Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Right below the area of Colossi, there was a maintenance warehouse that extended hundreds of meters into the underground.

The two Colossi that had just battled so fiercely slowly landed in the warehouse through enormous shafts.

Boom!

Draconic Phoenix fell onto one of its knees. Red holes mixed with the smell of sulfur immediately appeared on the joints all over the Colossus’ body and gaps of the plate armor. It seemed to be an active volcano that had just erupted violently and was in the middle of a half-time break, preparing for the next eruption that would be even crazier!

More than ten refiners in engineering crystal suits immediately flew close. They were as busy as bees, jumping up and down Draconic Phoenix.

Two of them, holding two enormous transparent utensils that looked like giant syringes, stabbed the utensils into the active valves on the two sides of Draconic Phoenix’s breastplate.

From the ‘spiritual residence’ of Draconic Phoenix, a lot of thick, amber-like liquids immediately flowed out, filling the two ‘syringes’ like glittering honey.

It was the Nerve Connection Liquids, also known as man-made cerebrospinal fluid, which was developed after three years by applying the liquid metal technology of the Heaven’s Origin Sector, the biochemical neuron technology of the Blood Demon Sector, and the ‘skill card’ technology of the Flying Star Sector at the same time.

If the user crawled into the spiritual residence of a Colossus after it was filled with such liquids, the user would be able to spread out their brainwaves into the man-made cerebrospinal fluid and better integrate with the Colossus.

Meanwhile, the liquids boasted high buffer and protection abilities, too, and could serve as an airbag or a shield. However crazy the Colossus’ movements were, and no matter how serious the wounds it suffered, the user inside would be protected as best as possible by such liquids.

The Nerve Connection Liquids were the most precious materials co-developed by the three Sectors in the past five years. It would be understating its value if it was called ‘liquid gold’.

Every drop of the Nerve Connection Liquid was ten times more precious than marrow crystals of the same volume. Therefore, after every fierce battle, all of it had to be properly recycled without missing any.

Chi!

After the pumping magical equipment extracted most of the Nerve Connection Liquids out of Draconic Phoenix’s spiritual residence, the breastplate, which was carved with a pattern of a falcon stretching out its wings, slowly moved upward. A sophisticated rune at the center rotated 180 degrees, splitting the breastplate in half.

With a head of burning long hair, Ding Lingdang leapt off Draconic Phoenix!

She was exactly as she used to be. Brilliance bordering on provocation was always shining inside her big eyes. Her honey-colored skin was smoother than even the best silk. Her heaving breasts were shivering like two heavy crystal bombs, and the tightened sports vest seemed unable to support them. One could not help but feel nervous that it would burst at any moment. Her long, straight legs almost took up half of her height. The explosive strength that they demonstrated made her one foot taller than she actually was.

Such a perfect body figure that was built up after high-intensity exercises all year around would put even the most professional female model to shame.

Ding Lingdang was perhaps not beautiful in the traditional sense.

Her mouth was too big, and her skin was not fair enough. The intimidating vibe that flowed out of her from time to time was unbearable for most people, who felt that it was already tremendous pressure to stand next to her.

However, the smooth, wheat-colored skin had an advantage, which was that time could hardly leave any trace on her body. It seemed that all the corrosion force was blown away by her elastic skin.

Today, she was as young and vigorous as when she first saw Li Yao on Distant Expanse almost twenty years ago.

It seemed that her appearance would not change at all even in another hundred years.

If she covered her signature fiery long hair with a hat and walked on a street, chances were that she would also be mistaken for a college student just like Xie Anan would!

Of course, that was before she advanced into the Nascent Soul Stage.

Right now, in the Heaven’s Origin Sector, the Blood Demon Sector, and the Flying Star Sector, everybody knew that she was the youngest, pure battle-type Cultivator in the Nascent Soul Stage and the most dangerous woman in the entire federation!

Ding Lingdang had advanced into the Nascent Soul Stage half a year ago.

She owed her quick breakthrough to the ‘Three-Five Plan’.

The so-called ‘Three-Five’ meant ‘three years of preparation and five years of sprinting’.

It was a super warrior raising program that had been brought to the agenda when the great development on Kunlun first began.

In the first meeting of the Nascent Soul Stage, some of the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators proposed raising ‘solar soldiers’, who would train themselves through the spiritual waves released by the star.

After the great development on Kunlun began, the specialists had suddenly discovered that they had a better source of spiritual energy than a stable star—the pulsar that was unleashing spiritual wavs crazily and Kunlun itself, which had absorbed the spiritual energy for hundreds of thousands of years!

There were countless broken power rune arrays on Kunlun. The tubes that connected those power rune arrays were mostly filled with spiritual energy of a high intensity.

If anybody got into the tubes without protection, the high-intensity spiritual energy would very likely cause the disorder of electrolytes inside their body, their enchylema to leak, and even the over-expansion of their mitochondria. Eventually, they might be mentally deranged, and their life would be threatened!

However, if they had taken the corresponding medication and potential activation drugs in advance and put on the appropriate macromolecule-membrane training suit, with the help of the specialists and the doctors, they would be able to absorb the high-intensity spiritual energy incessantly when they trained themselves deep inside the tubes, thereby significantly increasing their training efficiency!

The training was both miserable and perilous.

It was a game for the brave!

Ding Lingdang was in the first batch of Cultivators to participate in the ‘Three-Five Plan’.

Or rather, she was the very first one to sign up for the project.

Many training subjects were actually developed by her along with the specialists and masters of spiritual energy together. Then, she would add burdens and more burdens to the subjects and train herself so crazily that everybody was shocked.

To quote a specialist who had been involved in the Three-Five Plan since the very beginning, Ding Lingdang had been training in the eternal flames of the inferno all the time.

And that was only the training during the day.

Every night, when her companions in the Three-Five Plan were sound asleep, Ding Lingdang would go to Li Yao, who was also working on Kunlun. The two of them would find a place that was uninhabited but boasted intense spiritual energy and have the fiercest competition of beliefs!

They had competitions of beliefs on the primeval battlefield that was scattered with the war debris from hundreds of thousands of years ago!

They had competitions of beliefs deep inside the tubes where the spiritual energy was scorching!

They had competitions of beliefs in the infinite metal torrents that Kunlun spurted out and in the turbulence that could rip apart the stars!

They even had competitions of beliefs in the orbit of the pulsar right at the tipping point where they would be attracted by the pulsar and crushed into smithereens if they took one step further!

Five years. For five years!

Just like that, Ding Lingdang trained crazily during the day and had competitions of beliefs at night even more crazily. Finally, at the most intense moment during one competition of beliefs, in the boundless universe, right at the center of the surging tides unleashed by the pulsar, she had a breakthrough and advanced into the Nascent Soul Stage successfully!

After she marched into the Nascent Soul Stage, she immediately showed astonishing talent with Colossi.

Her body was born with fire, and her spiritual root seemed to be made of magma. She was also in possession of an ancient fire art named ‘Nona-Colored Fire’.

Draconic Phoenix was like a Colossus tailor-made for her.

In the competition for the ownership of Draconic Phoenix, she emerged beyond everyone’s expectation and defeated quite a few famous Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators in a row. Finally, she had been acknowledged as the first user of Draconic Phoenix.

Ding Lingdang was realizing her vow in the past slowly but surely.

It was destined that she would leave her mark in the sea of stars under the name of ‘Ding Lingdang’, instead of ending up being an unknown vase like ‘Li Yao’s wife’!

Perhaps, it was the greatest momentum for her training.

She was a woman supported by competitiveness, and she would not allow herself to be eclipsed by anybody.

If Li Yao was a dazzling supernova, she had to be even more brilliant than Li Yao!

Hiss! Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!

After cleaning the last drop of Nerve Connection Liquids with a smaller sucker, Ding Lingdang walked to the black Colossus Fancy Phantom.

Her nose was raised high, and her lips were closed into a line tightly. She was obviously dissatisfied with her performance just now.

Compared to the magnificent Draconic Phoenix, Fancy Phantom looked rather shabby.

After the previous Colossi were assembled, the well-preserved, best-quality units and components had already been used up. The only things left were the half-broken, barely-usable ones.

Fancy Phantom was jumbled with such ragged parts and components that the federation managed to duplicate. It was a counterfeit product.

Although it was the one most recently made, it was actually the weakest Colossus and boasted the most unstable combat ability among all the Colossi in the federation.

When it was flying in the high sky and fighting at a distance, one might not notice it, but now that it had been moved underground, if it was observed carefully from a close distance, anybody would be able to tell the crudeness from the rough connection points, the joints that were exposed to the air, and the highly-uncoordinated hands and feet.

Crack! Crack!

Fancy Phantom’s breastplate, which had been twisted and deformed by Draconic Phoenix, managed to be opened after a while of ear-splitting noises. A cluster of black materials flowed out to the ground, and Li Yao struggled out of it.

“You are truly awesome, honey!” His face bruised and swollen, Li Yao cheered. “My wife is truly a super training genius second to none in the world! After you entered the Nascent Soul Stage, you have been progressing faster than light!

“What was your last move exactly just now? It pierced my internal organs and almost blew up my stomach! Cough, cough. Cough, cough, cough, cough. I’ve got a stomach ache now. It seems that we won’t be able to have any competitions of beliefs tonight!”