Five minutes later.
Jiang Liu finally confirmed a fact.
He was just a fake European. Wearing the skin of one didn't change the fact that he had the luck of a non-European.
Forget it.
Two purples in ninety pulls. Maybe that was just the normal odds?
Jiang Liu was in a good frame of mind. He wasn't anxious or angry; his heart was as calm as still water.
Spending ten thousand Spirit Stones to get two purples felt very different from spending ten Spirit Stones to get two purples.
In the Cultivation Era, no matter how unlucky he got, he still came out ahead. There was no reason to get angry.
This time, he hadn't pulled the guaranteed Supreme Spiritual Root, not because he was out of Spirit Stones, but because the timing was wrong.
The event was underway. If the Supreme Spiritual Root he pulled came with a side effect, that would be a disaster.
Su Weiyang's Supreme Fire Spiritual Root had startled him, too. Her whole body burned with flames that never went out, and no one could say for sure whether that would affect the upcoming event.
The Supreme Water Spiritual Root had a side effect, while the Supreme Gold Spirit Root didn't. He didn't want to gamble on the odds of a Supreme Spiritual Root having side effects, so he decided to hold off on pulling one for now.
After all, Supreme Spiritual Roots would have almost no effect on the parkour event. They were less useful than adding another magical artifact.
Jiang Liu opened his inventory and looked at the two new Law-tier items.
One was a glittering golden book, the other a black rope.
Had a gold-element spell appeared?
Jiang Liu brightened and tapped on the book first.
[Thousand Hammer Golden Body]: Mid-grade Law-tier, gold-element passive body cultivation art. Forge a golden body under the weight of a thousand hammers (0/1000).
[Note]: When [Hundred Refinements Fire Body] is also owned, both body cultivation arts will be upgraded to high-grade.
"Good grief! A body cultivation art!"
Jiang Liu drew in a sharp breath, utterly stunned.
A body cultivation art! Amazing!
Another way to spend money had just been revealed. He wanted to see how many money sinks the Cultivation Era had hidden!
"The weight of a thousand hammers... Why does that sound ominous?"
Jiang Liu studied the description for a few seconds, then learned the art.
Whatever the thousand hammer blows involved, he'd be cultivating in the game and Synchronization would transfer the results to reality. The whole process would be painless.
After learning Thousand Hammer Golden Body, Jiang Liu looked at the other magical artifact.
[Law Restraint Rope]: Mid-grade magical artifact. Activated with spiritual energy, it can restrict the movement of anyone whose cultivation is lower than the user's. Only usable on Qi Refining Stage cultivators.
Hmm?
When Jiang Liu saw the Law Restraint Rope, he froze for a moment. A thought involuntarily came to mind.
Could he use this thing during the parkour event?
If so, could he use the Body Restraint Ring, too?
If the parkour event allowed players to interfere with one another, these two magical artifacts could really shine.
It was worth a try. In the second round, anyone who dared to get ahead of him would have to answer to his rope and iron ring.
Jiang Liu thought to himself. Too bad the Body Restraint Ring and the Law Restraint Rope shared an equipment slot. He couldn't use them both at once; he'd have to equip one, then switch to the other, adding an extra step.
Equipment slots were fixed in every game, and the Cultivation Era was no exception. If there were no limits on equipment slots, a Qi Refining Stage cultivator wearing thousands of magical artifacts could take on a Golden Core cultivator.
That was how things worked in the game, but reality didn't have so many restrictions. He could wear the Body Restraint Ring on his left hand and hold the Law Restraint Rope in his right. He could cover himself in magical artifacts for all anyone cared.
Jiang Liu was still a little disappointed with this purchase. He didn't even know if the Law Restraint Rope would work, and Thousand Hammer Golden Body wouldn't be of any use until he'd trained it.
With the parkour event underway, he wanted movement and footwork techniques more than a body cultivation art.
Thousand Hammer Golden Body was nothing but extra work for him.
The second round began in a day. What was he supposed to do until then?
Train Thousand Hammer Golden Body, of course.
Jiang Liu closed his inventory and looked at the skill bar. The icon for Thousand Hammer Golden Body was gray and flashing faintly, as if urging him to hurry up.
He tapped it, and a prompt appeared in the center of the game screen.
[Enter the training room to cultivate Thousand Hammer Golden Body?]
[Yes.]
The instant he clicked Yes, an interface popped up from nowhere. Its background showed a wooden room, where his paper-doll character sat cross-legged on the floor, bare-chested.
At the top of the interface were three rooms: [Free Training], [Paid Training], and [VIP Training].
[Free Training]: Training speed increased by 10%.
[Paid Training]: 5 Spirit Stones per hour. Training speed increased by 50%.
[VIP Training]: Unlocks at VIP 2.
Jiang Liu: "..."
The usual money-grubbing game routine. Nothing to say about that.
Jiang Liu went straight into the Paid Training room.
[Begin cultivating Thousand Hammer Golden Body. Enable 'Immersive Experience'?]
He thought about it, then chose to enable it.
Watching a paper doll train wasn't immersive at all. He might as well experience it himself. The whole process would be painless anyway.
His perspective shifted.
He went from outside the screen to inside it.
Jiang Liu sat cross-legged in the training room, bare-chested. A countdown appeared before him.
"Where's the hammer?"
He looked around with a relaxed expression. The empty training room held nothing but him.
The next second,
a rush of wind sounded by his ear, as if something invisible were hurtling toward him. Before he could react, pain struck his chest. His flesh and bones caved inward by three inches, and his upright torso snapped backward.
Jiang Liu: "?????"
Jiang Liu: "!!!!!"
It hurt!
It hurt so much!
His chest bones were broken!
He heard the crack of breaking bones with perfect clarity. The agony in his chest left him gasping for breath; his face turned white, and a thin sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead.
The training room... had pain?!
Jiang Liu was completely dumbfounded. Agony flooded his brain, numbing his nerves. The next hammer blow came right after, slamming into his right shoulder.
Crack!
That finally brought him back to his senses.
"Holy crap! Get me out! Out, out, out!"
Two hammer blows had given Jiang Liu an Immersive Experience. He stared at the training room in terror, his face full of lingering fear.
He'd never been beaten up in his life. Those two blows had genuinely scared him.
"What the hell is this? They even torture you in a game—"
The bone-deep pain still echoed in his mind. He opened his mouth to curse, but swallowed the rest of his words.
What did he mean, a game?
This was cultivation!
He'd had painless training and painless combat. Did he expect training to be painless, too?
Then what was the point of cultivating? They might as well send him straight to full completion and let him ascend.
"Damn it, every time I think this is just a game, it comes along and hammers me."
Jiang Liu sighed and scratched his head, looking conflicted.
Could he train without pain?
Sure. He could let the paper doll do it.
And then what?
Would he whine and cry the moment he got hurt or felt pain in real life?
"The world isn't short of tough people. If there are others who can do it, why can't I?"
Jiang Liu gritted his teeth and entered Immersive Experience again.
So what if he had to take a hammer blow?
This little pain was nothing. Wipe away the tears and keep going!
Every bit of pain in the game would become a real-world gain!
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