Volume 2: Setting Out on the Journey Chapter 38: Attributes!

After a long while.

Wang Jue finally calmed his surging emotions and immediately opened his status panel, eager to see what changes had taken place.

Sure enough.

When he cast his gaze toward the panel, he indeed discovered changes.

No, it should rather be said that someone had undergone earth-shattering changes!

[Name: Wang Jue]
[Cultivation: Red Star Realm, Second Tier]
[Innate Talent: Orange Grade (Superior) 0/10000]
[Attribute: Spacetime]
[Technique: Astral Body Soul Scripture, Fourth Stage (Unknown) 0/4000]
[Secret Art: Heaven-Slaying Sword-Drawing Technique (Novice) 0/10000]
[Basic Martial Arts: Basic Swordsmanship (Grandmaster), Basic Fist Technique (Grandmaster), Basic Footwork (Grandmaster)]
[Black Iron Grade Martial Arts: Clear Breeze Nine Swords (Micro) 0/10,000,000]
[Star Source: 0]
[Experience: 0]

His cultivation had transformed from the Spirit Accumulation Realm Ninth Tier to the Red Star Realm Second Tier.

A [Spacetime] attribute had been added to the general overview.

The three grandmaster-grade basic martial arts could no longer be upgraded.

The experience required for the Black Iron-grade martial art had changed from fifty million to ten million.

What pained him the most was that both his Star Source points and experience had turned into zero.

These were the five total areas of change.

And [Spacetime] was precisely the attribute Wang Jue had awakened this time!

As to just how powerful this attribute was and how to wield it, Wang Jue would still need to spend a considerable amount of time exploring!

Oh crap!

I'm still outside, damn it!

If a star beast were to suddenly barge in, things would get completely out of hand!

Thinking of this, Wang Jue had no time to ponder further before his expression shifted drastically.

Since it was his own spiritual sea, Wang Jue easily retreated from it.

Originally, he thought that if a star beast had coincidentally wandered in while he was breaking through, it might just give him a free ticket to the afterlife once he returned to his body.

The moment he opened his eyes, however, he realized he had overthought it.

"Phew, that scared the hell out of me!"

Wang Jue's gaze swept rapidly around the room. Not finding a single trace of any person or star beast having entered, he let out a massive sigh of relief. "I suppose this counts as a blessing in disguise?"

While peacefully breaking through his cultivation realm, he had inexplicably awakened an attribute, and not only that—though he hadn't been entirely certain of breaking through to the Red Star Realm, the attribute awakening had propelled him directly to the Red Star Second Tier!

Even the experience required to upgrade his martial arts had decreased.

The only thing that slightly disgruntled him was that all the Star Source and experience he had painstakingly accumulated were entirely gone.

One must know that a second-tier star beast could only provide Wang Jue with one Star Source point and one thousand experience points, while a third-tier star beast provided two Star Source points and ten thousand experience points.

Calculated this way, after deducting the three thousand points used for the cultivation technique, the remaining five hundred-odd Star Source points would require Wang Jue to hunt down a full two hundred and fifty-odd third-tier star beasts.

As for experience, Wang Jue didn't care about it all that much.

After all, he had yet to fully master his three basic martial arts, and the Black Iron-grade Clear Breeze Nine Swords he had learned was still only at the initial mastery level; he simply didn't have that much spare experience to learn new martial arts anyway.

In his view, martial arts weren't better the more you had—only those that suited you were the best.

"It really is bizarre. My cultivation clearly broke through three consecutive tiers, so why don't I feel the usual sense of instability? Instead, it gives me a feeling of absolute solidity?"

Wang Jue instinctively intended to stabilize his cultivation first, only to discover that his cultivation required no stabilization whatsoever, leaving him utterly dumbfounded.

After a long moment, a thoughtful expression appeared on Wang Jue's face. "Could it be related to the awakened attribute?"

Unfortunately, he didn't know much about attributes.

No, it was practically unknown!

Whether it was their capabilities or their uses, everything remained for him to explore himself.

At this moment, Wang Jue had already forgotten about going to settle accounts with the two remaining members of the Blazing Flame Team.

Compared to killing people,

Wang Jue was clearly far more interested in his awakened attribute and intended to study it thoroughly.

...

The next day, morning.

Wang Jue rested his chin against the wall in deep thought.

This was already the second day since he awakened his attribute.

After a night of experimentation and comprehension, he finally managed to understand a few things regarding attributes.

In truth, Wang Jue wasn't entirely sure whether his hypothesis was correct or not.

From his perspective, the indispensable prerequisite for awakening an attribute was having spiritual power!

Spiritual power was the threshold!

Anyone without spiritual power didn't even possess the qualifications to touch upon awakening!

Only those with spiritual power stood a chance.

Of course, that didn't mean everyone with spiritual power could awaken an attribute.

If an attribute were compared to a lock, then spiritual power was the key to open it.

However, possessing the key did not mean the lock could be opened one hundred percent of the time.

Opening a lock required someone to insert the key into the keyhole and turn it.

Those with spiritual power were the ones holding the key, but to unlock it, they had to find the keyhole.

In this regard, one could only rely on individual effort.

As for someone like Wang Jue, who had inexplicably and abruptly awakened, one would struggle to find a second identical case throughout the entire Azure Blue Star.

Although Wang Jue had now awakened his attribute, he still hadn't completely figured out how he actually achieved the awakening.

Aside from spiritual power, there must have been other conditions.

Regrettably, Wang Jue still hadn't figured out what those were.

Wang Jue didn't really know how many types of attributes existed in total.

He only remembered reading posts stating that attributes had their respective strengths and weaknesses.

This superiority and inferiority didn't refer to mutual restraint, but rather a naturally formed gap.

Once certain attributes were awakened, their sphere of influence was extremely vast, such as time, space, life, destruction, and so on.

Yet when it came to the most expansive one, none could rival Spacetime.

At the same time, it was also the most mysterious and the hardest attribute to awaken in the entire universe.

If attribute-wielding martial artists stood above ordinary martial artists, then Spacetime stood above all other attributes.

Among the posts Wang Jue had previously read, there was no mention of the [Spacetime] attribute; instead, there were one or two posts concerning the [Time] and [Space] attributes.

To say Wang Jue wasn't excited about awakening the Spacetime attribute would be a lie.

As a member of the time-travelers club, the people of Azure Blue Star might not understand, but how could he not?

Back on Earth before his transmigration, Wang Jue used to read online web novels whenever he had free time.

Those novels happened to include stories involving attributes.

Only, the terminology varied from novel to novel—some called them attributes, some called them laws, and others used different names entirely.

Although the designations differed across books, the categories of attributes remained largely unchanged.

The more common ones were simply Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Ice, Light, Dark, Lightning, etc., while the special ones included Life, Death, Time, Space, Creation, Destruction, and so on.

As to whether Azure Blue Star possessed that many attributes, Wang Jue was not yet certain.

What he did know, however, was that the [Spacetime] attribute he awakened should be just like what the previous life's novels described—formed by the fusion of the two laws of [Time] and [Space].

If both [Time] and [Space] were immensely powerful on their own, then the [Spacetime] attribute, which inherited the advantages of both after their fusion, would undoubtedly be even stronger!

As for the claim in the posts that 'there are only superior and inferior attributes, with no mutual restraint,' Wang Jue scoffed at it entirely.

Take the simplest Five Elements concept of 'generation and restriction' for example.

The Five Elements generation cycle was: Gold generates Water, Water generates Wood, Wood generates Fire, Fire generates Earth, Earth generates Gold.

The Five Elements restriction cycle was: Gold restricts Wood, Wood restricts Earth, Earth restricts Water, Water restricts Fire, Fire restricts Gold.

One could say that the Five Elements were locked in an inescapable deadlock where this attribute restrained that attribute, which in turn was restrained by yet another!

Time slowly trickled by.

Wang Jue deliberately spent another day testing the methods of attribute utilization described in the web novels of his past life.

After verification, Wang Jue felt like killing someone out of frustration!

Whether his comprehension was limited or his method of experimentation was wrong,

Wang Jue failed to succeed even once after a whole day.

Instead, drawing inspiration from the novels accidentally led him to discover a technique where attributes could be imbued into martial arts.

...

The next day.

Wang Jue began his stakeout very early.

He discovered that the members of the Blazing Flame Team, numbering eight in total including the old man surnamed Li, were following their usual routine and leaving the hotel once again.

At this moment.

While observing the departure of these eight individuals from afar, Wang Jue also quietly left his stronghold.

Two days had passed since his attribute awakening, and during these past two days, Wang Jue hadn't spent much time on surveillance, dedicating virtually all his time to the application of his attribute.

He had to admit that although the time was short, the results left Wang Jue quite satisfied.

If two days ago he lacked the confidence to deal with Red Star Realm fifth or sixth-tier martial artists, Wang Jue—having broken through to the Red Star Second Tier and awakened the Spacetime attribute—no longer believed such opponents were his match.

After all, his cultivation breakthrough from the Spirit Accumulation Ninth Tier to the Red Star Second Tier wasn't merely crossing a major boundary.

Lest anyone forget, ever since the Body Tempering Realm, he had possessed one more tier than other martial artists.

While other martial artists had nine tiers per realm, Wang Jue—whether due to his cultivation technique or his 'golden finger'—had his realms extended by one, reaching ten tiers!

It was precisely because each realm surpassed others by one tier that Wang Jue was able to fight opponents above his level.

Originally, at the Spirit Accumulation Ninth Tier, separated by a major boundary, he had no fear of martial artists below the Red Star Fifth Tier; now that his cultivation had broken through to the same realm, he feared them even less.

As for what level of combat prowess he currently possessed after his breakthrough, he genuinely wasn't certain.

That could only be verified by finding someone to test it on.

And the two remaining members of the Blazing Flame Team tucked away inside the resplendent hotel not far away were the absolute best targets for Wang Jue to test his strength!

After all, they were already on his death list.

Being able to serve as a test for his strength right before their deaths could be considered dying for a worthy cause.

Soon.

Wang Jue advanced toward the hotel along an alternate path littered with the blood and remains of various monsters.

Quietly strolling down this alleyway, Wang Jue spotted two Dark Leopards in the distance, lowering their heads to tear into the flesh and blood of another star beast species, eating with great relish.

Upon sensing Wang Jue's approach, the two Dark Leopards let out twin whooshing sounds and darted away.

The intelligence of Dark Leopards couldn't compare to that of humans, but compared to other star beasts, they possessed a certain cunning.

No matter how skilled human martial artists mingling in the ruined city might be, they could handle one or two third-tier star beasts completely fine, but if the numbers were high, they simply couldn't hold their ground and would invariably choose to retreat or flee at the earliest opportunity.

"Hmm... it seems those two Dark Leopards went to summon their companions; I need to get out of here quickly."

Wang Jue swiftly crossed the alleyway, pressing onward while intentionally taking a wide detour, wasting a bit of time along the way to pace himself.

Ultimately, it took him well over half an hour to reach the back door of the hotel.