Shi Fen's Strength

Shi Fen's transformation concluded. Sitting cross-legged in the bathroom, he slowly opened his eyes.

"To boost strength this quickly, I shouldn't have to be as unlucky as I am. Even though this transformation took less than an hour, those sixty minutes nearly shook me to pieces." Shi Fen complained with more than a little reluctance.

Aside from himself being so unlucky as to endure massive amounts of agony while using treasures, Shi Fen didn't believe anyone else could be this unfortunate.

He had used treasures twice, and experienced two torturous upgrades.

Shi Fen stood up and threw a casual punch. His fist tore through the air like a cannonball, creating a sonic boom. A smile immediately appeared on his grimy face; although he didn't know his exact strength, it was definitely beyond that of a War God.

"Sigh, who cares if I became a War God directly? It's worth it, definitely worth it. I could handle a few more rounds of this." Feeling the significant gains, Shi Fen's expression shifted like a monkey changing masks—he was all smug smiles, the previous complaints completely forgotten.

If Black Mirror knew what Shi Fen was thinking, it would surely roll its eyes at him. "If it weren't for me, you would have been sucked dry by the nine spheres in your brain long ago!"

Shi Fen hurriedly took a shower and changed into clean clothes. His strength had surged so violently that, while washing, he failed to control his power and ripped the faucet handle right off...

The situation was awkward.

Shi Fen hurriedly called the apartment's "Service Staff" to have them come over for emergency repairs.

The apartment was designed with dual exits.

The entrance Shi Fen had used previously was the internal entrance, the front door of the room. Where there is a front door, there is a back door; the back door was on the other side, leading directly to the surface "Service Station" after passing through several heavily guarded metal gates.

The Service Station was responsible for everything in the apartment. The living standards were truly five-star plus. As for matters inside the apartment, Shi Fen didn't need to do a single thing; any service he required was provided on demand.

Over the past few days, Shi Fen had enjoyed quite a lot of gourmet food.

Shi Fen walked out of the training room in high spirits, closed the door behind him, and jogged straight toward the Punch Force Tester.

Standing before the machine, he clenched his right fist. Without using any technique, he poured his raw, brute strength into the blow. His fist, accompanied by a sharp sonic boom, struck the target like a cannonball.

"BOOM!" A sound capable of shattering eardrums echoed through the Forging Room. Fortunately, the walls of the room were made of special "sound-absorbing" materials; otherwise, this "explosion" would have reverberated through the underground chamber for a long, long time.

A string of numbers appeared on the display screen: "301548kg."

"Hiss." Shi Fen drew a sharp breath. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief before confirming the numbers were real.

"Becoming a High-level War God in one go—the suffering was worth it!" Shi Fen felt quite emotional about this. The pain of two transformations was not something an ordinary person could endure, but fortunately, it was all worth it.

Shi Fen rubbed his chin, remembering that Elder Qian's three bottles of medicinal wine were still with him. "Looks like I can return the wine to Master now."

Shi Fen was convinced that even without the help of the medicinal wine, he could have pushed his physical fitness to the limit of a War God.

Shi Fen had an Inner World!

He now possessed cultivation methods, a vast array of secret manuals, plus adjustable gravity and dense cosmic energy; it would be a joke if he couldn't reach the limit of a War God! With the cultivation resources he currently held, the boost from his Inner World alone was countless times better than the treatment at the Elite Training Camp!

Compared to the students at the Elite Training Camp, Shi Fen only lacked a martial arts teacher.

With gravity he could manipulate at will around the clock, paired with dense cosmic energy, even Hong would be envious.

Shi Fen swept his Spiritual Force out, and a chisel flew up from the table. Like an arrow shot from a powerful bow, it accelerated to its limit speed in an instant. With the tip facing backward and the tail forward, the tail of the chisel slammed heavily into the punch target.

Another loud bang.

"518564kg."

"My Spiritual Force is indeed at the limit of a War God, and even slightly higher." Shi Fen wasn't surprised by this number. His sea of consciousness had undergone several changes, becoming a dazzling golden ocean, and he possessed nine strange golden crystal spheres; it would be abnormal if he couldn't break through the ordinary limits.

"Let's see how many I can control at peak power."

The chisels and cutting tools on the surrounding tables floated up one by one, each accelerating to its limit. Under Shi Fen's control, these tools wove around him, emitting piercing sonic booms.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh."

The Forging Room plaza sounded as if airplanes were flying back and forth.

Every flying tool was imbued with the strongest attack power currently possible through Shi Fen's Spiritual Force. Swish! Swish! Swish! Their flight speeds all exceeded ten times the speed of sound.

One, two, three... fifteen, sixteen... twenty, twenty-one... up to twenty-four.

That's right, twenty-four!

"It seems my mutated golden sea of consciousness is either quite capable, or my brain domain width is not low at all." Shi Fen controlled the tools, weaving them at their limits around his body. Even he hadn't expected his current Spiritual Force amplitude to be this high.

"In front of Hong, my status as a genius spiritual master is absolutely secure." Relying on this talent, he could forge recklessly and do whatever he wanted.

Shi Fen practiced Spiritual Force control often in his spare time. While he wouldn't call himself a master, his control was by no means poor. Even with his strength surging, his control over the twenty-four tools remained extremely precise.

After his strength skyrocketed, the thing Shi Fen cared about most wasn't just how strong he was.

What Shi Fen valued and prioritized most was his conscious calculation ability!

Shi Fen returned all the tools to their places and began practicing the soft movements of Taiji Fist in the open space of the plaza, training his body control to integrate his surging power and prevent any more awkward incidents.

While it looked like Shi Fen was just practicing boxing, in reality, the vast majority of his consciousness had already excitedly entered the Image Space, attempting to comprehend the Basic Secret Patterns.

"Hahaha, my conscious calculation ability has indeed surged again!"

After consuming the Dragon Blood, during the time he spent practicing boxing to control his power, analyzing the Basic Secret Patterns had become extremely easy. He could now analyze nearly twenty 3D Basic Secret Patterns combined from three 2D patterns in a single day. He had found that feeling of "speed-running through problems" again.

With the Dragon Blood, his conscious calculation ability could now support the analysis of 3D Basic Secret Patterns combined from seven 2D patterns.

The current Shi Fen.

Analyzing 3D Basic Secret Patterns combined from nine 2D patterns was no longer a difficult task! He could even calculate them clearly using only his imagination, without the help of models. Now, analyzing 3D Basic Secret Patterns combined from three 2D patterns was like child's play; he could finish fifty or sixty types in a day.

At this rate, the analysis of all 10,081 Basic Secret Patterns will definitely be completed within a year.

That leaves two years to study the Secret Pattern Diagrams.

The accidental exposure of his forging prowess, revealing him to the upper echelons of humanity ahead of schedule, had turned out to be incredibly beneficial.

Not only had Shi Fen met Elder Qian, but his strength had also soared to the heavens in a single bound. Although Shi Fen was a "black-market War God" with no records to prove his existence, he didn't care!

The leap in his conscious computational ability was exactly what Shi Fen wanted most! With its assistance, the Foundation Trial would be a piece of cake. With the strength of a War God and the inheritance of Yi, Shi Fen cared nothing for power on Earth.

August 10, 2056.

On this day, Shi Fen became a War God powerhouse!

Aside from Shi Fen, Hong, and Elder Qian, almost no one knew of Shi Fen's strength. Hong and Elder Qian had both tacitly chosen to remain silent.

Everyone has their own selfish motives.

Hong's thinking was simple: keep it hidden for as long as possible.

Hong did not expect Shi Fen to go out and fight, kill countless lord-level monsters, earn heroic merits, or gain the status of a publicly recognized invincible War God. It wasn't that Hong wouldn't grant these things; it was that Shi Fen didn't want them.

After Hong gave Shi Fen the treasures, he had communicated with him the next day and learned of his intentions.

Shi Fen's thoughts were very simple.

Shi Fen did not want to spend too much effort improving his combat strength for the time being; he was single-mindedly focused on learning forging from Elder Qian. Shi Fen wanted to use the resources of the Extreme Martial Arts Hall to quickly experiment with the various forging ideas he had pondered in the past using a vast amount of resources in reality. By combining Elder Qian's experience, the two of them would research top-tier weapon manufacturing together.

As for his martial artist rank, Shi Fen did not want his big brother Hong to use special privileges to register him directly as a powerful martial artist. He wanted to keep a low profile and wait until he and Elder Qian achieved results in their forging before deciding what to do.

Shi Fen was also afraid of startling Luo Feng. It was better to keep a low profile for now.

Shi Fen felt that maintaining his status as a special talent of the Extreme Martial Arts Hall was just fine.

Hong was, of course, happy with this. Shi Fen focusing on forging was Hong's most urgent wish. Hong's selfish desire was simple: as the world's number one powerhouse, it wasn't too much to ask to be the first to equip a full set of top-tier SSS-grade gear, right? As for his second brother, Thor, he could just wait.

Thus, Hong quietly covered up Shi Fen's information. Since Shi Fen was a special recruit of Elder Qian, no one dared to provoke the elder, so Hong just went with the flow without needing to do much.

Elder Qian's thoughts were much the same as Hong's. Knowing that Shi Fen was willing to devote himself entirely to researching forging with him, Elder Qian had been overjoyed these past few days.

Elder Qian had been rushing around handling affairs and arranging everything to clear his schedule for the foreseeable future so he could research forging with Shi Fen at full capacity. Hearing the few creative ideas Shi Fen "casually mentioned," along with the design draft Shi Fen provided, had left Elder Qian so excited he couldn't sleep at night.

To Elder Qian, Shi Fen's creativity was a massive shock!

If it weren't for the fact that Shi Fen was still improving his strength, Elder Qian would have wanted to drag him off to research right then and there.

Shi Fen practiced his punches for another three days, during which he practiced the Five Hearts Towards Heaven daily to continue improving his physical fitness. The residual medicinal power in his body was still exerting its potent effects, subtly and gradually enhancing his physique.

Feeling that his control over his strength was nearly perfected, Shi Fen immediately set his sights on the forging hammers in the plaza, especially the one with a diameter of one meter that he had been eyeing for a long time.

Shi Fen was not so reckless as to start playing with the largest hammer right away. He began with a "small hammer," swinging it against the air as if he were forging the atmosphere itself. Shi Fen was a forger; was there any way more suitable for him to hone his strength than swinging a hammer?

Clearly, there was not.

Ever since he began swinging the forging hammer, the progress of Shi Fen's mastery and integration of his strength had been extremely rapid.

Soon, it wouldn't be long before he could use high-grade materials to conduct forging experiments to his heart's content! While comprehending the Basic Secret Patterns was important, having powerful forging capabilities without the opportunity or conditions to apply them was a frustrating and conflicting feeling.

Now, the opportunity had arrived!