Time passed slowly.
In the blink of an eye, three days had gone by.
Late at night.
Inside the private, upscale dorm room assigned to Lin Yuan.
Lin Yuan was not resting.
He sat cross-legged on the bed, eyes shut, breathing in a strange rhythm.
Inhale.
Air flowed through his nose like a swimming dragon, following the path Su Qingxue had taught him.
Exhale.
Clumps of dark impurities, almost invisible to the naked eye, seeped out through his pores.
The sensation was extraordinary.
Lin Yuan could clearly feel his cells rejoicing, brimming with excitement.
"Break!"
Two hours later.
Lin Yuan let out a low roar in his mind.
Boom!
A muffled sound no ordinary person could hear exploded inside him.
His meridians widened in an instant.
The energy that had been scattered throughout his body suddenly contracted in his dantian, forming a tiny Qi Vortex.
The Qi Vortex turned slowly, sending a steady stream of energy back through his body.
He had done it!
A First-Tier Early-Stage Martial Artist!
Lin Yuan snapped his eyes open.
In the dark room, they seemed to flash like two bolts of cold lightning.
He clenched his fists, felt the explosive power within him, and broke into a satisfied smile.
If he faced that testing machine again, his punching force would be several times higher!
Just as Lin Yuan was about to get up and shower away the grime covering his body.
Something unexpected happened.
[Ding!] [Host has embarked on the path to the Transcendent Realm!] [Heaven Rewards Diligence System binding to host...] [Binding progress: 10%... 50%... 100%!] [Binding complete!]
A cold, mechanical voice sounded deep in Lin Yuan's mind.
He froze where he stood.
His heart began pounding beyond his control.
A system?
The kind of system from web novels?
He swallowed and strained to keep his nerves under control.
"System?"
"What can you do?"
"Can you give me a full set of max-level divine gear?"
Lin Yuan asked tentatively in his mind.
Silence.
Deathly silence.
The system gave no response, as though it had crashed.
Lin Yuan called out several more times and even tried insulting it, but still got nothing.
"No intelligence?"
After a moment.
Lin Yuan rubbed his chin, his gaze sharpening.
Compared to an intelligent system that assigned missions and threatened to kill its host at the drop of a hat.
He actually preferred a mindless tool like this.
No mind meant no threat.
With a flicker of thought.
A transparent panel visible only to Lin Yuan appeared before his eyes.
[Host: Lin Yuan] [Strength: First-Stage Martial Artist, Early Phase] [Cultivation Technique: Basic Breathing Technique (Mastery Realm 7%)] [Martial Skills: None] [Treasures: None]
The information was sparse.
But Lin Yuan kept staring at the "7%" after Basic Breathing Technique.
"Heaven Rewards Diligence..."
Lin Yuan mulled over those words, and a realization struck him.
Could it be.
That the system had no other function?
Was its sole purpose to turn his efforts into measurable progress?
As long as he put in the work, would he see guaranteed progress without ever hitting a bottleneck?
Effort in, results out!
To test that wild theory.
Lin Yuan did not even bother to shower.
He sat cross-legged again, closed his eyes, and resumed cultivating.
This time, he focused even harder than before.
The seconds ticked by.
Breath after monotonous breath, energy circulating over and over.
Not until the sky outside began to pale with dawn.
Did Lin Yuan let out a long breath of stale air and stop cultivating.
Every bone in his body ached, but his mind was racing with excitement.
"Open the panel!"
Lin Yuan could not wait to call it up in his mind.
The transparent panel appeared before Lin Yuan again.
[Host: Lin Yuan] [Strength: First-Stage Martial Artist, Early Phase] [Cultivation Technique: Basic Breathing Technique (Mastery Realm 11%)] [Martial Skills: None] [Treasures: None]
Eleven percent!
Up four percentage points!
"Holy shit!"
Lin Yuan could not help swearing.
A wave of wild joy swept over him like a tsunami.
His theory was right!
As long as he kept grinding, his proficiency would genuinely rise.
No barriers, no need for some elusive flash of enlightenment!
At that moment.
Lin Yuan finally understood something.
Su Qingxue believed that his past-life self had neither connections nor high-level cultivation techniques.
She thought he had slaughtered his way through the Beast Tide on the strength of his astonishing, heaven-defying talent for comprehension alone.
And because of that.
The military leadership also believed he was a once-in-a-century prodigy.
But what was the truth?
Lin Yuan really was a genius!
It had taken him only half an hour to first sense aura.
It had taken him only three days to cross the threshold of martial arts and become a true First-Order Martial Artist.
That cultivation speed made him a rare genius, one in ten thousand!
But things had been different in his previous life!
Back then, he had no resources and no good cultivation technique.
He had even started cultivating a year or two later than everyone else.
Under those circumstances.
No matter how gifted his past-life self was, he could not possibly have surpassed the geniuses nurtured by the state!
There was only one explanation.
Lin Yuan had awakened the Heaven Rewards Diligence System in his previous life too.
As long as he kept grinding day and night.
He could push even the most commonplace Basic Breathing Technique to heights ordinary people could not comprehend.
That was the real truth.
Still.
Lin Yuan would not tell anyone this secret.
He would let Su Qingxue and the military keep their delightful misunderstanding.
Soon.
Lin Yuan jumped off the bed and walked to the window.
Gazing at the vast Gobi Desert beyond the base, Lin Yuan clenched his fists tighter and tighter.
Only six months remained until aura fully resurged!
Not only had he awakened the system early, he also had the entire country behind him.
In this life.
He would protect everything he cared about!
"Oh, right."
"Time to choose a cultivation technique."
After a long while.
Lin Yuan drew his gaze back and murmured to himself.
Su Qingxue had told him.
Chief Nie had promised him too.
Once he became a First-Order Martial Artist, he could choose any cultivation technique he wanted.
With that in mind.
Lin Yuan took a cold shower, changed into a clean training uniform, and strode out the door.
He was going to claim the high-level cultivation technique that was his.
A little over ten minutes later.
Lin Yuan arrived at the Underground Training Ground.
Several people were already seated inside.
They were all future powerhouses the military had brought here over the past three days.
However.
Aura had yet to fully resurge.
And they had only been cultivating for two or three days.
Some of these future powerhouses had not even managed to sense aura yet.
Of course.
There were exceptions to everything.
Four people had performed well enough to catch even Lin Yuan's attention.
Ye Qingshan had successfully sensed aura in one hour and forty-eight minutes.
Song Qingyin had successfully sensed aura in one hour and fifty-five minutes.
Chu Tiankuo had successfully sensed aura in two hours and twenty-seven minutes.
Xiao Zhan had successfully sensed aura in two hours and forty-six minutes.
Though these four could not match Lin Yuan's talent,
there was no doubt
they were among Dragon Country's most gifted.
Meanwhile,
Lin Yuan walked into the training ground.
Everyone inside wore a conflicted expression.
After arriving at the Northwest Base,
they had learned about the Spiritual Energy Revival.
Yet Lin Yuan had taken only half an hour to sense the presence of Aura.
His terrifying talent had left them stunned and even a little awed.
"What brings you here?"
"Have you run into trouble with your training?"
Su Qingxue came over to Lin Yuan and asked, somewhat puzzled.
Lin Yuan's training had already begun to get on track.
Then Ye Qingshan and the others had arrived.
So Su Qingxue had left Lin Yuan to train on his own and turned to instruct Ye Qingshan and the others.
But now,
Lin Yuan was here.
Su Qingxue could not help wondering whether he had run into some difficulty.
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