Volume 2: Setting Out on the Journey - Chapter 37: Awakening!

Along the way, Wang Jue suddenly stopped in his tracks, pondered for a moment, and turned back to his previous resting spot.

To make himself more confident in this trip, Wang Jue opened his attribute panel.

[Name: Wang Jue]
[Cultivation: Ninth Realm of Spirit Nourishing]
[Talent: Orange Grade (Superior) 0/10000]
[Cultivation Method: Astral Body Soul Technique Third Tier (Unknown) 0/3000]
[Secret Art: Heaven-Slaying Sword-Drawing Technique (Novice) 0/10000]
[Martial Art: Basic Swordsmanship (Grandmaster) 0/10,000,000]
[Martial Art: Basic Fist Technique (Grandmaster) 0/10,000,000]
[Footwork: Basic Footwork (Grandmaster) 0/10,000,000]
[Black Iron Grade: Clear Wind Nine Swords (Micro-realm) 0/50,000,000]
[Star Source: 3513]
[Experience: 2628317]

There were no changes to his talent, realm, cultivation method, or martial art levels.

What had changed was that his Star Source points had increased from over 2,900 to over 3,500, a sudden jump of more than 500 points, while his experience points had surged from over 900,000 to more than 2.6 million.

Carefully calculating, both the Star Source and experience were largely related to the tier-two and tier-three star beasts Wang Jue and his squad had hunted earlier.

If they hadn't chosen to specifically hunt tier-three star beasts later on, Wang Jue would have only gained 2 Star Source points per kill, and his total now would probably cap out at just over 300 extra.

Upgrading his talent required 10,000 points, and the Heaven-Slaying Sword-Drawing Technique also required 10,000 points. Even if Wang Jue wanted to upgrade these two, he simply didn't have enough points and could only watch helplessly.

The only thing he could upgrade was his cultivation method!

As for the two million experience points, they were practically useless for now; if it were twenty million, it might have some utility.

"If I can contend with the team captain and the others, it means the members of the Blazing Flame Squad have a cultivation level of at least around the Fifth Tier of Crimson Star."

Wang Jue couldn't help but frown. "With my current strength, I have a higher chance of winning against those at the Third or Fourth Tier of Crimson Star. Against the Fifth Tier, it's fifty-fifty, and against the Sixth Tier, I'd lose more than I'd win. Dealing with just one of them would be fine—I could just force it. But the problem is they left behind two people. That makes things rather tricky..."

Generally speaking, some geniuses are capable of defeating opponents with higher cultivation realms than their own, but as martial artists reach higher realms, such occurrences become increasingly rare.

Back in the Body Tempering Realm, one could defeat opponents in the Spirit Nourishing Realm.

Now that he was already at the Ninth Realm of Spirit Nourishing, bolstered by his cultivation methods and martial arts, he could defeat martial artists at the Third or Fourth Tier of Crimson Star. However, expecting him to defeat someone at the Fifth Tier or above gave him very little certainty.

As a martial artist's realm increases, the phenomenon of challenging higher realms becomes rarer.

It's not that geniuses turn into mediocrities, but rather that those martial artists who manage to break through their realms time and time again—aren't they also considered geniuses in the eyes of others?

When a genius faces an ordinary person with inferior talent, even if their cultivation levels are identical, the genius will undoubtedly win!

Once a genius faces an equally talented opponent, however, the talent they rely on is neutralized by the equally gifted adversary, reducing the contest to whoever has the higher cultivation level.

If both are at the same cultivation level, the deciding factor is their comprehension of martial arts and the depth of their mastery!

In Wang Jue's view, the members of the Blazing Flame Squad were certainly inferior to him in terms of martial arts, but they completely suppressed him in terms of cultivation realm.

Of course, if a real fight broke out, even if he couldn't beat them, his speed would make escaping a breeze.

However, he was currently facing two people. One against two?

No matter how confident Wang Jue was in his own strength, he didn't believe he could simultaneously kill two people whose cultivation levels surpassed his own.

Don't let his effortless hunting of tier-three star beasts—which felt as easy as cutting vegetables—fool you; fighting human martial artists of the same tier was completely different from hunting star beasts.

The primary reason was that star beasts far surpassed humans in both physical strength and bodily defense, making their comprehensive strength much greater than that of humans!

Yet star beasts lacked one crucial aspect that humans possessed: intelligence!

The gap between having intelligence and lacking it is immense.

Otherwise, how could so many martial artist squads manage to take down star beasts with higher cultivation levels than themselves?

"To be on the safe side, I'd better break through my cultivation realm right now."

Wang Jue made his decision immediately. "After more than half a month of tempering, my cultivation is only separated from the Tenth Realm of Spirit Nourishing by a thin sheet of paper, and I can break through at any moment. Now it all depends on whether upgrading my cultivation method will allow me to break through to the Crimson Star Realm..."

Thinking of this, Wang Jue hesitated no longer. He directly spent 3,000 Star Source points to upgrade the [Astral Body Soul Technique] from the third tier to the fourth.

As the cultivation method was upgraded—

The very next second.

The ambient spiritual energy of heaven and earth within a radius of dozens of miles seemed to be guided by an invisible hand, gathering rapidly and quietly around Wang Jue in an astonishing manner.

Wang Jue had initially worried that the commotion from his breakthrough would be too large and might attract members of the Blazing Flame Squad.

Left with no choice, instead of breaking through immediately, he swept his spiritual sense across the surroundings.

To his surprise, his spiritual sense swept past without catching sight of even a shadow of a person, let alone a star beast.

Only then did Wang Jue breathe a sigh of relief and immediately enter a state of cultivation.

A soft "pop" sounded from his body, and his cultivation realm instantly jumped from the ninth realm to the tenth, slowly rising at a pace visible to the naked eye.

Noticing that his cultivation had broken through, Wang Jue intended to strike while the iron is hot and see if he could leverage this momentum to break through to the Crimson Star Realm.

Just as he concentrated, preparing to immerse himself fully in cultivation, he felt his consciousness suddenly stall, and a wave of dizziness washed over his head.

"Huh?"

When Wang Jue cleared the scenery around him and shook his head, the sudden transition made him feel as though he was experiencing a hallucination.

"Where is this place?"

When Wang Jue realized that he was actually standing in a boundless, pure white space, his expression changed drastically.

If he remembered correctly, he should be in the middle of cultivating right now. How on earth did he suddenly end up in this place?

What surprised him next was that no matter what methods he tried, he remained trapped within the space and could not get out.

At that moment, a wave of panic washed over Wang Jue.

"Huh?"

At this point, Wang Jue glanced around. As far as the eye could see, everything was pure white, except for a silvery-gray light flickering right in the center of the space. If his eyesight hadn't been so sharp, he probably wouldn't have noticed it at all.

Seeing this, he quickly ran forward, wanting to see if this was the cause.

"What on earth is this thing?"

Preoccupied with the situation outside, Wang Jue had no mind for careful observation. He casually tapped the one-meter-tall, silvery-gray elliptical sphere before him to observe its changes.

"Damn it, what a powerful suction force!"

Instantly, Wang Jue felt an overwhelmingly strong suction force erupt, as if it were trying to pull his entire body into the sphere.

Without a second thought, he planted his hands firmly against the sides of the sphere, straightened his body, and struggled backward with all his might to resist the pulling force.

"Whoosh!"

Yet, due to the sheer magnitude of the suction force, Wang Jue was ultimately dragged into the sphere.

At the same time.

The light on the silvery-gray sphere dissipated, and the entire space returned to tranquility, as if nothing had happened at all.

...

"Plop!"

After being sucked into the curtain of light, Wang Jue opened his eyes only to find pitch-black darkness all around, making it impossible to see anything. Then, he felt as though he were submerged in water.

What he found strange, however, was that no matter how hard he swam upward, he could not make an inch of progress.

This bizarre situation left Wang Jue somewhat at a loss as to how to handle it.

Wait, no!

Why can I still breathe underwater?!

At that moment, Wang Jue suddenly recalled that after being sucked into this place by the silvery-gray sphere, although he felt like he was in water, he had never felt any water pressure, and even his breathing was completely unobstructed.

Could someone please tell me what kind of situation this is?

Just as his mind was in utter turmoil, he sensed countless wisps of water closing in on him from all directions.

Faced with this unknown situation, Wang Jue began thrashing wildly, but to very little avail.

Just when he thought he was completely doomed this time—

Unexpectedly...

Ah, that feels amazing.

As the very first wisp of water touched Wang Jue, an intense feeling of supreme comfort coursed through his entire body.

Immediately following that, Wang Jue felt as though he had been placed in an ethereal realm. That relaxation, stretching from the inside out, made him close his eyes and momentarily forget where he was.

The next second.

The spiritual sea within his mind suddenly radiated a brilliant light, which then formed a vortex that frantically absorbed these water currents.

The water currents approaching Wang Jue offered no resistance whatsoever, cooperating fully with the absorption by his spiritual sea.

At the same time, even more water currents poured endlessly into Wang Jue's body.

After circulating through Wang Jue's body for a brief moment, the water currents actually decomposed into microscopic particles, merging completely with the cells throughout his body and causing those cells to take on a silvery-gray hue.

This transformation spread across Wang Jue's entire body, yet he remained completely unaware of it, simply closing his eyes in a half-slumber.

Very soon.

Wang Jue's body had been completely remodeled by the water currents.

Those water currents that had been sucked into his spiritual sea all floated within his realm of spiritual consciousness, condensing together to form a sphere of water.

"Hum!"

The sphere of water floating in mid-air suddenly emitted a faint hum, transforming from a liquid state into a gaseous mist. The droplets and currents that had previously orbited the water sphere also turned into mist accordingly.

Following that, the gaseous mist began to drift outward slowly.

Bit by bit, it dyed Wang Jue's spiritual sea, and the originally pure white spiritual sea began to display a hint of silvery-gray.

In the end, casting aside its previous boundless whiteness, the entire spiritual sea transformed into a striking silvery-gray!

Once the transformation of the spiritual sea concluded, Wang Jue's astral wheels and astral power also underwent a corresponding color change.

It was impossible to tell how much time had passed.

Wang Jue finally awoke from his slumber.

As he opened his eyes, the scenery before him shifted instantly, and he found himself back inside the spiritual sea of his mind.

However, Wang Jue paid no attention to this, simply standing there in a daze.

It wasn't until several breaths later that a burst of loud laughter filled the entire space.

"Hahaha..."

While laughing, he extended his palm, and a wisp of silvery-gray gas instantly manifested around his body.

When the laughter finally subsided.

Staring fixedly at the gas, he spoke two words with a trembling voice.

"Attribute!"

That's right.

What Wang Jue had just awakened was precisely the "attribute" he had long heard of but had never been able to attain.

Ever since he learned that certain geniuses could awaken "attributes," Wang Jue had been collecting books and information related to attributes.

Especially after becoming an adventurer and logging into the internal adventurer network, he had seen numerous posts concerning attributes and understood just how immense the enhancement of attributes is for a martial artist!

An attribute can be used independently as an attack method, or integrated to assist astral power, martial arts, and other techniques.

Among peers of the same realm, a martial artist who has awakened an attribute will utterly crush one who has not.

Because the attacks of the two parties are simply not on the same level.

The strength of an attribute is primarily related to one's comprehension of the attribute itself and the strength of one's spiritual power.

Of course, these things are not permanently fixed and can be improved through later cultivation.

As for the methods, those posts hadn't gone into detail.