Training the Body and Energy Flow Part One

Taking off the gaming helmet, Wang Xu was greeted to the usual sight of his room's ceiling after logging out of Immortal Era. Reaching around for his phone, Wang Xu brought it up above his face and turned on the screen. Squinting his eyes slightly, Wang Xu noticed that it was now a quarter past two in the morning. Wang Xu found this weird as he remembered spending quite a bit of time gaming and the hours he spent online don't match up.

Stretching his limbs a bit, Wang Xu got out of bed and went to the living room, where he turned on his laptop. That time difference was bugging him and he had to get to the bottom of it before he decided to log back in. After spending a few minutes searching the official website and the forums, Wang Xu finally got to know what the reason for the time difference that he felt was. It seems that with the end of the server-wide Exp buff event that ended two days ago, the company behind Immortal Era decided to implement a time dilation.

Although it hasn't fully been put in place yet to give players a chance to adjust to it, it was set up so that time in reality and time in-game would flow at the ratio of 1:2, giving players more time to spend online gaming. Wang Xu looked over this information and thought about it for a bit before he turned away from the game's official website and focus more on the forums. Since he was there, he might as well check to see if there was anything interesting being discussed by the players.

While scrolling down the forum pages, Wang Xu came across many posts related to the four Kingdom Continents and what they had to entail. Some posts were just pictures of the various continents, some were about the indigenous species of monsters each continent had while a few even talked about various top guilds making theirs or transferring their home bases from the Cardinal Continents to the Kingdom Continents themselves.

As Wang Xu was cycling through all these bits and pieces of information, he came across a post talking about something related to one of his quests. This post was talking about the <Crafting Guild Alliance> of the Vianhland Republic of the Beast Continent. Wang Xu decided to explore this post, thinking that he might obtain a bit of information on one of the places he needs to visit when he's on the Beast Continent.

Opening the post, Kirou read through all the information being discussed. Quite a few persons were discussing the difficulty of raising their rank after joining the alliance. Others were discussing the items on display for the alliance's internal market, some going as far as to post some screenshots. As for the rest, they were crying and complaining about the difficulty in getting a recommendation letter to join the alliance itself.

To Wang Xu, while he did find this bit of information intriguing, his eyes were searching for something else. Right now, he was looking to see if there was any information on any of the high tiered craftsmen or even the boss of the alliance itself. Wang Xu spent roughly half an hour on this, coming up with little to no information. At best, there were only a few mentions of the boss of the alliance, and that in itself wasn't much. Besides the fact that the alliance leader was a woman that was strict with members of the alliance when it comes to crafting, regardless of their rank and seniority, there wasn't much else.

As for her race or any other peculiarities that may have made her unique, none of this was in the forums. Whether or not this was intentional or that the players themselves have no idea, Wang Xu wouldn't know. In all honesty, with his years as an assassin and seeing how those in power manipulated information, no matter how unimportant it may seem, it truly wouldn't surprise him if the top guilds, sects, and alliances already have their people planted within the ranks of the Crafting Guild Alliance.

Not finding the information he was looking for, Wang Xu shrugged before looking over the previous information that was shared and committed them to memory. It never hurts to know ahead of time, after all. After he finished doing this, Wang Xu shut down his laptop and made his way towards the kitchen. Gaming for so long has left him a bit peckish, so he decided that a midnight snack was just the thing he needed.

A few minutes, and some simple dishes later, Wang Xu was now standing by the railing of the balcony connected to his apartment, staring at the starry night sky. Just like when he was on the Grand Desolate Continent, Wang Xu liked to stare at the night sky above him whenever he had the chance. He found it soothing and it usually helps to clear his mind when he's struggling with his thoughts. Although the stars weren't what he was used to, Kirou still found comfort within them.

After getting his fill of the night sky, Wang Xu then turned his eyes towards the city, still being illuminated by various lights. Although it wasn't a starry night sky, Wang Xu still found a bit of satisfaction in staring at those artificial lights. As he stared at them, he spoke under his breath, "This is a scene that neither my bastard master nor any of my old acquaintances will get to see while on that side. It's a shame, really. Although this world doesn't contain much energy in the atmosphere like on that side, the humans on this side have done quite well for themselves in the field of technology, even going as far as to incorporate something as strong as electricity into their everyday lives. It's truly a shame that I can't show this scene to you guys."

Having said that, Wang Xu released a sigh before shaking his head free of those thoughts as he went back inside his apartment. Right now, he was in no mood to continue gaming so he did his usual stretches before diving back into bed, this time to get some sleep. Just as stared at the apartment ceiling, Wang Xu allowed the faces of his old acquaintances to flash through his mind once more before he closed his eyes, drifting off to the land of dreams.

*******

It was around 7 am that Wang Xu awoke from his slumber. Although he was asleep for just over four hours, to Wang Xu, it felt more like a slightly longer nap. That being said, he had no intention of going back to sleep. Wang Xu got out of bed and went to the bathroom to take care of his morning routines before he returned to the apartment balcony.

Unlike in the night when he decided to stare at the starry night sky, this time, Wang Xu returned to the balcony to practice his stretches while feeling the morning sun on his body. To the average person, all of Wang Xu's actions look like that of a man exercising while feeling the gentle sunlight on his body but if anyone from Wang Xu's previous life was present, they would see things much differently.

If one was able to take a closer look at Wang Xu's body, they would notice that although the sunlight was shining on his body, as if in response to his various stretches, there was a bit of sunlight slowly flowing across his body before it entered his various pores in small amounts. this went on for roughly ten minutes before Wang Xu was forced to stop all movements as his body now had a bit of steam rising from it, an indicator that he's absorbed too much energy from the sunlight.

Now lying on the floor and breathing heavily, Wang Xu was currently in a sorry state. After another five minutes, he finally managed to get into a seated position before he spoke aloud, "To think, even with almost three weeks' worth of laying the foundations and only absorbing minute amounts of sunlight energy at a time, I can only last for ten minutes. If I wasn't the one personally experiencing this, I would have thought the last three weeks were spent messing around. It seems I better use this Energy Flow Absorption Technique on something gentle like moonlight to strengthen this body's foundations before I attempt to retry this again with sunlight, even one as gentle as the morning rays, otherwise I might just destroy all the work I've done."

The energy flow absorption technique allows the user to absorb from anywhere that energy flows into their own body. The technique is broken down into two forms; the unique movements and the breathing technique. On its own, the movement techniques only serve to make the body stronger and allows for the person's own energy flow to be in constant and fluid motion all around the body. When it is done enough times for long periods, any impurities or blockages within the blood vessels and acupoints will naturally clear on their own and those same areas will strengthen. When the breathing technique is added to the mix, however, energy from the outside world can naturally be absorbed into the body. The rate of energy absorption is based on the pace of the breathing technique itself. Due to the very nature of this technique itself, it is recommended that one avoids absorbing energy from sunlight until their bodies have the necessary foundation built, otherwise it would result in a painful death, or so Wang Xu's master had told him in his previous life. Seeing how tyrannical even the gentle rays of sunlight are for himself, Wang Xu had to believe it.

Wang Xu sat upright and allowed his body to relax while he focused on sensing the flow of energy within his own body. While absorbing energy from the morning rays was cut short and his body suffered a bit of backlash, he could see that the overall amount of energy within his body had increased. At the very least, it was now thrice that of what he had before from the three weeks of hard work. The only downside to this increase in energy was that all of his veins, arteries, and acupoints were now burning from the excess heat that came along with the energy. Had he not stopped when he did, it would have resulted in these areas being too hot, which would ignite the energy within his body, burning him from the inside out until all that was left was ash.

Seeing the problems now plaguing his body, Wang Xu could only release a sigh as he gave up on even finishing the stretching routine. Although he wouldn't be absorbing any energy at this point, just the unique moments themselves might put a strain on his blood vessels, which would result in him suffering from internal pain all day. Since he's not a masochist and would rather just do regular exercises since they won't affect his internal energy flow, Wang Xu decided to take a jog around the neighborhood, maybe even stopping by at the training center nearby to make use of their equipment.

With those thoughts in mind, Wang Xu left the balcony and returned to his room before changing into some training gear. After he finished changing and prepared any items he might need while out, Wang Xu locked up his apartment before leaving.

*******

After doing a three-mile run, Wang Xu stopped by a convenience store and bought a bottle of water before making his way towards the training center. While he could have gotten a bottle at the training center itself, Wang Xu was in dire need of it now as it seems that the heat trapped in his blood vessels and acupoints caused his body to heat up a bit too much while he was on his jog and it was now starting to become uncomfortable.

For now, he planned to use the bottle of water to cool down his body via his organs while ignoring the pain being caused by the blood vessels. One 2 liter bottle of water and a few moments of rest later, Wang Xu's body had cooled down enough to not annoy him as he moved anymore. Nodding his head slightly, Wang Xu made his way to the training center roughly three minutes away by foot.

Upon entering the training center, Wang Xu was greeted to the sight of many persons; young, old, and every age in between, currently making use of the various facilities of the training center. Some were practicing martial arts, going through the basic stances, or outright sparring, while others were busy making use of the various machines used for training, like treadmills and bicycles. As for Wang Xu, he cast his eyes towards the area that housed all the weights.

From where he stood, he noticed that people were coming and going from the area with the weights, usually only trying them out for a few moments before they put them back down and turned their sights towards another area of the training center. Wang Xu shrugged at the sight of this before heading over to the receptionist. He had to pay a small fee to make use of any of the available facilities offered by the training center.

As soon as he got to the receptionist's desk, the receptionist, a woman in her late thirties spoke up, "Good morning, sir. How may I be of assistance to you today?"

"I'd like to make use of the weights. Would you mind telling me what your rates are at this place?" As soon as Wang Xu said this, he noticed a few eyes darting to him from the area with the persons practicing martial arts. He pretended not to notice while still facing the receptionist.

The receptionist caught the gazes from the martial arts area as well but was even better than Wang Xu as she revealed a small smile that gave away nothing as she spoke, "No problem, sir. The rates for all of the training center's facilities are as follows: 30 Yuan for half an hour, 50 Yuan for an hour, 120 Yuan for three hours, and 200 yuan for the day." After saying this, the woman took out a registry for Wang Xu to sign after making the payment.

Hearing the rates, Wang Xu shrugged as he paid the fee and signed his name in the registry before heading over to the weights area. He could still feel the eyes following, a new one joining the mix from the receptionist, but he ignored them as he finally made it to the area. Wang Xu looked around for a bit to find some dumbbells of suitable weights before he sat down and got to work.

While Wang Xu starting doing the reps, he thought to himself while moving his arms, 'I wonder why those eyes started following me the moment I said I'm here for the weights? Could there be something about these weights that people don't know about?'