Finishing up the training

Bai Yun entered the gravity chamber at dawn. He booked six weeks in the gravity chamber and then used the rest of the points in order to exchange for cultivation resources as well as some recovery medicine and food and water for the retreat.

The gravity chamber was a large square room, with enough space for cultivation. It was empty, and any items needed for cultivation had to be brought in from outside. In the center, There was a large circle. The circle was a formation and was the core of the gravity chamber. The gravity in the circle could be manipulated from an increase of ten percent to ten ties the normal gravity.

There were four things Bai Yun had hoped to achieve by the time he finished the retreat. First and foremost he had to improve his body constitution. The next order was to improve his movement technique. The third was to improve and stabilize his cultivation. And finally he needed to find and assimilate his huge knowledge and experience and improve his techniques to make them much more powerful.

Bai Yun set down all the items he would need for survival, like food and water outside the circle. There was also a small toilet and shower nearby, thus fulfilling all of Bai Yun's needs for a long retreat. He set down the weights and stones he had brought with himself at the edge of the circle. He then took of his his robe, and stood there wearing only his pants, his upper body bare. He finally took out a restrictive robe that wrapped around his entire body, and constricted his movements and kept it nearby.

The very first thing Bai Yun did was to increase the gravity in the gravity chamber to two times the normal. Bai Yun decided to keep the gravity at at least two times the normal at all times in order to make his body get used to the power as quickly and improve its constitution as fast as possible. He would then increase it to higher levels when he was working out to stress himself.

First Bai Yun had breakfast. Then he stood at the gravity chamber and swung his sword. He had started to shadow box to get his body used to the simple sword.

Bai Yun's greatest strength was the Simple word. But even with his great knowledge, he was completely unable to use it optimally. Currently he could only make a move after seeing the movement of the opponent. This was called sword following the soul.

The next step would be to make the movements of the sword completely instinctual as well as muscle memory. This would allow his body body to react even before he had noticed the danger, thus saving time and even his life. This was called sword following the body. The only way to do this was by an enormous amount of effort and repetitive practice.

Bai Yun only spend an hour in this. The best way to achieve sword following the body was through life and death battles. He was only laying down a foundation for now. Once he was done, it was time to move on to the next thing in his itinerary.

Bai Yun stood at the center of the circle. He took out his sword and closed his eyes. His sword was at his left waist, and he stood there while holding the hilt with his right hand. He focused all of his attention on the sword as well as the memories of his past life.

The God of Sword was someone who took a different path from the norm. Unlike the other swordsmen, he reached the pinnacle by pure technique and skill. Everyone else thought of using various techniques and arts in order to improve their strength, including Bai Yun. But not the God of Swords.

But there was one exception to this.

When he reached the peak of the Immortal step, the God of Swords was stuck at that position for half a million years. It was the first time he had hit a bottleneck. He then gave up on breaking through and started to travel the universe and beyond, looking for people to fight with and improve his technique.

He spend another half million years on this. During this time he even let go of his rule and created techniques. In total he created exactly six techniques. And on the day he created the sixth technique, he broke through to the God step.

Everyone else who saw the techniques called it the most powerful sword technique of all time. They called it the Six Truths of the Sword God.

He was humiliated, and nearly buried the techniques. He called it the Sword God's Folly.

Other than Bai Yun only the legacy disciples of the God of Swords were allowed to study the technique. Even then none of them managed to master all six forms. Even Bai Yun, who was considered the greatest genius of the time, only managed to master the sixth form after spending twenty five thousand years in the battlefield.

He was currently trying to retrofit the first of the six techniques, Sword drawing.

Sword drawing was the first technique, as well as the simplest. It was not particularly exceptional in anything, but it was the foundation for the other six techniques. And even then it was truly powerful.

The problem was that the Six truths of the Sword God was created to be used at the God step. But the energy as well as the Dao's used at the qi condensation realm was extremely different from that of it used at the God step. If he was to use the same technique, he would only end up simply waving the sword and not have any effects. Or he could also blow up and kill himself.

Bai Yun remembered the technique from his past life, and then suddenly drew the sword in a single smooth motion. The sword took a strange arc through the air. It moved through the air at lighting speed, and yet slowly, as if it was slicing through mud. But as the sword moved further and further, small ripples started to form in its path.

"Aaaaah". A scream filled the gravity chamber at the same the sword flew away from Bai Yun's hand. For a moment a strange and ephemeral power descended on the chamber, but it left just as quickly as it came. Bai Yun slumped to the ground, while clutching his right arm. Veins were trembling all over his body. He grit his teeth, closed his eyes, and punched down on to the floor with all of his strength.

For a moment there was no sound in the chamber, but soon small pants filled the room. After a few minutes Bai Yun stood up. He then went to take his sword, and then walked back with it.

Once again, Bai Yun stood in the center of the circle, and resumed his earlier posture. He calmed down his rapidly beating heart and focused on the sword once again. His mind was filled with the memories of his technique only. He remembered what he had done, and tried to correct his mistake. One step at a time, he approached his ideal condition once again.

Bai Yun once again draw is sword. And once again, he collapsed in a scream.

Soon Bai Yun settled into a strange rhythm. Screams and sounds of a sword colliding against the wall became a common and seemed to ring out every five minutes or so. When his right hand became too swollen to properly swing a sword, he switched to his left hand. When that hand was swollen, he went back to the right. Bai Yun continued to push himself in this manner again and again.

Bai Yun finally stopped an hour before noon. He sat down for a moment and thought about his two major skills.

He had two techniques he could use now, Moonlight Sword, and Lions roar. But he was at a impasse for both. The next technique in the moonlight sword, as well as the power of the Lions roar could not be truly understood at his current level. It was a problem of cultivation. But Bai Yun still meditated on the techniques to improve their strengths. Compared to retrofiring the Sword God's Folly, this was like child's play. But he still decided to spend an hour everyday for it.

Once he was done he had lunch and then increased the gravity to three times the normal. From now on, it was time to practice the movement technique. Bai Yun quickly put on a restrictive suit that would restrict all of his movements, including his arms, his legs and his body. This would make it difficult for him to move, and thus increase the efficiency of the movement technique training.

Bai Yun started to move inside the gravity chamber. He was trying to master the second movement of the specter steps, soundless motion. Sometimes he would stay within the gravity circle, sometime he would go outside. He would rapidly step in and out in order to allow his body to adapt to rapid changes in environment.

But this training quickly made him run out of qi. He would then sit and recuperate using both common meditation as well as diluted qi recovery pills. Once he was charged up, he would start training once again.

Once the sun set, Bai Yun would had dinner and then start to train for a few hours without using any qi. This was training to build up his body. He increased the gravity to four times at the beginning of his retreat, and planned to increase it higher once his body's constitution had improved. Bai Yun not only used the weights he had brought to improve his muscles, he also used the restrictive robe to improve his flexibility. He knew that the optimum way of fighting would require a strong as well as flexible body.

Once he was dead tired, Bai Yun would settle in and start to cultivate and recover. Bai Yun would use two strands of his soul tendrils to meditate and train in order to increase his cultivation level. The third strand was generally kept for reading books he had borrowed from both his parents collection as well as the library. These weren't books on cultivation, but those on common knowledge about the world. Even though using more strands would increase his cultivation speed, Bai Yun decided to slow down a bit in order to increase his knowledge.

And then after midnight, he fell into sleep.

Bai Yun quickly set into rhythm. Every morning he would wake up early even before dawn and start to work on the secret techniques and martial arts. He would work on it till noon and them shift to working on the Assassin God's movement technique. Once he was out of qi, he would start to have high intensity work out in high gravity until after sunset. Then he would cultivate to recover his qi and increase his cultivation before sleep. He only spend four hours each day in sleep. Most of the time, he wished for the day to be longer.

Bai Yun's regimen barely changed day by day. In an instant six weeks passed. Before he knew it, it was already the time to leave.