Chapter 153
“Glass? Jaw?”
“Hei hei!” Li Yao happened to be laughing mischievously as a mysterious look crept over his face: “Sister Ling, guess what level I am currently at.”
Ding Lingdang swept a couple of glances over him before she casually said, “At the temporary station when you had just awakened your spirit roots, you had beaten the sh*t out of a 3rd level Refinement Stage cultivator, so your talent is pretty good. If I have to guess, then after madly cultivating for these few months, you must have advanced by another level, so you are now in the 2nd level of Refinement Stage, right?”
“Nope!”
Just as his voice faded away, she suddenly came to notice that there was something strange. She stared with wide-open eyes as a sliver of a red glow flickered in the depths of her eyes: “You are in—the 3rd level of the Refinement Stage!”
Ding Lingdang was pleasantly surprised as she ruthlessly clutched Li Yao’s arm: “Awesome! In just the half year I have not seen you, you have broken through to the 3rd level of the Refinement Stage!”
Li Yao grimaced in pain, yet a smiling look could not remain hidden in the depths of his eyes: “It seems that I have trained well in the [Soul Converging Technique]. Even Sister Ling had been deceived! There is a small island over there, let me show you my strength!”
A few reefs were scattered at the corner of the Billowing Star Sea, the smallest of which was only enough for a foothold, while the largest was 30 to 50 meters in diameter and had jagged rocks of grotesque shapes, much like the jagged teeth of a dog.
Li Yao, who stood barefooted on the sharp reef with his ten toes spread apart and deeply rooted into the rock much like the claws of a falcon, remained completely motionless even under the havoc of the powerful sea breeze.
Taking a deep breath, the glint in Li Yao’s eyes was completely converged as though there were two deep wells, one could not find even the slightest bit of emotions.
Suddenly, squatting down, he stretched both his hands as back as he could as he moved his fingers to take the form of a claw as if he was a falcon—or a vulture—who was ready to soar into the sky!
The eyes of Ding Lingdang, who stood on another reef not too far away, lit up:
“Soul Igniting Law?”
Soul Igniting Law was an extension of the Soul Converging Technique.
The Soul Converging Technique taught the cultivators how to restrain their soul and was an ability to seal the life force of a cultivator.
The Soul Igniting Law, on the other hand, was just the opposite; it was a technique which allowed a cultivator to stimulate their soul to the limit in the blink of an eye, burning their life to their heart’s content, and release an almost inexhaustible amount of light and heat to illuminate the entire universe!
In other words, the Soul Igniting Law taught the cultivators how to—metamorphosize!
Usually, one used the Soul Converging Technique to restrain their soul and lock their life force.
And in a case of an emergency, using the Soul Igniting Law would ignite the fire of life in the blink of an eye, allowing one to have superhuman abilities.
This was the battle mode of a cultivator.
Ding Lingdang was inexplicably excited in her heart; she was simply more excited than when she had just learned a Soul Igniting Law in the past.
And just like the Soul Converging Techniques, the Soul Igniting Laws was a collective name. There were hundreds of prevailing Soul Igniting Laws in the Heaven Origin Sector.
The Soul Igniting Law Li Yao was cultivating was called [Soaring Into Heaven in One Leap]!
The principle of this Soul Igniting Law was to imagine yourself as a falcon imprisoned in iron chains in the depths of a mountain valley.
While the other birds were freely flying in the sky amidst the clouds and playing along with the winds, the falcon which had been locked by iron chains could only stretch its neck and silently look at just a small piece of the sky from the desolate valley.
The iron chains locking it were very tight, deeply embedded into its flesh and blood; the falcon could not flutter its feathers in the least.
Over the years, it remained completely motionless, no more than like a piece of rock. The iron chains seemed to have imprisoned the falcon’s spirit.
Even though it would occasionally watch its kinds sweeping past the sky as they let out cheerful chirps, its eyes seemed to be transfixed, revealing not even the slightest bit of movements within them.
But in secret…
Every second, it was growing!
Every second, it was madly accumulating its power!
Every second, its desire to use its wings to break the stars and suns was soaring to the highest heaven!
Finally, one day, when it had accumulated enough power, the falcon fiercely flapped its wings, breaking the iron chains and blasting the shackles imprisoning it as it let out a sharp cry which resounded throughout the heaven. As it soared into the sky with one flap, raising a hurricane that spanned over tens of thousands of kilometers, it became the king of all falcons.
Soaring into the sky in one leap!
Becoming the king of falcons in one go!
Li Yao’s pair of eyes, which were completely calm and serene like a still, ancient well, suddenly flickered; the look in his eyes that remained dim, in just one tenth of a second, became as sharp as a falcon’s.
A large amount of spiritual energy surged out from his every pore and took the form of feathers; the light-gray feathers, whose edges sketched out gilded edges, gave off an impression of a shocking power slumbering within.
“Cawwww!”
“Cawwww! Cawwww!”
From next to Li Yao came sounds that were as sharp as a falcon’s screeches.
These were the sounds from the sudden expansion of spiritual energy, which produced ripples and friction in the air, leading to sounds like that of a raging storm.
“4th level of the Refinement Stage!”
Ding Lingdang simply couldn’t believe the scene before her eyes. Her pair of pretty eyes flickered with perplexion as she muttered, “Mobilization of energy taking a form, you can actually simulate the beginning step of the creation of heaven and earth! This state can only be possible at the 4th level of the Refinement Stage, yet you can actually do this? How long has it been since you have awakened your spirit roots?”
“Hahahaha!”
Li Yao, who got praises from Ding Lingdang, felt as if he had just eaten honey in his heart. The little image of an expert he had somehow created, in the blink of an eye, was destroyed with his unbridled laughter.
“That’s right, I am in the 4th level of the Refinement Stage. What do you think? Is it enough to fight with you!?”
Over these few months, apart from frantically absorbing the theoretical knowledge in the Heavenly Refining Tower, he would also run left and right amidst the ruins while carrying several tons of wrecked magical equipment. Meanwhile, his computation speed soared to the limit as he drew multiple modification plans.
In addition, he was the only pampered child of the Refining Department, so various resources were left for him to use. Just the crystals he used were ten times of that of any ordinary freshman.
Under such frantic cultivation, he finally broke through to the 4th level of the Refinement Stage three days ago!
“In a few months, you, from an ordinary person, had suddenly turned into a 4th level Refinement Stage cultivator—you are even faster than me! My insight is truly good. In just one glance, I had picked a purebred horse like you from the mules!”
Ding Lingdang self-complacently praised herself before once again ridiculing, “However, the fact remains the same. In front of an early stage Building Foundation Stage cultivator, you, a 4th level Refinement Stage cultivator, are a glass—jaw!”
“No, don’t you see how cool my form is!?”
Li Yao remained unconvinced. With the shake of his pair of arms, the feathers created out of spiritual energy sparkled.
“What’s the use of a cool form?”
Ding Lingdang disapprovingly said. “The Refinement Stage is altogether divided into 13 levels. From the 1st to the 5th level, it is collectively known as low-level, the 6th to the 10th is intermediate-level, the10th to the 13th level is high-level, and above high-level is peak-stage.”
“In the early-stage of the Refinement Stage, spiritual energy can only be drawn into a virtual form. It just looks good and doesn’t have any battle force. Amidst combat, I can blast your spiritual energy feathers away with just the poke of my finger!”
“Not to mention…”
Ding Lingdang slightly smiled: “In these few months, you have only been studying refining, which has an extremely high requirement for computation ability. Usually, you would have to come in contact with algorithms, theorems, array glyphs, and the likes. You have been cultivating pure spiritual energy, but so what?”
“In the end, a 4th level Refinement Stage cultivator like you, strictly speaking, is a 4th level creation-type Refinement Stage cultivator. There is still a certain difference when compared to a battle-type 4th level Refinement Stage cultivator.”
“You are just like Jiang Tao, who you had once beaten. He was a pure creation-type cultivator. Even though he had achieved the 3rd level of the Refinement Stage, wasn’t he still beaten into a pig by you?”
This statement completely calmed Li Yao down.
After having thought about it carefully, he realized Ding Lingdang was right. Over the course of these few months, his computation ability had fiercely increased, enough for him to draw his spiritual energy into a form. A majority of the virtual form he had forcibly stimulated came from relying on his computation ability, which was simply unable to be utilized during combat.
When he thought of this, he could not help but get a bit discouraged and, even more so, a bit unwilling.
If he could act as a good training partner for Ding Lingdang, then he could get 10 credits in one minute, 100 in 10 minutes, and 600 in 1 hour!
Of course, holding on for one hour was just a pipe dream.
During an exchange between experts, life and death were a matter of seconds, even more so with Ding Lingdang, who specialized in killing within seconds. Even a “Herculean Bear Devil” would be unable to stand against her for a minute.
“If I could persevere for three to five minutes, I can have 30-50 credits. Simply practicing twice a day will allow me to have a few thousand credits in a month. If I pass the specialized courses, then just maybe, I will be able to accumulate 10,000 credits by the end of the first semester.”
“This way, I will have a whole semester next year, then I can go to the Wasteland and hunt for the remaining 30,000 credits!”
Having thought of this, Li Yao’s eyes flashed with a sliver of resolution as he stressed each and every word while seriously looking at Ding Lingdang, “Sister Ling, please give me a chance. I want to—”
Even before he could finish, a red light suddenly flashed past his eyes. He felt as though a high-speed crystal train had fiercely crashed into his stomach!
While spewing blood, Li Yao, like a kite with a broken string, flew back and even broke 20-30 reefs before falling flat among the reefs.
For ten seconds, Li Yao’s entire body was paralyzed; he could not move an iota.
And the drilling pain of his stomach felt as though it jolted into his heart like lightning bolt one after another, simulating each and every cell along the nerves; each second felt like a year.
Those 10 seconds… were as hard as ten entire years!
“W-what the hell…”
After 10 seconds, Li Yao barely regained the ability to speak. His voice sounded incomparably hoarse, meanwhile, he felt like he had been hit by a meteor.
Ding Lingdang jumped over in an unhurried and unperturbed manner. Parting her slim and slender legs, she, without the slightest bit of modesty, sat on his stomach.
“Rip!”
Li Yao’s shirt, which was blown into pieces by the impact, was lightly torn away by Ding Lingdang, revealing a distinct fist imprint on his stomach which had flames lingering around it and his skin over his stomach, which was lightly burned.
Ding Lingdang raised her orchid-like fingers and lightly poked upon the fist imprint.
“Hisss—”
Li Yao soon had tears flowing out of his eyes from the pain. He wanted to roll and writhe from pain, but his body remained out of his control; the pain seemed to have turned into invisible shackles, firmly locking his every nerve.
“You see? Just a light punch from me and you have turned into this. How are you even going to spar with me?”
Ding Lingdang’s pursed her lips.
“Didn’t you just blast a punch at me?”
Li Yao felt as though he was waking up from a dream.
Only after a minute did he regain the ability to control his body. His stomach was still in an awful lot of pain, and he felt as if his heart had been entangled inside thorns, where every beat of his heart was torture to him.
Ding Lingdang stretched out her jade-like finger and lightly shook it:
“Wrong, please don’t use the word ‘blast’. At least, only when I have used 90% of my strength can you call it ‘blast’. I just lightly ‘jabbed’ a punch at you!”
“You said you wanted to give it a try. I know you are very stubborn and wouldn’t give up unless I promised you, so I let you give it a try. Do you now know how big of a difference there is between the Building Foundation Stage and Refinement Stage?”
“With your current strength, you can’t even clearly see the trace of my fist. Just a silly poke of mine rendered you completely incapable in your place, leaving you in a state where I can beat you as I like. So what’s the difference between beating a sandbag and you?”
“Alright, don’t think about it too much. Take this, it’s an ointment. Smear it over your wounds and train here at ease, while I log on and post the mission.”
Patting her butt, Ding Lingdang started to walk towards the edge of the island.
Right when her charming foot touched the cold sea, a low and anguishing growl suddenly came from behind her.
“Wait!”
TLN
Sorry guys, you might not know but at the start of this month I was in a minor accident, though I didn’t get injured much, I happened to have torn the muscles of my left leg and had internal bleeding. It was healing fine, but in mid of the month, I had the slightly healed muscles which had somehow connected torn again during a slight mishap in the bathroom. I went to the hospital and was on painkillers. But a couple days ago an extreme pain flared in my leg, rendering me almost unable to move my left leg, I went to the hospital and was hospitalized. Apparently, there was a huge bleeding(clot) still in my leg which is pressing my nerves and muscles. So I was under observation for 4 days and hence unable to translate any chapters, no laptops were allowed there. Anyway, I am back and I will cover whatever I miss during this week. And on another note, a happy news is soon to be bound. You will read it soon, take it as a surprise.