In the days that followed, Bai Xuan kept honing his proficiency with Armament Haki through battles against mutated beasts. Of course, he didn’t waste the corpses of these mutated beasts either. I have to say, as the spiritual energy recovery slowly progressed, the meat of these mutated beasts was getting better and better.
Over time, Bai Xuan and Su Yue’s tastes became more and more picky. They couldn’t even stomach ordinary food anymore.
It wasn’t just the difference in taste; the sense of satisfaction for both body and soul that spiritual energy provided was something ordinary food just couldn’t offer.
As for Su Yue, thanks to constantly eating the meat of mutated creatures these past few days, her strength had increased considerably, and the amount of spiritual energy accumulated in her body had also reached a bottleneck.
Then, today, while Su Yue was training and trying hard to absorb the spiritual energy within her, she suddenly felt something. A puzzled look first appeared on her face, then she closed her eyes, accompanied by a sound like something shattering.
After that, a massive amount of spiritual energy in the air surged towards Su Yue like a tidal wave, continuously flowing into her body.
But it didn’t last long. After just half a minute, the spiritual energy turmoil stopped abruptly and then returned to calm.
“Is this… a breakthrough?”
Su Yue opened her eyes and said with some confusion.
“I suppose so,” Bai Xuan said.
His figure had appeared in front of her at some point, studying her with great interest.
“Even without any cultivation method, your body still has a bottleneck. After reaching a certain amount of spiritual energy inside, you can actually break through. The breakthrough process triggers a turmoil of spiritual energy from heaven and earth, constantly channeling it into your body and pushing your own strength to another level.”
“Interesting.”
“Haven’t you broken through before?”
In response to Bai Xuan’s question, Su Yue shook her head in confusion.
“No.”
“I had no idea there was even such a thing as a breakthrough.”
“Your first time, huh.”
Bai Xuan nodded, planning to ask Huo Yu about it later.
Due to her aptitude, if Su Yue hadn’t been constantly eating mutated beast meat, it would have taken her a while longer to break through.
But with Huo Yu’s aptitude, they should have experienced a breakthrough long ago, maybe even more than once.
As for him… he had stopped considering himself a normal person a long time ago.
He probably wouldn’t have any bottlenecks until he became a god.
“Breakthrough?”
“That’s a thing?”
“I don’t know anything about that.”
Huo Yu looked utterly confused. You can break through without even having a cultivation method?
“Looks like you haven’t experienced it either.”
“Is it because of aptitude?”
Bai Xuan rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then analyzed:
“People with high talent might start at a certain realm right after awakening. Like you – as soon as you awakened your ability, you had pretty good strength, and any creature you casually summoned could crush those ordinary ability users.”
“Although Su Yue’s talent is good, she’s still far too inferior compared to your level.”
“She only managed to break through this time because she kept eating mutated beast meat. Someone with the same aptitude as her would probably need more time.”
“Is there any information from the authorities?”
“There should be, right? There are so many people, after all.”
Huo Yu said, also sounding a bit uncertain.
“I’ve been busy training and handling Spiritual Energy Bureau matters lately. I’ll check if there are any relevant documents when I get back.”
“By the way, can that mutated beast meat really increase the amount of spiritual energy in the body and speed up cultivation?”
“How come you didn’t send me any?”
At this point, Huo Yu’s face showed an angry expression. We clearly agreed you wouldn’t forget my share, but as soon as you got to the nature reserve, you forgot. When you and Su Yue were eating, didn’t you think of me at all?
“Ahem, I saved some, I saved some.”
Bai Xuan coughed twice, looking a bit embarrassed.
He definitely saved some, but the quantity wasn’t that large. Appetites are hard to predict, you know.
“Hmph! I think you forgot.”
“Forget about you – I sent Su Yue there to train, not to enjoy life.”
“To temper her state of mind and build her strength. It’s not good for her to eat too much mutated beast meat right now. Compared to her cultivation level, techniques and combat experience are more important.”
“Tell you what, halve Su Yue’s share of the mutated creature meat and save it for me.”
Are you serious? Aren’t you afraid Su Yue will come after you with a hammer?
“Is it tasty?”
Huo Yu asked curiously.
“You don’t even know the taste, yet you’re already trying to take Su Yue’s share.”
Bai Xuan rolled his eyes, not knowing what to say to that.
“The taste is amazing. You know ‘Cooking Master Boy’? It’s like that.”
“You mean the shining dish?!”
Huo Yu’s eyes lit up. That must be heavenly delicious!
“Just cut off Su Yue’s mutated meat completely. Eating meat every day isn’t good anyway. A balance of meat and vegetables is perfect. Let her eat more vegetables.”
Without hesitation, Huo Yu exercised his authority as her superior.
“I don’t mind, but if you can convince her, go talk to her yourself.”
Bai Xuan shrugged. That had nothing to do with him. He’d let Su Yue and Huo Yu argue it out themselves.
The spiritual energy recovery had only just begun, and the country hadn’t yet defined clear levels for abilities or cultivation.
But by then, some talented people in the military region had already made breakthroughs under training. However, geniuses like Huo Yu, Qin Tian, Ye Feng, and Chen Changsheng hadn’t yet reached the bottleneck for a breakthrough.
Yet the strength they displayed still far surpassed those few soldiers who had broken through earlier.
Regarding this, Bai Xuan’s speculation was accepted by them. People like Huo Yu had crossed more than one level right after awakening their abilities, reaching a level that ordinary ability users couldn’t attain.
What specific level it was would have to be determined later when someone else advanced to it.
But without a doubt, when ability users finally achieved the same strength as Huo Yu, Qin Tian, and the others currently had, Huo Yu and the others would have already advanced to a new realm.
After all, they were geniuses – the absolute top-tier geniuses.
Across all of China, aside from Bai Xuan, no one could find people more talented than them.
As for Bai Xuan, after confirming Huo Yu’s thoughts about him, no one considered him human anymore.
Of course, the era of spiritual energy recovery was bound to be accompanied by the rise of various extraordinary systems.
All kinds of talented individuals would emerge, using spiritual energy to create all sorts of cultivation systems and even various combat techniques.
Things like martial arts manuals from wuxia novels, the arts of Qimen Dunjia, body-strengthening methods, and cultivation secrets – none of these were impossible.
In this era, as long as you had enough talent and ideas, nothing was impossible.
The only thing that could hold you back was a lack of knowledge.
