The next morning.
"Hungry~~~"
Lin Fan woke from his dream. He wriggled around in bed several times before slowly opening his eyes.
He stared at the ceiling, his mind still foggy.
After a long while, his awareness returned.
"I'm still not quite used to this..."
Lin Fan scratched his head.
"True Self."
In an instant, his consciousness sank into the ancient Bronze Hall in his sea of consciousness.
At the center of the hall, the identical figure of light stopped moving.
It slowly lowered its legs, stood upright, and hovered in the center of the hall, waiting for Lin Fan's command.
Looking at the figure of light that looked exactly like him, Lin Fan gave a thought.
"Fuse."
Bzz—
There were no earthshaking lights or special effects, only a vast yet orderly "sensation" surging through him like a high-voltage current, rushing straight from his brainstem into his central nervous system.
It wasn't some dry text, nor was it obscure theory.
It was genuine muscle memory, as though he had experienced it himself.
It showed him which angles let his muscles exert force with less effort, and which part of his foot should touch the ground first to keep him steady.
It showed him the precise point at which twisting his waist and hips would unleash the cleanest, most complete burst of force.
It even showed him how to coordinate his breathing with the barely perceptible shift in his center of gravity before swinging a blade.
The feeling was incredible.
Acting on instinct, Lin Fan raised his hand and arm, lowered his shoulder, turned his hips, and flicked his wrist in a chopping motion.
It was a simple movement, but he felt as though his whole body had finally fallen into place.
Before, when he swung a blade, his arm dragged his body along with it. He relied on isolated muscles, making the movement clumsy and sluggish.
Now, he no longer had to rely on brute force to swing it.
He could clearly feel the force welling up from the soles of his feet, passing through his knees, amplified by his waist and hips, traveling along his spine to his shoulder, and finally reaching his wrist.
His entire body was like a taut bow, all its strength gathered into a single line, coiled into one breath.
Smooth. Seamless.
Lin Fan grinned.
"Waking up after a night's sleep with my technique greatly improved feels amazing."
The problems with his basic combat techniques were temporarily solved. At least when it came to applying force, he had already surpassed most of his peers, who were still mindlessly drilling forms.
"But knowing how to fight isn't enough."
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Lin Fan began reviewing the previous day's experiences in the Wilderness Zone. His brows furrowed slightly.
He'd been lucky yesterday. He had run into a thickheaded wild boar, a low-level Shadow Cat, and a few idiots who had practically delivered their gear to him.
But he still knew far too little about the Wilderness Zone.
Where were the high-activity areas for monsters? Which plants were poisonous? Which seemingly abandoned buildings were actually death traps? What were the habits and weaknesses of high-level monsters?
He didn't even know how to quickly determine the grade and value of metals, and could only rely on clumsy trial and error.
With his current level of strength, information and knowledge were often more important than how powerful he was.
"There's a lot I need to catch up on: experience, perspective, and all those miscellaneous survival skills."
He needed a more systematic education and a vast amount of information to fill the gaps in his knowledge.
But training courses? Private tutors? Expensive insider materials?
Lin Fan glanced at the negative balance on his phone and shook his head.
In this world, the best teacher for the poor wasn't a school or an expensive martial arts hall.
It was free books.
The Yi'an District Library, or the largest bookstore in the district.
There was free air conditioning, free water, and, best of all, the knowledge he desperately needed, all without spending a cent.
"Bookstore it is."
With his destination decided, Lin Fan got out of bed, washed up, changed into clean clothes, and headed out.
The largest bookstore in Yi'an District.
Though it was the internet age and information was readily available, physical books still had a market—especially among ordinary people who didn't have permission to access the Martial Artist Alliance's advanced internal materials.
It was a vast ship carrying knowledge, and the only window through which those at the bottom could glimpse the world above.
The bookstore was also very accommodating to ordinary people. As long as a book didn't cover secret methods related to core martial arts training, most basic theoretical books could be read for free in the store.
So Lin Fan didn't hesitate. As soon as he walked in, he headed straight for the biomedical section.
His fingers skimmed rapidly along the spines until they stopped at a thick, hardcover book.
He pulled a five-hundred-page volume of Monster Anatomy Guide: Revised Edition from the shelf, then took Human Muscle Structure and Force Principles from the shelf beside it.
The two books together were priced at over six thousand yuan, an astronomical sum that Lin Fan couldn't possibly afford.
Fortunately, he could read them for free.
He found a well-lit corner, leaned against the wall, and opened the weighty Monster Anatomy Guide.
Flip, flip, flip—
He turned the pages at an astonishing speed, almost one per second. The sound of his fingertips brushing the paper stood out in the quiet reading area.
Several people nearby cast him strange looks. Some frowned, while others shook their heads, assuming that the student in cheap clothes was taking out his pre-exam anxiety—or simply putting on an act.
But only Lin Fan knew that his brain was working at a terrifying speed.
Now that he had awakened Spiritual Force, his brain had been developed in every way. His ability to process information had become more than ten times faster.
"Porcine monsters—the cartilage behind the ears has about one-tenth the defensive strength of the scales on the body. Angle the blade upward fifteen degrees when thrusting."
"Felines—the explosive point in the rear leg tendons. Severing it will rob them of seventy percent of their speed."
"Canines—the throat cartilage is fragile, and there's a gap beneath the third rib that leads straight to the heart..."
A few minutes later, he closed the book.
The five hundred pages had left only a general impression in his mind, but the True Self in his sea of consciousness had recorded, sorted, and organized every fragment in an instant, like a supercomputer.
"So this is another hidden use of the True Self?"
Lin Fan reached up and rubbed his slightly throbbing temples.
"That sure saves a lot of effort."
After taking a moment to catch his breath, he picked up Human Muscle Structure and Force Principles.
"True Self."
He repeated the words silently.
In his sea of consciousness, the little figure of light stopped what it was doing and hovered quietly in midair, waiting for instructions.
"Use the principles in this book to extrapolate the contents of Monster Anatomy Guide."
At his command, the figure of light began moving again.
Before he knew it, time had slipped by.
Lin Fan was like a dried-out sponge tossed into an ocean of knowledge, greedily "absorbing" everything in the bookstore related to martial arts, monsters, and materials science.
Meanwhile, the True Self kept recording and extrapolating.
Only when the bookstore's gentle female voice announced that it was about to close did Lin Fan finally put the books back, still reluctant to leave.
After fusing with the True Self and thoroughly assimilating the knowledge, Lin Fan walked out of the bookstore.
The cold night wind met him, cooling his overheated mind a little.
The knowledge boiling in his head slowly settled, replaced by more practical and urgent concerns—money, connections, and status.
Cars streamed past the intersection one after another, their taillights drawing long red streaks across his retinas and dividing the city's prosperity from its indifference.
Lin Fan followed the flowing red lights with his gaze, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the ring disguised as a cheap street-stall trinket.
Inside it lay the gear he'd stripped from the Vulture Squad.
What remained now were only a few nonmetal items:
Several sets of monster pelts he hadn't gotten around to processing, the Vulture Squad's combat uniforms, a few encrypted communicators, and various bits of wilderness survival equipment.
These things contained no metal, so they couldn't be fed to Calamity. But if he sold them, they'd still fetch real money.
If he took them to the black market or some roadside workshop, they'd surely lowball him, and it would be extremely dangerous.
A high school student with no connections, trying to fence goods that were obviously "hot," might as well write "Come rob me" across his face.
"To maximize my profits, buy real high-grade alloys to feed Calamity and Sky Splitter, and even gain access to more advanced Guidance Techniques, I need a legitimate, respected identity."
Lin Fan raised his head. His gaze swept past the bustling crowd and landed on a giant holographic advertising screen across the street.
On the screen, a powerful fighter in a black training uniform smashed a boulder with one punch. The special effects of the flying rubble were so realistic they seemed ready to hit passersby in the face.
Then a line of eye-catching text scrolled across the screen:
[Limit Martial Arts Hall Quasi-Warrior Assessment—Starting Tomorrow!]
Before you continue