Ethan arrived at the training area, running at his current top speed for around 24 minutes.
When he had first started, he could only maintain his top speed for about 35 seconds before collapsing.
But each time he destroyed his muscles in the process and healed again, his body grew rapidly stronger.
Now, he could run at top speed for more than 8 minutes without slowing down.
This was only possible because he was still under the effects of the potion.
Once they expired, he would not be able to keep running at top speed for 8 minutes straight with his mortal body as a teenager.
Still, his stamina and the toughness of his muscles had increased significantly.
"The effect of the [Rapid Recovery Potion] will only last for around twenty or so minutes..." Ethan muttered.
As for the [Clarity Potion], it would last for an entire day.
Ethan observed the training ground for a few seconds.
The area was filled with many buildings scattered across hundreds of flat grounds used for sparring matches or practicing skills and techniques.
There were targets, running tracks, and various equipment stored away, available to anyone who paid for them.
Right now, the training ground was empty. But in a few hours, sect members would begin to flock here to train in the early morning before the sun even rose.
Ethan did not want to use any swords from the storages since they would cost gold and they would break into pieces after what he was planning to do.
Instead, he broke a branch off a nearby tree, about one and a half meters long. He stripped away the leaves and smaller twigs, smoothing it until it resembled a crude sword.
"This is good enough," he muttered, spending the next few minutes making ten more branches just like it, intending to use them as practice swords.
Then he went to one of the flat training grounds, standing at the center with one of the branches in hand.
"Let's begin."
Ethan closed his eyes and began to concentrate, imagining the object he held in his hand not as a tree branch but as a real sword, a sharp blade.
His eyes sharpened. His muscles tensed to the absolute limit, veins bulged, and his body burned with heat, yet Ethan felt nothing thanks to the potion.
Still, he knew exactly what was happening.
At the same time, the branch in his hand began to shine faintly with a strange white light.
The glow intensified and spread across his entire body, coating him in sword intent.
The white light clung to him like a thin second skin, lasting only a moment before exploding outward, releasing a small shockwave that pushed wind and dust in every direction.
The moment it exploded, every single muscle and bone in Ethan's body shattered like glass.
But before he fell apart, the effects of the [Rapid Recovery Potion] kicked in, rapidly healing him.
Within a few seconds, he was completely whole again, his body tougher than before.
The branch, however, had exploded into pieces.
All the while, Ethan felt no pain.
The [Clarity Potion] had numbed him completely.
He picked up another branch and repeated the process, letting his sword intent course through him.
Each time, the uncontrolled release destroyed his physique before healing began again.
He performed this unique training around thirty times before deeming it enough, just as the effects of the [Rapid Recovery Potion] began wearing off.
As his body healed from the last round, he looked down at his skin.
It was red and covered in blue, purple, and black bruises.
Blood streaks, cracks, swelling, puffiness, raw flesh exposure, and clotting around his joints all marred his body.
He was certain there were countless invisible injuries inside him as well.
But as the potion's effects finished their work, within a couple of minutes, his body was free of injury or abnormality.
His skin looked paler than usual, blemish-free, and even slightly more handsome than before, not a dramatic change but noticeable enough.
The results of the training were not obvious to the naked eye, aside from his physique becoming leaner, straighter, and slightly more defined.
His strength had not leapt forward, but it did not need to.
The purpose of this training was not to make himself stronger immediately.
It was to make his body accustomed to extreme pressure.
Before this, his body was like that of someone exercising for the first time.
A beginner feels pain for the first few days until their body adapts to the workouts.
Muscles tear and heal back stronger.
Ethan was doing the same, except not just with muscles.
He was tempering his entire body.
Tougher, stronger, more robust, and with greatly increased stamina.
"I should go buy more food. Those three meals aren't nearly enough... my metabolism burned through them in minutes..." Ethan muttered as he dressed and began walking toward the residential area.
Soon his walk turned into a jog, and after about an hour, he reached his room.
He lay down on his bed with a deep sigh.
He could not sleep, not until the effects of the [Clarity Potion] completely subsided.
Unfortunately, it would last for a full day.
That was the downside of this particular potion, one he had created in a past life.
He was fortunate to have found some of the ingredients to make it in this world.
If he had gathered all the required components, he could have brewed the original version of the [Clarity Potion], which was many times more effective than this rough version.
Regardless, along with his increased stamina and toughness, Ethan's body had also shown great adaptability.
His physical form had quickly grown used to handling sword intent.
It no longer hurt him as much as it had when he used it during the entrance exam.
"This is new... I've used this method of training hundreds of times before, but my body never showed such adaptability like it's showing now..." Ethan muttered with a sigh, before spending the next half hour just lying on the mattress.
"Since I can't sleep, I might as well check my inner world and see if I still possess the library." Ethan sat up straight in lotus position, his form perfect, and began to meditate.
He followed one of the breathing techniques he had learned during his travels.
His breathing slowed down significantly, inhumanly slow.
Soon, his heartbeat slowed as well, beating only fifteen to eighteen times per minute.
His consciousness seemed to dissolve into the inner world of his current mortal self.
He closed his eyelids, and when he opened them a few minutes later, he found himself standing in a foreign place.
As far as he could see, everything was white. It felt like he stood at the center of an endless white room, white walls, white ground, white sky.
Everything was white.
No wind, no sound, nothing.
"Well, this is new..." Ethan said in surprise. "This is my inner world?"
Usually, when he entered his inner world as a mortal, he would see himself standing in a park, a garden, or a forest, someplace full of trees and plant life.
But this time, he found himself standing in emptiness.
Well, not exactly empty.
There were three objects inside his inner world.
Two of them he recognized.
One was a wooden door with no handle.
The second was a ball of blackish-purple light, bound tightly in chains with a lock.
"That's a relief. I thought for sure this time I wouldn't have you with me," Ethan said softly as he gently placed his hand on the closed door and then on the ball of light.
Then, he turned his attention to the third object. "Who are you, and how did you get inside me?"
The third object resembled a book, a huge, ancient tome that seemed to be made from some kind of metallic-organic material.
Its front and back covers were as dark as night, while its pages shone brighter than gold.
Etched onto the front cover was a single ring.
Like the other two objects, the book was tightly bound with chains and locked shut.
...
[A/N: If you liked this chapter, don't forget to donate some POWER STONES and add it to your library. No pressure! Thank you for checking out the novel.]