Fruits of Progress

A day would pass before Pyo Kang and Pyo Yong joined me in muscle training, and despite how easy they might have thought the training would be, they were sorely mistaken.

Day in and day out we would train a different part of our bodies, some days were legs, some days were our cores, some were our arms or chest. Some days we didn't train any of the major muscle groups, some days we focused on the small muscles in the joints and in our backs.

Five long months would pass of this training and flexibility training to keep our muscles in the optimal state to perform martial arts. In that time, I managed to complete the Muscle Tempering stage, one of the hardest sub-stages of the Foundation Establishment stage to complete.

My body had transformed over that five month time period. From the once scrawny and long muscles to tightly packed bulging muscles that made my already intimidating size much more ferocious.

Progress wasn't limited to just me however, as in that time Pyo Kang and Pyo Yong grew quite a lot too. Their once barely developed muscles had grown to match mine, though they were still much shorter than me, so they weren't as powerful as my giant body was.

It wasn't just their bodies that grew stronger, since they were training both their body and internal energy every day, their internal strength tripled over those five months. If they acquire a realization of some kind, I believe they'll be strong enough in body and mind to Peak level* masters.

But now that I have cleared the largest hurdle of the Foundation Establishment stage, the final sub-stage would be like walking on a short path of knives barefoot. The pain wouldn't last for as long as the Muscle Tempering, but it would be many times worse.

The final sub-stage... was Organ Tempering.

Organ Tempering was the method of using pure qi from nature to purify all organs except the heart since the heart will always have no impurities. But you couldn't do the same thing as I did with the Bone Tempering stage, if I did that, the only people that could save me would be the world-class doctors of the future, who are currently thousands of years away.

But that was okay, I didn't need to rush this. And since I have Pyo Kang and Pyo Yong here, I can use this opportunity to teach them a better cultivation technique than the one they were currently using.

As the three of us ate our morning breakfast, which was a deer caught by Pyo Yong, I cleared my throat before speaking.

"Pyo Kang, Pyo Yong. We will not be training our bodies physically today."

Over the five months we were together, they had gotten used to my personality and how I think, so they weren't confused when I said those words.

"We're going to be focusing on internal energy training now then?"

"Yes, we are, and I even have a gift for the two of you."

Pyo Kang tilted his head, "A gift? Did you leave the forest to get it?"

I shook my head before I replied, "No, I didn't. I've technically had this gift since before I entered the forest, so I'll just tell you what it is. I have a new and better cultivation method for you two to use."

Though... There would be the occasional time where I let my knowledge of certain topics flare up a bit too much, leaving them absolutely dumbfounded as I went on rambling about futuristic science or martial arts.

And this, this was one of those cases. Pyo Kang and Pyo Yong's faces displayed absolute confusion when I said I had a new and better cultivation method for them.

"If you had a better cultivation technique for us, why did you not give it to us sooner?"

"Are you dumb? You two have been training your internal energy of your own accord during these past five months, but training internal energy was not the aim of the past five months. Why would I teach you something we weren't focusing on?"

Even though they had spent the last five months with me, they still weren't as smart as me. They did get a little smarter from just being around me, but it wasn't much.

"Oh, why didn't we think of that?"

"Don't beat yourself up, just finish your food then meet me over where we spar against each other. That's where I'll teach the two of you the new technique."

I stood up off the ground and began running toward the sparring area. Over the five months we only dueled ten times, as we weren't focusing on our martial arts that hard, but we still dueled to see which parts of our bodies we needed to train more or make more flexible.

Though, neither Pyo Kang nor Pyo Yong managed to defeat me during those duels. As I had known from the start what muscle groups and stretches to optimally make my body perfect for all the martial arts I knew. So my physical strength alone was enough to beat Pyo Kang and Pyo Yong, who were at least Master level* at the time.

A few minutes later I arrived at the training area, this part of the forest was covered with broken stones and boulders, as well as fallen trees and bushes. This was the aftermath of the ten duels the three of us had.

As I waited for Pyo Kang and Pyo Yong to arrive I grabbed my sword, which was leaning against a tree alongside Pyo Kang and Pyo Yong's swords.

I unsheathed the sword and began going through the motions of the Golden Dragon Slash. When I first used this technique against the twins, it had placed severe strain on my body, while I didn't feel the strain during the same day, when I woke the next morning, I couldn't move my arms at all.

Pyo Kang and Pyo Yong arrived a couple minutes later, right as I was finishing the third form of the Golden Dragon Slash.

"Are you two ready to learn?" I asked, sliding my sword into its sheath before turning to face the two brothers.

"Yes." Both brothers replied in unison.

"Good, now sit on the ground. We'll begin soon."