Chapter 201: The Secret of the Martial Arts

"Is war about to begin again?"

Richard muttered to himself as he watched Vladimir leave.

For a wizard, war is both a risk and an opportunity. New knowledge and new dangers will appear simultaneously, and whether one can seize the opportunity depends entirely on the wizard's own ability.

Leaving the 23rd floor of the Living Quarters, Richard returned to the Wizard Tower and opened the passage to the training room.

After taking off his wizard robes, Richard changed into a metal training suit. The suit looked like armor, made of a high-density alloy. Its weight was an astonishing 500 kilograms, and under the influence of the gravity room, the suit weighed a total of 5 tons.

Wearing this suit, Richard entered the gravity training room and began his training for the day.

Training requires a gradual progression. Richard first set the gravity multiplier to 2x to warm up. Then, he slowly increased the gravity, and his body began to sweat profusely.

Richard's training was simple—squats, push-ups, light running, and so on. These exercises appeared no different from those of a regular person. But under 10 times the normal gravity, wearing the training suit, each action was incredibly strenuous.

At such high-intensity training, relying solely on the energy from food and fat wasn't enough. Thus, Richard turned to his magic power as his energy source.

To meet his needs, his body's cells began to absorb magic power from the surrounding air at an accelerated rate. Moreover, due to the Adaptation Body training, Richard's muscles, bones, and even organs underwent very subtle changes during the exercise.

This meant that Richard's body was gradually adapting to movement under high gravity.

If Richard could continuously train in this high-gravity environment, wearing the training suit for five to six hundred years, his body would undergo a tremendous transformation.

However, Richard was using the gravity training room, and using it consumed a lot of magic stones.

Under 10x gravity, the training room consumed 10 magic stones every minute.

Richard's daily training lasted for two hours, which meant that in a year, he would consume 438 magic stones, and in ten years, he would use up 4,380 magic stones.

At such a rate, Richard had to consider reducing his training time.

Although he had earned a lot of magic stones from the guild, he still needed to provide after-sales service for the White Wizard Legion and upgrade the structures of the spell support vehicles. While these expenses were not immediately apparent, Richard needed to prepare some magic stones for future contingencies.

After finishing his training, Richard turned off the gravity training room and took off his training suit.

At this point, Richard's skin was bright red, and steam was constantly rising from his body. His muscles were bulging, and large beads of sweat streamed down his sculpted muscles, leaving streaks as they slid down.

After resting for a moment, Richard took out a crystal ball and checked his stats.

**[Mental Power: 110, Physical Strength: 112.3, Magic Power: 22,000]**

"Phew, not bad. I've increased my physical strength by 12 points in ten years. Once the Dragon Transformation Battle Body is perfected, the rate of increase in my physical strength should be even faster."

In the past ten years, Richard had also been cultivating the Dragon Transformation Battle Body, but unfortunately, only the Dragon Breath Sack had been successfully developed. After transplanting the Dragon Breath Sack, Richard had gained the ability to use the Dragon's Breath.

The Dragon's Breath comes in many forms. The most common is the fire-element breath, but there are also variations like frost breath, corrosive breath, and poison mist breath.

Richard's was a variant of the fire-element breath—Blue Flame Breath. The temperature of this breath was several times higher than the regular fire-element breath, but its range was much smaller. The original breath's range was supposed to be conical, but Richard's Blue Flame Breath only affected a narrow line.

However, Richard wasn't dissatisfied with this. The breath was mainly meant for supplementing his alchemy, and he hadn't planned to use it as an offensive technique.

Leaving the training room, Richard headed to the adjacent training ground.

The training ground had been reinforced with alchemical machines and enhanced with runes, leaving clear footprints on the solidified floor.

These footprints, of course, belonged to Richard.

In the center of the training ground stood a large black boulder. This was a chunk of Mountain Essence, which Richard had bought from Jimmy for 100 magic stones.

The reason he bought it was to train in the Mountain Path.

Richard had four techniques in the Mountain Path: the Worldly Tradition's Stone-breaking Fist, the Secret Tradition's Mountain-breaking Fist, the Secret Tradition's Mountain Body Forging, and the Abbot's unique skill, the Mountain Fist Intent.

The Mountain Body Forging was now an auxiliary tool for training, and Richard had already mastered the Stone-breaking Fist. After decades of study, he had also gotten a grasp of the Mountain Fist Intent. The only thing left was to further study and practice.

But the most valuable secret technique from the Long Mountain Temple, the Mountain-breaking Fist, had always eluded him.

The Mountain-breaking Fist, with its emphasis on the "breaking" aspect, was critical.

The ancestors of Long Mountain Temple used this technique to carve out the original temple from the Long Mountain itself.

The mountains of the Mountain World were incredibly hard, and Long Mountain Temple's founder, when he was only a level 2 creature, was able to carve out the temple with this technique.

Even a level 2 being could use this technique to break through the hardest materials.

No matter how much Richard followed the teachings in the secret technique, his strikes always produced normal punches.

Standing in front of the Mountain Essence, Richard took a deep breath, adjusted his energy circulation, and then swung a punch!

**Bang!**

A dull thud echoed from the Mountain Essence, and when Richard withdrew his fist, a clear fist imprint appeared on the surface of the black boulder.

"Ah, still not enough." Richard sighed. "What exactly is the 'breathing of the mountain' mentioned in the secret technique? Could it be the heartbeat of the Mountain's Heart?"

Looking at the Mountain Essence, Richard felt confused. Normally, Richard would have put his frustration aside and continued training other aspects of the Mountain Path, hoping to gain insights through indirect learning.

But today, the news of the war from Vladimir had left him somewhat restless.

Turning around, Richard left the basement. After putting on his wizard robe, he headed toward the teleportation portal in the Truth Tower.

Soon, Richard appeared in the arena on the 11th floor of the Living Quarters.

The arena was still bustling with activity, with wizards cheering for their favorite competitors in the stands, throwing magic stones or magic crystals into the arena attendants' plates as bets.

Richard walked through the crowd and found Jimmy, who was cheering for the fighters.

"Master Jimmy."

"Hey, Richard! What brings you here? Did you break the Mountain Essence?" Jimmy wiped the sweat off his forehead, with sunlight gleaming on his head.

Richard shook his head. "Master, are there any suitable opponents for me in the club? I feel like I need a fight to understand some key insights."

"A fight! Richard, you've finally understood what we physical evolution wizards need the most—battle! We grow in battle, break through in battle, and unleash our brightest light in battle!"

"Look! The brilliance of battle!"

Jimmy shouted loudly, and in the arena, the two wizards dueling split into the winner and the loser.

The defeated wizard was thrown out of the arena, and the winner stood in the center of the field, roaring towards the audience!

The arena erupted in thunderous cheers, and whether the wizards had won or lost their bets, they all shouted the name of the victor!

"Urada! Urada! Urada!"

In the center of the arena, the wizard named Urada raised his arms, roaring in response to the cheers of the crowd.

Soon, the audience dispersed. There was only one match per day in the arena, and after the competition, the arena became a private area for Gallon Club.

Richard watched as Urada walked down from the arena, exhausted, and helped the defeated opponent to his feet. The two of them then entered the internal area of the arena.

Jimmy asked Richard to warm up, and he went off to find a suitable opponent.

After a while, Jimmy returned with a wizard dressed in a black robe.

"Richard, you're lucky. This is Haas, also a newly promoted second-circle wizard. However, his combat experience is more extensive than yours, so be mentally prepared for a tough fight."

Jimmy introduced Haas, and Haas's gaze had already locked onto Richard.

"Dragon Transformation?" Haas asked in a low voice.

"Something like that," Richard replied calmly. "My emotions are stable, so don't worry about me losing control in the battle."

Since Richard had never fought a club member before, Jimmy had to explain the rules of combat.

In the battle, both parties were expected to give their all, without any playful antics or stubborn resistance. That would be disrespectful to the opponent.

Additionally, both fighters needed to be mindful of the scale of their attacks. This was a sparring match, and causing serious harm was not acceptable.

Lastly, battles could be either with or without magical gear.

In battles with magical gear, there were limits on the number of magical items that could be used. Each person was allowed a maximum of three magical items, and no item that could cause direct and overwhelming harm was allowed.

After explaining the rules, Richard chose to fight without magical gear. This way, he could better utilize the Mountain Path and experience its intricacies.

Haas agreed to Richard's choice, and the two removed their magical gear.

After Jimmy inspected them, the two wizards took off their robes and entered the arena.

As per the ritual, both introduced themselves.

Haas, standing on the left side of the arena, spoke first.

"Free Wizard, Haas."

Richard nodded slightly.

"Black Tower Wizar

d Academy, Richard."

As soon as Richard finished speaking, Haas's figure suddenly disappeared.

With the introductions done, the only thing left was the battle!