by <unknown>
Ding Lingdang bathed in the afterglow of the setting sun. She spoke with utter content, “The surrounding here is quite decent, right? Look at this sky. Look at this earth. Don’t you feel all your worries being flung to the back of your mind; your appetite will immediately open wide and you’ll be able to eat 10 roasted chickens right away?”
Li Yao was stunned. He gazed off to the horizon and was immediately moved by the several thousand meters high view.
Layers of clouds boiled like angry waves within the vast and boundless world, molding into divine-like shapes. Layers upon layers of red were painted under the blood-red illumination of the setting sun, condensing to a rouge-like color in the greatest depths and diluted to a peach-like color on the lightest surface.
Li Yao never knew that this world actually contained thousands upon thousands of different shades of red. Every shade of red was a core-shaking red that pulled one’s heartstrings.
This red cloud sea churned, changed, condensed, and dispersed endlessly along a whistling gale. And suddenly, from the thousands of different forms of red came sketches of gold lines. They were like gold fish leaping forth from the red sea, morphing out wings and soaring freely.
A gale of wind would occasionally rip tears into the sea of clouds. Looking below the tears, Li Yao could see all of Floating Spear City below his feet.
The city was like a giant turtle with its limbs spread out, lying unmoving on its belly. Needless to say about the flying shuttles and pedestrians, even the sky-scraping buildings turned into tiny toy building blocks.
It was like they left this mortal secular world and all that was left between the billowing and grand world was these two.
Their surroundings were extremely noisy. The wind tore endlessly against their eardrums, yet at the same time, things were extremely quiet; not even the least bit of noise from the secular world existed. All they could hear was the “Badum Badum” beating of each other’s hearts.
Looking above their heads at the transparent, bowl-like sky dome, one could see the cyan blue sky gradually fade away into a draping curtain of darkness. The stars in the entire sky were like raindrops sprinkled amongst the clouds.
Li Yao’s heart stirred. He somewhat understood why Ding Lingdang brought him here.
The secular mortal world becomes incomparably ridiculous in front of such a breathtaking spectacular sight, wiping their gargantuan worries into thin air.
Even if he had turned into a cripple, seeing this magnificent view in front of him would likely still restore his fighting spirit and reignite his confidence!
Under the final illumination of the setting sun, Li Yao’s face turned flush red and a smile came from the bottom of his heart.
“This restaurant is nice. Now, where are the roasted chickens?”
Ding Lingdang fished out an enormous military pack from the back of the Scarlet Flame Battle Shuttle and closed the cockpit cover with her long legs. She placed the greasy and dirty military pack directly on the rooftop of the flying shuttle worth several tens of millions.
She fished out one after another as if performing magic, wholes and wholes of wonderfully fragrant roasted chicken, chops and chops of braised pork joints, and links and links of blood sausages. There was even an entire trunk filled with high-energy and high-nutrient performance drinks.
Li Yao’s nose quivered and he took a deep breath. With eyes radiating with an energetic glow, he said, “It’s all Ghost Food and Drinks from the Underground Ghost Market?”
Ding Lingdang grinned widely, exposing two rows of snow-white teeth. She laughed while saying, “You just woke up from a long coma. According to common sense, you should eat light porridge and mild meals. Would something this greasy be fine?”
Of course it was fine.
A thunder cry rang out from Li Yao’s stomach. Without a word, he directly spread open his hand and grabbed a roasted chicken. A bite from the left. A bite from the right. A bite from the top. A bite from the bottom. He ate this 1.5-2 kg roasted chicken completely clean in just four bites. “Crack crack” A meat grinder-like sound rang out from his mouth. His cheeks bulged out enormously, but they returned to normal in a flash.
“This is what it means to be alive again!”
With a roasted chicken down his stomach, Li Yao’s face revealed a small trace of healthiness. He licked and licked the oil-drenched edges of his mouth, wishing for more. He stretched his hand once more towards a second roasted chicken.
This time, it was Ding Lingdang’s turn to be dumbstruck. She couldn’t have possibly foreseen that Li Yao, a patient who had just awakened from a deep coma, would eat so ferociously. She was stunned for a long time before she snorted lightly and tore into a roasted chicken with her hands without a trace of etiquette. Each of her hands held half of the chicken. She stared down Li Yao as she ferociously chewed in big mouthfuls.
At an altitude thousands of meters in the air, within the waves of boiling clouds, on top of a luxurious vehicle worth nearly 100 million credits, two people exchanged not a word. They carried out in gorging ravenously in an eating competition.
The two did not keep up even a trace of proper appearances. They were like two fearsome beasts that had hungered for ten days and ten nights. A beast rammed into the mountain and the sea of meat, shaking its cheeks and revealing its back molars. They ate like a locust plague, savagely sweeping everything clean. These two ate the entire military pack of greasy meaty food clean in under half an hour. Even the chest of performance drinks was drunk such that not even a drop remained. The two should have eaten about the same amount after some careful calculations.
Ding Lingdang held the military pack from its bottom, shook it forcefully a few times, and shook out the last blood sausage. She split the sausage into two halves to split with Li Yao to eat. They looked at each other and discovered that they both had made a mess of their faces. They could not hold back from grinning and laughing at the same time.
“You never left. Why?” Li Yao finally asked this puzzle he had hidden in his heart.
Ding Lingdang really didn’t have a proper appearance when she licked her fingers; she was still immersed in the seduction of the fine food. It took a long time before she burped and said, “I was just about to leave after waiting for three weeks. But on the day before I was going to leave, I saw a diagram of your brainwave activity… A Meditation Healer had used a secret technique to draw out the approximate shape of the depths of your neural field while you were in your coma.”
Ding Lingdang extended her wrist and out from a red micro processor jumped a hologram.
It was like the colors of the rainbow at first glance. Various shades of colors were packed together to form a tall cloud-piercing mountain peak and a deep abyssal valley. Some places even appeared to be like erupting volcanos, bursting with the numerous brilliant and varied colors of the rainbow.
“And this diagram here is of another patient in a deep coma. It’s a very typical brainwave activity diagram.” Ding Lingdang brought up a second hologram.
The colors of this diagram were much darker. It seemed that only two colors black and white existed in this world, causing the entire world to change incomparably dark. There were no mountain peaks or valleys. It was just like a deathly still flat desert without hardly a trace of life.
“These two diagrams are a bit different,” said Li Yao.
Ding Lingdang nodded her head.
“The doctor told me that it was because you had recently entered your coma that your neural field world was still relatively active. As days go by, as a long time passes, your neural field world will slowly turn to a deathly still desert… But I felt that something was off. The degree of activity of your neural field world is simply much more intense than a normal person’s by a hundredfold. And moreso, I felt something faintly familiar about it, so…”
She tapped a few times against a virtual keyboard projected by the crystal processor, bringing out a third brainwave activity diagram.
Th
is diagram was the same as the first. It had seven bright colors of the rainbow, it was filled with life, and fiery sparks radiated all around.
“Look. What’s different between this diagram and the first?” Ding Lingdang stared straight at Li Yao’s eyes when she asked.
Li Yao carefully compared the two for a long time.
There were obviously a lot of differences between the fine details of the diagrams. But, their colors were both dazzling, their undulations were both intense, and they both revealed a bloody, brave aura that caused people’s spirits to be raised with a single glance, to be all fired up.
“This is also a diagram of my brainwave activity?”
Ding Lingdang shook her head and unraveled the riddle, “Nope, I pulled a few strings with the army to get this. It’s the brainwave activity diagram gathered from several seasoned soldiers of the army. And they gathered this brainwave activity when… these soldiers were situated in the most dangerous of battlefields. They were engaging in precipitous close combat, fighting against the Demon Beasts to the bloody end!”
Li Yao was stunned for a moment. He tried again to carefully examine the two brainwave activity diagrams to identify any differences; he was still unable to differentiate too much between the two.
He never thought his neural field activity would be this crazy while he was swallowing Ou Yezi’s memories. It was actually the same as blood-soaked soldiers engaging in close combat.
Or maybe it was due to this crazy brainwave activity that led to his spirit root to be torn and caused his Actualization Quotient to plummet.
Ding Lingdang spoke with eyes filled with admiration, “I knew it when I saw your brainwave activity diagram. Even though you had fallen into a coma, you still continued to engage endlessly in close combat within your mental world! So I changed my plans. I decided to wait one more month. And sure enough, I waited it out. So how goes it? What’s the next step you’re planning to take? Are you still going to enter in this year entrance exams?”
“Of course!”
Li Yao responded instantly. He squeezed his hand lightly into a fist, making the veins on the back of his hand gradually come into view. They were like dragons hibernating within his body totally coming to!
Chapter 79: Sticking to His Dreams |
The large mass of food that he whale-swallowed entirely transformed into pure energy, endlessly nourishing Li Yao’s body. The energy caused every single dried up cell in his body to be filled once more with strength and shine with thriving vitality.
“I will be cultivating like mad for this next month. I will strive in recovering to my peak state. I will absolutely attend this year’s entrance exams with all my effort!”
Li Yao punched his fist out hard. A sound of silk tearing rang suddenly in the air. A faint white ripple swept outward starting from his fist, slowly undulating across.
This white ripple caused Ding Lingdang’s eyes to flash. “You’re confident that you can test into the Nine Elites?”
Li Yao was silent for a moment and he squeezed his fist tighter. “My spirit root has been torn. Only 7% of my Actualization Quotient is left. If I had a year’s worth of time, I’m confident I can restore my AQ to 70%. I may even be able to charge into the most powerful realm, 90% AQ and above! But one month of time is really too short. Honestly, I don’t have the confidence for an absolute victory.”
“However, even if I only have a 1% chance, I will use 100% of all my strength to strive for it… It would be good if I win, but losing is fine too. I will only know after I go for it with all my effort. Not giving it my all is the same as giving up — it’s not my style!”
“Great! I knew it then that you were destined to be a member of our Grand Desolate War Institution!”
Ding Lingdang did not conceal the hungry glow in her eyes at all. It looked as if she wanted to swallow Li Yao whole with a single bite.
Li Yao was stunned… Deep Sea University had given up on him. Crimson Nimbus Second also pressured him to quit school. He never thought that Ding Lingdang would represent Grand Desolate War Institution and still offer him an invitation!
Li Yao didn’t understand. “I only have 7% left of my Actualization Quotient. I’ve turned into a cripple under the vast majority of people’s eyes. Your Grand Desolate War Institution still supports me?”
Ding Lingdang looked straight at him while she spoke seriously, “I told you this when I first met you. There is a total of Nine Elite Universities in the Federation. Eight of them educate cultivators, as for our Grand Desolate War Institution… We only breed true warriors! This wasn’t an exaggeration, but is the basis upon which the Grand Desolate War Institution was founded on!”
Ding Lingdang sat her buttocks down next to Li Yao. She faced Li Yao and narrated the origins of the Grand Desolate War Institution.
Li Yao only knew then the massive difference between the Grand Desolate War Institution and the other eight Elite Universities.
Aside from the Federation’s First Military College, the other Elite Universities were created when the nation was first founded. Each and every Cultivator Guild united together to create these universities. The goal of these schools was to educate cultivators for the sake of creating new blood for the various Cultivator Guilds.
They walked the path of eliteness from the start, counting as the typical academic institutions.
The Federation’s First Military College also, more or less, had the same goal when they were established; their goal was to foster military cultivators.
Therefore, the cultivation potential of students was of high consideration by these eight universities. They looked especially at the Actualization Quotient; it was unacceptable if the AQ was even the least bit lacking.
However, the Grand Desolate War Institution was different. The Grand Desolate War Institution was located in the Demon Beast Wasteland. It was spontaneously established by unaffiliated cultivators and the martial civilians. It was completely unorthodox.
... There were over ten million square kilometers of land in the northern region of the Federation. Even though the environment was of the poorest of qualities with a sky filled with yellow sand and desert land everywhere, there was actually a rich abundance of resources and crystal mines stored underground. Countless adventurers came here within the past several hundred years with hopes of making a fortune. They settled here and multiplied.
Yet, this place was actually the region where Demon Beasts had wreaked the most havoc in the Heaven’s Origin Sector. There were many Demon Beasts, comparable to the Far East Demon Kingdom back in the day.
According to the speculation of many experts and scholars in the cultivator world, countless cracks of space exist in the depths of the Grand Desolate Region located in the extreme north of the Federation. These cracks allow passage to a Greater Thousand World controlled by the Demon Race… The Blood Demon Sector!
The Grand Desolate Region was precisely the border between the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector. The powerful Demon Beasts and Demon Race can come at any time through the cracks in space from the Blood Demon Sector, entering the Heaven’s Origin Sector in a steady stream.
The Grant Desolate Region became the Star Glory Federation’s front line for all eternity, engaging in the flames of war for several hundreds of years continually. It was known as The Demon Beast Wasteland!
Even though the Federal Army had stationed troops in the Grand Desolate Region, each of the major cultivator guilds also formed their own hunting squads to infiltrate the wasteland and purge evil. But the Grand Desolate Region spanned a distance of thousands of miles. In the end, there were several places that were unable to be covered by the army and the cultivator guilds.
The human race that lived in the Grand Desolate Region could encounter Demon Beasts at any given time. After several hundred years of cleansing, the remaining survivors were not lacking in bravery and had no fear of death! They were the strong who fought with bravery and fierceness!
; Natural selection. Survival of the fittest. By slaying several Demon Beasts in close combat, these powerful also turned into absolutely strong existences with ferocity on the level of Demon Beasts. Even ordinary people, who originally did not possess good talent, were able to ascend to become cultivators through experiencing several hundred bloody battles and luckily escaping death.
The powerful amassed together automatically for the sake of survival. They took their own close-combat experience and passed it on to those like them.
At first, there simply were just some unfixed and casual activities such as Martial Arts Exchange Conventions, Hunting Experience Lectures, etc. Everyone sat around and compared notes on their martial arts while roasting Demon Beast meat, exchanging their experiences.
It wasn’t until later for the organization known as the Grand Desolate War Institution to be formed. A portion of the people who faced Demon Beasts in close combat had received critical injuries. No longer suited for fighting the enemy, these powerful stayed in this organization and passed on their martial arts and combat experiences to the youngsters.
The number of powerful humans in the Grand Desolate Region grew larger and larger with the passing of several hundred years of development within the hundred year bloody battle with the Demon Beasts. Even quite a few high stage cultivators were able to emerge forth from the mountain of corpses and the blood filled sea. The actual strength and teaching standards of the Grand Desolate War Institution kept increasing. Finally, they rose to become one of the Nine Elites!
Although they were one of the Nine Elites, Grand Desolate War Institution continued to maintain its crudeness, barbarism, and their tradition in emphasizing actual combat. Their standards of selecting students were not quite the same as the other Eight Elites.
To become a cultivator, one needs to have their Actualization Quotient reach 100%; their spirit root must be awakened.
But it wasn’t necessary for things to be that complicated when becoming a warrior. Even if there was only 1% of an Actualization Quotient remaining, as long as one’s fist can still be clenched tight, as long as one’s heated blood can still boil, as long as one can still charge and attack without being affected by the howls of the opposing powerful Demon Beasts…… it was enough!