Chapter 139: The Olympics?

“Looks like you made quite a haul?” Feng Xue greeted Mu Qianrou, who was busy beating Xia Mi to a pulp.

“Yeah. I originally wanted to use martial intent to simulate the structure of a warrior’s spirit, but who would have thought that thing was actually a trap left behind by Susanoomon? Only those who accept its mark can use it. But how could martial intent possibly leave behind someone else’s mark?” Mu Qianrou shook her school uniform. “I figured that out when I saw the Ten Warriors. After that, I just kept fighting, fighting, and fighting—and then I became a Bancho…”

Feng Xue remained skeptical. How could becoming a Bancho in the Digital World be achieved through fighting alone? Without a “justice” powerful enough to move the entire Digital World, it was impossible to earn the title of Bancho!

Moreover, the school uniform Mu Qianrou wore had not been brought out of the Digital World. It had been materialized directly by her martial intent after absorbing the Bancho spirit. At this moment, Mu Qianrou was effectively maintaining a semi-materialized state of martial intent at all times!

“Enough with the digressions! What about you? I heard from Old Wang that something happened to you in that world. Which girl stole your soul?” Just then, Xia Mi finally broke free of Mu Qianrou’s control zone—the absolute domain of a martial arts expert, within which the opponent’s attacks could not be evaded. Wearing a lecherous expression, he began prying for gossip.

“…”

Without a second thought, Feng Xue punched Xia Mi. Yet before he could even throw the blow, Xia Mi had already moved away from the place Feng Xue intended to strike.

“Precognition?” Feng Xue froze for a moment, then threw another punch, unwilling to believe it.

“I heard that!” Xia Mi narrowed his eyes and casually extended one finger, placing it precisely at the center of Feng Xue’s fist. The sensation of having half the force he had summoned forced back into his body made Feng Xue feel sick.

“…”

Feng Xue’s expression darkened. Xia Mi’s gains were clearly substantial as well. He had never heard of Qiuniu possessing such an ability. Could Xia Mi have evolved Qiuniu into Di Ting?

“You’ve only been testing the two of us. What about you?” Mu Qianrou looked at Feng Xue with equal curiosity. Her meaning was obvious.

“I obtained an aura, but I still haven’t figured out what it does. Why don’t you two help me test it?” Feng Xue suddenly wore a wicked grin.

The Food Demon appeared. The four-winged feathered serpent, constructed from sheer force of presence, suddenly opened the third vertical eye in its forehead. Although the two of them were not standing in the same direction, they both felt that the eye was staring fixedly at them.

This was the first time Feng Xue had used the aura on living beings. The instant it activated, he sensed that something within Xia Mi and Mu Qianrou was descending, while the corresponding force within himself was rising. It was the same obscure information his extrasensory perception could detect.

This aura was not merely a debuff. It could weaken others while strengthening its user at the same time.

“Lowering willpower? No… Martial intent hasn’t reacted. Whatever is being lowered, it isn’t willpower. But why do I feel as though my mental resilience has weakened?” Mu Qianrou murmured. Thanks to the miraculous effects of her martial intent, she could clearly perceive changes in her own mental state.

“Yeah, it should be some kind of judgment value. Once it falls below a certain threshold, a person will collapse. But we’ll need to investigate further to figure out exactly what it is. What a strange aura…” Even an old hand like Xia Mi could not identify the aura’s nature, which surprised Feng Xue.

Still, it was not entirely strange. Some things were not recognizable merely because they had been mentioned in a textbook. Biology class had even taught them the difference between a loofah vine and a ridge gourd vine, but who could guarantee that anyone would actually recognize them in the wild?

With that thought, Feng Xue deactivated the aura. As he breathed, streams of information became perceptible. He could clearly “see” that the mysterious value within Mu Qianrou and Xia Mi was rapidly recovering. In only two or three seconds, both had returned to full strength. In fact, Mu Qianrou recovered slightly faster than Xia Mi.

“Looks like it really is some kind of attribute connected to willpower. As willpower increases, the recovery rate accelerates, and it also affects a person’s mental state. Why does this attribute sound so familiar?”

Feng Xue felt that the answer was drawing closer and closer, yet it remained veiled behind a thin layer of gauze, impossible to see clearly.

“All right, stop thinking about it. Hurry up and report in! I heard there’s going to be some major event this year!” Mu Qianrou grabbed the dazed Feng Xue and ran toward their classroom.

…

“You said there’s going to be a major event this year? What is it?” Sitting in the classroom of Transcendent Class 57—classes one through fifty were for older students, while those after class fifty were for newcomers—Feng Xue could not resist his curiosity and asked Mu Qianrou.

“I don’t know either. I only heard a few upperclassmen talking about it on the way here. Apparently it’s something that happens once every four years. Anyway, it seems to be extremely important, and it’s supposedly held jointly with the Western human race…”

“Don’t tell me it’s the Olympics?” Feng Xue made a harmless joke. “Something jointly held by the East and West, and once every four years at that. It couldn’t possibly be the Continental War, could it?”

Who could have expected that the moment Feng Xue said this, both of their expressions would turn solemn.

“Is it really the Continental War? Even if it is, it shouldn’t involve the Central Traversal Academy, should it?” Feng Xue’s expression darkened.

The Continental War was a true war, fought on a continental scale! Unlike the traversal demiplanes, where death merely cost one a portion of one’s lifespan, people truly died in the Continental War.

Even a war between continents of only the Extraordinary level could claim the lives of heroic experts. A rookie like Feng Xue, who had only just entered the Transcendent level, would not even make a ripple if thrown into one.

“It isn’t the Continental War. Students of the Central Traversal Academy aren’t dispatched to participate in continental wars until they reach the Heroic level. But I think I can guess what it is…” Xia Mi’s expression was somewhat grave.

“What is it? Hurry up and tell us! Why are you being so mysterious?” Mu Qianrou was impatient by nature. She nearly seized Xia Mi by the collar and hoisted him into the air.

Just as Xia Mi was about to answer, a voice suddenly rang out.

“Quiet!”

Everyone turned toward the sound, only to see a bald man entering through the doorway.

“Do you have to go bald if you want to become stronger?” someone shouted from somewhere, prompting the entire class to burst into laughter.

The teacher, who was presumably their homeroom instructor, was not annoyed. He merely laughed along and said, “That’s right. The cultivation method I practice is called the Limiter! I have already reached the middle rank of the Demigod level! You may call me Teacher Li Qi. Until you reach the Heroic level—or are exiled to the Lower Academy—I will be your homeroom teacher.”

The moment Teacher Li Qi finished speaking, the room suddenly fell silent.

The Limiter.

The name seemed to weigh upon everyone’s hearts like a mountain.

The Limiter was one of the two universally acknowledged monstrous cultivation methods of the human race. Everyone had surely heard of the other one long ago: the Gene Lock, a method of achieving sainthood through the physical body by breaking through life and death, touching the origin of the genes, and unlocking one’s innate limits.

The Limiter could stand alongside the Gene Lock precisely because it was not like the method in One-Punch Man, where three years of persistent training were enough to break through and become a god.

The true Limiter cultivation method required one to excavate every ounce of one’s potential to the absolute extreme. Each cycle lasted three years, and not a single day could be skipped. Through constant training, one had to temper both body and spirit to their limits before the method’s true power could be brought forth.

If the improvement of Food Cells was a cultivation method founded entirely upon humanity, then the Limiter was an absolute cultivation method founded upon the laws of Heaven. More importantly, it was the strongest method for making up for lack of talent through sheer diligence.

The fact that Teacher Li Qi cultivated this method alone was enough to earn him everyone’s respect.

For example, suppose a person’s limits were one hundred squats, one hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups, and a ten-kilometer run in a single day. To cultivate the Limiter, that person would have to complete at least one hundred and one squats, one hundred and one push-ups, one hundred and one sit-ups, and a run of ten kilometers and one meter on the first day.

On the second day, the amount would still have to increase. On the third day, the same would remain true. No matter how much more one did today, one had to do even more the following day.

After maintaining this for three years, one’s training would have to reach at least one thousand one hundred and ninety-five squats, one thousand one hundred and ninety-five push-ups, one thousand one hundred and ninety-five sit-ups, and an eleven-thousand-and-ninety-five-meter run in a single day. Only then could one break through the first layer of the Limiter.

If one could persist for fifteen years, one could rise directly to the legendary peak—the Half-Saint realm.

However, if one failed to reach the required amount on even a single day, all previous effort would be for nothing. The Limiter for that stage would be reset to zero, and one would have to start over from the beginning.

The limit one had to surpass, however, would not return to its original starting point. Instead, it would begin from the point at which one had last broken off.