Half an hour later, in another spacious enclosed area.
Having composed themselves, the members of the expert panel gathered once more. Led by Chen Zhengze, they arrived at the finish line of a running track.
The track was constructed of standard competition-grade polyurethane synthetic material, spanning roughly one hundred meters, with over a dozen precision instruments set up along both sides of the finish line.
At the starting line stood a young man, stripped to the waist, calibrating his starting stance under the guidance of a sports specialist.
This was Xiao Jiguang—presently Earth’s sole cultivator to have entered the realm.
After a minute or two, the sports specialist exchanged a few words with the finish-line control desk through his earpiece, stepped aside, and raised a starting pistol.
A moment later—
*Bang!*
At the crack of the pistol, Xiao Jiguang drove off his legs with explosive force, charging toward the finish line at full speed.
A few seconds later, Pan Yongnian, standing beside the track, felt nothing more than a gust of fierce wind sweep past him.
By the time his vision cleared, Xiao Jiguang had already barreled into the massive crash pad several meters past the finish line, sinking into the shock-absorbing foam in a sprawling, spread-eagled imprint.
"Tsk-tsk, unbelievable speed!" Pan Yongnian raised his eyebrows in astonished admiration. "Academician Ma, do you think Xiao might have broken nine seconds on that run?"
"Nine seconds might be a stretch," Ma Heng answered, shaking his head beside him. As an energy and propulsion expert, his perception of time was keener than Pan Yongnian's. "I'd wager around 9.2 or 9.3 seconds. In any case, sub-9.5 is definitely in the bag."
As the two spoke, a lean, exceptionally sharp-looking man in his early sixties with graying hair walked over to the expert panel, holding a tablet.
"Sun Lao, Huang Lao, Comrade Xiao Jiguang's athletic performance report is ready."
Sun Lao had fully regained his composure by now. He nodded slightly and asked with concern, "Consultant Liu, how do things look?"
The "Consultant Liu" addressed by Sun Lao was Liu Ruidong, chief biomechanics expert at the General Administration of Sport and a specially appointed research consultant for the national track and field team, deeply versed in athletic data.
Hearing Sun Lao's question, Liu Ruidong's face immediately registered shock, and he repeated the word twice for emphasis: "Extremely, extraordinarily astonishing. 39.22 seconds in the 400 meters, 18.02 seconds in the 200 meters, and his 100-meter dash shattered the record at 9.27 seconds—0.31 seconds faster than the world record."
The moment Liu Ruidong finished, Ma Heng gave Pan Yongnian a smug wink, his meaning unmistakable: *Nailed it, didn't I?*
Conceding defeat, Pan Yongnian gave him a respectful thumbs-up.
*Thumbs-up.jpg.*
Meanwhile, Liu Ruidong continued his rundown:
"Beyond that, Comrade Xiao Jiguang's standing vertical jump exceeded 1.87 meters. His unilateral grip strength peaked at 173 kilograms, his VO2 max reached 78 milliliters per minute per kilogram, and his raw bench press was 328 kilograms..."
"It's fair to say that across all mainstream athletic events, Comrade Xiao Jiguang outclasses world records by a wide margin."
"As for the events where he didn't break records, they either belong to niche disciplines requiring dedicated practice in force application techniques, or aberrant sports dominated by heavy doping to artificially inflate numbers—neither of which offers much reference value."
Sun Lao pondered for a moment before asking, "And compared to Comrade Xiao Jiguang's original baseline physical conditioning? How much did it improve?"
"Preliminary assessment places the increase at roughly 1.6 to 1.8 times," Liu Ruidong answered promptly. "The exact figure will have to wait for the electromyography signals and blood panel reports, but the final outcome shouldn't deviate far from that."
"As for whether Awakening elevates everyone to Xiao Jiguang's absolute level or merely applies this multiplier to their original constitution, we'll need a larger sample size of Awakened individuals. However, based on Comrade Lin Yi's account of his own Awakening, I personally lean toward the latter."
Sun Lao gave a slow nod.
His judgment matched Liu Ruidong's.
According to Lin Yi's account, after his own successful Awakening, his standing vertical jump had been barely over a meter, and his 100-meter sprint had scraped by at roughly ten seconds—a far cry from Xiao Jiguang's performance.
While there were certain parameter discrepancies between the Tianling Realm and Earth, the divergence was clearly not that extreme.
Therefore, the physical enhancement granted by Awakening was most likely a specific multiplier applied to an individual's prior physical constitution.
For a soldier like Xiao Jiguang, whose baseline physical condition already far surpassed that of the general public, every single one of them would easily shatter world records after Awakening.
Yet if it were an author who spent their life cooped up indoors writing obscure novels, their post-Awakening condition would probably only match that of a first- or second-tier national athlete.
The true distinction of this realm lay in gaining the qualifications to formally cultivate.
While Sun Lao and Liu Ruidong were conversing, Chen Zhengze came over, bringing Xiao Jiguang along.
"Xiao," Sun Lao said, smiling warmly at the young soldier. "How are you holding up? Has your body recovered?"
"Reporting to the chief!" Xiao Jiguang gave a crisp, textbook salute. "I feel good!"
Perhaps it was his advancing age, but upon hearing Xiao Jiguang's reply, Sun Lao froze slightly, momentarily lost in thought.
He recalled that eight years ago, likewise in September, another astronaut etched into Huaxia's aerospace history had spoken similar words to him:
*“I have exited the cabin, and I feel good.”*
How fast time flies...
A few seconds later, Sun Lao snapped back to reality. Blinking, he asked Xiao Jiguang, "And internally? How does it feel regarding your cultivation and spiritual energy?"
This time, Xiao Jiguang took considerably longer to think. "Reporting to the chief: at present, even without relying on Primordial Origin Pills, I can clearly locate the positions of the seven nodes."
"As for spiritual energy... holding a spirit stone, I can absorb and guide the energy to circulate inside my body without needing any antiparticle activation."
"However, without the aid of a spirit stone, I cannot perceive any spiritual energy in the external environment."
Sun Guozhu nodded once more.
Here was where the difference between the two worlds showed itself.
In the Tianling Realm, as long as one was a cultivator who had entered the realm, they could theoretically absorb a trickle of spiritual energy without a spirit stone—regardless of efficiency, the method was feasible.
Yet Xiao Jiguang could not accomplish this in the home world, which pointed to only one conclusion:
Within the natural environment of the base, innate spiritual energy simply did not exist.
Granted, statistically speaking, there remained a possibility that natural spiritual energy might exist elsewhere across Huaxia, but the base had no chance of utilizing it in the short term.
It seemed that in the upcoming cycle, they would have to find more ways to assist Lin Yi in earning spirit stones.
"Right, Xiao," Sun Lao recalled something else and asked, "Have your divine sense and sea of qi emerged?"
"Yes, both have," Xiao Jiguang nodded, pointing to his head. "Whenever I focus my intent, my consciousness can sense the outlines and states of surrounding objects."
"The same goes for the sea of qi; it can temporarily store spiritual energy, roughly around the lower right abdomen. As for subsequent research..."
"We are already preparing the research protocols," Huang Rong, who was in charge of designing the workflow, stepped in when he saw Xiao Jiguang falter. "The initial plan is to start today. It will be quite comprehensive, even extending to the precision of divine sense—specifically, testing how small an object it can resolve."
"In addition, Xiao's subsequent cultivation will be scheduled. More importantly, there is an assignment that Xiao himself must complete in person."
Xiao Jiguang straightened his posture at once, his military bearing instantly on full display.
"Awaiting the chief's instructions! Mission completion guaranteed!"
"Ah, no need to call it instructions. I'm just a retired old man; you don't need to call me chief," Huang Rong waved his hand genially and spoke in a gentle tone. "As for the mission, it is actually quite simple."
"Over the next three days, I will personally tutor you to help you master 883 basic Tianling characters."
The resolute expression on Xiao Jiguang's face instantly froze.
"...????"
Chapter 56