Testing Physical Abilities

Early the next morning, Liu Erlong woke Zhou Liang up quite early and brought him to a training ground area in the back mountains.

"Master, why did you call me over so early?" Zhou Liang yawned and asked.

"To test you, of course. We tested your Martial Soul yesterday, but your physical fitness hasn't been tested yet. We're filling in that gap today," Liu Erlong said to Zhou Liang before her.

Then, she pointed to a bucket of cold water nearby and said, "Use the cold water to wash your face first and wake yourself up."

Zhou Liang instantly perked up, glanced at Liu Erlong, then looked at the bucket of cold water, and finally walked obediently over to the cold water, washed his face, and completely woke himself up.

After standing up, he noticed the surroundings were different. There were many strange apparatuses nearby, and just looking at them made it impossible to tell what they were for.

"Master, what are all these?" Zhou Liang said, looking at those strange gear-fitted apparatuses nearby.

"These are tools to test physical strength. Come over here," Liu Erlong said, pointing to a strange mechanical rack.

This rack looked somewhat like a horizontal bar, beneath which round iron balls hung evenly one after another, growing larger from left to right.

"Little Liangliang, these wooden sticks have iron balls of different weights connected underneath them. From left to right, they are ten jin, twenty jin, thirty jin, all the way up to two hundred jin. Use both hands to try them one by one until you can no longer push them. You cannot use soul power during the process," Liu Erlong pointed at the rack and said to Zhou Liang.

Zhou Liang nodded, first walking over to the ten-jin wooden stick, reaching out with both hands to grasp it, and pushing forward. He did not feel much resistance and pushed it very easily.

After gently returning this stick to its place, he came to the twenty-jin one. After grabbing the stick, he pushed it easily as well.

Then came the thirty-jin one. Although he pushed it, he clearly felt resistance and had to use some strength to move it.

The resistance of the forty-jin one was even more intense, and when it reached fifty jin, Zhou Liang exerted a great deal of effort to push it completely away.

Finally, he arrived at the sixty-jin spot. Looking at the huge iron ball and thick wooden stick, Zhou Liang let out a breath, placed both hands on the iron ball, and used all his strength to push forward.

Although Zhou Liang had absorbed a large amount of mild toxins using the Myriad Poisons Spring Transformation Technique, greatly enhancing his physical fitness, at only six years old, he could only make the sixty-jin iron ball budge slightly before completely running out of strength.

"Master, I can't push this sixty-jin iron ball," Zhou Liang turned his head toward Liu Erlong, shook his head, and said.

Liu Erlong, however, said with glowing eyes, "Little Liangliang, even slightly weaker adults might not necessarily be able to push a sixty-jin iron ball. Your physical strength is already far superior to those of your peers."

"Come, this side goes from fifteen jin to one hundred ninety-five jin. Come over and try the fifty-five-jin one," Liu Erlong walked over to another rack and said.

Zhou Liang walked over and gave it a try. Although the fifty-five-jin iron ball looked very strenuous, he indeed pushed it away.

"Come, use your left hand to push all of them once, then switch to your right hand," Liu Erlong nodded with satisfaction, then said to Zhou Liang.

Although Zhou Liang wore a bitter expression, he still nodded, stepped forward to conduct the tests, and after finishing with both left and right hands, immediately moved on to the other apparatuses to carry out corresponding tests.

When all these tests were completed, Liu Erlong clearly understood the strength of Zhou Liang's physical capabilities, and accordingly arranged the subsequent training based on that physical strength.

"Little Liangliang, you are still young and not suited for long periods of high-intensity training. Therefore, your physical capability training for the next few years will still mainly consist of low-intensity training, primarily exercising your endurance and willpower," Liu Erlong said, standing before Zhou Liang after reviewing all the data.

"At the same time, besides physical training, there are several other aspects of cultivation that you must undertake: soul power cultivation, practical combat capability training, and the understanding of soul beasts."

"Among them, the cultivation speed of soul power mainly depends on two aspects. The first is the innate rank of soul power and the strength of the Martial Soul, and since you possess Innate Full Soul Power and top-tier Martial Soul strength, you are not weak in this aspect compared to anyone," Liu Erlong said, holding up two fingers.

"Master, what is the other aspect?" Although Zhou Liang had roughly guessed what it was, he still asked.

"The other aspect is the environment. In an environment that extremely matches one's own Martial Soul attribute, the speed of cultivation will receive a massive boost, thereby raising one's soul power at a faster pace than usual. This kind of environment is called a Mimic Cultivation Environment," Liu Erlong answered Zhou Liang.

"And your Martial Soul is a soldier. Barring accidents, the matching Mimic Cultivation Environment should be a military camp. So I directly bought an abandoned imperial military camp and had it moved intact to the back mountain," Liu Erlong turned back and pointed toward the back mountain.

"Let's go, take a look and see how effective it is," Liu Erlong said, and then led Zhou Liang toward the side.

Looking at the direction they were heading, Zhou Liang asked with some confusion, "Master, isn't this the direction toward your courtyard?"

"I moved the military camp next to my house, about fifty meters away. From now on, you must wake up at six o'clock every morning, then run from the dormitory to the military camp to carry out early morning soul power cultivation. This is your second daily course," Liu Erlong brought Zhou Liang before the courtyard where she lived.

Zhou Liang furrowed his brows slightly and asked with some confusion, "The second? Then what is the first?"

Liu Erlong led Zhou Liang into the courtyard, pointed at ten plate-thick tree stumps placed on the ground, and said to Zhou Liang, "This is your first training. After running here early in the morning, chop these ten tree stumps into firewood as thick as your fingers."

Zhou Liang looked at the ten tree stumps, glanced up at the nearby house, and said, "Master, waking up at six in the morning and running here takes about ten minutes or so. Won't that time disturb your rest?"

"I've arranged a running route for you. It will take you about forty minutes to run here, and by that time I'll already be awake," Liu Erlong took out a running route map and handed it to Zhou Liang.

Zhou Liang reached out to take the map, glanced at it, and put it away inside his clothes.

Then Liu Erlong led Zhou Liang to set off for the military camp fifty meters ahead, walking for a moment before entering the camp.

Throughout the entire military camp, training apparatuses were arrayed around the perimeter, and barracks surrounded the area. Right in the middle stood a martial arts stage, its surface covered in the scars of swords and sabers—the marks left by many people practicing martial arts upon it.