I quietly cursed. Everything pointed in that direction. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all!

“But Gerald, what are you talking about?” Some would say, their brains too tiny to figure it out on their own.

It was the damn Body Cultivation! Both Martial Arts I have read worked just under the threshold of pain! Sometimes it became uncomfortable if I pushed it further, but it never really hurt. 3/10 at most. And guess what? I was 99% positive that the optimal path for Body Cultivation rested at least 30-40% higher on the pain scale.

Yup! From a 3/10 to a 6/10 on the pain scale. Literally no pain, no gain! Or in this case, no pain, slow gain.

My face scrunched up as I recorded my discoveries in my notebook. I wasn’t afraid of a little bit of pain, far from it, but it was damn annoying!

And while this was fine when only a tiny body part was aching, the fact that my whole body would have to be in pain for the fastest results would make it something completely different.

I could understand why the Cultivators here limited their intensity. While being more aggressive would speed up the process, it probably wasn’t worth it for them. There wasn’t anything dangerous happening that would force them to improve faster, but also, they probably didn’t have enough Qi to do a full-body full-force Body Cultivation cycle as I did.

I tried doing it with just 10 Qi, and let me tell you, I was getting nowhere. It was so damn slow I would need months to see the results I got in just a few weeks going full throttle.

So yeah… I won’t be going for the optimal path, but instead just under it. I could tolerate a constant 5/10 pain all over my body… I think.

I internally sighed again and gathered my things.

Once more I came back home as the night began. I spent some time chatting with my neighbors, Che and Elyx, and we exchanged a few words and interesting things that happened to them at their work.

I spoke of my hunt with the Giant Rats, and that’s when Chity also came and joined us, corroborating my story. He was apparently hunting the beasts there almost every day, but there weren’t many days where he got as many as when we hunted together.

Teamwork really made a difference.

He also bought a bow with the money and used it to kill instead of a sword since that made it much easier and more consistent. His Fire magic was still too weak for use in battle, but it was nice for a few party tricks.

I jokingly suggested we should make a debate club where we could exchange knowledge we have gathered, and they actually considered it! Well, I wasn’t going to complain. The area of expertise for each of us was something completely different from the others, so we could all benefit by exchanging information.

Another source of knowledge achieved!

We chatted late into the night around the fire, but eventually, it was time to sleep. We each said our goodbyes and returned to our homes.

I sat on my bed, nervously trying to steady my mind. It was time to do it! Full power, full body, Body Cultivation. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and began.

At first, it wasn’t too bad. Elementary Qi stormed through my veins, energizing my muscles, ligaments, bones, and skin. It felt great!

But then, the pain started. As I pushed harder, the energy transfer became stronger, and my cells had no time to rest, resulting in mild discomfort. Like sitting still for too long where your legs would get numb, only it was over my entire body. Then the dull aches started, something I was all too familiar with since it was the same as when I pushed myself too hard in combat.

I could still tolerate it without a problem, but soon that became much more difficult. Qi filled my cells, entering faster than they could expel it, making them feel bloated.

Beads of sweat began to roll off my back, and I could feel my body becoming sore everywhere at once. So much discomfort! I slowly pushed further, breathing calmly and having Qi under control.

My brows furrowed and my teeth clenched slightly. The pain was becoming quite the hassle to keep contained.

The human body could adapt to anything, and that included Qi toxicity. Damage the cells slightly, make them bloated with Qi, and they would gradually get stronger. It was a simple thing to understand, but quite a pain in the ass to do. Literal pain, not figurative. My ass was hurting, a combination of sitting still for a long time and Body Cultivation.

Actually, everything was hurting. I began having difficulties concentrating because of it, so I stopped.

As I collapsed on my bed, I considered my actions. I probably went a bit too far, but I knew I could go further. This was far from the worst pain I have ever experienced. But there was just no point going further. The task would most likely get exponentially harder while the benefits would diminish. Diminishing returns. An annoying thing to be sure.

I sighed and wiped away the sweat off my brow. This one session took a few hours, but I wasn’t sure how long it was exactly. I was tired and tried to find a comfortable position to float away into the land of dreams.

[… Shit.]

Yeah, about that pain… As it turned out, sleeping while in pain was difficult. Who knew?!

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

That was sarcasm.

I took note of my mistake and decided not to push it this far in the next session, or else I wouldn’t be able to rest properly anymore.

Eventually, I fell asleep, but it was a bad one, and I woke up the next day with a heavy body and deep bags under my eyes while feeling sore everywhere.

This type of Body Cultivation was no fun. Everything ached and every time I moved I felt it even more. It really seemed I overdid it because the pain was now probably at a 7 or 8/10. I just wanted to stay in bed for the rest of the day.

But what was one day of rest, right? I could afford it. I was constantly working on something for the past… few months. The only time when I had some rest was when I was dead. And this pain… It really, really sucked.

That’s why I immediately stood up and summoned a bunch of icy water to have a shower. I hated cold, but that was something that had to be done. And if there was something to be done, I would do it!

It felt terrible at first and I winced as my entire body was submerged in the icy chill, but soon I became accustomed to it, and it actually lessened some of the inflammation. The cold washed away the misery and replaced it with purpose.

It was just one session of Body Cultivation, there were still hundreds more waiting for me. I was no quitter. It was just some pain, I could deal with it.

I stepped out onto the forest floor barefooted and with only my trousers to cover my body. I took deep breaths of fresh morning air and slowly exhaled. The warm sun rays found their way through the opening in the umbrella that were the lush green canopies above.

With closed eyes, I took Toothpick in my hand and began going through the moves. Living Fortress, a Martial Art for both body and mind. My feet moved, and my eyes opened. My mind was at peace. The weapon made a circle and spun around, and my body moved with it.

Discarding the intrusive thoughts, there was only the blade and me, dancing in the sun. Each step, secure and powerful, like the beat of a drum. Each swing, fast and precise, like the flap of a butterfly’s wing.

Qi moved through me as the manual required, and I felt myself becoming in tune with my weapon, with the movement of the wind, and the stillness of the earth. I was a fortress. An unbreakable, unmovable, eternal fortress! A fortress with life, with the beating of a heart. A Living Fortress!

The energy of my swings increased, and my steps shifted, moving away from the village, and into the forest. Each of my strikes carried with it the weight of my deepest desires.

A final slice!

The Toothpick in my hand flashed out in an arc, striking the ancient Ironbark tree before me. The blade struck wood... and continued through it.

My body paused for a moment, after which I returned to my upright pose, Toothpick in my hand, and stuck it in the ground beside me. I let out a breath. Sweat poured from my brow, but I did not wipe it away.

Instead, I stared at the powerful tree before me, and at the fresh gash on its thick ancient bark. Half a meter long, and a tenth deep. Ironbark.

I scoffed. [Not as powerful now, huh? All your powers are now null and void.]

Null magic. It was something I discovered long ago, in the Before, but I didn’t find much use for it, until now.

How do you destroy something that was buffed by magic? It is simple, just take it away. Take away the Qi, and produce chaos, to disrupt the order.

I tried to do the same with the mountain Formation when I first arrived. Heh. We all know how that went.

Back then I clearly didn’t know what I was against, but these trees that gave us so many problems in the beginning… They were easy targets. Perfect training dummies.

With the weapon in my hand, I spun around once more, striking with all the force I could muster. The blade of my glaive sunk into the wood with a thunk… and got stuck. I pulled it back, but it wouldn’t budge. Quite a bit of force was required to leverage it back out.

The difference between using Null magic and without it was large. Large enough for me to realize it posed a danger to my life.

Senior Ren used the Null magic, even if he didn’t exactly state it. His Piercing Iron Fist utilized the same concept of disrupting the opponent’s Qi to bring forth the real power. To break the beast from the inside.

But I knew something. Null magic only worked on those that were weaker, whose control over their own Qi was lesser. Against a superior opponent, it would do little, if anything at all. At least that’s how it worked for Base Qi. I doubted much would be different for other grades.

What about against an opponent of similar strength? Would the two cancel each other out, receiving zero damage? Or would they both get mortally wounded by a single strike? Depending on the answer my strategies would have to change.

But that was for another time. Now, it was time to train.

Que the montage of me working out, perfecting the moves of the Living Fortress Martial Art, and quietly cursing my feeble meat suit for feeling pain.

Nearly ten days went by like this, training with the glaive, and doing full cycles of Body Cultivation every other day. I decided to push a bit harder and take a day off instead of going for lower intensity. That way I had some time to do other stuff and a bit of time to recover as well.

Besides, growth happened during the recovery phase, right? I remembered hearing something like that from the gym bros back on Earth. Eat a whole bunch, kill it in the gym, and then have a good rest, only to repeat it the next day.

A routine of suffering. But apparently, that pain eventually turned into pleasure as the body started releasing dopamine with every workout session. Addicted to working out. I wondered if Cultivators are the same. Would I be the same? Well, it beat feeling shitty all the time.

And well, I was running low on money… again, so I went back to the old business of being a rat catcher. Chity had some minor accomplishments in it, having found a nest and told us all about it during one of our evening debate club sessions.

There wasn’t much to debate, yet. It was still too early and we were all still too green, so we settled on just telling jokes and dumb stories. Typical teenager stuff.

“Hey Gerald, I’ll be going on a hunt with a few of my guys, wanna come with us? I know you are a good fighter.” Chity said one day.

[A full-day expedition? Did you get a break from your training?]

“Two days, actually. And yes, we get a few days off every month.”

Did I want to do something different instead of training every day? I considered it for a moment.

[What are you hunting? Got anything particular in mind?]

“Not really. We decided to travel out from the Sect for a bit and see what beasts are out there. There isn’t much to hunt close to it, unfortunately.”

[True… Most of what I saw around these parts were big rats.]

“Yeah!” Chity grinned in agreement. “Filthy bastards… Well, at least we got a job because of them.”

We laughed. Chity then offered the opportunity to join him to the rest as well, but they refused. They couldn’t take time off on such short notice, and they weren’t focused on combat either. I, on the other hand, agreed to accompany him and his gang on a little expedition.

[When exactly are we going? I need to gather a few things before we go.]

“You are going? Great! We’ll gather here in the village the day after tomorrow at dawn. Make sure to grab a few extra supplies just in case.”

[And healing pills, I’m guessing?]

“Well, hopefully, we won't need them, but yeah… It’s best to be prepared.”

We talked for a bit and then went our separate ways. I went back inside and meditated, before doing another cycle of Body Cultivation. Still hurt like a bitch and left my body sore, but I was slowly getting used to it.

Now I had to grit my teeth only towards the end of the procedure. The quality of my sleep was still diminished, but it was slowly getting better, and as I was so exhausted, even pain couldn’t stop me from falling unconscious.