With a reward of 0.1% with each attempt, it means he needs to make a total of 1,000 attempts for him to master it. If he makes three attempts per day, he will be done in 333 days.
So he can shorten something that takes the geniuses years to achieve on their own to less than a year simply by torturing himself three times per day. There is no way he isn't going to take that deal.
In the past, he would need to beat an anvil with a hammer or carry heavy weights in order to train. But he doesn't need to do that anymore.
All he needs to become stronger is to look at something. It reminded him of all those times his mother was always looking at a book and calling the process of reading it cultivation.
Even though his mother had told him that once he reached the second mortal coil, he wouldn't need physical exercise to train himself, he still couldn't believe that there was something so good.
It was definitely a tortuous experience, but it felt good to be making progress just by looking at a diagram. It felt so good that it was as if he was cheating.
With his progress visible to him, he couldn't slack off at all. All he wanted to do was grind that progress as soon as possible. So he was always picking up the diagram to look at it whenever he had a chance to.
While he was busy torturing himself, a significant event that had an impact on almost every area of Agate City and its environs occurred. It was so significant that people from all walks of life in the various levels of society felt its impact.
This event was that the special regional sect examination had ended. Everyone was talking about it, so even the reclusive Arthur found out about it.
It has been two years since the last regional exam began. Now it has ended; the lives of many people will change because of the outcome of the examination.
Some people died in the exam. Most of the participants of the examination died during the examination, but a few thousand of them passed and managed to join sects.
About 5 million people participate in the regional sect examination every five years. Of these 5 million, around 2 million will die, while 50 thousand will pass and join a sect. The rest of the 2.95 million will fail.
So the sect examination has a casualty rate of 40% and a pass rate of 1%. This is the average outcome over the years. This year was no different either.
All of these three outcomes will have their own impact. For example, 15 years ago, Augustus the fifteenth of the Dyson family failed the regional sect examination because he was unlucky and was ambushed by enemies.
He could have died, but he managed to survive. He returned home one year after the sect examination began. Unfortunately, this wasn't a good outcome for him.
His failure made his family disappointed. He wasn't welcomed with a grand party.
A grand party was thrown, but it wasn't for him. This made him sad and depressed for days and weeks.
His downcast state of mind made it easy for a certain seductress to worm her way into his heart. She was so good that she even managed to get into his pants. A year after that, Arthur arrived.
So Lady Vena hadn't only taken advantage of him and drugged him; she had also done so when he was at his most vulnerable. It is not a wonder why Augustus is still bitter about that.
Her scheme is something that would have been impossible to achieve if Augustus hadn't been frequenting the bars in the city and drinking a lot. He was too ashamed to remain in the Dyson family, so he stayed in the city to drown his sorrows with wine.
If he had stayed in the family compound, Vena wouldn't have been able to reach him no matter how much guts she had. The result of the regional sect examination had made it possible for her plan to work and had led to Arthur's birth.
Another example of a failure in the regional sect examination is that of Master Sky Owl, the young master of the Owl Claw dojo.
Skylar failed to join a sect, which was not surprising. It was the expected result. Even he wasn't aiming to join a sect. He had the common sense not to dream of joining a sect.
Even though he failed to join a sect, the welcome he received was directly opposite to that of Augustus. Master Owl Claw threw a big welcoming party for him.
This welcoming party wasn't as big and expensive as the one thrown for the Dyson family, but it was all for Skylar, and it was full of joy and happiness. Everyone was toasting Skylar and praising him for his failure.
The people that were invited were not pretending. They were truly envious of him. If there was something they were pretending, it was pretending that they were happy for him. It was an excellent performance since they were very jealous of him.
Skylar was truly happy and proud of himself. He is happy because even though he failed to join a sect, he managed to reach the ninth transformation and even acquired the force diagram needed to reach the tenth transformation and transcend the first mortal coil.
The only thing that made him unhappy was that his dojo had shrunken more than when he left it.
Before he left the dojo for the sect examination, his dojo was already suffering from a lack of students because of the Red Dojo belonging to Master Red.
The students of the Owl Claw dojo were leaving the dojo for the free alternative that Master Red was offering. It was a trickle at first, but it represented a trend.
After all, why would they pay for something they can get for free?