Chapter Twenty-One: Growth

After delivering that strike, Li Qi did not continue testing his blade. Instead, he retreated to a corner of the quiet room, pulled out a bottle of pills, and swallowed five in one go to briefly quell the raging hunger burning within him.

In this world, there is no such thing as high-energy vitality that can be directly absorbed by the human body—no spiritual energy or essence of the sort. Even the most powerful saints must derive their nourishment from food; they cannot simply inhale the essence of the sun and moon.

Li Qi had mastered the Tiger Form, which activated his body's latent potential. Naturally, the changes triggered by this process were extremely energy-intensive, and there was only one way to compensate: eat. Under normal circumstances, two pills would have sufficed to feel full, but this time, even five served as little more than a base. By the time Li Qi finished showering and changed his clothes, he could already feel that what he had just consumed was nearly digested.

Such a rate of digestion was undoubtedly abnormal. Human digestive capacity is strictly limited—at least for ordinary people who have not yet reached the threshold of mastery. Li Qi knew this was the effect of breaking his biological shackles. In truth, human digestive capacity is far more potent than it appears; it is merely that the subconscious mind of the cells forcibly suppresses it. The body does not naturally require such extreme digestive power, and absorbing too much energy would, in fact, become a burden. If one were to observe closely, they would find that everyone’s digestive capacity is at its peak during their growth spurts, consuming massive amounts of food and seemingly never feeling full, only to become easily satiated once the body has fully matured.

Li Qi, having successfully refined his form, was currently in a period of rapid development, and his body had instinctively lifted these limitations.

"If one could fully control the subconscious of the body, wouldn't that make one a perfect, god-like being?" Li Qi mused.

Meanwhile, his hands did not stop; he consumed another three pills in quick succession before finally resting. These pills were manufactured by the Li Group. They sold for twenty-five per pill to the public, but for family members, they were provided at cost—ten each. Previously, Li Qi took four pills a day, costing him forty, which was not a significant expense. After all, these were merely low-end nutritional supplements. The high-end varieties, which allegedly nourished one's innate potential, could cost ten or a hundred times more, with single pills costing tens of thousands. Of course, one could consume those for five years and still not increase their innate coefficient by even 0.01.

"I’m lucky to be born in the modern era. If this were ancient times and the family were poor, practicing martial arts might well lead to starving to death during the transformation process," Li Qi calculated silently.

After all, the nutritional pills he was taking now were far easier to digest than ordinary food. Even with the biological shackles broken, the amount of physical food a person can consume in a day is limited. In normal times, this would be fine, but during such a critical period of development, failing to consume sufficient nutrients could be severe—leading to starvation, or at the very least, severely undermining the effects of the transformation and even causing his innate essence to diminish, thereby lowering his innate coefficient.

For the rest of the day, Li Qi skipped lunch and dinner, relying solely on the nutritional pills. He did not go out or do anything else; he simply ate, drank water, and occasionally paced around the living room. He didn't touch his phone or surf the internet, dedicating most of his time to feeling the changes within himself. Li Qi knew that the changes on this first day would be the most violent; it was impossible for the intensity to remain this high indefinitely. If it were this intense every day, he felt he could become the strongest in the world within three years.

During this process, his interface would pop up nearly every two hours, notifying him that one of his six primary attributes had increased by 0.01. He was literally lying around eating and drinking while constantly growing stronger. By ten o'clock that night, Li Qi had eaten twelve meals, averaging one every hour. Simultaneously, he had almost no waste to expel. On one hand, this was due to his body's greed for nutrients; on the other, it reflected the purity of the pills. If he had relied on rice and meat, not only would the nutrient supply have been insufficient, but he would have spent half the day in the bathroom.

After ten, Li Qi began practicing his blade work. This time, he didn't even sit in meditation; he simply stood before the mirror and breathed. Within ten seconds, his whole body turned flushed and his blood began to boil—a manifestation of his growing synergy with the sword arts. He could not yet activate his entire blood flow with a single thought, but that was merely because his mental cultivation had yet to catch up; his body had already surpassed the standard.

Then, Li Qi began to swing his blade.

Surpassing the limit once! Twice! Three times! Four times!

Originally, he had been two strikes short of reaching the fourth limit-break. But now, without any increase in the visible data of his willpower, he had shattered the limit directly. After breaking the limit, he swung seven more times before his willpower finally collapsed, leaving his brain in a white fog, followed by a pain more delicate and intense than ever before. The 46% bonus to his neural reflexes naturally made his perceptions more refined and vivid.

However, this was a good thing. Pain of sufficient purity could temper one's willpower. If a person truly lost the ability to feel pain, it would be a significant flaw. They might appear to be a battle-crazed warrior, but in reality, they would lose keen insight, the ability to feel the world, and the explosive power derived from the harmony of mind, will, and body. As Li Qi felt the pain, the "Insight into Truth" effect allowed him to perceive a rhythm and a beauty within the endless agony, much like a grand, sweeping melody.

Log: You centered your mind within the pain. Mind +0.01, Willpower +0.02.

As the pain subsided and the interface refreshed, his Mind and Willpower had increased—a rare occurrence without having gone through a full night's sleep. Generally, all attribute increases manifest after waking the next day, as sleep is the best time for the body to grow and transform.

When Li Qi scrolled up through the logs, he also saw the increase in his blade proficiency.

Log: You practiced one round of Tiger Slayer Eighteen Blades. Blade Proficiency +1.5.
Log: You surpassed the limit once. Blade Proficiency +0.6.
Log: You surpassed the limit twice. Blade Proficiency +0.8.
Log: You surpassed the limit three times. Blade Proficiency +1.3.
Log: You surpassed the limit four times. Blade Proficiency +1.5.
Log: You surpassed the limit four times, transcending yourself. Comprehension +8.9.
Log: Your six attributes have been tempered. Aided by the effect of nourishing your innate potential, you will receive minor subsequent increases...

A single round of training had added a full 5.7 to his proficiency. Before this, Li Qi averaged only 3.5 per round; the difference in a single day was immense. At this moment, the proficiency of the Tiger Slayer Eighteen Blades had reached 245/300. As for why it had increased by six points instead of 5.7, it was simply because the decimals had not been displayed previously.

"With two training sessions a day, I'm gaining an average of eleven points of proficiency. Doesn't that mean I could reach the threshold of mastery in just five more days?!" Li Qi thought to himself. But just then, the world shifted. The bright, quiet room was suddenly stained with a layer of gray mist, and a feeling of cold, dark growth began to stir within his heart. The once-real world had abruptly turned dark and sinister.