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Chapter 5 - Breaking Past 40

"Can you really become stronger just by working hard?"

Zhao Xuan muttered softly in his heart, then quietly closed his eyes.

Once his mind settled and his breathing calmed, he began to meditate.

Ten minutes later.

As the bell rang to signal the end of class, Zhao Xuan slowly emerged from his meditative state.

At that moment, a clear, mechanical chime echoed in his head:

"Ding! You've earnestly meditated for a short period of time and gained minor insight. Spiritual Power +0.01!"

"Not bad."

Zhao Xuan wasn't disappointed by the small increase of only 0.01 points.

After all—

An increase of 0.01 in just ten minutes of meditation was already quite impressive.

That meant 0.06 per hour.

And there were twenty-four hours in a day.

If he could somehow meditate for a full day without stopping,

that would be an increase of 1.44 Spiritual Power!

That—was an explosive number.

If word of this ever got out, it would probably scare the life out of anyone who heard it.

And more importantly, according to the system's own rules,

the longer he maintained continuous cultivation,

the greater the rewards he would earn.

As soon as class ended—

Swish swish swish!

Almost the entire class crowded around Zhao Xuan's desk.

Although they already had a good idea, judging from the reactions of Homeroom Teacher Zhong Jianguo and the school administrators, that Zhao Xuan's Spiritual Power had truly exceeded the limit,

they still couldn't believe it until they heard it from Zhao Xuan himself.

"Zhao Xuan, Zhao Xuan—did they really say your Spiritual Power reached thirty-seven?"

"Is it true that your Spiritual Power mutated or something?"

"Hey, Zhao Xuan, tell us—!"

Throughout the entire ten-minute break, questions bombarded Zhao Xuan nonstop.

Meanwhile—

News of Zhao Xuan's Spiritual Power reaching 37 began spreading like wildfire through the entire school.

In no time at all—

Tongcheng First High School was in an uproar.

By the next day, the rumor had already reached the neighboring Fengming High School.

No—

not just Fengming High—

by now, over half of Tong City had heard about it!

And for good reason.

A Spiritual Power of 37 almost guaranteed that one would become a Logia-type Devil Fruit user.

And as mentioned before—

almost every Logia-type user, so long as they didn't die young, would eventually become a Seventh-Rank Venerable!

A Seventh-Rank Venerable—

That was the level of a Prefectural Lord!

Zhao Xuan, of course, knew what this meant—

but he didn't particularly care.

Because all of his attention was fixed on the Heavenly Rewards Diligence System.

After two days of effort, combined with the ten Spirit-Nurturing Fruits gifted by Principal Jin Xueyang,

Zhao Xuan's Spiritual Power was now rapidly approaching the long-awaited threshold of 40.

Early morning.

Before dawn even broke, Zhao Xuan was already awake.

After washing up and eating breakfast, he made his way to the private office the school had set aside just for him.

There, he sat down cross-legged and began his morning meditation.

Time flowed quietly by.

Two hours later—

"Ding! You've earnestly meditated for a period of time and gained remarkable insight. Spiritual Power +0.2!"

Hearing that, Zhao Xuan immediately opened his status panel:

Heavenly Rewards Diligence System

Name: Zhao Xuan

Age: 18

Spiritual Power: 30.08 / 40.17

Physique: 19.84 / 19.84

Abilities: Shave (Soru), Iron Body (Tekkai), Paper Art (Kami-e), Moonwalk (Geppo), Tempest Kick (Rankyaku), Finger Pistol (Shigan), Swordsmanship

Long periods of meditation inevitably caused mental fatigue,

which would temporarily weaken one's spiritual strength.

This was unavoidable.

Furthermore, the Spirit-Nurturing Fruit wasn't a high-grade elixir—

it was merely a low-grade spiritual herb.

It worked well for those below 20 spirit points,

but its effects diminished sharply beyond that,

and by the time one exceeded 30 points, its benefits were almost negligible.

That was precisely why—even with the system's assistance and the help of the fruits—

It still took Zhao Xuan two full days to break past the 40-point mark.

"At long last… I've broken through 40."

Zhao Xuan exhaled deeply, a faint smile rising on his lips.

"There's still more than two hours before the Demon Space opens. I still have one Spirit-Nurturing Fruit left—it should be enough to fully restore my Spiritual Power."

He casually tossed a pale-green fruit into his mouth, closed his eyes,

emptied his thoughts,

and began recovering his spiritual energy in earnest.

Not long after—

Homeroom Teacher Zhong Jianguo, Principal Jin Xueyang, and several other school leaders quietly entered the office.

Seeing Zhao Xuan deep in recovery, no one dared to speak.

They simply stood by in silence, afraid of disturbing him.

Time slipped by unnoticed.

Soon—

noon arrived.

At exactly twelve o'clock—

Under everyone's watchful eyes,

the air around Zhao Xuan began to ripple like water.

Then—

In the next instant—

a rift appeared before him and swallowed his entire body whole!

"It's starting!"

"I wonder which Logia-type fruit Zhao Xuan will obtain?"

"Doesn't matter which—there's no such thing as a weak Logia Fruit!"

As Zhao Xuan vanished, Zhong Jianguo and the others finally let out their excitement,

their faces alight with anticipation and awe.

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