Chapter 48
The gym. Strength training area.
Bai Jingtang, her hair tied in a high ponytail, was extremely sensitive to being watched.
Sensing someone observing her, she instinctively looked over and saw a young, unfamiliar face staring at her in utter shock.
Bai Jingtang frowned slightly.
A newcomer?
At this hour, weren’t all the company’s newcomers grinding away in-game?
Why would someone appear in the strength area?
What a nuisance.
She silently set the barbell down, unloaded the plates, and left the strength area without a word. From start to finish, she did not exchange a single glance or word with Su Wangchuan, her demeanor icy and aloof.
Su Wangchuan blinked. It felt like brushing past a world champion—equal parts excitement and regret.
Three hundred kilograms.
He was certain he had not misseen it.
As a veteran fitness content creator who trained year-round, he knew very well that at this bodyweight level, lifting three hundred kilograms was simply impossible.
Even world champions could not do it.
Including male athletes.
Yet right before his eyes, she had effortlessly completed a three-hundred-kilogram clean and jerk.
This was not a national training center.
This was just a game studio.
However—
Her cold, distant attitude made him consciously maintain proper boundaries. He followed his original plan and went to the treadmill, setting the speed to five kilometers per hour and walking slowly to aid digestion.
More than twenty minutes passed.
He stepped off the treadmill.
That slender figure and those three hundred kilograms lingered in his mind, impossible to shake.
He recalled that before joining the Warring States Game Studio, he could bench press two hundred kilograms. But after repeated increases to his Strength attribute, he could already bench press two hundred and forty kilograms.
Could it be that—
That woman earlier was the same?
Did attribute increases in 《spirit realm》 affect one’s real-world body?
Or was it that performing various kinds of cultivation inside 《spirit realm》 produced twice the results with half the effort?
He walked slowly while digesting, sorting through his thoughts.
After stepping off the treadmill, Su Wangchuan found himself drifting toward the bench press station in the strength area.
On an impulse, he wanted to test whether his twelve points of Strength had brought another breakthrough.
To be safe, he chose a bench press weight of two hundred and forty kilograms.
Sure enough—
What had required immense effort before now felt noticeably easier.
He silently increased the weight to two hundred and fifty kilograms.
Hah!
Effortless.
He added another ten kilograms.
This time, he felt pressure, but still pushed it up successfully.
“In less than three months, from two hundred kilograms to two hundred and sixty.”
“Something is definitely off with 《spirit realm》.”
After putting the equipment back in place, Su Wangchuan’s mind was in turmoil.
As a professional fitness content creator, he was certain that the structure of the human body made such massive breakthroughs in just three months fundamentally impossible.
And yet—
His physical condition had undeniably become stronger.
He weighed only eighty kilograms. A two-hundred-and-sixty-kilogram bench press was already astonishing, especially without any supportive equipment. (In weightlifting terms, the difficulty of clean and jerk is more than double that of bench press.)
“I wonder what level my snatch and clean and jerk could reach now.”
He walked over to the barbell platform in the strength area.
The aloof female colleague had left seventy-five kilograms of plates on the bar—very light.
Since no one else was nearby, and for safety’s sake, Su Wangchuan increased the weight to one hundred kilograms. He chalked his hands, stabilized his stance as he had been taught before, secured his grip, and relied on his core strength to slowly exert force, lifting the barbell until his arms hung freely beneath him…
The pressure was not great.
Hah!
Snatch.
One hundred kilograms—successful.
Su Wangchuan felt that with his current physical condition, snatching one hundred kilograms was effortless, with no difficulty at all.
He dropped the barbell with a loud bang.
Then he increased the weight to one hundred and twenty kilograms.
Completed with ease.
One hundred and fifty kilograms.
He deliberately raised the difficulty.
To his surprise, he still managed it.
But he did not dare continue.
The world records for snatch in 2030 stood at one hundred and eighty kilograms, and for clean and jerk at two hundred and ten kilograms.
If he were injured by accident, the loss would far outweigh the gain.
Fitness was beneficial—but also dangerous, especially with strength equipment. Extra caution was always required.
Although he did not dare probe his limits, Su Wangchuan had clearly confirmed one thing:
His strength had indeed increased dramatically.
And all of this was very likely related to 《spirit realm》.
He suddenly understood why major studios evaluated physical fitness during recruitment and required every employee to sign a confidentiality agreement before onboarding.
If the secrets of 《spirit realm》 were leaked, the entire world would probably swarm in overnight.
But—
Another question arose.
Which country had actually researched and developed this game?
From its background alone, it was saturated with ancient Chinese martial arts elements.
Had national neural network technology really advanced to such a level?
Technology that should have been applied to the military—why was it being deployed in a game instead?
He could not understand it.
These were questions that no one was destined to answer.
He suspected that even the top boss of the Warring States Game Studio might not fully understand it either.
Forget it.
Curiosity killed the cat.
Better not dwell on it.
Being among the first to reap the benefits was enough.
After resting for a while, Su Wangchuan returned to the game and continued cultivating 《Basic Spear Technique》 step by step.
THUD!
THUD!!
The spear struck the iron-armored wooden stake again and again.
Experience points rose slowly.
After repeating this training for an entire day—
The experience reached 51/100.
On the second day, after completing his training, he heard the system prompt as he wished:
“Ding!”
“《Basic Spear Technique》 has advanced from Entry-Level to ‘Minor Mastery.’ Reward: 1 point of Strength! Next realm: ‘Practice Makes Perfect.’”
Su Wangchuan: Male (Blacksmith) (Hunger 70/100)
Strength 8+5; Attack 4–5;
Agility 8+3; Defense 2.2; Speed +11;
Vitality 8+2; Health 100/100;
Spirit 8: (Not Activated).
Life Skill 《Hundredfold Steel Forging Technique》: Entry-Level Mastery. Next realm: ‘Integration’ 0/2000;
Combat Skill 《Archery》: Minor Mastery. Next realm: ‘Practice Makes Perfect’ 109/300;
Combat Skill 《Basic Spear Technique》: Minor Mastery. Next realm: ‘Practice Makes Perfect’ 0/300;
Current Location: Southern Sky Continent, Nanyu Kingdom, Sanhe Commandery, Huishui County, Blackstone Village.
Two days for one point of Strength.
Su Wangchuan specifically made a trip to the blacksmith shop to learn how to forge Hundredfold Steel daggers from his master, Blacksmith Sun.
With thirteen points of Strength, forging truly became much easier. The One-Breath Quadruple Strike flowed even more smoothly, the two sets of sounds merging into a single rhythm.
Clang!
CLANG!!
Clang!
CLANG!!
The speed of hammering and folding the iron blocks increased once more.
Watching from the side, Blacksmith Sun was all smiles. As he instructed Su Wangchuan on the techniques and points of attention for forging Hundredfold Steel daggers, he nodded repeatedly.
“The One-Breath Quadruple Strike is getting more and more refined. The folding speed has increased a lot. At this rate, it won’t be long before your speed in forging daggers can catch up to forging steel ingots.”
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