“I plan to practice Giant Strength Technique, Flexibility Technique, and Steel Body Technique.” William Carter answered honestly. After all, he had already decided to join the military first, and these were all required by the army.

Chapter 4 Teacher’s Advice (Part 2)

“You’re already an adult, so handle it as you see fit.” William Carter’s father didn’t say much about his choice. “However, I suggest you try what your teacher recommended—it might be beneficial. Having a solid foundation is never a bad thing. At most, you’ll be half a year late in starting first-level techniques, and it won’t delay anything.”

“Okay, Dad!” Turning to see that his mother had no objections, William Carter agreed.

Basically, aside from this kind of necessary communication, William Carter’s parents rarely interfered in his affairs. For one thing, they were very busy with work; for another, William Carter performed well, excelled in his studies, never caused trouble, and was very trustworthy.

That night, William Carter began his own unrestrained cultivation. The feeling of practicing without any mental burden made William Carter so exhilarated he almost wanted to shout out loud.

After nine cycles of cultivation, William Carter could finish in less than an hour. Waking from meditation, his whole body felt comfortable, without the slightest fatigue. Not having to worry about being discovered today, William Carter couldn’t help but do another nine cycles.

In the past, he would only practice once a day, for less than an hour. He would also deliberately skip two days each week to avoid standing out too much. Even so, his cultivation speed was about the same as the others in his class. According to what he knew, someone like Johnny would practice for three hours every day.

With the end of the second year of high school, there was naturally a holiday, after which they would enter the third year. During this break, Johnny had already shown off the results of his first-level technique cultivation several times, even though he had only just started for a few days and couldn’t resist flaunting it in front of William Carter.

“Hey, William Carter, why haven’t you started cultivating yet?” Upon learning of William Carter’s decision, Johnny didn’t say much. “What’s the point of practicing Body Strengthening Technique over and over? You know, with a first-level technique, the rate at which your true energy increases is at least double that of Body Strengthening. That feeling is really…” With a somewhat lecherous and ambiguous expression, William Carter felt a chill watching him.

Compared to basic techniques, first-level techniques were much better in both practical effect and sense of achievement. But after all, they were still low-level basics, and everyone understood this. The teachers’ patient guidance hadn’t been in vain—at least, no one had the idea of skipping levels in cultivation.

The other students had all started practicing first-level techniques, with only William Carter still sticking to Body Strengthening. If it were an ordinary person, maybe under the temptation from people like Johnny, they wouldn’t be able to resist and would start practicing first-level techniques too. But William Carter wouldn’t. Even with the simple Body Strengthening Technique, William Carter’s true energy didn’t grow any slower than theirs. Moreover, Body Strengthening had another feature: there was absolutely no risk of going astray in cultivation.

During the holiday, William Carter’s cultivation had already replaced sleep. William Carter knew that others must be doing the same. For more than ten years, they had all been under the label of minors, and now with a relaxed holiday and access to advanced techniques, it would be strange not to practice. The experts were even more so, and even William Carter’s parents rarely slept. Even though they came home every day, it was only to eat, rest a bit, and take care of hygiene before replacing sleep with cultivation.

They were all level seven experts, but for almost ten years, they had been unable to break through. The higher the level, the harder it was to advance. Even so, they were still a notch above the average person’s level six techniques. Their experience was naturally broader, so the suggestion to spend more time on the foundation was adopted.

However, William Carter was still very cautious. After spending a lot of time researching the vast amount of cultivation experience online, William Carter found that many people, like the teachers, deliberately extended their foundation-building period. The longest one had spent nearly ten extra years on foundation building and even published a special article about it.

William Carter studied this article carefully several times. The insights pointed out that extending the foundation period had a very effective supplementary effect on the cultivation of first- and second-level techniques. Both the cultivation speed and the quality of true energy would increase significantly. However, when it came to third-level techniques, this effect gradually disappeared, and after a while, it basically leveled out with those who hadn’t spent extra time on the foundation.

In other words, this method was indeed effective, but only up to the cultivation of third-level techniques. To be honest, for ordinary people, it would take at most two years to reach third-level techniques. The benefits existed, but not enough for most people to accept. Moreover, the time spent on foundation building, if used to practice first- and second-level techniques, would only take about half a year longer than the other method, so it wasn’t worth promoting.

But for William Carter, sticking to Body Strengthening at least had one advantage: it could hide the secret of his cultivation speed. As for advanced techniques, once he joined the army and learned rapid-advancement techniques, he would have a reason for his cultivation to progress by leaps and bounds. This was one of the reasons William Carter could resist the temptation from his classmates for so long.