Starting as dockworkers, they swept through Chongqing.

Xilun took the order with both hands, his eyes scanning the special code that represented high-level resources, and a thought struck him.

He bowed slightly and thanked him sincerely: "Thank you for your guidance, Lord Yuri. I will remember it forever."

Yuri waved his hand, half-jokingly and half-seriously saying:

"Your breathing technique is actually best suited for working at that old man Wall's docks, especially on boats and underwater, where you'd be a perfect fit."

If I hadn't known your heart wasn't in this, I truly wouldn't have been willing to let you leave my ranks.

Xilun bowed respectfully and then left the office.

Holding the note approved by Yuri, Xiren easily made his way to the core warehouse on the ground floor of the building.

After a rigorous identity verification process, the warehouse keeper carefully retrieved a small, sealed lead box from a safe equipped with a constant-temperature array and handed it to Xilun.

Xiren opened the box, inside which lay a bottle of a deep, dark blue potion.

The liquid, known as "pure water potion," swayed slightly inside the glass tube. Even through the test tube, Xilun could feel the extraordinary, extremely pure, and icy water-based energy contained within it.

After obtaining the potion, Siron did not choose to return to the Golden Rooster Inn, but instead hired a carriage and headed straight for the Iron Cross Fighting Club.

He couldn't wait to transform the potion into real power for himself.

As soon as he reached the club's impressive revolving glass door, Xilun ran into an acquaintance.

That was his mentor, Lord Lund's third disciple, Aigu.

Aigu was wearing a well-fitting gray suit and was about to leave.

Upon seeing Xilen, he habitually raised his hand, pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, and his sharp gaze quickly swept over Xilen.

"Junior Brother Xilun."

Aigu nodded slightly in greeting, his tone carrying a hint of elder-like concern, "I heard you've been undergoing extremely rigorous training with your teacher for the past few months. How's it going?"

Xilun stopped and replied politely:

"Thank you for your concern, senior brother. I have gained a lot and my basic skills have become much more solid."

Aigu nodded slightly in satisfaction and suggested:

"In that case, if you have time tonight, you can come find me. I'll help you test your current physical strength and stamina to see how far you are from meeting the requirements for a fighting match."

"Okay, thank you for your guidance, senior brother." Xilun readily agreed.

Just as the two were about to part ways, Aigu suddenly stopped.

As if sensing something, he suddenly turned around, quickly approached Xilun, and his nose twitched slightly.

"Wait a minute..." Aigu's eyes became somewhat suspicious. He stared intently at Xilen's pocket and said in a low voice:

"You seem to possess an extremely pure aura of deep water."

He abruptly raised his head, his gaze fixed intently on Xilun:

"You...you obtained the 'pure water potion', didn't you?"

Xiren was slightly taken aback, not expecting Aigu's sense of smell to be so keen that he could even detect the scent of the medicine in the sealed box.

He didn't hide anything and nodded frankly: "Yes, I just got a bottle. What's wrong, senior brother?"

Upon hearing Xilun's affirmative answer, Aigu's usually composed face revealed an unusually strong look of envy.

He gave a bitter laugh, shook his head, and sighed:

"Previously, I felt I had hit a bottleneck, and I wanted my family to use their connections to get me a bottle of pure water potion through the black market or the church to accumulate energy and completely solidify my peak cultivation level. Unfortunately..."

Aigu pushed up his glasses, his tone filled with deep helplessness:

"Unfortunately, it was ultimately declined. Although this potion is only an auxiliary type, the production process is extremely complicated, and the core materials are very scarce. Even noble families would find it difficult to obtain them."

Of course, almost all high-grade general-purpose cultivation aids on the market are like this. During my baptism, I only took two bottles of general-purpose cultivation aids in total.

Upon hearing this, Xilun was suddenly startled.

Even someone like Senior Brother Aigu, who comes from a wealthy family, isn't qualified to get it.

He clearly remembered that Senior Brother Aigu was already a senior extraordinary person at the first-level extreme realm a year ago!

With Aigu's current strength, he is probably only a step away from becoming the legendary second-tier "Tearer".

Even someone as powerful as him would scramble for such resources, yet Lord Yuri granted them to him so readily.

Xiren once again deeply understood what Lothar had said—in this world, resources are always a privilege held by a very small number of people.

And now, he is tearing through this network of privileges step by step, forcibly seizing the resources into his own hands!

After bidding farewell to his envious senior brother Aigu, Xilun walked straight through the club's noisy lobby, showed the badge that symbolized his identity, and smoothly entered his private training room on the third floor.

As the heavy, gilded iron gate slammed shut behind him, all the noise from the outside world was completely shut out.

Xilun skillfully walked to the control panel and turned the power of the cooling array to the maximum.

hiss--

Accompanied by the low hum of the array in operation, visible white cold air surged wildly out from the ventilation openings around the room.

The indoor temperature plummeted below freezing in just a few seconds, and a thick layer of frost quickly condensed on the walls.

Xiren took off his shirt, revealing muscles that were angular and explosively powerful, like those of an ancient Greek sculpture.

He walked to the cold metal bed in the center of the room, sat cross-legged, and slowly exhaled a breath of white stale air.

He took out the lead-sealed box from his pocket and took out the bottle of dark blue "pure water potion".

Without the slightest hesitation, Xilun uncorked the bottle, tilted his head back, and drank the icy cold liquid in one gulp.

The dry throat was instantly enveloped by an extreme chill, and the medicine slid down the esophagus into the stomach, as if swallowing a piece of ancient ice.

Xilun immediately closed his eyes, forcibly suppressing the instinctive trembling in his body, and instantly entered a state of serene tranquility.

He began frantically circulating the third level of the "Great Ocean Whale Guiding Technique," guiding the originally calm blood and qi within his body to welcome this massive external energy.

boom!

The medicine's effects exploded completely in the stomach.

That icy energy instantly transformed into countless fine streams of water, rushing wildly through Xilun's veins and into his entire body.

Xilun felt his body was being subjected to extreme torment, experiencing both extreme heat and cold. The temperature of his body surface dropped sharply under the effect of the cooling array, and a thin layer of ice even formed on his skin; while inside his body, his blood and qi, catalyzed by the medicine, surged violently like boiling magma, frantically impacting every inch of his muscles and bones.

The main cultivation process of a first-order extraordinary being is essentially a brutal tempering of their mortal flesh and blood.

During this process, muscle fibers are constantly torn apart by the violent force, and then regenerated under the nourishment of medicine and martial arts techniques, becoming more resilient and explosive.

When breaking through that final barrier of tranquility, the body will undergo the most explosive, thorough tearing and rebirth.

Therefore, the potion used to prepare for the second baptism is also known in the occult as the "Potion of Rebirth".

If one can overcome the ordeal that is worse than death with strong will and physical strength, one will undergo a true transformation and advance to the second-tier "Tearer".

Xilun clenched his teeth tightly, and the veins on his forehead bulged like writhing dragons.

He could clearly feel the energy of the medicine spreading gently through his body, and with each breath came the excruciating pain of muscle fibers breaking and rebuilding.

This torment of alternating hot and cold lasted for a full hour. Xilun could clearly feel that the volume of his blood and qi was expanding at a visible rate, and the hardness of his physique and the purity of his strength had been significantly enhanced under the tempering of this pure water-attribute energy.

He didn't stop, continuing to maintain that steady and deep breathing rhythm, letting sweat and frost intertwine on his body.

And so, Xilun endured for four hours in this extremely cold training room, until he had completely squeezed out the last bit of the pure water potion's medicinal power and integrated it into his own bones and blood before slowly opening his eyes.

A flash of dark gold light appeared in his eyes, then quickly disappeared.

Xilun stood up and casually threw a punch, which produced a muffled sonic boom in the air.

He was extremely satisfied with the results of this training.

After getting dressed and leaving the training room, Xilun arrived at the top floor of the club, in the quiet attic where Lund's disciples rested.

Pushing open the door, he saw his senior brother Aigu sitting cross-legged on a futon by the window, his eyes closed, performing a kind of slow and rhythmic breathing exercise.

With each breath he took, the surrounding air seemed to distort slightly.

Xilun walked over and asked with some doubt:

"Senior brother, with your cultivation at the first-tier extreme realm, didn't our teacher prepare a private cultivation room for you, like the one downstairs?"

Upon hearing the sound, Aigu slowly opened his eyes and stopped breathing.

He adjusted his glasses, smiled, and shook his head.

"My situation is different from yours. The cultivation method I practice is quite special, leaning towards wind attribute and mental perception. It doesn't require the kind of cultivation room that relies on extreme environments to squeeze the body."

At this point, a hint of longing flashed in Aigu's eyes:

"Of course, if there were a higher-level special training room, it would greatly help me break through the bottleneck."

For example, the "cave training rooms" found only in top-tier academies are filled with high-purity natural spiritual energy; or the "wind training rooms" built on the edge of cliffs can all help me make rapid progress in my cultivation techniques.

Unfortunately, those places are not open to outsiders.

Aigu snapped out of her thoughts, looked at Xilun, and said with a hint of regret in her voice:

"I'm too old to participate in this year's junior knight fighting tournament."

This is a great regret of mine, so I hope you can bring back a truly dazzling ranking for me, for our club, and even more so for our teacher in the ring.

He stood up, extended his right hand, and his expression became serious:

"Come on, put your hand over."

"Let me test your current energy reserves and physical strength to see how far you've progressed after absorbing the pure water potion."

Xilun nodded and extended his right hand.

Aigu adjusted his glasses, stretched out his long fingers, and grabbed Xilun's wrist.

A moment later, Aigu's fingers suddenly stiffened. He seemed to sense something incredible, his brows furrowed tightly, and a look of extreme confusion flashed in his eyes.

He took a deep breath, defiantly channeling his immense power—the strength of a first-tier extreme realm cultivator—into his fingertips, attempting to test the limits of Xilun's blood and qi.

However, the moment his strength entered, it was like a mud ox entering the sea, instantly being bounced back by an even heavier and more violent force.

Aigu gasped.

He loosened his wrist, then reached out and pinched the skin on Xilun's forearm hard, testing the firmness of the muscles.

The feel was just like sculpting a solid, cold piece of iron that had been forged and tempered countless times!

A full half minute passed before Aigu slowly withdrew his hand, looking at Xilun as if he were a monster.

He let out a long breath, his voice filled with barely concealed shock:

"Silen... I admit, I underestimated you by a large margin."

He finally abandoned the posture of an elder instructing a younger generation, and began to treat the boy before him with a completely equal, even slightly reverent, gaze:

"Your current physical strength and the sheer power of your energy... are already incredibly close to the pinnacle of a first-tier Baptist!"

"At your current terrifying rate of progress, even without the aid of advanced potions, with just five to six more months of intensive, rigorous training, you'll likely be able to completely replenish your Qi and blood, entering the true first-tier limit state—also known as the extreme realm!"

Aigu looked extremely surprised.

Clearly, he never dreamed that Xilun, a newcomer who had been baptized less than half a year ago, could progress so rapidly, overcoming a path that others would take years or even decades to complete.

Xilun was not surprised by this assessment, and he followed up by asking:

"Senior, based on your understanding of the various clubs, what ranking do you think I could achieve if I participated in the junior knight fighting tournament with my current skills?"

After a moment's thought, Aigu analyzed the situation very objectively:

"After all, I haven't personally witnessed you wielding the spear, so I don't fully understand your weapon-wielding combat skills and can't easily make an absolute judgment."

However, as long as your weapon handling skills are at a beginner level and don't hold you back physically, making it into the top four shouldn't be a problem at all.

He counted on his fingers:

"Of the eight major clubs in Saint Laurent City, the four ranked lower usually send participants who are at most at the level of senior baptists. Their qi and blood can't even touch the threshold of the extreme realm, so they pose no threat to you."

But if it's four clubs, the situation is hard to say.

Perhaps the top two are both qualified, age-matching Extreme Baptists who came specifically for the competition rewards; of course, it's also possible that this year's competition is lacking in talent, and there isn't a single Extreme Baptist in the entire competition.

Everything depends on the draw and the situation on the day.

Xilun nodded slightly, and an arrogant figure immediately appeared in his mind.

He was well aware that Ross from the Ocelli family was a genuine Extreme Realm expert.

Speaking of which, Rose seems to belong to one of the top four clubs, the Platinum Club, right? He's from the same place as Marshall, whom he crippled before.

However, Marshall is nowhere near as good as Ross.

Xilun silently felt the surging power within him, lost in thought.

With his terrifying strength after being tempered by the pure water potion, he could easily defeat Marshall in a dozen or twenty moves, even if he were bare-handed.

If you add his specially made alloy gun, defeating ordinary, experienced baptized people with weapons would certainly be a piece of cake.

Xiren's mind flashed through all the enemies he had ever encountered in this world.

After much thought, perhaps the only one he could think of was Sislow, whom he had met once before. If he were to engage in a life-or-death battle with him now, there might be some suspense.

Xilun felt that Xislow's foundation was similar to his own, both at a level close to the extreme, with extremely rich qi and blood.

However, his opponent was a master swordsman who had been licking blood off the edge for many years, and his moves were ruthless and experienced; while his mastery of the spear, although he had received guidance from Master Lund, was only at the very beginning. If they were to actually fight, the outcome would be unpredictable.

After saying goodbye to the still-shocked Aigu, Xiren left the club alone.

As night fell, Xilun walked along the streets, immersing himself in the darkness and carefully sensing the changes within his own body.

He clenched his right fist tightly, and could clearly feel that as the day passed, the energy stored in his "charge enrichment" talent had reached complete saturation.

The tingling sensation between the muscle fibers stopped increasing, indicating that the collection would not continue.

He pondered to himself, "Based on the amount of charge used to stun the rats, I now have about fifty units of electrical charge stored in my body."

If all fifty units of this violent charge were to be unleashed in an instant through the metal spear...

"I wonder what level of lethality these numerous charges, combined, would have on an enemy of Ross's extreme level?"

He eagerly awaited that day.