Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Late at night, 11:55 PM.

Ding Lingdang, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed, stared right at a big and tall boy and kept on shouting:

”Duan Zeyu, luckily, I have always regarded you to be a firm and unyielding man. I can’t believe that I would be requesting a little help from you, for you to be my sparring partner. Can’t you give me a thrashing for thirty to fifty minutes every day? You are not going to be unfaithful to a friend, right!?”

The boy called Duan Zeyu had his face turn ashen from fright as he secretly complained in his heart.

Although he was a senior student who was about to graduate and had reached the 9th level of the Refinement Stage, how could he be an opponent of Ding Lingdang, this wild dragoness?

It would most likely be him who would be trampled upon by her for thirty to fifty minutes every day. It would simply better to die than live, and that’s what you call a ”little help”!?

”Professor Ding, since I have joined the Iron Fist Club, you have been the Iron Fist Club’s president and have overseen our brothers and sisters training. Every day, you had taken a lot of care of us.”

”So, I truly respect you as a senior and I very much want to help you!”

”But, it just so happens that I have teamed up with several fellow students and have taken a task to hunt demon beasts in the depths of the Wasteland. I think... it will take one month… no, 3-5 months... no, for a year or so. I will not be in the institute. I am truly unable to be your sparring partner, I am extremely sorry! Hey! It seems someone is calling me. I’m sorry, Professor Ding!”

Duan Zeyu quickly logged out of the spiritual crane messenger.

”A year or so? Why don’t you just say eight or ten years!”

Ding Lingdang was unable to restrain her anger. Having kicked away the crystal processor, she took out a fan and vigorously started fanning. Her face was laced with brooding, which she was unable to vent, as her towering chest heaved up and down.

For finding a good sparring partner to be this hard, it was truly out of her expectation.

Sparring was a very difficult task. If her sparring partner was too weak, he or she would be unable to withstand a few of her punches and kicks, thereby losing the significance of sparring. And the students who were comparatively strong all happened to be venturing into the depths of Wasteland to hunt demon beasts or making a name for themselves in the arena, so why would they bother to become a human sandbag for her?

In addition, Ding Lingdang, this wild dragoness in human skin, was quite famous in the Grand Desolate War Institution. Everyone knew that she was a martial art fanatic. Although she was in the early stages of the Building Foundation Stage, once she went crazy, only the devil would know how much brutality she might ultimately unleash!

If she increased the credits a bit, then under the temptation of the credits, someone might muster up his or her courage, or perhaps someone who wasn’t afraid of death might apply.

However, even a teacher had a limit on how many credits they could give.

If it were the professors or associate professors who could be considered seniors, they could certainly issue priceless tasks.

But Ding Lingdang, this young professor who had just graduated this year and remained in institute to work, was only at the level of an ”assistant”, the lowest ranked professor in the university.

The credits she could freely allocate were sparse; 10 credits per minute was already her limit.

Thus, this entire night, no one had applied for her mission. And when she brazenly asked some senior students, these steel-willed men, whilst keeping a straight face, actually started shivering as though they were in the jaws of a demon beast and equivocally came up with some excuses to stall—not even one person was willing to be her sparring partner!

”These wimps, isn’t there anyone who has guts like Li Yao!?”

Ding Lingdang angrily muttered to herself.

At this point, a crisp and melodious voice floated over from downstairs: ”Li Yao has arrived! Li Yao has arrived!”

The corners of Ding Lingdang’s lips raised, seemingly as if they revealed a smile of understanding.

Somehow, every time she saw Li Yao, her mood would involuntarily get better.

Although, Li Yao’s, this kid’s, character was somewhat extreme, and he was sometimes ignorant of how high the heavens was and how deep the earth was and even a little silly... so much so that Ding Lingdang could not help but have an urge to crush him into two...

Nevertheless, compared to those wimps, in her eyes, he seemed more like a man.

Only such a man had the qualifications to be her, Ding Lingdang’s, dear brother—peas in a pod!

”Come up quickly, let me see what kind of pleasant surprise you are going to bring in a mere five hours!”

Ding Lingdang happily jumped down from the bed, and without even wearing her slippers, went to welcome him barefooted!

Sure enough, Li Yao did bring her a fair share of pleasant surprises!

When the two once again entered the Billowing Star Sea and appeared on a rocky small island, as Ding Lingdang casually blasted a punch, she immediately discovered that something wasn’t right.

When her knuckles were just 5 mm away from Li Yao’s stomach, a ”swish” sound suddenly burst forth in the air.

It was as though a mass of gas had suddenly expanded, seemingly as if she had ruthlessly smashed a big bubble.

Of course, the big bubble wasn’t enough to block her heavy punch, but her momentum, which was originally gathered at one point, was dispersed in multiple directions and was scattered and divided into seven or eight streams of power which respectively struck various parts of Li Yao’s body.

Li Yao, who was wearing four layers of armor, had surprisingly blocked this punch. Although he was grimacing in pain, he was nevertheless alive and kicking!

”Not bad, not bad! In five hours, not only have you have mastered a new battle skill, but you can even forcibly block my punch!”

”I guess you should have controlled the spiritual energy to simulate some way to disperse the power, right? Alright, warm up is finished. I will now let you experience this sister’s true strength!”

Ding Lingdang seemed to be burning with eagerness to have a go; she was incredibly excited. From her neck to her ear, she was flushed red, and even her ear lobes were as red as fire. In the blink of an eye, her speed had increased by a level, and Li Yao was completely engulfed by something akin to a red tide!

”Boom!”

Li Yao felt as if he was amidst frightening billows and terrifying waves, seemingly as if he was in the center of a hurricane where the ear-splitting sound of waves frantically bombarded his eardrums, causing him to even have labored breathing and heart rate.

He had already entered the super perceptive state, and his computational ability had soared to limit. Not only was he calculating Ding Lingdang’s speed, angle of attack, and the possible location where she was going to appear, but more importantly, he was also controlling his spiritual energy to form small air bags in front of him one after another, which exploded in a timely manner before Ding Lingdang’s punches struck the target.

To do all this, the computational ability required was much higher than that needed for modifying the 1st Generation Tai’e furnace!

Li Yao felt as though his every brain cell was on fire; every second, countless crystal bombs were exploding in his brain.

However, what was even more difficult to endure was the pain, which was so severe that even a minute fraction of it could not be described in words!

The principle of [Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining] was to distribute the enemy’s power and stimulate one’s 180 acupoints. This kind of stimulation would bring its user an unimaginable amount of pain that any ordinary person would not be able to endure.

Under the super perceptive state, Li Yao’s neurons were highly perceptive, thus the pain he felt was ten times sharper than usual.

With the two things superimposed, it brought him a feeling of hovering between life and death, which let alone ordinary person, even an ordinary cultivator would not necessarily be able to endure!

”Hiss...”

Li Yao’s pair of eyes turned crimson. He was so overwhelmed with pain that he wished to die. He forcibly emptied his brain and cut-off the connection between his nociceptors and his brain while silently meditating:

”I am a piece of iron, I am a piece of steel, I am not afraid of pain, I am not afraid of pain. This pain is nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing! Only with Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining would my body be indestructible to the point that not even a god can destroy!”

In these couple dozen second, the meditation had played its role; he truly didn’t feel the slightest bit of pain. He had entered a profound intangible state where there was only a series of numbers continuously flashing in his brain. Ding Lingdang’s each and every action was accurately broken down into speed, angle of attack, distance, and just right before the heavy punch was going to land upon him, he would always congeal a bubble out of spiritual energy.

However, Ding Lingdang very soon understood the principle of dispersing her power using the spiritual energy bubble. She was a martial art genius and thus immediately came up with a way to break this. Her every attack was followed by two layers of powerful energy; the first layer of energy was as sharp as a needle and would first pierce the spiritual energy bubble, which was then followed by the true attack that could overturn mountains and seas.

This change was simply out of Li Yao’s expectation, and he was barely able to resist two of her next moves before having to surrender. Ding Lingdang’s kick had blasted him twenty odd meters away, and the armor over his abdomen had been completely smashed, causing even his sternum to faintly crack.

”Hiss...”

Li Yao, who was lying flat on his back in the midst of broken stones, looked at the sky in frustration. It was as if he had returned to the days in the memories of Ou Yezi when he had been first ravaged by ”Titan” using the One Hundred and Eight Hands Chaos Gale Hammer Technique.

Ding Lingdang, with a smile laced on her face, appeared before him.

At present, the depression she had was swept away; she was completely refreshed, and her eyes were shining brightly as though she had just finished enjoying a scrumptious feast.

And naturally, Li Yao was this ”scrumptious feast”.

Li Yao’s hands and feet had completely gone numb and could not move even a bit. All he could do was ruthlessly stare at her with a face filled with grievance and unwillingness.

Ding Lingdang, who was smearing medication on him, said with a laugh:

”Don’t blame this sister for attacking with a heavy-hand. Who asked you to come with such a strange battle skill, causing this sister to be eager to have a go and be unable to control myself? That’s why you have been beaten to this. However, you are also not without any gains. Guess how long have you persevered?”

”How long is it? Have I—”

In the blink of an eye, Li Yao was enlivened as he immediately sat up.

”Hahaha, sixty-two seconds! You are truly a monstrous genius!”

Ding Lingdang bent her jade-like finger and flicked Li Yao’s nose.

Li Yao was wild with joy. God knows where he even got the strength to be able to actually jump two meters high in the air before he started to dance with joy: ”I did it! I have truly persisted for a minute—I have earned 10 credits!”

Although it was just ten credits, he felt so happy, seemingly as if he had gotten a hundred credits. It was simply forcibly seizing 10 credits from the jaws of a T-rex!

”Don’t get excited. Let me tell you some bad news, you’ll have to brace yourself.”

Ding Lingdang’s face was filled with a strange look: ”Although you had persisted for a minute, you have never registered for my task on the internet and neither have you filmed the entire spar, so this was not a formal spar and you won’t be able to get any credits”

”Otherwise, with just the two of us here, wouldn’t I be able to simply provide you 100 credits by saying that you have sparred with me for 10 minutes?”

”The credit system is the foundation of the Grand Desolate War Institution, thus every credit transaction has to go through rigorous reviews. Without any evidence, no one is able to arbitrarily send credits.”

”Therefore, if you want to have the 10 credits, you have to first go to the net and receive the task, then start a video recording magical equipment, and then once again persist for one minute. Now I believe that you now have the qualification to be my sparring partner!”

”What!?”

It seemed as if Li Yao had been struck by lightning; his entire body was completely transfixed in a dancing posture, and for a long time, he did not recover from his stupor.

His eyes constantly flickered with a sharp murderous gleam which was even sharper than a saber.

”You mean to say... I was beaten by you in vain.”

”Technically, yes.”

”Then why didn’t you say so at the start!?”

”How could I have known that you would have been so fierce and would be able to persist for so long? I believed that I would be able to wrap you up with a few kicks and punches! Oh my, really worthy of the cultivation genius unearthed by me, Ding Lingdang. You are so different that those ordinary shrimp soldiers, especially in taking a beating!”

”You—”

”A man should not be so small-minded. How about I let you hit me for a minute to let you vent your anger, ok?”

Ding Lingdang started to act shamelessly.

Li Yao was about to explode in anger. He had this hideous look on his face as he ruthlessly stared at Ding Lingdang, seemingly as if he would swallow her in one bite.

In contrast, Ding Lingdang had a completely innocent look. Blinking her eyes for a long time, she finally could not hold in her laughter. She was laughing to the point that she was shaking and even tears were coming out from the corner of her eyes.

”My dear silly brother, I am just joking with you! This island is the combat zone of the Billowing Star Sea, so there is a hidden recording system at the corners that would automatically record videos of a fight.”

”So as long as you have this videos, you can go online and complete the formalities and you will get the 10 credits!”

Li Yao was completely dumbfounded; he was stunned for a long time before he could ask, ”Why did you lie to me?”

Ding Lingdang broke out into a laugher and replied:

”Because I suddenly wished to see you get angry. Because you can’t beat me and could only secretly sulk on the side. And then there’s that look when you were ruthlessly staring at me—yes, this look you have now, the look when you are about to explode in anger, yet can do nothing. It is so cute!”

”What the hell kind of thinking do you have?” Li Yao completely could not understand her.

”Generally, doesn’t an elder sister have this kind of mentality towards her younger brother? The feeling of wanting to bully him without reason!” Ding Lingdang replied as though it was right and proper.

Li Yao narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth: ”Younger brothers will grow up. Someday, when I am stronger than you, I will bully you in turn!”

”Hahaha, that is impossible!” Ding Lingdang, while laughing, resolutely and decisively proclaimed.

”And if it comes true someday?” Li Yao’s eyes bloomed with a dangerous gleam which could be found in the eyes of a vulture.

”If it came true someday, then it’s ok to bully this sister as you like!” Ding Lingdang said in a tone as though she was not at all concerned about this; she simply didn’t place this in her heart.