For a whole month of vacation, William Carter devoted himself to practicing the Body Strengthening Technique. Except for necessary meals and activity time, all other time was spent in intense cultivation. His month of full-force training might be equivalent to three or four months of hard work for others.

However, what bothered William Carter the most was that every time he completed nine cycles, he had to stop, which was truly frustrating for William Carter who wanted to keep practicing throughout the holiday. During breaks in his training, William Carter began to ponder how to break through this limitation. After all, this was the Body Strengthening Technique, a foundational method, so even if he pushed the boundaries a bit, it shouldn’t cause any major problems.

According to the information William Carter found, he was not the only one with this idea, but most people failed. The basic Body Strengthening Technique had been researched by dozens of experts over decades, making it safe and reliable with no side effects. Everyone wanted to increase the number of cycles to make laying the foundation easier, but no one had managed to break through this limit.

Previously, William Carter would voluntarily stop practicing after nine cycles, but after learning this, he tried a few times to push further. Yet, as soon as the ninth cycle ended, his body would naturally react and force him to stop. Even so, it didn’t cause any harm to his body or cultivation.

With this conclusion, William Carter became even more reckless, practicing almost day and night during the holiday. Except for limited rest periods, he spent nearly the entire day inside a soundproof room without coming out.

After half a month of continuous training, by chance, William Carter suddenly woke up from his practice and was shocked to realize that he had just entered a kind of chaotic state during his training. This unconscious state of practice greatly surprised William Carter.

Chapter 5: Shortcut to Cultivation (Part 1)

The basic Body Strengthening Technique trains only the meridians of the small circulation, which in traditional terms are the Ren and Du meridians. In old martial arts novels, the Ren and Du meridians being connected signified a top-level master. But in reality, connecting the Ren and Du meridians is just a necessary stage of the small circulation, and the first challenge faced in cultivation.

The Ren and Du meridians run along the center of the body, with the Ren in front and the Du in back, including the most important acupoints of the torso. Theoretically, the upper, middle, and lower dantian are all located along the Ren meridian. The Du meridian includes all the acupoints along the spine. Just the three theoretical dantian are enough to prove the importance of the basic Body Strengthening Technique.

Whether practicing the basic Body Strengthening Technique or more advanced methods, one must constantly guide the flow of basic true energy. A slight mistake can lead to deviation, harming the body and damaging cultivation.

William Carter didn’t know how he entered that state. He just suddenly woke up from his practice, and was surprised to find he had no memory of the process, or more precisely, he seemed to be in a kind of unconscious trance, yet still managed to complete the practice smoothly.

Obviously, after long periods of repetitive training, his body had developed an instinctive habit of controlling the flow of true energy, so even without William Carter’s conscious control, the practice proceeded as normal.

The first time this happened, William Carter was extremely alarmed. After all, he had never heard of anyone zoning out during practice. Fortunately, it was only the basic Body Strengthening Technique, so there was no harm done. After the initial shock, William Carter began another round of frantic research.

He didn’t find any descriptions of this in cultivation texts, but having studied Chinese traditional culture since childhood, William Carter found something similar in Buddhist meditation.

Normally, only highly accomplished monks can enter this unique state of emptiness during meditation. To enter a meditative state during cultivation is almost impossible—since one must constantly guide the flow of true energy, the mind is always engaged, so how could one reach meditation?

But William Carter remembered very clearly what that state felt like. This uncertain state of practice made William Carter very uneasy, afraid that something was wrong with him. After carefully practicing once more, and focusing his mind, the phenomenon did not occur again.

A thorough check of his body revealed nothing abnormal. However, after this incident, William Carter no longer dared to practice continuously as before, and began to leave his training room and appear in the living room.

To ensure the needs of practice, almost every suitable room was soundproof and shockproof, to prevent unexpected disturbances during training. William Carter hadn’t left his room for a long time to see the world he lived in.

What William Carter didn’t expect was that after contacting several close classmates, not a single one was enjoying their vacation normally. Everyone was absorbed in practicing the first-level techniques. Even Johnny, who always claimed he would just practice casually, was in the same situation, which surprised William Carter.

It seemed that he was not alone in his thinking. Especially among these young people who had just completed their foundation and were allowed to move on to the next level of cultivation, no one wanted to fall behind.