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About two weeks passed since Ren met with Alex’s party...

Since then, he returned to his daily routine; he wakes up early, and martial practice occupies the majority of his mornings. He’d continue until noon, eat lunch, and relax for a bit, and then he goes to the library to enrich his knowledge. There, he’d also review the study materials that Raymond sends him regularly; sometimes he’d go to the Apothecary Hall to get some hands-on experience. After that, he’d return home, have dinner, shower, and then hop into his VR cabin to continue stomping on noobs until he gets out of the newbie bracket. Sometimes, he’d hang around to watch some higher-ranked matches too. Then, he’s off to sleep after that.

This routine helps a lot, not only with the stability of his practice but also his mental state. The flow of his chakra remained smooth, steady, and abundant.

And because of this, it shouldn’t be surprising for him to make some incredible progress. The fruit of his labor came this morning...

Once again, he got up early. He was up even before the sun peeked over the horizon. He ate some light breakfast, and he’s off to the training hall, which was empty once again.

He went to his spot, diligently did his stretches properly, and then began cycling through his stances.

But the moment he began converting chakra, Ren noticed something different that day. His eyes flashed for a bit, but he didn’t panic. Instead, he slowed down his movements but made them more deliberate and solid.

The conversion of his chakra suddenly spiked, and his chakra seed started trembling.

This was the sign that it was completely saturated and its sprout was ready to come out at any given moment.

Despite his chakra seed being the size of a mung bean, it does exude a surprising amount of burden and pressure on his body. The moment he felt his chakra seed trembling, his whole body was responding to it too.

The longer it goes on, the more his anxiety tries to swallow him whole.

This was a trap.

If Ren succumbs to this and forces his chakra into the seed, his chances at making a perfect breakthrough disappear, and with that, the Limitless Martial Physique as well.

Obviously, that’s not something that Ren wanted to happen. Therefore, he endured. He didn’t force anything. He didn’t succumb to his anxiety; he held on and focused on his movements.

Ren has to continue moving; he can’t stop because if he did, the chakra flow would slow down too, and that is not what he wanted to happen, especially since his chakra seed was in dire need of it to push to its next stage. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

So, Ren continued to cycle through his stances. He did his best to focus on the harmony and the perfect execution of his technique; this way, his chakra conversion and its flow remain unimpeded.

It’s difficult, of course, because the trembling of the chakra seed was affecting his body and exerting pressure on him. It’s definitely affecting his movements as well.

But Ren remained patient, and he continued enduring everything that’s happening. His priority is to make sure that his chakra seed has enough chakra to feed on. He can’t stop or interrupt this flow now, or he fails this breakthrough.

This is how breakthroughs happen in this world. There’s no sitting down to absorb some invisible energy in the air; a practitioner must be in motion. Standing or sitting still kills motion and momentum, which are the last things that chakra needed to continue its production.

This took a while, about 30 minutes of grueling endurance and patience. Not once did Ren dare to stop or slow down his movements. He maintained a decent pace and refused to stop moving until the moment arrived.

And his patience was soon rewarded handsomely.

Crack! Boom!

A resounding crack, similar to the sound of a glass breaking, was emitted from the depths of Ren’s body, followed by a muffled shockwave that ruffled his clothes and hair.

That mung bean-sized chakra seed of his had cracks on its surface; that’s where the shattering sound came from. Despite its puny size, the sound it emitted was certainly loud.

Not long after that, bright threads and wisps of chakra rose from the cracks. They resembled thin vein-like patterns, which looked like roots and young stems.

The roots grew at an alarming pace, connecting with Ren’s blood vessels, nerve endings, tendons, and muscles. Their growth was accompanied by an uncomfortable itch that was located too deep in his body, somewhere that he couldn’t reach.

As for the young stems, they looked like they were made out of pure neutral chakra. And the moment they appeared, they began drinking Ren’s chakra like they’ve been starved.

The drain of his chakra has gone into overdrive, and to compensate, Ren had to increase his movement speed to also increase the conversion of his chakra.

But instead of feeling tired, Ren felt invigorated instead. His eyes sparkled brightly and his muscles contracted. The roots of the chakra seed connected to his tendons and muscles were supplying them with chakra now, coming directly from the ones that the young stems absorbed.

Ren felt his energy spiking to the moon. Suddenly, his movements began to turn even more vigorous, and the force behind his strikes increased so much that his movements were causing the airflow to shift and drift along his motion.

His punches and kicks are now like whips, although not as loud, but they still make a soft sound, which indicates the amount of force he’s putting behind them.

Ren was sweating like rain; he’s also releasing some thick and disgusting sludge that’s been forced out by the chakra from his muscles. He’s practically splashing them everywhere along with its horrid stench, with how fast and strong his movements were.

All of this makes it clear that Ren had now stepped into the Muscle Forging Stage, and through a perfect breakthrough at that.

His chakra seed has sprouted. It grew roots that connected themselves to his body, and the young stems became channels that absorbed and refined chakra at an even better rate compared to its previous state.

It has been one month since he began his martial practice. One month ago, Ren had just graduated from prep school after spending a decade in there learning everything he could to become familiar with this world. He spent the past month in solitary practice, taking each step seriously and so well to build an incredible foundation that will allow him to rise to the very top.

He diligently rose early every morning, rain or shine, and dedicated his time, effort, youth, and passion to his martial practice. He pursued perfection and excellence at each step, and finally, his efforts were rewarded.

His strength skyrocketed, his body was evolving, and he could feel strength coursing through his entire body in a way that made every cell in his body cheer in glee.

He doesn’t feel tired at all; he feels like he could do this forever...

While Ren was immersed in his breakthrough, though, he failed to notice that there were some people who felt the disturbance he caused.

Mikel, Alex, Grandma Allen, and her son, Raymond, all happened to be near the training hall when Ren’s breakthrough occurred.

When the sound of his chakra seed sprouting, the same sound of shattering glass, was emitted, all of them heard it and turned to the origin of the sound.

Now, they’re all standing on the roof, looking down at Ren, who’s covered in his own impurity discharge but vigorously cycling through his stances as if he doesn’t notice it at all.

There was a very faint film of light being emitted by his skin, the initial expression of his chakra. It’s white, completely untainted, and neutral.

Seeing this, Grandma Allen was the first to say, "Good child! Very good! A perfect breakthrough! I never thought he was aiming for this. And look at those movements! Resolute, strong, firm, and decisive! That’s how it should be! A perfect mastery and execution each time."

Raymond smiled wryly at his mother’s unrestrained praise. In truth, he couldn’t even refute her even if he wanted to because from what he’s seeing, there’s really nothing he could pick on.

The concept of a perfect breakthrough would be enough to counter anything he says, because one doesn’t just simply desire a perfect breakthrough for it to happen. They would need effort, diligence, patience, and a touch of perfection to make it happen.

Raymond was impressed, really. Nobody has strived for a perfect breakthrough in this clan for quite some time; it’s even rare that somebody actually made it happen.

In the past decade, only Ren alone made it.

As it turns out, Ren was even more demanding of himself. I thought he was just trying to be polite.’

"One month, Dad." Alex sounded unusually serious when he spoke just now, making Mikel look at him.

"It took him a day to enter the Foundation Strength Stage and just a month to enter the Muscle Forging Stage. They say that my talent wasn’t bad, but it took me three months and a few days to make the same progress."

Alex then looked at his father with a wry smile on his face before saying, "Dad, your nephew’s a giant freak!"