Dalvin is a young man who spends his time working on art commissions for online clients while trying to improve his declining fitness. In order to quell his boredom, he downloads a strange mobile app called 'Path of Heaven,' advertised as a free Eastern fantasy-style game with great immersion. However, upon creating his character, an accident occurs, and Dalvin ends up awakening a space/time element physique, which causes him to be dragged into the world of 'Path of Heaven,' known as Tianzi! With his life at stake and only the ability to simulate a certain amount of time into the future, he must navigate his way through this dangerous and cutthroat cultivation world!
[Martial Arts Realm: Skin Tempering Realm (Middle)
Martial Arts Technique: Earthquake Fist (Low-grade Human Rank)
Blood Qi: 20/300 (Unable to Breakthrough).]
Dalvin was pleasantly surprised. A single cheap steroid pill could have the effect of 1/3rd of a xueqi pill when used properly? He had only practiced for about 3 or so minutes, and he was already 7% of the way to the next realm?
Dalvin's brow furrowed, not in happiness but in confusion. Something had to be wrong or he was ignorant of some fact because Dalvin did not believe that it was easy for everyone to rush through the stages of martial arts like he did.
To be sure, he opened the notebook Feng Qi left behind and noted the timeframes that the ancient cultivator mentioned when he crippled his cultivation and then began to practice martial arts.
Sure enough, though exact times were not mentioned, Feng Qi did state that it was not a matter of a mere few weeks of practice. He specially mentioned this because he thought that as a Soul Formation cultivator, practicing martial arts should be a breeze, but he was progressing rather normally in it.
Dalvin put the notebook away and then realized that the only real reason he could perform so well in this regard was likely due to the system. It was designed for a mobile game, which emphasized quick growth in the early stages to hook consumers and extremely slow growth in the middle and latter stages unless one spent money on the game.
Dalvin guessed that a similar phenomenon might be at work here. However, this theory had to be discarded when he remembered that this system's original game was initially supposed to be completely free, without any in-app purchases.
The young man wracked his brain and came up with multiple theories, but none of them he could 100% commit to without getting some more insider information on how all this worked, as well as doing some more monitoring and observation.
Marking it in his list of things to note, Dalvin immediately popped another steroid pill and continued his training in such a manner. 3 minutes later, he checked his accumulation once more to see that he had progressed to 40 out of 300, which meant that his gain was somewhat stable.
With the incentive of quick breakthrough around the corner, he was dedicated to his work and progress. Pill after pill went down his throat with no sign of stopping, his arms smashing the wall before him near rhythmically and full of increasing fervor after each round.
60/300, 80/300, 100/300…
Dalvin continued and continued until he struck his final punch against the wall before him, feeling his blood energy no longer able to surge through him as easily. He knew that he had probably reached his limit and could only progress through a breakthrough.
He shook the steroid bottle that had only been emptied by about 20% of its contents and couldn't help but feel absurd. In the end, he put it down on the bed and stood in the center of his cell, opening the system display.
[Martial Arts Realm: Skin Tempering Realm (Middle)
Martial Arts Technique: Earthquake Fist (Low-grade Human Rank)
Blood Qi: 300/300 (Breakthrough Available!).]
Dalvin selected the breakthrough option and felt the immediate as well as familiar feeling of his blood boiling. This time, it was far more intense than ever before as it swept through his vessels, causing his skin to become extremely red like a boiled lobster.
Given Dalvin's natural skin tone, for him to look red, you had to know that it was extremely intense. He groaned and slumped over slightly, tr-tying to cope with the intense heat that was not only radiating off his body but was also surging within.
Eventually, the breakthrough came to an end as quickly as it started but for the one who went through it, it felt like years had passed. Dalvin coughed and sat on the bed tiredly, passing a hand through his now wet hair that was full of sweat.
However, he also felt the effects of his breakthrough immediately. Before even checking his stats to get the exact numeric amount, Dalvin knew that he was at least twice as strong as he had been during the early stage of the Skin Tempering Realm.
His physiology had also made its final leap. Now, he was extremely ripped beyond belief, possessing muscles in every inch and corner of his skin. You would struggle to find a bit of fat anywhere on his body, and he was not even that lean or skinny.
Dalvin raised his t-shirt and gazed at his abdomen and felt his heart skip a beat. Two, four, six, eight… holy shit, almost 16 pacs! He looked like a character from a fighting shounen rather than a normal person.
Just what would his stats be like?
[Name: Dalvin
Race: Human
Physique: Spacetime Immortal Body (10% Awakened)
Age: 21
—————————————
Martial Arts Realm: Skin Tempering Realm (Late)
Martial Arts Technique: Earthquake Fist (Low-grade Human Rank)
Blood Qi: 0/400 (Unable to Breakthrough)
—————————————
Cultivation Realm: Mortal (None)
Cultivation Mantra: None
Cultivation Base: 0/100 (Unable to Breakthrough)
—————————————
Power: 31
Qi: 30.8
Fortitude: 30.9
—————————————
Bloodline energy: 100%. (Next 1% in 00:00:00)
…]
Thirty times what he had possessed before…
Dalvin was just left speechless. At this point, it was no longer him being arrogant, but he could literally beat that special ops guy from the construction site with ease even if he was unskilled.
In fact, when returning to earth, Dalvin's greatest worry was not being weak, but rather being too strong. Breaking door handles, punching holes in people's bodies, and running faster than the average human eye could see would become his new reality if he didn't learn to control his power.
Thinking of this, he glanced at the nearby laptop and hesitated. He walked over to it, picked it up gently, and placed it on his lap before gently pressing the power button.
As it booted up, he began to use the trackpad to select various details and log into his account. He did buy a mouse but using it would be useless given he had no flat surface for the laptop and the mouse together.
Dalvin then tried to play an intensive fighting game using the keys on his laptop and was surprised when after playing more than a few matches, he did not smash the laptop into pieces.
He could not understand the reason why and did not have the facilities present to assess why this was the case. Instead, he put the laptop aside and checked the time, only to see that it was about 5 pm.
'Well, since I have nothing better to do…' Dalvin thought to himself and got up from the bed, opening the bottle of steroid pills and tossing one into his mouth.
Along with that, he faced his usual wall and entered his usual stance to begin his usual martial arts cultivation.
The familiar thudding echoed throughout the hallway, now louder and more powerful than ever before. Dalvin was certain that if he had a neighbor in the cell beside his, that person would have long been driven mad by his incessant behavior.