Tower of Heaven

The first two areas on the second floor of the pagoda that became useful to him were the waterfall and the desert.

'My body has been refined by my cultivation and the Heavenly Unification Law. In terms of pure strength and fortification, it is undoubtedly already qualified to practice the Grand Arsenal.'

However, it felt wrong. When Atlas first started learning the technique in his past life, he did rigorous training to bring his body into its peak condition before continuing.

Though he was taking a different path, at his core, he was still the same person.

He used those same principles this time.

The waterfall was a good place to experience the pressure of the world. If he stood under the massive roaring torrent and circulated his qi, his head, neck, and shoulders could be toughened until they reached their natural limit.

That kind of training was done in the old era, but it was quite inefficient. It was unable to properly train the entire body, completely wasting the method's potential.

By laying down under the current on his stomach and back, Atlas could more evenly distribute the force and bring the same kind of improvement to the rest of his body. It was much, much harder to circulate qi in that posture, but he wasn't trying to take the easy route.

He gritted his teeth and closed his eyelids tight so the water didn't burn his eyes. He connected his will to his dantian and used pure force to make his qi follow the paths he constructed for it.

No longer did he need to sleep unless he wanted to hasten the loosening of the seal in his soul. When he was immersed in training, he put sleep entirely to the side.

For seven days and seven nights, Atlas sat under the waterfall and circulated his qi.

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With every passing hour, the flow became more and more smooth until his qi flowed naturally like he wasn't controlling it at all. With every revolution around his body, the qi sunk into his flesh and bones, perfecting them further and further.

It had to be mentioned that he was not using spiritual qi for this endeavor. Rather, he took this opportunity to further his connection with astral qi. It was much more suitable for body cultivation, after all.

'Astral Energy is that kind of thing.'

The more one used it, the more freely it would flow. At Atlas' current pace, he could only circulate it at the pace at which a small animal could move, but it would eventually become a great beast that could leap across the stars in the sky.

The Atlas that left the waterfall behind could already feel his body responding to him more efficiently. It was a minute change, but the fact that he sensed it so clearly meant that there was a deeper, more foundational improvement made to his vessel.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

He flexed his arms, looking down at them.

The bulging of his muscles felt much more visceral. He felt every single muscle movement. He felt his body work as one beautifully connected machine in order to enact every action he gave it.

His fist pulled back with slow and precise movements. His stance widened and dropped.

Whoosh!

A clean punch rang out through the desert he had moved to. The winds brushed the sand into the air and caused it to swirl into a storm.

'Clean.'

It was a very clean movement.

'However, it is not there yet.'

Relying on his form from his previous life, Atlas never trained his current body to memorize the perfect postures he needed. It wasn't necessarily a weakness, but it was something he wanted to change.

The desert was a good location. The heat made his body work harder to keep itself balanced, as he did not use qi to support himself. His actions exhausted him much faster, the unstable land made it difficult to keep proper posture, and the sand that blew in his face made it hard for him to tell if he was practicing properly.

However, those were the same things that made it such a good location. In these unfavorable conditions, if Atlas could imitate perfection, then he would achieve true perfection when he found flat land.

The waterfall and the desert. In these two places, Atlas trained for six months without doing anything else. He fortified his body at the waterfall for a week, and then spent a week training vigorously in the heat before returning again.

Through this process, Atlas started to change.

He became slightly taller. His frame became more muscular. He was a smaller person from the beginning. He couldn't blame it on his childhood. It was merely in his blood.

He didn't have to worry about his height after taking the healing pill on the 10th Floor, but his musculature was different. No matter what he did, his lean form never left him.

'In fact, it is due to the specialities of this body that I have chosen my current fighting style, so it is not necessarily something I want to change…'

Atlas stretched his limbs and once again felt the movement of his muscles.

'...however, though my body has grown, my original aspects have not been weakened.'

Whoosh!

His steps were as light as feathers. His feet tapped against the sands with such grace that they only disturbed a few tens of grains every time. He moved in a straight line halfway across the desert in a flash before abruptly shifting his movements.

Bang!

A huge cloud of sand flew into the air. Atlas rapidly pivoted to the side and zipped through the dunes.

No matter what kind of maneuvers he did, he didn't feel bogged down by his weight.

However, even if he did…

[Presence of the Willow]

…"weight" was a concept that would come under his control eventually.

Atlas' entire body became as light as a feather. The grains of sand that were disturbed by his prior movements could no longer feel his presence.

Only after confirming this did he finally stop.

'Good.'

He hadn't fought in some time. It would be good to test the progress he'd made in these six months.

Once again, he chose to only do foundational training, but he already planned everything. After he returned from his next expedition into the outside world, he could truly begin learning the Grand Arsenal.

He was approaching the end of his first year in the pagoda, or the first month of his remaining time in the outside world.

Didn't he have to make another scene?

As he was unsuccessful in getting rid of Dusk's alchemists last time, he chose to target an alchemy factory again. He was concerned that they had migrated these factories to different locations, but his worries were unfounded.

When he arrived, he found a perfectly intact factory that was filled with alchemists dutifully creating pills for Dusk's forces.

There wasn't a need to describe what he was about to do. Really, there was only one question to ask.

Were they able to stop him?

And the answer was obvious.

Hell, with their enemies attacking them once more, Dusk couldn't even recognize Atlas' attack before it was already over.

This time, his victory was guaranteed from the start.