"Did I make a mistake?" Corvus wondered. But then, he felt an extra weight settle into his right fist, as if he were carrying something heavy within his hand.
The feeling was strange, yet Corvus felt his excitement compel him to test it further. He picked up the log, moved the stool against the rock for stability, and punched forward again with the same fist.
A similar but lessened pain shot from his fist to his head, making Corvus groan slightly,though this contrasted with the grin on his lips.
It seemed he had finally understood Red Ball's ability. To be sure, he kept punching the wooden log, feeling the pain diminish with each strike until it was barely an itch. However, this came with such intense rigidity that he couldn't even unclench his fist.
Corvus felt as if his right hand were holding something back ,something heavy. And It was. He decided to punch one last time, his mind willing his qi to release what he was certain was absorbed kinetic force.
Clank!
The moment his fist connected with the already battered log, it shattered into countless splinters. This cleared the way for his uncontrolled trajectory, and his fist slammed into the rock behind it, causing a heavy thud to resound through the night.
Corvus felt a searing pain tear through his knuckles from the impact with the rock, but his entire focus was drawn to the surface of the black stone. There, where his fist had connected, was a faint but undeniable fist print.
"It absorbs attacks and forces them outwards. Is this really just a superior spirit?" Corvus mused, simulating the potential of Red Ball's ability. He noticed that unlike most strengthening spirits, which consistently enhanced parts of the body, Red Ball's power seemed to accumulate into a single, devastating discharge that left his fist ordinary again.
He also felt the complete exhaustion of the gaseous qi he had willed earlier. This meant he would have to be watchful and calculative when using his spirit's power.
Despite the tearing pain, the success of his lucky encounter and his decision to bind Red Ball filled him with such excitement that he ignored the bleeding on his knuckles. Corvus willed more gaseous qi into his core, which Red Ball promptly converted into reddish spirit qi.
Following the breathing technique once more, he sent the spirit qi down into his legs, feeling that familiar weight and rigidity settle over them.
He stepped closer to the rock and kicked forward with his left leg, slamming it against the surface.
He immediately felt a pang of discomfort as his foot landed heavily against the solid stone. Soon, his left leg began to gain weight, compelling him to keep slamming his foot against the rock until he finally felt the kinetic force build up.
He was just about to release it upon the rock when an idea occurred to him. He lowered his left leg and faced the passage leading to the front yard of the hut, crouching with his left leg placed behind his right.
Then, he released the force, propelling himself forward with wind-like speed. He covered a distance of seventeen feet in a single second, but it ended in a crash. He had tried to arrest his momentum, but he slightly twisted his right ankle in the process, sending him crashing into the bamboo fence and skidding to a stop.
"Okay, that's enough practice for today," Corvus groaned with a smile.
He rose to his feet, ignoring the pain in his ankle, and set about fixing the broken bamboo before heading back to the backyard. He picked up the martial arts book and scroll and headed inside for the night.
He lit the hearth as usual, planning to use the light to read through the entirety of the book and the scroll. He started with the scroll, but as he was about to unfurl it, he spotted a covered pot sitting near the chimney. Compelled to check what lay within, he slid the cover open and found porridge his grandmother must have made for him. This made him smile before he replaced the cover and moved the pot closer to the fire to keep it warm.
He didn't know why, but he wasn't hungry, despite everything he had gone through that day. It seemed either the excitement of binding with Red Ball, or Red Ball itself, was keeping his hunger at bay.
Regardless, he unfurled the scroll and skipped through the first half. He finally stopped at the lines detailing the path to breakthroughs. While he wasn't close to one yet, he knew there was no harm in preparing for the future now.
The details confirmed some of his suspicions: that minor breakthroughs from the early and mid-stages to the peak of a realm depended on the rotations of the core.
It explained that to breakthrough to the mid-stage, one's core must complete a hundred and fifty rotations, with each spin taking longer than the last. This prompted Corvus to observe his own core, noting that its rotation had slowed compared to when he had first awakened it.
However, there were remedies for this sluggish progress which were spirit marbles, superior or rare breathing methods, and specific resources befitting one's spirit.
To reach the peak stage required four hundred rotations. And beyond that lay a qualitative difference; with each full rotation of the core, a person's qi became denser and more nourishing to their spirit causing them to evolve.
So reaching the major breakthrough required a staggering one thousand rotations of the core, triggering the evolution of the spirit and propelling the practitioner into the next realm.
It also highlighted the impossibility of a cracked core completing a thousand or even four hundred rotations, while praising the speed at which a refined core could achieve them. Since the quality of qi from a refined core was vastly superior to that of a solid one, those with refined cores could progress much faster.
Corvus noticed the scroll contained no details regarding the second realm, causing him to scoff at Cyprus's so-called generosity. The information was still laden with the restrictions that bound a servant, designed to compel anyone wishing to progress further to crawl back to the clan for more knowledge.
"It's all just a damn system," Corvus remarked offhandedly, dropping the scroll to pick up the martial arts book.