Chapter 59: I Fear No Death

As a rare Path, the "Spirit Singer" possesses numerous advantages. A very crucial one is that death causes no damage to the soul.

Or rather, this is its "Path characteristic," comparable to a passive skill in a profession.

In Li Xingming’s memories, Spirit Singers of the Sixth Epoch would center their demon-spirit construction around this passive ability, achieving some rather special combo techniques.

Putting demon-spirit construction aside for the moment, at the very least, this characteristic would allow Jiang Qianqian to let loose during training, dying a few times to rapidly accumulate experience...

Upon learning the training curriculum for this morning, the expression on Jiang Qianqian's face was visibly distorted.

Yet, she quickly adjusted her emotions. By the time the young girl stood before the ancient golem, a resolute look had already replaced her dismay.

Magnificent, no further words were needed.

"I actually thought Qianqian was the pampered, delicate type of girl," Ye Sheng murmured thoughtfully, watching Jiang Qianqian rolling all over the arena floor to dodge the golem's attacks from behind the blast-resistant glass.

"Girls who study dance can never be pampered," Li Xingming chuckled. "When she first started practicing leg stretches and backbends, I was the one who corrected her posture with a ruler."

"You know how to teach dance?"

"A little bit. Just bringing her through the threshold. Qianqian is the kind of person who usually lacks the courage to take the first step, but once someone leads her across the door, she displays extraordinary resilience."

From Ye Sheng's perspective, Jiang Qianqian indeed possessed remarkable resilience.

This girl clearly lacked combat experience, yet in the face of the ancient golem's assaults, she persevered for over three minutes before being caught off guard by a sudden shift-tempo elbow strike that blasted her away.

Bang!

Jiang Qianqian crashed into the glass, shattering into particles of light.

Before long, a spiritual-energy-driven automated shuttle carrying Jiang Qianqian passed through the dedicated tunnel of Training Room 7, delivering her right back in front of the two of them.

After an Awakened dies, if a bound resurrection crystal exists within their sea of consciousness, they will resurrect at the last touched anchor point.

The teleportation anchor in Maple Sugar City was built right beside the training grounds... Putting it that way sounds a bit backwards, but in reality, the training grounds were constructed adjacent to the anchor to ensure that Awakened who kicked the bucket during training could quickly return to position after resurrection.

A remarkably thoughtful setup.

Jiang Qianqian’s face was flushed, her eyes somewhat dazed as she breathed heavily, her small chest rising and falling. Unfortunately, her dimensions were rather tragic, so this undulation failed to produce any visually stunning effect.

"How does it feel?"

"Ah, I... um..." Jiang Qianqian stammered incoherently, still immersed in the shock of her first-ever experience of death.

Li Xingming stepped forward and gave her little backside a gentle pinch.

Jiang Qianqian’s eyes flickered, instantly clearing up as she let out a weird yelp and dodged away.

"Hey, what are you doing? You—Ming, why are you getting so hands-on!"

"Helping you alleviate the mental shock after death. Fun fact: touching sensitive parts of the body helps the physical and spiritual aspects of an Awakened fuse back together, preventing psychological trauma."

"Then—then can't you pick somewhere else! In broad daylight, touching my... my there..."

"Based on my understanding of you, this spot has the best therapeutic effect."

Li Xingming chuckled weirdly and gave her another two pats. Jiang Qianqian bared her teeth and bickered with him for a bit, remarkably regaining her usual vigor.

She looked nothing like someone who had just experienced death for the first time.

Observing this scene, Ye Sheng fell into contemplation.

What seemed like playful banter was actually a careful consideration of Jiang Qianqian's personality traits, seamlessly blending fatal training into a relaxed atmosphere.

Li Xingming had planned this out; he wasn't just messing around.

One must know that many powerful Awakened, due to their initial death experiences being far too unpleasant, ended up carrying lifelong psychological shadows.

Judging by appearances, Jiang Qianqian seemed to have zero psychological shadows. In psychology, there is a concept called the "anchoring effect"—in Jiang Qianqian's worldview, death had probably been anchored right alongside Li Xingming patting her butt, rendering it nothing to be feared at all.

Moreover.

According to Ye Sheng's observations, Jiang Qianqian actually seemed to enjoy being patted on the backside by Li Xingming.

What kind of strange fetish was this?

Or was there something uniquely masterful about Li Xingming's technique?

It almost made Ye Sheng want to taste what it felt like to have Li Xingming's large hand land on her own backside.

While Ye Sheng's mind wandered, Jiang Qianqian stepped back into the arena, once again facing the "Ancient Golem Soldier (Halberd)."

Back in the Sixth Epoch, this thing was utterly common, widely utilized in warfare by feudal lords as a basic grunt. But then again, Jiang Qianqian was also at the grunt level, making this thing the absolute best training partner.

If it were Ye Sheng, a single Glintstone Shard magic missile aimed at the golem's weak point would instantly one-shot it—completely boring.

"Just this?"

Jiang Qianqian wiped the sweat from her forehead and muttered to herself.

So-called death was really nothing much.

When it came to actual combat, she truly sucked, but when it came to enduring pain, she was an absolute expert.

Jiang Qianqian loved acting spoiled in front of Li Xingming, and acting spoiled was something one could easily get addicted to, especially when your target was a childhood friend like Li Xingming—someone who was fundamentally steady, reliable, and immensely entertaining.

Yet, she constantly kept a warning alarm chiming in her heart: she must not turn into a pampered, delicate girl. That was far too cliché; how could someone like that ever be worthy of Li Xingming?

She had to grow stronger.

I, the childhood friend, will never lose!

The heavy golem halberd swept horizontally. Jiang Qianqian agilely leaped to dodge it, rolling forward onto the ground in the direction of the golem.

Li Xingming had said that against monsters with massive frames and sweeping, wide-open movements, the more you tried to increase the distance between you, the easier it was to get hit. Instead, staying in close quarters was the only safe option.

The four hours of the morning were spent in high-intensity training.

They took a few breaks in the middle, but most of the time was spent sparring with the golem. Jiang Qianqian had great physical stamina; in the latter half, she even went into battle wielding the Gravity Maiden Sword in an attempt to slay the golem.

After her seventh death, she finally succeeded.

Dying seven times in a single morning sounded completely unhinged, but for the Spirit Singer Path, it was practically a daily routine. There used to be players who ran a total suicide build back in the day, so Li Xingming was entirely unfazed.

Having hoarded the resurrection crystals distributed by the Li family as daily welfare for so long, this was the exact day they were waiting for.

Lunch was eaten near the training grounds.

The afternoon was dedicated to a simple team formation drill.

Squad combat placed immense importance on tactical arrangement. Whether in ancient times or the present day, it was a profound science. In the contemporary era, those who studied this discipline were primarily the military and explorers—the former dealing with increasingly frequent small-scale territorial disputes between nations following the resurgence of supernatural forces, while the latter focused on exploring ancient ruins.

"Tonight's mission doesn't carry a high level of danger. We'll take the opportunity to practice the most basic stealth-infiltration column formation. Put simply, it means walking silently in a single file. As for how to perform a silent step, I remember teaching Sheng-sheng during our simulated battles before."

"I remember."

"And what about me?" Jiang Qianqian asked.

"You study dance and you still don't know how to execute a silent step? It seems you don't even need to try; you normally walk like a cat anyway, completely silent."

"..."

"Let's try it out based on intuition first. Do a silent-step march for a hundred meters along the track here, and I'll correct the details for you. Sheng-sheng, you go first."

They didn't rent a paid training room for the afternoon; public areas were more than sufficient. The formation drills were set up in a place resembling an athletic track field.

There were quite a few Awakened training here, giving it the nostalgic vibe of a school playground. However, in terms of sheer professionalism, it undoubtedly surpassed a school playground by leaps and bounds.