Body Cultivation Hurts - Chapter 8

He didn’t remember firearms being worth so much, but he got 4,900 points for the 49 of them. With the other odds and ends, he ended up with 5,600. He’d returned to an old favorite shop of his called Googees. It was named after the alien elf-looking lady that owned it, and her name certainly wasn’t spelled like that. She hadn’t bothered to write it as it really was on the sign, so eventually people just went with it.

The merchant shops were more like multistoried department stores, and there were thousands of them. The Staging Facility was laid out in a circular fashion with different layers containing various necessities for the billions of people that would live there.

Of course, each person had their own personal space, which was literally a small dimensional space that a person could customize. Nathan’s had just been in the shape of a gym, because its where he felt the most at home. So the Staging Facility didn’t even have housing and yet it would take a day to go from one side to the other on foot. And that was at a superhuman jog. At the center were the judicial buildings, town center, etc. Human’s would be allowed to govern themselves, eventually, but only after the majority had unlocked communication with the outside world and they’d progressed through the first floor enough to reach a portal that would take them back to earth. There were many such portal, but none of them were close.

The shopping layer was near the middle of the city and often the busiest distract no mater which gate you entered from. Nathan had actually ported to the northern one with his loot, which was considered the Asian part of the city. The US belonged to the southern cluster of entry ports. The Monarch had organized the ports from the Personal Quarters to send people to different parts of the city so that would be minimal clash of cultures during individual’s first foray into the city. You could always just ask to port to different entry points, which he had done.

Googee was attractive, but all of her people were. They’d belonged to a world that had its own initiation a few centuries ago. Ultimately, their resistance had failed. He had no romantic intentions despite the attraction. She was at least 200 to 300 years old. His reason for coming to her was because she really desired to help Earth, and not just profit or find a new place to call home.

He considered his needs while he was there. He’d picked up multiple transmission jades from the bodies of the thieves. They were like early generation cell phones in that they could only store contact info and make calls. These cheap ones also could only contact someone within the tower. They’d have to defeat the first floor before jades that could reach the outer world would become available. There was the Contact System for any communication outside of the tower before that. It required a system terminal though.

The only other feature the transmission jades had was that they connected with the system and could give you an update on your Status at any time. Without one, you’d have to go to a System Terminal to check.

“Clothing?” A sweet but blunt voice asked. Googee was looking at him with her borderline-feline, purple eyes.

“You’re right. My temperature resistance is still pretty low.”

The alien woman’s pupils vibrated in response, which he knew was synonymous with the rolling of eyes. She was wagging her finger up and down to point out his bruises.

He was black and blue, green and off yellowish all over. She was not exaggerating. He did a quick scan of the store that was packed with people and found many pairs of eyes observing him. There were whispers, some under-breath laughter, and general looks of concern.

Turning back to Googee, he waved his hand as if to brush it away. “Shoes first. Minimalist and flat soled with high ankle support. High durability and fire resistant.”

She blinked at him, caught off guard. It wouldn’t be the last time.

The main purpose of these shoes was to protect his feet from sharp and pointy objects. The extra ankle support was for the boot’s sake, not his own. By the end of the body realm, he likely wouldn’t shoes any longer, but for now, it just made sense.

Instead of relying on her displayed inventory, Googee removed a pair from her spatial ring. It would be some time before he could afford such a ring. It would make moving the loot much easier. As for the boots, they reminded him of wrestling shoes, which he liked. As for the flesh color, that he didn’t. “Do you have some that are black?”

She squinted but switched out the pair for ones that were his requested color. “50 Points.”

“25.”

“40.”

“Deal,” he gave her a big grin. “I guess I’ll be going.”

Snaking her head forward in objection, he burst out laughing.

“You think I need a hat?”

“You think you’re funnier than you actually are, Earthling.”

“You’ll get used to it. Such are the simple pleasures.”

Her expressions were always more minute, almost on the micro level, in comparison to humans. When she tilted her head, he knew he had her thinking. When she squinted in approval. She’d always appreciated complexity.  She was the bighearted type.

In the end, she sent an entire wardrobe to his chambers. As for what he wore walking out of the building in, there was a simple pair of black shorts that would be considered too short where he was from. They were much like soccer shorts in length. He liked them for when he needed to kick someone, or something, in the head. Of course, he had boxer briefs under them to keep everything in place. From there, he wore a fitted, long sleeve shirt that was navy blue. His mother had always said the color brought out his eyes, so he liked it simply because of its connection with her. There were no buttons or seams, and its material was breathable like polyester, but also less flammable. Besides toughness, an article of clothing’s best feature was undoubtedly fire resistance.

Normally, he went sleeveless. He generally liked his sleeves all the way down to the cuff or non-existent. Considering his bruises, long sleeves earned him far less stares.

In all, it had cost him 2,000 points, give or take. He was satisfied and had gotten to haggle with Googee again.

As for things like armor or weapons. he’d decided to go bare fisted even if it might take him a while to condition his limbs. It was a good idea to do so now even if he’d decided to use a weapon in the future. Armor was also something he’d limit unless he had no other choice. Despite the full body bruising, it would actually help his body’s toughness improve. Nothing like benefiting from every beating. Why had he chosen body cultivation again?

With that out of the way, it was time he returned to his Personal Chamber to take a look at this Rank S, Energy Gathering technique that the system had rewarded him. He could just follow the process he’d gone through in his first life, but he wasn’t arrogant enough to think he’d done everything perfectly. He’d been killed, after all.

***

The first thing he did after returning to his Person Chambers was take another shower. Wrestling around with a bunch of sweaty bodies might have been good for boosting the immune system, but that didn’t make it comfortable.

After that, he pulled out some hard-boiled eggs from the fridge, and popped them into his mouth. There was a bowl of pasta in the fridge with minimal seasoning, which he made a full plate of before rebuking himself for not investing in dressings and sauces. It would be a must for his next trip to the store, and he could have the merchants send stuff here in bulk.

Any good heavenly or natural treasure to advance his cultivation was far more expensive than his measly funds could afford. That could wait. He had a few specific treasures in mind that he’d go hunting for after his recovery.

His wall of text was blinking at him, so he checked it.

~

New Achievements

You have killed a group of brigands.

You offered mercy and advice to a second group.

Congratulations!

Total Points Awarded: 10,000

~

He couldn’t say he expected the system to count his little stroll as an achievement, but he would take all that he could get.

“Pull up my Personalized Energy Gathering Method,” he said.

~

Energy Gathering

Bloodline Technique of Nathanial Kane.

Body Cultivation

Path of the Indestructible Body

Divine Monarch Father Wei personally designed this method with your genetics in mind. The path of a body cultivator is not an easy one. There will be no bottlenecks with this methodology, however, it requires tenacity and an unbreakable will to complete it. Danger and death await your every mistake.

The philosophy of the Indestructible Body is…

Anything that doesn’t kill you makes me stronger.

And…

Anything that can kill you is a training opportunity.

Advancement summary.

Body Realm

Summary

Temper the body. Through strenuous physical activity, break down the body and use your breathing technique to recover.

Small Realms

There are ten small realms within a large one.

The first three are considered the consolidation stages. With each advancement, your body will become stronger and better able to manipulate qi.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth small realms are considered small success. Breaking into the fourth small realm will boost your strength and qi manipulation much more than the first three stages combined. Fifth and sixth stages provide minimal, but obvious increases in strength.

The seventh, eight, and ninth small realms are considered large success. Breaking into the seventh provides you with a much larger increase in strength just as with the fourth. It then follows the same pattern as small success.

The tenth realm is unique to the others. It is also known as reaching the peak of your realm. Some consider this to still be the ninth stage, but there is a small strength boost compared to when first reaching the stage. From here, you are a single step from reaching the next major realm.

Small Realm Breakdown

Consolidation Stage

Make use of temperature to temper the body. Cold and hot temperatures have benefits to the body outside of cultivation. You must take this to the next level. Rotate between subjecting your body to hot and cold.

To benefit from cold, your body must undergo a chill response. Shivering, piercing, gasping for breath, and slowed muscle contractions are often telling signs.

To benefit from the heat, your body must undergo a heat response. Sweating, labored breathing, and increased pulse.

Requirements: While subjecting yourself, you must practice your breathing technique. Best practices include finding environments with the desired temperature that’s also rich in the corresponding qi type. Fire for heat. Ice for cold. In case the preferred environment isn’t available, any Yang heavy qi can be substituted for fire. Mainly lightning. Yin heavy qi is used as a substitute for cold. Mainly water.

Recommendation: Your body will benefit the most if you begin with cold tempering. As you grow used to one extreme, increasing the difficulty can be of greater benefit.

Warning: Starting in too extreme an environment can be hazardous to your health.

~

Nathan scanned through it, picking up the details he needed to get started. Most cultivation started out the same, since everyone had to start at the Body Realm. Seeing that his method had him starting with hot and cold tempering was a bit surprising, but not unheard of.

He scanned the next few stages to get his bearings.

~

Small Success

Make use of physical exercises to take your body to the limit. After exerting yourself to the limit, administer weak poison to further assault the body before recovering.

…

Larger Success

Toughness tempering takes the physical exercise of the small success stage to the next level. Damage your body’s tissues and bone before recovering. Repeat this step until the bones are like forged metal, and ligaments and muscle are like cords of steel.

~

Small success was mostly what he’d expected, except usually the administering poisons and physical exercise were two different stages. In this case, they’d been consolidated into one to make it even more arduous. As for toughness tempering, it was really just self-torture. He could probably do a minimal amount of damage and make it through the Body Realm, however, the extent to which the method went was rather suggestive.

“Does my talent allow me to temper my body further than normal?”

~ In short, yes.

Your body doesn’t reject qi as the human body normally does. The Body Realm’s purpose is to strengthen the body, but also so that it grows accustomed to qi. Instead of rejecting qi outright, your physique reality accepts it, and even prefers an environment rich in it. It is still unable to absorb it outright, but its symbiotic relationship with qi allows it to make better use of it under extreme circumstances. ~

In other words, “When I’m battered and broken.”

~ Precisely. ~

He should’ve known choosing toughness would lead to something psychotic like this. Body cultivation was already a path laden with pain. “Yay.”

He might as well get started. Bringing up Energy Gathering, he found that his method’s Body Realm technique lined up with what he expected. Breath in qi rich air through the nose, hold it, then let it out through the mouth quickly. It was simple, focusing on keeping fresh qi constantly flowing into the lungs. It didn’t surprise him. With each major realm advancement, the technique would get much more complicated because he’d be able to control the qi that belonged to his body.

For now, at best, his body was all buddy-buddy with qi, but he didn’t actually store any internally and neither would he until the blood realm.

He took a seat on the mats in the middle of his room. From there, he began to utilize his breathing technique. It wasn’t complex. It was even common sense if you understood the basics of how the body interacted with qi. Before the Monarch had reconfigured his body to increase his talent and enhance it a bit, it would’ve even been possible to cultivate without it. Here, at least. Back on Earth the right environment for qi still had to develop. His sister and parents were watching the beginning stages of that firsthand.

He wasn’t in a hurry to contact them. He’d given them all the information they needed to get far more out of their version of the initiation than most anyone else. They needed to focus on absorbing it. And he needed to get strong quickly. There were things he needed to do, and places he needed to be. He had no intention of stripping the first floor of every lucky chance he could remember from his past life, but there were a few key ones he’d make his own.

Energy Gathering, even at more advanced stages, could be rather boring. It was common for youngsters to fall asleep during the process. It took disciple. Discipline Nathan had developed long ago. His rebirth hadn’t exactly gifted his body with the muscle memory he developed over a decade in the tower, but he retained more than just concepts. He remembered the feeling and simple things like breathing while fighting. As he cultivated, he fell into pace with minimal focus.

He spent his time with this split focus weighing his priorities of what he should do next. Few people would’ve explored too deep into any of the hunting grounds, but there were a couple he knew would be already out there. After his recovery, there was somewhere he had to go. It’s where he would’ve gone first if he hadn’t had the thugs to take care of.

Thinking of the vampire leader, and the few of the guy’s crew that got away, he scolded himself. He should’ve purchased a high-powered rifle and hunted them down like he did the first time. That would’ve taken days, however.

What he’d done was foolish. Strolling in and beating them barehanded before he was even able to execute martial techniques to guarantee kills. Others might pay the price for him letting some of them go. But he’d needed to let loose. He’d seen his father die in the battle where he’d also died. Being roasted alive was not a good way to go.

As for Juan, he felt more hopeful than he thought he should. The guy he let go was obviously a murderer even if he was loyal to his own people. But in a real sense, the world needed violent people right now. If he would’ve been able to catch them all, he never would’ve let them go. Still, he hoped in the guy’s potential. He had both Werewolf and Regeneration, which meant he’d had to start with more points than Nathan’s base amount or he was highly compatible with his path and got it cheaper. Either way, it spoke to the man’s potential. After facing the demon invasion once already, Nathan believed humanity needed all the potential strength it could get.

It took approximately three hours for him to recover completely. Every single bruise, even the deeper ones, wouldn’t have taken so long, but the accumulation of so many had made it take longer. This also gave him a good idea of what his body was capable of. Ultimately, it was exceptional.

He still had some points left, so he called out to Mr. Text Screen. “I’d like to purchase a bottle of lesser recovery pills.”

It was one of the few products that the system sold cheaper than the merchants. At this stage, anything better would be a waste on him anyway. Getting up, he walked over to his reception hall. It was really just a large walk-in closet where anything you purchased would be stacked there after it was delivered. If you had visitors, it was also where they’d port in, so it could be decorated to look like more—more than a closet.

1,000 points poorer, he strapped on his new chest pack and checked it. It was much like a backpack with nice, padded straps that went over his shoulders, but also strapped across his chest and went even further. There was a pack in the back and a smaller one in the front that covered the chest. If it was empty, it felt like it wasn’t even there. What the front and back packs allowed was the balancing of weight. If you had equal weight in front and back, then he’d feel it even less. You could also put armored plates in front and back to make it defensive gear, but if he was going to do that then he would’ve just bought armor. This would allow him to travel comfortably, gather stuff as he went, and fight with little restriction. If he found himself in a tight situation where he had to ditch the pack, there were also quick release straps on either side.

All that he had on him was some water bottles, snacks, the dagger he’d kept, and now, a bottle of pills that looked like a mix between colored glass and plastic. It was actually a type of ceramic developed to help pills stay fresh.

He changed shirts to a sleeveless one now that he had recovered, threw in an extra outfit, and was off. “Port me to the northern gate.”

His destination wasn’t Googee’s shop this time, but the mountainous region of the first floor.