A strange feeling stirred in Yu Fei’s heart.

The high today was only 14°C! Now that it was evening, it was probably less than 10°C.

Even if the girl had some initial success in martial arts, she must have been freezing in that outfit!

He had arrived half an hour early, but how much earlier had Li Mengyao been here?

Yu Fei hurried forward.

"How long have you been waiting? Let’s get inside the shop. It’s heated!"

Li Mengyao looked at him, her voice soft and sweet:

"I just got here too!"

Looking closely, he saw that Li Mengyao was actually wearing lipstick today. It gave her a different kind of beauty.

Their eyes met. The girl blushed and lowered her head, her gaze falling to a point where she couldn’t even see her own toes.

Yu Fei suddenly recalled a line from the author Lao She in his past life’s memories.

’There is little enough truth in this world; a woman’s blush says more than a long speech.’

What more needed to be said?

...

"Let’s hurry inside!"

The two of them chose a table by the window and sat down.

The atmosphere was a little quiet.

Unlike her usual liveliness at school, Li Mengyao was extremely quiet now.

They quickly ordered bubble tea, but for a moment, neither knew what to talk about.

"Yu Fei, thank you. If you hadn’t given me that Vitality Elixir, I wouldn’t have been able to get into the accelerated class so quickly. I’ll find a way to pay you back in the future."

Li Mengyao said in a low voice. The reason she had invited him out today was to thank him.

Yu Fei casually sipped his bubble tea and said without looking up:

"Don’t mention it. We’re pals!"

Li Mengyao didn’t reply, but a hint of resentment crossed her face.

Yu Fei knew what Li Mengyao was thinking, but ’women would only slow down his progress in getting stronger.’

Still, he had a good impression of his cute deskmate. After some thought, he asked:

"Li Mengyao, have you ever thought about aiming for the Seven Greats?"

The topic immediately diverted the girl’s attention.

She said, disheartened:

"Everyone wants to get into the Seven Greats, but I wouldn’t dare to dream of it. It’s just too hard."

Yu Fei tapped the table and continued, "Then do you plan to stick with the path of martial arts for the long haul?"

The girl seemed a bit lost. "I haven’t really thought about that. I’ll just see where it takes me, I guess!"

Yu Fei had expected this. Li Mengyao only had a White-grade talent. Although she worked very hard, her progress on the path of martial arts was slow.

"Actually, there’s another way. You’d still have a chance to be admitted to the Seven Greats."

"What way?"

Li Mengyao’s curiosity was piqued.

"The Seven Greats don’t just have martial arts departments. As everyone knows, the martial arts departments require you to pass at least four trials, and your academic scores have to be excellent.

But what if you don’t aim for the martial arts department?"

Yu Fei had done his research. This was an era where martial arts flourished, but not everyone could continue down this path indefinitely. Some people couldn’t keep up and had no choice but to switch to fields that supported martial arts.

The elixirs, weapons, armor, and so on required for martial arts cultivation all needed to be researched by people with a certain martial arts foundation. Those with high talent couldn’t spare the energy for these things, but the demand was real. Thus, these auxiliary subjects came into being.

"Li Mengyao, you could choose an auxiliary department. I looked it up. If you pass three martial arts trials and have excellent academic scores, you can choose an auxiliary department. You should think about it."

Li Mengyao fell into thought.

"But passing three trials is still really hard!"

"I’ll help you. But I have a condition. If you choose an auxiliary department, you have to help me later on."

"Okay!"

Li Mengyao agreed without the slightest hesitation.

’Whether or not she got into the Seven Greats didn’t matter; she was more interested in staying in touch with Yu Fei.’

Later that evening, Yu Fei walked Li Mengyao home.

He then wandered the streets alone.

Yu Fei could sense that something was off with his own state.

Ever since he started practicing martial arts, his Qi Blood had grown stronger by the day, and he could feel the vibrant vitality surging within him.

This was a good thing, but his spirit was another matter.

His past life memories brought him worldly experience, a bonus to his Spiritual Power, and the ability to control himself.

But they also suppressed his body’s vitality, in a sense strangling the unique qualities his soul might have developed.

This was perhaps the reason why Yu Fei, despite his past life memories, had no talent.

Yu Fei sat on a stone bollard by the street, thinking back to when he first awakened his past life memories. He recalled every single physical impulse he had controlled with his willpower. After forcibly suppressing them for more than ten years, his mind and body were slightly out of sync at the deepest level.

He activated his Qi Blood and stopped suppressing his body’s instinctive reactions, allowing the Qi Blood to flow aimlessly within him.

Ever since he began training, his Qi Blood had always been active, stirring restlessly, giving him a feeling that it was hard to control. This feeling had only intensified recently.

And today, Yu Fei suddenly wanted to release this suppression and see what would happen. To be safe, he pulled up Mr. Yan’s number on his phone. If things went wrong, he would call for help immediately.

On an unobservable plane, his scorching Qi Blood repeatedly washed over and refined his Spiritual Power. Wisps of black and gray smoke were drawn out and expelled.

It might have been an instant, or it might have been an eternity, but when Yu Fei came back to his senses, he felt an unprecedented sense of ease.

His past life memories still existed, but they were now like volumes of data that he could access at will, unaffected by their negative influence.

All that came before died with yesterday!

All that comes after is born today!

He was still him, but he was finally *him*!

Yu Fei felt as if a suit of iron armor had been lifted from his soul, leaving him comfortable and free.

Inside his mental space, the azure Reversal of Fate Pearl suddenly burst with light. A red glow coalesced and forcibly carved out a new talent slot, as if it were a natural part of him.

[Spiritual Insight]

Talent Quality: Red

Description: This is a miracle of the soul.

Effects:

1: Triples base Spiritual Power.

2: Increases soul quality by one tier.

Because of this change in himself, Yu Fei quickly returned home.

After getting home, Yu Fei found this new talent in his mental space. Strangely, the talent came with its own slot and was already equipped.

Before tonight, Yu Fei could sense that his Spiritual Power was higher than an ordinary person’s, but it was definitely not more than double.

That moment of self-realization in the Blue Mountain Coffee Shop might not have shown any immediate results, but in the long run, it was profoundly significant for Yu Fei.

Before, he was just acting young. Now, he truly was young.

Previously, no matter how he acted on the outside, when he was alone, Yu Fei could still sometimes sense a world-weariness and mechanical quality about himself.

The [Spiritual Insight] talent was something he obtained by completely integrating the memories of his past life, and it had further increased his own potential.

Moreover, according to the Reversal of Fate Pearl’s talent grading system, the ranks from lowest to highest were Gray, White, Green, Blue, Purple, Orange, Red, Silver, and Gold.

The Red quality was the seventh level, which was already considered a high-tier talent.

Its effects were also heaven-defying. First, it tripled his base Spiritual Power. The key word was "base," which meant his advantage in Spiritual Power would carry over into every realm.

As for the second effect, "increases soul quality by one tier," he had no clue what it meant. However, Yu Fei felt that this might be the most important effect of the Red-grade talent, [Spiritual Insight].

Benefiting from the huge boost to his Spiritual Power from [Spiritual Insight], the [Dragon and Snake Double Stack] technique, which Yu Fei had originally estimated would take another week to figure out, was swiftly mastered. In total, he had spent less than an hour practicing it.

At the Minor Accomplishment stage, [Dragon and Snake Double Stack] could already be used in actual combat with a little preparation, but Yu Fei was still not satisfied.

His martial intuition told him that the core of the [Six Harmonies Killing Fist] was to comprehend Ruyi Shen Jin, but the key to it all lay in the [Dragon and Snake Double Stack].

And the key to cultivating [Dragon and Snake Double Stack] was Spiritual Power—of this, he was absolutely certain!

His off-the-charts Spiritual Power improved his cultivation in every aspect, even providing a huge boost to his fundamental Cultivation Technique, the [Ox Subduing Pile Skill]!

Yu Fei could feel that he was already halfway to the Major Accomplishment stage of the [Ox Subduing Pile Skill], and he was progressing at an astonishing speed.

As for the effects of the [Ox Subduing Pile Skill] at the Perfection stage, Mr. Yan had never mentioned them. However, from the occasional snippets he let slip, one piece of information was clear: if this basic pile skill reached Perfection, one would gain unimaginable benefits.

「Time flew by in the blink of an eye.」

Yu Fei practiced the pile skill, move by move. If one looked closely, the skin and muscles all over his body were trembling slightly at high speed.

If one were to observe from an extremely microscopic perspective, one would see that in this high-frequency vibration, his flesh and blood cells seemed to be undergoing a life-or-death test of survival of the fittest.

Some cells were sublimated by the unique frequency, while others were severely damaged, looking as if they could die at any moment.

Whenever this happened, wisps of medicinal essence from the Vitality Elixir would wash over them. These cells would absorb the medicinal energy, become vigorous again, and throw themselves into the next round of confrontation with the high-frequency vibrations.

Sublimate or die!

The core of cultivation in the first realm of martial arts was tempering. The body, this outer shell, had to undergo a complete rebirth under the stimulation of a Cultivation Technique, heralding the evolution of a Martial Artist.

Of course, this process required resources.

And different people had varying levels of talent.

Within the major realm of First-Realm Body Tempering, talents could be broadly divided into three categories.

The first was high comprehension, which allowed one to quickly grasp the version of the [Ox Subduing Pile Skill] best suited for their own cultivation. This not only improved resource utilization but, more importantly, reduced the difficulty of cellular evolution.

The second was a good physique. To put it bluntly, it meant stronger cellular survivability—the body could withstand more abuse and was tough and durable.

The Reversal of Fate Pearl still held an unequipped Purple-grade talent, [Steel Tendons and Iron Bones]. This was such a talent.

This talent could speed up a Martial Artist’s progress in tendon and bone refining, and they would achieve a stronger tempering effect than an ordinary person.

The third could be summarized as special-type talents, such as the [Enhanced Absorption] talent Yu Fei had obtained from Feng Shuhao. This talent was also sitting in the Reversal of Fate Pearl.

This talent could improve the ability to utilize resources. The same Vitality Elixir would have produced a much stronger effect on Feng Shuhao.

However, considering Feng Shuhao’s burly physique, the increased absorption was probably not enough to cover the deficit from tempering an extra hundred-plus pounds of flesh and blood.

Suddenly, Yu Fei’s body paused. He sensed a feeling of completion in his flesh and blood, and along with it came an immense hunger.

He had broken through the Flesh Trial’s tempering and entered the transformation phase.

The transformation phase of the Flesh Trial had no external phenomena. It had only one characteristic: the body required a huge amount of high-potency energy to supplement what was needed for cellular evolution.

If this were the old sect era, the wealthy would rely on the meat of exotic beasts or mutated plant-based treasures to get through the transformation phase.

The poor would need vast quantities of ordinary food; even brown rice would do. It was just that this method was extremely unsightly.

Ordinary food contained very little energy, and very little of it could be absorbed. So, it was common to eat for a while and then have to relieve oneself a short while later. This process could last for a long time and was a rather painful ordeal.

But in this day and age, that wasn’t necessary.

Yu Fei opened his communicator and contacted Mr. Yan.

"Mr. Yan, I’ve perfected my flesh refining!"

"Good. Send me your location! Stay put and don’t wander off."

At the same time, Yu Fei informed his parents of the news, telling them not to worry. He would be staying in the school infirmary for two days to get through the Flesh Trial’s transformation phase.

The precautions for breaking through the five trials of the first realm of martial arts were all recorded in the Great Yu Martial Scripture.

About 10 minutes later, Mr. Yan arrived with the on-duty staff from the school infirmary and took him away.

"Here, student. Drink this bottle of energy fluid first. It’s a Level 2, and it should alleviate your symptoms!"

"Thank you, sis!"

"Heh! You’ve got a sweet mouth. No wonder your talent is so good!"

The accompanying nurse had handed him the energy fluid as soon as she saw him. She’d seen this sort of thing many times; it could happen at any moment.