Seclusion

Wang Ji began his secluded training at the Extreme Pavilion.

He stayed in Training Room A083 for seven or eight days at a time. When he occasionally came out, it was to take Xia Ning and Wang Yan shopping or out for a meal, before returning to seclusion. Xia Ning was still a little shy, but she had accepted Wang Ji. After a few outings, they had grown more familiar, and their relationship had progressed quite a bit. At the very least, Xia Ning no longer resisted holding hands or kissing him on the cheek.

Training Room A083.

"Iron Will really has endless uses!" Wang Ji exclaimed.

Iron Will was indeed a wondrous treasure, and its grade was probably very high. At the very least, it had to be a fourth- or fifth-tier item. Wang Ji had discovered many of its marvelous uses through experimentation, and there were surely even more mysteries he had yet to uncover.

Just this time, when Wang Ji carved 36-Fold Waves onto one side of Iron Will, he discovered how useful it was. Iron Will was in his sea of consciousness and was one with his mind. It was as if he had engraved the manual directly into his consciousness.

He didn't even need to look at it or call it up; he could remember the entire manual perfectly. He could recite its millions of words backward and forward, as if it were instinct. This let him ponder and study it in his consciousness every day, at many times the usual speed.

It was like having the original manual, with its thousands of pages, in your hands: it would take ten days or half a month to read through it once. But by contemplating it in your consciousness, you could go over it in your mind in half a day—and understand it more deeply, too. You didn't have to worry about forgetting what you'd read earlier by the time you reached the end. How much did that improve efficiency? More than tenfold—maybe even a hundredfold!

Of course, this was only contemplation. Actual practice still had to be done step by step. Still, Iron Will helped him focus and slightly improved his comprehension, boosting the effectiveness of his training several times over.

Wang Ji pondered the manual every day. Now, when it came to understanding 36-Fold Waves, he was probably unmatched anywhere in the world. And with such a thorough understanding, he was making rapid progress in his practical training as well.

"The first layer doesn't increase the force multiplier. But it lays the foundation! Only when the foundation is solid and correct can I move on to practicing the second layer," Wang Ji murmured. "I've finally mastered the first layer after more than twenty days! It took longer than I expected!"

"I thought I'd at least reach the second layer in a month. Looks like I overestimated myself!"

Wang Ji casually threw a punch. "Bang!" The air cracked. His punches and kicks looked effortless, as if he were simply following his whims, yet each one was as powerful as a full-force strike he'd once spent a long time building up.

Now, the second layer!

"This is how it works... I have to grasp the waves within my body! Everything has waves; everything is a wave! Light is a wave, which is why it can travel so far without weakening. Water waves are waves, too. They travel in waves, which lets them last and build upon one another!"

"So I have to find the waves in my own body!"

"The waves in my body...?" Wang Ji ran his fingers through his hair.

Understanding, feeling, exploring...

Day after day passed.

"Bang!" Wang Ji punched, and his eyes suddenly lit up. "That's it!"

The punch didn't seem to travel in a straight line, and even its sound seemed to carry a lingering resonance.

That was it! Wang Ji threw another punch.

The force rippled like waves. Two waves resonated in his fist and burst forth!

Wang Ji punched the Punch Strength Tester.

Bang! 67,000 kg! Thanks to the lingering effects of the medicine, his training over the past month had brought his punching power to 43,000 kg. This strike had raised it to 67,000 kg—a direct 1.6-fold increase!

"Ha! I've got it! I've entered the second layer! But it's not pure yet. If the force were pure, I'd have a direct twofold increase!" Wang Ji was thrilled. After another half month of nonstop hard training, he had finally grasped the secret.

Once he had mastered the key to generating force, it wouldn't be difficult to incorporate speed and defense. After all, the path was already laid out.

August 13, Wilderness Zone.

"Whoosh!" Wang Ji's Heavy Mountain Sword seemed like a phantom, like morning mist—light and graceful, yet able to slip through any opening. "This is already Proficient Level swordsmanship!" Wang Ji realized. It now carried a hint of spirit. He was no longer focused solely on getting the moves and force right; his swordplay carried the distinctive, ethereal quality of Mist Sword. He could wield it as he pleased, freely combining moves and adapting them to the moment.

Wang Ji thought, If one day I'm no longer bound by set moves, and every strike carries an ethereal, illusory quality, blurring the line between real and false, would that be the perfect level?

A Intermediate Beast General-level monster was killed without any chance to fight back. The Heavy Mountain Sword easily sliced through the monster's tough hide and bones. Its sharpness could rival that of Series 9 weapons.

Wang Ji collected only the most valuable materials, then continued searching. This was County 0201, where the strongest monsters were probably Advanced Beast Generals. It wouldn't be easy to find one powerful enough for him to test his sword against.

Yes, test his sword.

Wang Ji's force multiplier had stalled at 1.9, and he still couldn't make the two forces merge perfectly and erupt together. He couldn't bring the second layer of 36-Fold Waves to perfection, so he had no choice but to seek a breakthrough in the Wilderness Zone.

"Awoo..." A pack of Silver Wolves surrounded Wang Ji. They were probably the strongest monster group in the county: one male and one female Advanced Beast General, seven early- and Intermediate Beast Generals, and forty or fifty Azure Wolves at the Beast Soldier level.

"Come on! Let me see what you've got!" Wang Ji said, charging into the pack.

"Shhk..." One of the Advanced Beast General-level monsters hadn't expected Wang Ji's sword to be so sharp. It opened a gash in the wolf's shoulder armor. But wolves were among the top-tier monsters in the Wilderness Zone. Their speed and strength often surpassed those of other common monsters.

So the Silver Wolf leader was extremely nimble. Once it realized how sharp Wang Ji's sword was, it dodged most of the damage in an instant, escaping with only a minor wound.

"Awoooo..."

The Beast General-level monsters stopped meeting his attacks head-on and made full use of their teamwork and speed. Wang Ji was caught off guard and struggled to keep up.

Wang Ji's speed and strength were now boosted 1.9-fold, putting him at the threshold of the War God Level. But with dozens of monster wolves attacking him, especially two top-tier Advanced Beast Generals, he was held back for a while. The Advanced Beast General-level Silver Wolves might not have human footwork, but their instinct for combat, agility, and ability to dodge were no worse than Wang Ji's micro-level movement technique.

"Ha!" Wang Ji roared and unleashed his peak micro-level footwork. He kept his Spiritual Force scan limited to the fifty meters around him. In an instant, inspiration struck, and everything around him came under his control! He sensed the pebbles on the ground, the angles and force of the Silver Wolf lunging nearby, the gray wolf blocking his path, even the wind and dust.