'm Wang Luo, an Inspector of the Limit Dojo. The Dojo Master will summon you within the next three days. Please be prepared. Also, the details of your training contract will be finalized after you meet with the Dojo Master."

With that, the caller hung up.

"The Dojo Master wants to see me?" Ji Yun felt as if a storm had risen within him. The General Dojo Master of the Limit Dojo, Hong, the strongest man in the world—wanted to summon him?

Although Ji Yun had anticipated that his performance would cause a stir, he still hadn't expected the General Dojo Master, Hong, to want to meet him!

Clearly, Inspector Wang had only been calling to deliver the message. The one who truly wanted to see Ji Yun had to be the General Dojo Master, Hong. This was a chance to meet and speak with the strongest man in the world.

Two days later.

Ji Yun was training his punching force in the training room. His current force level of 3.2 was merely decent. There were plenty of trainees at the camp whose force levels matched or even surpassed his.

A man and a woman in black uniforms quickly arrived outside Yanjing Pavilion.

A knock sounded at the door.

Ji Yun had a pretty good idea what was going on, so he went downstairs and opened the door. This should have been the day he went out to hunt monsters, but he had been told that morning not to leave. He had already guessed the reason.

The man and woman in black uniforms standing outside were both about thirty years old, and their eyes were exceptionally sharp. The woman, who was somewhat petite and had short, tousled hair, smiled. "Trainee Ji Yun, the Dojo Master would like to see you. Please come with us." The man beside her looked at the young man before them with curiosity.

"Is this about signing my contract?" Ji Yun wondered.

"All right. Let's go," Ji Yun said, nodding as he followed them.

They took a familiar route and soon arrived at the main entrance of the Elite Training Camp. A luxurious black limousine was waiting there. At a glance, it seemed to be more than six meters long. The woman in black stepped forward and opened the car door for him. "Trainee Ji Yun, please get in."

Ji Yun nodded and climbed into the car. The interior looked like the inside of a spaceship, with high-tech equipment everywhere. When the car started moving, he couldn't feel even the slightest vibration. It was perfectly smooth.

Less than twenty minutes later.

Ji Yun got out of the car and froze.

Before him stood a gigantic, spaceship-shaped building, a full ten thousand meters long and about a hundred meters high. A huge hatch, dozens of meters wide, opened into the building. All around it... a large number of soldiers stood guard, making the place seem heavily fortified.

"Is this the Limit Dojo's real headquarters?" Ji Yun stared at the giant spacecraft in amazement. Very few people had ever seen the Limit Dojo's headquarters building with their own eyes, and there weren't any related photos online.

A pale blue light swept over Ji Yun from head to toe.

"Trainee Ji Yun, please enter," said an electronic voice.

The woman in black beside Ji Yun said, "Trainee Ji Yun, only a handful of high-ranking officials have clearance to enter the headquarters. Anyone who enters without authorization will be killed by the defense system."

Ji Yun nodded to show he understood, then walked inside.

Beyond the entrance was a passageway through the hatch, dozens of meters wide and entirely silver-white.

Two men and women in blue robes smiled as they greeted him in the corridor. "Trainee Ji Yun, please come with us."

"This is the lounge. Please wait here, Trainee Ji Yun. Someone else will come to notify you shortly." The young white woman in a blue robe smiled and spoke fluent Mandarin, then obediently left.

Less than twenty minutes later.

A Black man in a red robe appeared at the entrance. "Ji Yun, the Dojo Master will see you."

Ji Yun was slightly surprised. He had expected to wait for a while, but hadn't imagined things would move so quickly.

Once he went through this door, he would be in the presence of the strongest man in the world, Hong.

Ji Yun took a deep breath and stood up. Following the Black man in the red robe down the corridor, he soon arrived outside a quiet room. The man bowed slightly, then left.

"Come in," said a cold voice.

Ji Yun didn't hesitate. He answered and walked straight inside.

This reception room was empty and pitch-black, with only two cushions.

A black-haired man was already sitting cross-legged on one of them. His eyes were closed as he rested. Ji Yun could see the man seated right in front of him, but couldn't sense his presence at all. He seemed ethereal, as if he had vanished completely.

The man in black opened his eyes slightly. Under his gaze, Ji Yun felt a roar in his head. The world around him twisted, and the lights dimmed. In his entire field of vision, there seemed to be only a god.

All around him stretched a black world, and at its dazzling center stood the black-haired man!

"You're Ji Yun, right?"

"Yes, Dojo Master," Ji Yun answered, still dazed and seemingly unable to react.

"Sit." His voice was still somewhat cold.

Ji Yun sat down properly.

"I am Hong." The man in black gave a slight smile, and his tone softened somewhat.

"I've read your file. It's very good, exceptionally good. You're even stronger than I was at your age," Hong said slowly.

"You're not even nineteen yet, and your Combat Power Amplitude has reached 14.4, but your force level is only 3.2. That means your Trial Tower level is 4.5."

"A Trial Tower level of 4.5 is very good. The Inspectors of my Limit Dojo all have Trial Tower levels above 5.0, and their force levels are around 4.9. That means your level of mastery is already on par with theirs. All you lack is physical fitness and force level."

"That's right, Dojo Master," Ji Yun said, finally recovering. Facing the strongest man in the world for the first time, he was no less shaken than anyone else.

"You use a spear, too. You've probably run into some problems with your training, haven't you?" Hong's voice was unhurried. "You may ask me one question. I'll answer it for you."

"Really?" Ji Yun was delighted, but then hesitated.

Being able to ask Hong a question was a privilege that even many powerful Beyond War God beings couldn't obtain. But he couldn't afford to waste the opportunity by asking the wrong thing. That left him at a loss.

Hong said nothing, silently watching Ji Yun think.

"What should I ask?" Ji Yun wondered.

Suddenly, Ji Yun remembered something he had heard in a video while at home. Chen Qingzhi, that Invincible War God, had once remarked that there was another level beyond the realm of intent. What was that level?

Having decided, Ji Yun quickly spoke up. "Dojo Master, there's something I don't understand, and I'd like to ask you about it."

"Oh? It's not a question about training?" Hong asked, slightly surprised. People would normally have asked about training.

"It's related to training, in a way," Ji Yun quickly replied.

"I once heard that there was another level beyond the realm of intent. May I ask, Dojo Master, what exactly is that level?"

Hong looked shocked. He had thought Ji Yun would ask him for advice on force or spear techniques. He hadn't expected a question about the realm of intent. What was more, Ji Yun had sensed that there was a level beyond it.

As far as Hong knew, even Thor hadn't reached the level beyond intent. He had merely gone further in the same direction.

"Someone else has asked me that question before." Hong's expression returned to normal. He smiled and said, "As it happens, that person was Chen Qingzhi, the founder of the Fierce Wind technique you practice."

"I gave him an answer back then, and now I'll give you the same answer." Hong paused, seeming to consider his words.

"The level beyond intent is called the domain!"

"The domain!" Ji Yun's heart stirred. There really was another level beyond intent! And it was a level one could advance to!

"Only after you break through to become a Beyond War God can you possibly come into contact with this level. Remember, it's only a possibility." Hong smiled.

"All right, that's enough about that. Now let's discuss your contract."

Hong casually waved his hand, and a screen of light appeared in front of Ji Yun, displaying a contract.

Ji Yun quickly refocused and carefully read the contract on the screen before him.

This was an official recruitment contract with the Limit Dojo, unlike ordinary contracts... For instance, ordinary martial artists who joined the Limit Dojo weren't paid any salary. Ji Yun had joined the Limit Dojo before, but he had only been a regular member and hadn't contributed anything to the dojo! Though regular martial artists didn't receive much in the way of pay, the Limit Dojo also didn't make many demands of them.

But this contract—

It offered power and benefits! But it also came with responsibilities!

"Annual activity funds of nine billion Huaxia Currency?" Ji Yun was taken aback. That wasn't much. One could even say it was very little.

Any organization out there was currently offering Ji Yun at least thirty or forty billion a year.

But Ji Yun continued reading.

"According to this contract, only a very small number of people in the Limit Dojo are eligible to receive a salary? The amount of activity funds is based on rank?" The contract also listed the amounts available to people of various ranks. Even the highest-ranking War God, the Supervisor, received only ten billion in annual funds.

Ji Yun looked at another screen of light.

"Hmm?" Ji Yun's eyes lit up, as if he'd spotted something.

"Before May 1, 2057, if Party B's Combat Power Amplitude reaches 16, they will receive an SS-class Combat Suit, a full set of weapons, a complete set of any one manual, and one Vegetation Spirit."

"Before August 1, 2057, if Party B's Combat Power Amplitude reaches 20, they will receive an SS-class Combat Suit, a full set of weapons, three star units for free, complete sets of any three manuals, and a set of the Ancient Civilization Ruins' 'Black God.'"

"Combat Power Amplitude of 16?" Ji Yun was stunned. "My amplitude is already 14.4. I only need to make a slight breakthrough to reach that level." The rewards listed in these clauses were astonishing, but the first requirement wasn't strict at all. If he reached a Combat Power Amplitude of 16 before April 1, 2057, he'd receive all those rewards. In monetary terms, that was an unimaginable fortune. Even Beyond War God beings wouldn't be willing to buy these things, no matter how much money they had! Yet for him, they were practically within reach.

"Finished reading?" Hong's voice sounded.

"Yes, Dojo Master," Ji Yun replied respectfully.

"But, Dojo Master, what exactly is a star unit?" Ji Yun asked, puzzled.

"You'll find out when you reach that level." Hong didn't seem inclined to explain. "All right, if you have no objections, sign it."

Ji Yun quickly signed his name on the screen. Almost instantly, his watch gave a soft beep. Ji Yun looked down and saw that his clearance level had been fully upgraded.