Chapter 6: Aspiring Achievers

Ji Xinghuo came home and stopped paying attention to the outside world.

From the Service Center for Extraterrestrials to his home his star power increased to 5, further enhancing his physical condition.

Although outwardly there was no change in his physique internally both his strength and endurance had clearly improved.

Ji Xinghuo remembered the precautions during the evolution period and rested for a while.

“It’s still early…”

He glanced at the clock. It was just after 3 PM. Staying idle felt pointless. “Can’t overdo it and get too tired but a bit of light training can’t hurt.”

He then opened his phone and purchased some training equipment.

Ten minutes later.

Ji Xinghuo received a notification and saw a silver drone rapidly approaching his apartment building from the horizon. It landed at a pre-arranged delivery spot on the balcony outside his apartment, gently placed a parcel and took off again.

He went to the balcony, brought in the parcel and opened it. Inside were the items he had just ordered.

Several minutes were spent unpacking. The contents included dozens of coins of varying sizes, several tennis and iron balls, a set of rubber bottles, an electronic keyboard with hundreds of keys, an outdated input keyboard, several bundles of rope, and a few oddly shaped tools.

All in all, they resembled props from an acrobat’s performance.

These were meant for training his “Thousand Skilled Hands” ability.

Ji Xinghuo picked up a coin, placed it on the back of his hand, and his fingers swiftly moved making the coin roll between them.

After a few seconds, the moving coin paused momentarily.

“Still not proficient…”

Ji Xinghuo practiced for a moment and soon mastered the skill of rolling a single coin.

The coin danced between his fingers like a wave, moving swiftly. It dazzled the eyes, yet it never fell.

He then added another coin.

According to the training, each hand could roll up to three coins of different weights at the same time without them colliding.

Even with the assistance of his All-Seeing Star Eyes, it wasn’t easy for Ji Xinghuo.

He didn’t expect instant success. After half an hour, he switched activities. He started tossing tennis balls into the air, one after another, reaching ten balls before stabilizing for a while. Then he added rubber bottles to the mix and immediately got messy.

From the afternoon till late at night, Ji Xinghuo trained several activities repeatedly.

Coin flipping, ball throwing, rapid keyboard playing, typing, rope tricks, and puzzle disassembling were all mastered proficiently.

He felt rapid progress.

Before going to bed, Ji Xinghuo checked his information panel. His star power had increased to 28.

The progress for “Thousand Skilled Hands” was still at 1/47.

“Leveling up abilities is indeed challenging,” sighed Ji Xinghuo, but he was not at all discouraged and quickly went to sleep.

When he woke up the next day.

Ji Xinghuo felt his body had become slightly stronger than the previous night, though not as much as yesterday. The speed of his enhancement had clearly slowed down.

His star power had reached 41, and its growth had slowed as well.

“My first evolution period should end today,” said Ji Xinghuo as he got up, washed, ate, and started his ability training for the day.

Using abilities also requires the consumption of star power.

Different abilities consume different amounts of star power. “Thousand Skilled Hands” is a type of passive ability that consumes very little.

Ji Xinghuo trained for seven to eight hours yesterday using “Thousand Skilled Hands,” and it didn’t consume much star power, not even a third.

Moreover, the star power used during ability training, even when replenished, has a negligible effect on its growth.

Star power grows fastest when combined with physical training.

Thus, ability training and star power cultivation are usually performed separately causing a conflict in time management and difficult for extraterrestrials to manage efficiently, forcing them to make a choice.

Focus on star power cultivation or ability training.

Ji Xinghuo had no such dilemmas. He trained “Thousand Skilled Hands” wholeheartedly, finding the monotonous practice sweet and immersing himself in it, forgetting the passing time.

Every few minutes, he would check the interface.

The day quickly passed.

After dinner, Ji Xinghuo resumed training until 9 PM.

The information for “Thousand Skilled Hands” updated in the interface of All-Seeing Star Eyes!

【Ability: Thousand Skilled Hands (Level 1, 2/47)】

“Finally…”

Ji Xinghuo exhaled, silently calculating, “From yesterday till now, I have trained for twenty hours and the progress for ‘Thousand Skilled Hands’ increased by only 1 point.”

“Assuming the difficulty doesn’t change, reaching the second level would need 940 hours.”

“If I dedicate all my energy, excluding sleeping and eating, there’s 16 hours a day—8 hours for star power cultivation and 8 hours for ability training—it would take 120 days to level up ‘Thousand Skilled Hands’ to level two.”

Having calculated this, Ji Xinghuo’s eyes brightened.

“That’s fast!”

The higher the grade of an ability, the more difficult it is to upgrade.

“Thousand Skilled Hands” is an exceptional ability. Being able to level it up to the second tier in four months is really quick.

You should know that for most rangers, their “Thousand Skilled Hands” remains at level one their entire lives.

Typically, only mid to high-level extraterrestrial rangers manage to upgrade “Thousand Skilled Hands” to level two, averaging about three years!

Four months compared to three years is nine times more efficient.

Ji Xinghuo surprised himself with these results.

Ji Xinghuo has always been very clear about his abilities, surpassing most people and over 99% of his peers.

However, even being in the top 0.1% still only ranks as first-rate, not among the very top echelon of geniuses.

Because the top 0.1% still represents a huge number.

But now, Ji Xinghuo seemed to see a road to the sky unfolding before him, leading straight to the end of life evolution!

This was all thanks to the All-Seeing Star Eyes.

Over the past two days, Ji Xinghuo’s feelings were particularly clear.

The functions of the All-Seeing Star Eyes extend beyond just “seeing.” They deeply integrate into Ji Xinghuo’s self-awareness, controlling his physical changes and perceiving external variations, transforming him from the inside out!

One clear point.

When practicing “Thousand Skilled Hands” his hands are exceedingly precise and stable, with meticulous force application, leading to rapid progress and almost entirely effective training.

This is not the usual effect of “Thousand Skilled Hands” but the influence of the All-Seeing Star Eyes.

Not to mention, the All-Seeing Star Eyes also display upgrade progress providing regular feedback during training, keeping motivation and focus high.

“It’s a pity though…”

Ji Xinghuo looked regretful.

The All-Seeing Star Eyes were incomplete, and it was the core parts that were missing. The effects demonstrated might not even be a ten-thousandth of its full potential!

“If the All-Seeing Star Eyes were intact, it’s unimaginable.”

Ji Xinghuo shook his head, his gaze lingering on the【Star Power】value on the interface, which had risen to 53 a few hours ago and had not changed since.

“The initial evolution is over.”

“As I expected, this evolution period took about 24 hours.”

However, Ji Xinghuo was somewhat perplexed.

“Is a primary extraterrestrial’s star power only 53?”

The strength of star power has always been quite vague and subjective. Neither ADC nor the research departments of various countries have a standard for how much star power extraterrestrials of various levels possess.

The star power value displayed by the All-Seeing Star Eyes also lacked a unit, appearing to be dimensionless.

Ji Xinghuo felt somewhat helpless and decided to put aside this question.

He felt the surging strength within his body. With the evolution completed, his physical condition also stabilized and no longer had that constant uncertainty.

“I wonder what level my strength has reached now?”

Ji Xinghuo immediately began warming up.

The physical qualities of a primary extraterrestrial are much stronger than those of ordinary people. Even the warm-up was exceptionally quick, with his body getting into condition in less than two minutes.

There was a full set of fitness equipment in the apartment’s gym.

Ji Xinghuo lay on an incline bench and performed several bench press exercises, increasing the weight with each set. He started at 130 kilograms and broke through to 200 kilograms, still with some power to spare.

In the end, he reached a weight of 220 kilograms for the bench press and managed to push it up ten times in a row, completely exhausting his strength!

“My bench press has increased by 90 kilograms!”

Ji Xinghuo was very satisfied.

This weight would have been considered astonishing at the beginning of the 21st century when there were no extraterrestrials. The most talented strongman then could bench press 355 kilograms without equipment, but only once.

He rested for a while then performed squats and deadlifts.

The weights were 278 kilograms and 303 kilograms respectively. Combined with his bench press, the total weight was 801 kilograms!

In just under two days, his strength scores had increased by nearly 300 kilograms. His physique and body weight, however, showed no change, completely defying the rules of human physiological structure.

This is the power of an extraterrestrial!

“Thousand Skilled Hands doesn’t really boost strength.”

Ji Xinghuo, while looking at his well-proportioned figure in the mirror thought, “If it were a ‘Mighty General’ extraterrestrial infused with the core ability ‘Gigantification,’ the three strength scores could easily exceed 1,000 kilograms, reaching up to 1,200 kilograms wouldn’t be strange.”

He pushed aside these messy thoughts, “The evolution is complete, now I can cultivate star power.”

“Let’s see how fast the star power grows.”

The first step in cultivating star power is consumption. It must be combined with physical training for the highest efficiency.

Having already performed several sets of exercises, quite a bit of star power had been used up.

The interface showed the current level was 45.

Ji Xinghuo jumped on a treadmill and ran at full speed. He completed 10,000 meters in just 19 minutes, improving his time by a full 10 minutes compared to before.

He ran for half an hour. The aerobic exercise was over.

He then switched to anaerobic exercises—barbells, dumbbells, bench presses, squats, and deadlifts—all done at his maximum weight, one set of movements following another.

Star power decreased bit by bit. After twenty minutes of strength training, his star power had bottomed out.

Ji Xinghuo’s physical energy was also completely depleted.

“Whew…whew…”

He sat down and took deep breaths, sweat soaking his back, his whole body looking as if it had been pulled out of water with his clothes completely drenched.

“Damn that’s tiring!”

Ji Xinghuo didn’t even want to move a finger.

But he still opened the interface of the All-Seeing Star Eyes, closely watching the【Star Power】row and noted down the current time.

Soon, as his physical energy recovered, so did his star power.

When the star power returned to 53, it was already 1 AM.

“140 minutes.”

Ji Xinghuo calculated the time, “It takes 140 minutes for my star power to fully recover, longer than I expected.”

“My physical strength has also fully recovered.”

“But I can’t immediately exercise at full strength again. Overexertion would cause damage to muscles and bones. I need at least four hours of rest.”

“That means, even without ability training, I can only exercise three times a day at most.”

Ji Xinghuo’s thoughts were active, “However, during the rest periods of these three workouts, I can still train ‘Thousand Skilled Hands.’ It doesn’t consume much star power and has minimal impact on star power recovery.”

He quickly made an exercise plan for himself.

Three times a day for star power cultivation. Including rest times, each session lasts five hours.

In the last two hours of each rest period, he trains “Thousand Skilled Hands,” amounting to six hours of ability practice per day.

He tried to schedule meals and bathroom breaks during the rest periods.

No sooner said than done.

The next morning at 6:30 AM, Ji Xinghuo got up and at 7 AM sharp, he began his daily training regimen according to plan.

By noon, he had completed the day’s first training cycle.

By 5 PM, he had finished the second.

He took an hour to eat and rest.

At 6 PM, he continued, and by 11 PM at night, he had completed a full day of his training regimen.

Then he lay down on the bed to relax, watched some news, and browsed the internet for a while. At exactly midnight, he went to sleep.

Ji Xinghuo immersed himself in the tedious training, indefatigably house-bound, as if he had forgotten the passage of time.

Three days later.

【Ability: Thousand Skilled Hands (3/47)】

The progress of “Thousand Skilled Hands” had increased by one point.

Ji Xinghuo was pleased with this.

Because this time it only took him just over nineteen hours to train, indicating that as he became more proficient in “Thousand Skilled Hands,” the difficulty did not increase, but rather the time needed decreased.

A week later.

【Ability: Thousand Skilled Hands (4/47)】

【Star Power: 54】

“Finally…”

Ji Xinghuo let out a sigh.

After seven long days and more than twenty episodes of exhausted star power, physical fatigue started affecting Ji Xinghuo’s mental state, making his mind feel numb.

The increase from star power 53 to 54 wasn’t significant.

If not for the Wanxiang Xiantong interface displaying the information, it would be hard to notice the improvement in star power.

Ji Xinghuo did some calculations. If his star power increases by one point each week, practicing for an entire year would roughly double his current level.

“I wonder what the upper limit of star power is for a beginner Xianren?”

“How much more star power will I need for the next evolution?”

Ji Xinghuo had few clues.

He sat down at his desk, and a light projection emerged, forming a clear display in front of him and activating a search engine.

Earth has been part of the star realm era for nearly two centuries.

The internet is flooded with information on Xianren star power cultivation—teachings, analyses, ability research, career templates, videos, and papers. The data is vast, like an ocean, and grows massively every day.

Ji Xinghuo only searched for information relevant to beginner Xianren.

Hours later.

After reviewing numerous resources and videos, he formed a rough idea.

Generally, the power disparity among beginner Xianren isn’t significant.

Whether newly advanced or nearly ready for their next evolution, if two beginner Xianren of the same career template and abilities have similar combat experience and martial realms, there wouldn’t be a major gap in their confrontation.

The major advantage of the latter lays in more robust star power and greater physical endurance.

The difference in star power won’t exceed double.

Considering career template differences, some careers may have stronger star power, such as “Martial Artists,” “Blaze Frenzies,” and “Aura Fighters,” which possess considerably more star power than others.

However, rangers do not fall into this category; their star power is average.

“Double the star power!”

“With just one year of cultivation, my star power could double, and I might evolve again to become a mid-level Xianren!”

“Such a quick advancement isn’t much slower than any genius.”

Ji Xinghuo’s eyes brimmed with anticipation.

He suddenly remembered the recently popular Zhao Manying. This “Sword Immortal” took just over a year to advance from beginner to mid-level Xianren.

You can do it, so can I!

Ji Xinghuo felt fully confident.

However, he didn’t immediately return to his training; instead, he changed into clean clothes and stepped out of his home for the first time in a week.