Chapter 145: Where Is My Limit? (2)
Standing outside the fragment room, Su Yu took a deep breath before swiping his student card. The door swung open. A massive pile of broken bone fragments and torn beast hides entered his view. All of these used to be proper original texts.
These damaged texts had lost too much of their willpower, so they could no longer serve as ordinary original texts. Su Yu couldn't even begin to imagine just how many original texts had been damaged to create this massive pile before him.
How many merit points were they worth? He took a step forward and felt an incorporeal wall blocking him. The air rippled and next, he broke through the barrier and stepped into the room. The moment he stepped inside, a rumbling sound rang out in his mind as his sea of willpower trembled.
His two characters stirred from their slumber. Su Yu instantly paled as his willpower erupted and clashed against the ambient willpower in the air. He was still quite a distance away from the pile of fragments. Even so, he felt like a mountain was pressing down on him.
Little did he know, this place was actually split into different sections. Layer after layer Divine Character barriers existed in the room, separating the willpower inside from the outside world. He had only stepped into the first section. Without enough willpower strength, he wouldn't be able to break through the second barrier.
However, the first section itself was already bringing Su Yu to his limits. Beads of sweat rained down from his forehead. His face paled as he exhausted his willpower. The clash was intense enough that he could feel his willpower draining away.
This was far more intense than what he felt when he studied the bone chip given to him by Bai Feng. The external willpower did not come from a single source. Rather, willpower from multiple sources were all mixed up together as they crashed into his sea of willpower.
Unlike a normal willpower text, these clashes did not provide him with any new knowledge. Every now and then, some random unknown characters would appear in his mind for a split second before vanishing.
"This is so chaotic."
Su Yu gave up trying to obtain the knowledge within these broken fragments. These were all damaged original texts. If he continued trying to read them, he might drive himself mad. As his willpower drained rapidly, he started gasping for breath.
Was this the function of the fragment room? His 30 percent willpower was akin to a lonely boat in the middle of a storm. Willpower was assaulting him from all directions, threatening to sink the tiny boat that was his willpower.
A short while later, he felt his willpower emptying. At that moment, his sea of willpower trembled slightly, giving birth to a burst of willpower. That burst of willpower did not come from his book. Rather, it came from its sea of willpower. Whenever a cultivator exhausted their willpower, new willpower would be produced. This was how cultural researchers grow.
Su Yu was about to withdraw from the room, but after experiencing a growth in his willpower, he took another step forward instead. He decided to withstand the pressure for a bit longer and see if he could further grow his willpower.
He felt as though countless needles were stabbing into his head. The chaotic external willpower was assaulting him from all directions, torturing him with intense pain. He felt as though he had returned to his dreams again, being killed by numerous beasts again and again.
Regardless of the pain, Su Yu persevered. He did not think that he was already at his limit. According to the manual, when your head felt like it was going to burst apart and your sea of willpower started churning, you must leave. That was a sign that you had reached your limit and you shouldn't stay any longer in the room.
He had yet to feel that sensation. He wouldn't have taken the risk otherwise. Without that feeling, he was clearly not at his limit yet. After 10 minutes, Su Yu started tearing up.
"I'm still not at my limit?"
He started wondering if his limit was a tad bit too high. The pain was so intense that he felt like he was better off dead. This was even more painful than being killed a dozen times in his dream. Why was he not at his limit yet?
...
Su Yu was completely oblivious to the fact that the golden book in his mind was constantly releasing weak bursts of energy, keeping his sea of willpower stable. And since his sea of willpower was stable, it naturally wasn't churning. Each time his sea of willpower was on the verge of churning, the golden book would pulse slightly and stabilize the sea of willpower.
Because of that, Su Yu's limit was far higher than his imagination. But the pain he needed to suffer was also far higher than his imagination as well. He was a person without limit. He unceasingly pursued his limit, suffering an intense torture in his pursuit.
He wanted to leave when his sea of willpower churned, but clearly...he would never be able to reach that limit. After 15 minutes, Su Yu was sprawled on the floor while tears dripped out of his eyes.
"Am I...not tenacious enough? Am I...not cruel enough toward myself? Had I never reached my limit before? I had always believed that I had been struggling near my limit all the time, but what is this? Have I never truly reached my limit before?"
Su Yu felt like crying. Was the pain from all those dreams, all those cruel deaths in his dreams not enough to bring him to his limit? Was his limit far higher than he thought? After 20 minutes, Su Yu crawled out of the room.
"I give up! Forget it! I am indeed not cruel enough to myself. I'm afraid I will die from the pain before reaching my limit!"
He took one whole minute to crawl out of the room. He looked back into the room with lingering fears in his heart. He felt both vexed and helpless.
"I...am not cruel enough to myself!"
He blamed himself for failing to wait until he was at his limit.
According to the manual, if he could reach his limit during his first entry, he would be able to benefit greatly. He even started doubting himself. Both Liu Wenyan and Bai Feng had praised him for his tenacity in the past. Zhao Li had said the same as well. Su Yu himself believed that too. But now...he had no choice but to wonder if he was really that tenacious.
Lying on the floor, he started doubting the world itself. He felt like the pain was going to kill him if he waited any longer. Could anyone even withstand this pain until they reach their limit?
"Is this manual accurate?"
...
At the same time.
While stuffing food into his mouth, Bai Feng spoke to his communicator, "Ignore him. I'm letting him play by himself in the research center. Don't worry. If you're really worried, you can go see him in the research center..."
"Senior Brother, this is my student, not yours. Why are you so worried?"
With his mouth stuffed with food and his lips all oily, Bai Feng waited for the other person to finish speaking before saying, "I sent him to the fragment room. Moving forward, he will need to increase his willpower there. This kid is quite tenacious. With 30 percent willpower, he could probably last a few minutes in the room."
...
"Don't worry. He'll leave upon reaching his limit. Even if he's stupid enough to stay, the barriers will throw him out when his sea of willpower churns. He won't die."
...
"The first threshold is five minutes. If that kid could last five minutes, his willpower would probably grow by about one percent after a rest."
...
Bai Feng smiled and said, "He only needs to visit the room once per day. Even if the effect would weaken when he grows stronger, he would still be able to get around one percent every three days. He could probably reach the Mental Tempering Stage in about two or three months."
...
"I know. Don't worry. I won't let him enter daily. After experiencing the pain of reaching his limit, I doubt that kid would enter everyday either. If he enters once every few days, he would be able to reach the Mental Tempering Stage in half a year."
…
"If he could reach the Mental Tempering Stage in half a year and reach the Great Strength Realm as well, he would probably be a top 1,000 student even if he couldn't enter the Top 100 Ranking. I'll send him to challenge the Top 100 Ranking after one year."
…
"Who? Oh, Liu Hong's little brother?" Bai Feng said with disdain, "I know that kid. He was already at the Mental Tempering Stage and ninth-stage Source Opening Realm before entering the academy. He also had a completed Divine Character. He was only able to get into the Top 100 Ranking with Liu Hong's help. How can he compare with Su Yu?"
...
"Of course I'm confident. If he can't enter the Top 100 Ranking in one year, consider me blind. Just focus on your work. Don't worry about me. I'll let that kid suffer a bit lest he gets too arrogant."
After ending the call, Bai Feng wiped his oily mouth and looked in the research center's direction with a smile.
"Kid, how does it feel to reach your limit? Does it hurt? Is your sea of willpower hurting you so much you feel like you're going to die?"
Bai Feng never doubted that Su Yu would be able to reach his limit. If that kid didn't have enough tenacity to reach his limit, then Bai Feng would really consider himself blind.
"Shit. I forgot something important!" Bai Feng suddenly exclaimed, "I should have added a record in the manual. For example, my previous record of lasting 10 minutes during my first visit...cough, cough. I mean 30 minutes! Yeah, it would be good to smash that kid's confidence around for a bit."
Bai Feng was feeling regretful. He should have left a time record in the manual. Back then, he had lasted 10 minutes...cough, 30 minutes. Yeah, 10 minutes was far too short to showcase his incredible talent.
If the kid saw the record after staying in the room for a few minutes, would he be so embarrassed that he couldn't show his face in the academy anymore? Would that kid still be so arrogant the next time they meet? That would show the kid who the true genius was!
Bai Feng shook his head and threw the matter out of his mind. After paying the bill, he left. Tomorrow would be the day he went looking for Hu Wensheng. If he couldn't show any results to his good partner Liu Hong, that fellow wouldn't be willing to pay up. He was so poor that he could barely afford a meal nowadays.