Devil Training in Progress!

Making a reasonable plan was easy. What was truly difficult was following it day after day, relentlessly sticking to it.

No strong person was a giant in thought but a dwarf in action.

Li Qing had become a famous Michelin Chef in his previous life not because of talent. On the contrary, he had very little talent for cooking. What he relied on was constant practice—practicing knife skills, controlling heat, and so on. After countless hours of practice, he had finally earned the appreciation and recognition of others.

Having come to the Douluo Continent, such a wonderful world—

Li Qing had already planted the seed of becoming strong in his heart. No matter how arduous the journey would be, he would persevere.

Li Qing placed an iron bar in each of the sandbags on his legs, for a total of twenty kilograms.

Without using Soul Power or Chakra, Li Qing could barely even move his legs. They were simply too heavy.

With no other choice, he began circulating his Soul Power to lessen the burden on his legs. He reduced the weight to around two kilograms and started running.

On the field, Li Qing moved forward step by step. The task he had set for himself was to run until he could run no longer.

One lap around Nuo Lan Academy's track was five hundred meters.

During the first two laps, Li Qing's breathing remained even. By the third lap, his breathing had become somewhat labored.

His physical condition was still far too poor. If it had been Tang San, he probably would not have so much as panted within five laps.

"Puff, puff, puff..."

By the fifth lap, Li Qing's pace had slowed, and damp patches had appeared on his clothes.

The sixth lap...

The seventh lap...

By the tenth lap, Li Qing's hair was drenched with sweat, as though he had just washed it. His back was covered in sweat as well, causing the shirt beneath his school uniform to cling tightly to him.

His shoes were soaked too. Every step produced a "squelch, squelch" sound.

Though his legs trembled, Li Qing still did not stop. If he stopped here, he would never achieve anything.

After finishing the tenth lap, Li Qing stopped for some lightly salted water. After wiping away his sweat with a towel, he continued his long-distance running.

By the twentieth lap, Li Qing was moving at almost a walking pace. The soreness throughout his body seemed to be telling him, "Stop. Stop. This is enough already."

He shook his head, driving away the distracting thoughts.

"I can do this! I can do this!"

Li Qing shouted loudly.

As if his self-encouragement had worked, he felt his exhaustion lessen considerably.

By the twenty-fifth lap, Li Qing's legs had completely gone limp. Stars swam before his eyes, and his consciousness had begun to blur.

"Thud... thud... thud..."

The gap between every step now felt incomparably long. A continuous trail of water had formed along the track behind Li Qing.

"Smack!"

Li Qing finally reached the limit of his body and collapsed unconscious onto the ground. His final result: twenty-four and a half laps.

Because Li Qing had fainted, every cell in his body began frantically absorbing the surrounding Soul Power, which flowed through his meridians at an astonishing speed.

Moreover, the amount of Soul Power seeping from his meridians into his muscles and bones increased drastically.

In his haze, Li Qing felt as though someone had helped him up and brought him back to the dormitory.

The moon rose in the east.

Li Qing woke up. The moment he opened his eyes, he cried out.

"Ahh!"

With all that lactic acid built up in his body, the soreness was truly something else.

"Qingzi, you're awake." Tang San, who had been cultivating on his bed, heard Li Qing's cry. He got down from his bed and handed him a cup of warm water.

"Thanks!" Li Qing took the cup and drank deeply.

After finishing the water, Li Qing looked at Tang San. "Xiao San, was it you who brought me back?"

"I happened to be passing by and found you lying on the track, covered in sweat, so I brought you back."

"Alright, thanks again!"

After saying that, Li Qing began circulating his Soul Power to break down the lactic acid accumulated in his body.

He moved his arms and found that they were no longer quite so sore. He then jumped out of bed and went to take a bath. His entire body was sticky and unbearably uncomfortable.

After bathing, he went to the cafeteria. After all that exercise, his stomach had long been protesting with growls.

After eating twice as much as usual, Li Qing was full.

Even so, Li Qing did not take off the sandbags on his legs. He intended to treat this as part of his daily life and keep at it without fail.

That night, Li Qing sat cross-legged on his bed in Meditation.

To his surprise, he discovered that his efficiency in using Soul Power had improved by just a tiny bit.

Perhaps it's because my cells are exhausted and need more energy to nourish them, Li Qing guessed.

The next day, early in the morning.

After recovering overnight, Li Qing's body was back to normal.

After running ten laps around the field that morning, Li Qing stopped. It was not because he wanted to give up, but because he needed a new set of clothes specifically for training.

Nuo Lan Academy's uniforms were all robes and outerwear, making them unsuitable for exercise.

Li Qing decided to go into Nuo Lan City that morning and have one or two sets of clothes tailored. Training would be paused for half a day.

Nuo Lan City, a very small tailor shop.

There was only one man in the tailor shop, a middle-aged man in his fifties or sixties. Wearing square glasses, he was cutting fabric for a set of clothes.

"Hello, sir. Can I have a set of clothes tailored?"

The middle-aged man looked up at Li Qing. "You want clothes made?"

"Yes, clothes like these."

Li Qing took a sheet of paper from his robes. It showed a clothing design he had drawn that morning: very simple, consisting of a short-sleeved shirt and a pair of shorts.

The tailor took the drawing and glanced at it. "I can make it."

"Alright, but I have one more requirement. The clothes must be made from sweat-absorbing fabric. Money isn't a problem, so please make them properly. I want three sets in total."

"No problem!" The tailor took out a measuring tape. "Let's measure you first."

"Alright!"

Before long, all of Li Qing's measurements had been taken.

"Pay three Silver Spirit Coins as a deposit first. Come collect the clothes in three days."

"Alright, boss!"

Over the next three days, Li Qing continued his brutal training every day, never stopping until he reached his limit.

Moreover, his results improved daily: twenty-five laps, twenty-five and a half laps. On the day he received his clothes, Li Qing successfully reached twenty-six laps.

Of course, Li Qing did more than run. He also did push-ups and sit-ups, each time continuing until his waist and back ached and his body went numb.

A week later, Li Qing had broken through to thirty-five laps.

A month later, the sandbags on each of Li Qing's legs had increased to five kilograms, and he could run fifty laps.

Three months later, Li Qing's Soul Power had risen by one rank, and he looked like an entirely different person. Six-year-old Li Qing was now one meter thirty tall. When he rolled up his pant legs, the explosive power contained in his calf muscles was clear to see. Six-pack abs had also appeared on his stomach.

He could now walk naturally while wearing ten-kilogram sandbags.

This morning, Li Qing was running when a familiar yet unfamiliar voice rang out in his mind.

"Ding, congratulations to the host for successfully obtaining the Eight Inner Gates cultivation method.

Eight Inner Gates..."