Chapter 8 Problems and Curiosity

Ever since he'd had his little bout of idiocy Chen Jin had been trying to make it so that he did not hurt himself while using his newly created (idioticly stumbled upon) technique.

It was actually a rather good control exercise with clear indications off if he was improving or not. Did he hurt himself? If yes, then congratulations, you still have a lot to improve.

That part of the exercise was done around two weeks ago (he had been at this for four).

At the beginning Chen Jin just tried changing different things, like the speed and the force with which he burst it out, but if he reduced them enough that he wouldn't get hurt the only thing that he accomplished was an air current, not exactly his objective.

In order to actually do anything he needed a certain minimum of energy to burst out. Something that he just couldn't do without hurting himself at his current level.

He also had the feeling that even when he did get strong enough to do something of worth (with no self injury), it wouldn't be useful for his strength.

Fortunately he did not give up. After brainstorming for a while he had a new idea, Chen Jin got a bit uncomfortable. It was something rather obvious after all.

Maybe, and just maybe, instead of seeing if he could burst his own hand like a nut job, he could gather it outside his hand, and then burst it out.

It worked. It also had the problem of being harder to direct. Before it burst out of his body, now it explodes outside.

And from there came the second part and third parts of his control exercise, making it so all the force went in the same direction, and increasing the power without sacrificing his control, emphasis on the second part, he would get hurt a bit too fast for his liking otherwise.

In terms of power it was already a battle worthy skill, he did destroy a tree with it.

The skill had two problems though.

First, the spirit energy consumption, a fourth of his total amount at the minimum, for rather lackluster results, (it would only push people away if they had a strong body and spirit power protection), with no upper limit and increasingly better results.

And second, time, it took him way too long to gather energy on his palm, and he had to be still while doing it, time he doubted he would have in a fight.

Chen Jin was laying on the grass hands behind his back and a thoughtful expression on his face as he tried to think of ways to solve those problems. He figured that he Could shelve it for now, he had some ideas that he might be able to accomplish with his increased control after all, the problem was that he didn't want to, he had already proved that it was a viable skill, and he had put quite a bit of time into it. It left a bad taste in his mouth.

In order to solve those problems he had increase the speed that he gathered energy at, and find a way to improve the power while keeping the cost the same, He. Just. Couldn't. Do. It. And it annoyed him.

Chen Jin had a frown on his face now, he didn't like it, but he had no idea how to solve them and thinking himself into an aneurysm wasn't helping any, he was going to have to drop it for now.

He huffed and got up before stretching, Chen Jin was more than a bit tense, he'd been in that position for a while.

He started walking around his training site to loosen up a bit more, he had been delaying something with his training that needed him to meditate, might as well do it now, and it was better to be a bit more relaxed before sitting down once again for who knows how long.

This was something that had occurred to him when he was recovering between tries a week ago, but he never had gone to see the connection to what he know knew to be his spirit again after awakening. He wanted to see if something was different now.

Chen Jin stopped walking beside a tree and slowly sat down against it, he disliked the stereotypical crossed legs, it got uncomfortable way too quickly, it might be just until he got used to it, he admitted, but he just couldn't force himself through it when he could do it just fine in more comfortable positions.

He'd been trying to do it laying instead of sleeping while at home, it wasn't going that well, a smile returned to his face as he thought.

He started to meditate, focused inwards, and nearly instantly found the rather well hidden place that now housed his martial spirit. He fortunately stumbled upon it, because even if he were looking for it, combing his whole body in the process, he probably wouldn't have found it.

As Chen Jin was expecting, he found a miniature of his own body, it looked as if it were floating on his back with his extremely long hair scattered beneath it, relaxing.

He could feel the connection, a bit stronger than before.

He let his mind wander, a spirit was supposed to be part of oneself like another arm or leg, his should even more, as his own body instead of a tool or beast. But it didn't feel it. The fact that he could even feel a connection and rate it based on how strong it felt proved it. Could he continue to strengthen it like before? Could it get so strong that his spirit truly merged and became a part of himself instead of a temporal possession?

Chen Jin, a bit absentmindedly sent a bit of his energy into it, as he used to do.

Is eyes opened as he smiled. It was possible.