Just as I expected, I developed three or four blisters on each of my hands. When I was eating dinner that night, the hand holding the bowl felt like it was holding a red-hot charcoal coin.

In the end, I had no choice but to find a flat stone to use as a table, put the bowl on it, and finish my meal.

Seeing that my hand seemed to hurt, Top retrieved some herbs from where I kept miscellaneous items.

Top didn't recognize herbs; he only knew they could be used to heal wounds and save lives. What Top was holding was aconite, something I dared not use carelessly—it could be fatal.

After thanking Top for his kindness, I disinfected the tiger thorn with saline solution and then used the tiger thorn in my hand to puncture the blisters one by one.

I no longer felt that swelling, but instead, a hollow, burning pain came over me.

These blisters aren't really considered major injuries because there's no actual bleeding; they're more like penetrating injuries to the dermis.

After popping the blisters, I first put my hands in a mild saline solution to disinfect them. This process may be a little irritating, but the saline solution can quickly astringe the wound tissue and reduce the pain that will persist afterward.

I grimaced and soaked my hands in the lightly salted water for a good three minutes, until the blisters on my palms stopped causing that excruciating pain. Only then did I take my hands out of the salt water and apply some anti-inflammatory herbal powder.

Actually, the most painful moment was when I put my hand into the saline solution. After that, as the skin contracted, the pain in my hand quickly subsided by more than half.

Thanks to my timely intervention, otherwise tonight would have been a sleepless night.

The next morning, we all got up early under the leader's command.

Except for the very young children and elderly people who stayed in the tribe, the rest of the people went directly to the training ground from yesterday to begin a new day of training.

Yesterday I was full of confidence, but today's actual performance was abysmal. Yesterday, when my hand was fine, I was able to chop fifteen bundles of firewood.

Something's not right today. Even though I treated my hand the best I could yesterday, injuries don't heal so quickly.

The vibrations from the stone axe striking the tree reopened the wound on my hand that had already shrunk.

This time, my hand holding the stone axe was trembling. The pain felt like I was holding a steel needle. Every time I swung the stone axe to chop down a tree, it was a form of mental torture.

Even so, I don't want to fall too far behind everyone else. Having grown up in the countryside, I have a stubborn and unyielding spirit in my bones, and even though my wounds have reopened, it can't stop my determination to continue.

This scene was naturally observed by the leader. He smiled, nodded at me amicably, and gave me a thumbs-up in appreciation.

Today, thanks to my tireless efforts, I finally finished my homework with thirteen bundles, one bundle less than Su Su.

However, no one laughed at me for this. Everyone had seen what I was doing, and at that moment, many of the locals were giving me approving looks.

You know, when they first started this training, their results in the first few days weren't necessarily as good as mine.

For the next month, we did the same physical training every day.

Previously, the firewood I chopped could be piled up inside the cave, but as the amount of firewood increased, we eventually had to put the remaining firewood on an open space next to the cave.

With dozens of people chopping wood over the past month, the amount of firewood produced was truly staggering. A clearing about fifteen paces long and ten paces wide was neatly stacked into a huge pile of firewood.

Judging by appearance, it was already taller than three people; the last layer of firewood would require a wooden ladder to reach and work on.

The situation on the mountain was even more exaggerated; in a month, one mountain was simply not enough for us to cut down.

So in that month, we cut down thirteen such mountains before we stopped.

From a distance, the forests we've cleared resemble a monk who's only halfway through his ordination. The trees that weren't felled still grow strong and healthy, while the rest are completely bare, creating a stark contrast.

However, the harvest from a month of persistent tree cutting was enormous. In addition to providing the tribe with a large amount of firewood, it was estimated that it would be enough to last for the next year.

More importantly, everyone's strength and cardiopulmonary function have been greatly improved. Now we can easily run more than ten kilometers in the mountains and forests without being out of breath.

I can now feel that my body has undergone tremendous changes compared to before.

First of all, the already limited body fat has long been depleted by the high-intensity work every day.

In return, you get those strong, defined abs. These muscles aren't the exaggeratedly swollen muscles you get from eating protein powder, getting injections, or working out in the gym.

Instead, it is a type of thick muscle fiber that is slightly raised and close to the skin surface, compressed like a spring storing energy.

These muscles, which look unremarkable like those of Bruce Lee, can unleash tremendous power.

Now I can easily complete my homework of twenty bundles a day, just like everyone else, and I've also gained a lot of experience in controlling the strength of my axe swing.

The body is primarily controlled by the lower body, with power originating from the ground, passing through the hips to the waist, then amplified through the arms via a whip-like effect, and finally released through the wrists onto the stone axe.

With full force, the axe left a five- or six-centimeter-deep cut on the tree, and the axe had to be pulled out by changing the angle.

This gave me some insight into the feeling of Tongbei Quan. Although I have never practiced martial arts, all martial arts originate from life and are fundamentally rooted in the body.

These may be the rewards bestowed by the gods, as the tribal chief spoke of.

Now I finally understand why Dante was able to use my sword to cleanly and swiftly cut down that armored centipede at the bottom of the sinkhole.

My blade is sharp, but more importantly, Dante's control over the human body's power is far more refined than mine.

If I were to kill that giant centipede now, I reckon I could do it as easily as Dante.

We stopped cutting down trees after that. However, the physical training continued every day.

What they are doing most now is clearing out a mountain ridge closest to the tribe that has been cut down and planting large quantities of potatoes and cassava.

These tasks were the result of discussions between the high priest and the chief. The people in the tribe never wasted their energy; they did the work while training their physical fitness.