Chapter 84: New Parameter

Adam’s panel unfolded before his eyes.

╭───────────╮

〖Name: Adam〗

〖Rank: None〗

〖Cultivation Talent: G〗

〖Special Talent: Equip ❖ Connect〗

〖SLOT〗

↳ SOUL (4): Rapid E ❖ Poison F ❖

Cultivation D ❖ Freeze F

↳ BODY (5): Empty

╰───────────╯

Star Power: 15

This was the first major change his panel had undergone since equipping Poison F.

Two new talents now occupied his soul slots, Cultivation D and Freeze F, but that wasn’t what held Adam’s attention.

It was the number at the bottom.

Star Power: 15.

The change from 14+ to 15 might have looked insignificant to someone who didn’t truly understand what star power represented, but to Adam, and to anyone with real experience, it was anything but small.

This wasn’t a step forward.

It was a leap.

Increasing star power was notoriously difficult. Many martial artists would spend years, even decades, stuck at the same value. Some would die before ever seeing it rise by even a fraction.

Reaching 15 in such a short time placed Adam firmly above the vast majority of unranked martial artists and even pressured the lower end of true masters.

As the panel faded, Adam felt it.

A new wave of power flooded through his system.

His senses sharpened, sounds became clearer and distances easier to judge. His body felt paradoxical: lighter, as if gravity had loosened its grip, yet denser, as though every fiber had been compacted and reinforced. Quiet but undeniable Strength rested beneath his skin. And for the second time in a while, Adam felt truly complete.

He dismissed the panel and rolled his shoulders once.

“Let’s see if all that was worth it.”

He didn’t hesitate.

Adam pulled out every remaining resource he had prepared, essence boosters, stabilizers, absorption aids, and consumed them without reserve, one after another. By the time he finished, a heavy, bloated sensation settled deep in his core, as if his body had been filled to the brink.

Then…

Boom!

Essence erupted inside him, violent surges tore through his meridians, muscles, and organs like controlled detonations.

For most unranked martial artists, this would have been suicide. Their bodies would rupture from the strain long before they could gain anything from it.

Adam didn’t even flinch.

Freeze F stabilized his tissues.

Cultivation D optimized absorption and circulation.

His reinforced soul held everything together.

The miniature explosions raged within him, but they couldn’t slow him down.

Adam sat down, straightened his posture, controlled his breathing and began cultivating.

The room fell silent, broken only by the faint hum of essence responding to his pull as the night truly began.

The upgraded essence absorption technique was nothing like the crude standard version Adam had started with.

The Standard technique relied on fierce, exaggerated movements, twisting limbs, forceful stances and repetitive exercises meant to force essence into the body.

For close to five centuries, martial artists believed those motions were essential.

But after countless revisions and refinements, humanity discovered the truth. Most of those movements were not only unnecessary, they were counterproductive.

The upgraded technique didn’t eliminate movement entirely. Instead, it shifted it inward.

The true “movement” happened at the cellular level.

Essence entered the body through microscopic pores spread across the skin and internal tissues.

Opening these pores was a strenuous act, one that placed immense strain on the body. In the past, martial artists brute-forced them open, exhausting themselves just to absorb a trickle of essence.

The upgraded technique changed that.

By discovering the perfect rhythmic pattern for pore activation, timing, breathing, and mental alignment, the strain was drastically reduced.

The pores opened naturally and smoothly, pulling essence inward rather than fighting for it. Energy expenditure dropped, stamina loss plummeted, and absorption efficiency skyrocketed.

As for the natural resources Adam had consumed, they served a different purpose altogether.

Their essence couldn’t be stored permanently. The body only accepted naturally ambient essence as a long-term reserve. Instead, the refined resources acted as a temporary engine, flooding Adam with short-lived energy that allowed his body to withstand extreme absorption without collapsing.

It was like using refined fuel to power machines that dug deeper for raw materials.

Adam’s breathing slowed.

Inhale.

Exhale.

His pores opened in flawless patterns, synchronized across his body. Essence responded immediately, pouring toward him in visible streams, slipping into his bloodstream with almost greedy ease.

His mind entered a perfectly balanced state, neither forceful nor passive, allowing his body to digest the influx without resistance.

He entered a steady flow state.

The amount of essence he was drawing became impossible to ignore.

Martial artists in nearby rooms began to feel it, an unnatural pull in the air, a pressure that made their skin prickle. Inside Adam’s room, essence surged without restraint. His body endured the strain, muscles trembling as sweat poured down his skin.

Then the sweat darkened.

Black impurities seeped out, expelled violently as his body purified itself under the overwhelming pressure.

Adam could feel it, he was right there, standing before the invisible door that separated the unranked from the officially recognized.

Just a little more.

The room vibrated faintly, furniture rattling as the influx peaked.

Then…

BOOM!

A massive wave of essence detonated within Adam’s body, not tearing him apart but settling, spreading, and anchoring itself into his core.

The chaos vanished in an instant, replaced by a profound, grounded stillness.

Adam exhaled slowly.

He had crossed the threshold.

At last, he had stepped into the official ranks of martial artists.

Adam was no longer unranked.

He had finally attained the rank of Apprentice.

As compared to before, after practicing the essence absorption technique Adam didn’t feel tired at all.

If anything, he felt invigorated.

The exhaustion that should have followed such an insane cultivation session was completely gone, wiped away the moment he ranked up.

It was as if his body had been rebooted from the inside out, muscles light, veins warm, essence flowing smoothly without resistance. Ranking up had taken everything that should have weighed him down and burned it away.

That didn’t mean everything was perfect.

His body reeked. Blackened impurities still clung faintly to his skin, and his room looked like it had survived a minor disaster. Furniture was displaced, the floor cracked in places, and the lingering pressure from the breakthrough still hung in the air.

But Adam didn’t care about any of that.

None of it mattered now, as with a thought, he pulled up his panel.

╭───────────╮

〖Name: Adam〗

〖Rank: Profound Apprentice〗

〖Cultivation Talent: G〗

〖Special Talent: Equip ❖ Connect〗

〖SLOT〗

↳ SOUL (5): Rapid E ❖ Poison F ❖

Cultivation D ❖ Freeze F

↳ BODY (6): Empty

╰───────────╯

Star Power: 16

Existence: 0

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