Returning to his room exhausted, Tang Jian focused his mind and glanced at the Attribute Template. He immediately froze.
Owner: Tang Jian Card Energy: 50/50+ Mental Strength: 6/6+ Vitality: 7.6+ Special Functions: 1, ??? (???) 2, Dream. (???) Current Energy: 400+
A thousand points of energy had been consumed in one go.
Yet his vitality had increased by a full point, and even his Card Energy had risen by three points along with it.
The sudden leap left Tang Jian stunned. It had happened too fast—his breakthrough had come far too quickly.
He could indeed feel that the Card Energy in his body had grown stronger. As for his muscles, nerves, bones, and the rest, he could not yet clearly sense just how much stronger they had become. But when he clenched his fist—
Tang Jian could clearly see the muscles on his forearm bulge in an instant. Then he drew in his stomach, and defined, sexy lines of muscle appeared. His four-pack had actually become a six-pack.
Strong!
Tang Jian flipped up into the air and landed steadily after a somersault. A wild grin spread across his face. This enhancement had been completely worth it.
But the next moment, Tang Jian let out a muffled groan as a sensation of hunger rose from inside his body.
The hunger was far too intense. It did not even seem to come from his stomach, but rather from every cell in his body crying out in hunger.
Tang Jian was stunned. Then streams of energy suddenly surfaced in the depths of his mind. Focusing, he saw the 400 points of energy displayed in the Attribute Template rapidly decreasing, being inexplicably consumed at high speed.
Yet after all 400 points of energy had been drained, the intense hunger from his body's cells subsided considerably.
Still, the hunger remained. Then the Card Energy within Tang Jian's body began replacing the energy, rapidly draining at a visible rate.
Fifty points of Card Energy.
It was quickly consumed completely.
Thud—
Tang Jian's entire body went limp and weak. He collapsed back onto the bed, staring wide-eyed at the Attribute Template, where both his Card Energy and energy had been completely depleted.
"What's going on?"
"Could it be that the vitality I just raised so quickly by using energy had squeezed out some of my body's potential, causing this intense hunger?"
"If I hadn't had those remaining 400 points of energy, wouldn't I have played myself to death?"
"Phew, I feel much better now."
After thinking it over briefly, Tang Jian roughly figured out what had happened.
When he had taken a Genetic Potion to strengthen vitality in his previous life, he had experienced something similar.
A Genetic Potion rapidly strengthened the body and increased vitality in an extremely short period of time. While most of the enormous energy expenditure came from the energy substances contained within the potion, a small portion still came from one's own life potential.
If too much life potential was depleted, death could even occur. Minor depletion, on the other hand, would make the body instinctively send signals of hunger and the need to replenish energy.
Although Tang Jian had rapidly increased his vitality with the Red Card Cheater, it had apparently still consumed a small amount of his own life potential.
The loss of life potential made his body instinctively absorb all kinds of energy to replenish itself. If it was not replenished in time, it would harm his health, leave serious hidden injuries, and damage his foundation.
Thinking of this, Tang Jian secretly called himself lucky. It seemed the cheater could not be abused recklessly. After all, this body was his, not some inflatable toy. If he broke it, he could not replace it.
All the Card Energy in his body had now been depleted, but that faint hunger still remained.
Tang Jian struggled to his feet, felt his way downstairs, opened the refrigerator, and started searching for food to replenish his energy.
Fortunately, the 400 points of energy and his Card Energy had already filled most of the gap. After eating quite a bit, Tang Jian felt his stomach was stuffed, and the faint hunger finally disappeared.
"Damn. I only wanted a slight enhancement, but this nearly wrecked me. By my initial calculations, raising vitality by one point directly consumed 1,000 energy points, 50 points of Card Energy, and a whole bunch of food."
"And what I gained was one point of vitality and three points of Card Energy. Uh, put that way, it was actually fairly balanced. More or less."
"No, that's not right. My vitality rose by a full point, so my Card Energy could not have increased by only three points. It only rose by three because my potential has not yet been fully tapped. Over the next two or three days, as long as I train my Card Energy with all my strength, it will rise rapidly."
After analyzing the situation, Tang Jian could not help smiling.
A one-point increase in vitality was a massive improvement. It had directly raised him from the level of a second-class outstanding athlete from the Old Nation era to that of a first-class outstanding athlete.
If he had to run 8,000 meters within twenty minutes now, he could finish it without cheating.
According to the vitality-to-Card Energy conversion rate proposed by Kemerlu, an increase of one point in vitality could be converted into a maximum of ten points of Card Energy.
But there were difficulties involved.
Theoretically, with Tang Jian's current vitality of 7.6, he could cultivate up to 76 points of Card Energy at his limit.
But that was only in theory.
The further cultivation progressed, the harder it became. To reach that level, one needed an extremely top-tier cultivation method. The Three-Point-One-Line Technique was not among those top-tier methods.
However, Tang Jian possessed the Red Card Cheater, a tool that could directly add points and improve him. He was not worried about any limits holding him back.
Now that all his Energy Cards had been used up, Tang Jian realized he had no chance of entering the dream again today.
There were actually still some appliances at home that contained Energy Cards.
For example, the battery in Tang Lin's electric bike, the refrigerator at home, the television, and so on were all powered by Energy Cards.
But Tang Jian could not possibly cause that kind of trouble.
He promptly washed himself clean, returned to his room, and began cultivating the Three-Point-One-Line Technique.
Although this increase in vitality had consumed a great deal of energy—
The improvement in strength was what mattered. It was no less rewarding than what he had gained in the dream last time, and Tang Jian felt greatly encouraged.
When he arrived at school the next day, Sun Yiying was the first to notice Tang Jian's changes.
The increase in vitality had made Tang Jian about three centimeters taller, and even his bearing had changed somewhat, making him impossible to ignore.
However, Sun Yiying had long assumed that Tang Jian had secrets. Though surprised, she was not overly shocked.
"Did you take a Solar Energy Potion last night? No, probably not a Solar Energy Potion, but some medicine that enhances vitality and physical constitution. You need to be careful not to abuse such medicine. It could easily damage your life potential, and the losses would outweigh the gains."
Sun Yiying warned Tang Jian with a somewhat stern expression.
Although what she said was not entirely correct, by ordinary reasoning, she had almost hit the mark exactly.
Tang Jian had not taken any Genetic Potion or similar medicine, but using energy to directly improve vitality was somewhat similar to the effects of a Genetic Potion.
Hearing this, Yang Mao and the others beside them were all shocked, staring at Tang Jian in astonishment.
Since when had poor Tang Jian gotten the chance to take such precious medicine to improve vitality?
"Tang Jian, you've been hiding things pretty deeply. Looks like you've been doing well lately. Your parents must be ready to spend a fortune training you," Yang Mao said, both envious and depressed.
Tang Jian's strength had improved far too quickly. While Yang Mao was happy for his brother, he also felt immense pressure. He did not want to be left behind.
So he's been taking medicine to improve his strength all along. That explains it.
The chubby Jia Ling glanced at Tang Jian and cursed him inwardly for being so sneaky. He had been taking medicine all along, yet claimed his family was poor and had no money for Solar Energy Potions. Who was he trying to fool?
"Teacher Sun, I'm fine. I was fairly well prepared and made it through. It didn't damage my body," Tang Jian said to Sun Yiying with a smile, blinking at her.
Sun Yiying nodded slightly. She could sense the vigorous vitality radiating from Tang Jian. He truly had not developed any hidden injuries; otherwise, it would have shown directly on his complexion and been obvious at a glance.
"Don't try to imitate him so casually. You're all high school students now. You have brains. Methods like this for raising vitality are not the proper path and carry considerable risks. With the college entrance exams so close, if something goes wrong, it'll be troublesome."
Sun Yiying then addressed Yang Mao and the others, whose eyes had been flickering.
Her words immediately chilled their enthusiasm, extinguishing some of their thoughts.
There were no shortcuts in cultivation. Any fast method carried enormous risks.
Tang Jian was lucky that he had not suffered any loss of life potential, but that did not mean others would be equally lucky after taking a Genetic Potion.
If they failed to endure it and suffered a loss of potential, it would be fatal at this critical time before the college entrance exams.
For a moment, Yang Mao and the others became somewhat dejected again.
"You too. Don't take any more risks. Otherwise, I'll dig out every last one of your little secrets." Sun Yiying glared at Tang Jian.
Tang Jian's expression changed when he heard that. He repeatedly gave an awkward laugh and waved his hands.
Yang Mao and the others were dumbfounded.
What was going on?
Tang Jian and Teacher Sun were...?
Even Gao Yang, who was usually composed, could not help looking stunned.
Sun Yiying did not explain further. That had always been her temperament. She waved her hand and immediately instructed everyone to begin today's intensive training.
She tailored her teaching to each student, developing different training plans based on their differing vitality, Card Energy, and specialties.
After deciding that Tang Jian had secrets and potential, Sun Yiying naturally gave him special attention.
As a result, during the following period of intensive training at school, Tang Jian spent his days in extremely grueling training. Yet his performance was outstanding, and his rate of improvement was astonishing.
Since he had already laid his cards on the table with Sun Yiying, Tang Jian no longer deliberately kept such a low profile or concealed much.
To Yang Mao and the others, Tang Jian's progress was simply a heaven-defying comeback. He improved wildly almost every day, as though he had activated cheats.
This left Yang Mao and the others deeply puzzled and unwilling to accept it. Even Liu Kun, the strongest among them, felt tremendous pressure. For a time, nearly everyone threw themselves into training with one hundred percent enthusiasm, and all of them made considerable progress to varying degrees.
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