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Duncan lay there on the steps gasping for breath. His cocky confidence was now gone from his face and sweat marred his entire body.

All in all, Duncan gave off a pitiful sight if there would be any onlookers around the area.

Duncan\'s breathing returned to normal soon. While his entire body was permeated with sweat, there wasn\'t any injury on his body. He looked absolutely fine as he lay there looking at the cloudy sky.

While Duncan\'s body was fine, his mind was in huge turmoil. Duncan felt absolutely humiliated by his showing on this test. Even when he was kept a virtual prisoner at the Wang Clan he hadn\'t felt this way.

Duncan realized where this feeling of humiliation emerged from. From a young age, he had always thought that he had a strong body. It was true in a way too. If not, he would not be given work in a spirit stone mine.

When he received the effects of <Coiling Dragon Sutra> and eventually started cultivating, this feeling has only grown stronger. Even when he was a mortal, his physical strength had been on par with a first-level Qi Gathering realm cultivator.

The thing that helped him save his pride in the Wang Clan was his body. But today, that belief had been broken brutally. However, a small sliver of hope remained in Duncan\'s heart.

Wasting no time, he ran up the stairs as fast as he could through the normal section and came to the top. As he expected, the steps ended after a while and a large platform was there. Duncan saw another archway and another set of steps leading away from the platform.

But, what grabbed Duncan\'s attention was the large stele present in the center of the platform. Duncan walked towards it and saw some words written on it. Duncan read them slowly and the small sliver of hope in his heart vanished causing Duncan to chuckle mirthlessly.

From what was written, Duncan could understand the purpose of the archway and the steps. The archway is used to determine a person\'s cultivation. The steps were used to test the body of a person.

After the archway determines the cultivation level of the person, it would adjust the pressure on the steps in regard to their cultivation realm. So, what Duncan experienced was the pressure related to the Qi Gathering realm.

Below that description, there were a set of measurements listed. When Duncan compared his results, he couldn\'t help but chuckle at his thoughts.

Below 80 steps – Trash.

80 to 100 steps – Below Average.

101 to 112 steps – Average.

113 to 120 steps – Above Average.

121 to 125 steps – Strong.

126 and 127 steps – Very Strong.

128 steps – Exceptionally Strong.

Duncan\'s result was 96 steps. It was classified as below average by the test. To Duncan, who had always thought he had a strong physical body, an estimation like that was a huge blow to his mind.

Duncan could have accepted being average at the minimum. But, being estimated below average stung his pride a bit. He felt like raging at the test, but he also realized that this was an impartial assessment.

There was no one to enforce the assessment or prevent people from deceiving themselves. The test was purely performed by the person himself. The only thing the archway and steps did was adjust the pressure according to the level of cultivation. And even they were standardized for everyone.

Duncan knew that raging at the test was stupid and counterproductive. What he needed to do was sit down and reflect. That was the only way for him to progress.

Taking out his blood wine, Duncan walked down the steps and sat at the bottom. He started thinking about what the test said about himself. It was undeniable that his body had been classified as below average.

By all logic, he should have at least gotten an average evaluation. Why was the evaluation different? After all, before beginning cultivation, Duncan already had the physical strength of a first-level Qi Gathering realm cultivator.

By mortal standards, his body had been exceptionally strong. In that case, the problem only arose after he started cultivation. When Duncan came to this conclusion, a sudden realization came to his mind.

Duncan had stopped exercising his body once he started cultivation. The feeling that cultivation gave him was relaxing and soothing. On the other hand, increasing the strength of his body was an arduous process. It was only natural he forgot about the efforts needed to be put into having a strong body after he started cultivating.

Moreover, cultivating qi increased his strength severalfold. With each advancement, the power that Duncan could bring out increased drastically. Furthermore, he had seen impurities in his body be cleaned out while breaking through.

This created a misconception in Duncan\'s mind. Duncan had mistakenly identified his internal strength rising as his body strength rising as well. He knew many cultivators didn\'t even care about their body strength due to their increase in cultivation.

Cultivation strength was cultivation strength and body strength was body strength. Confusing this two was what led Duncan to this miserable situation. While his cultivation had increased, his body had only been strengthened slightly.

Duncan recalled the first sentence written in the stele above. A strong body is a base upon which one\'s cultivation was built. It was true. The proof is evident to Duncan. When his cultivation had been sealed, his body strength was the only thing he could rely on in those steps. And the test found his strength wanting.

Duncan rubbed his chin a little unhappily and started thinking about how to improve his body strength. Duncan didn\'t want to cultivate his body like body practitioners. He also didn\'t want to let go of his natural advantage over other Qi Cultivators.

What he wanted to do was to increase the strength of his body to at least above average level. Duncan knew he had found what he was going to do for the next few weeks.

For the next few weeks, he was going to forget everything about cultivating and start to strengthen his body in the way he knew to do as a mortal. While it may not be that effective, even a small increase will help him reach the average evaluation.

Deciding upon a course of action, Duncan started to search for large rocks that he could use for exercise and a large area where he could exercise and rest in. He decided to not use his qi at all for the remainder of his stay in the region as well.

This way, he was back to his old days when he had to work hard to increase his strength. The only problem he could think of was the lack of good food. But, looking around the hill, Duncan didn\'t think it would be a big problem.

Any fruit he could forage from here would be countless times better than the average meat in the mortal world. He could also use them to increase the intensity of his exercises. Eating a spirit fruit and running up and down this hill sounded like a good enough exercise routine for Duncan.

*****

A week later, Duncan stood before the archway with a solemn look on his face.

He had trained like a maniac for a week. After foraging some fruits and finding some rocks, he had gone back to his old days as a young kid playing with other townsfolk.

Lifting rocks, throwing rocks, and running up and down the hill with a rock on his shoulder. Duncan derived the exercises from the things kids did to become strong when they were younger as games.

He didn\'t have a manual or something to increase his physical strength. So, he used these primitive methods to increase his strength. While a week of exercise wouldn\'t normally show any changes, Duncan felt that his body\'s ability to adapt to increasing weights has strengthened severalfold after he started cultivating.

Today, Duncan wanted to test if his efforts had any effect. While he could already see the thin contours of his old muscles once more emerging, Duncan wanted an unbiased opinion on his efforts.

And the best way to do that was to use these steps to test his body strength.

After channeling the qi, the steps lit up on a section as usual. Duncan took a deep breath and started walking up the steps calmly. His face didn\'t show any emotion as he ascended one step after the other.

As he already knew the mechanism behind the steps, Duncan was far better prepared this time than he was last time. His mindset was completely focused and he didn\'t have any stray thoughts in his mind at all.

With ascending the steps as his singular goal, Duncan marched on. Pretty soon, he crossed 60 steps and he came upon the dividing line of 80 steps. Duncan calmly passed it with no ripple in his heart.

Last time his thoughts had wavered at this spot after realizing that he couldn\'t use his cultivation. This time, he walked ahead stoically. Soon he came upon the checkpoint of the eighty-ninth step.

His legs wavered a bit from the pressure, but Duncan grit his teeth and steadied his footing. After steadying his posture, Duncan reduced his speed and ascended one step at a time. He allowed enough time for his body to get used to the pressure and walked ahead in a steady manner.

When he reached the spot where he was dealt a severe blow to his ego, Duncan hesitated slightly. Gritting his teeth, Duncan put his right foot on the ninety-seventh step. His knees almost buckled, but Duncan grit his teeth and straightened his legs with an almighty roar that echoed across the hills.

Duncan planted his feet firmly and brought his other feet over. His body trembled from the pressure and Duncan stabilized it after some time. In the end, he stood atop the ninety-seventh step that defeated him last time with a savage smile.

Slowly, Duncan moved forward. One step at a time.

Ninety-Eight!

Ninety-Nine!

One Hundred!

And finally…

One Hundred And One!

The mark of average body strength. Duncan let out a content smile and fell sideways unmindful of the steps.

*****

A/N: Hey folks!

Make sure to add this book to your collection and vote with your power stones to show your appreciation for this work.

You can also check out my other book [Booking Glory] and see if it is to your liking.

Reviews and comments are truly appreciated.