Cultivating Both Inside and Out

Late at night, the quiet New York Police Department was jolted awake by an emergency call. A large number of officers drove toward the bank where the incident had occurred.

Because the bank was not far from the police station, it took only around ten minutes from receiving the call to arriving at the scene.

Chief George, dressed in uniform, arrived shortly afterward. Looking at the officers cordoning off the area, he asked, "How's the situation inside?"

"Reporting, Chief: the group that set off the explosives has been fully apprehended, but the situation at the scene is rather strange." One officer wore an odd expression.

Hearing that the criminal group had been caught, George's expression relaxed slightly. He then asked, "Give me the details."

"According to the criminals' statements, while they were looting the bank vault, another person suddenly appeared. Not only did he take all the cash and securities they had stolen, but he also shot through the bombers' ankles before driving away," an officer beside him reported.

"You're saying that although the group responsible for the explosion was caught, the money in the bank vault was still taken by another super criminal?" George's expression darkened.

Thinking of the newspapers that would soon be filled with reports of police incompetence gave him a headache. Asking ordinary officers to deal with super criminals was indeed too much.

Meanwhile, Bai Ye, whose body had recovered thanks to his improved constitution, sped all the way home, taking a little over half an hour.

After a night of activity, it was already one in the morning, but the night's gains had been considerable.

Financially, he had acquired stolen goods worth over a million in total. In terms of strength, he had figured out the characteristics of unused attributes.

If not for what happened today, he might have kept saving them until some far-off day before taking out 0.1 attribute points to experiment with, wasting a great deal of time for nothing.

After running more than twenty kilometers nonstop, even Bai Ye was somewhat exhausted. He casually took off his soaked clothes, caught his breath, then sat cross-legged on the floor and began increasing the Purple Mist True Qi within his Dantian.

In less than ten minutes, Bai Ye condensed a strand of Purple Mist True Qi. Compared to when his constitution had only been 1.2, his efficiency was more than 200% faster. Constitution was clearly linked to talent.

Moreover, this kind of talent had not even been mentioned in the Gentleman Sword's annotations on the Purple Mist Divine Skill, because his aptitude and cultivation speed had already surpassed those of every previous practitioner of the Purple Mist Divine Skill.

After cultivating briefly and confirming that improved talent was the reason, Bai Ye left his meditative state and began working out instead. Tonight, he planned to push both his strength and spirit past their thresholds.

In the pitch-black darkness, Bai Ye wore a blank expression as he carried tables and chairs while soaking in diluted Sulfuric Acid, performing weighted exercises.

What had happened with the robbery gang and Daredevil today had truly shaken him. It seemed that his long, peaceful life had made him forget that this was the Marvel World, where danger lurked everywhere.

In Marvel, being an ordinary person might get you bullied by super criminals, while being a bad person might get you targeted by Super Heroes as numerous as weeds.

Here, only strength could bring peace to his heart. Only by becoming so strong that good people feared him turning bad and bad people feared him turning good could he attain tranquility.

When your strength reached a level where no one could rival you, you would look around and find nothing but smiling faces eager to please you.

And so, amid silent training, the entire night slipped quietly away.

When the next day's sunlight streamed through the window into the room, Bai Ye's panel attributes had quietly changed.

Name: Bai Ye

Lifespan: 18/150

Strength: 1.5+0.2

Constitution: 1.4+

Spirit: 1.5+

Charm: 1.4+

Unused Attribute Points: 0.3

Description: You completed a total of 1,642 weighted push-ups. Spirit +0.1

You completed a total of 1,643 weighted squats. Strength +0.1

You equipped 0.2 Attribute Points to Strength. Your actual Strength is 1.5, with an additional equipped Strength value of 0.2, for an effective Strength of 1.7

...

Bai Ye silently rose to his feet and gently clenched his fist. With a base strength of 1.5 and 0.2 unused Attribute Points, his strength had once again surpassed his constitution by far too much.

It was fine in everyday life, but in battle, his body would still collapse from excessive force just as it had when he fought Daredevil.

It was not just constitution. If his spirit was lower than his strength, he might not be able to control his body perfectly in battle, or his body might move faster than his reactions. Only balanced development of all three was the optimal strategy.

Should I add points to constitution? Bai Ye hesitated. Unused Attribute Points were simply too valuable, and adding them rashly might result in waste.

After hesitating again and again, Bai Ye temporarily gave up on the idea of allocating points. He took food from the refrigerator and began chewing.

Ten minutes later, after finishing breakfast, Bai Ye poured a little Sulfuric Acid from a glass bottle into a glass filled with water, stirring constantly as he poured.

Once he felt it was about right, Bai Ye picked up the diluted Sulfuric Acid in front of him and poured it into his mouth without hesitation.

As the diluted Sulfuric Acid entered his mouth, a faint sour taste filled his oral cavity, and the warm liquid slid from his mouth into his stomach.

After drinking it, Bai Ye smacked his lips and savored the aftertaste. There was a faint sweetness to it, along with a slightly greasy sensation.

Yes, in Bai Ye's understanding, swallowing Sulfuric Acid raw also counted as cultivating both inside and out.

After draining the diluted Sulfuric Acid in one gulp, he got up and prepared to head toward school.

Originally, he had planned to skip school yesterday. But since he had robbed the bank robbers last night and then beaten up Daredevil, he had to show his face quickly and make himself look more innocent.

Nothing happened on the way. Unlike before, Bai Ye, feeling guilty, did not dare run at full speed again.

With his current strength attribute of 1.7, if he ran, passersby would definitely mistake him for a mutant. So he had deliberately gotten up early and restrained his speed as he slowly walked toward school.

Yet compared to before, once he slowed down today, all sorts of things started coming his way instead.

"Hello, may I ask what you need?" Bai Ye asked the woman before him with a smile, while inwardly remaining alert and suspecting that something was fishy.

Otherwise, why had she never approached him before, only to block his path right after he committed a crime?

The girl before him looked up at Bai Ye's face. Two blushes immediately appeared on her cheeks as she said in an almost whispering voice, "My name is Aili. I... I want to be friends with you."

Bai Ye: ...Huh?

Bai Ye looked speechlessly at the woman in front of him. He had thought there was some kind of trap, but she was merely lusting after his body.

Sizing up the girl before him, whose charm he estimated at only 1.1, Bai Ye felt no love at first sight and politely refused, "Sorry, I have a girlfriend. She doesn't want me having too much contact with other women."

After sending away the disappointed-looking girl, Bai Ye realized that he really might be a little too handsome now. On the way to school, he had already been stopped five or six times, and the people stopping him... included both men and women.