Chapter 376: Body Cultivation Internal Energy and Martial Runes
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 376: Body Cultivation Internal Energy and Martial Runes
"Alright, Senior Sister. I don't think you're here to offer any pointers; you're just here for a laugh, aren't you?"
Halfway through my second set, I was forced to interrupt my practice. Before, they were just talking, but now they were actually trying to lay hands on me. If I didn't stop them now, was I supposed to just let them grope me?
In the past, I might have been happy about it. Now, I couldn't find a single ounce of joy in the situation.
Perhaps... I should establish some dominance.
The faint scent of blood lingering in this place had already pointed the way: you cannot act too weak, because trouble, like everything else, loves to take the path of least resistance.
"How could you say that?" The senior sister whose hand I had just swatted away didn't show a hint of annoyance at being exposed. Instead, she continued toward me with a beaming smile.
By this point, I had calmed down. The moment I spoke those words, I realized my emotions had been toyed with again.
While my goal was to completely master my emotions so they wouldn't be swayed by external factors, that didn't mean I had to let people take advantage of me. Suppressing emotions is one thing, but appropriate guidance and venting are also essential parts of emotional mastery.
"Senior Sister, I wonder just how strong you are, that you feel entitled to stand there meddling and wasting my time?"
I narrowed my eyes with a smile, silently sliding the ring off my right hand and clenching it into a tight fist. I was afraid I might shatter the thing when I actually moved.
"Oh? Quite the temper, aren't we? I like that. Senior Sister here has been practicing body arts for several years, you know. Even before I enrolled, I was the type who lived at the gym. That Body Tempering Ring of yours is a pretty old model. Want Senior Sister to give you a new one? As for the price..."
"No need. Also, I have a girlfriend. Stop bothering me."
"Huh? A girlfriend?" The leader of the group was visibly stunned by my words.
They had originally planned to have some fun by trying to "turn" a cute junior sister, but they hadn't expected her to be so blunt... and already taken.
"A girlfriend? Hehe~ doesn't that make it even more interesting?"
After the brief shock, their faces lit up with even more delighted smiles. A junior sister who had already tasted the joys of being with a girl? That made things much more intriguing!
"Heh..."
I let out a cold laugh. I hadn't guessed wrong; it was going to come to blows. Although she claimed to have been a body cultivator for years, my Spirit Vision told me she wasn't a true body cultivator—she was likely just someone who practiced body arts.
I admitted her physical stats were much higher than mine; that was simply the result of time. With a Body Tempering Ring, from primary to advanced, anyone who put in the work could basically achieve that level of physical fitness.
But even now, in her every movement, her body lacked the ability to trigger natural resonance. In body cultivation terms, she lacked Internal Energy.
One must understand that before reaching the Transcendent level, the physical body has a so-called "ceiling." Pure physical strength without the enhancement of the Transcendent level is nothing more than slightly tougher meat to a predator.
Among those close to me, the only one with Internal Energy was the senior sister with the water bottle from earlier. She possessed a faint aura—that "resonance" between the body and the surrounding environmental energy was almost impossible to hide from me.
I hadn't paid attention to those further away. As long as they didn't come looking for trouble, I couldn't be bothered to check their backgrounds.
"Then why don't you guess? Why is my girlfriend so comfortable letting me come here alone?"
I gripped my right wrist with my left hand, clenching my fist and rotating it slightly, as if warming up my joints.
"Oh? Are you going to use your 'wittle fists' to pound on my chest? Go ahead then~" Seeing my movements, the senior sister provocatively unbuttoned the top button of her shirt and puffed out her chest boastfully.
Not just her, but the others around her did the same. It seemed this group were repeat offenders; their movements were so practiced. Why didn't they just film some suggestive videos and upload them to the Academy Network to benefit all the lonely senior sisters out there?
"Hey! Wait, everyone, give me some face..."
At this moment, Coach Liv, who had been standing nearby for a while, hurried forward to intervene. But before she could finish her sentence, the words died in her throat.
Because... at that moment, I tightened my fist. The emotions that had been stirred up finally found an outlet, yet my face wore only a faint, calm smile.
A surge of Internal Energy swirled around my body. The moment I took an offensive stance, this aura rose, and my body began to spontaneously resonate with Transcendent energy.
There were no flashy tricks. It was a simple straight punch. As my fist swung, it let out a sharp crack as it broke the air.
A simple wind-up and a punch—two movements. The moment I wound up, the smile the senior sister hadn't had time to retract froze on her face.
They felt a suffocating pressure gather in front of them. Their bodies sensed the danger a step faster than their brains.
BOOM—!
An ear-piercing sonic boom erupted in the direction of the punch. The force carried by the fist sent ripples through the air.
Inside the poorly ventilated indoor hall, a vortex of airflow suddenly whipped up.
The senior sister directly facing the punch... under the terrifying air pressure, her face momentarily distorted, and her hair was blown back by the surging current.
When it was all over, her face was a mask of blank shock. Her hair hung disheveled behind her, and her clothes had been ruffled into a mess by the powerful gust.
The punch was thunderous in its momentum.
However, only I knew that I hadn't actually focused the Internal Energy. If I had, I would have been giving this senior sister a free plastic surgery session.
Since I wanted to establish dominance and create a visual effect, I naturally wasn't going to actually injure her. Otherwise, I'd have to pay the mana cost for her healing, and that wouldn't be cost-effective at all. Scaring her enough so she wouldn't bother me again was plenty.
"Now, where did you say you wanted my 'wittle fists' to hit?"
Retracting my punch, I flexed my wrist again, as if I hadn't quite had my fill with that one strike.
Watching her expression shift from blankness to sheer terror, I felt quite satisfied. At least the effect was excellent.
"I... you..." The senior sister clearly hadn't recovered from the shock. Her legs were visibly shaking, and a moment later, she collapsed limply to the floor.
The senior sisters watching from a distance were equally stunned. What had they just seen?
Body Cultivation Internal Energy!
How were they supposed to feel about that, while they were still struggling with basic body arts techniques?
This wasn't some new junior sister; this was a Big Shot!
At least in the field of body cultivation, this was an absolute powerhouse! They wondered if they were dreaming—witnessing a Big Shot come here to smurf in the newbie pond. More importantly, someone had actually been stupid enough to run right into her.
On the other side, the senior sister who had just finished adjusting her physical state and was about to take a sip of water to rehydrate spat it all out at the sight...
"Pfft... cough cough... Sigh, what a waste..."
She wiped the corner of her mouth and sighed softly, immediately standing up and walking toward the scene. She had actually misjudged the newcomer earlier.
But... a junior sister who had mastered Internal Energy coming here to practice the Primary Ritual War Dance?
What was she thinking?
She subconsciously looked at her own right hand. As she clenched her fist, a faint trace of Internal Energy dissipated, but she knew clearly that she couldn't produce a punch with the thunderous momentum she had just witnessed.
Meanwhile, as my gaze swept over the nearby senior sisters watching the commotion, they tactfully backed away. The one who had provoked me was being clumsily dragged away by her friends.
My gaze landed on a figure who hadn't had time to leave yet. "Coach Liv, thank you for your earlier warning. However, I've handled the trouble myself, so you don't need to worry." I said with a smile.
After all, I had heard what the coach shouted just now. Even if it might not have been necessary, it was the thought that counted.
"No, I didn't really help with anything... Haha, well, I'll be going then." Liv scratched her head awkwardly and turned to leave.
But internally, she was screaming.
You call that 'having a bit of a foundation' in body cultivation? You're just here to stomp newbies, aren't you?!
Seeing that no one was bothering me anymore, I breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed the deterrent power of body cultivation was quite strong.
However, scaring that girl until her legs gave out was something I hadn't expected. Based on my assumptions about high-year senior sisters, their strength shouldn't have been that pathetic, right?
Besides, for a witch, body arts weren't everything. Even if they put all their energy into body arts, the confidence provided by their spellbooks should have prevented them from being that easily terrified.
But I didn't care to dwell on it. I had no need to compare myself to these people.
The people around me should be there to provide pressure and push me to improve, not to give me a sense of superiority.
If I could do better, why should I be complacent just because of my environment?
That would be true negligence toward myself.
Now that no one was disturbing me, I could finally practice on my own.
I felt like I had just started to get a handle on this Ritual War Dance. Being forced to stop earlier had almost broken my train of thought; now was the perfect time to pick it back up.
First, the opening stance of the Ritual War Dance...
As I began to try again, I caught a glimpse of the senior sister who had given me pointers earlier. She was standing a fair distance away, holding her nearly empty water bottle, watching quietly. This time, she didn't say a word; she just watched.
After confirming she wasn't going to offer any more "guidance," I closed my eyes and ignored everything else.
I focused entirely on practicing the Ritual War Dance.
Normally, it's better to practice the Ritual War Dance with your eyes open, preferably in front of a mirror so you can correct your movements at any time.
But as a Self-Awakened Body Cultivator, my control over my body was already beyond the need for visual correction.
I closed my eyes simply to simulate the movements in my mind, attempting to see the runes interpreted within those actions.
Gradually, my physical movements began to deviate. The actions were still those of the Ritual War Dance, but I was slowly correcting them, testing new possibilities, trying to trace them back to their source. I was using my body to tell the story of the ritual through the lens of Rune Rituals.
The senior sister nearby naturally noticed my movements were "deforming." Several times she looked like she wanted to say something, but in the end, she kept her mouth shut. She no longer had the casual mindset of someone giving pointers to a novice.
Until, in her eyes, she saw a shifting rune seemingly rise behind my figure, pulsating in rhythm with my dance.
At that sight, her pupils dilated in shock!
At the same time, she felt certain that her decision not to speak up was the right one.
The Primary Ritual War Dance... had manifested the sign of Martial Arts Perfection: a Martial Rune!
Could a ritual dance that required alchemy items... even be considered a form of body arts?
She subconsciously swallowed. Everything she was seeing challenged her understanding... but she didn't care about that. She just felt a heat rising in her body, because this was the level she had always pursued.
Coach! I want to learn that too!
I, of course, didn't care about the senior sister's internal drama. I was focused on exploring new possibilities. From the start, I hadn't planned to follow the book exactly. The book provided concepts and frameworks, but everyone is different. I only learned the logic and principles; the rest I filled in using my own extensive knowledge and brainpower.
And the reality was exactly as I had imagined.
I could feel the Body Tempering Ring constantly draining my mana and frantically feeding it back into me. This was the greatest affirmation of my efforts. I practiced several times in a row without stopping.
When I finally opened my eyes, I felt a surge of Transcendent power resonating around me. This power seemed to be a "natural phenomenon" spontaneously gathered after my modifications to the Ritual War Dance—a product of the body resonating with the environment.
After thinking it through, I stopped worrying about it. I'd just treat it as a special effect of using the Ritual War Dance; it didn't have much practical use anyway.
Feeling my physical exhaustion, I decided to call it a day for my first attempt. I knew the dangers of overdoing it, and I had already practiced the dance several times.
I also took a moment to feel the improvement in my physical stats. It was pleasing. Even without resonating Internal Energy, the force behind a single punch was quite terrifying.
I wondered if there was a place to test my striking power, but then again, raw power didn't always mean everything.
After mastering Internal Energy, I realized that if a body cultivator was still just comparing raw strength, it was a fundamental limitation in their way of thinking. It was like meditators comparing the strength of their mental power by turning it into psychokinesis to see whose was stronger—it was meaningless. Is that how mental power is supposed to be used?
Mental power was never meant for direct comparison of strength; spells based on mental power were far more powerful than pure mental force.
It was the same for physical stats. So-called strength, agility, and reaction speed were merely extensions of a body cultivator's attributes. The Body Cultivation Realm was the foundation, and body arts were the means of combat—a pure art of killing.
"Whew~"
I let out a soft breath, letting my body slowly return to its normal state from the heightened condition.
My gaze shifted back to the senior sister standing nearby. she seemed to have been standing there dazed for quite a while, motionless. I didn't know what she was doing.
I snapped my fingers, and the sweat on my body and my slightly damp clothes instantly became dry and crisp. Small spell tricks like this were so convenient.
I glanced around and saw I had nothing to take with me, so I clapped my hands, ready to leave.
"Um... wait a moment."
Just as I was about to leave, the senior sister finally called out to me.
I glanced at her. I thought she was going to stand there forever. "Is something the matter, Senior Sister?"
"Uh..." Being called "Senior Sister" suddenly gave her a strange feeling. "I wanted to ask... how did you practice that? That thing just now... was that a Martial Rune?"
"Martial Rune... does this resonance effect actually have a technical name?"
"Resonance effect?! This... this isn't just an effect! How could it be just an effect?" she explained excitedly. Even though she wasn't the one who had achieved it, she seemed more anxious than I was.
"Stop. While I appreciate the pointers you gave me earlier, could you not act so familiar? You haven't even told me your name, and you want to discuss this with me?"