Struggle and Fruits

Majid dragged his disfigured body toward the spirit source. His body surrendered itself to the water, a cool feeling trickled in without any effort on his part. He took his meditation position, his whole body glowed, and a faint vortex grows in front of his chest. The Qi seeped in his body from everywhere, stimulating his cells into action like rain pouring for the first time in a wasteland binding its cracks together bringing it back to life. His grazes scabbed, his scares peeled off and fall off letting place for new and more powerful layers, the blood in his bruises dissolved. It was a miraculous Elixir for minor injuries.

After he finished his recovery, he went outside to take some breaths, his ears relaxed at the natural music. Remaining inside over time somehow became suffocating for him. It was pitch black outside, he got used to the nights here, even started to like them unlike before, they were safer than the day. he looked at the time it was about 10 PM. The only thing visible in the darkness were the stars, they scattered into a marvelous work of art.

His attention shifted and his heart boomed in his ears, the moment of truth came, the result of his theories and training was about to reveal itself.

'System show me all my progress along with my copy's states against each other'

.

[understood] thump thump...

.

The interface showed the numbers, he squinted his eyes for a few seconds. 'What?' the numbers against each other looked the same, he rubbed his eyes and looked again. Nothing changed, he didn't make any progress at all. His eyes widened, "no that can't be!" He already has some numbers in mind, this was a whole day of training that result was impossible. He calculated the average of the boy's progress before, and it was around 6 points every day. Even if it wouldn't be that much for each level, since he was training all levels at once, at least some of them should have progressed even if it's only by 1.

That average of 6 is a moderate estimation, it should be a little bit more than that. he doesn't take into consideration many things. His estimation mingled the best and the worst of the boy together, his first years of training, due to his young age both his intelligence and inexperience would affect his cultivation, and his soul should have been weaker. And the average is affected negatively as well by his idle days, like an injury, rest, study… He can't exclude them from the count. Even if he can somehow list them, it would take a lot of time.

The news was devastating. He was entertaining the idea of becoming a real MC, trekking a journey of cheats, overwhelming his enemies, 'but what is this'. His next theory, about the decay of the channels, was as important as this one, if not more. But it takes a long time to check it out he estimated. But he wasn't worried, if the parallel cultivation succeeded, it would compensate for the lost time, but what is this. The mood darkened even more, as he fell on his butt. He was like a scientist on the edge of losing his laboratory, following a project failure. He stared vacantly at the interface that followed him. He jerked suddenly, straightening his back, his eyes fixated on the interface... He let out a deep breath, 'heh, heh...' he shook his head, he understood the problem.

'System shows me the progress in a thousand scale.' He furrowed at the interface, 'why is it acting stupid' he blamed it all on the system, 'almost scared me to death'. His progress should be hidden behind the percentage scope. His eyes grow, and his back leaned forward thump thump...

[user request is not possible]

'What do you mean it's not possible,' he almost swore, sweat trickled on his back and forehead, as premonition started to take shape.

[the copy the user took didn't contain that details]

His eyes bulged, and his mouth twitched not uttering a word, he wanted to blame it on the system, and curse it, but it was his fault. His jaw dropped for a while not uttering a word. But in the end, he made his resolve, It's OK, he nodded. it was emotionless, it can't be offended, he took the liberty and poured all his frustration on the system, cursing and swearing. He went on and on until his breaths shortened before his eyes regained their soul. Oh man, I am not this indecent usually.

Majid tried to remember from his memories but it didn't work either. He didn't check the thousand scope yet since he wasn't doing comparisons back then. He only used percentages, it was sweet on the eyes and gentle for his memory. He shook his head and put his hand on his forehead looking down.

He left a deep breath out, he was so eager to know the result. His carelessness said otherwise, he needs to wait for another day 'Oh dear.' He took another copy, 'system put [exp] as the name of the progress from now on.' He was trying to make this system look as much as a game as possible. Then he made sure the copy was in the right scope before he dragged his body to train again.

He couldn't wait this time though, he checked his status now and then, he was so eager to see some progress. As he looked at the states, again and again, it strained his eyes, and his brain dizzy. There was just so much of them, especially in a thousand based scale it became a headache, to check each time. He walked back and forth, a solution stopped his fuss.

'System can you show me only the states that progressed'

[understood]

He started to fall in love with that word, it became like music in his ear. Each time he heard it, means his life became easier.

Not long after his toughness increased, he jumped, and his hip thrust a few times, 'yes! Yes! that's it, told you..'. He boasted to nobody, maybe his stomach. Even though it wasn't his level who increased, but his toughness, it means his skin' and bones' levels were increasing. It was a small increment of one, a minuscule increase in a thousand scale, but it proved he was doing the right thing.

He continued until he increased all his levels. He checked the time, it was almost 5 hours. His legs and arms muscle levels made the best progress, increased twice in less than 3 hours surprising him, he thought it would be the other way around since they neared their full potential. 'Well, they both have special techniques,' that was a good surprise for him, it means there's still room for their growth. Followed the level of his bones, skin, and his torso-muscles all increased once by 4 hours. His senses not long after stepped up, and his Viscira was the last to make a breakthrough, almost took an additional hour alone. He needed to make some adjustments, but overall he was satisfied. With this, he was sure. His levels could grow along with each other, leaving behind the negative side effect of leakage.

He overjoyed as he summed his results, counting his legs progress alone, it would progress by 5 exp every 10 hours, the average training time per day. Almost up to the 6 exp, the boy's average.

But when he counted the overall progress, his jaw hit the ground. He would make 28 exp, almost 4 times more than the boy. And this is just the beginning, there was more room for improvement, he could make his training better and increase the time up to 16 hours a day. 'I knew it,' even if he trained normally, his progress should double, considering his powerful soul, but it couldn't go further with normal cultivation. Even if it was more powerful, he would be limited to the channel's capacity. With his method, the more it grows the more channels he can control.

If he continues like this he gonna break a record, he believed his discoveries might be particular. After all, how many highs leveled cultivator would analyze a low-level cultivation realm. When they have to break through higher realms. The younger generation on the other hand, followed the path set by their ancestors. They don't have enough wisdom or intelligence to try to make their own way. Even if some free-spirited ones tried, how many of them have powerful souls to help them? And how many cultivators in this world have modern scientific knowledge, and a system like him? 'There none,' he smirked 'how many heroes are there on earth, how many would get a special ticket like mine,' he was indeed special he thought.

As he was enjoying his prospects, an ominous idea struck him. All his boasting started to petrify into a sandcastle, ready to crumble all over, given his fear proved right.

'System, what have you based your estimation on, for the levels progress?' Say the progress is set according to meridians' completion. While their progress is good news for the next realms, it also signifies the exhaustion of his body potential. He wouldn't know for sure whether he was making effective progress in his body tempering. His back sweated profusely. It wasn't that serious, but it was like you gained a prize then been asked to return it, as some busybody found some violations in the competition. You can still win it back, but you can lose it as well.

[the progress is based on the increase of the attributes of each organ. The limits are based on the averages calculated from the data analysis, but it didn't represent the real limit of progress]

His face relaxed, "phew, great!"

His eyes grew, he caught an insight from this ordeal, hearing that the body limit potential is unknown further convinced him, 'I will reach that limit', his squinted, the channels blockade must be overcome. the idea mingled with his next theory and started to take shape to a potential solution. He noted his thoughts and brushed it aside for now.

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Teamao wasn't able to find Young Master Xiaode. He hurried into the forest leaving all his matters aside, but couldn't even find the place where he met him last time. No, he found it actually, but he doubted his eyes, it was the same, except there were no marks of training he saw the last time. No trace of the foxes nor the Young master either. 'the master must have hidden his traces.' Knowing Xiaode situation, it was easy for him to understand what happened.

On his way back, following his usual trail, he noticed something. At first, he didn't give it much thought. As the incident kept repeating he couldn't ignore it anymore. Sweat filled his back, but he holds himself from looking around. 'I am followed' Teemao was a sharp boy due to his job, he has to find moderately rare herbs in between a lot of junk. As he was going back, he started to notice traces of different footsteps than his along the way. When the trace consistently appeared along his trail, it became evident that someone followed after him when he was going to meet Xiaode.

It was his personal track, no one uses it. 'But why!' He remembered what the Xiaodie told him, 'don't tell anyone you know about me, my enemies would look for you and force you to lead them to me.' no matter how much he thought, there was no reason for anyone to follow him other than this, especially with the timing.

'But how,' he didn't tell any soul, how did they find out. 'I only listened on those…' and the memories of that day started to repeat in front of him. Some of those boys took side glances at him, he didn't think much of it back then, he was worried. Now he understands what that means. 'It was a trap,' he felt guilt shower over him, he almost caused Xiade a disaster. Fortunately, the young master was smart.

After spending a few days holed up in his room, he finally came out as he made his resolve. Majid unaware of the boy's struggle continued his own.