Speculation on Power Levels

Choosing the manuals and equipment did not take much time.

After looking over the prices on Extreme Home, Ren Ze shook his head. Five hundred million might have seemed like a lot, but in the end, it was only enough for him to buy the first four levels of the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade. He chose a Series 6 Blood Shadow Battle Blade and combat suit as his weapons and armor, and with a shield, backpack, combat watch, and so on, his initial funds were nearly all spent.

Manuals valued quality over quantity, not quantity over quality. Ren Ze naturally set his sights on the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade, the most powerful force-exertion technique on Earth. It did not matter that the remaining balance was a bit wasted.

"Hmm, finished choosing?"

Zhuge Tao took the tablet, glanced over it, and confirmed that everything Ren Ze had selected fell within the scope stipulated by the contract. He did not comment much on Ren Ze choosing the most difficult and famous Nine-Layered Thunder Blade. In his view, it was a good thing for talented young people to have ambition. He directly handed the tablet to a staff member beside him. "Go fetch these items."

A short while later, staff members returned carrying two large cases.

"These are the manuals and equipment you requested."

Zhuge Tao paused, then said seriously, "The manuals are for your own cultivation only and must not be passed on. Otherwise, you will face a joint pursuit from major powers across the world. Even experts beyond the War God level may take action. Secretly learning or spreading manuals is an absolute taboo! Remember that!"

Ren Ze naturally knew this. He nodded. "I understand. I will never pass them on!"

"Very good. Welcome to the Limit Dojo family. I look forward to seeing you enter the Elite Training Camp soon!"

Zhuge Tao smiled and shook Ren Ze's hand. After offering him a few words of encouragement, he left with some of the staff.

Next, Ren Ze declined the Limit Dojo's arrangement to place him in a warrior squad. He explained that joining a squad now would make his schedule difficult to arrange. He would first try cultivating the manuals, and even if he wanted to go to the Wilderness Zone, he would at most start by adapting in the areas around the base city.

Given Ren Ze's movement technique, the dojo agreed to his request.

That afternoon, he began moving into the villa assigned to him by the Limit Dojo.

Ren Ze naturally chose Bright Moon Residential Quarter, Villa 200.

Even with the butterfly effect, it would not matter much if Luo Feng's family did not live in Villa 199 later on. They would still be in the same residential quarter.

That night, Ren Ze moved into the villa. He had no mind to carefully inspect his luxurious new home and immediately began cultivating.

He first studied the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade manual.

A full two days passed.

"Brilliant, so that's how it is..."

After two days, Ren Ze had confirmed one thing: the issue of so-called force-exertion levels...

The next stage of cultivation was to strengthen his control over and familiarity with his body, then combine that with certain force-exertion techniques from martial arts to raise his force-exertion level.

Comparing the martial arts techniques he had already mastered with the first two levels of the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade he had just comprehended, Ren Ze recalled that in the Swallowed Star World, achieving a hundredfold force exertion was a necessary condition for becoming immortal.

Ren Ze came up with a bold hypothesis—

A person who had undergone no training at all might possess one hundred units of strength in their body, yet only be able to exert one unit. A warrior, on the other hand, could precisely control their entire body and exert force. But from Ren Ze's current perspective, was that truly precise? Could one control every single cell?

That was why people could often unleash strength beyond their limits in moments of crisis, like the women in news reports who overturned cars with their bare hands to save their children.

The so-called force-exertion level, all the way up to immortality, was a process of completely controlling oneself. A hundredfold force exertion, put simply, meant one hundred percent control over the energy that one's cells—even every particle—could unleash.

Ren Ze quickly became familiar with the force-exertion methods of the first two levels of the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade. With his foundation in the various hidden-force techniques of martial arts, he felt the later portions would not be too difficult for him.

There were also two things that Ren Ze did not know whether to be pleased or disappointed about...

The Guidance Technique and movement technique included with the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade were actually inferior to the Yijin Jing and Lingbo Micro-steps...

The function of a Guidance Technique was to raise the upper limit of energy that cells could contain. It turned out that his year of tempering through the Yijin Jing was what had made his cells so ravenous.

That was why Ren Ze's body had gained around 2,300 kg of strength the first time he cultivated Genetic Origin Energy. That was the core reason behind his genius-level performance this time.

The gap was especially obvious after comparing the effect of the included Guidance Technique with the Yijin Jing.

As for movement techniques, by the standards of the Swallowed Star World, Ren Ze's Lingbo Micro-steps should not have been far from a perfect-level movement technique. As long as he put in a little more effort and fought amid beast hordes, reaching the perfect level should not be difficult.

From then on, Ren Ze naturally clarified his goals.

The entire Swallowed Star Universe was certainly vast and magnificent, but over the next few years on Earth, he would steadily cultivate, improving his cellular strength and control. He would strive to complete his wager agreement with the dojo as soon as possible, raise his force-exertion level, and thoroughly master the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade. After all, he greatly agreed with Thunder God's philosophy of blade techniques—among all martial arts under heaven, nothing was unbreakable; only speed was unbreakable!

That way, even if he could not keep up with Luo Feng in the future, he would at least leave himself no regrets.

The Wilderness Zone was the collective term for the continental regions outside human base cities. Every area beyond the base cities belonged to the Wilderness Zone.

To ordinary people, the Wilderness Zone was a forbidden land of death.

Several hundred li north of Jiangnan Base City stood a large military camp.

"Rumble—"

The train slowly came to a stop at the military station.

Fully armed warriors stepped down from the train one after another, some in groups, others alone.

When warriors hunted monsters in the Wilderness Zone, they would enter military camps to rest or resupply along the way.

The camp had specially designated areas that served as supply bases for warriors.

After entering the camp and registering his identity information, Ren Ze did not go to the house assigned to him. He headed straight for the Wilderness Zone.

The coming period would be Ren Ze's golden opportunity to test his theories and increase his strength, so that he would not be left too far behind by Luo Feng in the future.

Yes, this was also the perfect time to thoroughly study force-exertion levels and refine his movement technique.

"County 0211."

Ren Ze raised his right wrist. The map displayed on his communications watch showed that County 0211 was not far away.

While he paused to check his watch, two hyena monsters had already quietly lurked nearby. They suddenly pounced from between the wrecked vehicles.

The blade flashed like light, tracing an eerie arc as it severed the throats of both hyena monsters in a single strike.

With Ren Ze's strength, as long as he avoided the major cities, there would basically be no great danger. However, even though he had roamed the martial world for a year, monsters and humanoid monsters were two entirely different concepts. It was better to play it safe and first familiarize himself with basic combat against monsters in the small counties surrounding the base city.

Moreover, the most important thing now was to do his addition and subtraction properly and gain complete control over his rapidly increased strength!

This addition and subtraction involved many aspects. For example, removing flashy flourishes from his footwork to make his dodges more precise and effective; or adding force-generation techniques from his legs into his footwork to unleash speed more efficiently.

Refining his footwork would allow him to enter the Perfect-level Movement Technique more quickly.

Since entering the Wilderness Zone, Ren Ze had already killed dozens of low-level beast soldier-class monsters. Since he had chosen a shortcut, this area posed no threat to him at all, and he simply slaughtered his way through.

Just after entering the county, he encountered a pack of several hundred Lion Mastiff Dogs. The one leading them was clearly a low-level beast general-class Lion Mastiff Dog.

A large number of Lion Mastiff Dogs filled the streets and the gaps between the buildings on both sides. Every one of them was enormous, and the concrete ground trembled faintly beneath their trampling charge.

The beast pack was far from stupid. Lion Mastiff Dogs emerged from every direction, clearly cutting off Ren Ze's retreat. Facing this pack of hundreds, Ren Ze was not panicked in the slightest. He was even a little happy.

"This is the world martial artists yearn for!"

Roar! Roar!

Several Lion Mastiff Dogs pounced first, immediately spurring dozens more around them into action.

The war blade left its sheath!

The Blood Shadow War Blade in Ren Ze's hand rampaged freely through the beast pack.

Ten seconds passed. The beast pack went from its initial eruption, to its fearless frenzy in the middle, and finally, after the low-level beast general-class leader was killed, the Lion Mastiff Dogs scattered far away, forming an irregular circle centered around Ren Ze.

"Awoo!"

A howl rang out from the distance, and the beast pack began to disperse.

"Ah, I never expected that these worthless low-grade flesh materials were once the source of income for the entire family, and even led to my parents encountering a small beast tide..."

After collecting the valuable materials from the Lion Mastiff Dog leader, Ren Ze looked at the beast soldier-class monster corpses strewn before him and felt somewhat emotional. With his current strength, he was more focused on tempering himself, so naturally he could not be bothered collecting these low-value spoils.

"Bang!"

Ren Ze found an abandoned residence, pushed open its rusty door, ignored the dusty, filthy room, and plopped down.

"Feels great. Compared to the peaceful stability of my previous life, this is the life I truly wanted! Even the bloody struggles of the martial world in the Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils World couldn't compare to the thrill of this!"

"Killing monsters is also effective for charging the Star Map! That way, whether I encounter a bottleneck in the future or face danger beyond my control, I'll have more options!"

After ending a day of slaughter and completing his training, Ren Ze lay down on the sofa.

Simple warning measures had long been set up around the residence. With Ren Ze's current vigilance as a martial artist, it was basically impossible for any monster to ambush him.

Before dawn broke the next day, Ren Ze could no longer restrain himself. Without waiting for the sunrise, he began a new day.

Abandoned cars, scattered concrete barricades... after several decades, they had become covered in dust and dirt, overgrown with moss, and gradually turned into part of nature.

In the distance stood a dilapidated large supermarket. The first floor and the plaza outside were filled with huge numbers of boar-type monsters, most of them resting.

At a glance, there were three or four hundred in the plaza alone. The first floor of the supermarket had at least two or three hundred more lurking within it, and he could even see a clearly larger low-level beast general-class monster.

For such a large monster pack to be in the county, especially when the low-level beast general was lying near the edge, the leader of this pack was definitely a mid-level beast general-class monster.

Ren Ze's eyes lit up, but after a moment, he forcefully suppressed his desire to rush over and fight. Though he was confident that with the Lingbo Micro-steps, the chance of being trapped in an encirclement was low, thinking of the gap in raw strength between himself and a mid-level War General, he chose not to take the risk and slowly withdrew in another direction.

Within County 0211, Ren Ze began his path of tempering.

He did not pursue maximum slaughter or faster profits.

Instead, he integrated his understanding of fist and palm techniques into his blade techniques, seeking to make every slash faster, more accurate, more ruthless, and more powerful.

Or he would let himself fall into a beast pack, dancing with his footwork and weaving among the monsters.

Only when the supplies in his backpack were nearly exhausted, or when valuable materials had filled it, would Ren Ze make a trip back to the military district camp.