Above The Sky
Chapter 44 - 44 42 Exercise Thanks to the Chief Fisher the Slow Fisherman for the reward!

44: 42 Chapter Exercise (Thanks to the Chief Fisher, the Slow Fisherman, for the reward!) 44: 42 Chapter Exercise (Thanks to the Chief Fisher, the Slow Fisherman, for the reward!) He couldn’t be blamed for this.

After all, slowing down one’s breathing rate to calm the body is fundamentally not much different from sleeping… That is to say, the preparatory phase of the Guiding Technique is essentially a controllable deep sleep, capable of swiftly restoring one’s strength and guiding out the energy that inherently lies dormant within the body.

Only when one can hold onto that dream-like tranquility, stay in control of one’s body within that peace, and master the rhythm of one’s breath to fan the flames and feed the furnace within, can one truly be said to have achieved mastery over the Guiding Technique.

“Making progress so quickly.”

Realizing that Ian had indeed fallen asleep, and was sleeping soundly at that, Hiliard wasn’t annoyed but instead felt reassured and clapped his hands with satisfaction, “Only with a tranquil heart can one fall asleep in an instant… How can a child’s mind, cluttered with chaos and swirling thoughts, be expected to fall asleep on command?”

“Being able to do so indicates a preliminary control over one’s own body.

Subsequent learning of the Guiding Technique and mastery over the breathing rhythm are merely a natural progression.”

While the minds of children are said to be pure, they are actually just ignorant.

Their thoughts are extremely disordered, sometimes they themselves don’t even know what they want to do, their sense of self is very weak, and they can’t even sense the fear of danger and death.

That’s why children tend to not notice street carriages and may even suddenly dash out from the side of the road.

Therefore, proper Sublimation Cultivation normally begins after adolescence, once mental stability is reached and hormonal disruptions have ceased.

Only great families with superior Inheritances and sufficient instructors to guide the process can commence cultivation at an earlier age.

Recalling his own past, Hiliard started on The Path of Sublimation at the age of fourteen and learned the Guiding Technique in ten days, astonishing his instructors, father, and the entire family.

Now, eight-year-old Ian would probably master it within a week.

However, Hiliard felt that Ian’s Awakened Spiritual Power played a role.

Spirit Energy Users who cultivate the Guiding Technique often achieve twice the result with half the effort since their power comes from the mind, just as the Guiding Technique does, being skills of the same origin.

Even so, Ian’s talent could at least be compared with his own… Maybe there was quite a difference in physical quality, but since he didn’t Awaken Spirit Energy at the age of eight, rounded up, it indeed wasn’t too different.

“Quite light.”

As Hiliard picked up the sleeping Ian and carried him back into the room, he could tell the difference between the children from the Southern Immigrant District and those from the Imperial Capital—the latter weighed at least three-fifths more.

He couldn’t help but sigh deeply, “The Empire still has children who go hungry, The Empire still has people who cannot get enough to eat.”

“Our cause…”

Hiliard shook his head, then closed his mouth.

He placed Ian on the bed, gently covered him with a blanket, and the old knight walked out of the house, disappearing into the night.

A dreamless night.

When Ian awoke, he felt refreshed and comfortable all over.

“My brain feels cool… It seems that even my Spirit Energy is running more smoothly!”

The boy couldn’t help but marvel, as the sleep he had the night before was the best he ever had, and could perhaps be described as the most comfortable one since he had memory.

Activating ‘Clairvoyant Vision’, he surveyed his surroundings and noticed that the fog shifted a little faster than before.

He tried to recall the events of the previous night.

Even though it was during his sleep, Ian still felt a warm current rush from his heart, circulating throughout his body, as if soaking every cell, bone, tendon, and organ…

and his head seemed to be bathed in a comfortable warm bath, without the slightest feeling of suffocation, incredibly relaxed and comfortable.

Unfortunately, that feeling didn’t last long before he woke up.

And when he did wake up, it was already the next morning.

“A deep sleep, huh.”

Noticing the discrepancy between subjective and objective time, Ian pondered, “Just beginning to learn the Guiding Technique, it already enables one to have a good night’s sleep… Not to mention its ability to accelerate the condensation of Origin Quality, this alone is worth my earnest research.”

A good night’s sleep may sound simple, but in reality, how many people long for it without avail?

Obviously, however, such sleep came at a cost.

The moment Ian got up and threw off the blanket, he was hit by a wave of hunger, as if he hadn’t eaten for two days and his stomach was stuck to his back with hunger.

It appeared the breathing rhythm of the Guiding Technique, as well as the subsequent deep sleep state, while nurturing the body, also consumed a substantial amount of nourishment.

At that moment, he smelled the scent of fish soup wafting from the living room.

“Awake?

Go exercise a bit, it’s still too hot now.”

He got up and went to the living room just in time to see Hiliard bringing up a pot of stewed fish soup.

He glanced at Ian, who had just woken up, then instructed him, “The porridge is also ready.

Take some fish soup later to feed your little brother, as he refuses to let me feed him.”

“…Okay!”

Ian had already smelled the strong aroma, and the rumbling of his stomach was growing louder, but he gritted his teeth and agreed, then turned and went out the door, ready to do some stretching exercises.

Hiliard followed him out the front door, intending to see how Ian would train himself and then provide tips on correct warm-up and exercise movements, gradually forming a habit of exercise for him.

But to his surprise, he found that Ian’s warm-up and exercises were quite systematic.

Though they weren’t laying the groundwork for various combat techniques and the intensity of training was insufficient, they were wholly adequate for stretching and limbering up the muscles and bones.

“Many say that wisdom is a gift from the heavens.

The true Chosen Ones need no one to teach them, for they can develop their own martial techniques and inheritance…”

He couldn’t help but murmur in his heart, filled with emotion, “I used to disbelieve, for even I couldn’t do it, but I never expected to actually encounter one.”

If Ian could hear the emotion in Hiliard’s heart, he would certainly laugh in his own mind.

Although gene modification had become the norm on Earth, biological machines still needed regular maintenance to remain in good working order, especially since his workplace was in a zero-gravity environment in space, where exercise was crucial to avoid space sickness.

This set of exercises was indeed simple but also covered the most critical parts of the body, representing the most advanced training methods.

Since Ian already had his own exercise regimen, Hiliard wasn’t in a hurry about it.

At this moment, he was observing Ian’s exercise habits, noting what the regimen lacked, preparing to perfect it before using it as a base to derive subsequent training plans.

“Let’s go back to eat,” he said.

Twenty minutes later, Hiliard finally spoke to halt the session.

And when a slightly out-of-breath Ian returned to the living room, the old Knight had already served up a large bowl of fish soup, made with leftover ingredients from the night before, without a bit of waste.

Ian looked curiously at the bowl and discovered that it contained pieces of fresh wild greens likely picked from the forest by Hiliard the night before, carrying a peculiar fragrance and astringency, perfect for cutting through the richness and revitalizing the spirit.

Clearly, Hiliard’s cooking skills were quite good.

Ian ate without a word, not gulping his food ravenously but finishing the bowl of fish soup quite quickly nonetheless.

“This must have been simmering for a long while, and these wild greens…”

After eating, satisfied, he placed his utensils down and looked up at Hiliard with curiosity, “Teacher, you didn’t sleep?”

“I don’t need to sleep.

I’m always sleeping,” Hiliard said, pointing to his temple with his index finger.

“Half of my brain is asleep, while the other half is awake—that’s possible at the Second Energy Level.”

Ignoring Ian’s thoughtful expression, Hiliard asked, “How is the progress with the Primordial Seed?”

“I’ve begun to see a bit of the pattern,” Ian nodded, having understood the structure inside the Virtual Primordial Seed.

After all, it wasn’t complex, even a bit like a simplified turbojet engine, except that what drove it was blood, or rather, ‘Origin Quality fragments’ within the blood.

When people ate food, some of the energy contained within the food became Origin Quality fragments that spread into the bloodstream.

The heart itself, when beating, acted as a pump for the blood, and the Primordial Seed absorbed the Origin Quality fragments entering the heart with the blood, compressing them into highly dense and pressurized true Origin Quality, storing it, and waiting to be released when needed to enhance physical strength or to condense the Sublimation Organ.

For this reason, the Breathing Guiding Technique could stimulate this ‘turbocharged engine’, the Primordial Seed, to run faster.

And an actual turbojet engine running at full throttle, could it not be an existence that inhales without end and exhales without ceasing?

Although Ian had completely deciphered the structure of the Primordial Seed, as long as there was a sufficient accumulation of Origin Quality, he could begin the transformation of the Virtual Primordial Seed into a real one.

But he didn’t plan to rush and shock the world, aiming for the fastest speed; instead, he wanted to continue sensing and familiarizing himself with it, making sure he could do it perfectly before condensing it.

After all, cultivating and inspecting spaceships were alike in that they couldn’t be rushed.

“If there’s something you don’t understand, you can come to me and let me know a day in advance when you decide to try.

I’ll observe to assist you during the condensing process,” Hiliard said, not thinking the Primordial Seed would stump Ian.

He nodded, patted Ian’s shoulder, and encouraged, “Exercise in the morning, refine the Guiding Technique at night, and decide freely how to spend the rest of your time.

I trust in your self-discipline.”

“As for the Magic Potion, there’s no need to rush; it’s the final step.”

“I understand,” Ian said.

He was very clear that everything should not be rushed.

Even though his body seemed much stronger after awakening Spiritual Power, its essence was merely the stimulation of his body’s potential, a gradual depletion.

His body was considerably weak, still that of an eight-year-old child who had been abused and seldom had enough to eat.

After condensing the Primordial Seed, he would need time to train and improve his physical condition, so he could gradually withstand the strain of the Guiding Technique and the intense changes the body would endure from the Magic Potion in the future.

After breakfast, Ian continued his exercises at home, while Hiliard ventured out, disguised as Ossenna.

To outsiders, it seemed that ‘Ossenna’ had indeed been significantly ‘injured’, but he was already disabled and worked as a port scribe, so having some injuries didn’t interfere with his ability to write.

Moreover, the physical condition of the Terra People was unbelievably good.

The wounds that seemed severe to Ian might be only a little worse than having a fingernail flipped open to the locals.

——Stabbed twice?

Isn’t that just something to lick and be alright?

It was no joke.

Ian suspected that the body fluids of the Terra People genuinely had antiseptic properties.

At this moment, at home, Ian tried to gain a firmer grasp on his Spiritual Power ‘Clairvoyant Vision’.

After multiple attempts and validations, two hours later, his understanding of ‘Clairvoyant Vision’ had deepened significantly.