A Year of Cultivation

After returning to the villa, Yin Congyang received his schedule from the Training Camp Intelligent System.

As he had expected, his schedule was probably the most demanding of anyone's. First came combat skills. His axe techniques were excellent, a fact acknowledged by all the instructors and the Training Camp Intelligent System, so he definitely couldn't slack off. Footwork and neural reflexes were undeniably important to combat skills, and they also made up a considerable part of his schedule;

Next came the Mental Master Controller courses. His talent as a Controller was somewhat weaker than his talent for Illusion Technique, but that was only by his own comparison. The instructors and the intelligent system clearly thought his Controller talent was still quite good. It would be a shame to waste it, so they had assigned him some Controller technique training as well. Of course, there was less of it than the combat skills, neural reflex, and footwork courses;

Third, and most important, was Illusion Technique training. It took up an even larger share of his schedule than combat skills, which clearly meant Purple-Robed Dragon Lady and the intelligent system thought Yin Congyang had considerable talent as an Illusionist but a very poor foundation, so they had to schedule more training in that area. The rest of his schedule consisted of theoretical lessons, daily cultivation, weekly sparring, monthly battles, and other activities.

"Get up. Keep attacking me!" Instructor Golden Lion's stern voice rang out.

Yin Congyang gritted his teeth and struggled to his feet. After adjusting his breathing, he resumed attacking Instructor Golden Lion with his axe techniques.

"Too slow. This strike needs to be faster... Your Domain wasn't integrated well enough on that one. Again..." Instructor Golden Lion's voice rang out without pause.

Under the full force of Instructor Golden Lion's Ninefold Domain, Yin Congyang and the other trainees seemed to be mired in a swamp. Every lift of an arm or step took all their strength, and they had to defend against his counterattacks while attacking him. Although he had seemingly limitless stamina, he wasn't truly an endless engine. Every battle with Instructor Golden Lion left him utterly exhausted. But the training was indeed highly effective. Instructor Golden Lion had a wealth of experience and could always tailor his instruction to hone Yin Congyang's combat skills. It even accelerated his body's evolution considerably.

This was especially true inside the Cosmic Secret Realm, where Universe Origin Energy was incredibly dense. Although the Green Pouch Secret Realm was a relatively low-level Cosmic Secret Realm, it was enough to multiply the cultivation speed of Planetary Level and Star Level warriors several times over. They also received Moya Crystals each month, which were rich in life energy and the most suitable evolutionary treasures for Planetary Level warriors.

Half of the combat skills training took place in the Virtual Universe. The Training Camp Intelligent System simulated all kinds of opponents: humans, the Monster Race, low-level Zerg, the Machine Race, and all sorts of Metal Lifeforms, Plant Lifeforms, and Rock Lifeforms. It opened Yin Congyang's eyes. Combined with what he learned in his general knowledge and theory classes, it gave him a rudimentary understanding of the various races commonly found in the universe.

The other half of the training took place in reality, on the enormous planet at the center of the Green Pouch Secret Realm. Some areas there had gravity tens of thousands of times stronger than standard universal gravity. They had to battle Instructor Golden Lion and Instructor Green Bat in those places. Under gravity tens of thousands of times stronger than standard universal gravity, their bodies endured tremendous pressure. Precise movements that were difficult enough under normal conditions easily became distorted, let alone when they also had to fight instructors using their Domains.

The first time, Yin Congyang could barely lift the axe in his hand. Gravity tens of thousands of times stronger than standard universal gravity was over a hundred thousand times Earth's gravity. A weight of one ton became more than a hundred thousand tons in such an area. More importantly, this gravity acted on every cell and gene throughout the body. Many areas that were rarely exercised had no choice but to evolve desperately under such immense pressure, or they would fall behind the rest of the body and become unbalanced. As a result, all the trainees, Yin Congyang included, built an incredibly solid physical foundation.

Instructor Golden Lion had said that if they wanted to go far in the future, they needed a solid foundation. And what was that foundation? Their bodies, mental power, Origin Force, souls, willpower, and everything else that made them who they were. If they cultivated these fundamentals to the limits of their current level, then, with the help of progress in their understanding, they would naturally break through.

Did breaking through from Planetary Level to Star Level require comprehending a Domain? Did it require understanding laws? Not at all. Those were things they only needed to consider at Universe Level. Comprehending a Domain at Planetary Level was an impressive feat, showing great talent. But would that let them break through straight to Universe Level or Domain Lord? Obviously not. Why? Because their foundations weren't strong enough. If you wanted to build a Planet Mansion, the foundation first had to be exceptionally sturdy. Otherwise, you'd end up with a shoddy building.

So keep training!

"Faster! Faster! Your neural reflexes are fast enough, but your bodies can't keep up!" Instructor Green Bat, usually short and languid, roared at them. "Your bodies have to keep up with your reflexes, reacting instinctively without needing to think. That's the only way to keep from dying when you're ambushed. Do you know how high the mortality rate is for Universe Adventurers? At least seventy percent of those who die are killed in ambushes..."

During neural reflex and footwork training, once Instructor Green Bat unleashed his Ninefold Wind Domain, all the trainees staggered about. They still had to keep dodging the wind blades he formed within his Domain. The blades appeared without warning—or rather, Planetary Level trainees simply couldn't sense any warning. They could only rely on their neural reflexes and instincts to dodge, or smash the blades with their weapons.

At first, everyone was thrown into disarray by even a single wind blade, and some couldn't dodge at all. Gradually, they learned to face them more calmly. Then Instructor Green Bat began increasing the number of blades, sometimes adding one, sometimes two. In short, he made everyone dodge with all their might under tremendous pressure. Unlike combat skills training, this took place in an area with constantly shifting gravity. One second, you might be in a five-thousand-times gravity zone; the next, one step back could put you in a three-hundred-times gravity zone, making it even harder for the trainees to keep their balance.

In the Virtual Universe, Instructor Green Bat taught the trainees various footwork techniques and secret arts, then set up incredibly complex training grounds for them to practice in. This footwork training could also be applied to the flight training for Mental Master Controllers.

Of course, if they wanted extra training after their regular sessions, they had to spend points to redeem practice time.

The Mental Master Controller training covered all kinds of ways to develop and manipulate mental power: condensing, dispersing, softening, hardening, illusion, integration, sharpness, resilience, and so on. These were all basic mental power exercises. They didn't cost many points to redeem, but they were extremely practical. Controllers needed to train in them, and Illusionists even more so. Controllers had mental power weapons to use, but Illusionists had no auxiliary weapons to speak of in the early stages. So if Illusionists wanted to achieve great things, they needed an even more rigorous grounding in the fundamentals.

Aside from the relatively easier training in the Virtual Universe, practicing with the Xinling Disk in reality was also crucial. A Controller's advantage lay in mental power weapons. No matter how well you trained in the basic mental power techniques, if you couldn't apply them to your mental power weapon, it was like having sixty years of internal energy but mediocre martial arts techniques...

Instructor White Eagle was rather cold and aloof. He usually wore an impassive expression and rarely smiled, but he still took his trainees seriously and almost always answered their questions.

Yin Congyang truly wasn't very talented as a Controller. He trained in the basic mental power techniques extremely well and progressed at an astonishing pace, but when it came to using the Xinling Disk, he was practically the worst Spiritual Master among this batch of trainees. His flight ability was merely above average, while all his other abilities were at the bottom of the class. Instructor White Eagle's cold eyes often betrayed a helpless frustration, as if Yin Congyang were a hopeless case...

"Your foundation used to be terribly poor. You could almost say you were starting from zero," Purple-Robed Dragon Lady said in her cool, calm voice. "But you've made rapid progress lately, and you've built a very solid foundation. That's good."

She paused, then continued with a hint of amusement, "Your talent as a Controller isn't great, which has left Instructor White Eagle quite exasperated... But he has praised your fundamentals. That's quite rare. You should know that Instructor White Eagle hardly ever praises anyone..."

Yin Congyang grumbled inwardly, Do you praise people very often yourself? Have you ever noticed how you look like you don't want anyone coming near you?

Not many trainees in this group were studying Illusion Technique as well. Including Yin Congyang, there were only five, so apart from the general training classes and theory lessons, Purple-Robed Dragon Lady gave them almost entirely one-on-one instruction in Illusion Technique.

"Your soul power is exceptionally strong. That may be a gift of your talent, and it has many benefits. It greatly enhances your Illusion Technique and strengthens your willpower too. If you weren't also so good at close-quarters axe combat, I would have wanted you to focus solely on Illusion Technique," Purple-Robed Dragon Lady continued. "There are quite a few paths you can take with Illusion Technique: focusing on destruction, on confusion, on enslavement, and so on. Soul defense doesn't count, of course; both Controllers and Illusionists must train in that. At the beginning, you should choose one main focus and train in the others as secondary disciplines."

Yin Congyang thought it over for a moment. Close-quarters combat was probably his greatest strength, and all his other skills should support it. In a life-or-death battle, all he needed was to affect his opponent for an instant, and he might be able to kill them with a single swing of his axe. That made destruction and confusion both viable choices.

But there was a difference between them. Confusion techniques took more mental effort to perform, since he had to create an illusion to bewilder the enemy, and they took longer to work while still consuming plenty of mental energy. In a life-or-death battle, he might not have enough time or mental energy for that. Destruction techniques were different. First, they consumed less mental energy. Second, they took effect quickly. If he could affect his opponent for even an instant, it could mean the difference between life and death.

He looked at Purple-Robed Dragon Lady. "I'll focus on destruction and train in the other types as secondary disciplines."

Purple-Robed Dragon Lady looked at him and smiled for the first time. "A smart choice! It's a shame I haven't graduated yet, or I'd want to take you on as my disciple..."

Yin Congyang shrugged to show his regret, but didn't take it to heart. Purple-Robed Dragon Lady's teacher was most likely a World Lord, with a small chance of being an Immortal. But even if her teacher was an Immortal, that still wasn't much in a behemoth like the Virtual Universe Company.

"Beep~"

Yin Congyang received an email from the Training Camp Intelligent System. The subject line read: The annual Training Camp assessment will take place in seven days...