If he relied solely on burying his head in books, the leveling speed in the later stages would be despairingly slow.
Therefore, achieving a top rank in the public, fair assessments had become an essential shortcut for High Tier scholars to raise their levels.
'The final exam… will be the first experience accelerator after LV3.' A glint of calculation flashed in Li Wen's eyes.
He gave a long stretch, and his bones let out a series of soft CRACKS.
The classroom quickly emptied. The clamor faded, leaving only the sound of the cold wind whistling outside the window and the melody of a somewhat dated, motivational song playing over the campus broadcast.
Li Wen didn't get up right away. He sat quietly in his seat for about twenty minutes. After three songs, the broadcast fell silent, and a midday quiet settled over the academic building.
Most of the strength had returned to his body, and his mental fatigue had been suppressed.
'Time to test it.'
A powerful impulse surged through his chest. 'A thirty percent comprehension boost under LV3 Absolute Focus… this brand-new "scalpel of the mind"... what kind of edge will it show in my real-world saber practice? That insurmountable wall that has blocked me for five days, can it be…'
Li Wen stood up and stretched his shoulders and neck. Without any further hesitation, he strode out of the classroom and headed for the cafeteria.
His goal was clear: in this afternoon's training, he had to completely shatter that final barrier holding him back from the Perfection Realm!
...
After a simple, quick, yet energy-rich lunch in the cafeteria, Li Wen was the first to arrive at Class 21's Martial Dao classroom.
It wasn't even one o'clock yet.
The room was spacious and quiet, the familiar smell of equipment mingling with the faint scent of sweat. He didn't immediately pick up his weapon; the food from lunch needed time to digest.
The churning energy in his stomach would interfere with the circulation of his qi and blood, as well as the precision of his movements.
He walked over to a long bench in the corner and lay down on his back.
He closed his eyes, cleared his mind, and used only his bodily sensations to guide his stomach's peristalsis, accelerating the digestion and absorption of the high-energy food.
He didn't enter a deep meditation, just a basic state of rest.
Twenty minutes passed. The uncomfortable feeling of a full stomach was finally replaced by a warm sensation of power flowing to his limbs.
Li Wen opened his eyes. All traces of hesitation and confusion were gone, replaced by pure focus and intense confidence.
Get up, warm up! Stretching, joint rotations, short, basic stance work to circulate his qi and blood... he performed every step meticulously.
Once his warm-up was complete, Li Wen walked to the familiar weapons rack. His gaze swept over the various weapons before landing precisely on the fine steel Standard Rapier, its hilt worn smooth from his grip.
CLANG! The cold, sharp sound of metal scraping against metal was exceptionally crisp in the empty classroom. The hilt was heavy and cool in his hand, feeling like an extension of the bones in his arm.
He took his stance in the center of the open space, his toes gripping the worn floor tiles slightly as he lowered his body, his center of gravity as steady as a boulder.
He took a deep breath, as if inhaling all the available oxygen and tranquility in the room.
The next moment, his thought was as swift as lightning.
'Activate—[Absolute Focus]!'
HUMMM!
There was no external sign of activation. Even the momentary, ultimate condensation of focus in his eyes was almost perfectly concealed beneath his already intense expression.
The world was instantly purified, reconstructed!
The howl of the cold wind outside, the noise from the distant sports field, the thrum of blood rushing in his veins, the last faint stirrings of his stomach... all irrelevant information was ruthlessly stripped away and isolated.
In his field of vision, only the rapier in his hand remained, its blade glinting with a cold light. In the sea of his mind, only the phantoms of the twenty-six forms of the Tiger Saber Skill remained, madly circulating, deducing, combining, and optimizing.
A thirty percent comprehension boost!
This "scalpel of the mind," now suddenly thirty percent sharper, began to dissect, deconstruct, and reassemble the forms he had practiced millions of times in his consciousness on a microscopic level.
SWOOSH—!
He unleashed a ferocious slash!
The movement wasn't a simple repetition, but one imbued with a newfound "understanding" born from his LV3 [Absolute Focus].
The sound of the blade tearing through the air was sharper than before, with a distinct whistle—a direct reflection of a more cunning angle, more focused power transmission, and a swifter strike.
SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!
The blade moved with his mind, and his body followed the blade!
The first form, "Tiger's Roar in the Forest," began with the force of a tempest!
The whistling sound was no longer a roar of brute force, but rather the low, warning growl of a living beast about to pounce, filled with the oppressive feeling of restrained power.
The edge of the blade trembled, as if longing for more air resistance to unleash the torrent of power hidden within.
Before the momentum of the slash had faded, his feet had already stepped forward!
The instant his center of gravity sank, he transitioned into the second form, "Fierce Tiger Descends the Mountain"!
This time, the hack wasn't a simple vertical drop driven by inertia. The spiraling force generated by the twist of his waist and hips, along with the precise inward rotation of his wrist, blended perfectly into his fundamental strength. It instantly ignited the downward momentum, converting it into a diagonal slash.
The blade's trajectory through the air was smoother and fiercer, like the lethal claw of a pouncing tiger tearing at its prey's throat from the side.
Not an ounce of power was wasted. Every tightening and relaxing of his muscles was under his complete control.
The third form, "Spirit Snake Flicks its Tongue"!
The slender, upward counter-flick, which had a tendency to feel stiff in the transition, now transformed into the afterimage of a venomous snake just before it strikes.
The "drilling force" led by the pinky-side of his wrist was perfectly unleashed. The tip of the blade quivered and vibrated like a snake's tongue, its blocking angle suddenly expanding to strike at the opponent's hard-to-defend armpit.
The change was as swift as the lightning-fast strike of a viper, pulling its neck back only to lunge forward in an instant.
Every slash he made was accompanied by a violent burst of inspiration in his mind.
With every shift of his feet, his deductions polished the timing of his weight transfers to be even more fluid.
The rapier was no longer a mere extension of his arm, but the focal point, the very core, of his body's entire flow of power.
The bottleneck? That membrane that had blocked him for five days?
Under the constant, crushing assault of the terrifying "mental storm" created by his LV3 [Absolute Focus] and the 30% comprehension boost, it was already covered in countless cracks.
It was like a dam that had weathered the wind and rain for too long, just waiting for one final push...
One pass! The flashing blade moved like a dragon, his movements astonishingly fluid, leaving only a series of extremely condensed afterimages that lingered in the air!
Two passes! Sweat instantly beaded on his forehead, but Li Wen's eyes were brighter than ever, as if a fire burned within them! The muscle memory in every inch of his body was being overwritten and optimized by new insights! In his mind, the flawless radiance of the "Perfection" realm was already within his grasp!
...