Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao was like a nouveau riche with the sudden acquisition of wealth. His excitement was palpable and his mind was filled with scenes of various annoying natures. He tossed aside his blanket and jumped off his bed. Surprisingly, his two legs buckled, and with a popping sound of despair, he fell and sprawled out on his back. In his body, only an empty and vacated feeling remained, and he was unable to bring forth even half his strength. It was as if a thief had cleared out a house and even taken the door with him!

The black sword heard the noise. It flew in from the outer room while urgently shouting in squeaks. With a swoosh, it flew back out again, brought back with it a handheld mirror, and shined the mirror onto Li Yao’s body.

“How can this be!” Li Yao was gobsmacked.

It was as if he had been stranded in a giant desert for several months, struggling on the verge of death. All that was left of him were mere skin and bones. A deep set of hollow eyes took up half his face. There simply wasn’t any flesh left on him from head to toe. Light purple veins drooped around his skeleton weakly without strength. He was the same as an earthworm that had been baked dry by the sun. His skin had completely turned into an ash-like color, largely like that of a vampire.

This fright was not important... The sharpness of his five sense. His outstanding faculty of memory. The crystal brain calculated and analyzed his abilities. In a flash, his previous scare disappeared like smoke in the air. Li Yao was nearly struck back with shock to his normal self. His abilities had only improved by a tiny bit when compared to his previous self.

It was at this time that he felt as if his stomach was stuffed with a ball of fire. A spreading ball of fire of never ending explosions!

Li Yao seemed to hear the cells in his entire body from head to toe all scream and howl mournfully, “Hunger! Hunger! Hunger!”

It was extreme to the point that even the myriad of telepathic thoughts in the depths of his mind were all at the limit of hunger, devouring each other!

“Hurry, Small Black, hurry and give me food!”

Li Yao never thought he would be this extremely hungry. He felt the same pain as the flaring of a drug addiction. He rolled about on the floor and suddenly got up when he heard Blackwing give a great shout.

Blackwing squeaked out two shouts. It was not happy with its owner’s behavior. Nevertheless, it still flew to the outer room and quickly brought back two 5 lb cans of “Giant Creatures of Starry Skies” canned meat.

Although the name “Giant Creatures of Starry Skies” sounded very domineering, high class, and luxurious, in truth, it was actually a product of modification by cultivator sects using secret drugs. They took ordinary meat from pigs and elephants and hybridized it. Classified as a rapid growth product. Within three months time, they induced the life of a 10 ton heavy artificial livestock. The final canned product was very greasy, and its taste was of the utmost inferiority. The typical resident of the city rarely ate this product.

However, this canned meat, with its blend of bones and viscera, had a cheap sales price. 15 credits can buy an entire 5 lb large can of the meat and was considered a rare delicacy among the poor class. It was also Li Yao’s primary source of protein. He held 35 cans in stock in his house at any given time.

When Li Yao came in contact with the can of Giant Creatures of Starry Skies, he was like a 3-day starved feral wolf meeting a lamb that was skinned, cleaned, and spiced. His eyes let out a red glow and “wheezing wheezing” sounds came out of his throat . It was unknown where he drew the strength, but his entire person lept up and seized the can of meat into his embrace. He opened his mouth wide into the gaping bloody hole of a predator and gnawed down, ignoring the circumstances.

“Gnash Gnash! Gnash Gnash!” The sound of teeth colliding was like two meat grinders striking against each other. Sparks flew out from between the sawlike teeth.

A can of Giant Creatures of Starry Skies meat was extremely salty, extremely fishy, and extremely oily. Normally, Li Yao only needed a thin, small flake to pair with three big bowls of rice. This time though, it was like he was eating the world’s most precious rare and delicious delicacy. He devoured the food ravenously as if possessed by a Taotie, finishing the entire 5 lb can of the canned meat in a minute.

There was a numbness between his lips and teeth, and his stomach had actually swelled to an incomparable state. The Giant Creatures of Starry Skies meat is compressed into great density. When the meat is introduced to liquid, it can increase in size by at most a dozen fold.

A thought shook in the depths of Li Yao’s mind and jumped out as a scene. It was from the dream of grandeur. The instructor of the Hundred Smelting Guild’s low level workers, the Titan, was speaking,

“Breathe in the stars and swallow the moon. This Fasting Cultivation Technique allows you to devour the essence energy of heaven and earth directly. Only high stage cultivators can use this profound art. You pieces of sh*ts aren’t even capable of attempting it!

“For you pieces of sh*ts, your only source of essence energy is from food. The basis for all cultivators is to ‘eat’. Learn how to ‘feast’. It is the first step to becoming a cultivator!”

“Next, I will impart onto you all the Great Art of the Swallowing Whale. This technique has the specialized purpose of teaching you all how to feast. It is capable of helping you all gorge down the sea and absorb the energy contained within the food!”

“When this art is cultivated to the pinnacle, the digestive strength and speed of the digestive system is raised by a hundredfold, allowing one to swallow 800 lbs of animal meat per day. Even the toughest and hardest skulls of magical beasts are grounded to dust, completely absorbed, and transformed into the most fundamental of energies — essence. The essence instantly replenishes within the skeletal bones of the entire body, allowing one’s blood vessels to expand energetically, giving one extraordinary strength.

“Keep in mind, the Hundred-and-Eight Hands Chaos Gale Hammer cultivator art is not perfect. There is still a small margin for improvement. However, if you don’t practice the Great Art of the Swallowing Whale well, you will forever be a mortal. Don’t even think about stepping on the road of cultivation!”

“Ou Yeming, come up here for this senior. Take this repulsive 200 pound fish and eat all of it down. This senior will first teach you members of the Hundred Smelting Guild’s Main Mountain this secret technique, the Great Art of the Swallowing Whale!”

…...

Li Yao’s eyelids suddenly opened to a pair of round and protruding eyes. A “Rumble Rumble” sound pierced out from within his stomach. It was as if a powerful engine had suddenly been ignited!

In a split second, it was like several monsters fleeing within his stomach. The skin of his belly was stretched to near transparency!

The speed of his stomach intestines digestive movement exceeded that of a normal person by a dozen fold. It digested the Giant Creatures of Starry Skies meat at lightning speeds, breaking the meat down, transforming it into the most rudimentary form of energy, and supplied steady energy to the dried skeletal bones of Li Yao’s body and also to Li Yao’s eight meridians!

The speed of the Giant Creatures of Starry Skies meat’s expansion when introduced with water was not able to exceed the speed of digestion and absorption. The protruding belly quickly flattened down to its normal state and even started to cave inward.

“This won’t do. I’m still hungry. Hurry, bring me another can!”

The food just slid down Li Yao’s throat. With two or three bites, he devoured his second can of Giant Creatures of Starry Skies meat completely clean. Still, he was not satisfied. He slapped the floor board to let Blackwing know to continue fetching meat.

Three cans. Five cans. Twenty cans ...

In a short hour, he had unrelentingly eaten a total of 31 entire cans of the Giant Creatures of Starry Skies canned meat. He had drank down a full bucket of water, eating dry and wiping clean his house’s entire stock of food. Only then did he let out a burp, wishing he had more to eat.

“Squeak squeak, Squeak squeak?”

Blackwing looked at his owner somewhat worryingly. It had never seen a person eat the Giant Creatures of Starry Skies canned meat in such a crazed fashion. It did not know what kind of illness it’s owner caught and could not help asking with concern.

Li Yao smacked his lips and used his tongue to pick out a sliver of shredded meat from his teeth. He reflected quietly, “It seems like I’m not full yet. I can eat three or five more cans.”

“...” Blackwing was speechless for a moment. It would have surely rolled its eyes at this moment if it had eyes.

“Finally, I am alive again!” Li Yao was completely satisfied and let out a relaxed breath. He held his fist tight and carefully sized up his arm, trying to understand the bubbling force coming from within the depths of his marrow.

Following the crazed digestion and absorption of the cans of Giant Creatures of Starry Skies meat through the use of the Great Art of the Swallowing Whale, his body had experienced a change like the turning of heaven and earth.

The beast meat had transformed into the purest of essence energy, and an abundance of essence energy permeated through his body. The once dried veins filled once more, and the withered muscles swelled once again. His skeletal system became like reinforced steel, and his body had turned exceptionally durable.

Looking in the mirror, his face still had a somewhat ashy tone to it. His body was a bit thin compared to before; however, concealed below his pale dark skin were dense muscles that bulged out with only a slight flex. His muscles were like coils of thick steel rope.

Li Yao held his fist tight. He hammered his pecs twice with strength that wasn’t too light nor too strong, making a muffled sound. It was as if seven to eight layers of dried leather were padded around his sternum; he absolutely did not feel any sort of pain.

“Whoosh! Whoosh!” He swung his arm, consciously swinging out seven to eight punches. Three to five oppressive images appeared suddenly in the empty air, and the sound of the fists piercing the air of the void rang out.

“My punching power has increased by at least 15%. My punching speed has increased by at least 20%. The Great Art of the Swallowing Whale can be summarized in one sentence — It’s really f*cking tyrannical!”

The recollection of the fragment of memory from the dream of grandeur gave him a technique that could surprisingly be used in the real world. Li Yao could not help but be wild with joy. He was similar to a wandering hobo who had picked up a windfall that fell from the sky.

However, when he was revisiting the enormous storehouse of memories within the dream of Ou Yezi, he discovered that although he could remember with absolute clarity the first second, the next second was mired with haze. Spots were mottled. It was absolutely useless.

“If only I could recall the dream world in all its details... Even if I am only able to sneak learning from Ou Yezi’s life experiences from his youth to his death, becoming the first Master Artificer of the Federation would be as easy as turning over my hand! When that time comes, I’ll have mountains of gold and seas of silver, I’ll have luxurious vehicles and beautiful women, I’ll be revered by everybody, I’ll be the most popular idol of millions and millions of youths…”

Li Yao chuckled with a foxy smile as he let his mind imagine freely.

Blackwing made a cold snort of complete utter disdain. It twisted its hilt and flew away.

Right at this time, the crystal processor suddenly let out a “Dee Dee” sound. A virtual origami crane flew out from the right hand corner of the hologram. It flew and orbited around Li Yao’s head for three rotations. With a “Bang” sound, it exploded, transforming into an ice cold message strip,

“You didn’t come to school today?”

A small plump yellow avatar followed at the end. The small avatar’s eyebrows were angled vertically; its entire face was filled with questioning. It was Si Jiaxue.