Strength Surges

This was, shockingly, yet another physical talent.

During this period, he had touched and inspected the skills of at least a thousand people, if not ten thousand.

Yet, up until now, he had only encountered two individuals possessing a physical talent.

The first was High-Efficiency Absorption and Metabolism.

And this was the second.

From this, one could see that physical talents were far more precious than even Master-level skills.

Moreover, compared to the previous High-Efficiency Absorption and Metabolism talent, this one interested Hu Long even more.

"Oxen Strength, force reaching a thousand catties?"

One had to know that the basic common sense of this world was similar to his previous life.

When it came to raw strength alone.

It could not be generalized, as there were many ways to compare it.

If one were to discuss the force of a punch.

An ordinary adult male, untrained, had a punching force of approximately 60 to 160 catties.

An ordinary adult female was weaker, usually between 40 and 100 catties.

As for those systematically trained fighters or athletes, a single punch could reach 200 to 300 catties, or even higher.

However, the limit of a top-tier boxing champion's strength, when converted, was only close to about 400 catties.

As for the terrifying strength of seven or eight hundred catties recorded in some instances, while they existed, their authenticity remained to be verified.

As for the limit record in deadlifting, it was slightly higher, reaching about a thousand catties.

However, that required the use of lifting straps, knee sleeves, and a deadlift belt.

Even if such people existed, they were extremely rare and required a massive amount of acquired training to achieve.

It was hard to produce one in decades.

But this kind of "thousand-catty strength" represented that the force displayed in any aspect reached a thousand catties.

Under normal circumstances, this was simply impossible.

Given the current physiological limits of humans, this far exceeded the load-bearing capacity of human bones, joints, and muscles, which would cause devastating damage.

Even he, as he was now, could not reach that stage.

He had tested it before; his full-force strike could only produce a force of at most six hundred-plus catties.

Even that was already terrifying.

Perhaps after stacking several perfected-level combat arts, his physique could reach this point.

But that was the most ideal state.

No one knew if there would be diminishing returns with stacking, such as the strength enhancement becoming smaller each time.

One had to know that the parts of the body that some combat arts could exercise almost always overlapped.

But this guy in front of him.

Thinking of this, his gaze shifted, and he looked at the possessor of this physical talent.

There were no traces of training whatsoever.

The boy looked like a chubby, round little fellow, only fifteen or sixteen years old, with the soft fuzz of youth still on the corners of his mouth.

He didn't look like someone with Innate Divine Strength in any way.

But the system panel's notification was unlikely to be wrong.

This talent was absolutely qualified for practicing secret martial arts.

In fact, he could just download the secret martial arts of the main family directly; there was no need to go through all this trouble.

But this talent was truly precious, and besides, he needed a reasonable excuse.

To have the main family accept him, and incidentally, to integrate into the circle of secret martial artists.

And the talent before him was undoubtedly the most suitable choice.

He had to obtain it.

These thoughts were completed in a flash.

"What are you looking at me for?"

At this moment, the little fatty frowned as he looked at Hu Long.

He was holding the latest model of a game console in his hands, the screen displaying the word "KO."

It was just that he was the one who had lost, which made his mood exceptionally poor.

As a result, the moment he looked up, he saw Hu Long standing to the side.

"Nothing, I just thought you looked a bit familiar. Let me guess, is your surname Hu?"

Hu Long chuckled, and as he spoke, he naturally reached out and draped an arm over the other's shoulder.

At the same time, a thought stirred in his mind.

He spent six strands of Source Value to top up, converting them into six trillion units of data.

"Tai Su, download Innate Divine Strength for me!!"

At a network speed of eight trillion per second, the download was completed in a mere instant.

Simultaneously.

Hu Long felt an indescribable, scorching heat rising from within his body.

"How did you know?"

The chubby boy named Hu Zetong was stunned.

"We'll talk later, my stomach hurts a bit."

Hu Long turned and walked away quickly.

"Oh, damn it, you're playing me!"

Only then, watching Hu Long's back disappear into the crowd, did the little fatty standing in place realize what had happened.

This was the Hu Clan Ancestral Hall; who here didn't have the surname Hu?

He had been playing him for a fool!

Ignoring the little fatty's reaction, Hu Long hurried to the restroom outside the ancestral hall.

The ancestral hall was the most sacred and pure place for worshipping ancestors and holding clan rituals.

Restrooms were considered filthy and unclean, and were strictly forbidden from existing within the same building as the ancestral tablets.

Therefore, they were only located outside.

After all, with so many people coming here, nature's call was inevitable.

However, Hu Long wasn't here to use the restroom.

He entered the men's room, locked himself in a stall, bolted the door, and sat down on the toilet.

He could feel that strange, scorching heat growing more intense.

Even the skin on the back of his hands began to flush red, as if he were sitting in a sauna.

At the same time, faint cracking sounds emanated from his bones.

It felt as if his skeleton were being constantly restructured.

A persistent sensation of soreness and swelling spread throughout his entire body.

Hu Long gritted his teeth.

"The commotion this time is a bit big!"

Fortunately, this feeling did not last long.

Five minutes later, the sensation of heat and soreness vanished without a trace.

Crack!

Just then, he reached out to steady himself against the wall, preparing to stand up.

However, the moment his palm touched the wooden partition of the stall, creak... came the sound of fibers snapping under unbearable pressure from the side of the board.

He pulled his hand away.

Hu Long's pupils constricted slightly.

He saw that a five-fingered handprint had appeared on the stall door.

One had to know, the wood of the restroom stall was originally quite hard; unless one kicked it with force, it was unlikely to be damaged.

Yet now, he had left a clear handprint just by pressing his hand against it lightly.

Thinking of this, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a key, and gripped one end of the metal.

With a slight exertion of force, the metal key visibly bent.

Then, with another slight nudge, he bent the key back straight.

"It's not just my strength that has increased; has my body also been strengthened to a certain degree?"

Hu Long spread his palm and slowly clenched his fingers, a surge of abundant power flowing from his fingertips throughout his entire body.

This feeling was as if everything around him had suddenly become fragile.

Of course, this was an illusion; the real reason was that his strength had increased.

Furthermore, he could clearly feel that this physical talent didn't just boost his raw strength; his grip, physical constitution, and muscle density had all seen significant improvements as well.

Upon closer reflection, however, this made perfect sense.

If the physique wasn't strong enough, even possessing divine strength would be impossible to utilize, as the body itself wouldn't be able to withstand it; overexertion would inevitably lead to severe strain and injury.

"As expected of Innate Divine Strength. This is only Ox Strength, but if I were to upgrade this talent, just how much power would I possess?"

At this thought, Hu Long looked toward the text behind the Innate Divine Strength talent, a flicker of burning intensity in his eyes.

Sure enough, just like with High-Efficiency Absorption and Metabolism, there was a dim triangular rune behind Innate Divine Strength as well.

Hu Long understood that this meant as long as he had enough Source Value, this talent could also be upgraded.

The basic Ox Strength had already granted him the power of a thousand catties.

What kind of strength would he have if he upgraded it further?

Would it be ten thousand catties, or even higher?

What if he were to download various other physical talents, stack them onto his body, and upgrade them using Source Value?

What kind of result would that yield?

Thinking of this, a scorching heat flashed in his eyes.

If he could truly achieve that, he might just turn into a little superman.