Chapter 12 - Training

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  After laughing for a bit, Gu Xuan looked at his trembling hand in interest, ‘First it was the unskilled estimation when jumping from one tree to another, now it’s the untrained body that can’t handle inner qi properly… there’s also the fact that I have neither learned a martial arts technique or combat experience. Looks like there’s lots to work on.’

  His right hand’s pain soon began to settle so he sat down in a cross-legged position and stabilized his breathing.

  After he had calmed down, he began circulating his inner qi throughout his entire body.

  It wasn’t that he knew about it, but he had a hunch that inner qi circulation would help with the pain in his right hand.

  ‘One… two… three… four…’ Gu Xuan counted in his mind.

  Each circulation of inner qi throughout the entire body took 10 seconds and after 48 circulations, the pain in his right hand subsided so he opened his eyes.

  ‘I see, looks like my guess was correct, circulating inner qi throughout the entire body is helpful in increasing recovery rate.’ He thought whilst nodding to himself and with a knowing look, he transitioned from a cross-legged sitting position, into a push up position.

  ‘If that’s the case, I can speed up recovery after training the body intensely within a short period of time without suffering too much pain.’

  Since a loophole was found, of course, as a cultivator with average talent, he had to exploit it.

  ‘One… two… three…’ Gu Xuan counted in his mind as he started doing push ups, he determined that basic workout was the most helpful at this stage of the training because his body had no foundation in terms of body strengthening besides the enhancement in physique brought by the break through to the 1st Layer of Qi Gathering Realm.

  After half an hour, he had done 360 repetitions of push ups.

  Only 360 repetitions in half an hour? That’s a wrong outlook.

  People have always thought that the more push ups one does, the better it is.

  Of course it is better, as for the reason why he had only done 360 repetitions in 30 minutes is because it took him about 5 seconds to do one.

  This is the most effective because a slow push up causes the body more stress and the more stress the body goes through, the more effective the workout is for the muscles.

  Although Gu Xuan’s body was strong, it wasn’t trained after all, so even he began sweating after 30 minutes of push ups but he could still continue so he did another 30 minutes of push ups to work out his upper body.

  By the time he was done, the muscles in his straightened legs had gone numb, meanwhile the muscles in his hands were screaming in pain.

  Although Gu Xuan felt like this, Gu Xuan couldn’t help but smile.

  He was quite excited but Gu Xuan’s mind was clear so he sat in a cross-legged position and circulated his inner qi throughout his entire body once again.

  Unlike before where it took him only 48 circulations or 8 minutes, this time it took him 300 circulations or 50 minutes before his body recovered completely.

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  And another point is that, unlike before where he barely lost inner qi, this time’s circulation drained his inner qi by about 1/20th according to his estimation.

  Although the pain wasn’t as much as the muscle cramps when he punched out, it consumed more inner qi.

  It was most likely due to the area of effect was far smaller, not only was it far smaller, since he had just suffered muscle cramps, it means that the body can barely handle the force, the muscles was simply pushed to the peak because the body wasn’t designed to withstand 100% of a person’s full strength without training.

  In any case, he could still continue to do the training he was doing 9 more times before his spiritual qi ran out so he proceeded.

  But this time, he did squats to workout his lower body.

  At the same pace as before, he did 1 repetition every 5 seconds or 720 repetitions after an hour. He recovered in the same way using inner qi circulation.

  Then he did sit ups next, and after recovery.

  He stood up and looked at the nearest tree and jumped up, luckily, the amount of force he had to use was correct so he was able to step into its branch accurately.

  He looked away and thought, ‘Although basic workouts are helpful for my muscles, running doesn’t help very much since this body will never tire easily simply by running. It’s better to traverse through the forest like a monkey. Not only does it help me improve my stamina, it also trains my ability to use appropriate force and gives my body experience on how to move my body, over time, would become a habit, then into instinct.’

  After Gu Xuan confirmed the structure of his training, he put the calculations and analysis into the back of his mind.

  The light in his eyes dimmed as if it had lost life but it didn’t, instead, it focused on a single motion.

  It was to train for an hour jumping around through forest trees.

  Currently, his mind was focused simply on calculating the distance, footing, the angle of the next branch, as well as the force he needed to use.

  He also took into account that in this training… he would use the maximum force he could bring out but try not to damage the tree branch to ensure the efficiency of his training.

  As soon as his eyes located the next tree, his legs bent for a moment and he immediately jumped towards it.

  The branch he was stepping on broke as he jumped, his peripheral vision saw it and his feet also felt it so he thought in reflection, ‘The branch is too thin for that amount of force.’

  Then focused on the next branch and as his foot touched it, he located the other branch.

  ‘Too inefficient and too much time thinking.’

  He thought in distress so he devised that it was better to look at the path rather than the next checkpoint so he could consistently flow in a certain direction.

  He jumped again towards another branch and this time, the jump was too short so he stretched out his hand to grab onto the tree branch and using his current momentum, sent himself to the next tree branch, he scanned the path as well and determined the branch he was going to use next.

  ‘Good. Just enough force.’

  ‘Too slow, faster.’

  ‘Too strong, use less force.’

  As Gu Xuan traveled through the forest’s trees, countless thoughts wandered in his mind in order to improve faster. The data he gathered from trial and error began to be absorbed into his instinct and gradually, he became more skilled, and faster when going around the forest, but by the 10-minute mark… he was breathing heavily but his mind was still processing.

  ‘I basically get it, let’s now get used to it.’

  He started going through the forest and around the Crescent Island at a stable pace but neither too fast nor too slow.

  He was still getting used to it so this was to be expected, although he was breathing heavily, a smile was plastered into his tired face.

  He jumped, jumped, jumped…

  ‘Faster!’ He yelled in his mind as he jumped from branches, barks, and occasionally on tall rocks.

  Before long, he was ecstatic in his heart.

  ‘Interesting! It never hit me before but the cultivation world is unlike in those books, this is a real world! Furthermore, the rules might allow immortals to exist, it’s still a world wherein one has to work hard and suffer pain in order to get what one wants.’

  After running around the forest in an hour, he settled on top of a thick tree branch and sat down. He let his rough breathing become smooth first before he started circulating his spiritual qi.

  Once he was done, he repeated from the beginning like a robot.

  Push ups, squats, sit ups, running… By the time he had opened his eyes from recovery and his inner qi barely having any left in his dantian, the sky was already dark.

  ‘It’s already night time? I didn’t realize…’

  As Gu Xuan was thinking, his stomach couldn’t help but let out a growl.

  Even he was surprised, after all, Gu Xuan only ate once a day when he felt hungry at the last moment, meanwhile, this time, it was growling like never before.

  Gu Xuan chuckled to himself but stood up in the next moment, ‘It’s probably because of the intense workout.’

  ‘It's a bit dark, is it still nighttime? Or is it midnight? How much time has passed since I started? Is the Mess Hall still open at this hour?’ He thought whilst walking in the direction at the bottom of the coiled path.

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