Human Limits

By evening, the scabs on Bai Yi's wounds had all fallen away, and the soreness in his muscles had vanished without a trace.

[Strength: 4][Spirit: 9.1][Constitution: 4]

These were Bai Yi's current attributes. Then he activated his talent.

"Activate!"

[Steel Spine Will activated. Sanity -95. Current Sanity: 5/100. Received a 2.75x enhancement.]

[Warning! Your Sanity is below 10. You have fallen into permanent madness. You have fallen into cognitive distortion.]

[Immune.]

The familiar agony returned. Bai Yi realized he was already getting used to it, and opened his status panel.

[Strength: 10/4][Spirit: 9.1][Constitution: 10/4]

"A 2.75x enhancement means my Strength and Constitution should have risen to 11. But they're only at 10. Is it because I've reached the limits of humanity?"

Bai Yi analyzed it, though he found the sensation hard to describe.

It was as though the world had become clearer. The minute patterns on a tree eight meters away were perfectly visible to Bai Yi.

His ears also caught every faint sound around him: the creak of wind against the door, the soft scrape of fallen leaves against the ground, and the rustle of gently swaying branches.

His sense of smell had improved as well. He could smell the faint moldiness of rotting leaves on the ground, the blood beside the shelter, and the mix of sweat and blood on his own body.

"So different animals' blood really does smell completely different."

What Bai Yi felt most clearly was the change in his brain. His vision, taste, hearing, and smell—his brain constantly gathered all that chaotic information, rapidly analyzed and organized it, then passed along what was useful.

Bai Yi took a deep breath and shifted his attention to his body. He felt strength surging through him. Walking over to a tree, he prepared to test his jumping ability.

Without any preparation, he simply crouched and jumped. Bai Yi easily reached a branch nearly four meters off the ground.

Hanging from it, Bai Yi released his left hand. Then he let go with the thumb, index finger, middle finger, and ring finger of his right hand. Finally, he supported his entire body with just his pinky.

After doing ten pull-ups with two fingers, he pulled hard with one hand and hauled himself onto the branch, both feet landing firmly atop it.

One foot. Jumping. Exceptional balance.

He leaped down from the branch without cushioning the impact, merely bending his legs slightly.

Bai Yi stood up and checked his knees. There was nothing unusual at all. A drop of nearly four meters had caused them no damage whatsoever.

Next came speed. Bai Yi marked out two points roughly two hundred meters apart. Based on his heartbeat, he estimated the time at eighteen seconds. That included the time it took to slow down, turn around, and accelerate again.

Too fast!

A large part of that was due to Bai Yi's incredible control over his body. He could reach his top speed within two seconds of starting, leaving him with an extremely short acceleration period.

Then came strength. Bai Yi went back inside and took out the wolf king's head. He had originally planned to hang it over the door to ward off evil, but it would work just as well for testing.

After fixing the wolf head in place, Bai Yi threw a fierce punch. A crisp sound came from the wolf king's skull.

"Crack!"

Hearing it, Bai Yi abruptly stopped his second punch. He did not have much test material. If he broke the other ones, he would not be able to test them.

Steadying himself again, Bai Yi drove an elbow into it. The wolf king's skull shattered on impact, his elbow plunging directly into its head as brain matter splattered everywhere.

Bai Yi withdrew his elbow in satisfaction, then happily brought out the other two wolf heads as well.

Spinning elbow! High kick! Flying knee!

[Steel Spine Will effect ended. Sanity restored to 100/100.]

The talent effect ended and entered cooldown. Looking at the three utterly ruined heads, which no longer resembled wolves at all, Bai Yi took photos with his journal as a memento before leaving in satisfaction.

Back to the present.

Bai Yi was excited. After that, he had looked through the forum and found no one mentioning that attributes could no longer increase after reaching 10. Apparently, no one had reached that threshold yet.

"If I get Spirit Rice, I can break through the shackles of 10..."

His excitement quickly faded, and reason regained the upper hand.

"Where there is Spirit Rice, there must be other things that can help me break past my limits. The reason I don't have them now may be that I haven't met the conditions. It looks like I'll need to keep an eye on the trading market from now on."

With that thought, Bai Yi sat back down. Wang Ziyi was extremely important. She absolutely could not die.

But the problem now was that he had no way to protect her. If she died while gathering materials, the closest path Bai Yi had to becoming stronger would be gone, and he would have to search all over again.

With that in mind, Bai Yi opened his journal...

Meanwhile, inside an exquisite villa, Wang Ziyi hugged her journal and curled up beneath a cotton quilt.

She was enthusiastically chatting in a group.

"Wang Ziyi: I met a big shot!!!"

"Xie Xu: Another big shot? How many big shots have you met today already?"

"Wang Ziyi: Hmph, none of your business!"

"Xie Xu: None of your business~"

"Wang Ziyi: I'm not in the mood to argue with you right now. Uncle Zhang? Uncle Zhang? Are you there? Come out!"

"Wang Ziyi: Uncle Zhang, should we try inviting him? He fought eleven wolves alone, killed nine, and two escaped. Isn't that kind of fighting power exactly what we're missing?"

"Zhang Zhen: Little Wang, I'm working out. Don't get too excited yet. How do you know he's telling the truth? Does he have screenshots?"

Right. Wang Ziyi's delighted expression froze.

"Wang Ziyi: No, but... he probably wouldn't lie to me, right..."

"Li Zihua: Sister Wang, even if there were screenshots, would you invite him without asking anything? Would he agree?"

"Xie Xu: Exactly. Even if he really is that powerful, can you be sure of his character? You have to remember, the next phase is..."

"Zhang Zhen: All right, all right, say less. Little Wang means well. Our team doesn't lack logistics, but we do lack a fighter. Everyone's been troubled by that, and Little Wang has spent the whole day browsing the forum because of it."

"Wang Ziyi: Everyone has helped me so much, upgrading my shelter and providing seeds. I don't want to just accept favors for nothing. I want to contribute too."

Seeing everyone refute her, she burrowed deeper under the quilt.

"Xie Xu: Why'd you go quiet? Don't tell me you're hiding under the covers crying again?"

"Wang Ziyi: If you don't talk, nobody will think you're mute!"

"Xie Xu: Enough joking. Let's talk business. We all know each other's talents. They may not be one in a hundred million, but they're at least one in ten million. The only problem is that they're all utility-type talents.

Adding a fighter is indeed important, but this is mutually beneficial. To him, we're also extremely valuable. So there's no need to rush to suck up to someone else. That would only cheapen ourselves."

"Zhang Zhen: Exactly!"

"Wei Fen: That's right, Little Wang. We all see how carefully you tend the plants. No one will blame you."

"Wang Ziyi: Hmph, even a dog's mouth can spit out ivory."

Looking at everyone's messages in the group, Wang Ziyi managed a faint smile.

Thankfully, she had met them. Otherwise, she might have starved to death in that Thatch Hut long ago!

Just then, her journal vibrated. Wang Ziyi opened it and saw a message from the "big shot."

"Bai Yi: Your talent is very important, and I need special plants as well. We can deepen our cooperation."

"Wang Ziyi: No problem! Oh, right, big shot, do you have pictures of wolves? Wolves! I've never seen one before..."

Bai Yi shook his head with a laugh. Never seen one? More like she did not believe him and was testing him.

He raised his journal and took a photo of the dazzling array of jerky, then sent it over. After thinking for a moment, he sent photos of the three wolf heads as well.

"Bai Yi: (Jerky)"

"Bai Yi: (Wolf heads)"

"Bai Yi: I was injured, so I only brought back three wolves. I butchered them all. Once the meat dries, I'll send you a piece to try."

When Wang Ziyi saw the mountain of jerky, her mind buzzed. She had already suspected it, but after seeing proof, she still grew excited. If he joins us...

"Huh? Wait, is this... a wolf head?"

Wang Ziyi stared at the second image from every angle, but no matter how hard she looked, she could not see anything wolf-like about it.

"Wang Ziyi: Big shot, may I ask if the second picture is a wolf head?"

"Bai Yi: Ah, yes. I hit it while training."

While training? Hit it?

Wang Ziyi froze beneath her quilt. So brutal? He even beat up corpses?

"Looks like that dog Xie was right. Confirm his character first. Don't rush, don't rush. Watch a little longer..."

Muttering to herself, Wang Ziyi forwarded the images and messages to the group.

The group chat fell silent.

After a long while, a message popped up.

"Zhang Zhen: Ahem, Little Wang, get to know him better. It would be best if you could get him to join us."

"Wang Ziyi: Huh? Uncle Zhang, what if he doesn't want to?"

"Xie Xu: What's his name?"

"Wang Ziyi: Lone Wolf."

"Xie Xu: You can trade that information for it. I have no objections."

Seeing that message, Wang Ziyi's body trembled. She knew her companions had been tempted.