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The Warrior’s Temperance cultivation technique was fundamentally different from the Essence Cultivation Art or the Flowing Wind Art, for the same reason as to why a distinction was made between a cultivation technique and art.

A cultivation art was an instruction manual that guided it’s wielder to modulate existing Qi reserves in a particular pattern or rhythm that would achieve the intended result, like the Flowing Wind Art’s fourth form, dancing breeze, that allowed Xiao Feng to direct his Wind Qi in a rhythm that would shield him from harm.

On the other hand, a cultivation technique was a fundamentally different matter. Its aim was not to modulate the existing Qi Reserves, but to expand them. Only, it didn’t stop there.

The Warrior’s Temperance cultivation technique was the most widely used cultivation technique in the Martial Division and it also happened to be the only cultivation technique taught to his predecessor.

Based on the revelations that Xiao Feng had gotten on his predecessor’s true status in the martial division, he would likely have assumed that the technique was a mediocre one. Surprisingly enough, that wasn’t the case.

If he had to describe the technique in one word, he would call it grueling.

As he had had ample time to learn in the past month, the dantian, despite its metaphysical nature, was closer to a muscle than an organ. It was essential to his cultivation, yes and it did function like a heart, only to pump Qi instead of blood. But there was a key distinction to be made there, one that made all the difference.

Warrior’s Temperance was a cultivation technique that required Xiao Feng to see the dantian as both the end of the initial cycle and the beginning of the next one, a bridge between his upper body and lower body.

Thankfully, the cultivation technique itself was incredibly easy to understand, so much so that Xiao Feng felt like he could perform it even without the muscle memory his predecessor had left him behind. Well, eventually.

The first step was to essentially flood all the meridians in his upper body with unattuned Qi, with his Dantian outputting in a capacity that would normally only be seen in a combat scenario.

The branching veins that were part of the venous network that the meridian was were filled to the brim, like the ones ending at the tip of his fingers, while the main veins were allowed to take the excess Qi to the lower body once the upper body hit its capacity.

Then Xiao Feng would have to repeat the exact same process for the lower body, letting his meridians fill to the brim, including the acupuncture points where excess unattuned Qi was stored, before the Dantian opened passage to the lower body, directing all the Qi back inside after the entire body hit it’s natural capacity.

Once the meridians were devoid of Qi, the entire process would repeat again. However, Qi was not an infinite resource and cycling it was not a lossless phenomenon. Unlike the heart, which required a source of nutrition and hydration for sustenance, the dantian would not cease to exist if one ran out of Qi. Instead, the foundation base that his predecessor had braved heavenly tribulation for would replenish it, a process that was painstakingly slow, or he could absorb the Qi from the ambient Qi available in the environment or through a source like spiritual stones.

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The faster and quicker Xiao Feng completed a cycle, the more Qi he would lose. This was because the Dantian and by extension his meridians were forcefully told that they were not adequate for him in their current state, like a muscle that had not been trained enough. The same way muscle fibers needed to be torn and regrown to become stronger, the dantian and the meridians possessed the capability to be strengthened.

However, just as muscle fibers needed adequate nutrition and sleep to grow, the dantian and meridians required Qi that was already being supplied to it.

That deficit of Qi was something that the cultivation chambers he was training in had already accounted for, as good quality spiritual stones were placed on a bed of heated bronze coal.

After completing a cycle, Xiao Feng could easily absorb the excess Qi released in the exceptionally small chamber he was seated in, with just enough space for him to sit cross-legged a short but comfortable distance away from the heat.

While absorbing Qi directly from the stone would be slightly faster, the whole point of releasing Qi into the ambient air was to make sure that his focus did not snap.

Taking long breaks between each cycle would completely diminish the effects of the Warrior’s Temperance technique. It’s whole point was to push a cultivator to his absolute limit, to accustom his dantian to be ready to output large amounts of Qi at a moment’s notice and for his meridians to be thick enough to sustain such potent amounts without suffering damage.

Damage to the meridians was one of the worst injuries a cultivator could face, its repair beyond any but the greatest of healers.

And for a cultivator on the battlefield, the outcome of encounters was decided in a matter of seconds, sometimes fractions of seconds. They had to be capable of calling upon their Qi at a moment’s notice, but if their meridians were injured in the process, then they would fall to the next attack.

It was truly the ideal cultivation technique for a warrior, but the problem Xiao Feng was facing with it was the fact that it was… boorish. There had to be a cleverer way of cultivating, he was certain of that. Unfortunately, cultivation techniques happened to be even more valuable than beast eggs and Xiao Feng could see why.

With a beast egg, you could raise a single beast but with a powerful cultivation technique, you could found an entire sect.

The first time Xiao Feng had tried the Warrior’s Temperance cultivation technique, he had tapped out mid-way through the first cycle. The thing about packing your meridians to the limit was that it made it feel like your entire muscular structure had suddenly doubled in weight, while the process constantly demanded his Qi, focus and stamina.

On his second try, when he’d completely managed to fill all his meridians, Xiao Feng could barely stay upright, his entire body feeling like weighed a metric ton even as his meridians began to ache from being forced to stay at full capacity.

And now, he was supposed to let it all flow into his dantian in one fell swoop.

He did and it felt like he’d been punched in the gut with a bowling ball, before he lost focus and collapsed onto his back.

Two weeks of efforts later, Xiao Feng had managed to reach a grand total of four complete cycles.

Warrior’s Temperance was not a cultivation technique that tested his willpower, it was a test of willpower that let his foundation base strengthen.

His predecessor’s highest cycle count had been a whopping eighty-two, but at the rate Xiao Feng was going, it would take him years before he reached even fifty.

Willpower was not something he could inherit and it would be quite outlandish to try and match a bona-fide cultivator from the continent of Tian when he had led a far easier, accustomed to modern amenities life back on Earth.

But if he didn’t and someone discovered just how weak he had become, both his and his predecessor’s life would come to be at risk. Possession had been an outlandish concept back on earth, but with the existence of the Demonic Path, it was something that the Frontier Sect might be capable of detecting.

Waiting for his willpower to increase through repeated practice would take years if not decades, but if he didn’t, he might be doomed.

The only option left had been to cheat.