One Infinite Aeon of Calamity? 530 Million Years?

Whoosh!

On the Gray Rabbit Plains, Lin Yuan held the Blue Ice Battle Sword. His movements were agile and light, and his Fine Perception Level swordsmanship allowed him to wield the battle sword with perfect control, lifting heavy as though it were light.

Moreover, he had reached the third step of Body Tempering—the Blood Tempering Stage—and possessed the strength of a thousand jin. Dealing with these weakest herbivorous minor ferocious beasts was simply too easy.

With two swishing slashes, he took the lives of two plump Ferocious Gray Rabbits, clean and decisive, both killed in a single strike!

"Player has killed two Ferocious Gray Rabbits. Experience +2..."

"Player has reached Level 2!"

"Beginning Talent Trait draw..."

The familiar, pleasant game voice rang in his mind. Lin Yuan had once again gained an opportunity to draw a Talent Trait!

Whoosh!

It was still the dazzling card pool, its tumbling traits casting off brilliant radiance that left one dazzled.

"You have obtained the purple trait—'Martial Prodigy.'"

A purple trait!

Martial Prodigy!

Though he had not struck gold this time, Lin Yuan was still overjoyed.

Because this Talent Trait was actually Martial Prodigy!

"Second Talent Trait—'Martial Prodigy.' Effect: Your martial aptitude has been raised to the prodigy level!"

Martial Prodigy had only one effect: raising Lin Yuan's aptitude for martial cultivation.

Prodigy level?

Lin Yuan did not know exactly what grade that was, but just hearing the name told him it was no ordinary thing.

It was definitely over a hundred times better than his current martial aptitude!

It was rather embarrassing to admit, but although he was a transmigrator, before the true spirit from his previous life awakened, his martial aptitude had been utterly unremarkable, lost amid the crowd.

Otherwise, after six years of Body Tempering at school, he would not have barely managed to reach the third step, Blood Tempering, with only a thousand jin of strength.

What about the other students from his cohort?

Most of them had cultivated to the peak of the Blood Tempering Stage, possessing two thousand jin of strength and having hope of Marrow Cleansing.

A small number of outstanding geniuses had even broken through the fourth stage in one stroke, entering Marrow Cleansing and gaining hope of embarking upon the true Stellar Martial Path!

There were even those called prodigies. Before graduating high school and before the June Joint Exam, they had crushed through every obstacle, completed the four steps of Body Tempering, refined their Natal Stellar Force, and undergone a complete transformation to become true Starry-Sky Warriors!

Those were the true favored children of heaven, martial marvels.

"Now, does that mean my aptitude is the same as those Martial Prodigies who soared into the heavens in a single bound?"

"Could I achieve Body Tempering Grandmastery in just a few short years and become a true Starry-Sky Warrior?"

Lin Yuan's heart surged like the tides, and color rose in his face.

Even a purple trait was this powerful.

This was martial aptitude, reputedly the hardest thing to improve!

How many people exhausted their hearts and fortunes, yet still could not touch the gates of the true Stellar Martial Path? Why?

Wasn't it simply because their innate aptitude was lacking?

With ordinary aptitude like Lin Yuan's, becoming a Starry-Sky Warrior had once been almost impossible. But now...

"I'm a Martial Prodigy too!"

Lin Yuan drew a deep breath. He felt the world ahead broaden before him, sweeping away the gloom in his heart.

Then, he subconsciously glanced at the Game Panel—

"Experience: 0/4"

He only needed 4 experience points to reach the next level—that was merely four little rabbits...

"Hm?"

Lin Yuan frowned, sensing that something was off.

1, 2, 4...

No way...

His heart trembled.

A coincidence?

Or perhaps...

To verify it, Lin Yuan did not bother carefully experiencing the newly acquired Martial Prodigy trait. Instead, he immediately began searching for the next rabbit.

"Player has killed a Ferocious Gray Rabbit. Experience +1..."

"Player has killed a Ferocious Gray Rabbit. Experience +1..."

Killing a mere four Ferocious Gray Rabbits went smoothly enough for Lin Yuan.

"Your level has risen to Level 3."

"You have gained a new Talent Trait draw opportunity."

"Beginning draw..."

"You have obtained the blue rare trait—'Immunity to All Poisons'..."

As a string of game notifications rang out, Lin Yuan successfully reached Level 3 and gained a new Talent Trait.

However, his luck was not particularly good this time. He had only obtained the blue rare Immunity to All Poisons, which did not increase his strength much.

But Lin Yuan had no mind to pay attention to that. At once, he turned his gaze toward the Game Panel—

"Experience: 0/8"

"..."

Lin Yuan fell silent.

That terrifying suspicion in his heart seemed to have truly been confirmed!

"1, 2, 4, 8..."

"If I'm not mistaken, the experience required for the player's level-ups on the Game Panel seems to increase according to a geometric progression of two."

Lin Yuan revealed a classic bitter smile.

Simple and joyful?

A passionate, exhilarating game?

Sure enough, he had been too naive...

What did an exponential increase by powers of two mean?

Ordinary people might not be able to imagine it. They would see that early levels required only single-digit experience and think it was unbelievably satisfying.

But in truth, it was like a snowball rolling downhill—the farther it rolled, the more experience it required, and the increase was absurdly enormous!

He was currently Level 3, and reaching Level 4 required only 8 experience points.

And as expected, Level 5 should require 16 points.

Level 6 would take 32 points... and so on.

That did not sound like much, did it?

But once he kept calculating, he would understand just how terrifying it was—

Level 7 required 64 points, Level 8 required 128, Level 9 required 256, and reaching Level 10 would require 512 experience points.

By then, the experience requirement had already entered triple digits, but that was only the beginning!

Starting from Level 11, it would officially enter the four-digit range, requiring 1,024 experience points to level up.

Level 15 required 16,384 points—a five-digit experience requirement!

Level 20 would require 524,288 points—over five hundred thousand!

What about Level 30?

It would directly soar into nine digits, requiring a full five hundred million experience points!

Looking at the immense figure calculated by the calculator built into his communication watch, Lin Yuan's vision went black.

Five hundred million, five hundred million!

How long would he have to keep killing?

And even more terrifyingly, the number would swell ever more wildly the farther he went. The experience required for nearly every level-up would double!

Trembling, Lin Yuan continued calculating—

Level 40 would require... five hundred billion experience points!

Level 50 would require... five hundred quadrillion experience points!

Then what if he wanted to reach Level 100?

How much experience would that take?

After calculating it all, Lin Yuan looked at the tiny communication watch's display, at the endless string of digits like pi, and fell into silence.

"..."

Put simply, it was roughly two to the ninety-ninth power—only some six hundred quintillion quintillion experience points. Actually, that was not much...

My ass it wasn't!!!

Six hundred quintillion quintillion?

The expansion of this number had already reached the point where heaven and earth knew not what they were!

What kind of concept was that?

If "experience points" were converted into "days," that would be six hundred quintillion quintillion days.

And if that figure were then calculated according to the Primordial Chronology—

One hui = 10,800 years; one yuanhui = 12 hui.

50,000 yuanhui = 1 Calamity, and 480 million Calamities = 1 Infinite Aeon of Calamity.

In other words, one Infinite Aeon of Calamity was roughly 31.1 quintillion years. That span of time was enough for the primordial world to fall into silence, encompassing Pangu splitting open heaven and earth, the Dragon-Han Primordial Calamity, the Witch-Demon War, the Investiture of the Gods, Journey to the West... every calamity and tribulation, until the cycles of reincarnation fell silent and Pangu opened heaven and earth anew.

And what about six hundred quintillion quintillion days?

Well, that was merely 530 million sets of 31.1 quintillion years...

Merely, my ass!

The primordial world would have been reopened 530 million times already!

Lin Yuan's gaze was vacant.

Jumping back to the experience calculation—

"Assuming I can kill one Infinite Aeon of Calamity's worth of rabbits every day, I would still need roughly 530 million years to reach Level 100 and obtain my hundredth Talent Trait..."

One Infinite Aeon of Calamity's worth of rabbits?

530 million years?

"..."

Lin Yuan's eyes lost their light, and he revealed a pure, innocent smile.

Heh...

Hehehe...

Hehehehe...