The farcical sparring session finally concluded with Nie Xiuzhu being carried away. After dozens of the Xiu-generation youths stumbled off, Nie Kong also left the woods.

The remaining hundred-plus people did not disperse for a long time, still discussing the recent confrontation.

Many among them were older, their cultivation already reaching the Spirit Fusion or even Spirit Transformation realm. For them, the cultivation levels of both Nie Kong and Nie Xiuzhu were hardly noteworthy. However, the method Nie Kong used—withstanding two to three hundred attacks from Nie Xiuzhu while remaining unharmed, despite being only at the seventh stage of Spirit Gathering—truly astonished them. Moreover, Nie Kong had silently advanced to the eighth stage of Spirit Gathering while enduring those attacks.

These two strange occurrences fueled their curiosity about Nie Kong to an extreme degree...

...

About fifteen minutes later, Nie Kong arrived at the southeast corner of the training ground.

The Tianling Continent possessed numerous implements designed to assist low-level Spirit Masters in their training, and common, general-purpose equipment could be found within the Nie household. The southeast section of the training ground housed hundreds of devices known as "Tuo Luo" (Spinners). They shared a name with a toy from Nie Kong’s previous life, but their function was entirely different.

These "Tuo Luo" were forged entirely from fine steel and possessed a relatively simple structure: a sturdy iron rod piercing a circular iron frame. However, the bars forming the circle could move up, down, left, and right, and the surface of every bar was intricately carved with spiritual markings (Lingwen).

Spiritual power was input through the top of the central iron rod, causing the Tuo Luo to spin. The bars would then move irregularly. At the base of the iron rod, there was a valve that allowed the user to control the spinning speed across three settings: high, medium, and low, enabling practitioners to choose based on their condition.

Before coming to the training ground, Nie Kong had intended to continue practicing "Flower Burst" using Red Bloodwood. However, after sparring consecutively with Nie Xiuge and Nie Xiuzhu, Nie Kong realized his greatest current deficiency: speed. This speed encompassed both physical reaction time and attack speed. In these two areas, Nie Kong had a massive gap separating him from those who had begun cultivating spirit arts from childhood.

And these "Tuo Luo" were specifically for Spirit Masters to train their attack speed.

Nearly half of the hundreds of Tuo Luo were currently in use. As Nie Kong approached, the constant buzzing sound produced by the spinning devices drilled into his ears. Witnessing Spirit Masters training firsthand, Nie Kong felt a profound shock. The rotation speed of the few Tuo Luo in front of him was so fast that Nie Kong could not even discern the gaps between the bars. Yet, the speed of the hands of the dozen or so men in their thirties was even quicker; their hands darted into the Tuo Luo like lightning, generating streaks of afterimages.

After watching for a while, Nie Kong selected a Tuo Luo, pulled the valve to the low-speed setting, and then infused a surge of spiritual power into the top of the iron rod.

"Buzz... buzz..."

Amidst the heavy, dull drone, lines of spiritual markings flared with light. The Tuo Luo began to rotate slowly, gradually accelerating, and only stabilized after several seconds.

A faint, verdant glow entered his sight, and Nie Kong blinked a few times in dull amazement. Though set to low speed, he estimated the Tuo Luo’s revolutions per minute certainly exceeded sixty. Looking at the slivers of light flashing within the circular iron frame, Nie Kong felt his scalp prickle.

"Ha!" With a soft cry, Nie Kong aimed at a gap and thrust his right arm inside.

"Crack!"

His fingertips brushed the iron rod, a wisp of spiritual energy leaked out, and just as his arm began to retract, four iron bars clamped firmly onto his forearm. The Tuo Luo instantly ground to a halt.

Intense pain surged from the clamped area, causing Nie Kong to draw a sharp breath. He slapped a burst of spiritual energy onto the top of the iron rod with his left palm, and the four bars sprang apart with a clatter. Nie Kong hastily pulled out his right arm. The Tuo Luo resumed its original speed, transitioning from slow to fast, its ghostly green light merging into a solid mass.

Nie Kong rolled up his sleeve and examined his arm. A distinct circle of red welts had appeared on his forearm.

The method for training with the Tuo Luo was to insert one's arm into the spinning device, inject a thread of spiritual power into the iron rod, and then withdraw the arm before the bars could clamp down. Infusing the iron rod with spiritual power was necessary to provide rotational momentum so that the device wouldn't need to be stopped and struck at the top every so often.

This process was simple, but executing it correctly was far from easy. The agony of being caught by the iron bars was a pain almost every beginner had to endure.

A moment later, Nie Kong shook off the lingering shock, fixing his gaze intently on the gaps flashing past his eyes, and plunged his right arm into the Tuo Luo again.

"Crack!"

The bars that caught Nie Kong were now three, and another ring of red marks appeared on his arm.

Nie Kong rapidly tapped the "Sea of Consciousness" acupoint and eight other hidden points, simultaneously melting away the remaining spiritual power within the Six Major Meridians while observing the pattern of the iron bars' movement. Yet, he was quickly disappointed; the irregular motion of the bars held absolutely no discernible pattern.

"Again!" Nie Kong gritted his teeth against the pain and swung his right arm forward.

"Crack!"

Nie Kong frustratingly realized that the trick which had been infallibly effective when attacked by Nie Xiuzhu was useless here. Consequently, his arm acquired a third indentation. After a moment’s thought, he understood the reason: these bars carried no inherent spiritual energy, making it impossible for him to accurately predict where he would be caught.

Even if it had been effective, Nie Kong would have abandoned cheating. The pain from just now was like a sudden, harsh awakening, making him realize that if he used such means to preemptively sense the impact and lessen the pain, his subconscious would develop a reliance on it, completely undermining the original purpose of training speed with the Tuo Luo.

"Hmph."

Nie Kong exhaled sharply, switching his left arm for the next insertion into the Tuo Luo.

"Crack!"

"Crack!"

"..."

Ten minutes later, the area between Nie Kong’s wrists and elbows was covered in a dense map of red, swollen marks. It felt as if the bones beneath had been cracked, and waves of agonizing pain made Nie Kong grimace, his facial features twisting together intermittently.

"Damn it all, I refuse to believe I can't succeed even once." Looking at the still-spinning Tuo Luo, Nie Kong cursed fiercely, swinging his right arm, preparing to strike again.

"Puchi!"

A sound like clear silver bells suddenly rang out. Nie Kong turned his head in surprise and realized a beautiful young girl had appeared behind him at some unknown point.

The girl looked about eighteen, clad in a long, crimson dress, possessing a tall, curvaceous figure. Not only was her physique outstanding, but her face was also remarkably beautiful: bright, dark eyes, a perfectly straight nose, lush cherry lips, and a fair, delicate, round face that revealed a pair of lovely dimples when she smiled.

"You are?" Nie Kong asked, puzzled.

The girl pursed her lips and giggled sweetly. "I heard these past few days that the Nie family has produced a wood spirit master with incredibly fast cultivation speed—Nie Kong, is that you? My name is Mu Hongling."

Nie Kong was slightly taken aback. "You're not a member of the Nie family?"

"Who said everyone here must be a Nie family member? I am from Luocheng in the capital. However, my mother originated from the Nie family, and I am visiting my 'Da Yi Ma' in Jiyang City this time," Mu Hongling said cheerfully.

'Da Yi Ma'? Nie Kong couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle, suddenly recalling the other meaning of those three words in his past life. Here, 'Da Yi Ma' surely didn't refer to a certain female physiological phenomenon.

"What are you laughing at?" Mu Hongling looked at Nie Kong, confused.

"Nothing, nothing," Nie Kong quickly shook his head. "What were you doing standing behind me just now?"

"Watching you train."

Saying this, Mu Hongling seemed to recall something amusing, and she clamped a hand over her mouth, shaking with laughter. "Nie Kong, you are truly hilarious when you cultivate, hehe, hehe. You aren't cultivating; you're driving stakes! Hehe, driving stakes horizontally must be quite uncomfortable, turning your arms into two big radishes! Hehe, hehe. I bet you never asked anyone before you started using the Tuo Luo..."