Overclocked Synchronization

Wang Yu had found the bag tucked against the Yellowstone City Lord's body, and his first impulse had been to open it and see what was inside.

But he had never expected that, despite its unremarkable appearance, no method would open its mouth. It seemed to be a seamless whole, made from some unknown material. Even a sharp blade could not cut it in the slightest.

The gray bag itself was only palm-sized, yet it weighed a hefty ten-odd jin in his hand, as though something strange were packed inside.

However, in the Daoist's journal of observations, he had found a possible explanation for the strange bag: a magical artifact used specifically by Immortal Cultivators, a "Storage Bag."

According to what Daoist Chongyun had written in the black book, a Storage Bag was a spatial magical artifact that could only be opened with dharma power, while items were stored using spiritual sense. Its materials were extremely unusual, and depending on its quality, it could wondrously reduce objects' weight and shrink or enlarge them.

Something as useful as a Storage Bag naturally cost far more than other magical artifacts of the same grade. Daoist Chongyun had poured all his resources into cultivation and had never had the spare funds to buy one himself.

The yellow-robed man had certainly lived up to his position as a city lord, actually carrying a Storage Bag on his person.

Wang Yu's inability to open it was most likely because he had practically no dharma power.

Daoist Chongyun had once said that only upon reaching the second level of the Yin Water Art would he acquire a measure of dharma power.

Wang Yu could only give up and put the gray bag away for now.

For the time being, he planned to remain in this cavern and quietly await the day his consciousness returned to Blue Star.

After all, that "master" buried on the mountain was still being hunted. He dared return neither to White Cloud Abbey nor to his former home.

Otherwise, if he lost his life, his "self" on Blue Star might suffer mental trauma as well. But until then, he had no intention of sitting idle. He planned to investigate exactly what the Taiyuan Auxiliary System was.

During their training on Blue Star, they had only been told that this Taiyuan subsystem could help them influence the behavior of the otherworldly people they possessed. No one had ever mentioned any self-protection mechanism, or that it could replace their consciousness and directly control those people's bodies.

And what was the "unknown energy" mentioned when the system activated?

"Taiyuan, activate the system."

Thinking this over, Wang Yu slapped his forehead and tried calling softly.

"Beep, beep... Taiyuan Auxiliary System activating... Scanning... Host's mental state normal... Energy supply normal. System successfully activated..."

Wang Yu was delighted.

Sure enough, after its previous forced, passive activation, the old method of starting the system worked.

Keeping his hand pressed against his head, he continued in a low voice:

"Taiyuan, scan the system's available functions."

"..."

"Taiyuan, search for information on the Draw-Cutting Art."

"..."

"Search the Blue Star Alliance Great Arsenal's records."

"..."

"Taiyuan, I have the relevant authorization. Answer my questions."

"..."

"What are the automatic protection mechanism and overclocked synchronization mode?"

"..."

By now, Wang Yu wanted to curse. But after pondering for a long while, he gritted his teeth and tried again, clinging to one last shred of hope:

"Taiyuan, enter overclocked synchronization mode."

"...Overclocked synchronization mode enabled. Based on the host's Mental Power, sustainable duration is thirty-three minutes and twenty-six seconds..." The flat, mechanical voice sounded again.

Wang Yu was overjoyed. The next instant, a boom resounded in his mind. His pupils dilated, tiny crystalline lights flickered deep within them, and his five senses sharpened countless times over at an inconceivable speed...

More than ten meters away, the tiny barbs on blades of grass in a corner of the cavern were clearly visible...

Seven or eight meters underground, he could distinctly hear the soft pattering of some unknown insect crawling...

His nose could effortlessly distinguish the different scents of the flowers, grasses, and trees drifting in from outside the cavern...

Wang Yu raised his hands and gently flexed his fingers. Even the sound of blood flowing through the vessels in his arms, the faint breath beneath his nostrils, and the sensation of every muscle in his arms stretching...

At that moment, his control over his body felt almost freakish. Not only could he clearly sense every muscle in his arms, he could even calculate precisely how much potential each piece of muscle tissue held, how much force it could unleash, and how much impact it could withstand-and control it accordingly...

This was incredible!

He had experienced none of these wonders when the automatic protection mechanism activated earlier.

In this state, Wang Yu felt like the "god" of his own body, as though nothing were beyond him.

Stranger still, something seemed to have been added to his brain, putting his thoughts into a superbrain mode that felt almost as though time had slowed a hundredfold. Both his memory and his logical analysis had improved to an unbelievable degree.

To verify that he was not imagining things, he instinctively posed himself an extremely complicated problem: raising a number more than ten digits long to the Nth power. In an instant, his brain produced an extraordinarily long string of digits like a computer. Without even thinking it over, he knew the answer was absolutely correct.

Wang Yu was stunned. After considering it, he decided to conduct another experiment, so he left the cavern and approached the edge of a grove outside.

His gaze settled on a huge boulder nearby, half buried in the earth. He walked over in a few strides, pressed one hand against it, and rocked it slightly.

"Seven hundred and eighty-seven jin."

Analyzing a series of data-the shape and volume of the exposed rock, the force he had just used to push it, the shifting and loosening of the surrounding soil, and even the reaction force his palm had borne-Wang Yu swiftly arrived at the boulder's exact weight. He could even extrapolate the approximate shape of the portion buried underground.

The conclusion he had calculated gave Wang Yu quite a fright.

To determine whether it was correct, he stared at the boulder, crystalline light flickering in his eyes for a moment. Then he suddenly bent down, wrapped both arms around it, and rocked it hard. After several rapid breaths, he gave a low roar and forcibly wrenched the enormous boulder from the earth. With a swing of both arms, he hurled it more than a zhang away.

Boom!

The nearby ground shook. The enormous boulder, twice as heavy as the great cauldron in the abbey, smashed a large crater into the earth.

Sure enough, the shape of its lower half was exactly as he had predicted.

Having unleashed strength far beyond his imagined limits, Wang Yu's face flushed crimson. Both arms ached terribly, and his legs trembled as though he had the ague, but his heart brimmed with shock and delight.

He had merely considered how to lift the boulder, and his mind had naturally calculated the optimal posture in an instant, using mechanical principles and the explosive strength of the muscles throughout his body.

It had even worked out exactly where he should grip the boulder, how he should breathe, and how many deep breaths he needed before unleashing his body's maximum strength.

After his bloodline had partially awakened, he had tested his strength at the abbey, and roughly four hundred jin had been his limit. Under normal circumstances, lifting an enormous object twice that weight would have been impossible. Yet now, in Overclocking synchronization, he had done it.

This defied common sense somewhat, but Wang Yu could understand it to a degree.

After all, there had been news on Blue Star of a mother too weak to truss a chicken pushing a car in a moment of crisis to save her young daughter.

Wang Yu then looked at a nearby clump of wild grass bearing tiny white flowers. Apart from several similar-looking plants he had seen on Blue Star coming to mind, he obtained no information.

He drew the Silver Flexible Sword from his waist and stared at its slender blade, crystalline light flickering in his eyes. Even after a lengthy analysis, his mind produced only the vague conclusion that it was made of an unknown metal.

Just as he thought!

The analysis and extrapolation under Overclocking synchronization still relied primarily on his own knowledge and experience. It could not conjure something from nothing. Yet the automatic protection mechanism could search the so-called "Blue Star Alliance Great Arsenal," which meant the system itself possessed a database. He simply still could not access or use it under Overclocking synchronization.

"Taiyuan, secrete adrenaline and block some of the pain nerves," Wang Yu called experimentally as a thought occurred to him.

"..."

Sure enough, the automatic protection mechanism, which could replace his consciousness, operated on an entirely different set of procedures.

Unwilling to give up, Wang Yu conducted several other tests, but the results were much the same.

He now roughly understood how overclocked synchronization mode worked!

It was probably a state in which the Taiyuan system provided complete assistance to his consciousness. Unlike the automatic protection mechanism, it did not affect his primary consciousness at all, but amplified his five senses and his ability to analyze and extrapolate.

In other words, under Overclocking synchronization, "he" was still himself-just a version of himself with extraordinarily powerful senses and analytical abilities, who could also precisely control the strength of every muscle in his body.

If this body could return to Blue Star, he would unquestionably be a miniature "Superman."

An expression of understanding appeared on Wang Yu's face. Then he made a few haphazard swings with the long silver sword before him, and his brows furrowed again.

Under the automatic protection mechanism, "Taiyuan" had used his body to perform the Draw-Cutting Art once, yet afterward, no information about that martial technique had remained in his mind.

But in overclocked synchronization mode, his greatly amplified senses told him that his body still retained "muscle memory" of the Draw-Cutting Art.

Wang Yu narrowed his eyes in thought, then swiftly cut a thick branch with the Silver Sword and, in a few deft strokes, whittled it into a crude Wooden Sword.

Holding the Wooden Sword, he followed the residual memory in his body, recalling and exploring various drawing motions, occasionally correcting and adjusting his stance.

After a dozen or so attempts, Wang Yu confidently stood before a small tree and slowly tucked the Wooden Sword at his waist. One hand steadied its spine while the other pressed against the hilt. He bent his knees into a half crouch, leaned slightly forward, and uttered a single word: "Cut!"

Whoosh!

His figure shot forward like a cannonball. Dust billowed where he had stood, and a pit half a foot deep appeared in the ground.

The next instant, a blade-shaped blur flashed past. Wang Yu appeared beside the small tree, his Wooden Sword biting several inches into its trunk.

Crack!

The Wooden Sword shattered in Wang Yu's hand, scattering countless wood chips across the ground.

"Not right."

Looking at the wood chips, Wang Yu shook his head repeatedly. He made another Wooden Sword with the flexible sword and continued practicing his motions.

After several dozen more attempts, he stood before the same small tree again. Crystalline light flickered in his eyes, and the weakest part of the trunk lay plainly exposed to his sight.

Another yellow blade-shaped blur flashed at the edge of the grove, several times larger than the last. As it passed, the small tree split in two and crashed down.

Crack!

The new Wooden Sword, intact a moment before, burst into fragments in Wang Yu's hand once again. Yet his face was filled with excitement.

That was the feeling!

His muscle memory told him that this slash had almost perfectly reproduced the Draw-Cutting Art from that day.

Just then, waves of mental fatigue suddenly washed over him, and the flat, mechanical voice sounded in his mind.

"Mental Power consumption approaching safety threshold. The system will forcibly exit in ten seconds... Ten, nine, eight..."

The time was up already!

Alarmed, Wang Yu hurriedly called, "Exit Overclocking synchronization!"

The words had barely left his mouth when his head buzzed, as though something had been drawn out of it. A dull ache followed deep in his brain, and his entire body grew lethargic. He did not want to think about anything at all.

I mustn't sleep.

Wang Yu repeatedly shook his head, struggling to shake off this troubling condition. The next instant, he felt dampness beneath his nose. He instinctively touched it, then examined his hand closely. There was a smear of bright red blood.

His nose was bleeding!

Shocked, Wang Yu dared do nothing else. He hurriedly sat cross-legged on the spot, emptied his mind completely, and entered a relaxed state between sleeping and waking.

This was an effective way to rapidly recover Mental Power that he had learned when he could not concentrate during his breathing practice.

Only after a full incense stick's worth of time did Wang Yu exhale deeply and open his eyes. Although his face still bore heavy fatigue, his complexion was clearly much better than before. His heart, however, still trembled with lingering fear.

Having his Mental Power squeezed completely dry had been far too dangerous. He truly did not want to experience it a second time. Whenever he activated overclocked synchronization mode in the future, he would have to leave himself a sufficient reserve of Mental Power for safety.

Pondering this, Wang Yu rose, moved his limbs about, and mimed the Draw-Cutting Art he had performed earlier with empty hands. A somewhat odd expression returned to his face.

He had clearly just performed the Overclocked Draw-Cutting Art, and the relevant memories remained in his mind. Yet after exiting Overclocking synchronization mode, his body felt ill-suited to performing it again. It seemed that even with extensive practice and further conditioning, he would probably only be able to use the ordinary Draw-Cutting Art, with power far below what he could achieve in Overclocking mode.

Still, if the Overclocked Draw-Cutting Art was already this powerful, would the Overclocked Wind-Splitting Sword Technique not be equally worth looking forward to?

Wang Yu pondered thoughtfully.