Chapter 145: The Second Limit

The standard way of drinking the Energy Core Essence was taking small sips at different points of time. It would keep the toxin within acceptable levels, and the martial artist could adjust slowly.

But this method was only suitable for those who were naturally gifted. Their mutated tissue started growing the moment it experienced even the slightest bit of stimulation.

Chen Chuan knew that he wasn’t naturally gifted. Cheng Zitong should have also not made the toxicity too high. Hence, worried that the stimulation wouldn’t be enough, Chen Chuan decided to drink everything in one go.

As the refreshing, viscous liquid entered his stomach, he felt a heavy weight settle in him. Soon, it turned into a burning sensation, which became a stinging pain that spread through his entire body. Then, he felt himself going numb all over.

In order to utilize the effects of the Energy Core Essence, Chen Chuan didn’t use his second self to absorb the damage. He would only let it absorb the damage when things became dire. Hence, he withstood the onslaught from the Energy Core Essence himself.

After a while, he felt as if his limbs had disappeared, and it became difficult to breathe. This meant that the medicinal effects had spread through his entire body, so he started using the Preserver’s Breathing Technique to activate the mutated tissue in his organs.

Chen Chuan had observed this breathing technique multiple times. While he had never practiced it before, based on the foundation he built, he managed to grasp its basics without any difficulty.

He guided his mutated tissue for more than an hour, and when his qi and blood flowed through every part of his body, he seized control over his body once again. He stood up and started practicing the stances of the All-Encompassing Force. As he used different refined forces, he paired them with the shouts corresponding to each of the internal organs in order to let the medicine penetrate into them.

Usually, stances were a training method, so their movements were gentle and slow. While they did not provide much stimulation, people could use them for quite some time.

It was different when using refined force along with the stances. This provided a lot of stimulation, but those in the First Limit could only use their refined force a limited number of times a day. Hence, when trying to enter the Second Limit, the common method was to take the Energy Core Essence in small sips to use the nutrients in it to replenish the lost energy. After recovering a little, they would continue. This lengthened the gap between each time they used refined force.

Chen Chuan didn’t have to care about that. He was using refined force without any breaks to continuously stimulate his organs, while his second self absorbed all the damage.

Through his hard work, the mutated tissue that seemed to be sleeping in his organs started waking up and started growing into his organs. Then, it started spreading slowly according to what Chen Chuan wanted.

Any other martial artist would have to take the Energy Core Essence in small amounts and attempt what he did carefully as they tested the limit of their tolerance. Then, they would have to consider their compatibility with other medicines. They might even have to repeat this step a dozen times before they found something that worked smoothly for them. This process usually took three days.

The irregular growth led to the mutated tissue’s growth being fragmented and disorderly. While the martial artist could adjust the growth later, their foundation would still have some weaknesses.

Chen Chuan managed to do it in just a short few hours. His mutated tissue woke up from dormancy and started growing right away. There were no gaps in growth, thus the network of mutated tissue was really clear and organized.

Still, there were some flaws to it. Chen Chuan had stimulated the growth too quickly, which led to the tissue being fragile and limited in strength, but he could make up for it later. It was easier to do compared to mending a flawed foundation. As long as he had enough nutrients and stimulation, he could quickly make his mutated tissue stronger.

The day passed as Chen Chuan practiced the stances. He did not use the refined force the whole time. After guiding the growth of his mutated tissue the first time, he no longer needed to do it again. From the second time onward, he stopped after at most ten times and used stances as a transitional period or just stopped entirely and sat down in a meditative position to use the Preserver’s Breathing Technique to regulate his body.

One of the methods to guide the growth of his mutated tissue was forceful in nature, while the other gentle. It was an interplay between yin and yang energies. They complemented and responded to each other to continuously stimulate his mutated tissue.

In the end, he felt sticky all over and could even smell something bitter. It came from all the Energy Core Essence’s toxins being excreted from his body. It was only when all the toxin had come out of him that he could be considered to have utilized the medicine fully.

Chen Chuan guided his breathing slowly to calm down his body.

He had to stop his training for the day.

After all, there was a limit to how much mutated tissue could grow in a single day. Now that he had successfully awakened it, he just needed to continue this process for three days or so to strengthen his foundation.

Besides, his second self had been continuously absorbing the damage during the day and had almost hit the limit of his tolerance. Chen Chuan

had

to rest before he could continue.

He went to take a hot shower and changed his clothes before coming back to sit on the reclining couch, then sipped tea while enjoying the night scenery outside. He exhaled slowly.

This place was really great at helping him settle his mind. Based on the documents, as the mutated tissue in a martial artist’s organs grew stronger and became fully developed, their emotions would also be amplified. Some people might even be unable to control themselves.

This was especially true for younger martial artists. If they were careless, they could do all sorts of irrational things because of their out-of-control emotions.

One of the ways to tackle this was to take medicine to suppress emotions, and it was often necessary to do so. Past experiences also proved that it was quite an effective method.

It could prevent elite students from doing extreme things due to getting carried away in the heat of the moment. Sinister people were much more destructive when their emotions were amplified.

Of course, there was another method to regulate emotions—being in a calm environment and engaged in all sorts of activities while using breathing techniques that could regulate emotions to guide the mind. The martial artist would have to consciously try to overcome the amplified emotions on their own, just like what Chen Chuan was doing now. After all, this was more effective than taking medicine. Besides, practicing restraint was also a part of training.

Some of the training that martial artists had to do was in the physical sense, and the other was in the mental sense. It was only when a martial artist was able to practice restraint in both aspects that they could be considered to be in control of themselves and not a slave to their instincts.

According to the information Cheng Zitong gave him, martial artists in the past had noticed this. Sometimes, they would even light up incense burners and chant mantras to calm their minds.

Meanwhile, some evil cults would use the chance to recite twisted scriptures to corrupt a person’s mind and change their subconscious. Their goal was to stimulate the growth of eldritch mutated tissues. People like that were called monsters for a reason.

After meditating for a while, Chen Chuan felt his body and mind becoming much better. He took a pill that could help him repair his body and went to bed.

The next day, he woke up at 5 a.m. Once he was ready, he took another glass of Energy Core Essence and continued with the unfinished guidance of his mutated tissue’s growth.

This time, things were much easier. After all, the beginning was always the hardest. Today, all he needed to do was maintain the results from yesterday and spread the growth of his mutated tissue outward from the foundation he had built.

After guiding the growth of his mutated tissue the day before, he had become much more used to the Preserver’s Breathing Technique. He didn’t use any original approaches with the refined forces he practiced either. He just practiced them according to what was recorded in the All-Encompassing Force’s notes. Before he had a complete grasp of this power, his predecessor’s experiences had to be taken seriously.

Since Chen Chuan had only guided the mutated tissue in his organs to start growing outward yesterday, he now connected the mutated tissue from the different parts of his organs together to make a unified whole.

He needed to make his refined force and breathing technique work even more closely in this step, but had to be extra careful about it. Chen Chuan exercised extreme caution in this step. Fortunately, he had built a solid foundation on the first day, and the network of his mutated tissue was really clear, so the entire process went by smoothly.

When the day was almost over, he had a feeling that he needed just a bit more time, and all of his mutated tissue would be connected together, thereby entering the Second Limit.

But he did not rush into it, since his body had almost hit its limit. Chen Chuan stopped his training, took a bath, and went back to admire the scenery while drinking tea to calm his mind.

He went to bed on time again and didn’t get caught up in unnecessary thoughts.

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

On the third day, he took his third glass of Energy Core Essence and continued guiding his mutated tissue’s growth.

He found the process even easier than before. Almost as naturally as breathing, he managed to connect his mutated tissue into one unified whole and formed a fragile circuit. All he needed to do next was to carefully nurture the mutated tissue. Then, they would settle within his organs.

Chen Chuan had officially reached the Second Limit.

From this moment on, if he received any external stimulation, most of the effects would land on the mutated tissue on his organs.

But the mutated tissue on his tendons and bones was not going to stop growing because of it. All of it would continue getting stronger and expanding its maximum potential.

With tentative movements, Chen Chuan tried activating his refined force. Even if he didn’t have any clear comparisons, he could still sense that all of his physical abilities had increased by leaps and bounds.

This was just the beginning, though. As he continued solidifying the results of his training, his mutated tissue would continue growing, and more changes would occur. His fighting strength would keep growing.

Just like when he had reached the First Limit, his mutated tissue would experience a period of rapid growth at this stage. With medicine and a suitable training regime, he would feel as if he was improving every day.

Also, based on past experience, the joy brought by reaching the Second Limit would bring a substantial increase in his overlap time with his second self.

He checked on his watch, and the results didn’t disappoint. This time, the increase was more than forty minutes, making his total overlap time almost three hours. This was undoubtedly good news to him, since he was about to take the unrestricted defense permit test. His survivability had increased yet again.

After sitting for a moment, Chen Chuan stood up, poured himself a cup of tea, and sat down again to flip through a notebook Cheng Zitong had given him. It had additional notes from He Xiaoxing, which told him what sort of techniques and refined forces he should use after he reached the Second Limit.

While the All-Encompassing Force included stances he had to perform in the Second Limit, it did not contain any notes about how he should use those techniques or the refined force. Back in the First Limit, he had to use them with Principal Sanshou and copied how other refined forces drew power from their mutated tissue. That had been enough.

But the usage of refined force in the Second Limit was much more complicated. All mutated tissue could participate in generating power. That meant that the techniques and refined forces Chen Chuan could use in the Second Limit were way higher than the First Limit.

While other people practicing other refined forces could refer to their predecessors’ experiences, Chen Chuan couldn’t. He could only rely on people with ample experience giving him guidance while he explored on his own.

Even so, he could refer to the other refined forces’ notes. However, this was not easy. Those who reached the Second Limit either graduated soon after or became lecturers. Hence, if he wanted their notes, he needed to be a lecturer or an elite student acknowledged by the university.

If he submitted a request for them, he was sure that the university would give them to him, but he didn’t want to expose his progress just yet.

He Xiaoxing was not only a lecturer in Martial Valor University before, but also someone who’d had in-depth discussions with various martial artists before. He himself was also a great martial artist, so he could provide suitable guidance to Chen Chuan in this regard.

He Xiaoxing suggested that Chen Chuan did not overcomplicate things for the time being and just focused on power and speed. With these two things, he could win most fights. He also listed some tips on how to use his newfound strength and a few crucial details about the Second Limit, but not the technique.

At the end, he told Chen Chuan that he would not tell him certain things. He would figure them out on his own once he reached higher limits.

Chen Chuan thought about it and decided that the suggestion was perfect for his style. He had successfully reached the Second Limit. If he overlapped with his second self, he should be able to win most fights he was bound to get into in the future.