Chapter 348: Building Foundation!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
The fierce battle didn't come to an end until midnight. The burning city cast redness to the entire sky.
After the endeavors of the valiant Cultivators and the federal army, the downtown area which the demon clan occupied had been taken back. Many teleportation arrays had been destroyed.
However, the remaining demons were still resisting desperately in the business district where there were a lot of skyscrapers. The interconnected underground became a sea of demon beasts, too.
Li Yao kept fighting into the late night. It was not until an earthshaking boom echoed in the sky of the north, as if the space had been ripped open where melted lightning flowed out, that Li Yao retreated from the battleground after the protracted urges of the war mission system.
Later, he learnt more facts about the two experts fighting in the sky. The Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator was Luo Wunian, Honorary Chairman of Violet Glow Sect which was one of the top five sects in the federation, who was known as the best sword master of the entire federation; the demon emperor, on the other hand, was Ming Xinyi, who ranked eighth on the 'Deadliest Demons List'.
Both of them were first-rate experts in their respective worlds.
For experts at such a high level, they were usually hesitant to confront each other face-to-face.
Once they full activated their strength and fought in their ultimate forms, their strikes, such as the hundreds of attacks breaking the sonic barrier simultaneously not long ago, could be too draining both for their bodies and for their souls. They risked being seriously wounded by each other at the same time.
In the meantime, enemies might set up traps nearby and assault the hostile expert with strong demonic equipment or magical equipment when the expert in question was at the weakest moment when their soul may have entirely burnt up.
This was exactly the case of today's battle.
The fight of the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator versus the demon general had been a trap for Ming Xinyi in the first place.
The federal army deployed 19 Heaven Splitters out of Red Lotus City, as well as more than twenty pieces of the best magical equipment from various sects.
When the fight between Luo Wunian and Ming Xinyi reached the most intense moment, all the magical equipment was activated at the same time.
Although Ming Xinyi was not killed on the spot, it created a great opportunity for Luo Wunian, who slashed off the Gold Blood Demon Horn on Ming Xinyi's head and forced him to flee back to the Blood Demon Sector.
The earthshaking sound that Li Yao heard previously was the consequence of the salvo.
Although the demon emperor was seriously wounded, Luo Wunian's soul almost dried up because he stayed in the level of the Nascent Soul Stage for too long and triggered excessive telepathic thoughts. He wouldn't be able to return to the Nascent Soul Stage for a long time.
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.
It 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.