Chapter 6: Genetic Energy Cultivation Technique, ‘Spirit Immersion’

Five days had passed since Yulian’s last training session with Zhang Wei. His daily spars with Martha helped him make fast improvements in his agility and sword technique. Along with that, he diligently trained with the weighted skinsuit and electronic cigarette provided by Zhang Wei! So, it was no surprise when Yulian found out that his fist strength had risen to 303 kg!

Currently, Yulian was engaging in bitter training. Yulian had put on the 30 kg skinsuit! At the same time, the electronic cigarette was lodged in his mouth! Yulian internally revolved the Genetic Energy inside his body while training the forms of the Nine Yang Thunder Fist externally. While training the technique, he was being dually hampered by the toxic fumes and weight of 30 kg! This forced him to devote all of his attention in cultivating the Nine Yang Thunder Fist technique!

Hou! Hou! Hou! Shapeless black smoke gently flowed out of Yulian’s mouth and lips as he trained. The toxic smoke was not even allowed to settle inside Yulian’s lungs for a moment before being forced out!

For 15 minutes, Yulian’s body was tempered both internally and externally as he carried out this high intensity training! But after these 15 minutes of training, Yulian’s body had nearly reached its limit! Yulian immediately stripped off his skinsuit and spat out the electronic cigarette! He continued to train the Nine Yang Thunder Fist technique!

After two more minutes of training, as expected, Yulian felt a cool sensation all over his body. When the human body was trained to its limits, it would unite with the universe and absorb Genetic Energy to strengthen itself! But now, Yulian was not idly observing as his body absorbed Genetic Energy! At this moment, Yulian was sensing and synchronizing with the Genetic Energy in the atmosphere, consciously gathering a sliver of it and utilizing it to get rid of the exhaustion in his body!

The fact, ‘when the body was trained to its limits, it would absorb Genetic Energy from the world’, had aroused Yulian’s interest! In the past five days, Yulian had researched about this phenomenon! As it turned out, after the apocalyptic RR Virus destroyed most of the human population, the remnants of humanity found out that their bodies had been strengthened by surviving the virus! It was found out that martial arts training had become more effective, and training the body to its limits would quickly strengthen it!

Before the ‘Wu Xin Xian Tian’ technique was discovered, these techniques were used by Fighters to train themselves! As such, the widely known fact that the ‘Wu Xin Xian Tian’ technique was the only Genetic Energy Cultivation technique in existence, was nothing but a myth! Of course, when the ‘Wu Xin Xian Tian’ technique was discovered, it left all these techniques in the dust, relegating them to a forgotten part of history. This was simply because the ‘Wu Xin Xian Tian’ technique was easier to train in and a lot more effective!

After long hours of searching the internet, Yulian accumulated a large list of such techniques! After carefully searching through them, Yulian decided that the best technique among them was the ‘Spirit Immersion’.

Yulian’s reason for choosing it was simply because the ‘Spirit Immersion’ technique was the easiest to cultivate!

Before activating the Spirit Immersion technique, it was necessary to train the body to utter exhaustion, so that it would be in a state where it could synchronize with and absorb Genetic Energy from the surroundings. After this, the Genetic Energy would be poured through the exhausted parts of the body, revitalizing them. A large amount of the Genetic Energy would naturally be wasted, but a small amount of it would enter the body, refining and nurturing it.

The Spirit Immersion technique could be cultivated in any posture, sleeping or standing. It didn’t conflict with the Nine Yang Thunder Fist, but rather complemented it. And finally, it didn’t require anything like a large amount of fist strength or high control over Genetic Energy. It was certainly the technique most suited for Yulian’s requirements!

The ‘Spirit Immersion’ technique allowed any person, even martial artists with fist strength below 900 kg, to absorb Genetic Energy from the world! All he needed to do was absorb Genetic Energy until he broke through to 900 kg fist strength! After that, he would switch to the ‘Wu Xin Xian Tian’ technique.

Yulian synchronized his mind with surroundings, observing the fluctuating Genetic Energy shrouding everything. Having synchronized with the world, Yulian felt an ecstatic sensation run through his body. He felt as if he was submerged in a sea of energy! A small amount of energy was drawn from the huge sea into his body. Yulian concentrated of the energy, circulating it through his body.

A large amount of energy was sent to his arms, which were strained the hardest during his training. The energy seeped into his internal body, revitalizing his muscles which were the focus of the Nine Yang Thunder Fist. The remaining energy passed through the rest of his body, revitalizing it.

The ‘Spirit Immersion’ technique was named as such because cultivating it felt like being immersed in a sea of energy. It was a rudimentary cultivation technique, unable to absorb large amounts of energy from the world. However, Yulian did not need large amounts of energy to make a leap in strength!

After some time, his connection to the world faded and Yulian could no longer sense the Genetic Energy covering the world. Checking his cellphone, he exclaimed, “Amazing! I managed to cultivate the Genetic Energy for ten minutes!”

The ‘Spirit Immersion’ technique was simply too difficult! Yulian had difficulty in sensing the Genetic Energy around him and had to train to his limits simply to sense it! As for cultivating Genetic Energy… it was difficult to cultivate for even two minutes!

This time, he had cultivated continuously for ten minutes! This was more than five times his earlier rate!

“Every time I train to my limits, my strength gradually increases. Heh, I wonder how much my strength has increased now?” Laughing, Yulian left his room. He was headed for the Fighter’s training room. It was time to check the Fist Testing Machine!

…

Just as always, the large Fighter Training Room was unoccupied. Both Yulian and Martha were training to be Fighters, yet they never bothered using the Arena, except when testing their fist strength. They preferred to train in their own rooms.

After activating the Fist Testing Machine, Yulian began by attacking with a firm punch!

Peng! The sound of the fist striking was rather loud!

512 kg!!

Seeing the number on the screen, Yulian was dumbfounded.

“Impossible! How did my strength rise by this much?” His strength had risen by 200 kg! Such a large increase in strength was nearly impossible!

To recheck, Yulian struck the machine with a quick volley of hits!

504 kg! 506 kg! 499 kg!

“So this isn’t a dream… Amazing! I am an Intermediate Grade Martial Artist now!” Yulian jumped in joy. In the current age, nearly every citizen trained in martial arts! Ordinary citizens with fist strength below 500 kg were called ‘basic level’ martial artists. Ordinary citizens with fist strength between 500-750kg were called ‘intermediate level’ martial artists. Finally, ordinary citizens with fist strength ranging between 750-900 kg were called ‘elite level’ martial artists.

“Speaking objectively, this rate of advancement is amazing… After all, I am a 7 year old, and haven’t even been training for a month… This rate of advancement is certainly because of my Spiritual Force.” Yulian thought about his Spiritual Force. He was sure that it would awaken soon, and when it did, it would bring calamity on himself!

The only thing he could do to avert that future calamity was train! Every kg of fist strength, every sliver of Genetic Energy inside his body would help him save his life.

“Well, my rapid strengthening will probably end now. After all, the Intermediate Grade is of a higher level of difficulty compared to the Basic Grade…” As Yulian was frowning, thinking about his future progress, he suddenly remembered something.

“Aha! I almost forgot this! Now that I have broken through to the Intermediate Grade, I can train with the Reaction Testing Machine!”

…

There were three types of training machines common to every Fighter Mansion: the Fist Testing Machine, the Reaction Testing Machine and Speed Testing Machine! From the very names of the machines, it could be understood that these machines tested fist strength, reactions and speed!

The Reaction Testing Machine tested reaction speed of a Fighter by rapidly bombarding him with rubber bullets! The bombardment could be shrugged off by anyone with Intermediate Grade and above. If the strength of the person was lower than Intermediate Grade, he could be seriously injured or even killed by the impact of the rubber bullets! Hence, it was advised that this Reaction Testing Machine should only be used after breaking through to Intermediate Grade!

The Reaction Testing Machine in the Fighter Mansion was located in a restricted 450 sq. meter space. The machine was rather large and an object that looked like a six-barreled gatling gun was connected to it! Yulian knew that this machine would rapidly spew out rubber balls to attack, forcing the fighter to dodge! This machine could be used to train reaction speed! Of course, there was another use for this machine. The rapid impact of the rubber balls could also be used to train sword technique!

Now that his fist strength was 500 kg, the electronic cigarette and weighted suit was useless for him. He could only move to better training methods.

Before training his sword technique, Yulian decided to measure his reaction speed. Yulian set the attack speed to the lowest, and started up the reaction testing machine. After he walked 10 m away from the machine, its screen flashed red and Yulian was pelted by a hail of rubber balls!

Struck unaware, Yulian was hit by a few balls before he realized that the machine had activated and began dodging. Nevertheless, even at the lowest level, he was still struck countless times by the rubber balls.

One minute later…

Yulian’s face had turned red due to being struck by countless rubber bullets. Dodging and avoiding this merciless hail of rubber bullets was too difficult!

The rubber bullets scattered on the ground were automatically vacuumed up, reabsorbed into the machine. After that, Yulian decided to check his ‘Reaction Testing’ score.

‘Within 60 seconds, 183 hits, Average!’

Seeing his score, Yulian lightly shook his head. “I actually thought that I’d be able to get a ‘Good!’ assessment on my first try. Looks like my dodging technique sucks.”

Now, he decided to train his blade technique! Yulian retrieved his training sword, adjusted some settings on the Reaction Testing Machine.

After completing the preparations, he walked 10 m away from the machine. This time, he cautiously awaited the rain of rubber bullets.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Yulian swept away the incoming bullets with a swing of his sword! Carefully observing the trajectories of the bullets, Yulian conserved his energy to beat away the wave of bullets.

Finally…

‘Within 60 seconds, 89 hits, Very Good!’

Yulian wasn’t even surprised to see the difference in results. After all, he had extensively been training with the blade, while having little focus on his agility Even so he had still been struck 89 times by the fast rubber bullets. The rubber bullets did not injure his body even slightly, but they left a nasty sting!

“Now, I have to polish my sword technique to its limits! On my next session with Zhang Wei, I’ll have him train me to fight with the heavy sword!” With that goal in mind, Yulian began training harder. Only two days were left for his next training session!