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"I can't believe there's no significant effect."
In the pedestrian street where he had sat all afternoon, Jack Clark slowly opened his eyes, his face tinged with faint disappointment.
He had thought that cultivating the Heart's Eye Realm in such a noisy place as the pedestrian street would be somewhat helpful and better align with his cultivation skill state, but he found the progress was almost the same as yesterday.
It seemed he had overthought it.
Lost in thought, Jack stood up and left.
He had been sitting there for an entire afternoon and, aside from sunbathing and cultivating the Inner Eye, some beauties had come over to chat him up during that time.
However, Jack was in the middle of cultivation then, and half his consciousness was engaged in his Avatar's predatory battles as a Unique Beast, so he had no interest in entertaining them.
What woman could be more entertaining than hunting various Mutated Fish in the depths of rivers?
...
The next day, Sunday, Jack did not go to the pedestrian street or to school.
Under the sunlight, he sat cross-legged on the wooden corridor in the backyard, striving to cultivate the Dragon Elephant Power while part of his spirit was with the Heavy Armored Beast.
Below the surface of the water, more than ten meters deep, the Heavy Armored Beast had just hunted a Mutated Fish over 3 meters long and was feasting on it.
Through several days of ravaging, the Heavy Armored Beast had become the 'Overlord' of several kilometers of the water territory, with none of the Mutated Fish it targeted managing to escape.
Meanwhile, as it ate ravenously, its body grew increasingly large and heavy.
Hm?
Suddenly, Jack stopped his cultivation and opened his eyes.
Just then, he felt an almost imperceptible warm current within his body. The feeling was very similar to when his Avatar evolved. Could it be...
With a thought, Jack summoned his attribute page.
He saw that his Four Major Attributes had unknowingly increased by 2 points over the past two days, with the strength attribute reaching as high as 63.
"My attributes are slowly growing." Jack was somewhat surprised, and then an incredible hypothesis emerged in his mind.
Synchronous Strengthening.
As the Heavy Armored Beast Avatar grew, his original body was also being affected, becoming steadily stronger.
The reason he didn't notice before was that the previous Six-legged Salamander was too weak to make a discernible difference when it grew slightly for someone cultivating True Martial Arts like Jack.
It was not until after the second Evolution that the Heavy Armored Beast grew beyond a certain threshold and began to have an effect on Jack's physique, which had already reached 60.
Considering this possibility, Jack's breathing suddenly quickened.
If it truly was as he suspected, then what colossal strength would his body possess when his Avatar grew to a kilometer, ten thousand meters, or even a million meters under the effect of Synchronous Strengthening?
Could he punch out a planet?!
Jack got a bit excited, "Looks like I need to devote even more energy to nurturing my Avatar from now on."
Compared to the slow progress of True Martial, the growth rate of the Heavy Armored Beast was much more dramatic. It wasn't obvious at just under a meter currently, but after a few more evolutions, it would be fearsome.
Especially when it enters the deep sea later and grows to hundreds or thousands of meters...
On Monday, due to the Freshman Ranking Tournament, South Sky Martial Arts School was buzzing with excitement, and nearly two thousand freshmen flocked to the Cultivation Area in the Sports Center.
This was a stadium specially built for the competition, capable of accommodating tens of thousands of people.
At the moment, the South Sky Martial Arts School news was playing on the four large screens hanging from the ceiling of the stadium, while the stands around were filled with freshman who had not yet achieved Foundation Establishment.
Beneath them, the space equivalent to four football fields was divided into fifty squares with dimensions of six meters each, creating fifty Martial Arts Arenas arranged into four lines from numbers one to fifty.
```
Because it's not an average, the number one and two Martial Arts Arenas stand out.
At this moment, at the southern entrance of the sports stadium, freshmen with weapons strapped on their backs were forming ten lines, registering at ten autonomous sign-up machines.
Excitement, agitation, nervousness, and tension filled every face.
While the new students were signing up, several senior-grade students who weren't in school uniform stood with arms crossed at the very top of the stands, one of them uninterestedly said.
"Gary Collins, what did you call us here for?"
The long-haired youth leaning on the railing grinned, "What else? Of course, to watch the matches together."
Someone disdainfully said, "A bunch of rookies at the First Layer Heaven who've just completed their Foundation Establishment, what's so good about this kind of match?"
"Zhang Yao's right, these guys haven't even cultivated their True Strength yet, their fights are like kids playing house. I don't know why the school would bother organizing this competition."
A senior student said enviously, "Yeah, I heard that just by ranking in the Top 50, you get an additional five Contribution Points every month, as easy as picking them up."
You know, for us Second Grade students, we only get ten Contribution Points a month during our time in school, and if we want more, we have to complete tasks.
Yet these freshmen just need to be in the Top 50 to almost match what we get with their monthly stipend.
The youth leaning on the railing shook his head, "Don't underestimate these new students. It's only been a month since school started, and someone has already broken through to the Second Layer Heaven."
"Gary Collins, you're talking about that freshman named Jane Aiken, aren't you? She broke through to Second Layer Heaven in half a month, which means her talent is nothing less than that freak Carol Koch."
The long-haired youth smiled wryly, "Not only her, but there are also a few impressive characters among this batch of freshmen, one of whom has achieved a perfect compatibility with his Cultivation Methods."
"What, perfect compatibility?!"
"How is that possible?"
This news greatly shocked the senior students.
The long-haired youth shrugged his shoulders, "Don't look at me like that, I heard it from Elder Polis, so it shouldn't be wrong."
"Although that freshman hasn't broken through to the Second Layer Heaven yet, he possesses Innate Divine Strength, and the Cultivation Method he practices is the Advanced Skill Ox Devil Mountain-Shaking Formula, making his strength extremely terrifying."
"...a freak," a senior student swallowed hard.
Innate Divine Strength, combined with an Advanced Skill that enhances strength, would be terrifyingly powerful under prefect compatibility.
"It seems this batch of freshmen can't be underestimated," the other senior students became serious.
Over there in the line, Jack Clark, who was carrying a long knife, had just finished registering.
"Jack, this way."
No sooner had Jack Clark squeezed out of the crowd than Justin Welan, standing in the distance, waved and called out to him. Around him were other students from Class 3, seemingly divided into three factions.
One faction was led by class leader Crystal Lewis, surrounded by Justin Welan, Sawyer Levin, Vera Wada, and a few others.
On the other side was a small group headed by Matt Watkins, followed by a few other classmates who hadn't joined their clubs.
Seeing Jack Clark approaching, Justin Welan chuckled, "Jack, if you run into bad luck and face me next, I won't hold back this time."
As he spoke, he patted the huge shield on his back that was taller than a human, ten centimeters thick and studded with cone stings – his weapon.
Such a thick heavy shield, even if made of alloy, which is lighter than ordinary steel, still weighed over a hundred kilograms, a true heavy weapon.
Jack Clark smiled faintly, "If you encounter me, just go all out. My goal this time is participation, to accrue combat experience, winning or losing doesn't matter."
Crystal Lewis nodded upon hearing this, "That's right, this is just a regular competition; everyone's strength is average, so it's mainly about exchanging pointers, no need to care too much about winning or losing."
"Class Leader's right," Jack Clark humbly nodded.