Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Mo Tianshui seemed to have found a treasure. His face was beaming with excitement as he said, ”I’ve read Fiend Star’s theories before, too. But I thought that they were too invalid and impractical. I didn’t know that it was because I was too shortsighted to notice the delicacies of his theories!

”It seems that I need to study Master Fiend Star’s theories deeper in the future. I hope I can have another match with Fellow Cultivator Li someday!”

”I very much look forward to it,” said Li Yao sincerely.

Mo Tianshui was indeed a super expert. Li Yao was uncertain that he could defeat him again in a match with different rules.

Such high-level competition would be of great help to improve the Cultivation of both parties no matter which side won.

Mo Tianshui hesitated for a moment, but he still failed to contain his curiosity and asked, somewhat embarrassedly, ”Fellow Cultivator Li, if you don’t mind me asking, can you tell me how you trained your hands to achieve such a lightning-like speed?”

Li Yao thought for a moment. Xie Anan had seen his training with Purple Ring Sword Ants previously. Right now, he had exposed his true capability, and Xie Anan was likely to tell her friends now that it was unnecessary to keep it a secret.

Besides, such a training method was not anything confidential. It was recorded in many notes from ancient times. Anyone determined enough could practice it in the first place.

Figuring everything out, Li Yao did not intend to keep it to himself anymore. He said seriously, ”Have you ever seen Purple Ring Sword Ants at four o’clock in the morning?”

Mo Tianshui was dazed, not having the slightest clue what the question was about.

Li Yao explained, ”Four o’clock in the morning is the period belonging to the tigers according to the ancient Cultivators. It is the time when day and night shift. It is also the darkest moment before dawn.

”Moreover, it is the best time of rest for Purple Ring Sword Ants.

”If you wake up them, the Purple Ring Sword Ants become infuriated into the most rampant state. They become crazy like the most aggressive tigers.

”If you train with the Purple Ring Sword Ants at four o’clock in the morning day after day, your hand speed will surely improve significantly.”

Li Yao’s words raised chaos in many refiners’ minds.

Increasing the perception and the speed of one’s hands with the Purple Ring Sword Ants was an ’ancient secret art’ that many refiners knew about. But most people scorned it and took it as the jibber-jabber of insane Cultivators.

It had never occurred to them that the method was a real thing!

For a moment, many of them felt that their blood was freezing.

They all knew how painful it was to be bitten by the Purple Ring Sword Ants, and yet this guy chose four o’clock in the morning, when the ants were most furious and brutal, to do his training?

This was truly one mad monster! No wonder his hands had broken the sonic barrier despite merely being at the Building Foundation Stage.

In the auditorium, Tu Yongqing’s face was partly red and partly pale.

He had been quite unlucky this year. He had come across a strong enemy in the second round and was eliminated from the game in 101st place. Therefore, he could do nothing but watch as a spectator.

He remembered that, a few days ago in the sword-tasting get together, he had slated ’Purple Ring Sword Ant Training’ in public. Ashamed, he was thinking of digging a hole right now so that he could hide himself.

With thousands of pairs of dumbfounded eyes fixed on him, Li Yao left the field through the teleportation array.

He was fatigued. Carving a chip with his bare hands had consumed too much of his energy and soul power. Right now, his hands felt like they were on fire, and yet there was a sense of numbness as if they did not belong to him. He needed to find a place to train and recover them immediately.

At the other end of the teleportation array, in a spacious hall, somebody was waiting for him.

It was Huangpu Xiaoya, another talented heir from a noble family of refining.

In the second round of competition, the total damage of the three pieces of magical equipment that she had refined was even higher than that of Li Yao’s works and Mo Tianshui’s. She ranked first currently.

Huangpu Xiaoya did not hide her aggressiveness at all. The electric arcs inside her eyes were shining ten times more brightly when she saw Li Yao was coming.

Her hands had been surrounded by lightning since she didn’t know when, which were spluttering and breaking her skin apart.

Before the blood flowed out, it was already vaporized into scarlet mist by the lightning.

Li Yao was quite familiar with the phenomenon.

It was not because she wasn’t in control of her hands but because her hands were too desperate for a real fight!

Huangpu Xiaoya snapped her fingers. Electric arcs were dancing on her fingertips. They tied up a finely-made jade bottle and sent it to Li Yao.

”This is the special hand-nourishing liquid of the Huangpu family that contains 136 Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. Every drop was made by experts in my family slowly over several years.

”Your hands must have suffered heavy injuries from the supersonic movements just now. They may look fine on the outside, but tiny damage must be all over your veins, nerves, and bones now.

”You won’t be able to completely recover them in another five days. Your hand speed will drop by 5%.

”Our Huangpu family is best known for the marvelous nourishing liquid we make. This bottle of liquid should be able to accelerate the healing of your wounds and recover your hand speed to 100% of its original or even higher within three days!”

Li Yao was dazed for a moment. He took the bottle without any hesitation and put on a big smile. ”Many thanks.”

Her eyes absolutely still, Huangpu Xiaoya gazed at his hands, as if they were a piece of great artwork, and as if she was going to gobble up his hands in one mouthful. She replied, ”There is no need. You should know what I want.

”I don’t want any regrets in my victory. That’s all.

”Try and get yourself well. I’m looking forward to competing with you in your best state!”

…

When Li Yao walked out of his personal chamber, the hundreds of reporters waiting outside went crazy.

Countless camera flashes were blinking. Hundreds of questions flooded at him like a boiling tide.

”Contestant Li Yao, you’ve risen to fame after one battle today by defeating the talented heir of the Mo family!”

”Contestant Li Yao, can you tell us more about your life? I’m told that you’ve been under the tutelage of a strange master before. Who was he exactly? Was he really the sole successor of a school from hundreds of years ago?”

”Contestant Li Yao, you said yourself that your training was based on the Purple Ring Sword Ants. As far as I know, such a way of training can be really cruel and excruciating. How did you manage to withstand that unbearable pain?”

Li Yao frowned. He had no opinions about reporters. But now that he had abruptly become famous from an unknown, somebody was definitely going to investigate him. It might be better to spread some of his stories first right now.

Moreover…

Li Yao thought of something. He smiled and said, ”My time is limited, and I have to continue my training when I’m back. Therefore, I will answer one of your questions.

”I was roaming, struggling, and training in various relics of ancient battlegrounds in the edge of the sea of stars when I was young. It wasn’t the most pleasant experience, and I really don’t want to talk much about it.

”It was not until I joined the Great Horn Exo Society that I was completely changed and made a real breakthrough.

”The days I spent in the Great Horn Exo Society were the happiest time for me in this world! I will never forget the event of the entire Great Horn Exo Society fighting side by side against the space swirl caused by a True Fusion.

”I believe that few people here have ever observed a True Fusion at a close distance, much less struggling in the surging tides it raises, have you?

”It was like ten thousand suns exploding in front of your eyes simultaneously. The torrent of light and heat completely melted your cells and your soul!

”After enduring that kind of pain, no pain is insufferable.

”We were lucky enough to survive the catastrophe. The silver lining for me was that I was enlightened through the True Fusion and experienced a major breakthrough!”

It was the best explanation that Li Yao could think of for his capability.

Few Cultivators had ever gotten in touch with a True Fusion. It was impossible for the reporters to check what kind of experience it was. Besides, it was quite usual for a Cultivator to have a major breakthrough when they were on the brink of doom.

Smiling, Li Yao left the center of the Skyhill Sword Seminar before the reporters pursued further.

…

Other elimination matches were held in the following couple of days. They were arranged with a long gap between each other for the convenience of better communication. Therefore, Li Yao finally had the time to take a moment of rest.

When he was not training, he sometimes logged in to The World of Crystal Suits under the name of ’Fiend Star’.

Hardly had he entered the Q&A zone when hundreds of invitations bombarded his face.

After he’d adulated ’Fiend Star’ in front of thousands of people in the Skyhill Sword Seminar, Fiend Star’s popularity had soared. Those who were willing to discuss with him were of a higher level, too. Most of them were professionals in the circle of refiners now.

The question he was mostly invited to was ’what reviews are there on the competition between Li Yao and Mo Tianshui in the Skyhill Sword Seminar?’

Some people were even sending private messages to him, asking him whether or not he knew Li Yao and his background.

Li Yao secretly chuckled. He considered for a while and left a comment as Fiend Star.

”I’ve never heard of the name ’Li Yao’ before. But after studying the match of him versus Mo Tianshui, I was reminded of a certain someone from his methods and style.

”Many years ago, when I was exploring a small ancient battleground at the edge of Silver Frost Space Zone, I came across a strange guy who only had a left hand.

”We got eyes on the same scrap, and we were engaged in a competition in the arts of refining.

”Although the guy was only one-armed, I experienced a brutal failure that was far beyond my expectations.

”At that time, I was already quite confident in my skills of refining. In great shock, I naturally asked who the guy was.

”But the guy said nothing. He took away the scrap and disappeared in the stone belt. I haven’t seen him again ever since.

”At that time, he was already wrinkled and grey-haired. I assume that he was quite old at that time. Two to three hundred years old, maybe.

”Today, I seem to have found traces of my old acquaintance in Li Yao, and I can’t help but recall the past…”

After writing the intriguing little story, Li Yao logged off delightedly.

Everything he had said was purely imaginary and utterly unfalsifiable. He wouldn’t be bothered by whatever people made out of it.

In such a way, his identity and the origin of his skills would be more valid.

Instead of following the riot that Fiend Star’s last comment raised on the Spiritual Nexus, Li Yao was devoted to training and preparing himself for the competition of the next round, until he was notified of a message that made his eyes beam with joy.

It was a congratulatory message from the Great Horn Exo Society!