"Cough, cough, cough."
The violent coughing sounded as though he would cough his lungs out. Leo dared not stop. He extended a hand, and a bottle of healing potion appeared in his palm.
The countdown to death allowed Leo no hesitation. Every second was a chance to survive.
The gentle healing potion was exactly the energy his weakened body needed most. He poured a bottle into his mouth, and it traveled down his shrunken esophagus into his stomach. Leo could feel his body divide up every last bit of the potion's energy in an instant.
His bandit-like bodily functions frantically absorbed every scrap of available energy. Every organ, every internal organ seemed to have developed its own consciousness, fighting one another for the scarce energy to hasten their recovery.
One bottle of healing potion did little to restore his body. His heavy, weakened body merely felt a little lighter, and his mana recovered a little faster.
But the countdown to death, which had nearly reached zero, gained quite a bit of time. Leo had survived!
His body was still skin and bones, and his organs were still desperately demanding energy from him. This was precisely a sign that his body was recovering; otherwise, it would not have been so lively.
Leo strained to open his eyes wide, wanting to see what he looked like now, but everything was a blur. He could not even see his palm right in front of him.
Only then did Leo understand. Through the information his subconscious had conveyed, his body had stopped sustaining unimportant organs. Even his eyes had been drained dry. Fortunately, he had not gone completely blind, leaving him hope of regaining his sight.
As he poured bottle after bottle of healing potion into his body, Leo's vision began to recover. Even his fat and muscles began growing rapidly. Vigorous blood surged through his veins, and his fiercely beating heart pumped it throughout his body.
Once he had enough mana, he activated the Healing Rune Array, and the cells in his body devoured the energy in the air like ravenous wolves and tigers.
Every cell in his body was crying out, cheering their revival!
In just a few hours, the mummified Leo returned to his original appearance. He clenched his fists, then broke into an excited smile after carefully sensing the changes.
"My body has grown about 2% stronger, and over 65% of my cells have been replaced. Because of passive evolution, my physical defense has now increased by 4%, energy leakage has decreased by 3%, and my total mana has increased by 5%."
"Because my body subconsciously believed it was in a dangerous environment where it couldn't replenish enough energy, the evolution focused more on energy leakage and improved energy utilization."
How could Leo not be happy? This single near-death evolution had strengthened his body considerably. Overall, the improvement was more than 3%.
Even 3% was already substantial. Gaining so much from a single struggle to survive at the brink of death was something he would never have dared imagine before.
Leo as a whole had not died, but most of his cells had. Countless cells recorded information about their deaths and passed it to the new cells, allowing those new cells to adapt to the harsh environment and evolve.
This method of using a harsh external environment to drive the body's passive evolution was truly terrifying. After just a few generations of cell replacement, a clear improvement would become visible!
For the cells, getting stronger was not optional. If they did not grow stronger and evolve, they would die!
"Leo, you really dare to gamble with your life. I thought you weren't going to make it," Benji's voice rang out in his mind with a sigh.
While rapidly restoring his body, Leo carefully sensed the minute changes within it. His body growing stronger was good news, but what pleased him even more was its instinct to save itself when on the brink of death.
As mentioned before, the evolution of humans on Earth had taken millions of years. From the earliest ape-men and Homo sapiens to modern humans on Earth, cells had renewed and undergone selection generation after generation, with the results then written into DNA and passed on to the next generation.
Continuing like this, it had taken a million years to evolve this much.
Yet Leo had gained a 3% improvement from just one brush with death. It could also be called evolution to adapt to his environment, compressing a million years to the absolute limit.
Although he still could not actively control this rapid evolution or study the secrets it contained, it had undoubtedly improved his ability to survive by far more than a little.
At the very least, when he encountered harsh environments in the future, he could let his body passively save itself, giving him a higher chance of survival than others!
He had to admit that the training methods of body-refining wizards were truly extreme. Evolve or die!!!
"How much time has passed since I entered the desert?" Having lost track of time, Leo could only ask Benji.
"Not much. Three months," Benji said.
"Three months?"
Leo murmured to himself. He really had not realized so much time had passed. Thanks to his strong, robust body, it was very difficult for him to reach the brink of death. In the early stages, he had to constantly wear down his bodily functions, tormenting his own body through self-harm.
Of those three months, two had been spent exhausting his body's energy.
Only the final month had been a challenge to his limits!
"Three months is too long. I'll stop my body's recovery ability right away and put restraints on my mana. I also need to adjust the Gravity Rune Array to four times gravity and try to push my body to its limit within half a month."
Leo gritted his teeth as he spoke. Since this was a challenge to his limits, he would eliminate all these abilities that could prevent his body from evolving.
"You really have gone mad, you lunatic."
"From what I observed, your three-month desert endurance challenge was clearly a failed training attempt. If you hadn't suddenly woken up at the end, you would have died long ago," Benji said fiercely.
"Succeeding this time doesn't mean everything will go so smoothly from now on. You can't gamble on waking up every single time."
The most important thing about training in such extreme environments was knowing when the body had reached its limit, then stopping immediately and recovering quickly.
A limit could not be broken through in one attempt. It required repeated breakthroughs, pushing a little further this time and a little further the next. After many attempts, the limit could be fully surpassed. That was the purpose of training in extreme environments.
In Leo's terms, passive cellular evolution had to happen little by little. An improvement of a few tenths of a percent each time was the optimal way to train, unlike his own 3% evolution in one go. That was gambling with the Grim Reaper. Winning a few times did not matter; losing once meant death!
Leo's body was not yet strong enough to break through in a single attempt, so seeking stability amid danger was the best approach.
But now, Leo was not only sealing his body's recovery ability, he was also sealing all his mana and even adjusting gravity to four times normal. This meant he would instantly become a frail ordinary person.
If he gambled with his life at his limit the way he had last time, the most likely outcome was that he would die without even having time to react.
His body could evolve passively to save itself, but there were limits to that too. Sealing his entire body at once was equivalent to making his cells fight fully armed enemies barehanded. The most likely outcome was that they would all die outright!
"Don't worry. I had no experience last time. Now I do," Leo said with a smile, completely unconcerned.
Leo immediately activated the Gravity Rune Array on his abdomen, probing into it with a faint thread of mana. The array activated with a glow. He abruptly lurched, both feet sinking heavily into the sand.
Fourfold gravity considerably increased the weight Leo exerted externally. He needed some time to adapt to the sudden change in gravity.
After moving around for a while, he found it somewhat strenuous, but he could still adapt.
Leo immediately took a bottle of black potion out of the Shadow Space and poured it into his mouth without hesitation. In an instant, his aura vanished, along with the mana that had flowed through his body like a river.
Without his mana, Leo immediately felt as though his body had been hollowed out. With fourfold gravity pressing down on him as well, every movement required several times the effort.
"This way, it won't take three months to reach my body's limit. Half a month will definitely do it." Although Leo was panting heavily, a crazed smile appeared on his face.
The first evolution had taken three months, so the second would take more than three months. After several more, perhaps a single evolution would take a year. Leo did not believe he had that much time.
Survival at the limits in the desert was only one part of stimulating evolution through harsh environments. He had to strictly control his time.
"Lunatic. You really are a lunatic."
"It would have been one thing if you'd used another method to seal the mana in your body, but why did you have to drink that Bitterheart Grass Potion? If you go too far again and end up dying, then try to save your life with mana like last time, the Bitterheart Grass Potion will send you straight to hell." Benji truly wanted to grab Leo by the neck and ask whether he had a death wish. Bitterheart Grass would lock his mana down tight.
"I only have two ways to seal energy. Aside from the Bitterheart Grass Potion, you wouldn't help me with the second one. What else could I do?" His mana was gone, and even his physical body felt bound in heavy shackles, but Leo was still all smiles.
"..."
Leo's retort left Benji speechless, because he knew everything Leo said was true. He had never brought it up precisely because he feared Leo would mention this method.
As it turned out, Leo had long since seen through him and would rather drink Bitterheart Grass Potion than ask for his help.
The second method was to use Benji's desire to kill himself to activate the "Greater Energy Sealing Witchcraft" hidden inside his body. That would provide a complete seal.
Moreover, the switch was entirely under Benji's control. As soon as Benji wanted to kill himself, the "Greater Energy Sealing Witchcraft" would activate automatically. Once Benji no longer wanted to die, the "Greater Energy Sealing Witchcraft" would automatically deactivate.
This was the best training aid for Leo. Leo knew it, and so did Benji. Neither of them had said it outright, that was all.
"Fine, do whatever you want. If you die, I die too. It'll save a lot of trouble, which suits me perfectly."
After saying this in some exasperation, Benji fell silent again.
Leo also stopped talking and trudged slowly through the desert.
After sealing all the mana in his body, the effect was indeed different. In just one day, Leo felt exhausted—a feeling that had only appeared after ten days last time.
With his first experience behind him, Leo quickly settled into the rhythm. An unknown amount of time later, the mummified Leo reached his body's limit and collapsed headfirst onto the desert sand.
Windblown sand rose, dunes formed, and Leo was buried once again!