After the darkness!

"What was that sound?"

Lin Yijue jolted awake, his previously groggy mind instantly clearing. He propped himself up and instinctively looked around.

All he could see was that old Flying Pigeon brand fan, still swaying and making a "whooshing" noise. There was no one else in the room except for him.

Should we proceed with sowing?

That cold voice rang out again, echoing clearly in his mind.

Lin Yijue felt the hairs on his body stand on end, partly from fear and partly from uncontrollable excitement.

He has determined that the voice originated from inside his brain.

For a moment, his breathing became rapid, and a multitude of thoughts raced through his mind.

Lin Yijue held his breath, then took two deep breaths to force himself to calm down. He then immediately began searching his body and surroundings to see what had triggered the sound.

He quickly raised his right hand and looked at what he was supporting under his hand—a pair of worn-out black boxing gloves.

As his gaze focused, a line of tiny text appeared on the surface of the boxing gloves: Worn-out beginner's boxing gloves (white).

Is it really this thing?

He seemed to remember something and quickly looked at the back of his right hand.

A black dot appeared on his once smooth hand.

This ink spot is somewhat like the small blue birthmark that his classmate accidentally poked into when he was in school in his previous life, but it's larger, about the size of a fingernail.

If you look closely, there is a transparent, shiny "Y"-shaped pattern inside the blue mole, which looks... a bit like a sapling.

Lin Yijue frowned. Combining the mechanical voice in his mind, a bold conjecture gradually took shape in his mind.

"So, the seed is this tattered beginner's boxing glove? A boxing glove can be used as a seed? Or some kind of powerful consciousness seed?"

"And if we're really going to plant them, we need a place to plant them, right? Where is the land? And after they're planted, will they flower and bear fruit?"

A series of questions kept popping into his mind.

Although he had never tried it, he had a feeling that if he could grow something, it would definitely bring him great benefits and might even change his current predicament!

"Are you awake yet? Are you feeling better? Would you like me to bring you some food?"

Just then, Song Huiling's concerned voice came from outside.

"I'm awake, much better. No need to bring it in, I'll get dressed and come out right away," Lin Yijue replied instinctively, taking a deep breath.

He didn't intend to tell anyone until he understood the situation.

So what exactly is this?

Lin Yijue began to look around, hoping to find other items with small characters on them.

Unfortunately, when he looked around, he found that only the pair of old boxing gloves beside him had entries displayed in the entire room.

Lin Yijue picked up the pair of boxing gloves and examined them carefully. The black surface of the gloves had several cracks, and the cuffs were also badly worn, clearly indicating that they had been used for a long time.

As far as I can remember, these boxing gloves were a brand name product. They cost over two thousand yuan back then, which was roughly equivalent to an average person's monthly salary.

However, this was not bought by the original owner herself, but was a prize that her older sister, Lin Xiaofei, won in a competition.

In 74, the opponent won the championship in the high school student free fighting competition for the first time.

Later, it passed through many hands and ended up in the hands of the original owner.

Of course, compared to her older sister Lin Xiaofei, the original owner was a bit "incompetent," and was eliminated in the preliminary rounds almost every time she participated in a competition.

It seems that not everything can be used as a seed for sowing. There must be some special requirements. Perhaps, as that voice said, only items related to "strong consciousness" are suitable.

As Lin Yijue pondered this, his gaze returned to the boxing gloves in his hand and the marks on the back of his hand.

He quickly made up his mind.

Given this situation, what else can he do but give it a try?

Should we proceed with sowing?

That cold voice echoed in his mind for the third time.

"Sow the seeds." Lin Yijue responded in his heart.

The moment he answered, the strange mark on the back of his hand suddenly emitted a faint light.

Lin Yijue felt a momentary dizziness, and a pale green area appeared in his vision. This area was not large, only about three or four square meters, with a bubble in the center.

The bubble was filled with pale gray mist, and there was something vaguely visible in the mist that looked exactly like the gauntlet phantom he had seen before.

"Sowing successful."

The cold voice echoed in Lin Yijue's mind once again.

Immediately afterwards, a series of messages flooded his mind:

"Talent Tree: Novice Boxer (Embryonic Stage)"

"Energy collection rate: 1%, number of evolution attempts: 1, evolutionary stage: insufficient information"

"Should we proceed with energy harvesting?"

Through this information, Lin Yijue gained a general understanding of how to use his cheat ability.

The tree's name is easy to understand, because the seed comes from a boxing glove, so it is naturally related to boxing, just like apple trees and pear trees, which will bear fruit related to their seeds.

Energy collection is like fertilizer or an experience bar; only when it's full can you change the state of the "tree" and complete its evolution.

As for the method of energy harvesting...

Lin Yijue glanced at the gauntlets in his hands and decisively answered in his mind: "Initiate energy collection."

Now that things have come to this point, he doesn't have time to think too much. He should first collect energy and see the effect.

Just as he made his decision, a cool sensation suddenly flowed out of his boxing gloves, down his arm, and into the back of his hand.

The next second, more coolness seeped out from the tear in the boxing glove, turning into wisps of light that seeped into the ink spots on the back of the hand.

Inside the virtual space, the bubble burst open with a "pop," and a tender bud peeked out from behind the gray mist—the sapling was only two fingers tall, with translucent pale blue leaves and faint white light flowing between the veins, much like a thin blade just drawn from its sheath.

[Energy collection 100%. Talent Tree status changed to Sapling stage. Please continue collecting energy.]

The moment the tender bud unfurled, Lin Yijue suddenly felt his brain explode with a surge of information.

Countless images flashed before his eyes: the afterimage of himself dodging and throwing a punch in the boxing ring, the subtle tremors of his opponent's shoulder and neck muscles as he threw a punch, and even the deformation of the leather when the boxing gloves hit the sandbag. At the same time, a strange power surged within his body.

This is not the brute force of muscle expansion, but a sense of absolute control over the limbs, as if every bone and every tendon has been given life.

[Tree - Talented Boxer (White): A boxing prodigy. Possesses superhuman sense of distance and rhythm; his fighting instincts allow him to predict his opponent's movements within 0.3 seconds.]

[Leaf - Double Strike (White): After 5 consecutive normal attacks, the 6th attack will automatically trigger an additional strike, increasing its power by 30%.]

[Leaf - Superior Endurance (White): Increases base endurance by 50% and delays muscle fatigue threshold.]

Information flooded in, and Lin Yijue's vision suddenly became unusually sharp.

He could see the dust particles condensing on the fan blades, hear the soft rustling of sparrows' feathers as they flapped their wings outside the window, and even feel every beat of his own heartbeat.

He subconsciously adopted a boxing stance, left foot forward and right foot back. In that instant when he slightly turned his body, he found that this posture was more standard than any training session he could remember—the angle of his knee bend, the distribution of his center of gravity, and the position of his elbows protecting his head were all textbook perfect.

"Is this... talent?" he muttered to himself, his right fist instinctively making a feint.

The airflow generated by the punch made him clearly feel the air resistance, and the corrective prompt immediately appeared in his mind: "Shift the power point from the waist and abdomen to the shoulders and back."

This perfect harmony between body and mind reminded him of the feeling of using "combo assist" when playing fighting games in his previous life, but the experience at this moment was so real that it made him tremble.

Just then, a sharp, stabbing pain suddenly gripped his heart!

Lin Yijue groaned, clutching his chest and collapsing to his knees on the bed. The world before him plunged into brief darkness, but a jumble of sounds filled his ears.

The patter of raindrops hitting the windowsill, the hum of the fan, and his own heavy breathing suddenly intertwined into a strange rhythm, as if someone were drumming on his nerves.

"Ugh..." He felt something explode inside him, and his limbs ached as if he had been forcibly injected with an excessive amount of energy. When he opened his eyes again, the tender buds of the Talent Tree in his field of vision were swaying gently, and the white light on the leaves was much brighter than before, while the energy collection rate showed [2%].

He stumbled to his feet and rushed to the mirror. The boy in the mirror was still thin, but the confusion in his eyes had been replaced by shock.

He tentatively threw five punches in succession. The moment he pulled back the fifth punch, his body involuntarily threw a short uppercut. The afterimage of his fist startled even himself—was this the "double strike"? It was a conditioned reflex, like muscle memory!

What alarmed him even more was the change in his physical abilities. After finishing that combination of punches, he should have been panting heavily like the original owner of this body, but now his chest was rising and falling steadily, and he could even clearly feel the rhythmic contraction of his abdominal muscles. "Exceptional endurance" was no exaggeration; this body's endurance had indeed improved to a whole new level.

A gentle knock sounded on the door, and her mother's worried voice came through: "Yijue, what were you shouting about? Are you alright?"

Lin Yijue took a deep breath, suppressing his turbulent emotions. He looked at the ink spot on the back of his hand in the mirror; the sapling was trembling slightly with his heartbeat, as if silently announcing its rebirth.

"It's alright, Mom!" His voice trembled slightly, yet was full of strength. "I'll be out eating right away!"

He bent down to pick up the boxing gloves from the ground. When his fingertips touched the crack in the leather, this time there was no notification or cold touch.

"Has the energy been completely absorbed?"

A thought flashed through Lin Yijue's mind.

As for how to obtain subsequent energy to allow the sapling to grow.

So that's boxing? After all, it's a boxing tree? It's hard not to make that connection.

Is it similar to grinding for skill proficiency in a previous game?

Thinking of this, he couldn't wait to get back into his boxing stance and start practicing shadowboxing.

Just three minutes later, his expression grew increasingly serious, and a layer of white sweat began to appear on his back.

Within the pale green talent frame, the energy bar of the talent tree showed no sign of movement.

So you don't accumulate energy by punching?