Volume One: First Signs of Brilliance Chapter Thirteen: Consecutive Breakthroughs!

Strike while the iron is hot!

He wasn’t content with just reaching the second stage of Body Refinement. Opportunities like this, so rare and hard-won, might never come again. If he wanted to catch up with his peers, he had to seize this chance to advance his cultivation.

Suppressing the myriad thoughts swirling in his mind, Wang Jue focused all his attention on enhancing his realm. The starlight energy in the bathroom, which at first was a faint mist, soon thickened until it nearly obscured Wang Jue’s figure. Despite the amount of starlight he absorbed through his cultivation technique, there was no sign of depletion in the room.

Time slipped by.

Once again, impurities surfaced on the pores of Wang Jue’s delicate, pale skin. Compared to before, this time the grime was lighter in color, shifting from a dark red to a grayish crimson—a clear sign that the impurities in his body were steadily diminishing.

His cultivation level continued to inch upward.

Mid-stage of Body Refinement II.

Late-stage of Body Refinement II.

The peak of Body Refinement II—just a step away from breaking through to Body Refinement III!

His realm advanced again and again. Previously, Wang Jue could clearly sense each breakthrough, but now these minor increments felt less distinct—though far easier than before. Perhaps it was the effect of his cultivation technique, or the improvement in his talent; both his physical and spiritual memory seemed to have been enhanced.

For those with poor talent, a breakthrough in a single stage might take years, and some may toil their entire lives without ever advancing.

Few could match Wang Jue’s unwavering diligence over nine years.

Now, not only had he progressed from an ordinary person without cultivation to a martial artist, but in just a few days, he’d broken through continuously to the peak of Body Refinement II. Compared to before, it seemed almost like a game, with the only price being starlight source points.

Sensing his cultivation at the threshold of a breakthrough, Wang Jue concentrated even harder. His ambitions were vast; the second stage of Body Refinement was not his goal. His true aim was to catch up with his peers—Body Refinement IV!

Checking his remaining two starlight source points, Wang Jue realized he had points but nothing to upgrade.

Enhance talent? That required a hundred points.

Not enough.

Upgrade cultivation technique? A thousand points.

Even less.

The only area left to improve was martial skills.

Unfortunately, he didn’t possess even the most basic martial skills yet, so this idea had to be set aside for now. Advancing his cultivation remained the most urgent task.

Vast streams of starlight energy flowed into his body, yet his realm remained unchanged—still at the peak of Body Refinement II.

“Why can’t I break through?”

After several failed attempts, Wang Jue opened his eyes, his face puzzled. “Even with ample starlight, I can’t break through. Could it be my talent restricting me?”

Talent determined each person’s potential. If he still had low-grade red-level talent, Wang Jue wouldn’t be so puzzled; after all, that was the lowest grade, and no one knew better than he how hard it was to advance.

But now, Wang Jue’s talent had already been upgraded to mid-grade red. Some of his classmates had the same level of talent, and their cultivation was generally around Body Refinement IV, with a few even reaching the fifth stage.

With the same talent, Wang Jue didn’t believe he’d lag behind his peers now that he had a golden finger. In fact, he no longer saw them as his targets; his true aim was those peers with orange-level talent!

They were the ones he intended to catch up to.

“No, that’s not right. If talent truly restricted me, I wouldn’t feel on the verge of a breakthrough.”

After a brief consideration, Wang Jue dismissed that idea and frowned. “There must be something else I don’t know. If it’s not talent, then it must be the cultivation technique.”

“But… even though I obtained the ‘Star Soul Body Technique’ by chance, if there were a problem with it, I wouldn’t have advanced from Body Refinement I to the peak of Body Refinement II. What exactly is the issue?”

Suddenly, a thought occurred to him, and Wang Jue muttered uncertainly, “Could it really be like the novels say? Rapid breakthroughs in a short time lead to unstable foundations, preventing further progress? If so, what I need now isn’t to break through, but to consolidate my foundation until all hidden hazards are eliminated, and my realm will naturally advance in due course?”

“Overthinking won’t help. I’ll know if my guess is right by trying it. Consolidating my foundation can’t do any harm.”

At that moment, Wang Jue closed his eyes again, no longer eager to break through, but instead used starlight energy to carefully comb through the unseen flaws within his body.

And it worked.

Wang Jue could distinctly feel that the starlight absorbed into his body hadn’t disappeared. Though it didn’t directly push his realm forward, it permeated every fiber of his flesh, making his blood and tissue increasingly vital.

If previously his blood was a murky dark red, now it was a pure, vivid crimson, with a faint golden hue barely visible.

The transformation of his flesh was even more dramatic. Years of cultivation had left Wang Jue with the appearance of malnutrition, but after being nourished by starlight, he radiated a vibrant, energetic aura.

Of course, the changes brought by starlight weren’t limited to this. Most significantly, his muscle fibers had become more taut. Whether this would give him an edge over other martial artists remained to be seen.

Wang Jue’s body was like a bottomless pit, endlessly absorbing starlight. Fortunately, the bathroom’s starlight was abundant enough to maintain its misty state despite his constant absorption.

An hour later.

When he finally felt his body reach saturation, Wang Jue opened his eyes. “My body has absorbed starlight to its limit. The next step is breaking through.”

Thinking of his imminent advance to Body Refinement III, Wang Jue couldn’t help but feel excited.

No one could truly understand what it meant to spend more than nine years unable to break through except Wang Jue himself.

Now, he had undergone a ‘revolutionary’ transformation—not only had his talent improved and his realm advanced, he had also obtained a cultivation technique capable of changing his entire life, not to mention his golden finger.

Everything Wang Jue possessed was thanks to the golden finger.

All preparations were complete.

“Whew…”

Wang Jue slowly exhaled, solemnly preparing to break through.

Closing his eyes once more, he actively circulated the route of the ‘Star Soul Body Technique.’ Instantly, his body became like a black hole, absorbing all the dense starlight within a meter radius.

A vast torrent of wild starlight energy surged into him, transforming into a tremendous warm current within his body, heating him from the inside as though flames burned within. Wang Jue’s skin flushed red, and he hastily guided the starlight to trigger the breakthrough.

As time passed, more and more starlight was absorbed and gradually fused into his body.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

A series of explosions, like beans popping in a pan, echoed from within Wang Jue, and his physique transformed. If before, his years of ‘malnutrition’ made him look a year or two younger than his actual age, after the breakthrough he finally resembled a true sixteen-year-old youth.

His frame stretched, growing larger than before, his shoulders broadening. A ferocious, wild, and dominant aura rose from him, flickering in and out of existence—appearing only for a brief moment before vanishing.

At this moment, Wang Jue had broken through!

He had truly entered Body Refinement III!

Wang Jue opened his eyes immediately. In that fleeting instant, he sensed the aura radiating from himself, his gaze flickering as he felt like a conqueror.

His heart swelled with pride.

But he quickly calmed down, knowing that this sudden surge of emotion was the residual hazard brought by his breakthrough; his mindset wasn’t yet mature.

It was all just an illusion—he was no overlord, merely a low-level martial artist at Body Refinement III.

“Ah, nothing compares to the thrill of breaking through!”

Wang Jue grinned foolishly, feeling he’d taken another step toward becoming strong.

Name: Wang Jue

Cultivation: Body Refinement III

Talent: Red Grade (Mid) 0/100

Cultivation Technique: Star Soul Body Technique Stage I (Unknown) 0/1000

Starlight Source: 2

“I must admit, the golden finger is truly miraculous. Compared to others’ arduous cultivation, mine is so much more efficient. If only I’d had it during the year of talent testing.”

He glanced at the information panel, unable to help but sigh. If his former self had obtained the golden finger earlier, by the time he transmigrated, there’d be no need to worry about cultivation—he’d simply inherit it.

Yet he overlooked one thing.

Had his former self possessed the golden finger, he wouldn’t have died from excitement after breaking through to Body Refinement I, and Wang Jue couldn’t have guaranteed he’d transmigrate suddenly.

Even if he did, how could he be sure he’d land in his former self’s body?

“But still, the golden finger didn’t come too late.”

Wang Jue was still young, and nine years of relentless cultivation had finally made him a martial artist, despite his poor talent.

Assessing his physical changes, Wang Jue realized the immense difference a cultivation technique made to his physique. When he first broke through to Body Refinement I without a technique, his body improved only slightly.

Now, with the mysterious ‘Star Soul Body Technique,’ Wang Jue could clearly sense his physical strength had skyrocketed. Though he couldn’t pinpoint his current level, his intuition told him that no one at Body Refinement III could match him—perhaps even those at the fourth or fifth stage would fall short.

The only uncertainty was Body Refinement VI.

He wasn’t being arrogant; he was confident. If it came down to pure physical prowess, no one below Body Refinement VI would be his equal!