Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Having left Ding Lingdang’s house, Li Yao, at a lightning fast speed, rushed right away to the floating mountain of the Combat Department and immediately dived into the Super Perception Cabin.

”Entering the super perceptive state, brain cell activity, 331%, limit reached!”

In the blink of an eye, Li Yao’s consciousness had appeared in the depths of the Heavenly Refining Tower.

Li Yao didn’t hesitate for even one second and rushed straight away to the southeast corner.

Where there were two rows of bookshelves, stacked inside of which were methods for tempering the body.

During the ancient cultivators’ world, the refining environment was extremely harsh; the furnaces weren’t sealed well enough, and at any moment, it was quite possible that hot gases with temperatures as high as a couple of thousand degrees or extremely corrosive gases and molten ingredients would leak out.

In addition, due to the backward means of forging, many of the processing like cutting, grinding, and so on and so forth had to be forcibly done by the refiner himself.

Therefore, ancient refiners paid great attention to tempering their body.

They were like ancient blacksmiths; often, they were as robust and tall as a bull, and all of them had great physical strength.

Without a strong physique, they would neither be able to raise a few hundred pound hammer nor would they dare to get closer to a crafting furnace that was a couple thousand of degrees hot. In such an event, how would they be able to refine anything?

The first level of the Heavenly Refining Tower had stocked many wondrous and odd skills to temper the body.

Li Yao swept a glance before he reached out towards the [Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining], which was also known as the ”First Tempering Canon of the Hundred Smelting Clan”!

The [Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining] was the quenching body exercise created by the Hundred Smelting Clan’s Elder, ”Master Tiemu”[1].

Although he didn’t achieve too much in refining, for Master Tiemu, when it came to the physique, he was second to none in the Hundred Smelting Clan!

Rumor has it that during a refining mishap where the furnace had exploded, the subsequent refiners had been enveloped in hot and poisonous gases that even Golden Core experts did not dare to approach casually.

At that time, only Master Tiemu, who was in the peak level of the Building Foundation Stage, rushed into the refining room and rescued his three fellow disciples just by the virtue of his terrifying physique, astonishing the entire sect. And ever since then, the [Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining] had become the first tempering canon of the Hundred Smelting Clan!

According to the legend, since childhood, Master Tiemu had a weak constitution. He didn’t even have the qualifications to be a ”metal forge worker” and enter the metal forging room, let alone the qualifications to be a refiner.

However, he was someone who was extremely crazy about refining techniques. In his free time, he would squat down at the entrance of the metal forging room and watch his fellow senior and junior brothers forging heaven and earth treasures.

Over time, he suddenly thought:

’If steel, through repeated forging, can have its impurities removed constantly and change its internal structure, becoming so hard that it is nigh impossible to destroy…’

’Then can the human body follow suit? Can it become incomparably strong after going through repeated tempering?’

If it was any ordinary person who was struck with this kind of thought, perhaps he would have thrown it to the back of his mind in the blink of an eye, treating it as nothing but nonsense.

However, Master Tiemu was a madman. He actually grabbed an iron hammer and fiercely hammered his own body in the very same method as he had seen his senior and junior brothers forge the steel.

At first, of course, he had his muscles ruptured and bones broken from the hammering, would be left vomiting large amounts of blood, and regarded as a big joke by others.

Fortunately, the Hundred Smelting Clan wasn’t some ordinary sect of Jianghu; they had wondrous pills and miraculous panaceas, so besides some pain and injuries, the rest could be treated.

Just like that, Master Tiemu hammered his own body black and blue time and time again, and after a decade of experimentation, Master Tiemu embarked on a road which had never been taken before.

After a hundred years, before he had fallen, Master Tiemu had unremittingly improved his tempering exercise and finally created the [Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining] exercise.

In light of Master Tiemu’s boasting in the introduction of the [Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining], this exercise was one-of-its-kind in the entire cultivation world; it was a marvelous exercise which could increase its user’s strength by taking a beating.

Any enemy’s attack was equal to getting tempered by the iron hammer—the fiercer the attack was, the quicker one’s strength would elevate!

Once the exercise had been cultivated to the highest level, one’s flesh and blood would turn as indestructible as heaven and earth material—”an indestructible body which even the gods won’t be able to destroy”!

Although he was undoubtedly boasting, even Master Tiemu himself had also not achieved ”an indestructible body which even the gods won’t be able to destroy” and had nevertheless fallen.

However, after cultivating the [Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining], the body would be like steel and iron, your endurance would be greatly elevated, and this was 100% true.

”Should I cultivate this exercise?”

Li Yao muttered to himself.

As the first tempering canon of the Hundred Smelting Clan, it was obvious the [Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining] was not so easy to train; he would need to spend a large amount of time and energy.

If it was just for earning a few credits from Ding Lingdang, then it was seemingly not worthwhile.

He might as well finish modifying the 1st Generation Tai’e furnace a bit earlier and craft some magical equipment so that he could exchange them with his fellow students for credits.

However, the 1st Generation Tai’e was a small-scale crafting furnace and its production capacity was extremely limited.

And not to mention, he was also a beginner who was learning refining for the first time. Even if he was somehow successful in refining at every attempt, how many magical equipment could he craft?

Besides, others would not necessarily trade with him. The institute had naturally provided some open channels to the public so that the students could have a variety of traditional magical equipment at very low credits, which was enough for their day-to-day training needs.

These traditional magical equipment had all been continuously improved by the major sects over the course of hundred years, and the final form was the condensed from the blood and effort of countless experienced refiners.

Li Yao was not at all confident that he could suddenly craft a magical equipment that could compete and transcend traditional magical equipment.

”In the end, it still comes down to me going to the depths of the Wasteland to hunt demon beasts!”

”With the 1st Generation Tai’e crafting furnace, I can only craft some comparatively special magical equipment for my own use.”

”However, at the very least, I still need to get stronger so that I would not be dragging the team behind.”

”Although cultivating [Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining] will not increase my offense strength, it would greatly improve my endurance, which is equal to increasing my survivability in the battlefield. Even if I was attacked by a demon beast, I would not end up dead just from its one attack.”

”But for a refiner, is it enough?!”

Li Yao, who grew up in the Magical Equipment Graveyard laden with crisis everywhere, had always deeply felt a sense of insecurity in his heart.

Although he dreamt of becoming a refiner, he had never thought that he could protect himself just by relying on magical equipment.

And having exchanged blows with Ding Lingdang twice, it had, even more so, made him realize how big of a gap there was between him and a true expert.

”With my current strength, even if my entire body is covered in magical equipment, I would still be completely suppressed when facing an early stage Building Foundation Stage cultivator.”

”And in the depths of the Wasteland, demon beasts who are even stronger than early stage Building Foundation Stage cultivators can be found everywhere!”

”For the future, I must get stronger. At the very least, I have to first improve my endurance!”

When he thought of all this, Li Yao, with all his concentration, entered the world of the [Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining].

”Whizz! Whizz! Whizz! Whizz!”

Numerous thoughts started flying out of the book before fusing with Li Yao’s consciousness. One after another, sitting postures, acupoint charts, and the body structure entered his soul.

The key point of the [Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining] lied in the three layers—internal, central, and external.

The internal layer meant the insides of the body. One needed to thoroughly comprehend the internal structure of 99 different kinds of heaven and earth treasure and consider oneself as these 99 heaven and earth treasures, imagining oneself to be going through forging and expelling all kinds of impurities from within the body so that the body structure would become denser.

The central layer referred to the surface of the body. One needed to stimulate all 180 acupoints so that under the ruthless bombardment of enemy attacks, one could guide the destructive force of the attacks through these 180 acupoints and infuse them into various parts of the bodies, thereby cleansing the bone marrow, reinforcing the muscles, and thoroughly remolding the body.

And the most crucial was the outer layer. One needed to release his or her spiritual energy outside to inspire it to congeal into a special cushion structure that could mitigate enemy attacks, distributing its impact uniformly, which was to be transported to inside the body through the 180 acupoints.

Obviously, the enemy wasn’t some kind of an idiot; he would certainly mobilize all his strength to attack just one small part during the fight, so how could the power be distributed to the 180 acupoints? Was he going to attack 180 acupoints simultaneously? It was not some kind of massage!

”The most crucial step is to create a cushion structure using spiritual energy which will help in the distributing the enemy’s strength into 180 places!”

”If there isn’t a cushion, then under just one of Ding Lingdang’s heavy punches, I would definitely be blown away. How would I then temper my body?”

”Cushion, cushion...”

A deep frown appeared on Li Yao’s forehead.

He discovered that the cushion structure proposed by Master Tiemu was too complicated. To his surprise, he would have to stimulate the spiritual energy out of his body and congeal it into tens of thousands of small, spring-like air masses all around the body.

When bombarded by the enemy’s punch, these tens of thousands of ”spiritual energy springs” would be dispersed. Not to mention dispersing the energy into 180 places, it was quite possible to disperse them into 1,800 places, and naturally, the destructive force would be mitigated to the lowest point, which was not only insufficient to cause injuries but could also be used to cultivate.

The problem was that Li Yao, this insignificant cultivator of the 4th level of the Refinement Stage, didn’t have such fine control over his spiritual energy. It was simply impossible for him to divide his spiritual energy into tens of thousands of groups and then congeal each group into small, spring-like structures as well as arranging them into a certain pattern.

”This is ridiculous! Even a peak level Building Foundation Stage cultivator would not necessarily able to so exquisitely control their spiritual energy. This exercise is simply not suitable for a beginner disciple!”

”No wonder it’s the first tempering canon of Hundred Smelting Clan. However, in Ou Yezi’s memories, besides Master Tiemu, not many people had cultivated this exercise. That’s why only a few scrolls of this exercise are placed here!”

”That’s not right! How did Master Tiemy cultivate it in the beginning?”

Supporting his cheek with his arm, Li Yao pondered for a long time before he thought of one possibility.

I suppose, at the very beginning, Master Tiemu practiced in accordance with the [Golden Bell Cover], [Iron Skin], and [Thirteen Taibao Brutal Training].[2]

Later, he accidentally created this exercise and became a true master of a generation. And when he was writing the exercise, he, in order to leave his name down in history, could naturally not reveal the truth.

Otherwise, if he honestly said that his [Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining] was born out of [Golden Bell Cover] and [Iron Skin], then where would the style be in that?

Of course, he needed to write it as extremely mysterious and abstruse, making it harder to understand. Only then would it show that he was an extraordinary and refined cultivator.

This could also be considered as a bad habit of ancient cultivators. Many ancient cultivators, when they were compiling a cultivation technique, liked to write it as incomprehensible and mysterious jargon which could be summed up in one sentence—they could not talk in human words!

After criticizing for a while, Li Yao suddenly thought:

’In order to cultivate [Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining], the most crucial part is the cushion. There can’t just be one spring-method acting as a cushion.”

‘It is really amazing that Master Tiemu can think of spring structure in his era, but now in the modern era, there are varieties of cushions!’

Li Yao was a refiner, and the cushion was one of the very important concepts in refining. Over these few months, he had learned countless types of traditional cushions.

However, after thinking about them carefully, he was disappointed to find that every cushion structure was very complex and was nigh impossible for a 4th level Refinement Stage cultivator to simulate.

”What’s the most basic cushion type...”

Li Yao racked his brain. Suddenly, from the depths of his soul came a ”bang” sound—something had exploded.

It was an airbag.

The airbags that were installed in flying shuttles.

Flying shuttles were extremely fast, so if any accident occurred, it was highly likely for its rider to lose his or her life.

So the sect who manufactured flying shuttles had a large number airbags installed in the shuttle. Usually, they were deflated, but in the event of a collision, they would inflate in the blink of an eye, inflating to a hundred times of its original size, providing a vital ”cushion” to the passengers!

TLN:

[1] 铁木[Tiemu] - Literally means ”iron wood”.

[2]: Golden Bell Cover, Iron Skin, and Thirteen Taibao Brutal Training are ancient martial arts of China, which focuses on the body. One would not be harm by knives and swords if one has mastered these exercises.