So-Called Cultivation Means Training Yourself to Death as Long as You Don't Actually Die

"Harder, harder! Haven't you eaten? Put your muscles into it, unleash your Soul Power! Who are you showing this weak posture to? The enemy?"

"Smack—"

"The people of Shrek have no human emotions, no human morality. They are bloodless, tearless evil ghosts. Any hint of weakness you reveal will become a fatal flaw!"

"Smack! Smack!—"

"Sweat more in training so you bleed less on the battlefield later. Bleed more in training so you shed fewer tears in the future!"

"Smack! Smack! Smack!—"

"Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack!—"

At the Dragon Elephant Sect's Training Ground, Chen Ming, wearing nothing but a pair of shorts, underwent intense training. Specially made Soul Tools had been attached to his body, releasing varying gravitational forces that crushed down on him. Several chains wrapped around his torso and limbs, while several Soul Sages in the distance exerted their strength at once, forcing him to constantly unleash his own power.

Chen Li, the Sect Master who had once seemed gentle and kindly before Chen Ming, now stood beside him in Martial Soul Possession. He held a Rank 7 Soul Tool Lightning Whip in his hand. Whenever Chen Ming did anything poorly or displeased him, a vicious lashing would land heavily across his body.

Beside the Training Ground, five or six Healing Soul Masters and more than ten Food System Soul Masters stood solemnly at the ready. Many of the Food System Soul Masters tightly gripped foods they had created, each possessing potent restorative effects, prepared to rush over the instant Chen Ming completely lost his strength and give him a full set of emergency treatment, inside and out, before sending him back into training.

If Chen Ming had still looked slightly round from his usual feasting and drinking two months ago, then the Chen Ming training in the Training Ground right now had absolutely nothing to do with the word "round."

Although he had not summoned his Martial Soul, Chen Ming's bronze-colored skin stretched over bulging slabs of muscle. He was not lean and stringy from a lack of fat, but every muscle across his body still protruded explosively from sustained exertion, as though they might burst through his skin at any moment.

His head, shaved clean for training, gleamed beneath the sun. His eyes were bloodshot from straining too hard, and the forced smile on his face had completely fallen apart, leaving him with an expression resembling some humanoid beast. Great beads of sweat poured from every part of his body, streamed down his skin, and gathered in the small puddles on the ground.

He continued resisting for another dozen seconds or so. Just as Chen Li saw that Chen Ming was about to be completely exhausted and prepared to call for everyone to stop while ordering the Medical Team to treat him immediately, Chen Ming, who had seemingly run out of strength, suddenly raised his head. His expression became incomparably savage and twisted. His muscles, already tightened to their limit, swelled another thirty percent as a roar that did not sound human erupted from his throat.

"Roar—"

Accompanied by a roar that sounded like neither dragon nor elephant, Chen Ming suddenly exerted himself. The iron chains around him were forcibly pulled even tighter, and he actually yanked another length of chain from the hands of several Soul Sages who had begun to slacken. He staggered several steps forward before collapsing with a smack, eyes still open, like a stone statue crashing to the ground.

"He broke through again? Medical Team!"

At Chen Li's roar, nearly twenty Soul Masters who had long been standing by immediately surrounded Chen Ming with practiced efficiency and activated their respective abilities.

"Healing Light!"

"Healing Spores!"

"Guardian Light!"

"Spicy Explosive Big Stick Meat! Juicy Honey Meat!"

"I Have a Glass of Wine, I Have a Glass of Pear Blossom Wine, I Have a Glass of Apricot Wine!"

The Healing Soul Masters cast all manner of soul skills on Chen Ming from head to toe. Those that stabilized physiological conditions stabilized his body, while those that healed psychological conditions healed his mind. More than ten Food System Soul Masters orderly fed Chen Ming the various foods produced by their soul skills.

Although he had already lost consciousness, Chen Ming still retained the ability to chew. His two rows of teeth were like grinders. In mere seconds, he gnawed through several giant bone-in chunks of meat that looked as though they had made a guest appearance from One Piece. Then cup after cup of Soul Power-created wine went down his throat, followed by a steady stream of buns, steamed bread, fruit, and other foods.

Within a Quarter Hour, Chen Ming, whose aura had initially been weak, was forcibly dragged back to peak condition. Before the aftereffects of his forced eruption could even figure out what they were supposed to do, they had been completely offset by massive amounts of Soul Power and soul skills. The weakness caused by his training was instantly filled away.

Chen Ming slowly opened his eyes and saw the professional stretcher team. Having been trained until he fainted and then revived too many times, he could no longer be bothered to care about things like his current posture. He merely clenched his fist quietly and felt the power within his body.

During this period, even Chen Ming himself could not be bothered to count how many resources he had consumed.

Just among the things he remembered, there was a small portion of Whale Rubber every night, medicinal soup brewed from all kinds of herbs, medicinal baths and Medicinal Cuisine three times a day, and body oil made primarily from merfolk oil, supplemented with various Soul Beast fats and medicinal herbs, applied every afternoon. As for all the minor expenses, Chen Ming could not even be bothered to calculate them.

Chen Ming had consumed three Mysterious Water Pills alone, one of Douluo Continent's famous medicines. The sect's explanation was that they were meant to nourish his body.

He had also consumed quite a few pills and potions from the Sun Moon Empire, all of them its most precious Treasure Herbs—the kind that could make up for congenital deficiencies and had almost no side effects.

Other than leaving virtually no side effects, many of these items actually had only average effects on improving one's various attributes. They were utterly not worth their exorbitant prices. Because they were so impractical, only the Imperial Family and a very small number of great nobles would selectively use them...

Yet with the Dragon Elephant Sect supporting him regardless of cost, Chen Ming had swallowed an unknown quantity of these ultimate products of technology.

Chen Ming only remembered that about half a month ago, the sect had received a batch of top-grade Treasure Herbs that the Great Elder had obtained from the Imperial Family through his connections and the Dragon Elephant Sect's reputation. He had no idea how much of it had entered his stomach by now.

Two months! Apart from the first few days, when the training intensity had been lower as they assessed his limits, every remaining day had been training him to death!

While he slept, Spirit System Soul Masters guided him into deep sleep, allowing him to recover fully in just an hour and a half. His former four meals a day had become six meals a day, plus three servings of Medicinal Cuisine and countless foods created by Food System Soul Masters' soul skills. Though they tasted good, he ate so much that eating itself had become a form of torture.

Out of twelve hours, an hour and a half went to sleep, three hours went to eating, taking medicine, medicinal baths, using the toilet, and similar matters, while the remaining seven and a half hours were spent in frenzied training...

Cultivating Soul Power, training his body, combat training, resistance training, studying Soul Master knowledge, studying Soul Beast knowledge, studying Soul Tool knowledge, and becoming proficient with Soul Tools...

The moment he showed any inclination to give up or repeated a mistake he had made before, the ordinarily benevolent Sect Master would whip him with the special Rank 7 Soul Tool Lightning Whip that the Great Elder had forged overnight, correcting him over and over on exactly where the problem lay.

If Chen Ming had not possessed such outstanding natural qualities, and if not for the nearly unlimited resources and professional stretcher team prepared by the Dragon Elephant Sect, an ordinary Soul Master training like this would probably have died fifty or sixty times over in two months.

After two months of training, Chen Ming finally understood why the Sect Master and Great Elder had said he should not immediately go hunt Soul Rings. That would have been a waste.

In two months, stimulated by all manner of medicine and training, he had grown twenty centimeters taller and gained eighty jin. Chen Ming now felt that with a single punch, he could knock his former self, who had only awakened his Martial Soul two months ago, completely senseless. During combat training, he directly sparred against Soul Grand Masters above level twenty-five, the kind who were using soul skills.

Just as Chen Ming was still wondering how much longer this hellish training would continue, the Great Elder, whom he had not seen for several days, came over to Sect Master Chen Li and whispered something quietly into his ear.