Devil Training! Three Months Later!

"Eat slowly, don't choke." Shao Xin smiled at the two children. "This meat is rich in concentrated power essence. Eat more—it'll be good for your bodies."

After eating and resting for half an hour, training continued.

The morning was for combat training.

Li Yusong stood in the center of the field with the Dragon Pattern Staff in hand, expressionlessly watching Ma Hongjun and Oscar.

"Little Oscar, come here."

Oscar swallowed and walked forward.

"Hongjun said you can't rely on Soul Bones, and I agree," Li Yusong said. "In a real battle, you can't guarantee that you'll have a chance to use a Soul Bone every time. And you can't expose a Soul Bone in front of outsiders, either. So, you need to learn how to fight using your Soul Ring skills."

Oscar nodded.

"Your first soul skill is recovery and can't be directly used for offense. Your second soul skill increases strength and can raise your attack power. But you have no weapon and no combat skills. Brute force alone isn't enough."

Li Yusong picked up a wooden stick from the side and tossed it to Oscar.

"Use this for now. Once you can hit me even once with that stick, I'll start teaching you real staff techniques."

Oscar caught the stick and took a deep breath.

He ate a Strength Sausage and felt power flood every part of his body.

"Daddy Has a Strength Sausage!"

After chanting the incantation, he gripped the stick with both hands and charged at Li Yusong.

He swept the stick sideways.

Li Yusong sidestepped, then lightly tapped with the Dragon Pattern Staff, striking Oscar's wrist.

The wooden stick flew from his grasp.

"Too slow." Li Yusong's face remained expressionless. "Again."

Oscar picked up the wooden stick and charged forward once more.

One strike.

Two strikes.

Three strikes.

Ten strikes.

Twenty strikes.

Fifty strikes.

Every time, Li Yusong's Dragon Pattern Staff beat him so thoroughly that he had no chance to fight back.

His wrist was swollen from the blows, his shoulder had been numbed by jabs, and even his knees had been struck several times.

But he did not give up.

He picked up the stick and went again.

Ma Hongjun watched from the side and nodded to himself.

Oscar's willpower was even stronger than he had imagined.

--

The afternoon was Ma Hongjun's personal training time.

He did not need anyone to push him. He had set his own goal.

Weighted squats, push-ups, pull-ups, sprinting... He did every exercise until exhaustion, then gritted his teeth and forced himself through another set.

Watching from the side, Zhao Wuji could not help asking Flender, "Is this kid made of iron?"

Flender leaned against the wall with his arms folded, the corners of his mouth faintly curving upward.

"He's not made of iron. He has a goal in his heart."

"What goal?"

"To break through Rank Twenty before he turns seven."

Zhao Wuji froze for a moment, then shook his head.

"He's Rank Sixteen now, and he has... about four months until he turns seven, right? Four ranks in four months, plus breaking through a bottleneck—it won't be easy."

"That's why he's working so desperately," Flender said.

--

Nighttime was for medicinal baths.

Shao Xin used the bones of the Vajra Bear to brew a huge pot of medicinal broth. It was pitch-black, giving off a strong herbal smell mixed with a faint scent of blood.

Ma Hongjun and Oscar took off their clothes and sat in the bathing barrels.

The medicinal broth was hot enough to redden their skin.

The medicine seeped through their pores and into their bodies, resonating with the physical exhaustion from the day. Under its effects, the soreness deep within their muscles slowly eased.

Ma Hongjun closed his eyes and reviewed the day's training in his mind.

His breathing rhythm during the morning run had been fine, but it had become a little disordered during the final stretch. He needed to pay attention tomorrow.

During the morning sparring, his attacks were still too straightforward and easy to predict.

He needed to add feints and learn to mislead opponents with his eyes and shoulders.

During the afternoon conditioning, his right arm had reached exhaustion before his left while doing pull-ups. That meant his strength was unbalanced, so he needed to train his left hand more in the future.

After the medicinal bath came meditation.

Ma Hongjun sat cross-legged on his bed and followed the advanced Soul Power guidance method Flender had taught him, guiding his Soul Power through his meridians.

His Soul Power was like a warm little stream, slowly flowing along a specific route. Each time it completed a cycle, it became a little more refined, and its total amount increased slightly.

Not much.

But as the days accumulated, it would eventually undergo a qualitative change.

He was not anxious.

Cultivation was a lifelong matter. It could not be rushed.

Improve a little every day. Grow a little stronger every day.

Four months later, he would definitely break through Rank Twenty.

--

The days passed one by one.

Oscar's combat experience grew rapidly.

At first, Li Yusong could defeat him with a single strike. Then Oscar could endure three moves, five moves, ten moves.

He also became increasingly skilled in using Strength Sausages, knowing when he should eat one and when he should not.

More importantly, he had begun to develop combat awareness.

He no longer just charged forward foolishly. He began to think.

Where would the opponent's next attack come from?

How should I dodge?

How should I counterattack after dodging?

All of this had been hammered into him one staff strike at a time by Li Yusong.

Ma Hongjun was improving as well.

After a month, he could barely feel the fifty-pound weights anymore.

Zhao Wuji raised the weight to eighty pounds, then increased it to one hundred.

He became faster, stronger, and more enduring.

The frequency of his Evil Fire outbreaks also declined.

He used Wings of Light every day, and the Light Power continuously neutralized its evil nature, keeping him clear-headed and calm.

Every night after meditating, he wrote down that day's gains and shortcomings in a notebook.

His handwriting was crooked, but every stroke was earnest.

My coordination between speed and strength still isn't smooth enough. I need to improve it tomorrow.

Oscar is improving faster than I am. I can't let him leave me behind.

I'm still three ranks away from Rank Twenty, with three and a half months left. There's still time.

After finishing, he closed the notebook and turned off the light.

Tomorrow would be a new day.

Time passed quickly.

In the blink of an eye, three months had gone by.

At Shrek Academy in the early morning, the sky had not yet brightened.

In the courtyard, a figure circled through the air, sometimes high and sometimes low, sometimes fast and sometimes slow. As his wings beat, specks of golden light scattered down.

It was Ma Hongjun.

After three months of intense training, his changes were obvious to the naked eye.

He had grown taller, his shoulders had broadened, and his arms had thickened. His entire body was like a sharpened blade, radiating a keen and vigorous spirit. Long-term weight training had made his muscle definition clearer. Though he still retained a youth's lean build, he had begun to show the physique of a martial artist.

His use of his first soul skill, Wings of Light, had already reached perfection.

At first, he could only fly for forty seconds. Now, when he activated it at full power, he could last nearly two minutes. His flight altitude had risen from fifteen meters to thirty, and his speed had nearly doubled. More importantly, his control in the air had become far more precise—sudden stops, turns, skimming low across the ground, aerial rolls—he could execute every movement flawlessly.

Ma Hongjun suddenly folded his wings in midair and dove down like a falling meteor.

Less than a meter from the ground, his wings abruptly spread wide, whipping up a fierce gust as he landed steadily.