Ringo's eyes narrowed thoughtfully and that reminded him of one thing, none of the current Super systems came out of nowhere, they were built in previous iterations and stored in the sanctuary, so that in future iterations, all the systems would continue to appear.
But these systems had to start somewhere, right?
This old man... if he's right, he may have begun a path of his own, a path that could reach the Super system one day!
How were the super systems created? Ringo had thought about this before and had an idea, does the super system require evolution to continue advancing? If it does, how can an ordinary person evolve if they're not connected to the sanctuary? Where does it get the corresponding genetic information?
After all, there are limiters in genes, and that's why it's necessary to continue evolving to continue progressing.
But this old man doesn't have that, so how were the previous systems created? Ringo's idea is simple, it wasn't something created all at once.
It wasn't a single individual who suddenly discovered a type of energy and learned to use it until they reached Grade S.
No, just as the sisters of life and death said, the truth in the end of life and death is inheritance.
Can't a living being evolve enough? No problem, just teach your descendants. Over time, each descendant will reach the limit again and again, and the natural evolution of this species will continue to push them a little further, until this barrier finally breaks.
So a super system easily used today might have taken millions of years to fully develop.
A species continually evolving from generation to generation to advance one step further.
That's truly the meaning of inheritance.
Ringo looked at the old man with a little more respect. He didn't believe that the use of chi would become a new super path, but there was a good chance it would become a branch of the pugilists in the future!
Of course, the old man was very unlucky. Due to his environment, there was never a successor for him. Why waste so much time on a skill that could only be mastered when you were old?
Wouldn't a super waste his time and ordinary people, comparing themselves to supers, would end up giving up. What was it like to see that your friends could take months to achieve what you could achieve in years?
This was the mentality that prevented the old man from gaining a disciple.
Ringo sighed, but another question soon formed in his mind. If he didn't use the super system, but like the old man, instead of using a ready-made machine, built one from scratch, could he theoretically become a super in all five paths at once?
He thought about it for a moment and then shook his head. It would be impossible for most, just like Esgod. The genetic limit would prevent them from going any further and they would need to learn everything from scratch.
They wouldn't gain any abilities by crossing a barrier, but they would have to rely on themselves for every small advancement.
How long would it take to recreate a complete super system from scratch, let alone five? Even if you could, without being able to overcome the cellular limit, you would still be stuck.
Even Ringo, who knows he has a good chance of achieving this due to his evolution, hasn't considered this idea.
What's the point of doing that? It would take a long, long time to learn everything, and that would only limit his progress, he's not that desperate.
But even so, Chi is something very appealing to him. Even if it becomes just a subclass for him, he doesn't care, because as strong as his ability is, it's not a combat ability after all.
Even though he's now spiritually evolved, his attack is limited to the spirit blade.
Thus, using Chi could make perfect use of his body's incredible strength.
Taking a deep breath, he looked at Li again. -Teach me.
Li looked at him, a little surprised, and said. -Kid, you're a super, there's no point in wasting your time or mine with this.
-Teach me, not only will I learn, but I'll let you continue on your path.- Ringo said.
Li raised an eyebrow, unimpressed, but Ringo didn't say anything. He simply placed his hand on Li's shoulder and let his energy course through his body.
Li's gaze quickly became serious, deadly serious.
Others might not feel it, even a C Grade Pugilist might not notice, but Li had strengthened his body and studied it for over a hundred years, searching for every ounce of power to extract meticulously. At that moment, he felt his stiff cells seem to loosen a little!
Li's eyes grew increasingly shocked and he quickly closed them as he began to let his Chi course through his body.
It didn't take long for him to open his eyes and look at Ringo with shock and happiness.
-What did you do?!- he asked hurriedly.
-You're stuck because you've reached the limit of a human being, to be more precise, you've reached the pinnacle of your species' potential.- Ringo explained calmly.
Li frowned and asked. -So how did you...
-My ability is a bit special. Basically, I can let you go beyond your current species.- Ringo explained.
Li licked his dry lips and Ringo could feel something change in the old man's temperament. If before he'd seemed like a sloth stretched out enjoying the day in a tree, now he looked like an old horse that had discovered it could still run.
-So, old man, you teach me Chi and I'll let you keep moving forward. What do you say?- Ringo asked with interest.
Li looked at him with burning eyes before laughing excitedly, tears falling from his eyes as he said. -I thought my journey was over. Who would have thought that with one foot in the grave I would actually feel this sensation again... life is truly full of surprises, even at this age I can still be surprised again.
Finally lowering his head and looking at Ringo, he wiped away the tears as he said. -Kid, you have a deal. From now on, I'll follow you. As long as you can help me keep progressing, I won't leave you even if you want me to.
Ringo laughed and offered his hand. The old man squeezed Ringo's tightly, the pair quickly reaching an agreement.
Ringo, excited to learn, quickly got to work.
But hours later, as he found himself staring at a waterfall, he fell silent for a moment.
-So, do I have to kick the waterfall current back or something?- Ringo asked blankly, staring at the old man and searching for a purple hue on his skin.
Li snorted and said. -You're crazy! What kind of nonsense is this? Don't you know what gravity is? What are they teaching you in schools these days...
Ringo's lips trembled even more and he decided to remain silent.
-Your body is even stronger than mine, so I had to think to find a way to start.- The man shrugged. -In my early days, I trained until my entire body was so sore I could feel every muscle in my body. I did this for a long time before I could feel the energy permeating my cells. The first step to learning Chi is feeling.
-Old man, I'm a super, I can already feel the energy in my cells.- Ringo explained.
-No, this energy you feel is contaminated. Even Pugilists extract energy from their cells differently than I do, so you need to start from scratch, learn to extract purer energy from the cell.- Li looked at him as if he were an idiot.
Ringo sighed, resisting the urge to punch the old man. He stared at the falling waterfall. He was silent for a moment, not because he was afraid, but because he knew this level of pressure was still insufficient to hurt himself.
He hadn't stayed under the lava for so long for nothing, he didn't even know how many tons he had supported in there.
Sighing, he quickly used his evolution to lower his physical resistance before swimming to a rock above the waterfall.
Li nodded in satisfaction as he sat cross-legged and closed his eyes. A yellowish energy quickly seeped from his body. He began training his chi again. At his level, he could work every muscle in his body without even needing weights.
After Ringo loosened the barrier a bit, he finally found himself moving forward again, which made him very excited.
Ringo, on the other hand, was in a difficult situation. After lowering his resistance, it felt like he was being continually hammered, literally. His back struggled to stay upright, and he felt like his head was going to split.
His evolution started working while looking for a different way to lessen the waterfall's damage, even though his ability couldn't evolve again in the same direction when he removed his evolutions, he could still look for another way to evolve, it's the same as the situation where the body can choose fat or fur to keep warm, he could remove the fur, but his body could still produce fat.
Ringo didn't care much and continued to stay in the waterfall for half an hour before being thrown away, unable to bear it any longer.
His body was covered in bruises and he even broke his nose, but he still swam out of the water, breathing heavily.
Li appeared there at some point. -Now, enjoy this feeling, turn off your senses and try to listen to your cells. It sounds metaphysical, but you need to listen to them first to then control them.
Ringo sighed and closed his eyes, but he wasn't ready to spend years on this, so he started cheating.