by <unknown>
Xie Anan's brain went blank as she stammered, "Are you not scared of being bitten?"
Li Yao warmed up his fingers and inspected the tiny injuries on them with the man-made sunlight from the sky. Then he explained, "This is a special way of training to improve the sensitivity of my hands and my control over the muscles on them.
"Scary as Purple Ring Sword Ants are, they always show signs before they bite, just like tigers need to crouch before they lunge forward.
"As long as one senses the signs of attack in advance, one can control the muscles on the hand to collapse the part where they are biting or simply interfere with them through spiritual threads. In such a way, their attacks can be interrupted.
"So, I'm not afraid of their biting."
Xie Anan was dazed. She was speechless for a long time before she opened her mouth again. "But… but there are almost a hundred Purple Ring Sword Ants, which are launching attacks all the time!"
Li Yao said, "Not almost a hundred. There are only 91 of them in total.
"Of course, it is not an easy job to deal with so many Purple Ring Sword Ants. At first, I only put five on either of my hands, and yet I was bitten every other few minutes. But practice makes perfect. After training for a few days, the number of them gradually increased."
Training the sensitivity of the hands with Purple Ring Sword Ants was a real secret technique of the Hundred Smelting Clan.
Li Yao had known the secret art from the classics of the Heavenly Refining Tower. However, back in the Heaven's Origin Sector, there were no Purple Ring Sword Ants that he could use.
Other spiritual insects were either too large or too picky about living environments. Their poison was not intense enough to trigger enough pain, and sometimes there were corrosive contingents inside the poison that could paralyze the nerves on the hands. None of them were suitable for the training with this technique.
After Li Yao arrived in the Flying Star Sector, he had discovered that many world fragments of this Sector were home to Purple Ring Sword Ants.
Li Yao had spent a huge fortune on a batch of Purple Ring Sword Ants online. Then, he'd weaved the pair of gloves with certain Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures that simulated the living environment of the ants so that they could stay inside for long periods without dying.
More than half of his money had actually been spent on these little insects and the things they required.
But the outcome was obvious, too. The sensitivity of Li Yao's hands had soared exponentially. He had reached 'Ninety-Ant level' very quickly. Ninety-one ants crawled all over his hands and continued biting him, yet all the attacks missed because of Li Yao's delicate control over the muscles in his hands.
Xie Anan was truly dumbfounded. She muttered, "So, you were controlling the muscles on your hands to resist the continuous attack of the ninety-one Purple Ring Sword Ants, while you were competing against almost twenty experts of refining, with only a slim disadvantage, during which time you were totally safe from the Purple Ring Sword Ants?"
"Not exactly."
Li Yao sighed and said, "My Cultivation is not good enough. When I'm focused, it's all fine. But I was distracted a moment ago and got bitten by the ants. Six times in total."
"What?"
Xie Anan thought back. Had Li Yao been gritting his teeth and bulging his veins not because the competition was hard but because he was bitten by the Purple Ring Sword Ants?
Was it really so?
According to the legends, being bitten by the Purple Ring Sword Ants was the most agonizing thing in the world. One would feel that one's soul was pierced through. How could he deal with it just by gritting his teeth?
"Can I try… such a method of training?"
Since Li Yao was talking about it like it was nothing unusual, Xie Anan suddenly asked to try it for some unknown reason.
Li Yao nodded his head. During his stay in the Flying Star Sector, he had benefited from the enlightenments of many fellow Cultivators. His old ways of thinking were somewhat changed, too. He didn't mind sharing the basic training arts with people who were interested in them now.
Li Yao picked up one Purple Ring Sword Ant from the ground with his little finger and put it on the back of Xie Anan's hand, before he said, "Release all your senses. Tie your spiritual threads around your arm and let them surge to the back of your hand along your arm like a tidal bore at night…"
He dropped the ant softly.
The Purple Ring Sword Ant, which had behaved quite nicely on his little finger, was utterly revitalized on Xie Anan's hand. As if possessed by an insect devil, it bit Xie Anan's hand hard, mercilessly.
"Ahhhh!" Xie Anan screamed.
She collapsed to the ground as if she had been hit by a lightning, with her limbs cramping and her mouth foaming. Her pupils widened, too.
Li Yao frowned slightly. He removed the Purple Ring Sword Ant and let it resume its pig liver dinner.
As for himself, he exercised his fingers and enjoyed a moment of post-supper pleasure.
It was not until three minutes later that Xie Anan regained the ability to talk. But her hair was messy, and her face was pale and devastated. She looked at Li Yao as if he were a monster.
How terrifying this monster is! Just one bite, and I suffered such excruciating pain that I might've split into two halves. The guy was bitten six times and yet finished such high-difficulty maintenance work?
Xie Anan had an urge to run away immediately.
Li Yao glanced at Xie Anan's hand and observed, "Judging from your performance, I don't think Purple Ring Sword Ants are suitable for your training. Why don't you try butterflies?"
Xie Anan was still in a trance. She mumbled, "Butterflies?"
Li Yao extended his right hand.
A month and a half ago, his hands had been as smooth as jade and as soft as silk. His flesh had seemed to be glowing at that time.
Right now, his hands looked plain and ordinary. They were part of nature like the grass, stones, earthworms, and birds in the garden.
Suddenly, weird things happened!
Inside the small garden, many butterflies were dancing among the flowers. But they were suddenly bound by invisible strings and pulled to Li Yao's right hand. Their colorful wings were waving crazily, but they were still stuck there!
Li Yao said, "Before a butterfly takes off, there are inconspicuous signs, too. As long as you seize the moment and affect it with your spiritual thread, it will stay in your palm forever and can't get away however hard it tries."
He loosened his fingers. The twenty or so butterflies were set free from their shackles and flew out among Li Yao's fingers. They danced merrily above his head.
Li Yao said, "Such a training method is less painful and more suitable for beginners. Of course, you can start with one or two butterfliers."
Xie Anan was surprised. "But, how did you make so many butterflies come to your palm?"
Li Yao said, "My right hand was shaking at a certain frequency just now. It was a special signal that is very appealing to the butterflies. They were attracted to my hand as if it were a flower.
"Such a technique is beyond you right now. So, you can try to smear certain special ointments on your hand to simulate the scent of flowers and attract the butterflies."
The minced pig liver had been cleared by the Purple Ring Sword Ants, without the slightest traces left. Li Yao extended his fingers and placed his hands on the ground again.
His two hands seemed to boast devilish charisma that made the ants form two lines and crawl to his fingers nicely.
Li Yao put the gloves on carefully.
In Xie Anan's eyes, the most gruesome grey gloves in the world had turned into a barrier in which demons were caged!
Li Yao folded the package of the ants' food and tossed it into a dustbin. Then he turned back and smiled. "If you don't have any further questions, I'll see you tomorrow. Also, you'd better not tell Long Yunxin and the rest of them what you saw.
"I'm not co
ncerned about the exposure of such a training method. Whoever wants to use it is free to do so.
"What I'm concerned with is that, if you tell them right now, their confidence will be shaken, which will potentially affect their performances in the match in three days' time."
Xie Anan's head was in chaos. She was startled for a long time and, when Li Yao was about to vanish around the corner, suddenly asked, "Wait, Senior Brother Li Yao, were you hiding your true capability during the competition just now because you didn't want to shake their confidence?"
"Not exactly so."
Li Yao halted and thought for a while. He turned around and replied, "I kept my gloves on not because I disrespect anyone, nor because I was meaning to cheer up anyone.
"The real reason was that, once I took off my gloves, I wouldn't have been able to do my best. Do you understand?
"It would've been a one-sided slaughter, and a completely waste of their time and mine."
After Li Yao finished speaking, he disappeared into the darkness.
Xie Anan was left alone in the small garden, utterly astounded!
Chapter 489: Dumbfounded |
Three seconds later, Li Yao returned. His eyebrow was furrowed, as if he were considering a very complicated academic problem.
Xie Anan shivered and asked respectfully, "Master Li Yao, can I help you with anything else?"
After witnessing Li Yao's marvelous training method, she didn't dare to address him as 'Senior Brother' right now.
Li Yao said, "The Skyhill Sword Seminar will start accepting the contestants tomorrow. I wonder, is there any place nearby that I can crash at for the night?"
Xie Anan answered hurriedly, "Yes. There is a 'Pillar Villa'. It is both beautiful and magnificent. Many famous refiners like to stay there. On the other hand, the Mountain Moon Hotel, downtown, is the most luxurious local hotel. The facilities and the service are both pleasing. The transportation is convenient, too. Do you prefer quietness or liveliness? I can help you book a Leader Suite right now!"
Li Yao coughed and replied, expressionlessly, "That won't be necessary. I prefer to keep a low profile. A regular motel will be good."
"Huh?"
"It will be best if the price is decent. Windowless rooms will do for me."
"Huh?"
…
Half an hour later, Xie Anan, who had been seriously shocked, finally returned to the bamboo woods.
The descendants of the noble families had finished their competition. They had moved to the edge of the bamboo woods and were sat near a running river. Delicious food had been placed on the ground. Everybody was toasting, talking, and laughing. The ambience was quite sparkling.
"What took you so long? You missed a splendid great show! The competition just now was very close. I only won by luck in the last subject!"
Long Yunxin dragged Xie Anan over to her side and sat her down. Then she placed two shrimps into her bowl before opening her mouth again reproachingly. "It's not easy to have so many rightful heirs of the noble families gathered together from everywhere in the sea of stars. I brought you here so that you could open your eyes, but you ditched them at the critical moment. How silly of you!"
Xie Anan was still in a trance.
The cuisine that everybody was eating was no doubt the best food. Some of the dishes were seafood delivered from various world fragments, and some were the meat of rarely-seen animals.
However, for some reason, it was Li Yao's chive pies and soybean milk that kept popping up in front of his eyes.
Long Yunxin frowned. She pinched her softly and said, "What happened? Is your 'expert' friend alright?"
She accentuated the 'expert' part.
"Yes, yes."
Xie Anan was back to herself. She calmed herself down and asked curiously, "Sister Long, how do top refiners such as yourself train the sensitivity of your hands?"
"Why are you suddenly interested in that? The Long family does not have any special methods to train the sensitivity of our hands. However—"
Long Yunxin smiled. "Brother Long from the Luo family of East Brightness and our host, Brother Tu here, both inherited the training methods of their family that attached great importance to the sensitivity of the hands. Why don't you ask them to give you an introduction?"
Luo Dong laughed. Not keeping anything to himself, he put his chopsticks down and showed everyone his hands that looked like two giant white jades.
He explained proudly, "The refining style of the Luo family is best known for fast hands and keen sensitivity. Our training method is not a secret. It is known as 'Green Jade Hand'.
"It is a Cultivation art that must be studied from an early age. From the moment a child in my family is born, we must crumble the best jade into powder and smear the powder onto the child's hands before washing and soaking them in secret medicine. Days, years, and decades. There can't be any pause. It is tedious work. Normal people would find it hard to persist for so long.
"We all know that jades are connected to the divinities. This Cultivation art transfers the essence to the jades to the hands of a refiner. When it is performed at the ultimate level, the hands become connected to the divinities, too. Hahahaha!
"The way I train my hands is nothing interesting, except for a little bit of money and effort. The Tu family's training method is the really appalling one. Brother Tu, why don't you explain it to Sister Xie here?"
Tu Yongqing smiled and extended his hands, too.
On his hands, there were countless miniature hollows.
Tu Yongqing said, "The Tu family's method of training hands barely costs any money.
"As everybody knows, there is an eccentric fruit named 'Red Caltrop' in nature which has poisoned thorns on it, and when the thorns touch the skin, it can be quite painful.
"The people of the Tu family have trained with the Red Caltrop since they were little kids. We were asked to clench two Red Caltrops in each hand all the time. Eating, exercising, sleeping. We had to do everything with them. One is pricked if one is sloppy for one second. The pain can be excruciating, but we can never let the Red Caltrop go.
"As we grow older, the number of the Red Caltrops gradually increases. In the end, we will be holding almost ten Red Caltrops in our hands while doing everything normally without being affected by them. This is the start line for us."
While he was talking, Tu Yongqing waved his hands. Almost ten red fruits that looked like hedgehogs appeared in his palm, emitting blood red brightness.
No one knew where he had been hiding the Red Caltrops. A round of exclamations burst out.
Xie Anan's eyes suddenly shined. She blurted out, "Brother Tu, your training method is amazing. But have you ever heard a similar method that relies on Purple Ring Sword Ants instead of Red Caltrops?"
Tu Yongqing was dazed for a moment. Before he could open his mouth, Luo Dong had already burst into laughter. "What kind of method is that? The pain of the Purple Ring Sword Ants' bite is ten times sharper than that of the Red Caltrop. One nibble is enough for one to collapse and cramp. How are they going to train themselves if so?
"Besides, the Purple Ring Sword Ants are aggressive insects. They can't be kept still in the palm and behave nicely like Red Caltrops!
"Moreover, Cultivators all boast tremendous physical strength. When they are bitten by a Purple Ring Sword Ant, they will probably crush the ant to death immediately. How many Purple Ring Sword Ants will they have to capture every day for their daily training?"
Tu Yongqing smiled and added elegantly, "I've heard a thing or two about the training method based on eccentric insects that Sister Xie mentioned just now.
"Many notes of the ancient Cultivators have recorded training methods with insects. Training with the Purple Ring Sword Ants was one of the most advanced techniques.
"However, most of the notes are not very detailed. They are generally legends or urban tales.
"In my opinion, training one's sensitivity with the Purple Ring Sword Ants is too prepost
erous. What kind of monster could bear such agony?
"There are many similar uncanny stories of the ancient Cultivators. They belong to the ancient times anyway. Although they created a brilliant civilization, their understanding of nature, the universe, and everything in between is quite shallow. Sometimes, to attract more followers and disciples, they tended to overstate things on purpose. Their words were further misinterpreted during the dissemination. Gradually, Cultivation became a groundless business.
"Cultivators today definitely have to learn from the ancient Cultivation world, but we shouldn't blindly follow whatever has been said. We need to keep the essence and dump the garbage.
"Such a training method with the Purple Ring Sword Ants must've been the bluffing of the ancient people; it is undoubtedly garbage that is best thrown away.
"Sister Xie, hear my words. There are no shortcuts on the road of Cultivation. One cannot fly into the sky with just one leap. You must not be fooled by the weird training methods that involved strange insects.
"If you want to train the sensitivity of your hands, I can offer you a few Red Caltrops and teach you some basic skills. You can have a go with them first.
"But I need to remind you first: it won't be the most pleasant experience to be pricked by them!"
Friendly laughter burst out.
Xie Anan's cheeks turned red. Countless thoughts rolled to the tip of her tongue, but she didn't know where to begin. She was lost for a moment and eventually sat back to focus her attention on the shrimps in her bowl.
Since the topic at hand was training, the party turned spirited again. Everybody started talking about how hard their training had been, what kind of suffering they had endured, and such.
Xie Anan was quite upset. She left the party with an excuse and rambled through the bamboo woods.
Without her knowing, she had gone further and further and ended up at the pond where the competition was held a moment ago.
The water in the pond was clear. The rocks were gloomy. Almost ten rusty blades that had been left unattended were still stabbed into the ground. Li Yao's carefully polished chainsword was also standing in the middle of the queer rocks proudly.
