章 6: Ch. 6 Progress

The past six weeks have been a mixture of satisfying and monotonous. Enjoying the day off in my room, I think back on all that's happened.

The following week after my initial visit to the Fighter Association, I made a trip to the Demon Spiritualist Association. While it was obvious the Demon Spiritualist Association possessed far more assets than the Fighter Association, they were dramatically more arrogant.

The receptionist that attended me did little to hide their disdain at my appearance. I'm also convinced I was overcharged to use their library. The 2,000 demon spirit coin fee to use their library was still money well spent. The Demon Spiritualist Library is over five times the size of the library at the Fighter Association. Worth every penny.

I had to assign a difficulty for the Library of Heaven's Path to generate the desired books. I labeled difficulty levels at Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Expert, Master, and Grand Master.

Two weeks after posting the book mission with the Fighter Association, I finished absorbing all the books in the Holy Orchid Institute Library. As I expected, I was able to form Heaven's Path of Adept Inscriptions. Unexpectedly, I upgraded my previous two creations. I was now in possession of Heaven's Path of Apprentice Alchemy and Heaven's Path of Apprentice Body Cultivation.

It apparently took less than three weeks before my deposit emptied, and there are several inquires for a possible mission repeat. While I would love to collect every bit of knowledge possible, I just don't have the funds available.

The mission I posted at the Fighter Association resulted in decent results. While no individual book stood out, the cumulative was very beneficial. My questionnaire was a huge success. With the cumulative libraries I've absorbed, I was able to create Heaven's Path of Adept Footwork and Heaven's Path of Apprentice Unarmed Combat.

The last two weeks, I was able to practice the footwork and unarmed combat forms in my dorm room. While it's hard to say how it will perform in a spar or actual fight, the forms feel very smooth and powerful.

Teacher Xia's classes now include meridians and meridian pathways. Included in this is recommended practical application homework on soul force control. There is no demand to practice since not all the students are believed to be capable of becoming Demon Spiritualists. Teacher Xia provided nearly a dozen soul force control manuals for us to study, all of which were unavailable at the Alchemy Association.

It was a pleasant surprise to discover that several more flaws with the soul force control technique I sold to the Alchemy Association were eliminated. This leaves me with a soul force control technique with only five flaws. Regardless of the remaining flaws, I've been practicing the soul force control technique every chance I get.

At first it was hard to just direct my soul force around the exterior of my body. My intent is to combine my unarmed combat style with my own creation of the Gentle Fist. After two weeks of practice, I am still not able to get the timing perfect. The goal is to be able to inject my soul force into my opponents meridian with just the quickest of touches. I should be able to perfect my own Gentle Fist in a couple months.

Lately, I've had to make another trip to a tailor shop for larger clothes to hide my developing body. The past month has really shown the effectiveness of my body cultivation technique. Not only did I grow six centimeters, my developing muscles are taking on the appearance of a male Olympic gymnast. Which is way more preferred than that stupid swimmers look. I would much rather look like I've spent time in the gym versus being able to share clothes with my girlfriend.

While I've been unable to test my exact strength due to fear of being discovered, I'm confident in saying my strength is in the Silver rank area. Using the Library of Heaven's Path, I was able to improve my medical bath. There are still flaws in it, but the improvements are still noteworthy. My skin as taken on a much more health look and seems to be much more durable than a normal Bronze rank Fighter.

Unfortunately, I seem to have hit a bottleneck due to a lack of being able to use weights of any sort in my dormitory room. This has led to my drive to master inscriptions at the start of last week.

I know that gravity altering inscriptions exist based on canon, but the few absorbed from untranslated works are extremely dependent on resources. I've read and studied Heaven's Path of Adept Inscriptions extensively to be able to develop the gravity altering inscription I needed.

The Library of Heaven's Path has really shown itself to be an invaluable teaching aid when creating original pieces. It directly exposes all the flaws and gives the corrected version if I've already absorbed the answer into the Library of Heaven's Path. Additionally, each new inscription that I've created has been absorbed into the Library to help deliver answers to future experiments. The more I create, the faster I'm able to perfect my next design.

It's taken nearly a week of continuous effort, but I'm finally ready to create a set of gravity increasing weights to push my strength. Just the thought of eventually being able to pick up 1,000 pounds is thrilling. Back on Earth, that would rank me near the top in a world's strongest man competition. Not bad for five weeks of body cultivation without weights or pills.

That is a difference between Fighter ranks and Demon Spiritualist ranks. While a Demon Spiritualist needs 100 soul force to be considered 1-Star Bronze and 500 soul force for 5-Star Bronze, they need 1,000 soul force to reach 1-Star Silver rank. A fighter needs to be able to lift 100 kilos to be considered 1-Star Bronze and 500 kilos for 5-Star Bronze, but they only need to be capable of lifting 600 kilos to be considered 1-Star Silver.

Another difference is that each time a Demon Spiritualist achieves a new rank, their soul force will flare outward uncontrollably. There is no indication a Fighter has achieved a new rank other than being able to pick up the indicated rank, or become capable of flight at Legend rank. I'm still not sure how Legend rank fighters can pull that off, but I plan to walk the path of a Demon Spiritualist regardless.

Speaking of Demon Spiritualist, I was able to purchase an unused primary soul crystal my last free day. My curiosity got the better of me and I had to test it out. It turns out that I don't have a soul form, which is supposedly rather common. My soul attribute is Snow-Wind, which is also rather common. The interesting thing is my soul force is at 92, and I've not spent a single minute cultivating my soul force. It's raised 34 points since I was tested at the orphanage.

It's possible the body cultivation has fully cleared any obstructions I could have had in my system. Also, the soul force control exercise is allowing my Green Soul Realm to draw in more ambient energy. That's just a hypothesis.

Regardless, what's most important is getting as many cultivation techniques from Nie Li as I can before I punch him right in the dick. That day is just a few hours away. Tomorrow is the start of the canon story.

I've come up with a plan to safely help Ning'er without her developing feelings for me. My infiltration into Nie Li's future group, by befriending Wei Nan and Zhang Ming during dinner, was a welcome surprise. Our relationship isn't very deep, but it should greatly aid in easing into their group.

I've not returned to the Alchemy Association since my first visit, and honestly, I'm dreading it. I've read Heaven's Path of Apprentice Alchemy multiple times. With its help, I have been able to concoct an elixir for my raging hormones. It took some deep thinking before I realized that the cause of my fluctuating emotions boiled down to puberty. I used my new knowledge of alchemy and herbs to create an elixir that will mellow my emotions. I'm afraid to stay doped up, so I only plan to take it when I need a clear head.

While I'll learned so much about alchemy, my true love is inscriptions. I find inscriptions so versatile and interesting. Plus, inscriptions are the key to understanding powers of law, creating godly weapons and armor, and setting up formidable defenses. I admit I will need a large number of pills to reach Legend rank, but I don't get excited about the thought of forging my own pills. Then again, I've never forged any pills yet, so my opinion may change.

Throughout all the weeks, my friendship with Wei Nan and Zhang Ming has continued to grow. We meet every dinner to talk, gossip, and complain. Their constant comments about the girls in Holy Orchid Institute is what clued me in my unstable emotions. Stupid puberty. Puberty aside, I have very little doubt they will be able to get me in Nie Li's group. I can't wait to get my hands on all those cultivation techniques.

Putting all that aside, I finally get out of bed. I need to run to the market in-order-to pick up supplies for making my weights. As I move to exit my room, I can't help but smile. It all begins tomorrow.

Returning to my dormitory room, I compile an inventory of the supplies needed for the weight set. I purchased a steel cuirass with matching greaves and bracers to form the base for the inscriptions. Finding an inscription set wasn't easy, but was accomplished after talking with an extremely helpful blacksmith. Acquiring a pint of Gold rank demon beast blood was the most time-consuming part of my shopping trip.

Starting with the bracers, I slowly imbue my gravity runes, taking care to strictly follow the design. Half an hour later, the rune on the first bracer is complete. I'm incredibly thrilled! I just crafted an enchanted piece of armor using my own inscription design!

After basking in my success, it's time to get to work on completing the other bracer. With increased confidence, I'm able to finish the second bracer in twenty minutes. My excitement on completing a set of enchanted armor is short-lived as a feeling of exhaustion washes over me.

Taking a moment to study my soul force, I'm not really surprised to see my soul force nearly depleted. Time to try meditation.

Taking a look at the journal created from the first day of transmigration, I review the part on the anatta mental state. The ability to enter the state of "non-self".

Sitting down in the lotus position, I calm my breathing and take a moment to clear my thoughts. To achieve the anatta mental state, I start with realizing one does not think with their heart or head. You merely think. You are not an individual. You do not stand-out. You are another leaf on the tree. A piece of nature.

As self-deprecating as it may seem, I suddenly find myself in a tranquil state. The comprehension of "non-self" is not the only part of the anatta state. It's just the first step to acknowledging you are a part of the oneness of the universe.

Tension seeps out of my body, like a pressure that I didn't even know was there. It was liberating and uplifting. For the first time since my transmigration, I'm at peace.

After basting in the tranquility for a few moments, I refocus on the task at hand. Finishing my gravity runes. Working on the greaves next results in the same outcome as the bracers. Both greaves were finished in forty minutes and I'm hit with another wave of exhaustion.

Eagerly entering the anatta state a second time, is another revisit to that comforting tranquility. The more I envision my heart, soul, and mind merging into one whole, only increases the overwhelming feeling. The fact that it's needed to establish a strong fate soul is just icing on the cake.

Embracing the tranquil feeling for a bit longer, I suddenly experience a sense of fullness. Like consuming life to the brink of exploding. Despite the ever-building pressure, I focus on maintaining the anatta state of mind. It allows me to accept and embrace the fact that some things absolutely can not be controlled.

As if to prove my point of uncontrollable occurrences, there is a resounding explosion within me and my soul force suddenly surges wildly! Attempting to rein my soul force back in and maintain the anatta state of mind is becoming more difficult by the second. The pain is threatening to force me out of a state of tranquility, but acceptance of the situation is reinforcing the anatta state.

After several intense minutes, I suddenly regain absolute control of my soul force and the pain of fighting my own soul force vanishes like nothing but a memory. Grabbing my primary soul crystal and injecting my soul force, I'm not surprised to see when it shows my soul force of 122.

I've achieved 1-Star Bronze rank and never cultivated soul force or consumed a single pill. Doing the math, I'm dumbfounded. I've increased my soul force more in the past hour without aid than Nie Li did when he started cultivating the Heavenly God technique with soul pills.

This is monstrous! When I finally begin to INTENTIONALLY cultivate my soul force, the anatta state of mind will be a tremendous boon!

My attention quickly picks up the sound of running feet in the hallway. Silently approaching the door to listen, it doesn't take long to overhear the excited voices of my fellow students. Piecing together the gossip, they're under the impression an unknown genius just broke through into Bronze rank.

Guess I'll have to look into laying down in array in my room to prevent another disturbance from escaping.

It's nearly an hour before the hallway returns to its peaceful state. Fortunately, for me, my fellow classmates retained their manners and didn't start combing the dormitory. That saves me from either pretending to not know who broke through or not answering the door and pretending that I'm not in.

Deciding to lay low, for now, I postpone enchanting the cuirass for now and try out the greaves and bracers. It doesn't take long to strap the armor pieces on. With a bit of curiosity, I activate the weight set.

An unexpected groan escapes me as I'm forced to resist the gravitational pull attempting to drive me into the floor. Taking a moment to adjust to the increased weight, I'm able to adapt rather quickly. Each piece adds an additional 20 kilos to my body. Taking a deep breath, I begin a round of body cultivation while cycling soul force through-out my entire body.

At the thirty-minute mark, my body gives out and I collapse to the ground. That was a world of difference with the weight set. Even with continuous aid from soul force, my muscles are still twitching. Committing myself to another round once I've enjoyed an ample break, I concentrate on my breathing as I embrace the suck.