Body Cultivating Hurts - Chapter 29

Nathan swelled with tension as Jun’s bokken slammed into the muscles on the side of his neck. It wasn’t as bad as taking a knock to the head and seeing stars, but the pain was sharp and made his muscles knot. The kendo master’s movements were flawless. A slash with almost identical force bit into the other side of his neck.

It wasn’t over. The blows remained even. One after another, they battered him. This wasn’t punishment. Jun was just returning the favor. Nathan couldn’t use a bokken with the same precision, but he’d been happy to do the same for the Takao family’s patriarch with his fists. They weren’t alone. Ma Mencius was there with Silvester Hitchens and an entire crew of mixed martial artists that hadn’t stopped following them since the second day.

This had naturally become the lead group. The rest followed their example. It made sense. They had seniority and life achievements on their side.

Nathan hadn’t abandoned his home gym but was in a consistent dialogue with them as they moved on from station to station. It was because of their apprehension that they weren’t a part of the lead group, which he understood. Kyle and most of the others were only eighteen years old. If Nathan didn’t have an additional ten years of experience, he would’ve felt the same.

Jun moved on from the neck and attacked the trap muscles at the base of his neck. Breathing in qi just after the impact allowed Nathan to keep himself from falling to his knees.

These strikes were directed at defensive muscle groups. The skeletal system got its fair share of abuse during other stations. It wasn’t necessary to temper it in this manner. During which exercise was it not under stress?

More than that, while striking with fists, feet, elbows, knees, and forehead the skeletal system was abused in the most explosive way possible.

It was the soft tissues of the body that needed this training the most. When bruised and ruptured, qi would pour in and repair injuries that often had no right to heal. Tears and strains didn’t matter. If they were bad enough, a healer would help them speed the process.

Nathan folded his hands behind his head as Jun started in on his lats. Abs were next. He’d already come far enough along that he was no longer getting rib fractures. The blows up and down his abdomen attacked the inner and outer layers of muscle with abandon. It was during a frontal blow to the middle of his abs that it happened. His first breakthrough of the training camp finally triggered.

Despite the pain, he sucked in the most massive breath he could manage. As his breakthrough took over, the displacement of qi happened inside as he siphoned in even more qi from his surroundings.

As soon as he’d broken through, Nathan spent a moment to appreciate how much easier his body held onto the qi he was breathing in. He then turned to Senior Jun. “Try attacking me… with your katana.”

Jun’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t reject the request outright. One of the reasons for the man’s ascension to the top of the rankers list was because he was one of the quickest to adapt to the realities of the tower.

“My lungs will be full of qi,” Nathan added. Thinking better of it, he waved at the small group of healers that had been taking turns healing those at the body thrashing station. A guy who was already up hurried over to stand close by.

When Jun saw the man, he nodded. The patriarch was growing accustomed to his own qi and its effects on the body. The boost of strength and endurance it gave with every breath might have been new to him, but the principles that governed it were already being ingrained into the man’s being.

“Where?” was his only response.

I patted my sixpack. “Let’s start with a slash. Don’t hold back.”

“Yes.”

Ma had been undergoing tempering close by. He had the man stop when he saw Jun unsheathe his sword. He wasn’t alone. Many of the most competitive men and women following them did the same. They too stopped what they were doing to witness what this crazy returner guy was about to do next.

As requested, Jun didn’t hold back. His blade flashed horizontally. It slid across the flat of Nathan’s abbs just above the belly button. There was nothing foreign to stop it—only qi-filled tissue.

Nathan didn’t flex and relied solely on his breathing. The blow drove the wind out of him. He staggered back a few steps. Then he straightened and examined where he’d been struck. There was a mark. It reached from one side of his abs to the other. Blood beaded in a few places. The majority of the wound was just a scratch.

“Truly a master of the blade,” Nathan announced with a sigh. He noticed Jun’s perplexed expression and addressed him. “Don’t be discouraged. The only reason you’re able to cut me at present is because your advanced cultivation and skill with a blade are working together. Once you’ve reached the Blood Realm and gain some proficiency with applying qi to martial skills, then the current me would have little defense against you.

“You’ll also notice that I’m readily taking in qi with my breathing technique. In a real fight, my body would be utilizing that qi for more than just defense. I’d also be using it to enhance the speed of my movements and boosting the strength of my attacks. The more active I am, the more qi is being used. During a fight, your opponent’s qi can be spread too thin, causing weaknesses you can exploit.

“This is where the mastery of qi management comes in. Between two combatants where all things are equal, it’s often one’s skill with qi that determines the outcome. It’s even possible for someone less skilled in combat to win simply because they better utilize their qi.

“Body thrashing is a perfect example of this. The reason I’m having everyone hold their breath when attacked is so that your body has limited qi to defend itself from the damage we’re purposely trying to inflict. Try it while taking in qi if you want to test it.”

And so they did. The concept wasn’t new to them. They were starting to grow used to the strength breathing gave them during their workouts. The leap from muscle enhancement to body reinforcement against physical blows was reasonable even if they were just starting to grasp it.

***

After Nathan’s first breakthrough, others followed. He broke through to the ninth small realm near the middle of the second week. He reached the tenth, his peak, near the end of the third. Only then did he take body thrashing to the extreme and start tanking Jun’s blade with as little qi as possible. Blood flowed, but it only took a breath to kickstart his body’s regeneration.

Jun’s mentality changed as well. Instead of worrying about whether he’d seriously injure Nathan, he began taking his inability as a challenge. His slashes and thrusts assaulted this crazy body cultivator from head to toe.

It was only when Jun’s cultivation advanced to the ten realm that his blade sliced deeply enough into Nathan’s throat to draw a line of blood. Seeing the bloodied man give him a congratulatory smile in response left the kendo master snickering.

What increased as they neared the Blood Realm wasn’t just the weights they were using, but also the pace. The pills greatly improved the downtime for recovery. That was only one variable. Everyone that dared to push themselves was getting faster, but the greatest factor was that they were beginning to see themselves as cultivators.

The first to breakthrough to the Blood Realm wasn’t Nathan. It was Sam. He’d entered the training camp at only the sixth small realm, but the more he got to play around with energy circulation, the more his natural talent began taking shape.

Others beat Nathan as well. Senior Ma was one of them.

Once one person broke through, the rest wouldn’t be outdone. From the the first day of the last week to the end of the third, one breakthrough became seventy. Nathan was the thirty fifth person to reach the Blood Realm. There was one major difference between his breakthrough and the others’. He already knew how to manipulate qi.

Just as when the others broke through, everyone stopped what they were doing when the qi started acting strangely around Nathan. “It’s happening,” he announced.

He’d been in the middle of flexibility training when it started. Sitting on the floor with his legs out to the sides while laying forward with his chest on the ground in a gymnast’s pancake, he heard as much as felt the air around him pop. The timing of his breakthrough made sense considering he’d been so freely practicing his breathing technique.

Straightening himself on the floor, he loosely sat Indian style while resting his hands on his knees. There was no release of qi during this, his first major breakthrough. Instead, it all happened inside him. The resistance his body gave his qi was far less than normal because of his talent. Then suddenly, the resistance wasn’t there.

Nathan had already memorized the recommended technique to use during this breakthrough. It was similar to most techniques at this early stage. Not only had his body’s resistance disappeared, but his bloodstream started absorbing qi like a newborn did milk during its first feeding.

He flexed the muscles of his body all at once before releasing the tension. Only then did he take in a massive breath and hold it. He flexed again and released. Slowly exhaling out of his nose, he repeatedly flexed and released.

The intensity of his next breath had to look maddening to those observing. He flexed again and released. He took ten such breaths and continued flexing and releasing. Only then did he speed up his breathing and relax. His body responded by absorbing qi at an ever-increasing rate. His blood took care of the rest.

It was only when his bloodstream became saturated that the process slowed down. He was nearing the last stage of the process. It was the very step where he gained control over the qi in his blood.

His eyes had been closed throughout the process, but he knew others were watching. A grin turned up at the corners of his mouth. Breathing in through his nose, he took in a massive breath. Only when his lungs were full did every muscle in his body bulge. With control over his new qi, he pressed it into his blood like a vice. Forcing it to take more than it ever intended, he’d only begun.

Maximizing a breakthrough would do more than just give one extra qi to utilize earlier than normal. This was a trial for the blood and the vessels themselves. The more he pushed and stretched them, the more they’d be able to take in the future. One could make up for missing the opportunity by doing it later on, but only to a degree. To an Energy or Soul Cultivator, the effort would hardly bear any noticeable results, but for a Body Cultivator, it could make a huge difference.

With each breath he took in qi. With great violence he bombarded the fortress of his blood vessels. With each exhaled breath, no qi escaped. Not only was his blood being forced to absorb more qi, but he was using the energy to empower his assault.

When his eyes finally opened, they were bloodshot. His face was red with swollen blood vessels and his neck was bulging. That was just where it was the most obvious. The vessels throughout his body were inflamed near the surface of his skin and throughout his body.

By the time he was finished, his entire body was red with exertion. An hour had passed. He plopped down on the mat back first and felt the cool of the puddle of his perspiration that had collected there. The next moment, he was ambushed.

Jess and Katrina attacked him with ice water and wet towels. Concern was written all over their faces.

Looking up at them from his back, he began to laugh. There was a time when he would’ve given anything for such attention from them. “If you wanted to touch me so badly—” He began before stopping himself, but he’d already said too much.

Both of their expressions turned icy, but it was Katrina who took the wet towel as she stood and snapped it against his bare skin.

Hearing the sharp snap, her smirk returned.

“Ouch,” he yelped, feigning injury.

Jess smacked his shoulder as if to rebuke him.

Seeing that she was still taking this hard, he sat up and reached toward her. “Hug?”

She smacked his shoulder again, but her heart wasn’t in it.

He decided he’d give them a break. Now that he’d reached the Blood Realm, there was something he could show the entire camp. “Have everyone gather around the boxing ring in ten minutes.”

Katrina crossed her arms as if objecting, but Jess asked, “Is there a problem?”

“No,” he reassured her. “It’s time you guys learn how cultivators can compete with any other path.