Cyclical Training Dump [solo, nk]

Koz was sitting in a meditation position, without Esui there, thinking about the profound truths. Within his mind and soul, he was constantly postulating and testing within his mind. He remembered what his teacher had said about using nature energy, but he also knew that without the proper body and training, he had no hope of using that technique. However, he had gained an insight from that. If he could not use world qi to directly make him stronger, he would follow the normal path and use inner qi to give himself an enhanced state. Inner qi and systemic elements would allow him to reach an enlightened state for a short time. 

Even if it was a small period of time, an enhancement like that would be able to give him an edge in battle over other people. If this was indeed the case, he would almost certainly need to work on more than one kind of technique. First, a general one, then a more specific technique. What he had also discovered earlier on was that the gentle fist had more profundity to it than he had first imagined. Indeed, it just so happened that he could emulate other natural laws, starting with wind laws. He did not as of yet posses a wind system, but he knew that even if he never did, he would be able to become extremely proficient in imitating that system.

What was most interesting was that Koz knew that he might be able to fuse these profound mysteries, which was a step to becoming a paragon. Hm, now there was a thought to be valued. Should he decide to do this, however, he needed to take an elementary step and master the basics of general enhancement. Without a solid foundation, he knew well, the worse it would be for him later on. So, he needed to make the best use of his time and optimize by making a big foundation for himself.

There he was, at any rate, thinking and postulating about how to proceed. What he needed was a breakthrough, an insight!

Cultivation was a slow process, as he knew. One had to be very, very patient, and the path that a cultivator progressed was based upon the insights that the person had received and integrated into his foundation. For example, the idea that gentle fist could produce a needle attack was something that Koz had produced as an insight into the Profound Laws of the Gentle Fist.

He had even used this technique to defeat another cultivator, namely Han Man, his fellow sect member. Though, to be fair, it made Koz's dantian boil to even see him as such. Han Man was a weakling, who would never reach the peak now. He deserved to be crippled by the elders for his smashing defeat at Koz's hands. Still, he was not going to push it when it came to the elders. Men like Li Xuan and Lao Che were not to be underestimated. Protector Che, especially, was a cultivator who specialized in poison. Using his technique "heavenly poison pearl", he had once kill a whole army that had come to attack him from a castle. It was fearsome indeed to even think about. Shaking his head, Koz returned to deep meditation again. He had heard of something called a Profound Vein that was the basis of inner cultivation and of the dantian methods of temperance.

He focused in on himself, and tried to link the two. After all, inner tempering methods were the foundation to bodily enhancement and strengthening, were they not? He just had to think about it a little harder than he was right now.

Hmm, inner techniques... he would have to start at the bottom. Even though attack speed was important to a combatant, he knew that that wasn't all there was to a fight. If he had to flee, he needed to escape! So, increasing movement speed was also essential. As someone who had read countless secret technique manuals on combat, Koz knew very well that movement speed and attack speed were two separate things entirely, especially when it came to martial artists such as himself. In general, as it was often with martial arts moves like his own Tenketsu needle and the attack of the eight trigrams sixty four palms, Koz's also knew well that attack speed could actually be much faster than movement speed! It was all about the timing with the sixty four palms, he knew as well. But how to increase overall speed, movement included? He know knew what kind of technique he was looking for! This was not really a flash of insight, but rather, a minor step in the process of postulation and getting to where he wanted to go: the true Dao of the gentle fist.

There was a note of pride as Koz began to meditate. In no time at all, or so it seemed, he had found his profound vein. It was easy, actually. As he practiced his cultivation method, Koz noticed a tiny trickle of world qi and world element systems entering his body. So, this was where it all began, he thought. This was how it got into his body and traveled toward his dantian! He let it cycle around his meridians before entering his dantian first, then let it back out to permeate into his tissues. Hmm, that was interesting. It reminded him of something that he had seen before, but he couldn't quite place it. Had it not been... in his studies back in the sect? That's right, he thought, but he didn't quite remember where. Something about a cycle... taking something, in, then releasing it back out in a cycle, just like all things in the cosmos. Had it been... digestion? Taking food into one's body and excreting it later as dung? No, that wasn't it. It didn't have the connection and the flash of insight that Koz needed to progress quickly. Hmph! In times like this, it was best to buckle down and meditate.... harder!

Strive! Train! Reach the martial peak!

That peak... when he reached it, he would be at peace with himself. But for now... to train, that was his priority! Absolutely a priority. There was no question about it, he had to keep on the martial path and never stray an inch. He breathed in again, taking the world qi in. There it was again! The profound vein! He had heard, actually, that Protector Che's profound vein had been damaged as a young child, but using the profound arts of medicine, he was able to repair it enough to develop the technique of "heavenly poison pearl", which he then used to refine his profound vein and strengthen his own foundation. Things like that... where a cultivator had practically come from a position of less than nothing and reached the peak... Koz admired that kind of person. However, he himself had been fortunate enough to have a head start. With the power of this byakugan and a good teacher, he would have an easier time, at least in the beginning. But when he reached the more profound and mysterious stages, he would have to forge his own path and techniques.

Still, for now, he just had to focus on the common foundation. Make it larger, make it stronger, so that  the inner cultivation method he built off of it could be that much stronger and that much more powerful. Optimize! Strive! These were the principles behind Koz's method, and this was what the other students called a "ninja way", though Koz hardly considered it to be that. This had nothing to do with ninja! This was just the cultivation method of the sect, and what he had been trained with. It was his whole life. Training, training, and more training. This was all that mattered to him, and everything else was secondary. He had wanted to get friends, but people like Han Man could never be his friend. Overconfident people with little innate talent.... Koz had already broken through to the second layer, so he could not associate with people like that. When they tried to fight with him, he pummeled them into the earth, where they groveled like they should. What was bothering him the most right now, though, were the heavy footsteps behind him....

Was this the sound of... Han Man? He had already recovered? He realized that Han Man must have gotten treatment at the sect. How annoying. Now he would have to deal with this guy again. 

"Koz! I have come, not to trade pointers with you, but to exterminate you!" Oh, boy. Would he never be rid of this annoying kid? Well, at the very least, he would have someone to test his new theories on.

"Han Man.... you must be tired of living! Have you really come here just to throw your life away? Foolish! You cannot exterminate me at all! My cultivation is simply stronger than yours, so you must be a piece of trash! Now come, little doggie, and lick my heels!" Insults like this were the customary way to start a good fight.

At least, that was how they always did it in the sect. It had become something of a joke amongst the more senior members, but the youthful initiates took them quite seriously. The fire of competition and the urge to reach the martial peak was in them, and nothing could stop them from trying, at least. 

"Koz, I shall win in fewer than twenty moves! Just you wait and see, imbecile! Soon, you will be the one to have your cultivation set back. For you see, I have advanced in my knowledge of the gentle fist. You have no hope of winning!" How audacious. Had he learned nothing from last time? Due to Koz's innate talent, he was always a step ahead of Han Man, and the difference between them was growing every day. Soon, they would be as far apart as heaven and earth. That distance would represent the gap between their powers! However, today, Koz was confident that he would be able to defeat Han Man within the space of ten moves. It shouldn't take him too long... because Han Man had no good foundation. Hah! His body was weak, since he had chosen a different path of training. Koz should be able to take him out quickly.

Breathing in, Koz focused, drawing power from his dantian and from his Profound Vein. The inner qi filled his tissues, or something like that. Koz didn't know THAT much about the human body, only the basics of what he had been taught at the sect. Even that had focused more on the dantian and the meridians that came forth from it. 

Still, he knew enough to perform this jutsu. He felt his muscles and reflexes increase, and within an instant, he was behind Han Man, slamming his fist into the other guy's back. Thus saying, he flipped Han Man over.

The kid struggled, trying to get up.

"So, you want to flee?! Don't blame me for being merciless!" With that, he slammed his two fingered attack into Han Man's dantian, piercing it with his tenketsu needle. It was particularly strong, and he knew that he was stronger in this form. It felt good to be powerful. It meant that he could use people like Han Man to make his path to the martial peak that much better.

Still, he let the kid up and flee so that he could make it back to the sect safely. It was against the rules to kill fellow sect members in ordinary challenges like this, but the Life an Death arena in the sect compound was different. In there, it was kill or be killed. Someday, Koz hoped, he could be one of the fighters there for a time and gain many achievements for himself. With any luck, he thought, his teacher would be proud.

[WC 2001
2000/2000 for C-rank Seven Heavens Breathing Method
10 stats]

Seems legit. Trial approveded.

It was worth noting at this point, now that he had beaten Han Man again, that Koz realized that even though his inner qi was becoming rather large, it wasn't nearly as good as he wished it to be. No, it felt... imbalanced. He was the sovereign of his own dantian, and the cosmos that he could form within it. He was the governor of his own power, and it was time for him to check up on how he himself was doing rather than beating on Han Man all the time. Yes, sparring was good, but not if he wasn't learning anything from it. 

Koz wanted to devise a better gentle fist attack. He had already figured out that it could be used for things beyond pure physical attacks, so he wanted to see what else it could do. He breathed in, taking in the air and turning it into spirit, then turning some of that spirit back into air. Then, taking the now purified spirit, Koz turned it into nothingness of energy within his dantian. Then, he breathed outward and entered the unification state. Ahhh.... it was so good! The power surged within him, and he visualized his own soul, practicing beneath its shine. 

So, the first thing to do was postulate about what he wanted to do. So, lastly, he had created a physical defensive technique with his gentle fist. The profound mysteries of the gentle fist were strong enough to emulate the profound laws of wind like that, so this could only go well. So, what aspect of the profound laws of the wind should he try to fuse and replicate this time? Why not the profound mysteries of "dimensional attack"? Among these, the lower levels consisted of mere wind ranged blows, which was fine with Koz. He needed to start somewhere to get to his goal of cultivation.

He focus and started to postulate. What if, he thought to himself, he did it by pure strength alone? That might make sense. He had heard of a great expert with great eyebrows who was able to create giant wind tunnel attacks by sheer physical power alone. Then, he realized that his physical strength wasn't that high, so that was out. What was more, he was a disciple of the Ban Hui sect, and was learning the gentle fist, not some arbitrary martial arts style. This was reliant on inner qi, so he would have to use physical force... the force of the fist rather than the power of his muscles.

Now that he had acquired some method of internal strengthening, Koz wondered how to create an external attack as such. So, the postulation continued. This was part of every good cultivator's process of learning and developing new techniques. It wasn't like he had to do anything physical. No, the whole process was within his dantian, so that was perfectly fine. He didn't have to sweat or exert himself, though he knew he would have to work on his external training at some point. Xiantian, or the higher disciples who hadn't yet reached 5th Xing Envoy layer were often still stuck trying to make their bodies stronger, so Koz had to be careful.

Using the inner energy, he repeated the cycle, creating a profound vein within himself, and feeling the energy cycle once around his dantian. Ah, that good feeling again. This was why cultivators isolated themselves for months or years at a time and performed closed door training. It really was the best. Koz couldn't possibly have asked to be born in a better place at a better time. This was, as one writer put it, the best of all possible outcomes.

That kind of thing aside, though, Koz found that using this method to form a jindan and turning it into a yuanying within the space of his dantian was rather ineffective. Well, that was, it wasn't that good at strengthening his tissues, which was the first step to physical cultivation. Train to reach the martial peak, and gain eternal life! When the martial peak came, who dared to cause strife? It was an old novice chant that had been passed down through the Ban Hui sect to Koz's generation, and he'd probably never be able to get it out of his head.

At any rate, he needed to find a new method of strengthening his inner tissues. Clearly, forming his inner qi into a nexus wouldn't work, and he already knew from training with his teacher that using raw world qi wouldn't really work either, which saddened him slightly. He wanted to reach that level so badly, but would probably never be able to. After all, it wasn't really his fault that he hadn't been born with the appropriate tissues, though it probably was his fault that he hadn't been focusing on making his body stronger.