A Hundred Battles and a Hundred Defeats, Becoming Emperor Through Adversity

After he and Su Tingxue had wished each other good night and said they were going to sleep, Zhou You did not sleep. He went on browsing posts. "Say, is there any point in refining a phone into a magic treasure?" "Are cat demons reproductively isolated from ordinary cats?" "Does Jesus count as attaining immortality through corpse liberation? (This thread has been locked)" The posts were as outlandish as ever, nothing Zhou You could keep up with. "Maybe from now on I should browse fewer posts, so I don't get contaminated." Zhou You muttered to himself in reflection, urging himself to stay away from unhealthy information. "The Mystery of Wenchang True Lord Going Abroad" "Hm?" Zhou You saw an interesting post. "I'll click in and take a look." The poster was called "aa Building Materials Little Li." "I heard Wenchang True Lord went abroad to renew the path of the literary Dao, and ran off across the ocean to run for president." Wenchang True Lord was very well known among modern immortal cultivators. The moment the post went up, it drew countless replies. "Real or fake? That works too?" "From the standpoint of cultivating the literary Dao, it holds up." "What a good idea. Why didn't I think of it? Everyone says Wenchang True Lord can't keep up with the times. The way I see it, we're the ones who can't keep up." aa Building Materials Little Li replied, "I heard it wasn't Wenchang True Lord's idea. A little cultivator who had just entered Qi Refinement thought of it." "What a talent." "Is a mind like that even human?" "The United States: Listen to me, thank you..." "Outlandish thinking." Zhou You was rather annoyed. Wasn't this a perfectly ordinary idea, the kind anyone could come up with offhand? How could these immortal cultivators say his thinking was outlandish? Truly rude. He wasn't reading any more. "How does everyone do body refining? I've hit a bottleneck in body refining lately" Zhou You clicked in to learn. The poster was called "I Won't Confess." "I just have my Dao companion beat me. Don't you all do it this way?" "Is that a proper method?" "First beat yourself until your skin splits and your flesh tears, then soak in a spirit-medicine bath worth a thousand gold. The feeling is too good for words." "I opened a steel mill myself. When I've got nothing to do, I jump into the molten steel and swim to refine my body." "I sneak into a military base and use a transformation art to disguise myself as a target." Zhou You browsed the replies and felt he could not learn any of these body-refining methods. Letting mosquitoes bite him was still the most convenient. At that thought, Zhou You replied, "I just let mosquitoes bite me." ... Lu Tianxing was an elder of the Punishment Hall of Mount Kunlun, and often used all kinds of torture implements to beat prisoners. The Punishment Hall was a hall established when Mount Kunlun was first founded. Not all immortal cultivators were decent people. Those bent wholly on evil were not few, and the hall had come into being for that reason. Lu Tianxing had been quite troubled of late. He had run into a tight-lipped traitor who walked the path of body refining. The man liked to abuse himself in ordinary times, and had trained until his hide was rough and his flesh thick. Every torture implement had been tried, and none could pry his mouth open. The man had set a confinement in his mind. A rash soul search could annihilate Lu Tianxing's own soul and still yield no information. With no other choice, he could only ask for help on the Immortal Cultivation Forum. "How does everyone do body refining? I've hit a bottleneck in body refining lately" He browsed the replies one by one, looking to see whether he could get anything useful from them. "Getting beaten, soaking in a spirit-medicine bath, swimming in molten iron... I've used all of these." Suddenly a fresh post met his eye. "I just let mosquitoes bite me... Hey, that seems like a method!" Lu Tianxing's eyes lit up. There really were experts on the Immortal Cultivation Forum. They could think up every kind of self-torment. But ordinary mosquitoes definitely would not work. At that thought, he made a call. "Hello, is this the Beast Hall? Can you breed Foundation Establishment mosquitoes?" The other end of the line was silent for a moment before asking, "Haven't gu cultivators all died out? Is there still a remnant like you left?" ... "The damn rice-thrower wants to challenge me?" At those words Nuomi rubbed her fists and palms, itching to duel Su Tingxue right then. "Well, I didn't expect this. Two failures in a row still haven't made her give up. Fine—let her come!" Nuomi was usually timid, afraid of this and afraid of that. Only when facing Su Tingxue was she full of confidence. Even if a whole company of Su Tingxue copies showed up, she would not be the least bit afraid. Zhou You had originally had some misgivings, worried that Nuomi had only reluctantly agreed to fight Su Tingxue for the sake of his face. Now those worries seemed entirely unnecessary. If Nuomi had spirit jade on hand, she would probably pay him to help her set up a fight with Su Tingxue. "Could she be taking the path of a hundred battles and a hundred defeats, becoming emperor through adversity?" Recalling what she had seen on the Hongmeng Continent, Chu Xiaoyao muttered to herself at a volume just loud enough for Zhou You to hear. "What do you mean?" "It is a path of cultivation on which one constantly shatters the Dao heart amid failure, then constantly condenses the Dao heart again, ultimately forging a supreme will, continually surpassing oneself in adversity, and attaining the Dao as an Immortal Emperor." "When I was on the Hongmeng Continent, I ran into this kind of opponent. He was the heir of the Hundred Defeats lineage, very hard to deal with, with a terrifyingly firm will. Every time he failed he would reflect on himself, surpass himself, grow stronger, and go on challenging this seat." Zhou You could not help asking, "And in the end? Did he win?" Chu Xiaoyao looked at Zhou You with a very strange gaze. "Of course he didn't win. What he surpassed was himself, not this seat. Could this seat lose?" Then Chu Xiaoyao sighed with feeling. "Although he never beat me, since he was qualified to be my opponent, it shows this method of cultivation has something to recommend it." "Wow, this damn rice-thrower is so scheming." Nuomi felt deeply that people's hearts were treacherous. For Su Tingxue to challenge her with a notion like that—using her to keep surpassing herself. "...I think the two of you are overthinking it," Zhou You said. "Hey, whose side are you on?" Chu Xiaoyao pouted. Daring to question this emperor's authority—back on the Hongmeng Continent, he would long since have been hacked to death in a flurry of blades. "The side of the facts." At noon recess, the Celestial Master and the vengeful ghost had agreed to fight on the rooftop. Though it was noon recess, there were always classmates running up and down the stairs. If they fought on the second-year floor as they had last time, they would easily be discovered. The noon sun was blazing, but with Nuomi's domain in place it was cool instead. However fierce the sun, its light could not get in. "I didn't think you'd still dare come challenge me." Nuomi floated in the air with her hands on her hips, laughing, full of confidence. A mere little Daoist who hadn't mastered her art, and she thought she could beat me? Su Tingxue's smile was very cold. Her best friend often sighed that Su Tingxue was good-looking, only she did not like to smile; if she smiled more, she would surely look even better. The facts proved her best friend's eye was quite right. When Su Tingxue smiled, it added a charm all its own, even a cold smile. "I came. That's all." Su Tingxue's Dao heart was firm. She paid no mind to Nuomi's provocation, and that indifference made Nuomi stamp her feet in anger. Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao each ate a grilled sausage as they watched. The sausages were Chu Xiaoyao's treat. "Fire, rise!" Su Tingxue struck first, summoning her natal yang fire. These past days she had been using spirit stones to nurture the yang fire, and it burned fiercer than in the last fight! She had lost last time because she had acted on a sudden impulse, unprepared. This time she had prepared thoroughly! Nuomi was like a fish in water, slender and nimble. The yang fire brushed past her, not even scorching a corner of her clothes. "That's all you've got? Your skill isn't up to much." Nuomi was immensely pleased with herself. She had thought there would be some great ability. It was nothing special—only a tiny bit stronger than last time. Su Tingxue did not answer. Her gaze was cold to the extreme. "Heart-eye, open!" The Yin-Yang Heavenly Eye changed, rising to the level of the heart-eye. Everything on the rooftop was fully in her grasp: a breeze stirring an empty bottle, old desks piled in the corner, Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao eating grilled sausages, Nuomi's next move! "I see it!" Ever since Zhou You had made her realize it and she had awakened the heart-eye, Su Tingxue had been training the heart-eye constantly. Even watching horror movies at home, she kept the heart-eye active. She was no longer what she had been. She had predicted Nuomi's movements! When Nuomi dodged the yang fire once more, a talisman appeared on the path she was bound to take and stuck perfectly onto her! "Immobilize!" An immobilization talisman! This was cinnabar and yellow paper brought from Mount Longhu, a choice talisman Su Tingxue had picked out only after drawing ten! "Hey, why can't I move?" It was the first time Nuomi had run into anything like this, and she was badly flustered. How had the damn rice-thrower suddenly been able to predict her movements, and then suddenly immobilized her? Su Tingxue showed a smile of victory, drew close to Nuomi, and took a good look at the anxious face of the loser. She was rarely in such a fine mood. It was almost the same feeling as when she had first guided qi into her body. "Oh, so it only holds for a moment." Nuomi suddenly started moving. Su Tingxue was shocked. How was this possible? This was an immobilization talisman she had drawn as one in ten thousand. How could it hold for only a moment! "You dare stand so close to me." Nuomi poked Su Tingxue on the forehead. "Hey." Su Tingxue's eyes went blank. She fell into panic and dropped to her knees with a thud. When Su Tingxue came back to herself, she realized she had lost again. Could her attainments in talismans not be deep enough? "Are you all right?" Zhou You finished his grilled sausage, stepped forward, and helped Su Tingxue up. Su Tingxue shook her head to show she was fine. "It's only one failure." As she spoke, she took a lustrous blue stone from her pocket, the size of a fist, looking full of vitality. The name for the stone was on the verge of being spoken. "Here. This is the spirit stone we agreed on." Nuomi flew over beside them, utterly surprised. "Huh, so beating you comes with a reward? Then you're still short two." Nuomi counted seriously on her fingers. "Once at the old dormitory building two years ago, and once in the corridor a few days ago." "Cough, cough—" Su Tingxue coughed violently, wishing she could perish together with Nuomi.