Translator: Ash Editor: Geoffrey_
All the comments were accompanied by telepathic thoughts; they were all videos of several young, energetic cultivators cultivating the <Five Tiger Examining Heart Technique> in high spirits. At first glance, all of them succeeded a little, as their entire body was surrounded by resplendent and colorful streams of light, causing everyone who watched their videos to have their hearts swayed.
“These people are all disciples of the Five Tiger Clan and have all been tasked to do this, so don’t be fooled. Of course, if you want to join the Five Tiger Clan, then that is another matter,” the cultivator’s assistant said.
Li Yao immediately shook his head while he shouted in his heart, “That was close!”
If the cultivator’s assistant hadn’t reminded him, plainly looking at such an enticing download page, he might have given it a try—that would have been truly depressing.
“Even though I always warn every cultivator when they have first entered, there would still be some who could not endure and would be fooled one after another. I also can’t do anything, as human greed is too easy to conquer. All I can do is warn them.”
The cultivator’s assistant continued:
“You are a student of the Grand Desolate War Institution. Once you arrive there, naturally, you will be taught high-grade breathing exercises. For now, I can give you a set of breathing exercise known as the <Endless Cosmos>, which is given as a gift by the Federation government.”
“At the beginning when the federation was just established, over a hundred cultivators jointly developed this basic breathing exercise based on a set of ancient cultivators’ incomplete texts. This exercise set is inefficient in absorbing spiritual energy and the cultivation speed is very slow; however, it wins in its serenity and gentleness. You will absolutely not have any Qigong deviation, and moreover, it is very simple, making it easy to master!”
“And its biggest advantage is—it has very strong compatibility! It is perfectly compatible with all the breathing exercises and utilization exercises in the federation. Even if you have practiced a few stages, you can still easily switch to a higher ranked breathing exercise.”
The cultivator’s assistant waved her hand as a tremendous amount of telepathic thoughts filled with data was transmitted into Li Yao’s brain.
Just as it was described, the <Endless Cosmos> was pretty simple. It didn’t have many levels, spanned just over three stages, and was very easy to master; it was the basics of the basics.
Li Yao had already assimilated a pretty large part of Ou Yezi’s memories; he already had a little bit of understanding of some of the basic cultivator exercises.
Even if he had not personally practiced it, he had seen the other ancient cultivators demonstrating it in the dreams.
With a little thought, he tried to grasp the abstruse principles of <Endless Cosmos>.
“The abstruse principles of this basic breathing exercise provided by the federation government, sure enough, is great!”
“It can actually simulate the beginning of the universe—the big bang, the world when the cosmos was still devoid of heavenly bodies!”
“So mysterious! So wonderful! I really want to immediately give it a try!”
Li Yao was struck by a thought. He once again thought of the battlefield that was bathing in demonic energy.
He simply could not control himself anymore. He asked the cultivator’s assistant to remember their progress and quickly logged out of the Federation Cultivators’ Nexus.
“Little Black, let’s go!”
Stuffing the Black Wing Sword in his backpack, Li Yao stuck his head out of the tent and stealthily looked around for a while. Only after having found that no one was there did he slowly and silently walk out of the tent.
Apparently, security wasn’t that tight. There were over a thousand passengers on the train who needed to be carefully inspected to check whether there was any demon clan aura remaining, and as such, all the soldiers and cultivators were too busy and could only do so much.
Li Yao had been inspected 17-18 times already and was determined to be a 100% pure human, so naturally, no one was going to pay too much attention to him.
On top of that, Li Yao’s identity was different; not only was he a 1st Class Federation Disabled Serviceman, he had also repaired the Taiyi Lightning Railgun amidst the battle, not to mention that he was also a newly advanced cultivator as well as a student of the Grand Desolate War Institution.
Each of his identity, no matter whichever it was would absolutely instill assurance into anyone.
Therefore, even though a few soldiers had found him walking around the platform, they did not care much. They all just thought that he was walking around to relieve his boredom.
Every cultivator who had just advanced would have a few quirks. Some even had a variety of strange ways to cultivate, which they would practice at the most crucial moment of their breakthrough.
As long as it was not against the law, generally speaking, no one would interfere with a cultivator.
“Little Black, let’s go!”
Li Yao took out the Black Wing Sword from his backpack and let it float in the air.
Staggeringly climbing up, he cautiously stood on the flying sword as he spread out both hands to maintain his balance.
In the past, he was just an ordinary person. He would ride the Black Wing Sword as if he was riding a broom, with both legs tightly clamped together and his hands tightly hugging the sword. It was extremely unbearable and simply could not be counted as “riding a flying sword”—it was more like “horse riding the sword”, “clasping the sword”, or even “embracing the sword”!
Now that he had successfully become a cultivator, he was naturally going to try riding the sword and roam everywhere in a free and unrestrained manner. It was only because of this that cultivating was worthwhile.
The four invisible spirit threads once again stretched out from Li Yao forehead and wound around the Black Wing Sword round after round. Li Yao suddenly felt that he had become one with the sword, as if his blood vessels and meridians had fused with the sword.
“Little Black, full speed ahead!”
Li Yao’s chest was brimming with lofty ambition and soaring determination. He looked up to the sky and gave a long howl, “Roooooaaaar, I’m the king of the world!”
The Black Wing Sword slightly shook as waves of spiritual brilliance flashed over its blade.
In the past, Li Yao could only guess from its actions, but now, he could vaguely feel its “emotions” that seemed to say:
“Go at full speed? Are you sure?”
“Of course!” Li Yao replied with confidence.
The tip of the Black Wing Sword’s sheath shook a little, seemingly as if it was helplessly saying, “Alright!”
Then—
From underneath Li Yao’s feet came a deafening howl. It was as if someone had ruthlessly punched him in the face, causing his entire body to fall backwards.
Much to Li Yao’s surprise, the Black Wing Sword soared to the limit in the blink of an eye, reaching a speed that was close to the speed of sound!
“This is simply crazy!” Li Yao screamed.
He almost fell off the Black Wing Sword. How could he still dare to stand on the sword and maintain the aloof and unrestrained posture of “riding the sword”? Just like in the past, he had his legs obediently clasped around the sword and the arms around the hilt, maintaining the posture of “riding the broom” once again. Even then, he could barely stabilize himself!
“Little Black, you are actually ten times faster than in the past! So you were just adapting to me before!” Li Yao shouted.
Black Wing Sword lightly shivered as it flew at a high-speed, and its scabbard moved up and down, seemingly as if it was coldly snorting, “What do you think?”
“Cool! It is too cool!”
After half a minute, Li Yao barely adapted to flying at a subsonic speed. The feeling of splitting through the wind was simply incomparable, feeling thrilled as adrenaline shot through him.
Whoosh! Whoooossh!
Whoooooooosssssssh!
The Black Wing Sword, upon noticing that he had gradually adapted, once again increased its speed by a level. Moreover, it also did various kinds of maneuvers in the air, like accelerating, deaccelerating, suddenly stopping and accelerating, 360-degree rolls, vertical ascents, nose-dives, suddenly stopping… Each maneuver that could dumbfound even a Golden Core Stage cultivator was done by the Black Wing Sword.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!”
At the beginning, Li Yao could barely keep up with the rhythm of the Black Wing Sword, and later, he could do nothing but scream.
When the Black Wind Sword carried out the supersonic maneuvers, a tremendous centrifugal force acted upon him, so much that he suspected that he was going to fall off. However, an unusual suction force appeared from the Black Wind Sword under his feet, causing him to be firmly stuck on the sword!
“Stop, quickly stop!”
Li Yao’s desolate scream was covered by the howls of the wind. God knows whether the Black Wing Sword had heard it or not.
However, even if it had heard it, it would perhaps have turned a deaf ear.
For the next five minutes, Li Yao experienced the most thrilling ride of his life. Whether it was flying at the speed of sound in one second or staying strangely still for the next, or whether the Black Wing Sword carried him to the upper reaches of the atmosphere in just half minute, almost entering the endless space, everything made this the most thrilling ride of his life.
During the last ten seconds, he, from ten thousand meters high in the sky, continuously rolled 360-degree along its longitudinal axis and made a nose-dive towards the ground. A human and a sword, like a high-speed drill, dove towards the ground. It was only when they were just a few meters away from the ground did the Black Wing Sword come to an abrupt stop and began charging horizontally forward as swiftly as lightning. Li Yao’s toes had almost plowed two deep trenches into the ground!
“Blurgh!”
When the Black Wing Sword finally came to a stop, Li Yao’s complexion was already as pale as a corpse that had been dead for three days. Holding his stomach, he emptied the contents of his stomach.
In contrast, the Black Wing Sword danced around him in excitement as it constantly circled around Li Yao, seemingly saying, “I have not flown like this for a long time!”
Finally, when it came to a stop in front of Li Yao, its scabbard rubbed around its edges, making “Squeak Squeak” noises like mocking laughters. It seemed to be saying, “Vomiting just like that?! You’re so weak!”
“Was… was your previous owner a Golden Core cultivator?” He weakly asked as tears trickled down from the corner of his eyes because of the vomiting.
The Black Wing Sword proudly shook its sword tip.
God knows how, but Li Yao immediately understood what it was saying.
“Golden Core? How can a mere Golden Core cultivator be my master?”
“…I really want to become a Master Refiner as quickly as possible so that I could take out your master crystal chip and check what your control crystal chip is like. Only then would I know how such a twisted magical equipment was created!” Li Yao said to himself.
The Black Wing Sword suddenly emitted a dangerous red aura.
“I mean to say—I really want to become a Master Refiner as quickly as possible so that I could open your outer shell and perform maintenance as well as help you upgrade!” Li Yao hastily added.
The Black Wing Sword made a “Squeak” sound, stating its satisfaction before floating in the air lazily and letting the breeze push it as it drifted around the Wasteland.
Li Yao gasped for air for a while as his crazily pounding heart turned calm. Li Yao straightened up his waist with difficulty before checking the surroundings.
Much to his surprise, he found himself already in the outer ring of the demon beast battlefield.
“Wow! In just ten minutes, we are already here. It’s ten times faster than the military shuttle! You are so powerful!”
Li Yao was secretly scared but was even more so at ease.
With the Black Wing Sword, before the others could discover his absence, he would have already returned to the station unbeknownst to anyone.
As he looked around, he could find nothing but a lonely and desolate desert. Aside from a crystal rail line which extended to the horizons, there wasn’t a single trace of human civilization; it was as if he was in a primitive era.
Corpses of demon beasts that were constantly releasing demonic energy were spread everywhere; it was as if an invisible force field had covered a radius of a few dozen kilometers. The air here was very sticky as well as a little stifling.
The demonic energy was strongly infectious. If someone stayed here for a long time, he would lose his sanity and would become a monster who only knew how to kill.
Even if it was a low-level cultivator, without purifying the demonic energy, he would have his meridians blocked and his spiritual energy polluted, which would eventually lead to Qigong deviation. And in the worst case scenario, he would fall onto the demonic path.
Unless it was necessary, like the soul search squad who were forced to enter such places that were flooded with demonic energy to search for residual souls, ordinary people and low-level cultivators were all reluctant to even approach such an area.
Because of this reason, there was no federation army guarding the area and neither were there any cultivators patrolling. There were only warning signs placed in the surroundings. Also, in the outer ring, a restrictive barrier was placed around it for the ordinary people.
This restrictive barrier was specially designed to block ordinary people from entering the area filled with demonic energy.
For cultivators like Li Yao that could ride the sword, of course, it didn’t have an iota of an effect.
“According to Professor Ding, tomorrow, some cultivators that specially purify demonic energy would bring special magical equipment to ”purify’ this area. For now, as there is no one here, this place is the best place for me to cultivate—it’s just the right place for me to have a meal!”