Chapter 49: New Frontiers (I)

For a full two days, Jackson did not step out of his room.

The only time he left was late at night, when he briefly joined Mother Rose and Aella for dinner before returning to his room and continuing his work.

Most of his time was spent refining the discarded trash he had purchased.

One after another, Jackson placed the damaged weapons, failed pills, and broken treasures before him, using the Golden Brush to alter the information contained within their status windows. What others regarded as worthless objects gradually began transforming into usable treasures under his hands.

Whenever his spiritual force was completely depleted, Jackson would immediately consume a spiritual force recovery potion and continue.

Again.

And again.

He didn’t stop to rest.

He didn’t even waste time sleeping.

Normally, pushing his spiritual force so relentlessly should have left him exhausted. Yet, to Jackson’s surprise, something completely unexpected happened.

Instead of feeling increasingly weakened, he discovered that the constant strain seemed to stimulate his spiritual force.

Every time it reached its limit and was replenished, it seemed to become slightly stronger than before.

It was as though his spiritual space was being tempered through repeated exhaustion and recovery.

Jackson naturally wasn’t going to waste such an opportunity.

He continued pushing himself to the limit.

By the end of the second day, both of his primary stats had broken into the seven-point territory.

[Spiritual Force - 7.1]

[Mana/Physique - 7.2]

He was now only a short distance away from reaching the peak of the First Sequence.

Yet strangely enough, Jackson didn’t feel particularly excited about it.

There was no overwhelming joy or disbelief.

To him, it was simply the natural result of everything he had done over the past few days.

With the resources he possessed and the opportunities available to him, reaching this point had always been inevitable.

Inside his room, Jackson sat cross-legged on the floor, his eyes closed as he quietly examined the changes taking place within his spiritual space.

The familiar darkness stretched endlessly around him.

Yet compared to before, the space felt completely different.

The boundaries of his spiritual space had gradually solidified.

They were no longer vague and flimsy, as though the slightest disturbance could cause them to collapse. Instead, the edges had become considerably more stable, forming a clear boundary around the space.

Jackson could also clearly feel the tremendous increase in his spiritual force.

Its diameter had expanded far beyond what he had thought possible in the past.

Five meters.

That was supposed to be the limit for someone possessing a five-resonance talent.

Yet Jackson’s spiritual space had already broken through that restriction.

The sheer scale of it left him quietly surprised.

His five-resonance talent was clearly no longer enough to explain his current growth.

Jackson slowly opened his eyes.

A faint glint flashed across them as he sensed the enormous spiritual force circulating within his body.

His strength had once again reached a completely different level.

And he still hadn’t reached the peak of the First Sequence.

It now stretched for a full seven meters.

Jackson could clearly sense that this still wasn’t his limit.

The Golden Brush had already demonstrated abilities far beyond what he had initially imagined. His five-resonance talent was supposed to restrict the size of his spiritual space, yet he had already broken through that boundary.

If that was possible, then there was no reason to believe seven meters was the end.

"I might even surpass those so-called geniuses of heaven with nine-meter spiritual spaces..."

Since obtaining his hunter license and gaining access to the virtual world, Jackson was no longer as ignorant about the world as he had been before.

He now understood that the true geniuses of his generation, the so-called proud sons of heaven, were those who possessed nine-resonance talents.

Their spiritual spaces could reach a full nine meters.

A perfect nine meters.

Such people were regarded as true geniuses, possessing an extraordinary foundation from the very beginning of their cultivation journey.

Yet Jackson couldn’t help feeling that nine meters was merely the beginning for him.

The thought lingered for a moment before he shook his head and pushed it aside.

"First Sequence is only the foundation. I shouldn’t become arrogant just because I have a good foundation."

His gaze gradually became serious.

"After all, a good foundation is as good as nothing if I’m only going to continue building a wooden hut above it."

Jackson understood that reaching seven meters wasn’t the end of his path.

It was barely the beginning.

The stronger his foundation became, the more important it was that he continued building upon it. If he allowed his current achievements to inflate his confidence, then his supposedly perfect foundation would ultimately amount to nothing.

He had to maintain this momentum.

More importantly, he had to make the best possible use of the Golden Brush.

Even now, Jackson still didn’t understand why someone like him had awakened such an extraordinary ability.

The Golden Brush clearly wasn’t an ordinary talent.

There had to be a reason behind its existence.

He simply didn’t know what that reason was yet.

Still, Jackson didn’t believe his awakening was merely the result of luck or some meaningless coincidence.

Whatever secrets surrounded the Golden Brush, he would uncover them eventually.

In the end, however, the Golden Brush was only a tool.

A powerful tool, perhaps one capable of completely changing his fate, but still just a tool.

How far he could actually walk would ultimately depend on himself.

His mindset.

His decisions.

And his determination to keep moving forward.

After organizing his thoughts, Jackson stopped dwelling on matters he couldn’t understand yet.

He placed all the refined items up for sale and then opened the virtual world.

Countless pieces of information immediately appeared before him.

Jackson began browsing through the latest happenings, intending to see what had changed in the outside world over the past few days.

Most of the forums were filled with discussions about the latest batch of awakened joining the academy.