Even though doubts were spreading in his mind like parasites, Zhao Luo still never gave up.
"Bang!"
Another failure.
"ERROR 404!"
Zhao Luo shouted with arms pointing upwards in the dark space.
This was his 404th time failing in punching the surface of the mountain without resulting in a sound.
That is, he fell short while dissipating his strength at the last second.
"I have failed hundreds of times but I will keep on going at it again and again. Even if I fail a thousand times, I will NOT GIVE UP!"
Zhao Luo said with a resolute tone and focused eyes.
'There is no way, I drop out of this.'
He wanted nothing more than to curse at the one who had come up with this weird-ass method but Zhao Luo didn't know who the founder was.
"Again."
While telling himself that he can complete the first step, Zhao Luo went on to punch the mountain again.
Even after this turn, Zhao Luo kept on trying hundreds of times which soon turned to thousands and the thousands went on to tens of thousands turns of FAILURE.
Turn Number 33333.
'Last punch.'
Zhao Luo thought as he threw his left fist at the surface hoping to achieve his 100th punch flawlessly.
His 100th punch came close to the surface and touched it.
'...'
A deep smile appeared on his face.
That bright smile on his handsome face showed how much this success meant to him.
This success which came after tens of thousands of failures.
'Thud!'
Zhao Luo fell right on the spot and started to recover.
His arms looked swollen like a pair of balloons.
With bloated arms, Zhao Luo could feel intense pain rising from them.
Before he had been stressed as the thought of failure, again and again, kept him anxious which caused an intense adrenaline rush in his brain over the 33333 turns.
This completely kept his pain sensors shut but now as the adrenaline levels dropped down back to normal Zhao Luo was flooded with this pain.
"Gah."
Even while groaning as he felt the pain, Zhao Luo still smiled widely.
The nine apparitions came towards him and looked at him with thoughtless eyes.
"They have already recovered."
Zhao Luo said as he inspected them.
His apparitions had completed their 100 punches perfectly a few turns earlier than Zhao Luo and were already brimming with energy.
"I can absorb them and then continue to the second step or absorb them after the second step is finished."
Zhao Luo wondered but then shook his head.
"If I don't assimilate them, then the first step of the calming fist plane won't be truly completed."
Thus Zhao Luo knew how he will be proceeding.
"ABSORB!"
Zhao Luo said and then all the apparitions were absorbed by him as they seeped inside him through his mouth.
"Assimilate!"
The assimilation process went along side by side with Zhao Luo's recovery.
After a few minutes, Zhao Luo breathed out.
"Huff."
"Crack."
"Crack."
Zhao Luo tightened his fists and felt some minuscule changes that he couldn't explain.
"It's like my arms aren't here."
Zhao Luo said as even though his hands were clearly in his vision, they felt so light that Zhao Luo was having doubts.
Getting up from his position, Zhao Luo took a boxing stance and threw hundreds of punches in the empty space.
'Shoo.'
'Shwaa.'
'Woosh.'
'Fwoosh.'
Each time he would dissipate the strength of his fists exactly at the moment before he would reach the maximum range of his punch.
Only the sound of his fists cutting through the space would be left.
After doing the same thing more than a million times, he could do this as easily as eating his apparitions.
"Good!"
Zhao Luo felt amazing.
"It's time for the second step."
Zhao Luo closed his eyes and thought of ten stages.
Each stage was a 100 feet big pool with water filling it.
'Sursursur.'
The ten pool stages appeared in front of him and Zhao Luo opened his eyes to look at them.
"This would do."
Saying this Zhao Luo jumped towards the edge of the stage and looked at the water in the pool.
"Let's try with a slow punch first."
Zhao Luo raised his arm and then lowered his body while pulling his elbow inwards.
"Fuh."
Exhaling and calming his mind, Zhao Luo released his slow fist to strike the water surface.
Right before his fist could touch the water surface, Zhao Luo had dissipated all of his strength since he was already a master of this little trick.
'Thap.'
Ripple~
As the sound came out of the point of contact a ripple was also formed where Zhao Luo's punch had landed and then the ripple traveled to the other end of the 100 feet long pool.
'Ripple~'
Traveling to the other end, and hitting the end of the stage's boundaries, the ripple traveled back.
The ripple completed this cycle 99 times.
"Hmm."
Zhao Luo scratched his head.
He went over the feeling that he could sense through his fist right when it had touched the water surface.
"It's like the water sucks in my fist right when my strength vanishes. If only I can cushion it before touching it then there won't be any ripples producing there."
Zhao Luo mumbled.
"Summon."
Zhao Luo's apparitions formed around him.
"Try it."
Zhao Luo told them and each of the apparitions jumped on a different pool stage.
Zhao Luo already knew how he had to produce.
Unknowingly he had mastered a particular Dao.
"Dao of Control."
But Zhao Luo didn't know this.
He proceeded to hit the water in the pool.
'Thap.'
The first punch which was even perfectly executed, caused yet another light splashing sound.
Following it, the ripple started traveling from there to the other end.
.
.
"73."
Zhao Luo mumbled the number of times the ripples had completed a loop this time before dying down.
"I see. 10 more punches should be enough for me to adjust myself to this."
Zhao Luo said to himself as he continued to punch the water surface.
