by <unknown>
"A little bit." blinking his eyes, Li Yao replied. He didn't know how to comment on Peng Hai's conducts of battle.
"The purpose of any battle is to defeat the enemy. How you do it... is the trick. Whether it is by sword or a knife, fist or cannon, so long as the enemy is down, what's the difference?"
Li Yao felt a jolt in his mind. He came to realize the hidden meaning in Peng Hai's words.
Peng Hai snapped his fingers before the Spiritual Energy Star Cannon disappeared silently, as if it never existed.
Peng Hai patted Li Yao's shoulder and earnestly said, "Li Yao, the two of us came from the same background and struggled to get here from the lowest rungs of society. You and I are like the pebbles that had been eroded for a few hundred millennia under the waterfall. Even if we appear to be all shining and glossy on the surface, on the inside, there is a part of us which is persistent — which could never be crushed! If we have selected a target, we will stick to our path and always strive to go till the end. Even if we hit an iron wall, we will always find a way to knock a hole through the iron wall and continue to walk on our road!"
"However, you are forgetting something. There are more than one way to our destination and also more than one way to realize our dreams."
"Deep Sea University is indeed the holy land for refiners; however, if you enter the Grand Desolate War Institution's Combat Department, you will learn the applications of various kind of magical equipment. You will realize the advantages and disadvantages of various magical equipment as well as the top magical equipment requested by the soldiers at the frontline... With all these experiences, if you study refining again, perhaps you might be able to refine even more powerful magical equipment which are more suitable for combat!"
Li Yao was absorbed in his thoughts. Peng Hai's words had set off waves in his heart.
"You do not need to decide now. After all, this is a life changing decision for a student. You still have one month’s time, so you should think about it. And in the end, if you still decide to go to Deep Sea University, I am still going to support you! Alright, it's getting late. I have to go to a party with a bunch of old comrades tomorrow afternoon before leaving for the Demon Beast Wasteland. You slowly cultivate here. Ding Lingdang will wake up in another ten minutes. At that time, everything will be arranged by her."
"Brother Hai!"
Peng Hai was just about to leave before Li Yao suddenly called out to him.
"What else?" Peng Hai asked with a smile.
Li Yao hesitated for a moment before finally he decided on something. He summoned up the courage to ask, "Brother Hai, it maybe be a little rude, but — could you show me the true strength of a High Building Foundation Stage cultivator?"
Chapter 84: Jumping to the Peak! |
Peng Hai raised his eyebrows and, with a look of surprise, stared at Li Yao.
Li Yao clenched his teeth, mustered up his courage, and directly received Peng Hai's gaze.
After a moment, a smile appeared on Peng Hai's face. He relaxed his whole body before nodding. "Alright, little brother. You are very interesting. I will let you see what a High Level Building Foundation Stage cultivator is like!"
Peng Hai raised his hand as a translucent spirit glyph flew out from his palm towards Li Yao's head.
"Bang!"
With a thunderous bang, the spirit glyph exploded into pieces before streams of light flew around Li Yao's body, coiling around his body and congealing into a transparent shield.
Li Yao knew it was the spiritual energy force field that would prevent him from getting injured by the spiritual energy waves.
"I usually suppress my strength to 3%, which is equivalent to a common martial artist. That's why you don't feel any expert-like aura from me; however, so long as I have 0.001 seconds, I can become like this —"
Peng Hai's pair of eyes opened wide as he took a long, deep breath. His entire body suddenly doubled in size. His muscles expanded as if air was blown into them, and each and every one of his blood vessels were thick and sturdy like a python that had completely wrapped around his body, moving up and down as the blood coursed through the vein.
Just a moment ago, that ordinary looking man with a tall and thin physique had turned into a super muscular man with a physique of over two meters high in an instant. Even his skin that was as hard as iron and as bronze as copper faintly reflected an oppressive kind of gloss.
Peng Hai's voice too was now incomparably hoarse as well as deep and resonant.
"Now, I have only exerted approximately 7% of strength, which is the limit to which I can stimulate and fortify my flesh and blood. This is the pinnacle state which a human body can attain and is also known as the coup de maître of a martial artist! A step further and I will have no choice but to arouse the spiritual root to absorb the world spiritual energy and use it to further strengthen the body. This is the so-called 'Refinement of Energy'!"
While speaking, Peng Hai's stature suddenly shrank down and once again turned into a tall and thin figure. However, on the top of his head, a faint splendor was flowing, proliferating invisible ripples one by one. Each ripple was like a huge ripple which spread in all directions with Peng Hai as the center.
A faint black mist surged out from all 36,000 pores of his body and lingered around him to create a hideous-looking armor of spiritual energy. The entire armor appeared to be glistening in a faint blood-red glow.
"This is 12% of my strength, then 13%, 14%..."
Peng Hai, while smiling, very slowly and unperturbedly increased his strength as round after round of the black mist around his body continued to spread, completely enveloping an area with a radius of a few dozen meters. A black falcon rose from the black mist as it opened its wings, eclipsing over a hundred meters in the sky.
"This is the Peak Refinement Stage strength that you saw a while ago — Next is the Building Foundation Stage!"
Peng Hai's pair of eyes opened wide as he let out a deafening shout. Meanwhile, the black falcon once again metamorphosed into a group of black mist. Afterward, the black mist turned into strands of black silk which retreated back into his body in an instant!
Peng Hai's pair of eyes turned as dark as an abyss; they were like a deep ancient well, like the dark sky during an eclipse!
The facial expression on his face now was extremely cold and indifferent; it was without any trace of humanity. The land beneath his feet continued to crack and create a huge spider web-like fissures within a radius of a couple hundred meters!
In an instant, Peng Hai's hair became long as his feet left the ground and his body floated in the air. Even in the absence of wind, his long hair kept on swaying on its own. It seemed extremely wild. The black mist from his pores once again spread all over the place, turning even denser, darker, and terrifying as it ran amok in all direction.
Li Yao, even after hiding inside the spiritual energy force field, could still feel the overwhelming strength which continued to surge out from Peng Hai in a steady flow.
"Bang Bang!"
Deafening explosions rang as the black mist madly crashed into the spiritual energy force field!
This kind of power had the ability to shake the heavens and the earth, a power which Li Yao absolutely could not withstand. He had a feeling — if not for the shelter of the spiritual energy force field, under Peng Hai's aura, he might have been grinded into minced meat within a half second.
Peng Hai stood tall and erect in the sky. His pair of eyes were now completely black, one could not find a single trace of white in his eyes.
Around his body, a pure black force field of spiritual energy had already taken shape. Countless number of stones ripped out the ground, rose into the air, and started orbiting around his force field.
A hint of strange smile floated on Peng Hai's face. "This is high level of the Building Foundation Stage. However... this is still not my limit!"
Just as the last word spelled out from his mouth, Peng Hai let out a wild roar. His pair of eyes became
like a black sun from which an incomparably dark aura continued to surge out.
Li Yao was completely unable to describe everything he saw. He never knew that "Darkness" could be so "Dazzling"!
"Crack, Crack!"
Countless black electric currents appeared around Peng Hai, madly swimming around his body to create a second layer of spiritual energy force field. In contrast, much to Li Yao’s surprised, Peng Hai’s long ebony colored hair had turned dark golden, as if his head was full of dancing golden snakes as they stood erect from the roots of his hair!
"Crack, Crack!"
One after another, cracks began to appear in the space before Li Yao as criss-cross cracks spread rapidly in every direction.
Finally, the spiritual energy force field was unable to resist the terrifying aura coming from Peng Hai — it was about to collapse!
"A step stronger than the high level of Building Foundation Stage!!! This… this is the peak of Building Foundation Stage!"
Seeing all this, Li Yao became muddle-headed as if he were a drunkard. Only god knew when he had started to tightly clench his fists to the point where his nails dug into the flesh of his palms. Despite this, Li Yao didn’t feel anything. He was completely immersed in the spiritual energy storm produced by Peng Hai!
"I want to become a cultivator like him. I'll definitely become a cultivator like him!"
Li Yao madly shouted deep within his heart.
Finally——
The spiritual energy storm raged for three seconds before Peng Hai withdrew the force field as all his aura returned back to his body. He reverted back to the ordinary human form — the 3% state.
"Brother Hai, you've actually cultivated to peak level of the Building Foundation Stage!?" Li Yao excitement held no bounds.
"No, I can occasionally burst out with the strength of a peak level of Building Foundation Stage cultivator but it can only last for a few seconds. It still can not be considered as having reached the peak of Building Foundation Stage." Peng Hai shook his head.
"This is still very terrifying. The complete strength exerted by a Building Foundation Stage cultivator is truly fearsome!"
As Li Yao recalled the scene from a moment ago, he was deeply shocked.
Peng Hai calmly smiled and said, "Although that was my highest state, I didn't have an ounce of 'killing intent' in my heart. Isn’t that frightening? If it was a real battlefield where I’m facing vicious demon beasts, my killing intent would burst out. And if I was facing someone of same level, my strength can further elevated by three to five times. Coupled with a peerless divine weapon... now that would be truly fearsome!"
"Can strengthen again by three to five times?"
Li Yao was so awed that he couldn't speak. He was completely flabbergasted; he was simply unable to imagine that kind of scene.
Peng Hai laughed in a jovial manner, patted Li Yao's shoulder, and, without turning his head, walked towards transmission formation. "You better cultivate well, little brother. The road of cultivation is still very long. One day, when you will arrive at my level, then you'll know!"
Li Yao stared for a long time.
Under the changing gravitational field, his breathing would sometimes become rapid, sometimes heavy, sometimes slow; it was ever-changing within the gravitational field.
However, in the end, his breathing would still remain even.
Towards the disappearing silhouette of Peng Hai in the transmission formation, Li Yao sent out a powerful punch as a smile brimming with confidence appeared on his face.
"Brother Hai, I will cultivate well and catch up to you soon!"
Chapter 85: Mining Clan High School |
For the next three days, Li Yao spent all his time doing restorative training. He was working hard to restore his body back to its peak state in the shortest span of time.
To sum it up, it was just eating and sleeping.
Eating the high-energy compressed food that was specifically made for the military.
It was military specialized because it was for the cultivators preparing to hunt in the Demon Beast Wasteland. Just a fingernail-sized piece was enough to fuel a low-level cultivator with enough energy to fight for an entire day. Every hour, Li Yao would force himself to eat a jar full of this highly energy-compressed food before he would use [The Great Art of Swallowing Whale] to assimilate it, subsequently converting the food into the most basic energy used to repair his over exhausted body.
After eating, he would sleep in the special "Deep Sleep Chamber" inside Peng Hai's private training room. An hour of sleep within the Deep Sleep Chamber was equivalent to sleeping normally for an entire day and night!
In order to restore his body to its peak condition as soon as possible, for the past few days, Li Yao only slept; he didn't attempt to assimilate Ou Yezi's memory fragments in his dreams.
Every second, Li Yao felt his energy and stamina increase by a point as though each crack in his bones was being repaired every second, further advancing his body’s strength!
After three days ——
In the "Small Grayfield", Li Yao was jogging with ease. During the jog, he would sometimes alternate between jumping, squatting, and shadow boxing.
Each of his punches left an afterimage behind.
Li Yao had already recovered his vigorous and healthy physique. Compared to before his coma, he was now three centimeter taller. His body was neither skinny nor did it have excess fat. His build was well-proportioned such that it was perfectly symmetrical and filled with muscles but not to the point that it could be considered in excess. He had a streamlined body like the pebbles that had eroded under a waterfall for hundreds of millennia. Each and every bone was symmetrically arranged on his rock-hard skeleton.
Because he had not basked in the sun for quite a while, his skin was slightly pale, but it had a healthy luster to it, overflowing with a powerful aura.
"I've now completely recovered. I feel stronger than before the coma. If I test my Spiritual Root Development Quotient, I am confident that it has progressed by at least 20-30%!"
Li Yao took a long, deep breath. Under the gravity that was ten times stronger, each step sprung him 4-5 meters forward.
He squinted his eyes and felt the steady flow of power in his four limbs and bones; Li Yao was completely satisfied with his new body.
Ding Lingdang mockingly said, “The Spiritual Root Development Quotient is purely an imaginary number. In the Grand Desolate War Institution, only chicks would be crazy about Spiritual Root Development Quotient day and night — an unyielding man would only believe in their own fist!"
Li Yao was surprised for a moment as he slowly clenched his pair of fists.
"Makes sense. Even if my Spiritual Root Development Quotient tumbled down to 1%, I will not give up! Since that’s the case, let’s forget about whatever development quotient. Let's go for a run!"
"Wait!"
Ding Lingdang lifted her wrist and shone a hologram from the mini crystal processor. "You are forgetting the most important thing — signing up for the college entrance examination! I have already checked things over. The examinee has to register his identity in order to take part in the college entrance exam. It is quite troublesome, but you’ll have to run around to several places and get a comprehensive body exam along with several other tests."
"So troublesome!"
A frown appeared on Li Yao's face as he carefully went through the introduction on the hologram. He discovered that what Ding Lingdang said was correct. In accordance with the "College Entrance Examination Identity Registration Process", even if all went well, an entire three days would be spent to complete the registration process, and if even a single thing went wrong, it could drag on for one or two weeks, which was a normal occurrence.
The college entrance exam was just less than one month away and every single second was immensely valuable. He didn't want to waste too much time on this matter.
"Perhaps I can ask the 'Disabled Serviceman Association' to help m
e shorten the registration process."
Thinking of this, Li Yao turned on the mini crystal processor and launched the spiritual crane messenger.
He was preparing to send a message to Chairman Zhao of the Floating Spear City's Disabled Servicemen Association to ask if there was any way to shorten the process, but instead he received a message from Grandpa Wang of "Old Wang's Secondhand Shop".
Grandpa Wang had an order to repair a large-scale magical equipment framework. The individual who was supposed to help repair it was busy and could not come, so he was asking Li Yao to lend a helping hand.
Li Yao hesitated for a bit as he prepared to refuse.
However, Grandpa Wang has always been good to him. After the death of the old man, Grandpa Wang had treated him like his own son. When he was in the coma, Old Wang also came to visit him at the hospital many times. When he knew that he was awake, Old Wang had specifically invited him to a feast at his home, but as Li Yao was busy with cultivation, he had turned down Old Wang’s invitation.
As a matter of fact, he also felt quite sorry for the old man.
Thinking up to this point, Li Yao agreed to Old Wang’s proposition. He planned to spend half a day to accompany the old man.
On the one hand, he was going to help him, and on the other hand, he could also let the old man see for himself that he was quite alive and kicking, that he was still a fine strong man, besides it would also free the old couple of worries.
Upon discussing it with Ding Lingdang, this girl turned very excited. She readily proposed to start the Crimson Flame Battle Shuttle to send him off, though Li Yao, without an ounce of hesitation, flatly refused her. Using the transmission formation, Li Yao returned to the Heaven Origin Sector and took the underground crystal rail to quickly reach Grandpa Wang's address.
"Floating Spear City's Mining Clan High School?"
After an hour of trekking, Li Yao arrived at a shabby high school entrance in the slum on the northwest side of Floating Spear City — the "Limestone District".
