Chapter 60: Progression

Like that, the long night had ended, bringing across waves of unrest throughout the city. Countless rumors had spread around the city as to the whereabouts of Scarlett, only to result in nothing substantial. Yet, the news came through a shocking manner – she had actually taken interest in a person!

Her influence reached out through the institute as well, causing people to look for that certain person.

“Is it true that Scarlett likes you?”

“There’s no doubt about that, she’s never visited someone by herself and talked with them in that manner.”

“Hey, why didn’t you ever tell us that you knew her?”

“When are you going to bring and introduce her to us?”

Fang sighed as he replied once again with the same words. Ever since the party had ended, he had been constantly pestered with questions about Scarlett. No matter how much he said he didn’t know her, no one believed at all!

He started to walk across the path to his courses. It was hard though to ignore the female students that followed behind him and Blue, constantly giggling and pointing at him. As the group passed the signposts, one of the girls leapt out in front of him, blushing.

“Can you please look at this? Thanks!”

A fine slip of paper was pressed on his hands, and the girls retreated rapidly.

Without looking, Fang already knew what the contents of the paper were – a love letter. He had enough stacks of letters by now to create a small, staggering tower.

Nearby, Blue wickedly smiled at him. “It seems you’re pretty popular in the institute now, Fang.”

“Please don’t look at me that way,” Fang replied tiredly. The only type of ‘fame’ he had ever had was that disdained reputation back in Victoria City, and he had no clue as to handling the present.

On the other hand of his exploding popularity with the girls, the male students had gotten increasingly hostile towards him, unable to accept that their love had a liking for a regular person like him.

Bitterly, he couldn’t figure out the cause for this entire condition. Why did she suddenly come up to say those words, and just then too? No amount of contemplation returned any answers; how could he have known that the mischief in question was right next to him?

Although his daily life was quite disturbed, he continued to practice as usual.

That evening, he arrived in front of the towering building, and climbed up flights of stairs to enter a small, comfortable room.

Revolving the power around him, he opened up from the 1st grade novice to the 2nd grade, continuing to the 1st grade intermediate level, 2nd grade intermediate, 3rd grade intermediate, 4th grade intermediate, then back to the 1st grade.

From the bottom to the peak, and from the peak to the bottom. This buildup and crash circulated through and then back, unceasingly going against a seemingly looming wall.

It was a process he had to be careful with – the gap between the 4th and 5th grades was quite a leap, and required a large amount of energy to pass through the bottleneck. If he failed, there wouldn’t be a serious injury, yet the energy accumulated would all dissipate! Because of this risk, people often relied on an external source to help them break through to guarantee success.

However, Fang didn’t have this worry, as the method he practiced had helped him through these walls without failure so far. Taking a deep breath, he continued to revolve the energy, when suddenly, a large fluctuation of energy burst out.

5th grade intermediate!

As quick as that burst, the energy calmly settled down.

He sighed in relief, glad it had happened smoothly – but then, he started to feel a bit dizzy. Energy started to build up again, but it completely different this time; it started from the 1st grade intermediate all the way to the 5th grade intermediate level.

His body started to swell rapidly with that change, and in panic, Fang felt inside his body.

There was no signs of any of the previous strengths left!

Instead, in its place, whirls of pure energy seemed to surge inside his body. Startled, Fang started to examine it, only to return back into a wide smile. Not daring to be negligent though, he carefully started to push the remnant energy out of his body. As the room filled up, feeling more and more stuffy, the sole occupant’s breath fell down, growing slower and slower until the room was filled with complete silence.1

Then, the surrounding energy gathered in a single spot, as a gaping vacuum swallowed the chaotic energy.

A single minute passed, and Fang opened in his eyes in elation.

Inside his body, a collection of points seemed to have formed into a single sphere that emitted a fearful aura.

It succeeded!

Heartbeats filled the deathly quiet, and Fang excitedly got up. The elders proudly shouted at that time that the limitless method would lead to unparalleled progress never seen before, and one of the heretic theories was a formation of an area where energy would be compressed to a degree to better utilize the copious amounts of energy!

Eagerly, Fang left the room.

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From previous drafts:

1. Then, because Fang no longer had a heartbeat, he died.