As Su Qingxue's words faded.
The entire Underground Training Ground fell silent for several minutes.
Everyone struggled to process revelations that overturned everything they knew.
Two hundred years.
Three hundred years.
Five hundred years.
A thousand years!
This wasn't about training super soldiers.
It was opening another path for human evolution—a road to the heavens!
Lin Yuan stood rooted to the spot, his hands and feet cold.
It was too much information.
For an ordinary guy like him, it was almost suffocating.
"If future Grandmasters can live a thousand years..."
"Why did you still lose?"
"Why did you have to come back?"
A long while passed.
Lin Yuan's throat felt dry as he asked the most devastating question.
Su Qingxue whipped her head toward Lin Yuan.
For the first time, a crack appeared in her impassive gaze.
Fear.
A flash of absolute terror crossed her eyes.
"Because Ferocious Beasts evolve faster than humans."
"Their bodies are stronger, too."
"Even at the same level."
"It takes three to five fully armed human martial artists to barely bring down one Ferocious Beast."
"And in the calamity that ultimately destroyed Blue Star, an Eighth-Tier Ferocious Beast appeared."
Su Qingxue said no more.
But everyone understood.
Humanity's strongest had only reached the Seventh-Tier Stage.
Against an Eighth-Tier monster, it was a one-sided slaughter.
"So?"
"What does that have to do with me?"
Lin Yuan rubbed his face hard with both hands, trying to clear his head.
He was just a delivery driver.
Even if the Spiritual Energy Revival really came in six months.
With the country so prepared, surely this wasn't his problem.
Nie Dingguo said nothing. He merely gave Su Qingxue a long look.
She was the only one who could properly answer that.
"Because in your previous life, you were a miracle."
"The country didn't start teaching the Breathing Method to civilians until the second year after the Spiritual Energy Revival."
"You had no connections, never joined the military, and received no special resources."
"In the fifth year, an unprecedented Beast Tide struck Shu Capital."
"Even the elite martial artists trained by the government had only reached the Peak Second-Order Stage in Strength at the time."
"..."
At that point.
Su Qingxue stepped closer and stared straight into Lin Yuan's eyes.
"But you, with no one backing you, had reached the Peak Second-Order Stage too!"
"You killed three Third-Tier Ferocious Beasts in that Beast Tide, along with countless Second-Tier Ferocious Beasts."
"In the end, you stayed behind to cover the civilians' retreat. Surrounded by a sea of Ferocious Beasts, you fought until you had nothing left and died..."
"Humanity's leaders later worked through what might have happened."
"If you'd survived and been given enough cultivation arts and resources."
"You, Lin Yuan, might well have become the first Eighth-Tier martial artist in human history!"
Lin Yuan stood frozen.
It was as if lightning had split the chaos in his mind.
A Beast Tide in Shu Capital?
Covering a civilian retreat?
His parents ran a convenience store in Shu Capital.
His younger sister, Lin Xiaoxiao, attended university there too.
If that future came to pass, how could he possibly retreat?
If he did, Ferocious Beasts would tear his family apart!
An indescribable weight settled on Lin Yuan's shoulders.
He didn't want to be anyone's savior.
He just wanted to make money and give his family a good life.
But the situation was clear now.
Without Strength, death was his only way out.
Lin Yuan lowered his head and looked at his faintly reddened hands.
Silence.
Silence so complete you could hear a pin drop.
Everyone waited for Lin Yuan's response.
Faced with expectations fit for some chosen one...
Most people would either grow drunk on their own importance or collapse under the responsibility.
But a moment later.
Lin Yuan slowly raised his head.
His gaze was steady.
It held the look of an ordinary man driven into a corner, ready to stake everything.
"If I was that strong in my previous life."
"Can you start teaching me to cultivate now?"
No refusal.
No grand declarations.
Just the most practical, direct request.
Approval flashed in Nie Dingguo's eyes.
This was a man who had fought through a Beast Tide.
He had more grit than any sheltered recruit.
"Not yet."
Su Qingxue shook her head.
She walked to a tactical terminal, her fingers moving quickly across the screen.
"Before becoming a Formal Martial Artist."
"Everyone can only use the Breathing Method to temper their body."
At the same time.
Several complex diagrams of the human meridians appeared on the screen.
"The Basic Breathing Technique was developed by the country in my previous life for everyone to learn."
"At that starting line, everyone is equal."
"In fact."
"Even for Formal Martial Artists."
"The Breathing Method remains important."
"One reason you became so strong in your previous life."
"Was that you practiced the Basic Breathing Technique to a level most people could never reach."
"But that isn't enough."
"What determines a martial artist's limits and separates the strong from the weak is a true martial cultivation art that creates a gap in Strength."
A fierce, proud gleam entered Su Qingxue's eyes.
"To fight the Ferocious Beasts."
"Dragon Country gathered its finest strategists and High-Tier Martial Artists in my previous life."
"With the strength of the entire nation."
"We developed a complete martial arts system!"
"Martial cultivation arts are divided into internal cultivation methods and killing Martial Techniques."
"Both are ranked from First Tier to Seventh Tier."
"The higher the tier, the faster an art absorbs Aura and the more devastating its power."
"But the higher the tier, the harder it is to master. The difficulty rises exponentially."
"..."
At Su Qingxue's words.
Nie Dingguo and the other senior military officers began breathing faster again.
Cultivation arts!
These were the true priceless treasures!
Having Aura without knowing how to use it efficiently was like begging for food while sitting on a mountain of gold.
"You have these arts?"
Nie Dingguo finally couldn't hold back the question.
"I do."
Su Qingxue pointed to her head.
"In my previous life."
"As a senior officer in the Human Resistance Army, I had access to the main database."
"I know dozens of arts proven in battle, and I've already documented them all."
With that.
Su Qingxue took a silver encrypted drive from a safe.
"On this drive..."
"There's one Sixth-Tier internal cultivation art."
"Two Fifth-Tier cultivation arts and three Fifth-Tier Martial Techniques."
"Three Fourth-Tier cultivation arts and five Fourth-Tier Martial Techniques."
"And thirty-two more cultivation arts and Martial Techniques at Third Tier or below."
This was insane.
Nie Dingguo felt his heart could barely take another shock.
A Sixth-Tier Cultivation Art!
It might not be the ultimate Seventh-Tier art!
But Blue Star now had so much more time.
With these arts as a foundation.
Dragon Country would surely be able to develop even stronger ones.
"The military can access these whenever it needs to."
"But for you."
"To practice these higher-tier arts, you first have to cross that threshold."
Su Qingxue paid Nie Dingguo no further attention.
Her gaze settled on Lin Yuan again.
"Use the Basic Breathing Technique to break through your body's limits."
"Form a True Qi Vortex within yourself and become a real First-Order Martial Artist!"
"Once you take that step."
"This national treasury of martial arts will be open to you!"
At those words.
Lin Yuan clenched his fists.
Resources.
Cultivation arts.
In his previous life, he'd had none of them. All he could do was put his life on the line.
This time.
Dragon Country's finest resources and most powerful cultivation technique lay right before him.
"How do I train?"
Those were the only words Lin Yuan uttered.
He had no time to marvel at the wonders of fate.
Only half a year remained before the full resurgence of aura.
He had to grow stronger as quickly as possible.
Only then.
Only then would he have the strength to protect everything he cared about.
Before you continue