7 - (Spoiler in title) (2)

He continued to train until he could not physically move anymore. This not only included his arms, but every muscle in his body. Not only did he punch the pillar, he also kicked it and attacked it in every method possible. He fell onto his butt and lied on the ground for a whole half hour before he finally had the energy to get back up and go to his house.

It was way past midday when he got home. Not only had he trained harder than he ever had before, but he also trained for much longer than before. He had trained for a total of nine hours this time instead of his normal six, which was one and a half times as long. He knew that he had pushed his body past what it could handle, so he just ate lunch and went to lay in his bed for the rest of the day.

After that, he only came out to eat dinner, but he was surprised to find that his mother was still not here. He was surprised, but he figured that she was just staying late again. He had no idea what her job was, so he had no idea what it entailed or what time she would get home every day.

But he did not put much thought into it and went to bed after eating.

In the morning, he woke up and went once again to the training area. His mother was not there again, so he just made himself breakfast. Unexpectedly, he was not even sore. Just because he was basically immune to pain did not mean he did not feel it. But he felt no pain whatsoever. He expected that he would not be able to even move properly today, but he moved just fine with no pain and he was not even sore either. He figured that this might have something to do with his eyes, or maybe something to do with the weird scene which had put the tattoos on his body. Specifically, he figured that it might have something to do with his purple left eye which seemed to be extremely holy and healing.

But whatever the reason was, it did not matter to Su Tao, as long as he could increase his strength. When he got to the training area, he once again started to train. But the second that he started, he noticed that something was different. He felt much stronger. His body before had about one hundred pounds of strength in each individual muscle, but now, he felt as if each muscle had one hundred ten pounds of strength.

This meant that his strength had increased by ten pounds in one night. Such progress was not something that was physically possible. If he kept this up, he might meet the requirements to break through to the second bronze star in only four more days.

He was surprised, but when he thought about all that had happened to him in the last few days, he was not that surprised. As such, he simply continued to train peacefully. No one disturbed him because there was no point in doing so. All that would happen was them getting in trouble with the family should they mess with him, and no one dared to mess with the family.

He once again trained until he could barely even move, then went home and ate dinner.

He continued this process for another three days after this. Unexpectedly, he did not see his mom for this entire time, but he thought of it as nothing more than a coincidence since she probably thought that he was stuck in bed and she thought she needed to pay for medicine for him.

But what he failed to realize was that even if she needed to pay for medicine, if he was stuck in the bed, then she would need to feed him special nutritional pills that were made to act as food for those that were in comas or unconscious for extended periods of time. And during this whole time, she had not fed him a single one of those pills.

But he did not notice this and didn't think of it. He had also had situations before where he didn't see his mother for weeks at a time, so he thought it was normal. As such, he continued on with his life like normal.

His shocking progress continued and he reached one hundred fifty pounds of strength, which was enough to try to break through to the second bronze star, also known as the second rank of the martial path. When he got home that day, he went to his room and sat on the ground.

When he sat on the ground, he tried to interact with the heaven and earth around him. Most people could not do this, so they were stuck as commoners forever and were never able to be cultivators. The gathering of Qi was essential to cultivation, and you would never be able to cultivate if you could not sense it and interact with it.

As he tried to interact with it, he felt in tune with the universe around him, and he started to try to gather Qi. Then, a few moments later, a speck of white appeared in front of him. This speck seemed ordinary, but it was not. It was Qi, the energy between heaven and earth.

This energy would be used for cultivation. During the first three ranks of the martial path, also known as the bronze rank, one would only use Qi to break through to the next rank. But in the fourth to ninth ranks, one would use Qi constantly, as it was the only way to make any more progress.

This was why talent was important as well as potential. Talent allowed you to summon more Qi at once and potential allowed you to take in and absorb more of that Qi. Without potential, talent was useless, and without talent, potential was useless. Only those that possessed both would be able to progress at all.

Previously, Su Tao possessed neither, so the chances of him achieving his goal of revenge were pretty much zero. But now, he felt like maybe his talent or potential had changed because of his mysterious eyes. If this was true, then he would be given a chance to change his destiny, and he would not let go of that chance.

After this first speck of Qi appeared, another one quickly appeared. Then another. Very soon, a large amount of specks of Qi appeared around him. Then, slowly, they started to move towards his body.

After they moved towards his body, the specks of Qi started to enter his body through his acupuncture points. Qi entered the body through acupuncture points, and should someone's strength be sufficient, it would permanently increase the strength of their body if one was at the first to third rank of the martial path, and if one was past that point, it would allow them to form inner energy, which was something that would increase someone's power several times over.

As the specks of Qi entered Su Tao's body, he could feel his strength become more permanent, as if it would remain long after he was dead. This was the process of breaking through to the next rank. When one broke through, the strength that they had at the moment of breaking through would be almost permanent unless they let their muscles deteriorate to the point that Su Tao had after his sister died. The reason that he was able to recover his strength so quickly was because once one reached a certain level of strength, no matter how weak they got after that, they would be able to quickly recover just like Su Tao had.

But as for the insane speed of his progress afterwards, nothing could explain that other than his eyes which seemed to change him.

A few minutes later, the aura which Su Tao gave off started to change. After another thirty minutes, his aura had completely changed to the second rank of the martial path. Every living thing gave off an aura, but only those of the same rank or higher could sense it, which was why there was a ranking system based on stars. Otherwise, one would never know if they were talking to someone higher ranked then themselves or just a commoner. This way, they would prevent confusion and embarrassment.

As he felt his cultivation increase, he could feel his strength get slightly stronger. After all, there was an increase in strength when one broke through, and that increase in strength was more than just the increase from normal first rank to peak first rank. It would be enough that there was a difference between a peak first rank and a normal second rank. This difference was about only five pounds of strength, but the main difference was speed as well as resistance. One at the second rank would be more than one and a half times as fast as a peak first rank, and it could even go up to twice as fast.

This was the difference Between the ranks. If one was at a higher rank, not only would they be stronger, they would also be faster and more resistant. This was why Su Tao could not beat Su Chao even though he was much more skilled than the latter.

As Su Tao felt his strength and speed increase, he also felt his muscles become more solid, and his resistance increased. This meant that it would take a stronger hit than before to knock him back as well as he had a better defense.

Finally, a few minutes later, his strength had solidified at the second rank of the martial path. At this moment, he finally stopped absorbing Qi. After all, for the first three ranks of the martial path, it had almost no use aside from breaking through to the next rank. This was because it could not strengthen the body in any way. Instead, it was mainly used to nurture inner energy, which those at the first three ranks of the martial path did not have.

Then, he went over to his dresser and picked up another bronze star. Everyone in the city of silver sparrow had all three bronze stars, but none dared to lie about their rank since it was something that not only wouldn't have any use, but it would also get them punished by the family since almost everyone who could cultivate was able to reach the third bronze star at some point, and they would report those who lied about their rank below the silver rank. Only when one became a silver ranked warrior would they officially have to register their rank and prove it to the family before getting their silver star.

He was extremely excited as he put the star onto his robes. He was now at the same rank as his mother, and he was also much stronger than she was. The whole burden of the family would now fall on him should they get into trouble or something similar.

He was excited to tell his mother, so he decided to sit outside in the dining room for her to come home. But she never came. He waited for a few hours, but no one came. He started to get a little worried because it was now way past the time when she would normally get home and it was in the middle of the night at this point. On top of that, she had not been home for several days now.

It was only at this moment that he realized that something was wrong. He previously thought that she was at her job late or something, but now when he thought about it more, he realized that to her, he was still injured and that she would need to feed him pills since he was unconscious so that he would not starve to death. When he realized this, he abruptly stood up, knocking his chair over at the same time.

Title: Second rank of the martial path