Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

This floating mountain belonged to Iron Fist Club, and despite it being midnight, the floating mountain was hustling and bustling with people inside. Its atmosphere was filled with an intense masculine taste, and sounds of striking could be heard without a breath of respite.

As Li Yao walked inside, a few sharp gazes converged on him.

He wore the uniform of the Refining Department, on which there was a burning crystal gear engraved on his chest, appearing to be particularly striking among the tall and robust members of the Iron Fist Club.

Very quickly, someone recognized him.

“He’s Li Yao, the only student of the Refining Department.”

“So he’s the one who would rather die than change departments? So whether the Refining Department will exist or be abolished rests on his shoulders?”

“Do not underestimate him! This guy is very ruthless. Rumor has it that when he had just awakened, he had beaten the crap out of a 3rd level Refinement Stage cultivator. Our Iron Fist Club’s instructor, Teacher Ding Lingdang, is sparing no effort to recruit him!”

A dozen fierce men with robust muscles who were drenched in sweat surrounded him.

A 2 meter tall bronze-skinned, fierce-looking man walked in large strides before Li Yao as he lowered his head and sized him up. Pursing his lips into a smile, he said:

“Are you Li Yao?”

Li Yao frowned. He slightly bent his legs, and his leg muscles shivered in high frequency, which was unable to be discerned with naked eyes, seemingly taking the pose at which he could kick the other guy’s crotch at any moment, thereby breaking the other guy’s attack.

However, his face bore calmness as he smiled and said, “That’s right, and you are…”

The robust man raised his bowl-sized fist and ruthlessly smashed on his iron cast and copper plated chest. The subsequent sound was as though a stone had struck a piece of metal as he shouted:

“I am Zhang Chuang and am also a freshman like you. I am Southern Desert City’s champion of the College Entrance Examination. Student Li Yao, I—admire you!”

“What?”

Li Yao was dumbfounded. What sort of strategy was this?

Zhan Chuang stretched out his leaf-fan sized, giant palm and forcefully smacked Li Yao on the shoulder as he said in a loud voice:

“We all know that the Refining Department had an accident and we have also heard of your choice. We all admire you. We feel that you represent the spirit of the Grand Desolate War Institution—regardless of victory or defeat, as long as even one soldier is left standing, we will fight to the end!”

“That’s right!”

Another ugly freshman came forward and roared while waving his fist, “Although everyone knows that the Refining Department can never hold on after a year, you still chose to remain without a shred of hesitation to go all out to struggle and fight!”

“This kind of spirit is exactly the persistence that our Grand Desolate War Institution has passed down for hundreds of years. We can lose and even die, but we will never surrender!”

“Come on, Fellow Student Li Yao!”

A third hunk forced his way over: “No matter the final outcome, in this year, burn your life away, exert your utmost strength to shine so that you don’t leave the slightest bit of regret! All the members of our Iron Fist Club completely support you!”

“For your dream, fight till the end!”

“Even if the Refining Department is abolished next year, it is well worth it!”

“Whatever you need, just say. We all know that cultivation is not easy. We are all brothers, and we don’t have any bad intentions!”

One by one, seemingly ferocious-looking hunks started shouting all at once.

Li Yao was stunned for a while and didn’t know what to say.

On the other hand, he was feeling warmer and warmer in his heart. A sincere smile soon crept up on his lips.

He sincerely bowed and said from the bottom of his heart, “Thank you for all your support. I will definitely do my best!”

“Alright! Since Fellow Student Li Yao has arrived on such late at night, you definitely want to use the training facilities here, right? Everyone disperse, don’t you all have your own training to do? I will show Fellow Student Li Yao around!”

Zhang Chuang held quite a bit of prestige amongst the freshmen. After everyone dispersed, he accompanied Li Yao to the depths of the floating mountain.

When he came to know why Li Yao had come here, his ugly and ferocious-looking face revealed a sliver of bewilderment.

“The Super Perception Cabin is not some popular training equipment. You can use it any way you like, but don’t expect too much of its effect!”

After having Zhang Chuang explain it, only then did Li Yao realize how foolish he had been.

The principle of the Super Perception Cabin was completely opposite to that of the “Deep Sleep Chamber”. The latter could forcefully inhibit the activity of human brain cells, thereby making one enter a deep sleeping state. In this state, one hour of sleep was equivalent to 3-5 hours of normal sleep.

Super Perception Cabin, on the other hand, would stimulate its user’s brain cells activity through special array glyphs and crystals. The activity of one’s brain cells would be enhanced to 300%, thereby improving the learning efficiency.

This method was a bit like injecting stimulants into the brain. One could support it for at most 20-30 minutes.

Following after which the brain cells would be overactive, ultimately resulting in Qigong deviation. Although its degree was very light, it would still be a bit troublesome to deal with.

Moreover, it was only enhancing the brain cell activity to 300%. The body would remain the same as before, which would give birth to a very serious dissonance between the physical and mental activities.

Often, the brain would issue a command, but the body would be unable to respond in time, making it feel like one was paralyzed.

So, the Super Perception Cabin was only suitable for learning the basic theory course; it was not at all suitable for training.

And it was only the freshman who would use it and that too for no more than half an hour, as the older students simply did not spare it a glance.

“We are here.”

Zhang Chuang brought Li Yao to a dilapidated training room, on the walls of which were a few dozen large, pupa-like structure—they were precisely the Super Perception Cabins.

Through the crystal glass window, one could see that a majority of the pupa-like structures were empty, and only a few pupae had a student sitting cross-legged inside.

These students had been stimulated with a secret method and had their brain cell activity elevated to 300%. They appeared to be particularly stimulated; each and every one of their faces were red to their ears, their eyes were completely bloodshot, and they were saying something without being able to stop.

Suddenly, Li Yao noticed that there was something wrong with a student in the upper left large pupa.

He was talking faster and faster, and his complexion was getting more hideous by the second. The blue veins on his forehead was slightly bulging, and finally, blood gushed out with a “splash”.

“Damn! Cabin No. 27 student’s brain cells are overactive. He is going to have Qigong deviation!”

“Whoosh!” The door of Cabin No. 27 opened as a couple personnels swooped to the cabin and carried the unconscious student out.

Zhang Chuang smiled and said, “Fellow Student Li Yao, what do you think? Do you still dare to try?”

Li Yao’s eyes flickered as he nodded his head.

“Whoosh…”

The cabin door behind Li Yao gradually closed, sealing him inside the big pupa.

Following that, a personnel activated the array glyphs on the outside as over a hundred crystals embedded inside the large pupa were completely illuminated.

A milky-white radiance flowed through the engravings and fused constantly before they gathered into dazzling spirit glyphs one after another.

“Lub dub, lub dub, lub dub, lub… dub, lub… dub…”

Li Yao felt his heart beat getting slower and slower as his breaths became longer and longer.

“Brain cell activity, 150%!”

He realized that it was not his heartbeat which was getting slower, but rather, it was his thought process which was getting quicker; his body rhythm was unable to keep up with his thought process.

“Brain cell activity, 200%!”

Li Yao felt as if someone was prying open the top of his head and pouring scalding hot oil into his brain, which was producing “crackling” sounds.

Countless glimpses of scenes suddenly emerged before his eyes as multitudes of sounds also rang in his ears.

They were the residual memories from a decade ago which were upturning from the depths of his brain. Even the memories where a wolfhound was chasing him when he was seven years old had surfaced.

“Brain cell activity, 250%!”

Li Yao blinked his eyes. His pupils gradually expanded as they slowly occupied his entire eye sockets. One after another, like specks of light, incredibly deep thoughts in the depths of his neural field flashed, collided, shredded, and intertwined with each other as they were stretched into countless threads of light before weaving into an intricate web where each node bore numerous information fragments of .

A castle of thoughts was quickly being built in Li Yao’s mind.

“Brain cell activity, 331%!”

This was the limit.

Li Yao felt as if he was standing on a higher dimension as he overlooked the just built information castle of . Every single detail had emerged on every single thought and every thread of information of Soul Converging Techniques. He could grasp all the details with a single glance.

This kind of brainstorming pleasure made him unable to control himself. He was completely immersed in the ocean of , where he was happily wandering. He completely forgot the passage of time.

5 minutes, 10 minutes, 25 minutes, 30 minutes.

Suddenly—

Li Yao’s pupil fiercely contracted to the size of a needle tip before it once again expanded to the limit.

His brain cell activity was increasing by the minute, he was getting more and more excited, and his thoughts were flashing quicker and quicker. He felt as if countless flying shuttles, which he was unable to catch no matter what he did, were whizzing out from the depths of his neural field.

“Boom!”

The castle of thoughts suddenly collapsed and raised overwhelming frightening billows and terrifying waves, where every wave carried a seemingly inexhaustible amount of memories, while the vast majority of them were useless information. For instance, what he ate on the noon of the third day after his ninth birthday. He started to recall everything that was useless!

Li Yao let out wheezing sounds, and the corner of his eyes madly twitched as he bit his lips to the point that the blood was flowing out.

“This is bad! My brain cells are overactive, I am going to have Qigong deviation!”

“Once I have Qigong deviation, it will take me at least a day to recover, during which my spirit will be weakened, my memory will decline, and I will not be able to concentrate. I will simply be unable to cultivate.

“I can never let this happen! I must find a way to resolve this!”

Everything before his eyes had blurred, and countless resplendent scenes collided with each other. Li Yao seemed to be hearing “cracking” sounds of his brain cells bursting open like popcorn. Every time they exploded, an overwhelming amount of useless memories would burst forth.

“Memories…”

A thought struck Li Yao’s mind; he suddenly seemed to grasp something.

He gathered a trace of his remaining consciousness, and with all his strength, he rushed into the depths of his brain towards Ou Yezi’s tree of memories!

“Boom!”

The moment his consciousness was going the collapse, a bright light flashed before Li Yao’s eyes and his consciousness appeared inside the Heavenly Refining Tower of Hundred Smelting Clan from forty millenniums ago.

“Pooh…”

Li Yao let out a long deep breath. This was the memory world of Ou Yezi. Even if a storm was raging through at the outside world, it would simply be unable to invade this place.

“My guess was right. Ou Yezi’s soul is so huge that it can absolutely withstand the side effects of 300% brain cell activity. This place is going to be my safe haven. I can hide here for 3-5 minutes before going out, and I shouldn’t have any Qigong deviation then.”

Having thought of this, Li Yao crossed his legs and steadily sat at the center of the Heavenly Refining Tower’s first level where he studied the over and over again for 10 minutes. Only then did he calmly and collectedly leave the memory fragments and made his consciousness resurface as he returned to the real world.

Sure enough, beside a little headache, he was no longer in an uncontrollable state; he was not going to have Qigong deviation.

“Fortunately I finally found a way. It seems that the ‘Super Perception Cabin’ has a great hidden danger, so I can not overuse it.”

Li Yao secretly praised his luck.

When he swept a glance at the corner of the hologram which was displaying the time, his entire body was suddenly stupefied.

“What!? Only a minute has elapsed in the real world?”

“That’s not right. I have obviously stayed for a dozen minutes in Ou Yezi’s memories.”

“The passage of time of the memory world and the real world is in a ratio of 3:1. Three minutes in the memory world is equivalent to one minute in the real world.”

“Why has it increased by 3.3 times, reaching a ratio of 10:1?”