[Last Emperor] Chapter 7 - Workout Plan (Patreon)

Status - 

User A009328s815hh8: Tao Zi

Clan Affiliation -

Error… Banished from Sect/Clan

Cultivation -

Qi Initiate Stage 4

Cultivation Progress - 

▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 24%

Body Cultivation -

Body Tempering Initiate Stage 3

▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 35%

Dao - 

Unfounded

Domain - 

Locked and Unfounded

Spirit -

Un-Solidified Intent/Spirit Connection

General Tips and Hints:

Fight more… Train more… Do more things…

Tao Zi stared at the status system for longer than he wanted to, but he couldn’t help it. The progress had been crazy to him. Jumping from 7% to 24% within a single day should have been impossible in most cases. Yet, here he was, staring at the progress he made after a single ambush. 

It was completely ridiculous and he loved it. 

He set the sleeping Tiger down onto a cat bed he had received as one of his rewards during the battle. The cat complained for a second before snuggling into the soft cushioning. He curled back to sleep within moments.

Need to start working out. Keep getting these rewards until it's no longer worth the effort and then start hunting chimps again. I can’t keep getting stuck out there when that HellHound is searching for me. I've dodged it a couple times now, but that only means the next one might not be to my favor. 

Tao Zi took off his long blue robes. He had blue pants and a similarly colored shirt underneath the breathable robe. Then he took off the shirt. If he was going to exercise and work hard, he’d do it his way. Enjoying the moment and the cool air on his skin. 

“Alright. One small push up for Tao Zi, one giant leap for Tao Zi-kind!” He cringed, deciding that maybe jokes were his strong suit. 

He got down and started doing pushup. Finding that even with how lazy he had been, a cultivator would out do any normal person by multiple folds. He expected it after being able to move large boulders around without great effort. 

The first pushup gave him a reward. 

Congratulations on your exceptional action!

First PushUp!

Reward 1 Qi Exp

Reward Muscle Shirt!

Said shirt dropped onto his head while he was halfway down for the second pushup. He let himself fall, sent the muscle shirt into the ring and continued to do pushups. He hadn’t gotten to the level of wearing a muscle shirt yet. 

Maybe one day.

He was too skinny and flabby to be wearing one without looking out of place. More so when he could assume correctly that no one had ever seen a muscle shirt before in a cultivation world. Only when he had bulging muscles would he wear it. Which he doubted would ever happen given that he hadn’t seen a single person that wasn’t lean and skinny. Even the strongest, baddest individuals. 

It seemed quite normal for a cultivation world's beauty standards.

Tao Zi continued to do pushups. He did not get another reward for some time. Even after a hundred straight and without a break. He was now too far into the process to stop, even if the longer he did it, the more inefficient the process felt to him. 

It wasn’t until he reached his limit and struggled to finish a full pushup did he finally get a system notification. Right around a hundred and seventy three. Tao had lost count around one hundred and sixty simply because that had turned into the grueling part he had to fight through in order to continue. His arms and entire body shook just to finish one more. 

Congratulations on your exceptional action!

PushUp Limit Reached and Exceeded!

Reward 12 Qi Exp

Reward 1 Body Tempering Exp

Reward 20 Silver Coins!

Reward 1 Concentrated Qi Pill (5 Qi Exp)!

Reward 1 Spiritual Medicine Pill!

He picked himself up, leaning back and sitting down. He stared at the system notification for some time, allowing himself to catch his breath and arms to recover slightly. He hadn’t worked out anything in what felt like ages. Even before his arrival to the cultivation world.

Exercising just hadn’t been that important to him. 

Tao Zi took a deep breath. 

So that’s how it is? It couldn’t be as easy as I hoped it would be. There has to be some struggle for the system to give me rewards and Qi Exp.

He assumed that the first reward he received was for doing something new. Providing him with the bare minimum it could give out which was 1 Qi Exp and a useless piece of clothing they both recognized he would probably never use. A taste of what he could get if he applied himself properly. The second had only appeared after he had pushed himself to the very limit of his abilities. 

Meaning he couldn’t abuse the system as he had hoped. 

Technically he could just do different exercises and accept the 1 Qi Exp, but the rewards were the point he had to consider. His tactics needed to be fully thought out. Even if it took a moment longer to think things through, carefully. Plus he received a Body Tempering Exp. Which seemed much rarer and would be far more valuable to him.

He formed his plan. A daily routine he could follow until something changed or he ran out of food in his spacial ring. Tao Zi looked into it. He only had about three days worth of food anyways. It would be a good test for the process. Figure out if it could work and he could optimize it for better efficiency and not waste energy and time. 

Wake up and just try bullshit. Every single thing he could think of regardless of how terrible or embarrassing it could be. Just for the initial reward. Do that for an hour or two. 

Then he would work out seriously. As much as he hated the thought, it was better than being cornered by the HellHound before he was prepared. Assuming that every body part worked would give him a similar amount of Qi and rewards, on a growing scale higher rewards for more difficult tasks.

A full body workout should take him an hour or two at most, right? Maybe a bit longer? 

That would turn into far more Qi Exp than taking out three healthy chimps and two fatally wounded ones. Mitigating his risk and maximizing his development in the process. Yes, it was hard, maybe even more than he signed up for.

But it was only an hour or two. He could lounge and recover for the rest of the day.

Tao Zi waited until he started to feel life come back to his arms and started another round of pushups. Reaching a much lower number than he expected compared to the amount he did before. Instead of the hundred and seventy something he did before, he ended up only reaching ninety before falling to the ground unable to pick himself up again. 

He waited until the expected ding arrived. The system was quick to reward him for pushing himself and being the exact opposite of what he wanted to be, it rewarded proactivity.

Tao Zi shivered. 

Congratulations on your exceptional action!

PushUp Limit Reached and Exceeded!

Reward 10 Qi Exp

Reward 1 Body Tempering Exp

Reward 12 Silver Coins!

Reward 1 Concentrated Qi Pill (3 Qi Exp)!

Getting up was a difficult task. He needed to prop himself up with his elbows and worm his way up into a seated position. He felt the aching soreness in his chest, a bit in his shoulders, but mostly in his arms. Tao Zi wasn’t sure why his legs ached or why his core felt tight, but everything just felt wrong.

What he did understand, catching it quite quick, was the diminishing rewards he had received for the second set of pushups to his limits. 

The system had soft caps to prevent people from overly abusing it. Not that it changed much, just made it marginally harder than he had expected. Tao Zi planned to test it out and see if it was just a one time thing, where the rewards were random, or if it was intentionally designed like that. 

But that was for later him. 

He made quick work of the two Concentrated Qi Pill’s, earning himself 8 more Qi Exp. Then stood up and returned to his rest spot. Of everything he could hate about meditating and the traditional path to cultivation, he couldn’t deny the restful effects it had. Calming him, soothing his bones and muscles, and giving him a slight boost in healing. 

The thought did cross to use the Spiritual Medicinal Pill, but that was quickly thrown out. Something like that needed to be his safety net. Just in case he faced a situation to great for him. It could save his life soon enough after he exhausted the workout rewards or the amount he received started to become negligible. 

For now, he would rest and meditate. Recover and relax. Maybe he would eventually be rewarded with a comfortable bed to sleep on. He had nothing else but packs of clothing in the meantime.