Without the help of the Magic Power Concentration Array, it would be crazy for someone to try to advance to the rank of Supreme Mage by condensing spiritual power to magic power. It would be like advancing to a Demon Fighter from a Level 10 Warrior without using the Warrior Energy Concentration Array.
Even though Qian Jin couldn't train and improve his spiritual power, he knew that if Gloria failed this advancement, she would fall from the peak of a Level 10 Mage to a Level 9 Mage. She would have to retrain to become a Level 10 Mage before she could try to advance again.
This was the reason why a lot of Level 10 Mages who weren't members of big families would go and try to become retainers of big families or the royal family or join the Mage Union.
It didn't matter if it was the royal family, big influential families, or the Mage Union; they all welcomed Level 10 Mages to join them. They also supported them greatly by spending a lot of money on setting up Magic Power Concentration Arrays. They also wanted these mages to advance to Supreme Mages. These Supreme Mages would increase their parties' strength a lot.
Qian Jin had never heard of a case where a mage advanced to a Supreme Mage without the help from the Magic Power Concentration Array.
After the night passed, Gloria's advancement didn't succeed, but she didn't fail as well. She was still a peak Level 10 Mage, but her spiritual power did increase compared to yesterday.
Qian Jin felt very envious of Gloria; he also praised her and was a little puzzled. If this Gloria was known by the Mage Union, the big influential families or the royal family would all fight over her greatly.
Although talent wasn't directly correlated with a successful future, it signified unlimited potential and always gave people a lot of hope.
After a quick breakfast, Qian Jin left some notice for the girls. Then, he grabbed his Zhanmadao and carefully headed towards the lake on the other side of the stone forest.
Qian Jin stood by the bank of the lake and felt the heat coming off of the lake water. He wasn't sure if he was hallucinating, but he felt like the temperature in the lake was even higher than yesterday.
The elder who had the tough bear-like figure was wearing a greyish-green long gown. He slowly walked towards Qian Jin alongside the bank with his hands at his back. When he got close to Qian Jin, he pointed at the lake and said, "Strip all your clothes and jump in."
"Jump in?"
Qian Jin was shocked as he took another look at the lake. He heard that some hot springs were so hot that if an egg was put in there, it would fully cook from the heat. It seemed like the temperature of this lake was a lot higher than the hottest hot spring he had ever heard of. An egg would definitely be cooked by the lake; even raw pieces of meat would be fully cooked by it.
A victorious smile appeared on the elder's face as he saw Qian Jin's surprise; he was quite proud. He was shocked by this young man a lot yesterday from his warrior level to the way he thought and the way he made decisions. He had finally successfully shocked Qian Jin for once.
"Kid, like I said yesterday, both your physical body and your warrior energy are above your peers. From a normal warrior's perspective, you only need to warmly cultivate your energy connections, and then you will be in a good position to go into a Warrior Energy Concentration Array to try to advance to a Demon Fighter."
Qian Jin nodded to show his agreement with what the elder said. However, he also peeked at the boiling hot lake water beside him as he curled his lips. "I have seen a lot of physical body training methods, but I have never heard of anything close to throwing people into hot water to stew," he thought to himself.
The elder saw all the expressions on Qian Jin's face, and a brighter smile appeared on his face, and his white mustache also perked up a little. "It looks like you have been in a warrior academy and learned some methods to train your body."
Qian Jin didn't hesitate and nodded to admit it. The warrior academies in Zence Empire had a very refined and complete system. In order to train warriors properly and get real warriors who could eliminate demons, a lot of resources and energy went into designing curriculums and writing textbooks.
Other than the secret techniques that a lot of influential families had on training the physical body, the complete physical body training methods at warrior academies were a set of high level methods.
"Most of the physical training courses in the academies taught students to use long-range attacks," the elder curled his lips as he seemed unimpressed. "Other than that, you guys were probably instructed to run long distance while carrying weights. Those methods would train the physical body to some degree and train the students to have a strong will."
Qian Jin felt it more and more; the elder in front of him wasn't just a great warrior; he also had a deep understanding of developing and training warriors. A lot of instructors at Oakland's Warrior and Mage Academy thought that running an extreme distance while carrying weights was just to train warrior student's body, but they didn't know the deeper meaning. It was more for training the warrior student's spirit and will.
Every great warrior in Zence Empire's history had an extraordinary spirit and will; it had become the mandatory requirement for a warrior to be a great warrior.
"These types of training could help and improve ordinary warriors. But to develop and train a real great warrior…" The elder sneered as he said, "How could the only type of physical training be running or sprinting? Where is the creativity? Where is the imagination? How could great warriors be trained using those methods?"
Qian Jin looked at the elder as he listened to his rant. He was waiting to hear this elder's advanced theory.
"My method is very different!" The elder pointed at the lake proudly as he said: "Do you know why I said on the map that you have to come to Four Season Valley to get the Wind and Cloud Power Training Scroll? It's all because of this lake!"
"The location of this lake is very special. If you throw a rabbit in here, you can fish it back up in a moment and eat cooked meat. The meat won't just taste great, it would also be very nutritious and beneficial for anyone to eat. This hot water had soaked in the nutrients of more than hundreds of herbs; you can say that this is a natural medicine pond."
"Soak in a medicine bath?" Qian Jin understood it a little bit. All of the warriors who had their Primary Awakenings had to take medicine baths every day. People like Qian Wushan who had shown an extraordinary talent at a young age had the privilege of taking medicine baths every day since his talent was discovered, despite the fact that he hadn't gone to a Bloodline Awakening Ceremony. "But the only thing is that the medicine baths I saw at the Qian Family are less than half the temperature here…" Qian Jin thought.
"If you really want to challenge bloodline warriors, even if it's just challenging ordinary bloodline warriors and not Ultimate Bloodline Warriors, jumping into this Burning Fire Lake is your only option! As a warrior, I'm sure that you know that every bloodline warrior with an awakened bloodline has an exceptionally strong physical body! I had researched this for many years; if you want to match up and beat a bloodline warrior, you have to have an even stronger body!"
The elder suddenly got very excited, and an unprecedented glorious expression appeared on his face. "My method wouldn't just train your physical body; it will train your mind and your will as well! After many years of detailed study of the Wind and Cloud Power Training Scroll and refining, here is Wind and Cloud Golden Body!"
"Wind and Cloud Golden Body?"
After Qian Jin heard the elder's words, somehow he felt like training by the Wind and Cloud Golden Body would be a very painful and hard process.
"To train by the Wind and Cloud Golden Body, the pain you will experience will be beyond your wildest imagination. Of course, you could skip this the Wind and Cloud Golden Body and try to advance to a Demon Fighter after you warmly cultivate you energy connections. Once you advance, you can start training using the Wind and Cloud Power Training Scroll." The elder scratched his head that was full of white hair as he said to Qian Jin very seriously, "The pain you have to go through to train the Wind and Cloud Golden Body is really great."
Qian Jin looked at the elder as he asked: "Did you train using this method?"
"I did, but I didn't continue after I experienced the pain." The elder blushed as he became a little embarrassed. "My master didn't find this Burning Fire Lake at the time, so he found another lake that had a hidden volcano below it. The temperature in that lake was about the same as this, so I jumped out right after I jumped in."
"Then can you tell me a bit about the benefits of the Wind and Cloud Golden Body?" Qian Jin was getting a little interested. To become a great warrior, he had refused to listen to his family, the Qian Family's arrangement for him, and took the chance and risked his life to enter Four Season Valley. What other kinds of pains and trouble couldn't he go through?
"After you master the first level of the Wind and Cloud Golden Body, you physical body, will power, ability to take a beating, and recovery speed after injuries will all increase exponentially. Even your physical strength will improve as well."
"Then let's do it!" Qian Jin took off his clothes without any hesitation after that. With his lean and strong body exposed, he said, "What are the requirements and guidelines? Tell me, how do I train using the Wind and Cloud Golden Body method?"
"Right after you jump into the lake, you have to control all the warrior energy in your body and spread them through very part of your body! When you are enduring the heat of the lake, remember this phrase at every second, 'Wind has no particular form; no weapon can injure it. Cloud has no particular shape; no space can contain it'. It doesn't matter how hot the water is, nor does it matter how hard the hidden waves in this lake hit and strike you despite the calm appearance. Don't ever let go of your breath and leak out any air, otherwise…" The elder said very seriously, "If you loosen up after you endure for a while, you might be instantly cooked by this water and turn into food for all these fishes."
Qian Jin bit his teeth and suddenly stomped his feet as he heard the elder's terrifying description. He took the tube that the elder was handing to him and put it in his mouth as he spread all of his Level 10 Warrior Energy over his skin. He then closed his eyes, jumped up, and landed into the water forcefully. "Puff!" A ton of hot lake water splashed up into the air.
"This hot? Much hotter than I expected! Even boiling water is cooler than this! How is this lake not boiling with this water temperature? ENDURE! I have to endure this! To become a great warrior, to free dad from all the labour that bend his back! Even if this is a pot of boiling oil, I have to endure it!"
Qian Jin's whole body was soaked in this very hot lake. Except for humans' lower private parts that were very weak, there were also a lot of weak spots on humans' heads! If the Wind and Cloud Golden Body only trained the entire body below the neck, then its benefit would be completely useless during battle! The very hot lake water burned Qian Jin so much that it made him feel like all of his internal organs were cooked. He had never expected this much pain. "So this is what it feels like to get cooked by boiling water. It's so painful!" he thought underwater.
This wasn't different at all from roasting someone in fire! What kind of pain would the person experience?
Qian Jin curled his body; he looked like a cooked shrimp under water. His warrior energy cycled in his body continuously; every time the warrior energy formed an iron net on his skin, it would be instantly melted by the burning hot lake water. These melted warrior energies were just like melted metals; they liquefied and flowed tightly on the surface of Qian Jin's skin.