Chapter 165: Chapter 155: Accumulation, Part 1

’It seems I should first try the Good Heart Sect’s channels to see if I can get some resources to speed up my Body Tempering. Also, I should probably go check out the Fog Area myself....’

He could defeat a Priest, but he still had no real concept of the High Priest’s level. After all, his brother’s demonstration was just that—a demonstration. If a real fight broke out, the outcome would be impossible to predict.

Perhaps going to the Fog Area to find some suitable monsters to practice on was a good choice.

On the way back, Lin Hui thought about many, many other things.

For example, after his Blood Seal finished evolving, he could carve out a small, safe area for himself in the Fog Area. As long as he didn’t let any outsiders in and didn’t draw attention, it shouldn’t be a problem to secretly develop a small territory to use as a safe house. It could serve as a fallback route.

Or, for another example, he could disguise his identity and pay a "visit" to the treasuries of the major clans. ’You won’t sell them, will you? Then I’ll just have to drop by for a tour myself.’

With his speed and Body Technique, this was actually a real possibility, but it carried significant risks. If he were discovered, the trouble would be immense.

’Starting with the Fog Area is the safer bet, after all. I’ll gather information on the Fog Area’s resources into an illustrated guide, first pinpointing where the resources that can accelerate Body Tempering are, and then go collect them myself. At the same time, I need to keep things moving with the Good Heart Sect.’

Tian Long had mentioned before that someone else was watching him, just like they were. Lin Hui was quite concerned about this, but since Tian Long said they could handle it, Lin Hui could only choose to trust them for the time being.

After all, he couldn’t even perceive who was watching him or where they were.

’Looks like I’m still too weak...’

Lin Hui sighed sincerely. Being unable to perceive them meant his Mental Perception was lacking and needed to be improved. He would have to devote more energy to the Mind Cultivation Method, which he had been neglecting.

Although he trained it every day... the progress had stalled. It was clear he needed to pay more attention to resources.

But his body had already reached its limit for absorbing medicine...

Everything still came back to Body Tempering.

Cultivating all the way, he returned two days later. After dealing with several roadside robbers, Lin Hui arrived back at the Qingfeng Temple in the Outer City without any major incidents and resumed his daily life of frantic cultivation.

His Inner Strength grew continuously. The improvements to his constitution constantly increased his body’s capacity for Inner Strength, never stopping for a moment. Thus, his Inner Strength also increased with each day of practice.

His Body Tempering via Typhoon Swordsmanship was also advancing steadily. Aided by the Purple Crystal, he had only just entered the First Grade, but it had already begun to constantly improve his overall physical strength and speed. This improvement couldn’t be quantified, so there was no data to show the growth.

To that end, Lin Hui drew upon the knowledge from his past life and created a basic set of quantified data based on his own day-to-day progress.

He divided his body’s various changes into five categories: Strength, Speed, Defense, Resistance, and Recovery.

Taking strength as an example, for the sake of easy calculation, he mimicked the novels he had read in his past life and used the weight of an object he could lift as a rough standard of measurement.

Although this method was biased, extremely imprecise, and not comprehensive, it was sufficient as a single aspect reflecting his body’s changes.

Since the Blood Seal didn’t provide him with specific quantifications, he would test himself and create his own.

The same went for speed, which he measured by the time it took to run a kilometer. The test course was a specific, fixed distance to reduce variables. Finally, he would do the division to calculate his speed in meters per second.

Defense was harder to figure out. Lin Hui used an approximation method, categorizing it into simple ranged tiers. For instance, if his skin and flesh could defend against an attack from a normal weapon wielded with the strength and speed of an ordinary person, that was one level, which he named Mortal Soldier Level.

Being able to defend against an attack from a superior weapon, like the one Qinghe had previously, wielded by an ordinary Body Tempering Martial Artist, was the Body Tempering Level.

Further up, being able to block an attack from a superior weapon coated in Inner Strength was the Inner Power Level.

And so on and so forth, divided according to the realms of Martial Artists and Summoning. It was a bit crude, but it allowed him to instantly determine the level of threat he could handle.

The gap between these levels was quite large, so Lin Hui was still only at the Mortal Soldier Level for now.

Then came Resistance.

This was a category Lin Hui had created separately after some thought. It referred to his resistance to various diseases, toxins, and contaminations. This stat couldn’t be tiered or quantified; he could only determine his degree of resistance to each type through individual tests. He would need to conduct experiments later and record the specifics.

For example, his resistance to certain toxins, to the Inner City’s radiation, to burns from fire, and so on—all of these needed to be recorded individually.

It was similar to the elemental resistance percentages in the games from his past life.

Finally, there was Recovery.

After some consideration, Lin Hui decided to measure this along two dimensions: the time required for recovery, and the upper limit of what could be recovered from.

The former was easy to understand—it was simply the duration needed to heal.

The latter referred to the types of injuries he could recover from on his own, without medicine, and at what point an injury became too severe to heal from by himself, requiring external aid.

So, Recovery would have two data points.

This one would have to wait until he was actually injured to be properly recorded.

「Three days later.」

After Lin Hui had finished all his planning and most of his tests.

Just as he had expected, the Blood Seal changed in sync.

At the bottom of his vision, a corresponding stat sheet—his very own—appeared.

’Lin Hui—

Strength: 1013 jin

Speed: 113 m/s

Defense: Mortal Soldier Level (Tiers: Mortal Soldier, Body Tempering, Inner Power, Void Power, Divine Decision)

Resistance: ?

Recovery: Time—?, Limit—?.’

’Have I just completely quantified my own life?’

Standing in the courtyard of the manor behind Qingfeng Temple, Lin Hui sheathed his sword, his eyes fixed on the stat sheet with satisfaction.

’But this way, everything is much clearer. I can see exactly where I’m improving each day... I won’t be as clueless as before, ignorant of everything. Even if my Cultivation Technique progress stagnates, I’ll be able to notice it immediately.’

"Teacher."

Just as he was appreciating the stat sheet he had worked so hard to create, a figure flashed at the courtyard gate.

Tao Xuehai—no, the current Lin Wuhai—suddenly appeared at the entrance, bowing his head as he spoke.

"The Fog Area guide you asked for is ready."

He took a few steps forward and presented a thick, white-covered atlas to Lin Hui with both hands.

"Good work. Compiling data from the Government Office, your family, and the Rain Palace’s Inspectorate was no easy task. I’ll count this as one low-tier mission’s worth of points for you," Lin Hui said with a smile.

He had tasked Lin Wuhai with this the moment he returned.

With Qingfeng Temple’s current connections, it wasn’t difficult to obtain these guides and materials. The hard part was properly consolidating the overlapping information. Within the entire Qingfeng Temple, there weren’t many who had the knowledge and logical ability to do so.

Factoring in trustworthiness, the number of candidates was even smaller.

That was why he had chosen Lin Wuhai.

"It wasn’t too bad. I also added information on the corresponding tiers that my sister had memorized before. She helped me a great deal," Lin Wuhai said in a low voice.

He was always so serious and unsmiling these days. His family’s blood feud drove him to train frantically in Martial Arts every day. Because of this, his strength and Cultivation had improved much faster than before.

"How is your Cultivation coming along?" Lin Hui asked casually.

"I’m at the Fifth Grade now. I can clearly feel the Clear Wind Body Tempering strengthening my body. It has also improved my Inner Strength considerably—I’m much faster, but my power and defense have actually weakened a bit," Lin Wuhai explained in detail.

His words gave Lin Hui a new understanding of Qingfeng Sword cultivation. It turned out that the Body Tempering from Qingfeng Swordsmanship would actually affect Inner Strength cultivated from other techniques, converting it into a super-speed type of Inner Strength that was weaker in other aspects.

"This has its pros and cons. On the plus side, you’re more compatible with our school’s Swordsmanship, and your combat style will change. The downside is that your other attributes are weaker. Many of the killing-blow Martial Arts you previously cultivated will be affected, their lethality diminished," Lin Hui said with a nod.

"This disciple understands. It was my own choice," Lin Wuhai nodded solemnly.

"Alright, you are dismissed. Reach the Ninth Grade as soon as you can. When you do, I, as your teacher, will pass down the Gale Swordsmanship to you. I’m also looking forward to seeing what the Gale Sword will look like when unleashed with your current Circulation Internal Power," Lin Hui said with a smile.

Speaking of which, even he himself hadn’t broken through to Circulation Internal Power. From the moment of Perfection, his Inner Strength had been forcibly diverted into the linked Body Tempering system of the Gale Sword and Typhoon Sword.

As his body was tempered, his Inner Strength was also slowly strengthened along with it. Right now, he himself didn’t know how his Inner Strength’s intensity compared to Circulation Internal Power.

But one thing he was sure of was that his Inner Strength was not endless and inexhaustible like Circulation Internal Power.

At this thought, an idea suddenly struck Lin Hui.

"Wait, Wuhai. Let’s test our Inner Strength against each other. I’ve had a small breakthrough recently and want to check my progress," he said.

"Yes." Lin Wuhai had always respected his teacher, so he naturally had no objections.

He stepped forward, extended his hand, and a soft white light glowed at his fingertip.

That was a wisp of Circulation Internal Power.

Lin Hui also raised his hand. A faint, pearly-white light glowed at his fingertip—also a wisp of Inner Strength.

The two brought their fingertips together, slowly closing the distance until they touched.

POP.

The Inner Strength at Lin Wuhai’s finger abruptly burst like a soap bubble.

He froze for a moment, then quickly pulled his hand back and looked up at Lin Hui.

"Teacher, why is your Inner Strength so intense? Let me try again."

Without waiting for a reply, he once again extended his finger. Before, he had used his weakest output, about one percent of his Inner Strength, which was the lowest he could control.

But after realizing it wasn’t enough, he decisively doubled the output and touched his finger forward again.

POP!

The second time, the Inner Strength at Lin Wuhai’s fingertip dissipated once more.

His expression changed slightly. He looked at the Inner Strength on his teacher’s fingertip. It was still the same wisp of fluorescent light from before; from the outside, it didn’t seem to have increased in volume.

"Again!" Lin Wuhai’s face was grim. The third time, he directly increased his output to four times the original amount.

He extended his finger. The white light at its tip was almost like a small lightbulb, illuminating a small circle on the ground around them.

This was four percent of his power, or one-twenty-fifth of his total Inner Strength, which was a considerable amount for him. It was also the basic amount needed when executing a proper move. Unless it was a killing blow, a normal attack would use about this much. After all, even with Circulation Internal Power, one couldn’t unleash their full power with every single move—the meridians, blood vessels, and muscles couldn’t take it.

In a fight, dozens of moves could be exchanged within seconds, so a single move couldn’t use too much power. A standard attack, therefore, couldn’t have too high an output. Otherwise, after just a few exchanges, his Inner Strength would be depleted. Recovery wasn’t that fast, and once his Inner Strength was gone, his Protective Barrier would be useless. All he could do then was wait for death.

This time, Lin Wuhai’s eyes were locked on the point where their Inner Strength collided.

POP.

Another soft sound.

His Inner Strength shattered again... while the Inner Strength on his teacher’s fingertip had only dimmed slightly. That was all.