Completing the Enhancement

After the night's practice, Qing Shan did not feel like continuing. Externally, all Qing Shan wanted to be able to do was stun others, and he already had enough control for that effect, He supposed that he should start practicing his Thunder Dragon martial technique, or maybe Elemental Enhancement. Qing Shan was quite interested in both, as they were things that he was unable to learn until he reached the Origin Soul Realm. Seeing how he had recently achieved this requirement, he did not see any real reason to put off either thing. If he really wanted, he could learn that Fire Fist or whatever technique he had found a while back.

Qing Shan took a short break in the Spring of Time before planting himself on the ground and starting to think. Since it seemed to be the most practical, Qing Shan decided that he would try to learn the Elemental Enhancement technique first. Unlike with the two Martial Techniques, Qing Shan only had Liu Tiansheng's words to go on with regards to Elemental Enhancement.

"Elemental Enhancement is when a cultivator infuses their attribute into the very fiber of their being, and take on aspects of that element. Of course, that is only at truly high levels. At lower levels, infusing an element into muscles is enough to change how the muscles work."

Thinking back on Liu Tiansheng's words, Qing Shan was a bit confused. He already had Lightning Qi flowing throughout his body, and he didn't feel very 'electrified'…

'Wait. Master said "infusing and element into muscles", have I done that?'

Qing Shan realized that he had not even tried to put his Lightning Qi inside of his muscles. The thought just had never occurred to him. Logically, he could not see why doing so would have a huge effect on his body. In fact, the only outcome that Qing Shan could anticipate would be his muscles being fried, or becoming even more used to heat.

*Sigh*

I'll try it.

Qing Shan decided to start with his calves. This was for no other reason than that they were the first muscles that came to mind.

Qing Shan closed his eyes, and turned his sight inward on his body. He could see the very makeup of his body, every fiber of his being. Qing Shan moved his attention downward, passing all of the muscles an organs in his upper body, before finally seeing one of his calves. Just like all of the muscles he had seen, it was made of different segments. Qing Shan could not see inside the muscle, but there was a sort of tipple effect on the outside of the muscle. Could those be cracks?

'no, no, no. I cannot do this based on guesses!'

Using some of the Qi that was in the nerves of Qing Shan's leg, he started moving it around. Liu Tiansheng had said the word 'infuse', so he definitely was not supposed to put the Qi inside of the muscle or surrounding it. This was quite different from Qing Shan's nerves, as he had basically turned them into tubes of Qi. Despite his efforts, Qing Shan had not actually infused Qi with a part of his body.

"Wait."

'that is not true. Qi is now a real part of my skin, is it not.'

"If that's how it is…"

Qing Shan tried to remember just how his had infused the Qi with his skin. As he had been in the midst of a breakthrough, the memory was kind of hazy. Because he could not remember how it was done, Qing Shan decided to just try a new method. If all went well, it would work just fine.

Before he started, Qing Shan gathered more Qi and brought in to the nerves in his leg. He did not want to run out during this.

Qing Shan sat down for a few minutes real time, thinking through every single movement he would make. Once he was prepared, Qing Shan dove in without any hesitation.

Qing Shan gathered the Qi, and manipulated the tip into a rather sharp point. Just because the Qi was in his body did not mean it couldn't be painful. After sucking in another deep breath, Qing Shan pierced the thread of Qi through his calf, muffling a scream of pain. It hurt, damn did it hurt. However, Qing Shan tried to ignore the pain, and kept piercing back through the center of his calf, wrapping the thread of Qi around each part of his muscle. Once he was done, the Qi would have looked like a rigid doughnut if he were to take out the calf.

Despite the pain, Qing Shan instantly noticed the difference. Although he had been skeptical, he realized that there had in fact been an amazing change in his calf. The muscle as a whole had become sleeker, and much, much, more compact. It was easily three times stronger than the former muscle despite its smaller size.

'So this is what he meant. Once I finish doing this to my body, I will closer to being as fast and powerful as Lightning!'

Qing Shan imagined that he change for other elements was probably quite a bit different. The wind attribute probably increased the speed of a person, while the earth attribute increased their defenses. Likewise, the water attribute most likely increased flexibility, while the fire attribute probably increased power. Qing Shan was lucky enough to have the two bonuses that he felt were most valuable with just his one attribute. Also, his lightning attribute probably had a stronger effect than either of the pure attributes.

Unfortunately, the pain was far from over in terms of Qing Shan's muscles. Since he had now fortified one of his calves, which was one part of the thirteen muscle groups in the human body, he still had a long way to go. He needed to finish up with his other calf, and also fortify the twelve other muscle groups. Even though Qing Shan could tell with just a passing glance that there were way more than thirteen parts of him that he used daily, his control over Qi was not great enough that he would be able to fortify every single muscle, no matter the size. That is why Qing Shan would focus on the major muscle groups in the body.

Luckily for Qing Shan, it did not really take that long to apply the elemental enhancement to any part of his body. Be that as it may, he would not put himself under extreme pain for a long period of time without breaks. There was just no reason for that.

There are four major muscle groups in the legs, and Qing Shan planned to complete fortification of all of them this day.

Now that he had planned out what he would do today, Qing Shan got started. Clenching his teeth through terrible pain, Qing Shan fortified his quads and calves before going to the Smith's Respite. As the fortification of those two muscle groups did not take up his entire morning, Qing Shan spent most of that time getting used to the new power and speed provided by those muscles. Seeing this, Qing Shan still could not imagine just how large of a change there would be in him once he was done. With just this bit of fortification done, Qing Shan's body already felt lighter!

After working his shift at the Smith's Respite, Qing Shan skipped dinner by resting in the Spring of Time. There was no use spending money on food when he could just rest. At this point, eating and sleeping were only things Qing Shan allowed himself to do as some kind of reward. He was always in top condition due to the Spring of Time, so there was no reason for him to indulge himself daily.

Once he was prepared, Qing Shan then strengthened his glutes and hamstrings. He was lucky that Liu Tiansheng had told him about the major parts of the human body. Qing Shan's Master had given the excuse that Qing Shan should know the names of the segments of his body so that he knows what motions effect what part of his body, and can effectively report on his happenings, but Qing Shan felt that the man just liked to brag about his knowledge. Honestly, Qing Shan felt like most of those muscle names were made up anyways. They didn't sound like anything amazing, yet the names were really confusing.

After the pain of the Elemental enhancement passed, Qing Shan found himself in awe about how easy it was for him to move around now. With his whole lower body fortified, he could feel how much faster he was moving, and the power that each step carried.

Qing Shan experimented with these new feelings throughout the night. While getting noticeably stronger so quickly was amazing, it would only be a hinderance if Qing Shan didn't know the limits of his capabilities. He needed to be able to control his own strength.

While Qing Shan's planned battle with Qian Yong was only two days away, and Qing Shan still had more than half of his body to strengthen. However, Qing Shan could not afford to rush the Elemental Enhancement. This enhancement was an evolution of his body that would be very difficult to undo, so he had to make sure that it was done right the first time.

After spending the night getting acclimated to his new lower body, Qing Shan took a short rest before deciding to start on the muscle group in his back. There were five main muscles in this group, the lats, rhomboid, traps, teres, and erector spinae.

Qing Shan decided to do all five of these throughout the night and morning, before his shift at the Smith's Respite. While this would not give him enough time to focus on getting acclimated to the enhanced muscles before work, he would have more than enough time during his twelve-to-eight shift.

First, Qing Shan started with the muscle that was below another, the teres, which lay below the lats. Not stopping after puncturing that with his Qi and wrapping it up, Qing Shan continued onto his lats. Qing Shan then enhanced his rhomboid, which lies beneath the traps. Again, not giving himself time to rest, Qing Shan fortified his lats, and then his traps. After this was done, Qing Shan finished up by fortifying his erector spinae.

After he had finished, Qing Shan collapsed to the ground, his whole body still being haunted by the phantom pain of his enhancement. Qing Shan rested in the Spring of Time, before checking over his work. Although everything was pretty much set in stone, and Qing Shan had already double and triple checked his job, he wanted to make sure that nothing had gone awry.

Luckily, Qing Shan could not find any problems with his craftmanship. The only problem was the pain that Qing Shan felt when he saw how his muscles were being pierced by the Qi. However, this was not a problem that would last. Qing Shan had already noticed that the Qi strands around his calves had already disappeared in to the muscles. It seemed as though the muscle absorbing the Qi was what caused it to transform in shape and function so drastically. Thus, his legs, back, and whatever muscles he decides to fortify after his shift would be fully transformed by his battle with Qian Yong.

Qing Shan went to work his shift after spending some time getting acclimated to the new sensation that was already spreading across his body. Despite his fears, it had barely taken two hours for Qing Shan to fortify all five parts of his back.

Qing Shan worked at the forge to best of his ability, and then returned to his room, where he re-entered the Primal Pocket Dimension. Due to Qing Shan's focus on the fortification of his body, the day had gone by fairly quickly.

Once Qing Shan had seated himself on the central island on his pocket dimension, he began strengthening the front of his torso, which included his abbs and pectorals. It took Qing Shan about fifty minutes to fortify those, and he spent two hours getting accustomed to the change.

Qing Shan then began with the last muscles major muscles in his body, the deltoids, triceps, and biceps. Strengthening all of these took Qing Shan another hour and a half. Once he was done strengthening his thirteen major muscles and his quadriceps, Qing Shan now had nothing to do but get used to the new feeling of lightness that he felt. He also had to get used to the power that he could send out without conscious thought. Qing Shan had not thought that that would be a problem, until he noticed that he was making ten centimeter holes with ever step he took. Even though his body felt much lighter, it still contained amazing power. That was not something that Qing Shan could forget.

Luckily, Qing Shan knew the best way to get used to a large change in his body. He just had to practice with the spear.