Chapter 14: Small Accomplishment
Translator: DavidT Editor: celllll
The days passed one by one as Ling Tian constantly worried as he hypothesized… The years also drifted by. In a blink of an eye, Ling Tian was already five years old.
The winter wind was biting cold, and large snowflakes fluttered about, blanketing the heavens and earth in a silvery white color. Mid-winter was fast approaching.
Deep into the night when all was quiet, the snowflakes still floated down, unhurriedly and unceasingly.
In the secret chamber, the temperature was, however, warm like spring.
Ling Tian was alone inside, his small body completely naked as he sat with both knees crossed, his hands forming lotus seals. His face was warped with agony as his body dripped with sweat all over. This was the critical juncture.
Ling Tian knew that if he wanted to survive in this world where the rules were more complicated than his previous world, the only option he had was to quickly raise his own strength, so he could deal with any unexpected twists along the way. Within these five years, because of the experiences Ling Tian had in his past life, he familiarized himself to the point that he had cultivated to the peak of the third stage for his Divine Dragon Shocking Formula. Now that he was approaching the fourth stage, he isolated himself behind closed doors, so as to rush forth and break the shackles to the fourth level.
In his previous life, he had practiced the Divine Shocking Dragon Formula to the upper tier of the fifth stage by the age of 15, which made him a miracle beyond miracles in the Ling family. Ever since this formula existed, in the past millennium, no one had ever heard of someone reaching the fifth stage when they were merely 15 years of age. This was also the main reason Ling Tian was the target of much jealousy in his previous life.
In this life, Ling Tian had used XianTian Qi, which was considered the pinnacle of martial arts as his foundations, and thus his improvements as compared to his past life were miles apart. Of course, due to the difference between XianTian and HouTian Qi, the strength he could unleash currently was definitely even larger. From his own estimates, if he could successfully overcome the barrier leading to the fourth stage of this divine formula, just relying on the aid given by XianTian Qi, he would already be comparable to his previous self when he was at the peak of the sixth stage! Such a result was unbelievable even for Ling Tian himself.
Now, he had reached the most important part! Ling Tian had already felt the signs of a breakthrough occurring, through his spiritual sense, he could see the true Qi inside himself boiling as though it just came from a pot which someone had opened. They revolved unceasingly through every single meridian in his body; and for every revolution they made, Ling Tian would intentionally add on a bit more strength to it, to further catalyze the speed of the revolution.
This sort of method was actually the brainchild of Ling Tian and its purpose was to ensure that the revolution would continue to retain its original strength and not fade as it passed by each of his acupuncture points. Even though this method’s efficiency was extremely high, practicing such a move would result in unbearable pain to the user. It could be compared to trying to force a hundredfold amount of water through a small rivulet of water, where the sides of the water channel would definitely not be able to take such a pressure and might even result in an irreparable scene of destruction! Ling Tian’s meridians could be compared to those channels, struggling to endure the tyrannical pressure of the XianTian Qi. If he were to lose control, he would end up destroying his meridians and crippling himself!
Ling Tian gingerly circulated the XianTian Qi inside his body, holding his breath as he calmly waited. The amount of Qi within him grew larger and larger, and the speed became faster and faster. It grew to the point that it started to indistinctly form the shape of a tornado within his DanTian. Ling Tian could even sense the high speed of True Qi being circulated as it produced a "xiuxiu" sound through his spiritual sense. Ling Tian’s body turned completely red, with a few areas beginning to exude beads of blood. Veins started bulging out from his forehead, as though earthworms were occupying that area.
Finally, the inner circulation of his True Qi reached maximum velocity, and many more areas under Ling Tian’s skin started to gradually tear, in which dark red blood could be seen. There was not a single spot on his body that was not resisting pain, and the torment from the depths of his soul all the way to his physical body was the very limit of what he could bear. At this point, Ling Tian understood that if he were to continue forcing and consolidating his Qi and strength, his body would probably explode from being unable to withstand the pressure.
He could only forcefully stabilize his state of mind and manipulate the powerful Qi current to smash on his Guan Yuan acupuncture point before it spiraled out of control. By breaking through his blocked Guan Yuan acupuncture point, this symbolized that his arterial and meridian pathways no longer had any blockage. This was the point when one could be considered a high level martial arts practitioner.
His body was wracked with pain akin to being torn apart, and under the influence of the true Qi, his hair band snapped apart with a "beng!" sound. However, the stock of black hair on his head did not fall, but rather shot straight upwards towards the sky, as though he had really became a real Super Saiyan!
"Hong!" A tremendous sound went off within Ling Tian’s sea of consciousness, as his Guan Yuan acupuncture point suddenly burst open, with the immensely strong true Qi rushing through and only settling down after nine further cycles of circulation within his body.
There was a patch of water stained on the floor. It originated from Ling Tian as he perspired while enduring the pain to the point that formed a distinct circle around where he sat!
Only at that exact moment where the true Qi burst past the Guan Yuan acupuncture point, did Ling Tian finally relax his entire body as an incomparable comfort began to permeate his self. He felt that his whole body was wonderfully comfortable and warm, as though it was made up of cotton. Caught up in this feeling, he felt as though he could really soar up into the sky from where he was seated and twirl around in the sky… At this point, he envisioned himself transforming into an immortal. Comparing that moment of bliss, Ling Tian felt as though all the hard work and pain was totally worth it!
This sort of feeling made Ling Tian reminisce about his past self. It was just like an opium addict of decades whom, after stopping for a month, lighted up a stick for a smoke. This sort of feeling was… as though he had lost all strength and even his spirit felt weightless, beginning to float upwards and away...
Laughing mockingly at himself, Ling Tian began to recollect all these weird thoughts within his mind and continued to activate his divine formula. With every passing cycle of activation, the blood spots on his skin lessened by a portion to the point where after countless days, his skin actually recovered to its original crystalline and jade-like appearance before he broke through his blockage. Letting out a drawn-out breath, Ling Tian slowly opened his eyes, in which a trace of radiant light flashed momentarily.
Checking his body in a very satisfied manner, Ling Tian then stood up, putting on the robe that was placed by his side. Although he had no idea how long he had spent sitting in this secret chamber, he was sure that it did not exceed four hours. However, if he did not exit the chamber soon, he was sure that his mother would start to worry. Even though he took the opportunity of going out only in the dead of the night to practice his martial arts, he did not know whether his mother would be afraid of him catching a cold and hence come over to his room in the middle of the night to cover him up.
This secret chamber was built within Ling Tian’s bedroom, for the convenience and secrecy of his training. At the age of three, he started to secretly hollow out an underground space below his small room for his practice purposes. The size of the room was only about three to four meters squared, and for him who had been cultivating since he was in his mother’s womb, this was merely a piece of cake. It only took him a couple of nights to finish excavating the soil and rocks, moving them to the garden with no one noticing.
Gently knocking up the limestone tile above him, Ling Tian’s tiny body slipped out like a wisp of smoke and securely caught the tile just as it was about to crash onto the floor, placing it back gently with nary a sound.
Ling Tian smiled in satisfaction as he strolled to the window, staring entranced at the silver white world beyond the window. Soft snowflakes slowly spun down, giving a dreamlike illusion. Ling Tian suddenly felt a mysterious surge of loneliness emanating from within his heart.
Ever since he had crossed over to this world, this sort of feelings was commonplace. It was as though in the boundless heavens and earth, he was the only one who was alive! In the dead of the night when there was no human noise, this sort of loneliness would act up vigorously.
To be physically in this world, yet spiritually not belonging here. To have a body of a five-year-old, yet to have the mental capacity of a thirty-year-old adult. This sort of discrepancies often caused Ling Tian to not know if he should laugh or cry and also gave him grief beyond measure.
He did not have a lack of human company around him and his current family was extremely harmonious. With his grandparents showing care and concern from deep within their hearts and his parents constantly pampering and showering him with love, to any common person, the Ling Tian now was at a place too high for them to reach, having owned almost everything that was needed. However, no one understood what Ling Tian was really thinking deep inside. No one could understand the deep-seated chill in the depths of his heart, as well as his desolate feeling of loneliness. Even though he was the core of thousands of people, Ling Tian’s heart forever remained solitary!
Of course Ling Tian understood that since he had already arrived in this world, wanting to go back to his original world was simply a fool’s delusion. The only thing he could do was to accept the truth and continue living on as best as he could. While he was trying his best to do so, this did not mean that his heart felt relief. Because he was constantly repressing his emotions, Ling Tian occasionally felt that he could not bear with this sort of pain, and this sort of repression could not be understood even by his closest kin. Ling Tian would undoubtedly continue repressing his emotions till the end of his life, because this secret was only privy to himself.
Crossing worlds through his spirit! Carrying the complete memories with him as he crossed over! This sort of feeling was not admirable at all; just purely the part of loneliness would be enough to drive someone insane!
In the past when Ling Tian was bored, he would often log onto the web to read stories about the characters crossing to a different world and would be totally engrossed with them. However, Ling Tian now understood. It turned out that crossing over was actually such a painful matter!
Ling Tian deeply inhaled, his eyes flashing with all kinds of emotions: nostalgia, hatred, joy, pining, bliss and loneliness… There were hundreds of varieties of different emotions! If someone were to have witnessed this scene, they would have seen that the expression in his eyes literally held a whole life story within it! Of course, those who witnessed it would definitely treat this five-year-old child as a demon or monster!
Closing his eyes, Ling Tian forced back the tears that were about to spill out. No matter the case, in this current environment, there was little time to be spent on such sentimental thoughts. The him now had too many things to complete! A learned scholar who weeps with the passing of seasons in this disorderly world would only be sentenced to an early death.
Suddenly, Ling Tian’s heart palpitated as he sensed something. Outside his door, a pair of soft footsteps sounded, followed by the low voice of the female attendant on duty outside his room speaking in an extremely respectful tone. This was followed by a gentle voice lightly questioning the attendant. Ling Tian could only smile bitterly; it seemed like his mother Chu Ting’er had come to check on him.