Unfortunately, the obvious still held - Yi Qiang could not gain stats while he was in the section. That would eliminate all the real benefits of the Cloud Court, but it would also make his job far more straightforward. At the very least, Intuition was still showing its effect, increasing his stats by 20%.

The challenge he stood to overcome right now was a strange one. Yi Qiang had never honed his technique with running before, so he didn't have an inkling of the direction in which he wanted to go. It had never even occurred to him that he could refine his running speed in such a way, so it was a drastic change to have to do so now.

There wasn't anything that came to mind that could increase his running speed - no magic to be cast. The only thing to rely upon in the Cloud Court was pure physics, a fact the marksman had become very acquainted with in the first section.

Completely lost, Yi Qiang just started running, hoping that enough of it would streamline his movements.

It was remarkably helpful that his new time would pop up every time he completed a single lap, as it allowed the marksman to see that he was not improving, at least not at a legitimate pace, by brute-forcing it.

So he started to think, to analyze his movement as he ran. It had been a while since the marksman was left to his own devices like this, forced to streamline the most fundamental building block of his technique - how he moved. Refining his dodging was easy. With his memory, pinning down the moment that led him onto the path of demise was simple.

But with this... he had nowhere to start.

First, Yi Qiang had to identify wasted movement. Any of it. When he finished that, his speed wouldn't have doubled, not by far, but it would be a start.

So he set to controlling his muscles as best he could when he ran. And, in doing so, he found just how much energy and time he was wasting.

The majority of it was in minute movements, small twitches while he moved. And by small, Yi Qiang meant small. The marksman could only invent a training regimen to hone his muscular control - otherwise, it would be an impossible task to put an end to those slight inefficiencies.

Three days were quick to pass. Yi Qiang filled up his time with working while balancing and remaining in a state of perpetual movement, never stopping until his Stamina consumption caught up to him, and he fell on the ground, utterly drained.

Over this span of time, even the marksman's burning desire to pass through the Cloud Court was tested - the dullness and pure torture of exerting his mind to the limits every waking second was inhumanly vicious.

His mental fatigue quickly racked up - even the powerful ego honed by countless trials was pushed to limits like never before.

It's as if the actual difficulty of this trial is less in the goal itself, but in the sheer force of will required to reach it, Yi Qiang pondered. I suppose that's true also for the first trial.

The strain undergone by countless death and pain was not one most people were equipped to handle, but if anyone were, it would be Yi Qiang. He had experienced agony and the constant threat of death since younger than he could remember, meaning that the troubles of the first section were far from affecting him.

It was harder, though, to handle the stress of his current situation. To properly improve, Yi Qiang's mind had to be performing two arduous tasks at once - the first was to monitor his muscles flawlessly, and the second was to control them to the best of its ability.

Yi Qiang had an issue - a huge one. The first task of sensing his muscles down to each fiber was challenging enough on its own. The undertaking was one that would typically require absolute stillness and concentration, and even then, it would be impossible without considerable mental strength. So, to be doing so while multitasking was a lot to ask. When he needed to juggle this first task and an even more painstaking second one... it was near impossible.

And yet, his will was resolute, steel in its making.

It was three days before Yi Qiang started seeing definite improvement.

His mind had become sharper, more focused. His movements had improved even further in refinement, and his control had become unparalleled.

But it wasn't enough.

Four more days, and he was confident. The marksman had honed his muscles, and more importantly, his mind, to what he thought was their maximum. No longer could he sense any wasted movement, so without any more stalling, he set out once more for the first time in a week to measure his new time.

The marksman pushed his legs to their limits, squeezing every drop of power out while he also put his self-control to work, making sure his muscles operated at maximum efficiency.

Yi Qiang blazed around the track. When he saw the result, though, his face fell.

Time: 00.08.32

It was a marked improvement, for sure, but... after pushing himself to the maximum his mind could take, it felt subpar. As if all the effort had been wasted.

I should have known better... I didn't even come close to controlling my legs perfectly when I was running.

The marksman could only shake his head as he spoke out loud to himself.

"Rule number one of training - the practice is never like the real thing. The result of practice needs to be better than the result you want to achieve in the real thing."

Without much other recourse, Yi Qiang threw himself at his training once again.

It took two days before he had grasped it. No longer did the marksman train with other activities - instead, he trained simply by running, and by refining his control solely while running.

Each time, he had pushed his body to the limit, exerting as much power as possible. Each time, he had cast his mind out into his body, spreading it as far as it would go and allowing it to sink into his muscles as deep as it would go.

It was exhausting.

But the result paid off, finally, when Yi Qiang mastered the skill he had been honing - total muscular control. Halfway into his ninth day in the trial, he was able to consistently restrict all unnecessary movements.

Time: 00.07.02

It was a start, but he still had work to do.