"There's a gym attached to the dojo," Lydia said, leading Leon through a side door. "My father had it built for strength training. Most of the equipment is industrial grade—he trained professional fighters here."
The gym was small but well-equipped. Weight racks, benches, a heavy bag hanging from reinforced chains. And mounted on the far wall, a punch force machine. The kind used for testing professional boxers and MMA fighters.
Leon walked over to it. "Does this still work?"
"Should. I had it calibrated last year." Lydia checked the display. "It's rated up to 5,000 pounds of force. Most professional heavyweights max out around 1,300."
"I've been meaning to test my full strength," Leon said. "Been holding back since the breakthrough. Didn't want to accidentally break anything important."
"Like what?"
"Like our refrigerator. Or Maya."
Lydia laughed. "Okay, show me what you can do."
Leon positioned himself in front of the machine. Feet shoulder-width apart, weight balanced. He'd seen enough boxing matches to know proper form. The machine's padded target waited at chest height.
"Just physical strength," he said. "No Evolyx enhancement."
"What's the difference?"
"Without Evolyx, I'm using just my enhanced muscles and bones. With it, the energy amplifies everything. I don't want to destroy your equipment on the first punch."
"Fair enough. Let's see what you've got."
Leon took a breath. Focused. Then threw a straight punch with proper technique—drive from the legs, rotate the hips, extend through the shoulder.
The impact echoed through the gym like a gunshot.
BOOM.
The entire machine shook. The wall mount creaked. Lydia jumped back from the noise.
The display flickered, then stabilized.
30,247 lbs
Silence.
Lydia stared at the number. "That's... that can't be right."
Leon looked at his fist, then at the machine. "Thirty thousand pounds. That's fifteen tons of force."
"Professional fighters hit around 1,300 pounds. You just hit twenty-three times harder than the world record." Lydia walked closer to check the display. "This machine only goes up to 5,000. How is it even registering?"
"The sensor must have a higher tolerance than the display rating. But yeah, fifteen tons." Leon flexed his hand. No pain, no damage. "And that's without using Evolyx to enhance the strike."
"What would happen if you did?"
Leon looked at the machine, then at the wall it was bolted to. "I'd probably punch through the machine, the wall, and whatever's on the other side. The Evolyx amplifies force output. I haven't tested the multiplier, but based on how it feels when I use it... maybe three to five times stronger?"
"So you could hit with forty-five to seventy-five tons of force."
"Roughly. Maybe more if I really pushed it."
Lydia sat down on a weight bench. "Okay. That's terrifying."
"Sorry."
"No, it's just... I knew cultivation made people stronger, but I didn't realize it was this dramatic. The book mentioned enhanced physical capabilities, but not numbers like this."
Leon walked over and sat on the bench across from her. "The first gene lock restructures your entire body. Muscles become denser. Bones get reinforced. Your cells integrate with Evolyx and operate more efficiently. It's not just 'getting stronger'—it's becoming fundamentally different on a biological level."
"And speed? Can you test that?"
"Not here. My speed is proportional to my strength and power output. Based on calculations..." Leon ran the numbers in his head. Enhanced muscle density, Evolyx-enhanced cellular energy production, improved neural response time. "I could probably accelerate at 45g without using Evolyx enhancement."
Lydia blinked. "G-force? Like, gravitational force?"
"Yeah. Normal humans black out around 5g sustained. Fighter pilots train to handle 9g with special suits. I could accelerate at 45g and my body would handle it fine."
"That's insane."
"It's physics. Force equals mass times acceleration. If I can generate fifteen tons of force with a punch, and my body mass is around 180 pounds, the acceleration has to be massive." Leon stood up. "But I can't test it properly here. I'd need custom equipment. Open space. Probably crash protection."
"So you're saying standard gym equipment is useless for you now."
"Pretty much. I'd need specialized testing facilities. Or I could design and build something myself." He looked at the punch machine, still displaying that impossible number. "Which I'll probably have to do. Can't exactly walk into a public gym and start breaking records without drawing attention."
Lydia stood up and walked to the machine. She touched the display, still showing 30,247 lbs. "When I break through, will I be this strong?"
"Eventually. The first gene lock has ten stages. I'm only at stage one—barely started the cultivation process. Each stage multiplies your capabilities. By stage ten, you'd be significantly stronger than I am now."
"And there are eight more locks after that."
"Eight more locks. Each one probably multiplies your power again." Leon thought about the incomplete cultivation manual, about Sophia's optimization work waiting back home. "By the ninth lock... I don't know what that level of power looks like. The book probably doesn't either."
Lydia was quiet for a moment. Then she smiled. "You know what? I'm glad I'm not the only one figuring this out. Having someone who's already broken through makes this a lot less scary."
"You'll do fine. The breathing technique in your book is better than what I stumbled onto. Your foundation is more solid than mine was."
"But you have fifteen tons of punching force."
"Because I've been absorbing Evolyx constantly for weeks. You'll catch up once you break through and start proper cultivation." Leon gestured to the gym. "Want to see anything else? I can demonstrate healing, enhanced senses, perfect memory—though those are harder to test with gym equipment."
"Let's start with what you can sense. You said you can see inside your own body?"
"Yeah. Want me to describe what I see in yours?"
Lydia hesitated. "That's not creepy?"
"I'll just describe your energy circulation and physical condition. Nothing invasive."
"Okay. Go ahead."
Leon focused. His enhanced perception shifted, and he could see through Lydia's body. Her heart beat steadily—healthy, strong. Blood flowed through her vessels in normal patterns. Her bones were dense, muscles well-conditioned from years of martial arts training.
And her energy. Evolyx circulated through her body following the pattern from her cultivation manual. Flowing through meridians, cycling with each breath. Not much yet—she was still in the preparation stages—but the pathways were clear and well-formed.
"Your cardiovascular system is excellent," Leon said. "Resting heart rate around 58 beats per minute. Bone density above average for your age. Muscle composition is balanced. And your energy circulation..." He paused. "Actually, your technique is really clean. The meridian pathways are well-established. You've been doing this correctly for months."
"So I won't explode when I break through?"
"You won't explode. The breakthrough will be intense, but your body is ready for it. You've built a solid foundation."
Lydia looked relieved. "Good. I was worried I'd been doing something wrong."
"The only thing you're missing is the optimization. Your breathing pattern works, but Sophia could improve it. Make the energy absorption more efficient, help you progress faster through the stages."
"Sophia?"
"My AI. I built her to help optimize cultivation techniques." Leon pulled out his phone. "If you're willing, I could have her analyze your current method and suggest improvements. Completely optional—your technique already works fine."
Lydia considered it. "An AI that understands cultivation. That's either brilliant or insane."
"Probably both. But she's already helping me perfect the system. Having data from another cultivator would help her models."
"Alright. I'm in." Lydia grabbed her water bottle. "But first, I want to see your healing. You said you can recover from injuries instantly?"
"Not instantly, but fast. Want me to demonstrate?"
"Is it safe?"
"I've tested it before. Small injuries heal in seconds." Leon looked around the gym and spotted a knife on a tool bench—probably for cutting tape or rope. He walked over and picked it up. "I'll do something shallow. Just enough to show the effect."
Lydia watched as Leon drew the knife across his palm. Blood welled up, a clean line across his hand.
Then the bleeding stopped. The wound edges pulled together. New skin formed across the cut, seamless and perfect. Within ten seconds, his palm was unmarked.
"That's incredible," Lydia said.
Leon wiped the knife clean and set it back down. "The Evolyx integration accelerates cellular regeneration. Broken bones take a few hours. Major injuries maybe a day. But cuts and bruises are basically instant."
"So you're nearly indestructible."
"Not nearly. I can still be hurt, still be killed. I'm just a lot harder to damage than normal humans, and I recover faster when I am damaged." Leon flexed his hand. "Which is good, because I'd hate to break something and have to wait months to heal while trying to figure out cultivation."
Lydia shook her head, smiling. "You make it sound so casual. 'Oh, I just accidentally became superhuman and now I'm rebuilding lost cultivation knowledge with an AI.' Like it's a normal Tuesday."
"To be fair, it's actually a Saturday."
She laughed. "Okay, point taken. So what's next? You've shown me your strength and healing. What else can you do that I should expect after breaking through?"
Leon thought about it. "Perfect memory, enhanced senses, ability to see inside your own body, sensing Evolyx in the environment, increased intelligence and processing speed. The whole package basically makes you superhuman across the board."
"And all of that from just the first gene lock."
"Just the first one. Eight more to go after that."
They stood in the gym, surrounded by equipment that couldn't measure what Leon had become, looking at a future neither of them fully understood yet.
"We're going to need bigger facilities," Lydia said.
Leon smiled. "Yeah. We really are."
[End of Chapter 17]