Xiao Su's training journal

Day 1:

I announced that I was closing up today. This didn't send any ripples in the clan though, as I frequently close up when I'm hiding an injury. The only one excited is grandpa. Though I didn't explicitly tell him I was training for the competition, closing up a day after our talk was enough for him to hope for that conclusion. He sent a letter saying to call him if I need anything, and more tea than I could feasibly drink in a year. Honestly it's taking up a lot of space and I don't want to fill my space ring with it since it has a limit, the doofus. Love you grandpa~. Though I started today, I didn't do anything but move into the training gym, I have to wait for Xiao Da to make more of those concentration pills as I'm not confident I can do the seal without it.

Day 2:

Today's sealing didn't go very well. I completed it, but I suffered a lot of backlash and will need to rest tomorrow. The effects of the common grade concentration pills are much worse than the first one I took, that one increased my focus several times over, this one is about a thirty percent increase, way worse. If I didn't have the experience from the first time and improved the sealing method, I probably would have failed. Total sealed qi, 2.

Day 3:

As expected my injuries aren't well enough to risk practicing with. That doesn't mean I did nothing for the day though. I was reminded once again by the difference in theoretical knowledge and practical experience when I tried making some of the tea grandpa sent me. Though I knew everything about it from his detailed lessons, the results were sub-par. It wasn't bad per say, but it was far short of his quality even though I'm sure I followed the directions correctly. I also made changes to the sealing technique and spent much of the day under the effects of concentration pills to become used to the sensation. I'm sure tomorrows results will be better than yesterdays.

Day 4:

The changes were effective and I finished the sealing without anything exciting happening. My injuries from two days ago weren't fully healed though and adding the new ones today I'm in a bit of a bad state but I should be able to seal again tomorrow. I've realized that my physical state is holding down my progress a lot, if it wasn't for the injuries I could perform the sealing multiple times a day. He Lan told me about the side effects of the concentration pills but I don't really feel it at all, and I've been taking them all day for the last two days, meaning if I could just reduce the physical repercussions It'd speed up the sealing by a lot, so I've recently been focusing my revisions in that area, hope to make progress soon. Total Qi sealed, 3

Day 5:...

Day 6:...

…

Day 9:

I finally sealed two in one day! Hahaha! It's only a matter of time before I seal all of them. It's all due to my efforts in reducing the physical burden the sealing has on my body. Looking back on day 5, it seems obvious that reducing the backlash was doomed to fail, after all, the backlash is caused by my usual qi disorder and has nothing to do with the sealing method. The sealing method is already my answer for reducing the backlash, if there was another, simpler way I would've already used it. As for the ridiculous thought of using a qi suppressant pill while I'm sealing, it was naturally vetoed after a little bit of thought as they suppress all qi, including the Forgotten Language qi I'm using to seal with, it's rather obvious when you consider it's originally designed to use on prisoners, I must have been exhausted when I theorized it. No, the right answer was to speed up the sealing process so that I could use the qi suppressant pill before the backlash was in full swing, reducing the damage to my body, then sealing again once the suppressant pill's effect finished. I have to thank Xiao Da for making suppressant pills that work faster, with the previous five to ten minutes wait time I wouldn't have succeeded so quickly. Thank you Xiao Da! You're the best cousin in the world! Though if you could charge a bit less you'd be even more amazing... Qi sealed equals 8, two higher than yesterday!

…

Day 14:

I worked out the optimum way to use my time in the day and managed to up my daily seal count to 4. I seal, usually takes an hour, sleep for two hours, do more theoretical work for two hours, relax for one and then repeat, do that for all twenty-four hours gets the best results. Grandpa's tea has also proven surprisingly useful. The calm energy doesn't help me heal faster but it gives my body more resilience and suppleness, reducing the damage I take from the backlash if I drink it before sealing. You're the best grandpa. I'm a bit worried that I'm overdosing on the concentration pills and spending more time under its effects than I do in my regular state of mind, but there doesn't seem to be any side effects and I'm tight on time and it does help, so even though I can seal without it now, I still need it if I want to go four rounds. I hope nothing happens before I finish sealing everything. Sealed 30.

…

Day 17:

PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN! ALL I KNOW IS PAIN, DAMN IT!!! Phew, feel a bit better now, still in agony EVERYWHERE, but I feel like I can think now. It's obvious from the lack of an entry for yesterday, but Yesterday did not go… well? I don't know if that's the right word for it as this is usually a good thing, let's say 'as expected', instead. Long story short, I broke through yesterday, after being stuck at the third rank for so many years, I, Xiao Su, have finally reached the fourth stage! A welcome event for sure, but the situation and timing was less than ideal. I didn't intend to break through, and I certainly didn't expect it; I'd sealed half of my quota for the day and was theorizing after my nap when it just sort of happened. I can only blame myself really, I should've expected it and made preparations. My stage has been bogged down by my chaotic tangled qi for ages, I guess after sealing 40 my dantian was stable enough for a breakthrough, issue is that it was the bare minimum stability. I look fine outwardly, but only because my internals got the broad end of the stick and are a mess.

Internal injuries are a pain to deal with and heal slower than regular injuries, especially for me who can't use qi to speed it up. Thankfully, after He Lan and I convinced him it was a good thing and a sign of progress, so he didn't need to tell anyone, Xiao Da got a much higher staged healing pill from his master for me. Three cheers for family in high places! So the bad news is I'm on the mend for at least three days, no sealing in this time, and the worst news is that it freaking hurts! I'm used to pain, but I've never felt anything like this pill's effects before and I'm coming close to losing my mind. That filthy liar Xiao Da said it would make me sleepy and very hungry, as it made me heal super fast, but it wouldn't be painful and I bought that like a sucker. It feels like someone is grabbing my internals and forcefully stretching them before beating them into submission to get them to stay in place, the pain right after breaking through was more bearable.

The good news is that the seals didn't break, if they did I'd likely be in a worse state, maybe even a casket, right now. The uniqueness of the seal didn't prohibit the sealed qi from growing stronger from the breakthrough and should have broken, thankfully the Forgotten Language qi also grew stronger during the break through and raised the base level of the seal. It wasn't a designed effect however and it was just a fluke that the maximum tolerance of the seal was able to hold up. Close call, i'm sweating buckets right now. It's a pretty serious design flaw, I'll have to redo the previous seals and raise their upper limit to ensure there's no danger of them breaking in my next breakthrough, it'll have to wait until after the competition though. I won't make it in time if I start back from square one and I just broke through so there should be some time of accumulation before I can break through again, the same sudden breakthrough shouldn't happen again. I didn't tell grandpa about this incident since I'm scared he'll get worried, come over, and then realize my deviation. Best if he just stays in the dark on this.

…

Day 21:

After four days dedicated completely to healing, I am still in excruciating pain. That said, I've more or less gotten used to this feeling of having my insides used as pudding, and my injuries are stable enough for me to start sealing again, though not at the rate I was going before. Humans truly can get used to anything in time, He Lan looked exasperated (Well, she looked the same as usual but it FELT like exasperated) when I said that earlier. 42 sealed qi.

…

Day 25:

Mwahahahahahaha! The day has finally come for this genius' hard work to pay off! From the very first seal I've been targeting only the qi at the human rank, and now, I've sealed the last one today! The backlash from before I fused a bunch of origin skills into human ranked skills is nothing compared to after, as soon as I thought of this sealing plan I knew I had to reverse the mistake of the past and return that point to its origin first! Facts showed that I was right, the backlash is truly much weaker now, and after sealing the last human skill level qi, I sealed SIX origin qi. SIX!. Happy days are here, I've done the work crawling up the hill so far, now I get to enjoy the jog down. 55 sealed and counting!

Day 26:

… I'm depressed. It feels weird saying this after praising myself as a genius yesterday, but, I don't think I can refute when He Lan calls me a fool anymore. My theory was correct, the sealing has become much easier than before, I did the previously unthinkable number of 18 seals today and I think I can do even more tomorrow. My injuries from breaking through have coalesced wonderfully and the comparatively weak backlash from the current sealing isn't causing much trouble in that regard. What's really got me bummed is that I just noticed the amount. It was all tangled up before so I never really noticed how many kinds of qi I'd learned or just how many skills I'd absorbed over the years. I've sealed 73 qi types and it doesn't look like I'm even half-way done. HOW! Seriously, what was wrong with kid me!? No matter how you look at it this is an absurd number of skills to be learning, no sane person would try this! Ignoring the undeniable genius I am for learning all this by eight, was I a complete moron? Did I lack common sense in its entirety? Ugh, I'm depressed. Everything is lined up well, my goal is in sight, I'll be able to compete in the competition, I'll be able to progress again, but I'm still depressed… Check above for number sealed.

…

Day 31:

I want to sleep. After 31 grueling days I've finally sealed everything, except the one's I've chosen to use of course. While I was sealing I was also doing a check for useful skills. In the end I didn't seal, or had to unseal in some cases, Shadow Skin, Energy wave, Forgotten Language, Meteor Fist, Shade Step, Ground Contractor, Dark Shade, Deep Abyss, Anti-Eclipse and Sight.

Forgotten Language goes without saying, If I sealed that I'd lose control of the seals, it'd be a true seal then. For my offensive skills, Shadow Skin, Energy Wave and Meteor Fist, I chose Shadow Skin since it's the first human skill I ever learned, and it works well with my darkness attribute. Energy Wave is the skill I'm most proud to say is my own work, it's at the human rank and is very versatile, easy to use and can be used unarmed or with my spear, it's a skill I plan to develop more in the future, if I could add the darkness attribute it could become a mainstay. Meteor Fist is a common skill in the Xiao Clan for its power and ease of use. It's rather basic and lacks potential, but it's a hard-type move, unlike the soft-type Energy Palm, so there are situations where it'd be a better pick. Though I have hard-type moves that are stronger than Meteor Fists, some of them even in the human rank, anything much stronger causes the mix of Qis in my muscles to react and tear them apart. Ugh, even though my dantian is stable now my body is still full of problems, I have no idea why I tried so many body cultivation methods, causing qi problems not just in my dantian but even my whole body, I really wish I could go back and slap myself. Till I fix that problem, I'll have to mostly stick with moves that move qi itself rather than those that use the body as a medium.

For movement I've taken Shade Step and Ground Contractor. Shade Step is from the clan, it increases my nimbleness, flexibility, and makes me a little harder to see at night. The core concept is the same so I kept the name the same, but I've improved this one to the point it's had a qualitative change and reached the human rank. Ground contractor is a mainstay in the clan and allows me to move a short distance quickly with a single explosive step. This one uses the body as a medium and is rather intensive, but I've modified it so that it can work using the qi Shade Step produces as a substitute, though thanks to that it can only be used when Shade Step is active. Come to think of it, though it looks the same as the regular Ground Contractor, isn't the theory behind it completely different now? Um, I think I'm going to call it Shade Contractor from now on. It fits since it can only be used during Shade Step, it'll be like an extension move, a special step in the Shade Step series or something, though i'd have to design other steps for that idea to fly, something to think about in the future.

Next there's Dark Shade and Deep Abyss, which hides my body and my qi respectively. Both are my synthesized skill and, though they're a step short of reaching the human rank, I'm quite satisfied with being able to add the darkness attribute to them both. The darkness attribute is inherently difficult to see through, so even though they haven't had that qualitative change that comes with an increase in rank, they actually do their job better than many human ranked skills of the same type.

Finally, there's Anti-Eclipse and Sight. Anti-Eclipse is a disruptive type skill, it's a small bead that causes qi to fluctuate wildly. It's rather worthless on regular attacks but on big moves it's a killer (theoretically anyway). I know more than anyone how huge a pain in the ass disrupted qi can be so I synthesized this skill. The library didn't have very many disruptive skills though and I'm lacking in references so it's stuck at a bottle neck and is a ways off from reaching the human rank. Disruptive skills really aren't one of the Clan's strong points. Sight is a common skill everywhere that basically everyone has. It protects the eyes from sudden stimulus and strengthens vision in a lot of environments, such as night, smoke, underwater and fog. I don't want to get flashed like those two idiots from a month ago so it's obvious to take this skill.

…

"Shadow Skin, Energy wave, Forgotten Language, Meteor Fist, Shade Step, Ground Contractor- I mean Shade Contractor, Dark Shade, Deep Abyss, Anti-Eclipse and sight, I'll have to enter the top sixteen with these skills," Xiao Su mumbled to herself as she finished up her journal, writing the ridiculous words, 'Sealing complete, 194'.

"What did you just say?" He Lan asked in disbelieve, astonished at the words she'd just heard come out of her mouth.