Chapter 18

Chapter 18. Galactic Martial God Chronicle - Amusement Park Kidnapping Incident (1)

Quite some time had passed since I reincarnated into the Galactic Murim world.

Since Si-woo kept staying by my side, I could not use rapid time acceleration through Third-Person Avatar.

In the end, Third-Person Avatar was something I controlled, so if I increased the time speed, Si-woo might notice something strange during conversations.

So I spent the time when I learned and trained in martial arts inside the clone, and spent the other time through Third-Person Avatar at three or four times speed.

When I slept, if I did not feel that I needed sleep due to mental fatigue, I passed it at one thousand times speed, almost as if skipping it.

Because I kept accelerating time quickly, it felt as though only about four months had passed, but I was already three full years old.

As the inconveniences I suffered as a baby gradually began to disappear, Si-woo’s training became stricter and longer.

At the same time, I also began to feel less and less need for acceleration.

The reason I had accelerated time until now was because of things babies inevitably experienced, such as growing pains and hospital visits.

Since those things were disappearing, I decided to simply spend normal time in the body of my reincarnation clone.

Physically, I was still immature in many ways, but martial arts were most effective when learned young, so I could not throw away that prime period through time acceleration.

Si-woo checked my wrist once and said,

“You have reached the point where it should be fine to train your body to a certain degree now.”

Until now, Si-woo had made me memorize and internalize techniques containing the forms of martial arts, but she had not made me do physical conditioning.

Of course, since I moved my body, it must have trained my stamina to some degree, but it was hard to call it full-fledged conditioning.

That was only natural. If a newborn baby was overworked, it would instead hinder future growth.

“Usually, the recommended age for formally entering martial arts is at least seven full years old, but through spiritual medicine and Meridian-Acupoint Circulation from infancy until now, you have gained sturdiness beyond that of a seven-year-old.”

From what I heard, direct descendants of the Cheon Family and children of households with a certain amount of power went through the same process as me.

Of course, there were almost no babies like me who quietly ate everything they were given and received training, so it seemed there were plenty of cases where they failed to digest all the spiritual medicine that had been forcibly fed to them.

I knew myself well. I had absolutely no physical talent.

“Then let’s train right away.”

Since I had no physical talent, I had to get several steps ahead in this way, or I would not fall behind in the competition against those who would become my peers in the future.

To be precise, I should say that it would delay the point when I fell behind.

In the future, I was scheduled to enroll in the school attended by the family’s direct descendants.

My goal was climbing the Tower, so the competition with my peers was none of my business, but the problem was that if I fell behind in that competition, the quality of support from the family would later fall as well.

Until elementary school, all direct-descendant children received support and took classes equally at a single elementary school.

However, when they graduated from elementary school and moved up to middle school, their qualities were evaluated, and they were divided into the First Middle School and Second Middle School.

Even if one went to the Second Middle School, one could still receive support from the family, but the quality of that support would drop, and the instructors’ abilities would also be lower.

In high school, grades and qualities were divided even further, and students were split among four high schools in total.

Of course, I had Si-woo as my martial arts teacher, and I also had the inheritance that could substitute for the family’s support.

The problem was that until I became an adult, that inheritance was tied up.

Well, in a world where martial arts mattered most, if I said I was buying spiritual medicine to eat, they would probably let me spend money.

Still, wouldn’t it be better to receive support from the family than to use my own money to buy and eat spiritual medicine?

“Young master, it is good to be motivated, but there is no need to push yourself too hard. Even without the family’s support, you can grow sufficiently.”

Si-woo warned me not to overdo it and sat me down.

“From now on, I will teach you the knack of awakening the internal energy sleeping in your qi center. Please use your cultivation method.”

At Si-woo’s words, I used Bluewood Art, which I had learned until now.

Through my breathing, qi circulated through my entire body and headed toward my qi center.

The qi that headed to my qi center moved through my meridian pathways, following Si-woo’s qi as it entered through my back.

Until now, I had only grown and filled my qi center through spiritual medicine and breathing. This was the first time qi that had entered my qi center flowed out of it.

“Right now, it is moving because I am guiding the qi, but it will not work well when you are alone. Do not feel impatient if your internal energy does not move well. You must practice slowly and steadily, step by step. If you move it hastily while inexperienced, an accident may happen, like a car with broken brakes.”

“Got it.”

Speaking of cars, the reason wheeled cars were still mainstream in the 50th century was because of the traction of wheels.

Levitating cars could also stop as if hovering, but they naturally could not possess the same level of stability as having wheels attached to the ground.

Of course, wheeled cars also had levitation functions installed, so there was no real reason to distinguish between the two.

One might wonder if levitation was really necessary just to ride a car.

However, this world had levitation-only expressways called “Levitation High-ways,” which were safer than ordinary expressways and allowed people to travel long distances faster, so a levitation function was essential.

When entering a Levitation High-way, control over the car was transferred from the driver to the expressway’s system, making it a structure where traffic congestion could not exist.

There were even High-ways that crossed the sea, so it was actually more accurate to view a levitating car as a personal airplane that could also function as a car.

“Now, once you have grasped the sensation, breathe deeply and slowly, and try stimulating your qi center.”

Following Si-woo’s guidance, I slowly tried to awaken my qi center.

However, as Si-woo said, awakening my qi center was not easy.

The most I could do was somehow stimulate my qi center and make the internal energy inside it slightly leave the qi center.

While I was feeling somewhat disappointed, Si-woo clapped.

“As expected, young master, you have talent in handling qi!”

“I have talent? I failed, though?”

“You only felt the sensation of drawing qi from your qi center once, yet you managed to pull qi outside the qi center, even if only slightly. Normally, one must feel the sensation around thirty times before they can even make a proper attempt. This is astonishing.”

Come to think of it, the old librarian had also said I had talent in magic.

Qi and mana seemed to be fundamentally the same power, so it appeared I had talent in handling qi as well.

As I thought that, Si-woo spoke with relief.

“Until now, while you were learning martial arts, your memorization was excellent, but your development in reaction speed and stamina was slow, so I was worried. This is a relief.”

“...Was I that terrible?”

“Ah, not terrible. ...I merely thought you were ordinary.”

Si-woo slightly avoided my gaze, but she did not correct her evaluation.

“Well, I already guessed that I lacked physical talent. Si-woo’s training has been getting harder and harder.”

“I apologize.”

“No. If I have something lacking, I should work harder and put more effort into filling it. Knowing oneself accurately is the foundation of growth.”

Difficult training was what I wanted, after all. At my words, Si-woo nodded.

“You are absolutely correct. Even if your physical ability is lacking, young master, your comprehension is superior to anyone’s, so you have more than enough to make up for your deficiencies.”

At Si-woo’s words, I laughed lightly.

“Then push me harder so I can make up for what I’m lacking.”

And not long after, I regretted it.

Damn it. If I’d known it would be this hard, I should’ve thought more carefully before speaking.

---

I ran hard on top of a treadmill with something like an oxygen respirator attached to me.

“Breathing is the foundation of all martial arts. If your breathing collapses, your posture and judgment will be disturbed. Also, the amount of internal energy you recover in a single breath will decrease. One can say that the most important thing for a martial artist is lung capacity.”

After I ran like that for a long time and collapsed from exhaustion, Si-woo relieved the fatigue of my body through Meridian-Acupoint Circulation, then moved on to the next training.

After running came anaerobic exercise.

“Strength training is the basic power that supports the body. Since you have not yet entered your growth period, young master, high-weight training is forbidden, but since you are using low weights, you must perform high-repetition training. The advantage of high-repetition training is that it not only promotes muscle growth without overstraining you, but also helps increase your lacking stamina and endurance.”

High-weight exercise was efficient, but it put just as much burden on the body.

For a child’s body, low-weight high-repetition training was the best option.

After all, each repetition placed little burden on me, and it allowed us to draw out as much as possible up to my body’s limit.

Anaerobic exercise was a three-way split training of arms, torso, and legs.

Si-woo pushed me with ghostlike precision exactly to my limit, and immediately after I reached that limit, she gradually increased my body’s limits through short rests and additional training.

I had asked Si-woo to help me achieve maximum growth, but I was human too, so when my body felt this exhausted, I couldn’t help regretting it.

Still, I had no intention of whining like a child and telling her to stop.

I wasn’t really a child, and I couldn’t throw away a golden opportunity like receiving instruction from a Transformation Realm martial artist just because it was hard.

If a man set a goal once, shouldn’t he do his best toward that goal?

If I keep shooting for the moon, someday I might at least become a star.

Once anaerobic training ended, it was mealtime.

Meals were prepared not three times, but five times a day, with snack times added between the three regular meals.

In truth, the increase in meals could not be helped.

The more I moved my body, the more severe my calorie consumption became, and to replenish those calories, I had to eat.

Si-woo’s cooking was always delicious, so eating itself was not a problem.

After meals, I did light stretching, then studied Chinese characters and memorized body diagrams and meridian charts, which were essential for the cultivation method.

Chinese characters were a language, so I could read them as if I had already studied them, but memorizing the body diagrams and meridian charts was quite a headache.

“I know it is complicated, so you may memorize them slowly. Memorizing body diagrams and meridian charts is normally part of the middle school curriculum.”

“Then why are you teaching me?”

At my question, Si-woo smiled gently.

“You need to know the structure of the human body well, young master, in order to make your strength training more efficient. The growth of your muscle-strength limit is slower than I expected.”

After whipping me with those words, Si-woo also gave me a carrot in the form of praise.

“Even so, your perseverance is excellent, young master, so you are following the training well, and your sense for handling qi is genius-level. At this rate, you should soon be able to reach the Third-Rate stage.”

A Third-Rate martial artist, the realm of strengthening the body with the internal energy accumulated during the Entry Realm stage.

“Come to think of it, people say internal energy is the best, so wouldn’t it be better for me to train internal qigong rather than my body?”

I was not saying this because physical conditioning was too hard.

...Well, I did feel that way a little, but that really wasn’t the only reason.

“If you are around the Transformation Realm, that is certainly true. However, without the body as a foundation, you cannot reach the First-Rate Realm, let alone the Transformation Realm. Martial arts are essentially a methodology for moving the body. Even if not Transformation Realm, one must at least reach around the Transcendent Peak before one can devote more care to internal qigong training than physical conditioning.”

Ah, I see. There’s no way for me to escape this brutal training.

I stretched to receive the next training, resigned, no, convinced.

I’ll be able to fall asleep tonight like I passed out.