Body Cultivation Hurts - Chapter 24

Nathan held the rope for each person as they came to the stage. “There are two more things we need to address before we get started. Those of you that haven’t chosen paths of cultivation. Don’t think that this form of training will be a waste of time for you. Your main growth will come from killing enemies, however, do you believe that is the only way your strength can grow?

“Just as with cultivators, training your body now will bear fruit during future stages of your advancement. The stronger your foundation, the more powerful you’ll become. At this stage, cultivators must undergo such training to advance. Don’t let their breakthroughs discourage you. In the future it will be well worth it for everyone who puts in the work.

“And finally, not every cultivator here has reached the seventh stage, or large success. If I had to guess, most of you haven’t. That’s perfectly fine.

“I have prepared special pills that will vary depending on the method you cultivate. Most will need either heat—also called yang energy—or cold—also called yin energy—to advance. It won’t be as efficient as cultivating in the perfect environment, however, this time dilation chamber will make up for that inefficiency. Also training your body while you absorb these pills is exactly what you’ll need to advance. The extra physical training should even make the later stages of the body realm go much smoother.

“For those of you that require more than just yang or yin energy to reach large success, you’re in luck, I have plenty of various poisons left over. If you’ve seen my training videos, you won’t have to take such dangerous doses to advance, but if your willing, today’s suffering will become tomorrow’s strength.”

Nathan looked at the men and women lined up on the stage beside him. It was difficult to believe this was happening. It was like a part of his mind was unable to grasp the shift in reality from the present day to the devastation of what he’d experienced just two weeks ago.

“The men and women I’ve asked to come on stage will help me get things moving,” he said, nodding to the group before turning back to the crowd. “But they aren’t here to train you. They’re here to train as well. If you need help, ask your neighbor. If you see someone that needs help, don’t wait, help them. We are here to feed off each other’s desire to get stronger. And this is how we’re going to do it.”

Pointing to the far side of the auditorium, Nathan addressed it. “Weight training. Your goal isn’t to reach the perfect level of hypertrophy. It’s not to train until failure. You’re either doing close to your max for as many explosive reps as you can, or doing low weight for enough reps that you can’t even move once you’re finished. Once you stop, you practice your breathing technique and do it again. If it takes more than a minute to recover with qi circulation, you move on to a new muscle group and do the same. Only compound power movements.”

He pointed to the left corner of the far wall. “Specific mobility training. Rotator cuff, knees, hips, ankle, neck. The neck, hip flexors, and feet are some of the least training muscles in the body. If you have a weakness, strengthen it. If not, strengthen the weakest parts of the body to their peak.”

He continued to point out stations as he talked. The space wasn’t rectangular like a stadium, but square. Two tracks, or football fields, could easily fit in the space lined up side by side. “There are twenty lanes for sprinting. There are the same number with sleds for pushing and pulling. Keep an eye on the track encircling this side of the room.” He motioned toward most of the crowd was standing.

“Within its borders will be used for flexibility and bodyweight training. I understand that elongating the muscle won’t benefit performance, in the short term. In the long term, after you can apply power through a full range of motion, it will greatly benefit you. We’re not training to become bodybuilders, sprinters, or to master a sport. We are preparing for war. Your body is the weapon. Don’t shortchange yourself.

“There are horizontal bars for pull ups and power ups. Ladies, you will be doing a month’s worth of exercise a day while you are here. Gentlemen, this goes for you as well. If there’s an exercise you can’t do, or you can’t do well, I don’t want you to develop the skill for skills sake, but now’s the time progress to higher stages of bodyweight expertise. Use the learning of new skills as a challenge to motivate you to push even harder.

“And finally, the sparing area. You will have two goals while here. To make full use of your body when directly facing an opponent, and to accumulate damage so that your body can grow accustomed to it to grow stronger. While here, there are different stations you must participate in.

“The first is hand to hand, stand up training, or weapons sparing. During whichever you choose, there is to be no grappling. You are welcome to do both, but I understand if you want to focus on one. Heavy bags are also available in case you want to exhaust specific movements.

“The second is grappling. I understand not everyone here has training in this, but the problem with striking is that it makes best use of pushing movements. Grappling works pulling movements like little else. Those of you with experience know the drill. Practice submissions to tension but drop them before any damage is done. Our newcomers won’t always know when to tap. Be kind. Remember, skill mastery isn’t the point. Never stop working.

“And finally, the funnest station of them all. Let’s call it body thrashing. Feel free to grab a partner when you’re here. Commander,” Nathan said, looking at his old superior officer. His countenance fell as he realized it was the first time they’d met in this life, but he recovered quickly. “Silvester Hitchens, I’d like you to kick me.”

Everyone in the ring moved back as the former MMA middleweight champion stepped up while raising a brow. “How could I deny such a request,” he snickered. “Alright grunt, where do you want it?”

The crowd laughed with him.

“Ribs first,” Nathan said, patting his side. “You’ll notice I exhale all the air and qi out of my lungs before each strike.”

He gave his old commander a nod.

Just like two kickboxers trading kicks to build body toughness, Silvester threw a smooth shin kick that smacked against his side.

“Good. This time I want you to try to break my ribs,” he turned to the crowd before giving him the go ahead. “I’m breathing now because I need the air to speak with you, but during this process keep as little qi in your lungs as possible. You want your body to break. If your partner doesn’t have the skill or strength, the Takao clan has been kind enough to supply us with more than a hundred wooden practice swords. You can use them for this as well as weapons training. If you need more, let the merchant representative know and she’ll provide them. Now kick me.”

It took Silvester a few kicks before he really warmed to the idea of trying to hurt him, but in the end, he came through. After Nathan’s ribs in one side were bruised and fractured, he had the man move to the other side. Then he asked for powerful side kicks right to the gut. The spinning side kick Silvester unleashed was epic. He could only handle five of them before he had the man move on.

He noticed it in the crowd. After Isacara had left, the mood had lightened. That was until he asked one of the best known martial artists in the world to break him. Whether it was pity for him, or for themselves because they were being asked to do the same, he didn’t know. The gasps became audible when he asked Silvester to move to his thighs. Inside and out, Nathan didn’t move. All the while, he added a comment here and there.

By the time both thighs were done, the crowd was once again silent. Then he asked for calve kicks.

He was trembling where he stood—barely able to stand.

“This is the one part of training in the body realm I wish I could forget.”

“Yeah, this is a little extreme, man,” Silvester said, letting out a long whistle.

“What? No, not this. The next part. Kick me in the groin.”

“What the hell?” The sudden influx of objections from the crowd was so loud he wasn’t even sure who said it. It took a few minutes for them to calm down. Instead of explaining, he simply insisted, and Silvester soccer kicked him in the crotch.

He had to lean against the padded corner to stay upright after a few follow up kicks.

The objections had rebounded. The conclusion was that this was some eastern mysticism type nonsense.

Nathan removed a pill from his pocket. “Despite everything that’s happened, you don’t yet fully grasp how much things have changed.”

Throwing the pill in his mouth, he swallowed and began utilizing his breathing technique in earnest. Qi flowed not only into his lungs but leaked from his chest like water from a holey bag. It didn’t just drip. Streams of energy flowed to where it was needed. After a few deep breaths, he pushed off the padded corner, and walked slowly back to the center of the ropes.

“It should take ten, fifteen minutes, tops. Utilizing both breathing techniques and recovery pills is not modern medicine, and neither is it mysticism. It’s a simple flooding of the body with the energy it needs to repair itself at a ridiculous rate.

“Normally, recovering without pills will earn you more benefits, but there comes a point when sheer quantity surpasses quality. This is that time. More than a million recovery pills are just sitting there waiting to be used.

“And let me be clear, I’m starting you off easy. Body thrashing extends to the arms, shoulders, and back as well. The hardest area to temper is the skull. I’ve found self-initiated blows are the best. Extended headstands, headbutting, etc. But recovery pills will allow you to recover from concussions if things are taken too far. The difficulty is getting someone to hit you on the head without taking it too far. If there are any mages with a focus on healing in the group, you are welcome to spend some extra time in this area to help us up and improve your skills. Focus mostly on simple mana transfer to allow their body to heal itself. Only heal them directly if there’s an emergency.

“That’s about it. I will give one last reminder. This is a circuit. You’re not to pick a few of your favorite stations and stick to them. You’re expected to participate in all of them. Now give me a minute with these fine people in the ring and we’ll get started.”

When I turned, Ma Mencius was the first to step up to join me. He looked half crazed with the smile on his face. Jun Takao was right behind the man, but without any expression.

“Before we start, Mr. Kane,” Vanessa Montgomery said with a hand holding the side of her face.

“Please, call me Nathan. And yes?”

She seemed too stressed to really hear what he said about what to call him. “Do the girls need to train that?”

“What? Groin shots?”

She seemed embarrassed as she nodded.

“Does it hurt to get kicked there?”

“Yeah…”

“Then yes.”

“Oh,” she took a step back as she processed what he’d said.

When he finished explaining to them what he wanted them to do and stressed they weren’t there to train others, just to get things started, he let them go.

Silvester Hitchens called out from the ring and started breaking the crowd into groups. Nathan grinned to himself. He liked this lighthearted Silvester better than the one he had known. The man had been—intimidating.

It was a little painful climbing out of the ring, where he was immediately met with Jess. She didn’t say a word, just wrapped her arms around him, held him for a moment, then left without even looking at him.

He was about to address the others when he heard a stern tone shout his name over the crowd. He found Googee glaring at him with her arms crossed. She didn’t need to say anything. He excused himself and followed her to where they’d be able to better converse.

They neared the corner of the auditorium that was covered in mats where she spun. “Were you planning on telling me?”

“You mean—”

“That you returned from the future, and we knew each other?”

“Honestly, I hadn’t thought of telling anyone until a few minutes ago. But if people believing it allows me to help them grow faster…”

She did her little micro-nods, acknowledging she understood, but didn’t take her eye off him. “And how are you going to pay for all this?”

His eyes narrowed. “I’ve paid for rental of the space and equipment. I’m buying the pills and any extras.”

“How much? How much do you have in total?”

“Around 280,000 points.”

“And you really plan on allowing them to eat recovery pills like water? And what about open wounds? Did you even think about that, or the accidental injuries that are bound to happen? Someone breaking their neck on those horizontal bars when trying something stupid, or any serious brain injuries? To really pull this off while being prepared for everything, I calculate that you’ll need at least another 100,000 points, if not double that.”

“Then I’ll earn the money.”

“Just like that?”

He straightened himself to make sure she knew he was dead serious. “Do you need it today, or do you mind waiting until after the training camp is over?”

She snorted. “You’re asking for a line of credit?”

“I promised you bodies, Goo. On the same day the training camp is over, I’ll bring you the corpse of southern region boss.”

“There’s more than—”

“The hidden one. The Naga Desert Queen. The other one I want to leave for the others. It will be a good trial for them.”

Suddenly she just looked at him. “I’ll hold you to it.”

“Good.”

He was reading to leave, when she added. “Until then, I’ll give you 1,000,000 points on credit. It will double once you reach the second floor and double against on every floor after that.”

His stomach knotted as he remembered the last time he’d seen her. She wasn’t just his favorite merchant, but she’d nursed him and half a dozen people present back to health from death’s doorstep. She’d helped his sister who was a healer. The last battle wasn’t the first time he’d lost a leg. He had far worse than that. There comes a point when you’ve received so much trauma that even healing magic can’t do more than knit the body back together. That doesn’t guarantee survival.

He’d lost both legs, been slit open from shoulder to groin, and his digestive system had been missing entirely. At least half of his liver had remained. After his body had healed only a sliver of life was left in him.

“Thank you, Goo.” He found he hardly had the strength to speak.

“How did we know each other?”

At that he smiled, thinking for a minute before calling out to Kyle. A few moments later, he joined them.

“Kyle,” he addressed his friend first. “This is Googee. In my first life, we knew her. She didn’t like it at first, but we started calling her Momma Goo, and eventually it stuck. Although, you just called her Ma. Once you seriously got into smithing, you worked closely together.”

He turned back to the alien woman. “Kyle here becomes one of Earth’s best weapons crafters. So much so that you said more than once that he reminds you of someone.”

He didn’t have to say who. Immediately there was a sheen of wetness in her eyes.

“You’ll meet my parents and sister soon,” Nathan offered. “Kyle’s as well. How did we know each other?” He smiled wide. “Goo, we’re family.”

All that she could manage was a nod. After a moment, her eyes focused on some invisible screen before her and clicked it.

Spinning, Nathan saw several attendants porting in. Looking back to Goo, he saw a small smile pull at her mouth. “Cultivate well. I’ll handle the logistics.”

“You’re not used to this yet, but—” She stiffened as he embraced her. “I promise you’ll grow to love them.”

“Go already.”

Her race had a unique glow when they blushed.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, then grabbed Kyle’s arm as he went. His friend just waved to her as they left.