by <unknown>
The two parties engaged in the war both lost an elite warrior. But the brutality of the war was not the least undermined. On the contrary, it got crueler and crueler.
In the coming seven days, together with many other Cultivators and the federal army, Li Yao fought street by street and alley by alley in Red Lotus City. He even charged into the underground with a batch of Building Foundation Stage Cultivators with the help of his excellent crystal suit.
As days went by, Li Yao's battle credits soared. His name rose to fame after furious battles.
Not only did the federal army and other Cultivators learn of the existence of such a fearless Cultivator who was at the peak of the Refinement Stage, many demons also knew that there was a different Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit which could release spiritual gas in the shape of wings with a bright gold color and was far better than common MP crystal suits.
After days and nights of walking between life and death and meditating after bloody combats, Li Yao felt that, like a seed which had been buried under the ground for a long time, his spiritual root was ascending and would break out of the soil at any moment.
In the morning ten days later, when he woke up from a ditch in the city ruins and saw the morning star eclipsing and the red sun rising up slowly over the shambles, an irresistible desire suddenly burst out in his heart.
It was a moment of eureka.
He knew that the time to enter the Building Foundation Stage had come!
Through the war mission system, Li Yao sent an application to the command center.
Soon, he received a reply from the command center. After handing his position over to a Cultivator from Star Nebula University, Li Yao left Red Lotus City and reached the military base fifty kilometers away on a carrier.
The most important facility in the military base, other than the command center and the Spiritual Beacons, would be the training rooms specially for soldiers and Cultivators.
A war was always the best time to improve the strength for the warriors.
A breakthrough that did not happen after five years of Cultivation in peacetime may be achieved within several seconds after seeing one's close comrades being slain by hideously-grinning demons right in front of oneself in a bloody fight.
In a battleground full of demonic fog, spiritual gas, venomous liquids, acids, explosions, and blasts, countless people may die. But there were always a few lucky dogs whose bodies mutated and whose Actualization Quotient erupted, allowing them to smash the shackles they'd been born with and embark on the path of Cultivation!
The hundred independent training rooms were prepared for the people who were in the middle of a breakthrough or foresaw that they were going to have one.
According to the strength and the battle credits of the applicant, training rooms of different specifications would be allocated to them.
The battle credits that Li Yao earned over the past ten days were enough for him to redeem an advanced training room with the most extravagant amenities.
Then, he redeemed a perfect plan for Building Foundation with the battle credits he had left.
When the Cultivators in the ancient times were breaking into the Building Foundation Stage, the only assistance they could get was the crude Building Foundation Pills which contained a lot of impurities. Then, they often sat and meditated in empty caves. Therefore, their success rate was very poor. No higher than 5% of them could enter the Building Foundation Stage the first time they tried.
Honestly speaking, those Cultivators were just lucky.
To make things worse, the body of the Cultivator would acquire resistance if they failed the first time. It would be tricky for them to enter the Building Foundation Stage ever again.
In the modern Cultivation world, the mechanism and process of Building Foundation had been thoroughly studied. Many effective plans for Building Foundation had been developed, which were safe, fast, and utterly devoid of side-effects. Today you entered the Building Foundation Stage, tomorrow you would be able to continue fighting. The success rate of one-time Building Foundation had been brought up by more than five times.
Even if you were unlucky and failed at the first try, the plans could be trimmed and adjusted for your next try when you were ready after resting for some time.
The perfect plan for Building Foundation that Li Yao picked could definitely help him break into the Building Foundation Stage perfectly!
"Mr. Li Yao, we look forward to seeing you at the Building Foundation Stage and thus becoming one of the youngest Building Foundation Stage Cultivators in the Star Glory Federation!" The security officer of the training rooms said to him earnestly.
Li Yao smiled. He nodded at the officer softly as acknowledgment. Then he strode into the training room.
He wanted to succeed in one try, too.
If he were to fail this time, he would have to wait for at least one month before his next try. By then, the eureka and eagerness that he had right now might be gone.
The training room had a round space of around five square kilometers. The ivory walls enclosing the room was full of holes. A control light beam was floating in the air.
Li Yao typed softly and set the plan for Building Foundation. His heart and soul calmed down gradually, as he muttered to himself, "Now begins Building Foundation!"
"Chi!"
A huge amount of greenish gas spurted out from the holes on the walls and spread in the air.
Within a moment, the entire room was filled with the bright green mist, which had a vaguely sweet smell that seemed to come from a grassland which had just been nurtured by rain.
This was the drug for Building Foundation.
In the ancient Cultivation world, this drug was always made into Building Foundation Pills which would be absorbed by swallowing.
The absorption rate of the human's gastrointestinal system was not very efficient. For all the useful ingredients in a Building Foundation Pill, no higher than 30% could be absorbed by the human body. The rest of the precious nutrition was all wasted.
Things were entirely different in the modern Cultivation world. The Building Foundation drug was completely pulverized before it was penetrated into the Cultivator's skin by high-pressure. That way, it could stimulate the Cultivator's flesh, bones, blood, veins, and nerves directly. The absorption efficiency was close to one hundred percent.
Li Yao immediately felt the changes inside his body where thousands of icy threads seemed to be extending, weaving, and spreading.
"BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!"
Soul-stirring drumming began.
It was 'Breaking the Enemy's Formation', a battle hymn composed by a culture-type Cultivator in the Core Formation Stage five hundred years ago, which had the ability to motivate the fighting will of the listeners.
Countless Cultivators and soldiers of the federal army had been trampling beast tides and protecting their homeland with their battle sabers and flying swords held high under the encouragement of 'Breaking the Enemy's Formation'.
Right now, 'Breaking the Enemy's Formation' was a military song for the federal army. Someone even suggested that it should be the national anthem for the Star Glory Federation.
For Cultivators, 'Breaking the Enemy's Formation' had another amazing ability.
Since generations of human beings had been charging at the enemy line cheered up by 'Breaking the Enemy's Formation', its calling had melted into their genes after hundreds of years, which endowed the song with an unbelievable ability that it could significantly improve the odds of success of Building Foundation.
According to the calculation of experts, when Building Foundation under the encouragement of 'Breaking the Enemy's Formation', the success rate could be improved by 5% to 8%!
The very 'Breaking the Enemy's Formation' that Li Yao was listening to at present had been played by a large choir made of more than 300 culture-type Cultivators from 'Magical Melody Temple', one of the best cultural sects in the federation, who were adept at music.
I
t was not a recording, but a replay of the concert including the emotion, sweat, and thoughts on the spot which had been sealed by special barriers close to the choir.
Now that they were released, Li Yao seemed to be back to the time when it was first played. The effects that it triggered were certainly much stronger than an ordinary recording would.
The drumbeat sounded like the parade of an iron army. Noises of swords and sabers clashing against each other and the explosions of spiritual energy echoed nonstop. An invisible battleground rose up slowly around Li Yao, who was able to envision a bloodshed battle and even felt the weapons brushing past his skin.
'Breaking the Enemy's Formation' had no lyrics, nor did it need any. The roars of men, women, the young, and the old were already the most powerful stanzas.
Every drum, every roar, and every clash between swords and bones were bombarding Li Yao's heart like a Taiyi Lightning Railgun.
Prompted by the Building Foundation drug and 'Breaking the Enemy's Formation', Li Yao's spiritual root was stirring.
Thousands of tentacles seemed to have extended out of his spiritual root and spread to the depths of his brain as well as all his other body parts, forming a third network besides veins and nerves.
"Shua! Shua! Shua!"
A circular light beam appeared in the training room, where nine paintings were displayed.
The paintings were in dissimilar styles. The scenes and figures in them were different, too.
The one thing in common, though, was that all the paintings contained extremely immense spiritual waves.
This set of paintings was named 'Meditations on Building Foundation', which had been created by nine of the best culture-type Cultivators in the federation with 'Building Foundation' as the theme, including their experience, understanding and reflection about the topic.
Chapter 349: Breakthrough and Harvest! |
In one of the paintings was depicted a mountain piercing the sky which was surrounded by strong wind. It ripped open the sky like an unparalleled sharp saber, where a sea of stars flowed out and formed a giant eye.
In another painting, a boundless desert was presented. A dust storm was sweeping across it. But a small figure was above the sand fighting the heaven and the earth until they breathed their last breath.
Several other paintings also included bloody battlegrounds, misty mountains, and bottomless valleys.
Two of the paintings were full of brilliant colors and shadows, as if the painter had knocked off the ink bottle during the creation. There was no telling what was on the paintings at all.
All the paintings stored immense soul power. After a quick look, Li Yao had been deep attracted to them, which were absorbing his soul like nine swirls.
For a moment, he was on a high mountain, climbing up to the infinite sea of stars against the raging wind.
In the next moment, he was in the depths of a desert. Billions of tons of sand were savaging his head. He gritted his teeth and fought it desperately with his body tightened.
Then, he appeared in a small bamboo boat on a limpid stream which was flowing between mountains, while his soul melted with the lovely nature contentedly and comfortably, all his lusts gone.
He even found himself in the two paintings of brilliant colors, where he was observing the mystery of all mysteries in absolute tranquility without entity.
However…
The painting that he stared at for the longest was the ninth one.
Completely different from the previous eight paintings, it was a scene of an ordinary, commonly-seen vegetable market with the most exquisite details.
A vegetable market with noises, ditches, and crowds, where cabbages, onions, fish, ribs, and beef were sold.
Li Yao's soul entered the painting. He smelt the freshness of cabbages, the sweetness of fruits, and the intense scent from fish; he heard bargaining and bickering, pounding when meat was being chopped off, and laughter from the chitchatting neighbors; he saw beaming, satisfied faces everywhere.
Li Yao had no idea why the understanding on 'Building Foundation' of this painter was a random vegetable market. However, he did feel that the painting was resonating with something in his mind vaguely.
The painting dimmed. The smiling faces of the people changed to ones that had been blackened by smoke and burned by fire, which belonged to the soldiers who had been fighting side by side with him over the past ten days.
Among them, there were veterans who had been on active service for more than ten years; there were rookies who'd enlisted half a year ago and had just finished the basic training and didn't know the first thing about a war.
There were Core Formation Stage Cultivators who could blow up a skyscraper casually; there were also Cultivators at the beginning phase of the Refinement Stage whose spiritual root had awakened not long ago addressing him respectfully as 'Senior Brother'.
All the faces, including those of the ordinary people, soldiers and Cultivators, blended together, as they squinted and curled their lips. Their pure white teeth glared, and they beamed with the brightest smile in the world.
"LUM DUM! LUM DUM! LUM DUM!"
Li Yao's heart was beating faster and faster. The circulation of his blood was ten times rapider than before!
Driven by something mysterious, his spiritual root started beating like his second heart!
Absorption! Absorption! All his spiritual gas was swallowed by his spiritual root, without anything being left.
"Ahhhhhh!"
Li Yao's eyes bulged. Two streams of blood dripped down from the corners of his eyes, as his spiritual root continued expanding until it occupied his entire brain.
Invisible spiritual tentacles slowly tangled his nerves and his veins, integrating with his body and forming an inseparable network.
"CRACK!"
When he couldn't bear it any longer and thought his skull was going to be pierced through by his spiritual root, lightning suddenly struck inside his brain, before his spiritual root started constricting violently. All the spiritual gas contained inside the spiritual root was condensed into liquid state and, through invisible spiritual tentacles, reached all his limbs and internal organs like an elixir.
Thousands of rivers seemed to be raging inside his body and crushing all his nerves and cells to pieces.
Yet, the infinite vitality buried deep inside the rivers reconstructed his broken cells and nerves and made them stronger and more vibrant than before.
The nine paintings of 'Meditations on Building Foundation' blinked one by one in front of his face. 'Breaking the Enemy's Formation' was played and replayed, attacking his internal organs through his ears. More than twenty years of memories flushed into his brain and created a coruscating skyscraper three-dimensionally.
Every cluster of nerve endings had been stuffed by the rivers of spiritual liquid. Li Yao floated in the air and cramped, his arms and legs all stretching out. Cracking noises were echoing inside his bones, while surging tides were crushing the seashore of his veins. The rhythm of his heartbeat and the palpitation of his spiritual root finally resonated and produced a unique, powerful note!
A long time passed.
"Hoooo…"
Li Yao woke up from the amazing, extraordinary scenes inside of his body and found himself lying on the ground exhausted. His limbs were as dry and thin as wood. Lackluster mud was everywhere on his skin, which was the waste of the metabolic process just now.
He had been reborn and made a great leap forward in the path of Cultivation.
By his perception, more than one year had passed. But looking at the spiritual clock on the wall, it was only half an hour after he had first entered the training room.
"I made it!
"The spiritual gas inside my body has all been transformed to liquid state, which is circulating in the newly formed spiritual arteries slowly. My spiritual root has evolved, too. It can transform spiritual gas into spiritual liquid continuously now!"
Li Yao wanted to smile, but he d
idn't even have the strength to curl his lips.
"Zi! Zi!"
From the holes on the walls of the training room, deep blue thick liquid flowed out, which was the super nutrition liquids specially prepared for Cultivators who had just entered the Building Foundation Stage.
After a moment, Li Yao was drowned inside the deep-blue nutrition liquids. He opened all his pores and started devouring spiritual energy crazily as if he had been starved for years.
Centered around him, a swirl was revolving slowly inside the training room.
While he was refilling his spiritual energy, Li Yao's soul flew to the depths of his brain to the tree of memory of Ou Yezi.
As he expected!
After he entered the Building Foundation Stage, Ou Yezi's tree of memory had been further unlocked.
The crown of the tree of memory was glitteringly gold, illuminating his brain in a dazzling glamour.
"The huge number of memories after Ou Yezi entered the Building Foundation Stage can be absorbed by me now!"
Li Yao was more than excited.
Back in the Hundred Smelting Clan 40,000 years ago, a lot of events had taken place during the dozens of years when Ou Yezi was at the Building Foundation Stage.
Firstly, Ou Yezi was qualified to enter the second level of the Heavenly Refining Tower where he would study more advanced secret arts on refining.
Secondly, demonic Cultivators invaded and caused bloody wars. Ou Yezi upgraded the 108 Hands Chaos Gale Hammer Technique to 189 moves, which worked out effectively on the battleground allowing him to punch 24 demonic Cultivators at the Building Foundation Stage into pieces at the same time.
Thirdly, Ou Yezi was recruited by Daoist Yu Chang, an Elder of the Hundred Smelting Clan, as his student and became one of the core disciples of the Hundred Smelting Clan.
It was a piece of memory when Ou Yezi first got in touch with the vital secret arts of the Hundred Smelting Clan.
Now, they were all Li Yao's and ready to be absorbed by Li Yao at his will.