A year passed in the blink of an eye, and Lucas was now six years old. Next month, he would join the morning training group. Today, he once again finished carving a stone Wind Wolf.
After all, Lucas was confident that he would become a Saint someday, so he had destroyed all his earlier, crude stone carvings. Over the past year, the stone chips from his carving had covered a small patch of ground.
That patch of his family's courtyard was now paved with broken stone, with no dirt visible. Still, this Wind Wolf was a modest success in capturing its likeness. Judged by the standards of his later era, it would have been worth ten copper coins. But Lucas destroyed it anyway!
After two years of meditation training, his spiritual power had reached three times its original level. Now, however, he noticed that its growth had begun to slow noticeably, no longer rising at the tremendous speed it had at first.
What he did not know was that the initial rapid growth had been abnormal. His current rate of improvement was the normal one. His earlier rapid progress had come from the benefits of Soul Mutation and the fact that he had never trained before. As he began training over these two years, he made use of the lingering benefits of Soul Mutation, gradually exhausting them. Only afterward did his soul begin improving at the normal rate for living beings in the Coiling Dragon Universe! His spiritual power had already reached the level of a Third-Rank Magus.
Lucas knew that magic was the Sovereigns' simplification of the laws, so he was now trying to comprehend those laws. Unfortunately, even though he had been a feng shui master in his previous life and was fairly familiar with the contours of the earth, the laws were not so easily comprehended!
Lucas planned to train his body first, letting his consciousness become accustomed to it. Then he would use the breathing methods he knew from his previous life to see whether he could create Battle Qi. After that, he would comprehend the elemental laws of earth through stone carving!
That day, Lucas's father called him up and said, "Today is the day you join morning training."
Lucas had already been exercising on his own every morning, so he was ready by the time his father came to get him. When he arrived at the square where everyone usually trained, he saw that Benny, who usually got along fairly well with him when they played, was there too.
When Benny saw Lucas, he came over as usual and said, "You're here! Come on, I'll take you over."
Lucas nodded, said a word to his father, and went to assemble in the square. Once Benny brought Lucas over, he noticed that the shy little girl from their earlier games was there too. Still rather shy, she stood behind the crowd. Lucas nodded to her!
She shyly lowered her head. Lucas remembered her because he had lost their game last time. A greeting was enough; morning training was what mattered most right now.
Although Lucas had the training methods his master had taught him in his previous life, he could not treat them as his only hope. Every world's martial arts had their own wonders, and individual strength in this world was clearly greater than in his previous one. That made it all the more important to study this world's training methods properly!
Since today was the first morning training session for many children Lucas's age, another Sixth-Rank Warrior from the village came forward to teach them. Lucas noticed that this warrior was clearly much older than his father and treated the children much more gently. He was not a rough fellow like his father.
The Sixth-Rank Warrior used the morning to explain the benefits of training to Lucas and the others, then gave them a demonstration. He tossed a huge rock that Lucas judged to weigh over a thousand jin as though he were playing with a pillow. This drew cries of amazement from the children around him. Lucas turned to look and saw their eyes shining. Even the rather shy little girl from before looked excited now.
Although Lucas was an old man in his sixties, what human being did not have the urge to pursue great strength?
Although his face remained calm, he was inwardly encouraging himself. At last, I'm starting on the path to godhood here! After explaining some details that morning, the Sixth-Rank Warrior led everyone through some exercises and began guiding them on the spot. Since this was the first training session for a new group of children of the same age in two years, the tribe had sent several warriors to ensure that the children grasped the essentials of training as quickly as possible.
After all, the children's bodies were still growing, and they could not afford too many mishaps. After explaining the details of training leg strength, he had the warriors guide the children into horse stances. Lucas had already learned these things under his master's instruction in his previous life, so his posture was extremely precise.
A Fifth-Rank Warrior looked at Lucas's movements and said, "He's Abuda's son, after all. His posture is perfect."
Turning to the other children, he said, "Look, Lucas's posture is extremely precise. He's the example you should learn from!"
Seeing the looks in the other children's eyes, Lucas, who had never attended school, had not expected to become the exemplary child teachers held up to everyone else. About five minutes later, some of the children could no longer hold on.
Lucas had persisted in meditating every day for the past two years. Although he had not absorbed elements and refined them into his own magical power, he had passively absorbed a great many earth elements. This had greatly strengthened his body, so he could still hold on at the ten-minute mark.
By then, most of the others had collapsed, but to Lucas's surprise, the shy girl, Benny, and a child he did not know were still holding on. Including Lucas himself, four remained. Soon, thirteen minutes had passed, and the girl could no longer endure it and collapsed. Benny fell next, leaving only Lucas and the child he did not know.
At that moment, Benny shouted to Lucas, "Lucas, hang in there! You have to beat that stuck-up Eric!"
Hearing Benny's words, Lucas had not expected that the usually lively and energetic Benny had someone he disliked. Still, judging by the situation, the child named Eric definitely had the greatest natural physical aptitude among this group of children their age.
Although he was still holding on alongside the child, Lucas knew his own circumstances. He had only acquired this physique by passively absorbing earth elements. Seen that way, his natural physical aptitude was certainly not as good as Eric's.
More time passed. Holding this horse stance grew harder the longer it went on, and the aching in their thighs assailed their nerves. At last, Eric could no longer hold on and collapsed. A few seconds after Eric fell, Lucas also reached his limit and collapsed.
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