From what John read in the scroll, the Supreme Battle Art needed the Supreme Battle Body to work, but John wanted to test if his Immortal Asura Body was capable of using the battle art, and his test had been a success.
'Although it's not the Supreme Battle Body, the Immortal Asura Body is allowing me to utilize this technique with no loss in efficiency and no drawbacks.'
The Supreme Battle Body not only strengthened the body enough to handle the berserk power it channeled throughout the body, but slightly changed the body in ways that made it a requirement to use the Supreme Battle Art to full effect. It also used its unique body Qi comprehensions for cultivating the dantian. Other body cultivation techniques were unable to learn the supreme battle body effectively, which drastically reduced the power unleashed by the technique, but the Immortal Asura Body was different.
However, John decided to study the Supreme Battle Body and see if he could learn anything from it.
'Maybe by learning how to cultivate the Supreme Battle Body but not actually doing so, I can utilize the Supreme Battle Art more effectively. I also want to see how it stacks up against the Immortal Asura Body.'
John spent the next few hours studying the cultivation technique and guiding his Qi according to it. Although he didn't actually cultivate it, he was able to get a feel for the cultivation technique based on both the profundities of the teachings and the effect it would have on his body.
Several hours later, John opened his eyes, an excited look apparent in his eyes.
'Although this is only the first stage of the Supreme Battle Body, I can tell that the Immortal Asura Body is more profound. Not only is the Supreme Battle Body not as profound, but the methods required to cultivate it are quite extreme on the body. Only those who truly are body battle fanatics would be able to endure such a method. It seems like the Immortal Asura Body is at a far higher level than what is available in the Yuan Continent Holy Lands.'
John couldn't help but be excited at this revelation. The more profound the Immortal Asura Body was, the stronger it would allow him to become in the future. John didn't just want to become strong, he wanted to become the strongest. Anything to aid that was immensely important.
'At first, my motivation for getting stronger was based on the desire to achieve things that I could only watch others achieve. After I started cultivating, I was entranced by the feeling of growing stronger, and fighting those who are strong. But after Austin died, I realized the most important thing of all. Only by having strength can I control my destiny, and the destiny of those around me. Only by being strong can I truly be free and in control.'
After ruminating on the Supreme Battle Body for some time, John switched back to learning the Supreme Battle Art.
'For the first stage of the Supreme Battle Art, it mainly focuses on providing an intense power and strength boost to the body. It leaves absolutely nothing back for defense, and focuses only on offensive power. Based on what I can tell, using the Supreme Battle Body is quite taxing on the body, and can only be used for around a minute before too large a burden is placed on the body. Lets try it out."
John took a wide stance and deep breath, his focus consumed on executing the Supreme Battle Art. Qi started to wildly surge from his body dantian, through his meridians and into his muscles.
"Waah!"
John was suddenly sent flying forwards after inadvertently putting too much power into his legs, which propelled him forward. After tumbling a few times, John finally came to a stop.
"This is going to be tough to learn" muttered John as he stood up and brushed the dirt off his robe.
"I sent Qi to my legs in accordance to the technique, but wasn't able to properly control both the Qi and my muscles during the fusion process, which resulted in me losing control and jumping forward. Let's try it again!"
John once again started to use the Supreme Battle Body technique, and yet again lost control during the fusion of Qi into the muscles, resulting in him falling over once again.
John smoothed back his hair which had fallen in front of his face and thought about the technique once more.
'When I used Qi to empower my body during my earlier fights, I was doing it in the most basic form, which not only wasted almost all the Qi I was using, it also only superficially increased my strength, as most of that Qi was sent explosively to my extremities such as my hands and weapon, instead of being fully harnessed by my body and muscles. Back then, I was most likely wasting over eighty percent of my body Qi, resulting in only twenty percent being used effectively. The Supreme Battle Body allows me to use almost one hundred percent of my body Qi efficiently, but as a result, it's also much harder to control properly. Again!'
John spent the next four days learning the Supreme Battle Body. His sorry figure could be seen flying about the martial practice arena as he tried to control his Qi properly according to the technique.
On the fifth day.
Boom!
A large boulder that lay in Johns backyard exploded into bits, revealing a smiling boy standing behind it.
"Success! I finally learned the technique!"
It had taken five full days, but John had finally managed to learn to control the Supreme Battle Body properly, which explosively augmented his body strength to levels far beyond what he was capable of before.
John looked further into the land behind his mansion and spotted another boulder in the distance.
'I wonder…'
A thought suddenly crossed John's mind as he took a focused stance and started channeling both essence and body Qi into his legs.
Immediately after, a sorry figure was seeing tumbling violently across the land before eventually coming to a stop. John hastily stood up with an excited look on his face. Just now, he had tried to augment the Five Step Movement Technique, which was an essence movement technique, with the explosive physical power of the Supreme Battle Art. Although they were two different systems, and although he had failed, John could tell that it was completely possible to superimpose the power of both, which would result in a much faster movement technique.
"Although I failed, I can tell it's possible to combine the two. All I need to do is work on the timing, at which point my movement technique will evolve to a new level."
Once more, John spent the next day practicing using the two techniques at the same time, and was able to fully incorporate both techniques into a single movement technique.
'Success once again. This time, it was much easier to be able to combine the two than learn either technique, since all I had to do was focus on the timing and make sure that I time my powerful body movements with the Five Step Movement Technique at the exact same time.'
John practiced the technique for the rest of the day, making sure that he had it fully under his control. The sun was starting to set when John heard someone approach him from behind. John turned around and saw his father approaching him.
"John, how has your training been going?" asked Barden.
"Very successful. I learned both the Supreme Battle Art, as well as how to incorporate it into my Five Step Movement Technique!"
Barden smiled and nodded his head. Utilizing both body and essence into one system truly was a good idea for John to do, and Barden was proud that his son had come up with this on his own. His thoughts drifted to John's comments from earlier, at which point he realized that John never mentioned learning the Supreme Battle Body, only the Supreme Battle Art. Barden was just about to ask about this when John spoke up.
"So, what did you come to see me for?"
Barden put his thoughts aside and responded to John instead. "I came to tell you that we are going to head out to the tournament grounds tomorrow, as the tournament is in a few days. Make sure to be prepared to head out first thing tomorrow morning."
John nodded his head. "I'll be ready."
"Good. Now come inside and have dinner with your mother and I."
"Okay."
John followed his father back to his mansion and had a delicious dinner; Golden Ox Stew, before leaving for his room and getting into bed. Just before he fell asleep, resolute thoughts of the tournament crossed his mind.
'The tournament is almost here. I must win!'