This is something else

The following day, he stood amongst his friends as they watched a demonstration by their master.

Ahead of him was a dummy, and they were watching him perform certain moves on it.

"What happened yesterday, man? How did you beat up Bruno so badly?" Duncan asked in a whisper, while watching the performance.

"I don't know. Just felt a bit strong for a bit, it was nothing." He replied.

What he did was truly perplexing, but nothing seemed to have changed about him. They hadn't seen him use a slither of qi to enhance his body, so what he was saying seemed true to them.

As soon as he was given the chance, he searched through the books in the library to try and find something to help him.

He looked for books talking about forming one's dantian and received shady looks from other students. Those that would take those books were usually kids in the much younger years, since people at his age had formed their dantian years before.

Searching through the books restlessly, he found nothing. Just as he usually would.

Nothing at all.

After this brief intermission, the students were gathered around near the entrance gates of their school. The students wore rucksacks on their backs, which contained heavy rocks that weighed tens of kilograms.

The only person without one was Abel.

He would barely be able to lift the rocks that they carried on their backs, and was allowed to run without any resistance.

Even though they weren't directly using qi, the use of a dantian allowed someone to break their physical limiter.

Their strength, speed, durability, it could all be superhuman just by having a dantian.

The students looked disheartened and unmotivated with these large sacks of rocks on them.

"Remember. Your foundation needs to be strong for you to use qi. Even if we aren't learning flashy, powerful techniques you must all note that training like this is vital." Oscar explained.

He was bald and had a craggy face, showing that he was quite aged.

Exiting the gates of their school, they all entered a light jog across the streets, running in a co-ordinated group.

They soon arrived at what was the city walls. The walls reached more than 100 metres into the air and were manned with several hunters that looked like ants from how far up they were.

These were fighters that were specialised in ranged attack. Many used weapons like bows and throwing spears to have sufficiently long range.

The students began to run, and would follow the walls to run around it completely. One of the fatter students, who was already sweating after their light jog to the wall, gave a quick look to their master.

His blue aura of qi appeared, lightly flowing over his skin.

"Hide your qi, Kiegan! Out of anyone, you need this the most!" Their teacher shouted, without even turning his head.

"Sorry, Master Oscar." He replied, in a pant.

Abel expected himself to tire out, just as he usually would. The distance was over 15 kilometres, and all he had was regular human stamina.

However, that feeling never came. His breathing rate didn't intensify very badly, and he didn't feel much pain in his quads.

It felt like his body was being powered by something else entirely. He attributed it to qi immediately but felt no such thing. Was this related to what happened with Bruno?

He did feel his body was slightly different to what it was like before. It felt more energised, but it felt a little hollower. A little darker.

He couldn't place his finger on what it was, and just continued running.

Returning to where they had started, Abel still felt like he had quite a lot of energy left in him. Around him, though, the students were either crouched over or lying on the ground in a pant. Everybody was covered in sweat, but their master looked just as Abel did. Calm and collected.

"Come on, my students. How do you ever expect to achieve enlightenment if you show weakness like this. No one said this journey would be easy." He called out, ordering them to raise.

****

At the end of the day, he headed to an open park that was located within the city walls. The city was surrounded by forest, but those lands were occupied by demonic beasts. Only trained users of qi would dare step foot out of the city walls without an escort.

Facing a wooden tree trunk, he knew that something was off. He felt stronger, and just couldn't let that thought stay a thought. He had to test out whether it was true or not.

Fwoosh!

Throwing a punch, he could feel much more force behind it and struck the wooden bark ahead of him.

He felt a sharp pain run down his hand and looked back to his bruised knuckles. He could see blood, but the wound that he had just seen vanished in front of his very eyes.

'What?' He asked himself, shaking his hand.

He couldn't help but throw a few more punches, which were all impactful and rattled the tree entirely. He cracked a smile, feeling the utter power flowing through him in every punch.

There was pain in his knuckles, but it faded in seconds. His knuckles felt just fine, then he gained a sudden thought.

Qi users would use their powers in the heat of battle and over time, three main types of fighters were seen. The main type was the technical. They would rely on techniques and skills in battle to defeat their opponent.

The next type was the armsman. Armsmen utilised weaponry and equipment in battle to subdue their foes. They weren't commonly seen, since equipment was expensive and required decades or even centuries to master.

Finally, there was the martial artist. They would use the dantian merely as a source of power, without learning how to manipulate it intricately. Along with this, they would hone their bodies in terms of its strength, endurance and durability in tandem with mastering martial arts techniques. This was the most unorthodox path to training as a warrior and was quite looked down upon by cultivators.

Feeling his stronger body, maybe, just maybe, he could utilise this healing factor of his to train like a martial artist. Instead of having to pay for expensive elixirs with magical healing abilities, his body would just do that for him.

To begin, he wanted to toughen his knuckles. After throwing that punch, he was certain that he now wielded a form of superhuman strength, so he'd have to be discriminative when choosing a tree to strike. Finding a larger tree, he took a sharp inhale of breath, to calm himself and prepare his mind. Thrusting his fists forward in quick succession, he repeatedly struck it with his fist.

He made sure to strike it in various places and felt sharp pain on every strike. However, he continued to beat at the tree, making its leaves rattle and shake.

The force of his strikes surprised him and made him crack a smile as he felt this vigour and explosiveness with every movement.

Constantly witnessing those with superior speed and strength to himself, it was disheartening to be left with his own frail, ordinary body. Now, he felt the power that everyone else around him had.

The feeling of exhilaration overshadowed the lingering pain, and he continued on fiercely until he started to see alarming amounts of blood across the tree.

Looking back to his hands, the pain intensified as he stopped, and he could see that he had dug deep into his flesh. His greater power meant that he was tearing into his own body more, but in seconds the bloody wounds visibly closed.

Soon enough, he felt no pain whatsoever, and couldn't help but let out a chuckle as he saw this.

He continued with his knuckle toughening, and it almost felt like his body was getting stronger already.

He then returned to his siheyuan home and decided to have a boiling hot bath. Across the property, there were 3 bathroom areas for the residents, which had numerous showers and baths to use.

Getting the hottest water that he could possibly get, just feeling the heat coming from the body of water made his hairs stick on end.

Only very highly disciplined martial artists could amass enough willpower to do this.

"You're really going to go in that?! You're crazy, sonny!" A man said from beside him.

He had a slightly athletic physique and was within a bathtub that had a layer of bubbly soap across the water inside it.

He sat snugly inside and had wild grey hair like he was a mad scientist.

"I'm not sure if I'll be in here for long." Abel replied jokingly.

"I wish you the best, sonny!" The man replied exuberantly.

After he said this, he saluted him in an animated manner, before slowly submerging himself into the bubbly water beneath him.

"Crazy guy." Abel whispered to himself with a smile, looking back to his own bath.

His name was Carson, but he was called Crazy Carson due to his demeanour and odd mannerisms.

Abel could see the volumes of steam emitting off the tub and grit his teeth together. Leaping in, he immediately felt his skin searing as he forced himself to stay inside.

His first instinct was to leap right out this bathtub, but he forced himself to stay inside it.

He grunted in pain and moved around in the water to take his mind off the agony. He caused water to splash out from the tub, but he remembered his teachings in his academy.

On how to control the mind, to not let emotion control him.

'One must have control to achieve immortality. One must have control to achieve enlightenment.' He thought to himself.

'One must have control to achieve immortality. One must have control to achieve enlightenment.'

He repeated this statement in his mind. Doing so, he felt the urge to jump right out was more and more controllable. He slowly opened his eyes once again, that flashed an amber-golden colour.

As his body was being burned by the water he was in, it would heal at a similar rate. He could feel the clashing between his growing burns, and rapid healing factor.

After a few minutes, he left the tub of water, and saw the red burn marks across his skin fade into nothingness. His skin visibly healed itself of its injuries and he felt just fine.

"This is something else."