Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Two hundred meters were literally nothing when one’s going at a supersonic speed.

”BOOM!”

Many people felt that their eyes were blurred. Then they heard an earthshaking noise, as if a meteorite had just landed on the field. The collision was so powerful that there was a small sandstorm spreading a kilometer away.

No one could see anything or hear anything except the aftershock of the impact. It took a long time before they came back to themselves.

When the smoke finally settled down, a dramatic scene unfolded itself before them, and there was indistinguishable murmuring of fear in their mouth.

Not far ahead, a shallow pit appeared, with white gas popping up.

The Seven-step Rock Snake collapsed in the pit. Its right shoulder had been completely shattered. Colorful sparks were dancing everywhere with cracking sounds.

Right beside it… was chief instructor Mao Feng, who was in a coma now!

The testing field was caught in an awkward silence. But it was immediately broken. Dozens of twisted screams reverberated in the sky,

”Not good. Chief instructor passed out!”

”Someone has— knocked chief instructor out!”

…

An hour later.

In a fully-equipped crystal suit warehouse, two refiners were repairing the Seven-step Rock Snake.

The refiner on the left, who had a big mole on his forehead, frowned.

”That was a huge impact. The right shoulder was almost broken into pieces. Why was it so bad?”

The refiner on the right had crooked lips. He said,

”Rushing for hundreds of meters in a supersonic state before reaching the chief instructor… How could it not be bad? The chief instructor was knocked out before he could even defend himself with his Building Foundation Stage abilities. It was nuts…”

He stopped when he noticed that his partner looked terrible. Knowing something was wrong, he turned back rigidly.

Mao Feng was standing right behind them with a grim face.

For a moment, the temperature in the warehouse seemed to have dropped 10 degrees!

”Hello, Instructor Mao!”

The two refiners greeted him hurriedly.

Even an idiot would know that the chief instructor of the Outer Camp had been under super-high pressure and was not in his best mood. It was best not to offend him, in case the volcano suddenly burst out.

But Mao Feng had a weird countenance. Behind the gloomy face was some indistinct confusion.

There was something that nobody else in the training camp knew.

When Li Yao was about to hit him in the Seven-step Rock Snake, he already braced himself for the collision.

He didn’t dodge. Instead, he brought himself up to the preliminary level of Building Foundation Stage and condensed a strong spiritual energy shield in front of him.

By his calculation, since Li Yao was merely a Cultivator in the 6th level of the Refinement Stage, the shield would be more than enough to hold him back, even if the crystal suit had empowered him with the supersonic speed and maybe doubled his combat abilities.

But as it turned out, he was blown away in shame!

It was simply impossible!

If Li Yao had not been hiding his true capability, the only explanation will be—

The endowment that this crystal suit offered him was not just doubling the combat abilities, but tripling them, or even more!

Showing no emotion, Mao Feng said coldly, ”Leave the damage on the shoulder alone for now. See if there’s anything wrong with the drive mode.”

The two refiners nodded. They lifted a component below the Seven-step Rock Snake’s neck, connected a crystal wire to the processor of the suit, and started checking immediately.

No sooner had they begun than they detected something abnormal. Their faces turned darker and darker and their eyebrows scrunched together.

”What’s wrong?”

Mao Feng asked gravely, his eyebrow bouncing.

They looked at each other. The first refiner finally made up his mind and said, ”Chief instructor, it is universally known that the crystal suits for new students are all antiques from a hundred years ago. They’ve endured a lot of battles before and therefore bear a lot of wounds. To fix them, we had to replace some of their components with miscellaneous substitutes, some of which were actually refined by ourselves…”

”Get to the point!” Mao Feng raised his voice.

The second refiner continued. ”Do you recall that two days ago, a very rare thunder storm hit our camp? Several warehouses were affected by the weather. I assume that, interfered by the thunder, two crystal wires of the suit had a short cut, causing the chaos of the driving mode.

”The crystal processor shows that the suit is in the beginner mode with 30% sensitivity.

”However, after our double check, we’ve found that it is actually in the X-mode designed for the real experts. The difficulty for using it is twice that of the normal mode.

”In the X-mode, responses that the rune arrays give to spiritual energy are set at the highest level. Even the slightest movement of muscles, or a minor thought, will trigger a profound reaction in the rune arrays. Therefore, X-mode can significantly enhance the combat abilities of the wearer, making them 500% stronger or even more!”

Mao Feng breathed heavily. His eyes were keen and his throat became dry,

”Why was the problem not discovered previously?”

The first refiner answered reluctantly, ”Chief instructor, you also know that the thunder storm two days ago caused great damage. Many middle-level and high-level crystal suits in the Inner Camp were influenced as well. We were all summoned to help fix them, so we only had the time to run the regular tests on the suits of the Outer Camp.”

The second refiner added, ”Also, this malfunction is too weird. Generally speaking, the drive mode hardly ever goes wrong, and when it does, even the least experienced cultivator will immediately know something is wrong the moment they put on the suit. If they’d reported the issue to us, we could’ve fixed it within several minutes.

”And reporting to us is the only thing they can do.”

The first refiner grinned, ”X-mode is devised for qualified, experienced, and proficient Exos. Newbies will find themselves hardly able to stand up in such a mode.”

He stopped when he realized what he just said.

Looking at each other, the two refiners both saw the astonishment in the other’s eyes.

Sweat started appearing on their foreheads.

”Alright. Your explanation is acceptable. Your reinforcement to the Inner Camp was approved by me, and it was me who agreed to only run regular tests too. I take full responsibility for this accident.

”Now try to repair the crystal suit. And remember, nobody else is to know anything about this incident without my permission.”

The two refiners thought that he would be angry and vent his anger to them, but Mao Feng concluded the conversation and left in a hurry.

…

Half an hour later, in an analysis room filled with dozens of screens, Mao Feng bowed to an old man whose face was flushed due to too much drinking and said courteously, ”Mister Xu!”

He respected the old man from the bottom of his heart, because the ugly old man, named Xu Tianyou, was a research-type cultivator, who not only was a cultivator at the peak of Building Foundation Stage, but also was a very rare ’Training Planner’.

A skilled Training Planner is adept at pedagogy, psychology, anatomy, and hundreds of other subjects. They can draft and design detailed training plans for different Cultivators based on their own conditions, so that their training efficiency can be maximized and their potentials can be fulfilled at the fast speed they can afford.

The Thunder Training Camp’s second-to-none prominence, which could be indicated by the fact that even many battlesuit major students came here for improvement, was partly based on the impressive capabilities of Lei Tingwei, a strong man in the Core Formation Stage, and partly because of the comprehensive case-by-case training plans for the students created by the best Training Planners in the trade.

”Little Feng!”

Mr. Xu smiled, ”You should know that I always write training plans for the Cultivators in the Building Foundation Stage in the Inner Camp. Why do you ask me to design a tailor-made training plan for a Refinement State Cultivator in the Outer Camp who barely knows anything about training? Who’s this guy? Your cousin? Right, I heard something unbelievable on my way here. Words are that you were knocked out in the testing field?”

Mao Feng dared not to glare at Mr. Xu. Embarrassed, he tried to smile and said, ”Mr. Xu, don’t be hasty. I’ll show you a few video clips. We’ll talk about it later after you’ve evaluated his performance in the test.”

Mao Feng waved his hand. All of the screens started playing simultaneously. They were clips from the cameras in the testing field, which had pictured Li Yao’s every movement since he put on his crystal suit.

Mr. Xu glanced at the screens and said casually, ”This student probably has never touched crystal suits before. Chances are that he has hardly ever done simulations or played crystal suit games. He knows absolutely nothing about crystal suits. A classic beginner.

”However, he is very good at learning from his failures, and he doesn’t make the same mistake twice. Therefore, he has been improving fast.

”Look, he may have fallen over dozens of times when he first started, but they were all for different reasons.

”Ostensibly, he could barely stand or walk. But in fact, he was trying different ways of strength manipulation to test the best posture for standing and walking.

”Not bad. Not bad.”

The more Mr. Xu watched, the more he started talking. He nodded his head without knowing. ”His improvement is indeed magnificent. A moment ago, he was still unable to stand and now he’s already jogging?

”However, it’s not unusual that a student of no prior knowledge learns very fast at the beginning period.

”Based on these video clips, I can only say that he is a smart, somewhat talented student. Definitely not good enough for me to make a training plan for him.”

Before he finished his sentence, Li Yao in the video clip started sprinting and rushed into the supersonic state!

”Huh?”

Mr. Xu raised his eyebrows and looked at Mao Feng suspiciously. He mumbled, ”That can’t be right. I remember that the tests for new students have been conducted in the beginner mode, which can only double a student’s ability in the best-case scenario.

”The reason you come to me is that this boy is a genius at running and you want me to make a training plan that will boost his running potential?”

Mao Feng shook his head, he sighed. ”Mr. Xu, you’re wrong. The boy is not a genius runner.”

”The Seven-step Rock Snake that he’s been using was not set in the beginner mode, either. It was in the X-mode that only the top experts can manage.”

”What?!”

Mr. Xu was shocked.