Physical Fitness

There were quite a few people in the village. It was not until evening that Jiang Yue, relying on Passionate Sword's sharpness, barely managed to drag all the corpses into the pit. He no longer had any strength left. As for burying them, that could wait until tomorrow.

At this moment, after finishing his labor, Jiang Yue's skin had turned a dull gray. His entire body looked as though it were wrapped in a layer of gray skin, but the layer was not thick. A simple rub would make it peel away from his skin.

Other than physical exhaustion, Jiang Yue felt nothing else—not even the slightest soreness.

It was as if there were a small sun inside his body, keeping him warm and comfortable. His body retained only exhaustion, without any pain.

Noticing the unusual state of his body, Jiang Yue came before the old man and solemnly bowed.

The reason his body had become like this was entirely because, while digging the pit, the soul power within him had circulated along the path of the old man's soul power, bringing him these benefits.

"There are still quite a lot of impurities in your body. Go back and wash yourself clean first."

With a wave of the old man's hand, the two of them returned to the room from that morning. The moment they arrived, Jiang Yue immediately ran into the bathroom to wash away the grime covering his body.

As he scrubbed away the filth, Jiang Yue was extremely curious about the old man's methods. It was remarkably similar to the Mysterious Water Pill of the Mysterious Underworld Sect—both cleansed the muscles and marrow. Yet the old man had not relied on any heavenly treasures, accomplishing it solely with his own soul power.

Even Jiang Yue had no understanding of this method, though it was still within the bounds of what he could accept. If a powerful expert could not cleanse the muscles and marrow of a child who had just awakened their martial soul, that would be rather undignified.

While Jiang Yue's thoughts wandered, the old man's voice sounded beside his ear and began explaining some common knowledge about the world of soul masters.

"Soul masters have developed for ten thousand years. Ten thousand years ago, Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang proposed that the optimal age limit for a first soul ring was four hundred and twenty-three years. But in truth, that age limit was only achievable by descendants of great families ten thousand years ago."

"Even now, many ordinary people still cannot obtain a first soul ring of four hundred and twenty-three years. Yet for the great families of today, surpassing that limit is still quite easy."

"The difference lies in whether one is willing to risk one's life for an extra one or two hundred years that can easily be made up for in the later stages of cultivation. Great families value stability above all else. They would not do something so risky for a reward that is not overwhelmingly worthwhile."

"Today, this old man used his soul power to expel quite a few impurities from your body. Next, use soul power to properly nurture your body. During this time, improve your physical fitness as much as possible. You are not like those descendants of great families. You have no background and no resources to draw upon. You must seize every opportunity that can make you stronger."

"I understand. Thank you for your guidance."

After hearing the old man's telepathic words, Jiang Yue voiced his understanding.

A human expert capable of wielding spatial power and using soul power to help others expel impurities from their bodies had to be at least a Super Douluo.

Even now, Jiang Yue still could not figure out why the old man was doing so much for him. They were neither related nor acquainted; there was absolutely no reason for it.

But none of that mattered. Jiang Yue currently had nothing. At most, the old man could take the little life he had luckily picked up.

When a person had nothing, they would not fear this or that. Therefore, no matter what the old man's purpose was, Jiang Yue was not afraid.

When Jiang Yue finished cleaning himself and came to the mirror, he discovered that his appearance had changed somewhat. With the impurities expelled from his body, his skin had improved slightly.

But better skin was not the important part. The important part was that Jiang Yue's originally black eyes had become heterochromatic: his left eye was silver, while his right eye was blue, making him exceptionally striking.

"Is this a change brought about by awakening my martial soul?"

A martial soul affecting one's appearance was nothing unusual. Some beast martial souls could even turn someone into a beast girl after awakening. Compared to that, Jiang Yue's mismatched eyes were hardly worth mentioning.

When he left the bathroom, the old man was already sitting in a chair with a book in hand, waiting for Jiang Yue. Seeing him emerge, the old man immediately handed the book over.

"You can read, right?"

"A little."

"Good. That saves this old man some effort. This book records most of the spiritual-attribute soul beasts on Douluo Continent. You must memorize what is in it."

"Spiritual attributes are known for being bizarre and difficult to deal with, but there are no particularly powerful spiritual-attribute soul masters on the continent. You can only explore your own path yourself."

"Your martial soul is a spiritual-attribute sword. You must learn sword techniques. How about this? After you finish your business tomorrow, this old man will teach you a few simple sword techniques. When I was young, I did study the sword."

"Should I call you Master?"

Holding the illustrated guide that recorded spiritual-attribute soul beasts, Jiang Yue raised his head and looked at the old man sitting upright in the chair.

The old man chuckled at Jiang Yue's words, vigorously ruffled Jiang Yue's hair, then turned serious.

"There is no need. Helping you was merely a whim of mine. There is no deep connection between us. Besides, this old man's side is far too dangerous. A little fellow like you cannot stay by my side."

"When we meet again, if you can learn my identity and still feel the same way, then call me Teacher. Before then, we are merely strangers who happened to cross paths."

"I understand."

The next day, after Jiang Yue buried all the corpses in the village, he once again became a pitch-black mud-covered figure.

This time, he only briefly washed himself in the river. Then the old man casually tapped a large tree beside them. In an instant, the tree and all its leaves turned to powder, leaving two completely natural wooden swords in the old man's hands.

When Jiang Yue saw the old man hand both swords to him, how could he fail to understand that the old man had long seen through the fact that he possessed twin martial souls?

Just as he was about to say something, the old man waved his hand, signaling Jiang Yue not to speak. Then he tapped Jiang Yue's right hand several times. Jiang Yue immediately felt that his right hand had become utterly unfamiliar, even more awkward than his left.

"Details determine success or failure. Anyone with a little experience can see through it at a glance. If you do not want others to discover your secret, you must get used to using your left hand from now on. Remember: starting today, you are left-handed."

"Your situation is different. You must become proficient with both hands. Until you can use your left hand skillfully, I will not remove the restriction on your right hand."

With no other choice, Jiang Yue began swinging his sword under the old man's instruction. The basic sword techniques consisted of fourteen moves: thrust, lift, cloud, slash, chop, point, flick, hang, sweep upward, wipe, sweep, parry, intercept, and flourish. But Jiang Yue found even swinging a sword with his left hand incredibly difficult, let alone performing the other movements.

The wooden sword in his hand felt completely different from Passionate Sword. To Jiang Yue, Passionate Sword was more like an extension of his body; he could clearly sense the connection between himself and it.

But he did not feel that way with the wooden sword in his hand. It was merely an ordinary weapon.

Jiang Yue had just intended to casually swing the wooden sword a few times to get used to it when he felt a force forcibly correcting his posture.

He glanced at the old man and saw him sitting on a nearby stump with his eyes closed, seemingly resting. Jiang Yue knew this was the old man's instruction. He was certain that the old man before him was no ordinary person. For Jiang Yue, who currently possessed nothing and knew absolutely nothing about the path of a soul master, this guidance was incomparably precious.

He cautiously swung his sword with earnest focus. That force appeared again, but this time, it merely silently adjusted Jiang Yue's movements, allowing him to wield the wooden sword with proper form.

Perhaps Jiang Yue's current physical condition was simply too weak. He had not swung his sword for long before soreness appeared in many parts of his body. Just as he instinctively tried to circulate his soul power to ease the discomfort, the old man interrupted the flow of soul power within him.

"Physical fitness is very important to soul masters, and even more so for you. Training tears your muscles apart, and rest allows them to repair themselves. That is the process of improving your physical condition."

"Train properly when you train, and rest properly when you rest. Do not rush to heal your muscles while training, nor should you compress your rest time. If you do, your body will remain constantly tense. Not only will it fail to speed up your cultivation, it will instead reduce the efficiency of your growth."

"Moreover, going against your body's instincts during this process—actively suppressing your soul power and refusing to use it for assistance—is itself an alternative way of training your control over soul power."

The body was the foundation of everything. Before absorbing a soul ring over ten thousand years old, a soul master only needed to consider whether their body could withstand it.

The reason twin martial souls were so powerful was that they could absorb eighteen soul rings, while the second martial soul could even theoretically be equipped entirely with hundred-thousand-year soul rings.

Of course, an all-hundred-thousand-year soul ring setup was merely a theoretically possible fantasy. An ordinary soul master's physical condition could not withstand so many soul rings. If their body was too weak, they might not even be able to fill all the soul ring slots of their second martial soul.

But without question, for a twin martial soul master, physical fitness had to be taken seriously if they wanted their second martial soul to absorb more soul rings of better quality and greater age.

In order to make Jiang Yue completely proficient with his left hand in a short time, he could only use his left hand, whether for sword practice or in everyday life.

Since his right hand had become even harder to control than his left, Jiang Yue was forced to use his unfamiliar left hand in daily life as well. Since it concerned his everyday needs, in just over a month, he became adept at using his left hand.

In fact, within that short period, Jiang Yue had already learned to write some simple characters with his left hand.

Though they looked ugly, like scribbles.

At the same time, during the month or so he had lived with the old man, Jiang Yue had learned quite a few things from him besides sword techniques.

Aside from the advanced meditation method, Jiang Yue's body was now vastly different from what it had been over a month ago. The old man had helped expel the impurities from his body with soul power, while their soul powers had jointly nourished his meridians. He also practiced swordsmanship every day. How could his physical condition not have improved under such circumstances?

Only after Jiang Yue had no trouble using his left hand did the old man remove the restriction on his right hand. Yet after his right hand recovered, perhaps because it had gone unused for so long, Jiang Yue found it somewhat unfamiliar.

Holding a wooden sword in each hand, Jiang Yue adjusted to them briefly before nodding to the old man.

The old man closed his eyes and placed a hand on Jiang Yue's shoulder. Threads of soul power entered Jiang Yue's body, probing his current physical condition.

With the old man's help, the impurities Jiang Yue had accumulated over the years before awakening his martial soul had almost all been expelled. Combined with the nourishment of soul power, his body was far stronger than before.

"Mm, not bad. Your current physical condition is enough for you to absorb a soul beast of over five hundred years as your first soul ring."

"Ah? Only five hundred years? Not even six hundred?"

"Hehe, before you were six, you had no resources at all. You probably had never even seen any of the good things used to nourish the body and meridians. For your physical condition to improve this much in just over a month is already quite impressive. What? Were you expecting your first soul ring to be eight or nine hundred years old? Your second soul ring to be a thousand years?"

"Although I told you before to seize every opportunity to grow stronger, I did not mean for you to risk your life like this. I once had an exceptionally gifted friend. Even with the backing of a major power, though his fourth soul ring reached the ten-thousand-year level, his second soul ring was still only a hundred-year yellow soul ring."

"A soul master's early cultivation is extremely important. The level one reaches before the age of twenty largely determines the height that soul master can attain in their lifetime. To become a Title Douluo, one must at the very least become a Soul King before turning twenty."

"Do not deliberately hold yourself at a bottleneck and refuse to absorb a soul ring merely for that little bit of extra ring age. Such shortsighted behavior is putting the cart before the horse, and it will only harm your future."

The old man's words plunged Jiang Yue into thought. A thousand-year second soul ring was certainly difficult to achieve, but that did not mean major powers were incapable of producing juniors like that.

It was simply because major powers placed greater importance on the word "stability" and would not casually let their juniors undertake something so risky.

A thousand-year soul ring would basically become insignificant once a soul master had grown stronger. High-level soul masters began with ten-thousand-year soul skills, and a ten-thousand-year fourth ring offered far better value than a thousand-year second ring.

Looking across the era of the Unrivaled Tang Sect, aside from Huo Yuhao, that absurdly overpowered protagonist, only Wang Dong among the others possessed a thousand-year second ring.

Naturally, cases like the Body Sect, whose circumstances were unclear, and the Holy Spirit Church, which had obviously relied on forbidden methods to improve themselves, had to be excluded.

"Enough, let's not talk about that. You were born with full soul power. If you want to continue cultivating, you must have a soul ring. Even if the soul power you cultivate will lie dormant in your body and only emerge after you absorb a soul ring, the cultivation speeds of a Soul Scholar and a Soul Master are still different."

"Your physical condition cannot possibly reach such an outrageous level in a short time. Remaining stuck at the bottleneck for too long will do you more harm than good."

"Have you decided after all this time? Your future development path?"

"I decided long ago. Or rather, it has never changed from beginning to end: the control system."

"..."

The old man rubbed his forehead. He was speechless. After spending this time together, he had determined that while Jiang Yue had plenty of his own ideas, he was not the sort of child who refused to listen to reason. But why was he so unwilling to heed advice when it came to the development path of the Passionate Sword?

The old man had clearly told Jiang Yue many times during this period, yet he had not expected Jiang Yue to remain so stubbornly set on his own opinion.

A sword martial soul that did not follow the assault or agility system, but instead chose the control system—was that not abandoning a broad road to heaven in favor of some narrow side path?

Even with the old man's experience, he had never seen or heard of a sword martial soul following the control system.

The old man felt like a failure. He had possessed considerable renown in the soul master world when he was young, yet he could not even persuade a child.

With a helpless sigh, the old man finally decided not to interfere with Jiang Yue's decision.

Jiang Yue was different from others. He had the means to make mistakes. Even if the Passionate Sword became neither fish nor fowl by following the control system, he still had that other sword he had seen back then as a fallback.

Moreover, as long as he absorbed soul rings from spiritual-attribute soul beasts according to the Passionate Sword's attributes, then no matter how far off its development path became, it would not stray too far, and its power would not be greatly affected.

As for why Jiang Yue had chosen to develop the Passionate Sword along the control system, one reason was that he possessed twin martial souls, so his first martial soul was less important than his second.

The other reason was Zang Xin, the Passionate Douluo, who was originally meant to be born ten thousand years later. He possessed the Passionate Sword martial soul and had reached Rank 99, becoming an Ultimate Douluo. He was also publicly recognized as the number one control-system soul master of the Legend of the Dragon King era.

With a successful example right before him, and with it being impossible for there to be another owner of the Passionate Sword martial soul in this era, Jiang Yue naturally wanted to follow that successful precedent, especially when there were so few spiritual-attribute soul masters.

"Sigh, forget it, forget it. Young people nowadays have far more ideas of their own than we did in my time. I suppose there is no use trying to persuade you any further. Do as you wish."

"Thank you."