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The Nine Echoes Technique includes a unique breathing pattern that must be followed to make one’s chakra ripple upon hitting a target.

The opening statement to start training with this technique is a complete set of instructions on how to breathe according to the pattern indicated using the technique.

Now, breathing methods aren’t just about extending or shortening one’s inhale or exhale. Keep in mind martial artists work with chakra, and chakra is produced by combining intent, life force, and motion.

They’re not just inhaling air; they must have clear intentions about what they want to happen as they do, and their body and movement must follow to actually produce the desired effect. None of these aspects could fall behind, and the ratios must be correct; otherwise, all effort will be wasted. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

This is the main difficulty of practicing martial arts, especially graded ones. This is where real geniuses start being segregated from others.

It’s easy to understand what to do, but to actually do it? That’s harder.

The majority of people around Ren’s age struggle the most in ’Intent,’ not Life Force or Motion.

"Life force" just means health; so long as the practitioner is healthy, their life force is abundant and active. Motion is movement, so long as they can stand and move, there will be no problems there either.

But Intent? Now, that’s where it gets complicated.

Having a clear picture of the desired effect is a good place to start. But is it easy to stay focused? To stay concentrated? To stay true to one’s intent every time they use the techniques they wanted to use?

No, none of those are easy. Especially for young adults. Hell, this isn’t easy even for adult martial artists.

Therefore, it’s no wonder why many young adults falter in this department. They easily get distracted and lose their focus and concentration. Numerous failures will also affect their state of mind. Frustration could lead to recklessness and injuries.

This is where having tutors become useful. As nagging as most of them are, it’s a necessary evil. Otherwise, children will never get used to staying focused in their performance.

Fortunately for Ren, he’s got no problems in this department.

While that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s easy for him, at the very least, he understands whole-heartedly why it must be done, and that understanding motivates him to do everything correctly.

It’s for this reason why he managed to train the Nine Echoes Technique to its initial mastery within a couple of hours after starting.

Unlike the basics, though, he couldn’t master this technique to perfection in a single day. And that’s normal; it’s to be expected.

Ren never believed that he could continue mastering techniques in mere hours or days anyway. Understanding the technique was one thing; practicing it is another.

That said, his understanding of the technique does save him a lot of time. And that’s more than enough.

At the Initial Mastery stage of the Nine Echoes Technique, Ren could create 2 to 3 ripples reliably. It transitions between the two unstably, but it still increases the force of his kicks and punches.

The ripple effect only contains 20% of the initial strike’s total strength for now; this will grow as his mastery over the technique increases and with more chakra used.

Ren didn’t just focus on the Nine Echoes Technique in his training sessions either. He also trained with the Golden Fleece Technique and the Calm Spirit Technique at the same time.

This wasn’t him biting off more than he could chew. This was Ren teaching himself how to juggle multiple tasks at the same time—a skill that he’d have to learn sooner or later anyways, so why not start it now?

Besides, Ren doesn’t have nearly enough chakra to sustain using the Nine Echoes Technique for hours on end. Hell, he could only use it three times in a row before running out of chakra. He would then have to accumulate some again.

When this happens, he’d switch to the calm spirit technique. This doesn’t spend chakra; if anything, it regulates the flow and conversion of his chakra more efficiently. It’s just more demanding on his mental faculties, but other than that, it’s great.

Once he has enough chakra for use, it doesn’t mean that he immediately returns to the Nine Echoes Technique. He transitions into the Golden Fleece for a bit.

The training dummies can be programmed to do certain tasks to assist in training. Ren had them throwing stones at him to practice the Golden Fleece technique.

Using the Golden Fleece Technique doesn’t consume too much chakra; that only happens when the impact is stronger than one he initially expected. This technique also doesn’t make the hits and the impacts painless either; it dampens the pain and the impact, yes, but it doesn’t erase them completely.

Any attack that goes way beyond what Ren could handle or something that is strong enough to knock him out of his feet or outright kill him invalidates the technique entirely.

It is, after all, only a mortal-grade martial art. It’s normal for it to have limitations.

The good thing about this technique is that it teaches Ren’s chakra to react faster.

Using this technique, Ren had to do a ’bracing’ motion. He also has to be anticipating or reacting to the attack coming his way; otherwise, the technique won’t work. Timing is also key here, which should be obvious. He can’t stay engaged for the whole time to wait for an eventual attack. This is a reaction-based technique.

This means that it trains Ren’s reaction speed and teaches his chakra to be responsive, as well as teaches him to properly absorb hits.

That last part’s the most important in Ren’s opinion.

As a martial artist, especially someone who’s forced to fight with his bare hands and feet, Ren was going to get hurt one way or another. There’s just no evading that.

Even someone with a Sacred Martial Physique that almost makes them invulnerable against physical attacks cannot seriously say that nothing could ever hurt them again.

Pain and injuries are very common in the life of a martial artist. Hell, it’s even an expected event.

Martial artists must fight, and what kind of a fight will it be if nobody experiences pain and injuries?

For Ren, whose foundation was his body, learning how to take a hit without it affecting his combat prowess was something he had to learn early on. Preferably before he eventually needs to participate in dungeon raids.

That’s why he had three training dummies pelting him with stones. It wasn’t solely to just train with the Golden Fleece technique but to also learn how to choose which hits to take and how to take them without compromising his offensive capabilities too much.

After being pelted with stones for a bit, Ren would once again train using the Calm Spirit Technique to recover more chakra. And when he’s got enough, he’ll return to the Nine Echoes Technique again.

Of course, training the Nine Echoes Technique this time becomes more difficult. Ren just experienced some serious stone pelting. His body was aching, his muscles were protesting, and it was resisting whatever it was that he was making it do.

This poses more difficulty for Ren to actually perform the Nine Echoes Technique. His focus was being gnawed on by pain, making it hard for him to do what he wanted to; he’s frustrated, irritated, annoyed, and out of his rhythm.

This was the true test for him. And if he could persist in this state? That would mean he adjusted. It would also mean that he had to raise the bar.

This is where the true grind starts. The awful, repetitive, and miserable life of a martial artist. And Ren, even with his moderately impressive qualifications, advantages, and gifts, will be no exception to this.

It’s something that every martial artist must experience growing up. Only those who persisted and made it out through this ordeal will be qualified to pursue the higher realms of martial arts.

And for Ren, it had to be harsher. This amount of pain isn’t much compared to what he’s about to face.

The unique martial arts inheritance of the clan will bring forth even more pain, agony, and torture to him when he starts using them.

He had seen it more frequently recently. He watches from afar as some of his clanmates practice the clan’s unique martial art.

Ren could see the pain they’re trying to endure. He could see the suffering they’re keeping from within. He knows just how much agony they are in.

It’d be a lie if he said that it didn’t scare him. But he can’t run away from this.

As much as he dreaded the day of his turn to practice those, frankly, suicidal techniques, if he wanted to make changes or improvements on them, having a firsthand experience with them was something he absolutely couldn’t avoid.

Mikel hasn’t said anything so far. He probably thinks that Ren is still too young and is finding excuses to delay. Ren greatly appreciates that, really.

But not even the Clan Leader of the Banished Arms Clan could make exemptions from the rules.