Core Perception

At the academy's back hill, Jiang Jiu's task today was to sprint uphill.

Unlike the running track, sprinting up a slope came closer to the conditions of the wilderness and worked some different muscle groups.

However, since Jiang Jiu would mainly be competing in the arena in the future, most of his cardiorespiratory endurance training would still take place on the running track.

You could tell from the fact that he'd scheduled hill sprints for his deload and recovery phase.

Including the warm-up, he finished four kilometers in all, and he and Xiao Wu returned to the track.

Xiao Wu was about to start teaching him her all-out techniques.

"Come on. Crawl after me first."

Jiang Jiu: "?"

But Xiao Wu was already on the ground, and she really did mean for Jiang Jiu to crawl after her.

But as owners of the Soft Bone Rabbit Martial Soul, shouldn't they be learning to jump?

He thought so, but still copied Xiao Wu's movements, and the two of them began crawling around the track.

Fortunately, no one else was around. Jiang Jiu followed behind Xiao Wu, gradually getting used to crawling.

After they'd crawled for a while, Xiao Wu slowly picked up speed.

Jiang Jiu's body coordination was already quite good, so he could still keep up when Xiao Wu sped up.

Xiao Wu glanced back to check where he was, then sped up again until her legs seemed to fly.

And they really did fly.

Xiao Wu shifted from crawling into a handstand, legs pointing skyward, hands supporting her. She kept moving forward on the momentum she'd built up, though her speed gradually slowed.

Jiang Jiu felt a little dizzy.

He could crawl, he could do a handstand, and he could try shifting from crawling into a handstand.

But forcibly twisting his body around to walk on his hands while overcoming the momentum of a rapid crawl required coordination, balance, and core strength. It was quite a challenge for him.

Drawing a deep breath, Jiang Jiu pushed off the ground with his legs while pressing down with his arms, forcing his hips into the air.

When shifting from crawling to a handstand, transferring his center of gravity was key.

The explosive push from his arms was only the beginning. The real focus was controlling his core.

He had to absorb the reaction force from pushing against the ground with his upper body while also stabilizing his lower body and minimizing the swing of his legs.

He also had to overcome the momentum that kept working against him throughout.

It was his first time trying something like this, but Jiang Jiu's exceptional flexibility came in handy. Along the way, he bent backward in midair while upside down, did the splits in midair while upside down, and kept moving forward with his palms supporting him.

But he managed to balance his posture, shifting from the relatively simple tuck of his knees and legs until his body was more or less aligned in a straight line.

With his head, shoulders, hips, and ankles in a line, he alternated his hands and continued following Xiao Wu's original movements in a handstand.

Xiao Wu had already stopped up ahead. Now the two of them faced each other upside down, their viewpoints novel and unusual.

"Pretty good! You got it on your first try." Xiao Wu smiled sweetly.

"Did you practice this way, too?"

Doing this whole sequence without a break was pretty dangerous.

But it was also a powerful dose of medicine. Never before had the strength of his core been so obvious. Jiang Jiu instantly understood how his core worked within his body. All that remained was to slowly figure out how to incorporate this hub of force transmission and stability into his own exertion.

For instance, although he still knew nothing about the "straight punch," Jiang Jiu now believed that if he threw another punch, even if it wasn't a straight punch, it would be just as good as one.

Learning how to punch from doing a handstand sounded strange, but the force behind his fists wouldn't lie.

"I don't need to practice this stuff. My body just knows how to do it. Let's keep at it and make sure you've got it down."

Xiao Wu pushed off with both hands, spun halfway around in the air, and continued walking along the track on her hands.

Jiang Jiu followed. This time she didn't speed up again; it felt more like they were just taking it easy for a while.

As Xiao Wu had said, Jiang Jiu's body needed a little sculpting to shape it into the best possible form for using Soft Techniques. Xiao Wu, on the other hand, was born for them—her build was perfect in every way, and only her stats needed work.

She really did have good reason to be lazy.

When she put in the effort, she could leave everyone else in the dust.

But that was probably just her nature—a weakness that came with being a genius.

"I'm taking a bath today, too."

After their handstand-walking training ended, Xiao Wu first helped Jiang Jiu stretch, then did a little stretching herself.

Unlike the usual days when she stayed on the track and watched Jiang Jiu run, she had followed along when he went uphill at the back hill.

Of course, the main reason was that she'd gotten covered in dust from all that rapid crawling.

"Then let's head back to the dorm first."

"Want to do this together with me from now on, like today?" Jiang Jiu suggested.

"Once in a while, maybe. Doing it all the time would be exhausting."

Xiao Wu preferred watching Jiang Jiu run to running long distances herself. Her eyes followed Little Jiu, so it was almost like she was running, too.

When they returned to Dorm Seven, everyone was still sleeping soundly except Tang San, who was nowhere to be seen.

After grabbing fresh clothes, the two of them quietly left the dorm again.

"You're going the wrong way."

"But didn't you say we should go together, Little Jiu?" Xiao Wu blinked.

Jiang Jiu sent Xiao Wu on her way with a blank expression.

He'd joked in his head that he'd be fine with neither of them wearing anything, since then it wouldn't be awkward, but in the end, he just couldn't do it.

Sharing a bed was fine, but bathing together was out of the question.

Maybe someday.

As he rinsed off, he reviewed his core's pulse and felt how it carried force between his upper and lower body.

It still felt like something was missing, so Jiang Jiu decided to do a handstand in the bathhouse.

Now he could feel the muscles between his waist, abdomen, pelvis, and back tighten again. The force traveled all the way from his palms to his legs and feet, though the pose wasn't exactly dignified.

"I really need to rent a little place of my own."

With a bathroom of his own, he could do whatever he wanted, and he could even build a furnace to practice smithing.

But he'd have to wait until he became a Soul Master. He and Xiao Wu would both receive allowances then, and they could spend their money more freely.

So when would he reach level ten?

Compared to when he'd first awakened his Martial Soul, with help from Xiao Wu, the hundred-thousand-year-old rabbit, and a better method of circulating Soul Power, he was accumulating Soul Power much faster. But it would still take quite a while to reach level nine.

He'd be doing well if he could gain a level every three or four months.

"Little Jiu, what are you thinking about?"

With her long hair loose and clean clothes on, Xiao Wu once again strolled right into the boys' bathhouse without a care.

Seeing Jiang Jiu doing a handstand while thinking things over, she couldn't even be bothered to cover her eyes with her hand anymore.

"You finished washing so quickly?"

"I just washed at my usual pace."

Xiao Wu giggled to herself. It wasn't because she'd made a surprise attack and hurried through her bath.

As for her hair, she was naturally beautiful, so she could do as she pleased.

Jiang Jiu wiped himself down, reflecting as he went. He was almost getting desensitized to Xiao Wu's antics.

There was no point wasting his breath. They might as well go eat breakfast.

"Hehe, Little Jiu, let me scrub your back."

"That'll be quicker. I'm hungry."

"...All right."