Body Cultivation Hurts - Chapter 30

Just as on the first day of training camp, everyone had gathered around the boxing ring where Nathan was standing. He took one final look at his new status.

Status

Name: Nathaniel Kane

Age: 19

Cultivation: First Stage of the Blood Realm (Consolidating)

Focus: Body (Toughness)

Talent: S

Physique: C

Strength: C

Agility: C

Stamina: C+

Energy: F+

Spirit: G+

Shaking his head, he remembered back to how his physique hadn’t reached the C rank until the latter levels of the Blood Realm. This shouldn’t be possible. Now that he was at the Blood Realm, his physical stats should’ve started over near the F rank. Even that was higher than normal. A rank F Blood Realm cultivator was equivalent to a rank B Body cultivator. Rank C in the Blood Realm was the highest some people reached before breathing through to the next realm. It was almost as if he’d broken through only to be ready to break through again, except he knew that wasn’t the case. He’d been there before. This feeling. He was definitely at the first stage. Was the difference from his last life due to his rank S Talent or because of his Blood Essence Enhancement?

“Hey, Grunt,” Silvester said, pulling him from his musing as he climbed through the ropes to join me. “They’re ready when you are.”

He grinned at the man and nodded. Turning to the audience, he added some qi to his voice. “Three weeks ago when we first began, how many of you would’ve imagined you’d reach this point? The weakest among us have shattered nearly every lifting and sprinting record ever set before the tower. You’re capable of tanking bullets and hardened steel blades. The competition between us has been fertile ground to push ourselves harder and further, but most of you haven’t forgotten.

“There are those among humanity with abilities once impossible for mankind. Outlandish things like teleportation and flying, elemental magic and the manipulation of light or gravity. In many ways, as cultivators, we simply haven’t been able to compete. Until now.”

Holding up his hand, he rolled it into a fist. As he did, a faint red aura danced just over the surface of his skin.

A murmur rose up in the crowd.

“The Blood Realm is just the beginning for us,” he continued. “The differences between Energy, Soul, and Body cultivator will start to reveal themselves at this level, but our strength comes from the same source. Getting your breath knocked out of you won’t put you in the same danger of dying as we had in the Body Realm. But most of all, martial techniques give cultivators make us more than just strong bodies. This is when you begin to realize just how weak you’ve always been. Let’s have a demonstration.”

Silvester Hitchens, the former UFC Champ, stepped up to one of the ultra-tough dummies the guys had moved to the ring. The man had reached the Blood Realm as well. He lined up, leveling an overhand right straight to the metallic things face. It sounded like someone had taken a baseball bat and struck the steel telephone poll.

The dummies head bent back, taking only a second to snap back into place.

His speed and power had reached a level no pro boxer before Initiation could’ve survived against.

Nathan was up next. As a body cultivator, his martial techniques would never be as flashy as an energy cultivator’s. In the Blood Realm, they still be in their simplest form. It was too early for any of their energy cultivators to have any proficiency with martial techniques. They had a cool factor he couldn’t compete with.

Flashy wasn’t important. What he needed was a target. One that everyone was familiar with. That’s why the dummy had been brought on stage and Silvester had agreed to demonstrate his current strength.

Nathan walked to the side of the ring opposite the dummy.

They all knew just how tough the dummies were. For weeks they’d been beating on them and not one had any signs of a scratch. The material wasn’t of Earth, though it wasn’t uncommon in the greater universe. It was the perfect target for this exact purpose.

The ropes behind the dummy had been removed. Everyone was asked to stand back. He looked at Googee who was standing on that side of the ring. Her cultivation dwarfed theirs. There was no one better to be there in case something went wrong.

She looked up at the overhead screen that would play back his technique in slow motion. She signaled it was ready.

The martial technique he’d chosen was the simplest one he knew. It was a variation of the first one he’d mastered. After mastering it, he’d made it his own. A practitioner almost always differed from the technique’s creator. Tweaking it, even by the smallest degree, was dangerous, however. It was only because of the technique’s simplicity mixed with his mastery that he dared to change it. It was originally called Mountain Giant’s Fist. Nathan just called it, Right Cross.

Unlike an energy cultivator that was taught to gather all their energy into their gut where their dantian would form in high realms, he was a body cultivator. Not only was his energy currently stored in his blood flowing throughout his body, but it would also be stored in his flesh and body in the near future. There was a time for gathering energy for a large technique, but that wasn’t necessary for what he was about to show them. One of the advantages of being a body cultivator was that building up wasn’t needed for the most basic techniques. His qi was already right where he needed it.

With sight defying speed, he stepped forward and punched out. It would look like he was throwing a practice strike at full speed across the ring from the dummy. He was too far away. For those paying close attention, they’d see the ethereal blur that was flung from his fist. It mostly lacked color because his qi didn’t currently contain any elemental attributes. Even those paying attention might have missed the training dummy’s response if they were focusing too closely on him.

The dummy was roughly the shape of a person from the calf to the top of its head. Its hands were up and held at shoulder width. This allowed the person training to work around its hands without them being too much in the way if they just wanted to bash on it. What kept it on the ground were crossbeams for feet and its weight. One moment the dummy was there. The next it was gone.

It was only when they heard the sound of metal skidding over concrete that everyone turned their heads.

Nathan was pleased his energy flowed as it had before, and he hadn’t missed. He hit it square in the chin.

Those closer to the dummy put their hands over their ears. It stopped skidding after half a dozen meters.

Silence followed. The screen above started to play and everyone looked up.

He didn’t miss Googee watching him, pursing her lips. What he’d done was impossible for someone new to cultivation. Especially someone that didn’t grow up in a world where it existed.

He glanced up and watched as energy launch from his knuckles in the loose shape of a fist. It hit the dummy right in the mouth.

He sighed. It was higher than he thought.

The shape of his fist was left in the metal dummy’s face. The entire dummy tilted backward as it bent at the neck, legs, and waist. It reached the full extent of its ability to flex before the force sent it flipping backward. Like a spring, it retook its shape with a quiver as it flew through the air before landing on its back. Its base scarred at the ground as it slid.

“My martial techniques are rather limited since I’m a body cultivator,” Nathan said. “Any questions?”

The room erupted.