by <unknown>
After over a minute of silence, Principal Mao reached out for a cup whilst his hands continued to shiver. The cup made a series of tattering noises as it collided with his teeth. He chugged down the entire tea into his stomach in one go.
"Are you sure he… he is crippled?" Principal Mao stammered as he asked.
"Yes, yes," Old Wang also stammered as he replied.
"Can a cripple’s punch wreck a Strength Testing Machine!? Was he some Nascent Soul Stage old devil in the past before he fell!?” Principal Mao screamed.
Chapter 87: Eve of the College Entrance Examination |
As the problem of applying for the college entrance examination was settled, Li Yao could wholeheartedly start his final preparations.
Aside from Ding Lingdang, an unexpected person had shown up in the Small Grayfield. It was the man who had unearthed Li Yao and Fiend Blade Peng Hai — the "Scum of the Cultivation World", Sun Biao!
This old fogey appeared to be a man of feelings. When he came to know that Li Yao was already awake and was even undergoing special training in the Small Grayfield, he said that he would help him train in any way he could. Initially, Peng Hai refused him on the spot. Because the old man had just gotten back on his feet after serious injuries, if he entered the Small Grayfield, where the gravity was ten times greater the normal, it could be extremely dangerous for him. It was quite possible that he wouldn't even be able to take a breath and would directly pass away. However, the old man's stubbornness hit the extreme as he showered Peng Hai with curses and directly broke into Peng Hai's training room. Peng Hai could not manage old man; he could only ask Li Yao and Ding Lingdang to take good care of Sun Biao. If there was something wrong, ask him to withdraw from the Small Grayfield without delay.
Sun Biao did not, in any way, have the appearance of someone who had just recovered from a serious illness. As though he was granted youth again, he was bursting with vitality, even his muddy eyes seemed to be shining. Seeing Li Yao, he laughed and said, "The training program for the next twenty-eight days is the one that I had devised for Peng Hai to advance to the Refinement Stage. Are you ready? If you are not, then you can just tell me so!"
"Come on!" Li Yao licked his lips as he hooked his fingers with Old Sun's.
"Alright! Although I, Sun Biao, am just a mediocre cultivator who doesn’t have any standing in the Cultivator World, in this life, Fiend Blade Peng Hai and you, the Fiend Star, are my greatest achievements — my life was totally worth it! The final training starts now. Your first objective is to blast apart a hundred boulders!"
Sun Biao eyes turned round as he shouted.
"Where are the rocks?"
Li Yao dumbfoundedly looked all around him. As far as he could see in this endless gray field, it was just a flat gray desert. Where were the boulders?
"First one!"
Next to Sun Biao, Ding Lingdang's beautiful eyes turned round as she exerted her strength and pounded on the ground. Criss-cross spider web-like cracks suddenly appeared beneath her foot. Grabbing it with her jade-like foot, she then tossed a hard rock that appeared to be even bigger than Li Yao's head and needed at least both arms to firmly grasp it. The boulder rolled twice in its place before it ruthlessly flew towards Li Yao!
"Come on!"
Li Yao recalled the domineering and peerless might that came from Fiend Blade Peng Hai when his strength soared to its utmost limit, bursting to the Peak of the Building Foundation Stage. Everything under the soles of Li Yao’s feet blew away as he gave a furious roar, twisted his waist, deeply bent his knees, and pulled his right hand back as if he was drawing an arrow. His entire body cut into a pose in preparation to send a fierce punch. As the boulder drew near, Li Yao sent out a punch, ruthlessly colliding with the boulder!
"Explode for me!"
First day — Li Yao forcibly smashed a hundred rocks, ran fifty kilometers cross-country whilst carrying a hundred kilogram weight under the influence of tenfold gravity before "Sparring" with Ding Lingdang using the [Thirteen Forces of War Beast], analyzing and re-learning each stance one by one, and inevitably get beaten black and blue by Ding Lingdang.
Second day... Third day... Fourth day...
Li Yao trained almost like a lunatic. His daily consumption of food and strengthening agents was ten times more than that of the average high school student. If Ding Lingdang and Sun Biao had not personally seen this, they might suspect whether there was a miniature black hole hidden in his stomach. How else could he engulf so much food?
Seventh day... Eighth day... Ninth day...
The speed of Li Yao’s progression was insane, even to the point where it was visible to the naked eye. The training schedule drafted by Sun Biao was not able to keep up with his progress; every day, Li Yao would only need 70% of the time to complete the training program.
In the remaining time, he would review the [One-Hundred-and-Eight Hands Chaos Gale Hammer Technique] over and over again to thoroughly master this set of hammer techniques down to his soul and completely evolve it into One-Hundred-and-Eight Fist Techniques.
Fourteenth day... Fifteenth day... Sixteenth day...
Two weeks elapsed. Every day, Li Yao would now stay in the Small Grayfield for only half a day, while for the rest of the day he would enter the Deep Sleep Chamber, during which he would assimilate Ou Yezi's memory fragments crazily. With the identity of an "Iron-Forge Worker", he would learn the Hundred Smelting Clan's secrets of tempering all kinds of metals.
Finally, twenty-eighth day. This was also the last day of his training.
Tomorrow was the college entrance examination!
Today, the Small Grayfield had only one person, Li Yao. Before him laid a square-shaped boulder, weighing several tons.
"Ahh!"
Li Yao exerted strength into both his fists. The muscles on his arms burst out with strange fluctuations as a wave-like power landed upon the boulder before carving a spiral-like pattern on the boulder, thereby forcibly sending it a dozen meters away.
Li Yao's pair of legs kicked the grounds. Before the boulder could hit the ground, in a flash, Li Yao caught up with the mid-air boulder. His entire figure became indistinct as his phantom silhouettes surrounded the entire boulder.
"Kacha Kacha"
Only the sounds of the boulder breaking resounded in the silent gray field as though a wild, hungry beast treated the boulder as food, munching on it with all its force.
The phantom silhouettes continued to scatter pieces of stone from the boulder like a Goddess scattering flowers.
After three seconds, Li Yao silently landed on the ground. In a radius of approximately seventeen to eighteen meters around him, there was nothing but broken stone fragments.
"I did it!"
Using his toes, Li Yao tossed a fist-sized stone into the air before grabbing ahold of it. As he ruthlessly pinched the stone, "Kacha Kacha" sounds suddenly came from his palm as the stone broke apart and fell through the gaps between his fingers.
"I am now at least four to five time more powerful than I was when I was at the Devil Flood Dragon Island. I am sure with my current strength that if I now charge into the 'Blue Team', even without a strategy, I can directly crush them and can even kill several dozen blue team experts one by one!"
"It seems my assumptions were correct. Assimilating Ou Yezi's memory fragments is greatly beneficial for the development of my brain. My Spirit Root Development Quotient is definitely higher than the past; otherwise, no matter how severely I cultivated, I would not have progressed so much within one month!"
"Still, I don’t know how much my Spirit Root Development Quotient had actually increased. Maybe I should check it now?"
"Forget it, Ding Lingdang was right; Spirit Root Development Quotient is just an imaginary number. What's important is one’s own ability! Whether it’s 1% or 99%, it doesn’t matter — I will keep moving forward!"
"I have done my best, and I don't have any regrets. Tomorrow at sunrise, a war will shake the heaven and the earth!"
Li Yao took a long, deep breath, suppressed his agitated heart, and returned to the Heaven Origin Sector using the transmission formation.
There was no one present inside the room. After twenty days in the Small Greyfield, Grandpa Sun Biao's body was no longer able to hold on; his heart almost gave out. Li Yao and Ding Lingdang forced him to go home and rest.
Ding Lingdang was enjoying the wind on the balcony.
Today, she wore a fiery, thin, long, red, yarn dress. The gentle breeze made her yarn dress flutter, causing her strong and perfectly round legs to become partly visible. In the sunset, it painted an absolutely beautiful picture.
Li Yao could not help but walk over.
Upon hearing the sounds of his footsteps, Ding Lingdang also turned her head and tossed a scroll made of Demon Beast hide to him.
"What is this?" Li Yao curiously received the letter and opened it.
Now that the spiritual network had been developed, normal information was sent using the spiritual crane messenger. Only very important documents would be sent using letters.
The contents of the beast hide made Li Yao gasp for breath.
"You actually helped me get 30 points of preferential treatment? As long as I apply for the Grand Desolate War Institution, I'll get preferential treatment of 30 points?"
Chapter 88: I Have Decided! |
Li Yao went through the contents of the beast hide scroll over and over again to confirm that what he was seeing was right. On the lower right corner of the letter was engraved with the unique spirit seal of the Grand Desolate War Institution, which absolutely could not be forged by anyone else.
Getting 20 points of preferential treatment was already considered by far the best and most common preferential treatment a student could get, but much to his surprise, Ding Lingdang actually got him 30 points of preferential treatment — it was unbelievable!
Li Yao could not help but ask, "After my Spiritual Root was torn, I have desperately trained for just a month and have not even tested my Spiritual Root Development Quotient. How were you able to get me such preferential treatment?"
Ding Lingdang pursed her lips into a smile as she shook her fist. "I had a talk with the guys from the student recruitment center. I told them that out of all the cultivation geniuses I have seen, you are the most insane, the most ferocious, and have the highest potential. 30 points of preferential treatment was a must — if it was even a single point less, then once I return, I would smack their heads!"
Li Yao took a long, deep breath as complex feeling burst forth from the depths of his heart.
Of course, he knew Ding Lingdang was joking. The enrollment process of the Nine Elite Universities was extremely strict. How did she persuade them to give him 30 points of preferential treatment?
Ding Lingdang must have done a lot of work quietly in the back. She must have painstakingly spent a lot of effort. That’s the only reason why she was able to get such conditions!
"How is it? Didn't I say I will let you see the sincerity of the Grand Desolate War Institution? What do you think? Does our sincerity have enough weight? Well, did you think about it? Is it going to be the Grand Desolate War Institution's Combat Department or the Deep Sea University's Refining Department?" Ding Lingdang turned her head and stared at Li Yao with bright and shining eyes.
"I—"
While holding onto the beast hide, Li Yao stood in place as he was dazed. In his mind, various scenes appeared one by one.
The excitement that he had when he first repaired a civilian magical equipment, the promise he made to the old man, the embarrassed Xie Tingxian, the passionate Ding Lingdang, the sincere and earnest words of Fiend Blade Peng Hai. Each scene entangled with one another, turning into a complex mess.
Suddenly, a very strange yet extremely insane idea jumped out from this mess. As if a giant Kraken had instantly occupied his brain, no matter how much he pulled, he was unable to extract this idea from his brain; it was completely stuck in his mind.
Little by little, the hesitation in Li Yao’s eyes dissipated. In its place was an incomparably relaxed and eased look.
Almost as if a saber had cut off the chaotic thoughts in his heart in an instant!
"Have you decided?" Ding Lingdang, upon noticing his expression, knew that he had already made his decision.
"En, I have decided!" Li Yao smiled. His smile was as bright as sunlight.
"You were finally impressed by my sincerity, right!? You have decided to join the Grand Desolate War Institution, right!?" Ding Lingdang both eyes turned round. She looked as though she would pounce at Li Yao at any moment, as if she was an anxious mother leopard who was restraining herself.
"Sister Ling, before I say my choice, I want to know one thing — What if, in the end, I don’t choose the Grand Desolate War Institution's Combat Department? What will you think?" Li Yao asked in a serious tone.
The corners of Ding Lingdang's mouth twitched as she had a slightly puzzled look. Hesitating for a moment, she clenched her teeth and said, "As someone from the Grand Desolate War Institution, obviously, I would be greatly disappointed; however, since I have done all I can and was still unable to change your thoughts, I will not regret anything! And as your friend, I will support your choice. If your dream is to go to the Refining Department of the Deep Sea University and to become a Master Refiner, I will wish for all your dreams to come true!"
"I am relieved to hear that. You are truly a good person. I'm going to treat you as my friend for life, Sister Ling."
"Good my ass. If you call me a good person again, believe it or not, I will smack you head. Anyway, so to say, have you decided to apply to Deep Sea University's Refining Department?
"I did not say so."
"Then which institute are you going to choose!? Is it the Grand Desolate War Institution's Combat Department or Deep Sea University's Refining Department, or is it some other institute?"
Li Yao laughed jovially as he blinked his eyes and slowly said, "Tomorrow, wait for tomorrow. After the college entrance exam is over, you will know."
"You...”
Ding Lingdang clenched her teeth in anger. Looking at the teasing smile hanging on Li Yao's face, she could not wait to punch him in the face. After grimacing for a while, she suddenly climbed the fence and yelled toward the setting sun before jumping down — she jumped down from a few kilometer high building!
After a second, from below the balcony came a violent roar. The Crimson Flame Battle Shuttle transformed into a long rainbow and pierced towards the setting sun!
Under the light of the setting sun, Li Yao closed his eyes. Feeling its warmth, he quietly listened to the noise that came from the depths of his heart, the sound of flowing blood.
After a good while, Li Yao opened his eyes. His eyes were clear and transparent, devoid of any hesitation.
Yes, he had confirmed it again — that's what he wanted and that was the university he wanted to attend.
He turned on the mini crystal processor and sent a spiritual crane message to the Deep Sea University professor, Xie Tingxian; however, there was no reply from the other side.
Li Yao, with unrelenting patience, sent the second, third, and fourth message.
On the fifth try, he finally connected to the other side. A tired Xie Tingxian appeared on the hologram screen, barely squeezing out a smile. "Long time no see, Student Li Yao."
"Hello, Professor Xie. It seems you are quite busy with work. Long story short, today, I have sent you a spiritual crane message; however, it was not for the purpose of gaining a preferential treatment score, but rather it was solely to express my gratitude. Thank you for once being so optimistic about me and treating me as a promising student, and even waiting for so long when I was in coma — I'm really sorry for all this. I'm truly grateful for all your endeavors!" Li Yao spoke from the depths of his heart.
Xie Tingxian was surprised for a moment. With a slightly embarrassed look, he said, "Student Li Yao, I'm really sorry. I really wished to
recruit you into Deep Sea University and had even wanted to make you my protege, but —"
"Yeah, I also wished to enter the 'Holy Land of Refiners' and learn the most profound refining techniques. Even now, I still don’t want to give up on this dream; however, the god of destiny makes fools out of the people. But let's not talk about that. The other reason I contacted you is that I want to sincerely apologize to you. I am truly sorry, truly, truly sorry!"
Xie Tingxian frowned. He didn’t understand Li Yao’s words at all; he was at loss. "Why are you apologizing to me? It should be me who should be apologizing!"
Li Yao replied, "I have made a decision, and this decision might very well bring a certain degree of trouble to you in the future. That's why, I would like to apologize in advance — for my actions in the future."
"Student Li Yao, what do you mean?" Xie Tingxian, upon hearing this, was even at more of a loss.
Li Yao faintly smiled. Deep within his eyes flashed an incomparably vigorous flame. He wanted to explain, but from the hologram suddenly came a loud noise. An old woman with bizarre purple eyes appeared on the screen, shoving Xie Tingxian away and took his place.
The old woman had a completely deadpan look. "I am the Dean of Deep Sea University's Refining Department, Chu Xiuhong. You are Li Yao? What is your Spiritual Root Development Quotient at now?"
A frown appeared on Li Yao's face. He was a little dissatisfied with Chu Xiuhong's tone.
However, in front of him was a highly respected elder. He honestly replied, "I don't know. For the past month, I was completely busy with training. I don't know know how much of it has recovered; maybe a few percent."
Chu Xiuhong sneered.
"Recovered only a few percent? One month ago, your Spiritual Root Development Quotient was only 7%. Even if you have recovered to 30-50%, what of it? Student Li Yao, I advise you not to rack your brain anymore to try to get any preferential treatment score. Deep Sea University will not agree to this!"
Li Yao’s pupils contracted to the size of a needle.
