Forty Millenniums of Cultivation - Chapter 175

Chapter 175: Heavy Artillery and Insane Saber!

The Armored Snapping Turtle had its thick defensive skin and flesh to rely on, the cannon it Chen Xiang’s arm was simply nothing in its eyes. According to its opinion, how could such a weak and young low-level Refinement Stage cultivator control that cannon and have a fierce firepower? At most, it would feel ticklish; that’s all!

Therefore, it didn’t try to move or dodge and continue to move forward at a high speed; it would rather suffer a few bullets to cut through Li Yao’s waist with a sweep of its tail!

However, never had it imagined that the onslaught of firepower would be as aggressive as a meteor rain, as though hammers weighing tens of thousands of pounds ruthlessly smashing into its stomach, making it stagger as it was covered in a blood-red violent spiritual energy in the blink of an eye!

“Ding!”

A burning pain struck the Armored Snapping Turtle; it was incomparably terrified to discover that multitudes of cracks had actually appeared on its solid chest armor. In perhaps just ten seconds, the armor would be blasted away.

“Ding! Ding! Ding!”

The Armored Snapping Turtle was scared as well as angry. It was a demon beast whose defense was tougher than the Gold Armored Saber Mantis, yet it had actually been suppressed by Li Yao’s heavy fire. Lowering its hideous head, it helplessly chose to lie flat on the ground and use its sharp and protruding hard turtle shell to somehow block the matchless fire of Six Barrel Rotary Cannon!

Its four limbs were shaking, just like a stray dog. It awkwardly tried to move left and right to dodge.

Li Yao contemptuously smiled.

After three days of combat shooting training, he had a deeper understanding of the performance of Six Barrel Rotary Cannon; his control had improved greatly. At present, he could continuously fire for an entire minute, where all of the rounds were distributed over an area the size of the watermelon!

The Armored Snapping Turtle wasn’t a demon beast which was hailed for its speed; how could its dodging speed compare with the speed of the bullets. It was difficult for its hard turtle shell to withstand the rainstorm-like, ruthless bombardment of the Spiritual Explosive Shells for a minute.

Even if its turtle shell had not completely cracked, its internal organs weren’t able to withstand the fire and suffered grievous injuries.

Finally—

The Armored Snapping Turtle let out a heart-wrenching cry as it slammed its iron tail on the ground before raising its entire body giving the impression of a steel-cast giant wheel as it resisted the fierce fire head-on and forcibly rushed over.

It had been infuriated to the extreme. At the hazard of grievously injuring itself, it wanted to ruthlessly smash Li Yao into pieces!

Tilting his body towards the back, Li Yao suddenly exerted strength in his legs; as though his calves were filled with air, they expanded to three times their size in the blink of an eye and burst forth with astonishing strength. As he ferociously stomped on the ground, crisscross cracks appeared on the ground within a radius of fifty meters!

With the recoil force, Li Yao retreated ten meters at high speed. He closely dodged the dangerous collision with the Armored Snapping Turtle’s shell, while making full use of this opportunity to fire a series of bullets, shooting a fist-sized hole in its stomach.

Both sides were quite close, making it no longer suitable to use heavy firepower. With a low roar, two array glyphs on the strap flashed as the shoulder strap was cut off and the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon, as well as the ammunition box, automatically broke away from Li Yao’s body. Quickly moving his right hand, Li Yao clutched a Heavy Vibrosaber, which was wide at the top and narrow at the bottom like the leg of an ox, with its tip pointing at the sky. Meanwhile, under the vibration of spiritual energy, its blade edge vibrated at high frequency, emitting a “Chi Chi” sound, as though the stomach of a hungry, prehistoric giant beast was grumbling!

Under the excruciating pain, the Armored Snapping Turtle became mad. Regardless of how its body was torn apart, its speed increased to a whole new level. A strike coming from above suddenly changed its direction, as its iron tail pierced through the air like a meteor, raising fierce gales along the way!

In the blink of an eye, Li Yao’s hair had been messed up by the wind, while his pupils turned as sharp as a needle; he was unable to open his eyes.

Narrowing his eyes, rather than drawing back, he stepped forward. As a result of sparring countless times with Ding Lingdang, spiritual energy air bubbles instinctively and frantically gushed out from his pores, forming an “airbag armor” consisting of over thousands of small air bubbles in front of him.

“Pop Pop Pop Pop!” Countless sounds burst forth, as the heavy iron tail of Armored Snapping Turtle struck upon the air bubbles, bursting over a thousand bubbles at the same time.

Meanwhile, Li Yao, with the help of cushion provided by the bubbles, strangely dodged as the iron tail brushed past him.

“Whoosh!”

The tip of the iron tail drew a blood line on Li Yao’s cheek.

Without batting an eyelid, when the Armored Snapping Turtle’s chest was wide open, Li Yao’s left hand moved in a very concealed manner, as the flexible fingers honed with [Thousand Fingers Supple Bone Exercise] lightly threw a sticky bomb at the Armored Snapping Turtle’s chest where the armor was cracked.

The Armored Snapping Turtle was more vigilant than the Gold Armored Saber Mantis. Li Yao’s small action was caught in the blink of an eye.

Unfortunately, because of its shorter limbs, no matter what it did, it was unable to reach his chest and the mucus on the sticky bomb, which came from the Bullet Dart Frog and had strong adhesive properties, so that no matter how it scurried, it was unable to fling the sticky bomb.

“Ding!”

The Armored Snapping Turtle was well aware that it must be a sinister magical equipment.

Stretching its iron tail to the limit, the Armored Snapping Turtle tried to poke its heart to sweep the sticky bomb away. Whereupon, it noticed that the human happened to have sucked his cheeks and blew a whistle.

During the combat, Li Yao discovered that detonating the sticky bomb with remote control was too troublesome. Some quicker demon beasts simply won’t give him the opportunity to use the remote control.

Therefore, Li Yao just added a voice control array glyph to the sticky bomb, which was infused with a weak spiritual energy in advance, which when received Li Yao’s whistle, would detonate.

“Boom!”

A blood fountain shot out from the chest of the Armored Snapping Turtle.

Although the sticky bomb had a very small volume, didn’t have much crystal, and its power was not strong…

However, as it was stuck upon the cracked turtle shell over the Armored Snapping Turtle’s chest, just a step away from the heart, it caused a massive amount of damage.

The Armored Snapping Turtle felt as though its heart had been ruthlessly pierced by scorching hot dagger again and again.

Due to the sudden overwhelming pain, its long neck was completely stretched out of the turtle shell, as though half of the snapping turtle had crawled out from the turtle shell as it let out screams.

‘It’s now!’

From the very beginning, Li Yao had been concentrating the fire at the heart of the Armored Snapping Turtle just for this moment!

With a long howl, he burst forth with 3rd or 4th level of aura as his body doubled in its size. The vest, which was somewhat loose at the beginning, completely tightened; even the black combat suit was unable to conceal the clear and buffed up muscular limbs, and the skin that was exposed exuded a metallic gloss.

Tightly clutching the Heavy Vibrosaber in his hands, the bricks underneath his feet started to crack with “Crack Crack” noise as the fragments flew everywhere. The speed of cracking soared to the limit as the Heavy Vibrosaber drew a black stream, bursting forth with an indomitable aura that could even behead dragons and tigers as it ruthlessly hacked down!

Looking at his clenched teeth and ferocious and sinister appearance, it seemed as though this strike—

could even behead Buddha!

“Woosh!”

The Heavy Vibrosaber was truly too fast; surprisingly it burst forth with a howling sound as though the flying sword was galloping. With the flash of the black stream, flesh, tendons, bones were all cut one by one, as though it was sweeping through a piece of tofu; it was not hindered whatsoever!

“Puff!”

The Armored Snapping Turtle’s humongous brain flew high into the sky, while blood like a fountain spurted as high as a two or three floored building, giving off the impression of a towering crimson tree that had suddenly appeared and withered soon after.

Its four sharp claws continued to shake, while the body, after losing its head, heavily fell down. Its towering iron tail struggled for a long while; however, it was unable to brush even half a hair of Li Yao, and finally, it helplessly crashed into the ground where it convulsed for a moment before it stopped moving.

The Armored Snapping Turtle’s head slowly rolled over to Li Yao’s feet. It still wasn’t dead, gradually its turbid eyes filled with an intense surprise.

Until now, the middle-rank Demon Soldier still could not understand how it would so easily lose its life against such a weak human.

If it was a high-level Refinement Stage cultivator or Foundation Building cultivator; it could still resign itself to the destiny.

However, it died under the hands of a low-level cultivator who was weaker than itself; it was unwilling!

“Hum…”

The Armored Snapping Turtle powerlessly wailed. Its mouth weakly opened and closed as it grimaced in pain at Li Yao.

Li Yao faintly smiled and unsheathed the saber as he picked up the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon and ammunition box before reloading and raising the gun to his chest.

The Armored Snapping Turtle finally realized what this “weak” human planned to do; its gray yellow eyes bloomed with a sliver of a panic-stricken and pleading look.

In front of Li Yao, this brutal demon beast even yielded, surrendered, and pleaded for mercy.

Li Yao gazed coldly as the six thick barrels were jabbed completely at the center of its flat end. Li Yao had exerted so much power that barrels were pushed half an inch inside.

Half of the face of the Armored Snapping Turtle was deeply indented, and its eyes that were closest to the barrels madly quivered as tears flowed out from fear.

Li Yao squeezed the trigger before a series of suppressed explosion resounded and the head of Armored Snapping Turtle exploded into pieces!

“Beep!”

“Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep!”

The mini camcorder strapped on Li Yao’s shoulder had completely recorded the entire battle process and had promptly transmitted it to the Wasteland Battle Network.

After the super large scale crystal processor had analyzed and computed, he soon received many credits.

In addition to cleaning a large part of the safe zone, he had killed an Armored Snapping Turtle that was obviously stronger than him alone, for which he was rewarded with bonus credits.

A series of crisp and sweet “Beeps” signified that hundreds of credits had fallen into his pocket.

Licking his lips, Li Yao happily started calculating.

“If I could earn 200 to 300 credits daily, would I not be able to earn 10,000 credits in one month?”

“Last semester, I painstakingly tossed around doing all sorts of things for half a year, and yet could only earn 1,000 points. I had never thought that by just carrying out a mission, hunting demon beasts, I would be finished in just one month!”

“Sure enough, combat is still the best, I have not only accumulated experience, I can earn a huge number of credits as well!”

Of Course, Li Yao also knew that as this beast tide, fortunately, erupted in the middle of the city, so that everyone had no choice but to fight in the streets, sparing him from many possibilities to fight a lot of Demon Soldiers.

In most cases, the beast tide would appear outside the city, and, as long as crystal warships were mobilized and carried out a wanton and indiscriminate bombing, it would soon be resolved.

Whereas, a wanton and indiscriminate bombing was often unable to deal with Demon General, Demon King level demon beasts. At this moment, he was unable to deal with “high-rank Demon Soldiers,” and those demon beasts who were proficient in concealing techniques.

Therefore, he, even more so, had to be vigilant every second, while taking advantage of the fact that many Demon Soldiers were still on the ground; he must madly kill and rake in the credits!

Suddenly, a faint red silhouette quickly flickered far away, which had been very keenly captured by Li Yao.

His eyes lit up as he loudly let out cries and cheers, and again started rushing while carrying the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon.

Nearby, Zhao Tianchon gradually turned his head expressionlessly, taking a glance at Lu Tieshan.

“Why are you looking at me?”

Lu Tieshan complained as though he had suffered from injustice, “My words were ‘Wow, there is an Armored Snapping Turtle in front of us, it has a thick shell and a terrifying defense, Li Yao, first you should use a heavy fire to suppress it a bit,’ didn’t you hear as well?! I only ask him to suppress!”

“Your suppression can go to hell!”

Zhao Tianchong clenched his teeth: “The last few demon beasts, that had all been ‘suppressed’ by him were suppressed to ashes. If this goes on, all the credits will be sweep clean. We, two dignified experts of Hidden Dragon Hall, the strongest freshmen of Iron Fist Club and Chaos Edge Hall, would have to eat the ashes left behind his ass!”

“Why the hell are you still stunned, let’s move quickly! If not, even the ‘Flame-Spotted Leopard’ will be blasted into ashes within half a minute!”

Chapter 176: Let’s Do It Big!

Amid the bloody battles, time flew quickly.

The demon beasts numbered too many. Although demon beasts like Gold Armored Saber Mantis and Armored Snapping Turtle were few, common demon beasts numbered in the hundreds. Their destructive power was still terrifying.

Often, everyone would wake in the early morning and embark the military crystal tanks into the city, where they would search for small beast tides and begin high-speed hunting.

At sundown, they would once again board the crystal tanks and return to the heavily guarded temporary campsite set up in the outskirts for maintenance and repairs.

Every day, everyone would hunt a couple dozen demon beasts.

Whereas ruthless figures like Li Yao, Zhao Tianchong, and Lu Tieshan would hunt hundreds of ordinary demon beasts, there were a few low-level Demon Soldiers and one or two middle-rank Demon Soldiers as well.

Under the high-speed combat, for a week or so, everyone had forgone the immaturity which they possessed when they had just entered the campus.

In contrast, Li Yao and the others were even shrouded in a faint sinister air, giving off the impression of veterans that had undergone hundreds of battles. Even though their level had not significantly improved, amid the combat their battle force, on the other hand, was madly soaring every second.

Li Yao, Zhao Tianchong, and Li Tieshan, these three were regarded as the cream of the crop of the freshmen, and gradually worked out a set of effective team tactics.

Every time they encountered a demon beast with a thick defense, Li Yao would take the lead and suppress it with heavy fire, while Zhao Tianchong, with his ghost-like body art, would wander around and attack, and Li Tieshan’s Devil Fists were quite aggressive and acted as the head-on attacker.

When Li Yao had completed the fire suppression task, he could similarly rely on the Heavy Vibrosaber to carry out powerful attacks at the flank.

Under this “Iron Triangle” offense, a vast majority of middle-rank Demon Soldiers could be easily killed. Whereupon, with the bonus of “leapfrog hunting”, the credits of the three madly soared.

In the evening, if there was an opportunity to board the crystal tank to return to the campsite, there were even more difficult tasks awaiting Li Yao.

He would slow down the battle videos shot during the day and playback while pondering the inadequacies during the fight. Following which, he would use his super computational ability to improve himself.

At present, Li Yao still didn’t have any abstruse saber method. After pondering for a long while, he simply disregarded any need of a saber method; as long as he could calculate the shortest and most direct trajectory for its blade edge to cut the demon beast at fastest speed, it would the most suitable saber method for him.

“For this strike, by bending the shoulder outward by 7.5 degrees and raising the wrist slightly by 1.3 degrees, the blade edge will cut into the Armored Snapping Turtle’s neck with the shortest path as well as the fastest speed, and the time will also shorten by 0.13 second. Okay, next time I will do so!”

Watching the battle video frame by frame, Li Yao nervously analyzed and calculated, at the same time he also drew motion trajectories and human structures one after another and listed a couple dozen dazzling formulas.

If an ignorant looked at the diagrams for the first time, he would think that he was solving some kind of complex mathematical problems.

After analyzing the video, if Li Yao still had the time, he would borrow some the common maintenance magical equipment at the campsite and help his fellow students maintain their equipment.

Amid the intense combat, every sword and saber would cut through over hundreds of demon beasts bones. Even if the equipment wasn’t wrecked, its edges would crack, array glyphs would corrode, its structure would become fragile…these kinds of damages would definitely exist and the equipment must go through maintenance for it to be used again.

Li Yao wasn’t repairing just any kind of equipment; he only repaired saber-type magical equipment that was sharp only on one side.

After experiencing multitudes of fights, he came to realize how ridiculously had he spent his winter vacation.

Any kind of equipment had hundreds of performance parameters and methods of use, for which a thorough in-depth study was required; even after a year or two, he may still not be proficient.

Whereas during the winter vacation, he actually modified eighteen weapons in one deep breath and also felt amazingly proud, believing how awesome he was.

Now it seemed that the magical equipment he modified had too many parameters that were flashy but had no substance; much of the effort was utilized in wrong places. His fellow students who willingly bought them at 30 to 40% higher than the original price had been truly swindled by him.

Fortunately, Li Yao had found the problem quickly and completely dispelled his unrealistic fantasy, treating himself as an ordinary 5th level Refinement Stage refiner and prepared to first clearly research the characteristics of saber-type magical equipment diligently to become a saber expert!

He helped his fellow students maintain their sabers and at very low cost. Earning the credits was secondary; the most important thing was to thoroughly research these damaged sabers by reversing the source of the destruction of these sabers and, thus, deeply understanding the characteristics of the sabers.

As far as Li Yao was concerned, those damaged sabers were like corpses, and he was performing autopsies.

Once he had performed autopsies on hundreds of thousands of saber corpses, his understanding for the saber-type magical equipment’s structure and characteristics would absolutely be as clear as the sun and the moon.

Just like this, during the day he, Zhao Tianchong and Li Tieshan would form an Iron Triangle and constantly venture into the depths of the city, where they would pave a path filled with so much bloodshed, to the point that even the pestles could float. At the end of the day, they would be utterly exhausted.

At night, Li Yao would study the combat videos over and over again, to improve his shortest and fastest saber methods, becoming faster and stronger.

Late at night, while the others were completely tired and asleep, he would instead dismantle, repair, and maintain damaged sabers of all kinds of shapes and sizes with red eyes.

Vibrosabers, Flamesabers, Chainsabers, Long Sabers, Short Sabers, Daggers…dozens of saber-type common magical equipment available on the market, he would disassemble all of them several hundred times till his body had formed an instinct and he could completely disassemble and maintain them with closed eyes, or even while he was half-awake and half-asleep.

Only until now, he very meticulously began the second modification of his Heavy Vibrosaber.

However, this time, he was completely different as compared to the time during the winter vacation. Various advanced materials and complex array glyphs were piled in the corner of his brain, one by one.

Li Yao had a new understanding of the structure of the original magical equipment. He knew that these basic magical equipment had been repeatedly modified and sharpened by Master Refiners over the years; many performance parameters, which seemed to have been elevated, turned out to be a clumsy sleight of hand. It was like painting a snake with feet.

This time, all he did was thickened the front end of the saber blade, increased the weight, adjusted the center of gravity in accordance with his own characteristics.

While at the same time, he used the hand forging and tempering technique of the Hundred Smelting Clan from forty millenniums ago, altering the smooth edge of the blade into a slightly zigzag shape, increasing the overall destructive power while cutting.

The overall length of the saber had also been increased by 17.7 centimeters.

After the modification was finished, the overall weight had increased by 12.55%, which was suitable for someone with amazing physical attributes like his.

Under the high-speed slash, the jagged blade edge would emit a “Zoo Zoo!” howl, as though even the wind had been overtaken by the saber and sliced to death, giving out sad and shrill cries.

Therefore, Li Yao named this Super Heavy Vibrosaber “Windcutter”!

With Windcutter in his hand, Li Yao’s killing intent became more intense. Since he could not rely on crafting magical equipment to fish out 30,000 credits, he must increase the efficiency of killing the demon beasts.

Unfortunately, along with the progress on the battlefield, the demon beast on the ground became fewer and fewer. After having been repeatedly searched, the suburbs had been cleaned completely; only a few demon beasts were lurking in the high-rise district where they made a last-ditch effort amid the ruins.

These demon beasts didn’t dare to flee underground, for an even more intense contest was taking place there.

The underground battlefield belonged to Building Foundation Stage cultivators and Demon Generals, and even the Core Formation Stage cultivators and Demon Kings had taken up the stage, making them unable to easily step foot in.

The large-scale street fighting had already ended; all the civilians had been rescued, and the war had come to an end.

As for the remnants, they were still making a last-ditch effort at the center of the city. They were absolutely the most aggressive, most cunning, and the most frightening existence among the demon beasts.

If any low-level cultivator rashly rushed to the center of the city, he would only become a feast for the demon beasts.

Consequently, a majority of low-level cultivators turned their steps towards home.

Following which, the powerhouses of human and demon beasts began small scale searching, hiding, hunting, and anti-hunting contests.

For the demon beasts who were pushed into a corner, this was the final rush of madness!

0500 in the morning of the 27th day after the beast tide outbreak…

Li Yao, taking advantage of first light, was wiping the Windcutter with all his concentration; suddenly, he heard someone speaking outside the campsite.

Most of the juniors had returned to the institute, while the seniors and the others weren’t at the campsite. Ding Lingdang and like professors, who were in Building Foundation Stage and above, were hunting high-level demon beasts under the ground. The campsite was empty, and thus, any sound was extremely clear.

He happened to hear Zhao Tianchon say with surprise.

“Form a team?”

“Ma Jian, you are a firearm cultivator who is proficient in ‘gun fighting technique’. Among the freshman of the Federation’s First Military College, you can also be counted as one of the top experts. You have a strong charisma. Yet, you can’t even gather a few members?”

Narrowing his eyes, Li Yao opened the curtain to look, where he saw Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan speaking to three youths dressed in gray urban camouflage.

Among the three youths were two males and a female; all of them were approximately in their twenties and had bright piercing eyes, which gave off the impression of six searchlights.

With every action of their bodies, the patterns of the camouflage dress would also happen to change, giving a bit of stealth effect.

In addition, the three also carried multitudes of firearms.

The youth called Ma Jiao had a moderate build and carried an assault rifle. The other boy had a tall and stalwart build, lush hair, and carried a heavy machine gun. Whereas the female could be said to be far from being beautiful. She had a ponytail and her face was spotted with freckles. Two pistols hung on her waist and she also carried a rectangular case. God knows what kind of weapon was inside.

In this beast tide outbreak, students and teachers of all Nine Elite Universities came to participate in the battle. The largest participation came from the Grand Desolate War Institution and the Federation’s First Military College.

The Grand Desolate War Institution was closest to the Verdant Tarn City and also had the Combat Department, a traditional combat course.

While the Federation’s First Military College specifically fostered cultivators for the army. In the state of war, of course, it was duty-bound to participate.

Ma Jiao nodded and spoke with each word as fast as a firing bullets:

“Zhao Tianchong, we are old rivals and are well aware of each other’s strength; I’m not going to speak nonsense!”

“Just like your Grand Desolate War Institution has a credit system and you will be awarded credits after the completion of the mission, our Federation’s First Military College will reward handsomely with a higher amount of battle merits.”

“However, only some shrimp soldiers and crab generals are left in the city’s outer ring now. How much benefit can we actually obtain by killing a few common demon beasts daily?”

“Therefore, I wanted to take advantage of the end of the beast tide outbreak and head to the center of the city. Let’s. Do. It. Big!”

Chapter 177: So You’re That Monstrous Genius?

“Whoosh!”

Ma Jiao raised his wrist and a 3D blueprint of the city was projected from his crystal processor. An area full of high-rises was enlarged.

“Gold Phoenix Road is the financial street of Verdant Tarn City. There are high-rises on two sides of the road and interlinked walkways in the middle of the buildings. Underground, there are four crystal rail train lines passing through, extending in all directions. The shape is very complicated.”

“This is the last stronghold for the demon beasts on the surface. Countless powerful demon soldiers lie in wait on the two sides of Gold Phoenix Road. This shall be the stage where we display our skills!”

“You want to go to Gold Phoenix Road?”

Zhao Tianchong’s pupils suddenly contracted.

The financial district was certainly the last stronghold of the demon beasts of the surface. A lot of powerful demon beasts were congregated there. Even high-level demon soldiers were likely to exist. The danger was extremely high.

Of course, the likelihood of getting school credits and battle achievements was greatest in the financial district.

“You guys of the Federation’s First Military College haven’t formed a team with your senior students?” asked Zhao Tianchong.

Ma Jiao bluntly replied with a faint smile.

“Of course we have senior students, but most of them aren’t willing to form a team with us, freshmen. Even if someone is willing to take us to Gold Phoenix Road and kill demon beasts, they would take the bulk of the kills. We would have to split the few left overs. Why should we do that? It would be better to find a few powerful freshmen to go killing demon beast with and split the gains equally!”

Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan glanced at each other and nodded in secret.

Ma Jiao’s words were correct. To form a team with powerful senior students would guarantee their safety to a large degree, but most senior students weren’t willing to bring newbies to the battlefield where danger lurks on all side. The seniors would feel disdain for the newbies over the burden.

Even if someone was willing to take them, the distribution of combat achievements after killing the demon beast wouldn’t be advantageous towards the students of the low grades.

After all, the seniors were strong. They would certainly kill most of the demon beasts. The lower grade students wouldn’t be able to do well. They would only give moral support from the side and cheer the seniors on.

What was the point of that?

Ma Jiao saw the aura of flames within the eyes of these two. He knew he had moved them and he spoke emotionally and chuckled.

“Zhao Tianchong. You and I met each other in the Limit Challenge Competition. It was what I considered to be a life or death fight for several rounds. You should know my strength.”

“This fellow student, Bei Jingjing, is a first class sniper. We also have our fellow student Chunyu Peng. He is the best heavy fire power user. By your side is Lu Tieshan from the Devil Fist Sect. I’ve heard rumors about him. He is an outstanding close-combat expert.”

“We five are the cream of the crop of freshmen from our various universities. We have long distance firepower and we have close combat killing ability. If we form a team, we will absolutely be able to break through Gold Phoenix Road. What do you say?”

Zhao Tianchong swept a gaze at Lu Tieshan. The later whispered into his ear.

“How’s this Ma Jiao’s power?”

Zhao Tianchong nodded gently.

“He’s very powerful. In the Limit Challenge Competition, I was almost knocked out by him several times. In the end, his score was only lower than mine by three points!”

Lu Tieshan’s eyes flared.

“That’s quite decent. Even though we had Li Yao’s heavy suppressive fire in the past, in the end, he’s not a professional gunman. We have to exert a lot of effort to handle long-range demon beasts. It is because of this that we haven’t been able to enter dangerous areas amassed with demon beasts. Right now, there are three powerful gunmen. It should be easy to charge into Gold Phoenix Road, right?”

Zhao Tianchong thought for a long while before raising his head and speaking.

“Ma Jiao, there aren’t any problems for us to team up. However, we still have one more member. Everyone must go together, otherwise, we won’t go.”

“Oh, your Grand Desolate War Institution still has another amazing freshmen?”

Ma Jiao eyebrows cocked up. He was a bit surprised.

However, based on the meaning behind Zhao Tianchong’s words, this freshman should be quite the decent expert.

If so, Ma Jiao wouldn’t mind.

These firearms cultivators were experts in long distance combat, but they had problems once high-level demon beasts broke through their defensive force.

Therefore, in the midst of battle, they needed protection from sword cultivators and body practitioners.

The Federation’s First Military College also had a combat department, but it was a long way from the Grand Desolate War Institution’s combat department.

This was also another reason why Ma Jiao didn’t recruit his classmates, seeking to form a team with Zhao Tianchong instead.

If it was a close combat expert on the level of Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan, Ma Jiao would naturally welcome him!

But for some reason, Zhao Tianchong’s expression was a bit warped. He coughed for a while and spoke.

“He’s not of the combat department. He’s a freshman of the refining department.”

“Refining Department?”

Ma Jiao and the three others were stupefied on the spot. The looked at each other, “The Grand Desolate War Institution still has a Refining Department? Oh, I remember now. It seems like they do. I saw some news about them online last year. Apparently, an accident happened in your Grand Desolate War Institution’s Refining Department. Several people died.”

“But why the heck should we bring on a student of the refining department? To help us maintain magical equipment? We won’t need it. This operation won’t last for a very long time. At most, it’ll take a day and a night. As soon as the situation goes bad, we will retreat. The wear and tear on our magical equipment won’t be too critical. Also, we can do the simpler maintenance ourselves!”

“That’s right. Bringing an extra support member is just an extra burden. We will need to split our gains with him when we kill demon beasts. Do we have to bring him on?”

The female sniper Bei Jingjing spoke coldly.

The buff and sturdy firepower user, Chunyu Peng, was nodding his head over and over.

Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan were all young geniuses of the north with quite the reputation. They had heard rumors of them. They were assured by the power of Grand Desolate War Institution’s Combat Department. Therefore, they were willing to team up with them.

But a freshman of the Grand Desolate War Institution’s Refining Department?

What was the point of bringing such a person?

Bluntly speaking, what if they encountered a high-level demon beast and had brought along such a burden. Everyone wouldn’t be able to escape!

Lu Tieshan saw the doubtful expression on these three faces. He hurried to explain.

“Even though he is a student of the refining department, he acts as the role of a heavy firepower user on our team.”

It was better if he didn’t explain, for this explanation caused the three to laugh. Ma Jiao could not recover from his laughter.

“It can’t be. Do you still want to bring on your on heavy firepower user when forming a team with us firearms cultivators? I must have heard wrong, or have you misspoken?”

The firepower user, Chunyu Peng, cracked a smile. He slapped the heavy gun on his waist and spoke in a low and muffled voice.

“The Flaming Python Model 7 Heavy Machine Gun is the most popular standard heavy machine gun in the federation. Its firepower is the most ferocious. Its recoil is the strongest. A typical person wouldn’t be able to control it at all. A firearms cultivator whose strength is on the weaker side won’t chose this model. What do you think? Do you still believe we’re lacking in firepower? That you still need to bring on your on heavy firepower user?”

Ma Jiao didn’t want to make the atmosphere too awkward. He explained as well.

“You two., it’s not that we look down on your classmate. Since we of the Federation’s First Military College are bringing three people. You’re wanting to bring three people of your own is very normal. If you randomly brought a close-combat classmate from your combat department, we wouldn’t mind, but you’re bringing a freshman from the refining department, and he’s acting as a heavy firepower user. There’s no need for this, right?”

Ma Jiao pointed at Chunyu Peng, “This classmate of mine comes from a military family. He starting shooting at the age of five. He is absolutely the best firepower user of the freshmen of the Federation’s First Military College. Just having him is enough!”

Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan coughed dryly. They swept a gaze at the Flaming Python Model 7 Heavy Machine Gun in Chunyu Peng’s hands.

Chunyu Peng felt their gazes and chuckled. He swiveled the Flaming Python Model 7 in a demonstration and laughed:

“What do you think?”

“A typical person would use the Flaming Python Model 6 at most. To be able to use the Model 7, outside of a powerful genius such as me… only strong cultivators at the high-level Refinement Stage and above can use it!”

“You guys have probably never seen this fellow let out its rage. It’s simply a metal behemoth when the bullets explode out. It’s like a raging, burning, and flaming python. It can absolutely swallow everything in its path. It’s super ferocious, super savage!”

“I’m not looking down on your heavy firepower user. What gun does he use? Flaming Python Model 4? At most, a Model 5? That’s nothing!”

Lu Tieshan spoke.

“Our heavy firepower user doesn’t use a Flaming Python.”

The three people’s disdain grew as they heard his words.

The Flaming Python Heavy Machine Gun was the most common and standardized heavy machine gun for individual soldiers of the federation; its firepower was the most ferocious.

A powerful firearms cultivator of the Building Foundation Stage would obviously have more ferocious options.

Yet, for the intermediate level Refinement Stage cultivators, if they wanted to pursue fire power, they would have to choose the Flaming Python Heavy Machine Gun.

For someone who didn’t even dare to use the Flaming Python Heavy Machine Gun, how ‘heavy’ could this heavy firepower user be?

Zhao Tianchong sighed and commented.

“Forget it. The more I explain, the messier it gets. Li Yao, just take out all of your equipment and chat then. There is this huge chance to sweep in credits. Are you interested?”

Of course, Li Yao was interested.

Ever since he heard the words “Team Up”, Li Yao began to meticulously calibrate his equipment. He just finished doing so just now.

On his hip was the Windcutter Saber. On his shoulder was the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon. On his back was the heavy ammunitions crate. His waist was wrapped full of crystal bombs. Li Yao lifted the curtain and walked out, neither slowly nor urgently.

“…”

The three firearms cultivators of the Federation’s First Military College stared, stunned at the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon on Li Yao’s shoulder. They were all stupefied.

Especially Chunyu Peng, who used the Flaming Python Model 7 Heavy Machine Gun. His face flushed red.

Fortunately, he had a lot of hair and his beard stubble was dense. No one could really tell.

After being stunned for a long time, Chunyu Peng stuttered.

“It’s a lie. It’s a lie, right? A single soldier using a Six Barrel Rotary Cannon? Is this a freshman or a powerful Building Foundation Stage cultivator!?”

Zhao Tianchong turned on his mini crystal processor and selected a combat recording of Li Yao.

The roaring sounds of explosions suddenly came from the camp, as well as the miserable shrieks of demon beasts.

The three firearms cultivators gathered their heads together. They looked in absolute silence. Cold sweat seeped from their forehead.

Of course, from the perspectives of these three firearms cultivators with elite gun fighting techniques, Li Yao’s gun techniques were completely amateur.

However, the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon was never a weapon that focused on accuracy. Just based on Li Yao alone, with his astonishing monstrous strength, he was able to pour out torrents of a volcanic eruption-like firepower to suppress the demon beast so it couldn’t even raise its head. This was enough to dominate the entire field.

Needless to say, after completing the task of suppressing, Li Yao even brandished his Heavy Vibrosaber to pounce on his prey. He unleashed quite the savage close-combat ability.

He could fight both afar and close. He could both strike and carry. Also, he was of the Refining Department. He had above average magical equipment maintenance abilities.

This was simply a hybrid-type genius of every combat squad’s dreams. No wonder Zhao Tianchong wanted to bring this guy along!

The three people glanced at each other; their six eyes flared with light.

Though there was excitement in Ma Jiao’s eyes, there was also increasing suspicion.

He cocked his head and thought for a long time before suddenly having his eye bulge round. Everyone all jumped up and pointed to Li Yao with a shriek.

“You’re name is Li Yao? Are you from Floating Spear City?”

Li Yao was stunned, but he nodded.

Ma Jiao’s expression grew even more amazed. His voice was even trembling.

“How to say it? In the Limit Challenge Competition, there was a monstrous genius who bombarded Gao Ye’s command center to kingdom come… That was you?”

Chapter 178: Killing Their Way Into the Financial District

“He’s the one who got rid of Gao Ye!”

In this moment, even the female sniper, Bei Jingjing, who was rather callous just before, shirked. She looked at Li Yao with incredulous eyes.

Gao Ye was the brightest star among the freshmen of the Federation’s First Military College.

Even though he was a freshman of the Commanding Department for only half a year, his terrifying computational and commanding ability was absolutely on the level of the senior students.

In many matches under the command of Gao Ye, Ma Jiao, Chunyu Peng, Chunyu Peng, and other freshmen were able to be a match for the strong. They forcefully held against the stormy attacks of the higher grade students and even won a few lucky times. They were praised to be the strongest freshmen of the Federation’s First Military College in the past ten years!

Ma Jiao and the others did not merely admire Gao Ye’s commanding ability; they worshiped it. They thought of him as an invincible commanding genius.

One time, during one of their drinking parties, Gao Ye, in complete sorrow, told them of how he had once tasted defeat by the hands of a peer named Li Yao. It was a crushing defeat. He had been efficiently ‘decapitated’!

Gao Ye and the others were extremely shocked at the time. The name Li Yao was firmly branded in their minds.

One man had penetrated deep into enemy territory. He laid in wait in the middle of the enemy headquarters for several hours and seized a moment to create chaos. He used this chaos to place a bomb, blasting several high commanders and powerful experts to kingdom come…

People who were able to do all of this would absolutely be known as a Soldier King in the military college!

After hearing the story of Gao Ye, Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan were all a bit stunned.

They only knew Li Yao to be an upstart from the southeast who was accepted into Grand Desolate War Institution due to great efforts of recommendation from Ding Lingdang. They never knew of Li Yao’s magnificent history.

Infiltrating enemy lines solo, blasting the enemy command center, and getting rid of several key enemy personnel in a single breath?

That must be an exaggeration!

The two slaughtered their way out from the carnage of the Limit Challenge Competition. They knew full well the difficulty of the competition.

Everything Li Yao did really made them inferior.

The two glanced at each other. Their faces were a bit feverish. Their hearts were filled with shame.

The two were even arrogant after they had just entered the Hidden Dragon Hall. They looked down on Li Yao’s kind, a top scorer of the entrance exams, with disdain. They believed him to be a loser of the Limit Challenge Competition and he wasn’t that amazing.

They never thought that Li Yao would be this powerful, yet he hid it so well!

Ma Jiao noticed the two’s astonishment. He exclaimed.

“Fellow student Li Yao, we heard a lot about you from Gao Ye back in the Federation’s First Military College. Not only did you penetrate enemy lines by yourself in the Limit Challenge Competition, you singlehandedly got rid of the enemy command center. Also, in a state where your spiritual root had yet to awaken, you slew a doped up and mutated, large-eyed ape!”

“According to post analysis, this large-eyed ape’s strength very likely reached the level of a low-level demon soldier. The news was simply astonishing!”

“The heck?”

Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan all felt their scalp go numb. Ice cold chills went down their spines.

His spiritual root had yet to awaken; he had been an ordinary person at the time. Yet, he was able to slay a low-level demon soldier?

This kind of fellow had been standing by their side all this time. They even used to look down on him. They wanted to easily put him down, too?

Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan let out a breath of relief, one with a new lease on life.

They were convinced. The two accepted Li Yao whole heartedly.

Li Yao was a bit embarrassed.

While certainly he had infiltrated to the enemy headquarters and blasted them all to kingdom come by himself, he didn’t kill the mutated large-eyed ape by himself. He mainly relied on Zheng Dongming’s Demonic Blood Cannon to bombard the large-eyed ape which already had heavy injuries. Only then was he able to succeed, luckily.

However, there wasn’t a need to explain the truth of the matter to others.

Li Yao changed topics and asked.

“What kind of benefits can we get from infiltrating Gold Phoenix Road?”

Zhao Tianchong replied.

“This will be dependent on our performance and our luck. Gold Phoenix Road is the last stronghold of the surface-level demon beasts. There are quite a few powerful demon beasts amassed there. Getting rid of these demon beasts will allow us to receive a lot of school credits and clearing an area out to be completely safe would nab us more credits. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to get rid of several hundred low-level demon soldiers and several dozen intermediate-level demon soldiers; we can wipe clean all the demon beasts of a single high-rise. We might be able to nab several thousand credits in one go!”

“One mission can yield several thousand school credits?”

Li Yao’s eyes flared more intensely than those of the three firearms cultivators. A substantial flame erupted forth from the depths of his pupils. The Heavy Vibrosaber on his waist buzzed in its scabbard. It couldn’t wait to be unsheathed and feed on blood!

Though such an operation was bound to be dangerous.

But so what?

Everyone came out to cultivate. They never thought about going back with their tails between their legs!

…

Gold Phoenix Road was worthy of being called the last stronghold for demon beasts on the surface.

Here the high rises were in great number. There were many places to hide in the underground network. Even if warships were used to raze the surface to the ground, it would be impossible to eliminate all of the demon beasts.

The remaining beasts were able to survive the intense battles up till now. These last demon beasts were savage, malevolent, heinous, and insidious.

Normally they would hide among the ruins of buildings. It was as if they had disappeared into thin air.

As soon as they sensed the scent of a human, they would charge out like a flood. Various demon beast would be mixed together, long-distance and close-range types.

Li Yao and the others encountered three waves odd demon beasts within an hour of entering Gold Phoenix Road. Every wave contained over fifty demon beasts.

The wave in front of them contained over a hundred demon beasts.

Most of them were trash Green-Skinned Saber Mantises, but Black Armored Saber Mantises were mixed in. There were even two Green-Skinned Saber Mantises watching from the back lines.

There was something more troublesome in the darkness behind the hundreds of Saber Mantises. It seemed there was a long-range attacking demon beast lying in wait. A dangerous aura that felt like needles was coming from it. It caused everyone to feel ill at ease, their eyes flickering to corners.

“B-B-B-B-B-B-B-Boom!”

Li Yao, Ma Jiao, and Chunyu Peng, these three people sprayed like mad, their bullet barrage was like rain.

The Green-Skinned Saber Mantises could be killed with a few rounds if they didn’t withdraw into their carapaces. So they simply exploded when they were bombarded with Li Yao’s Six Barrel Rotary Cannon or Chunyu Peng’s Flaming Python Model 7 Heavy Machine Gun. They turned into cyan pastes of flesh.

Even though the Green-Skinned Saber Mantises didn’t have that much strength, there were Green-Skinned Saber Mantises and Black Armored Saber Mantises mixed together. They used the Green-Skinned Saber Mantises as a screen to quietly press closer to the crowd of humans.

At this time, they had to rely on Zhao Tianchong’s and Lu Tieshan’s expert close combat fighting skill. Sniper Bei Jingjing took out two pistols as well, opening fire with both of them. She acted as close-range firepower support.

Li Yao immediately discovered what he was lacking, being mixed with two expert firearms cultivators.

He used the powerful and mighty Six Barrel Rotary Cannon. The two used a Flaming Python Model 7 Heavy Machine Gun and an assault rifle.

However, he was the weakest when it came to killing ability.

He needed to concentrate fire for seven or eight seconds to completely kill a Black Armored Saber Mantis.

Yet Chunyu Peng only needed two or three seconds to take it down with his Flaming Python Model 7 Heavy Machine Gun.

Even Ma Jiao, who used an assault rifle, used no more than three seconds.

Bei Jingjing, who danced with her pistols, would occasionally land a headshot against a Black Armored Saber Mantis, killing it.

“Clearly my gun is the most powerful. Why is my power the weakest?”

Before Li Yao could start mulling over this, a sharp wind assaulted them.

Luckily, everyone had made preparations ahead of time. They wore the thickest of body armors, not minding how cumbersome they were. The body armor detected danger and the crystals upon them suddenly flared, releasing a powerful spiritual energy shield.

Humm, an intense vibration diffused around the shield. A black poisonousness needle pushed firmly through the shield, though the speed of it slowed a little.

Li Yao cocked his head. The poisonousness needle swept past his cheek. It penetrated the earth with a ding, digging three meters deep.

“It’s a Poison Dart Scorpion! Sniper!”

Ma Jiao yelled out.

Bei Jingjing squinted her eyes and retreated to the back of the group. She went into a crouching position and took the long package on her back into her hands. She removed the cloth to reveal an ash gray sniper rifle. Profound and complicated spiritual lines spiraled all around its body. It seemed to be an artisan sculpted work.

Bei Jingjing mumbled to herself. An aura that could be seen with the naked eye seemed to appear around her body. She then chanted at lighting speed, the telepathy spiraling around the barrel of the gun.

Her eyes flared brighter and brighter. Though it was daytime, her eyes were as clear as stars in the darkness of night.

When the brightness reached its pinnacle, she fired a round into the skies ahead, seemingly not aiming at all.

“Whoosh!”

An azure streak came roaring from the muzzle, rushing straight through the sky.

Li Yao was stunned. This shot was way off its mark, right?

The azure glow made a bizarre curve as it streaked through the air. It actually made a turn and pierced down behind the ruins. Only a bang was heard as purplish black blood gushed into the sky. It dyed all the ruins purplish black.

No poisonous needles were fired over ever since then.

Li Yao was dumbstruck. The Poison Dart Scorpion and the Gold Armored Saber Mantis were the same. They were intermediate-level demon soldiers. Let alone their incredible speed, they possessed impressive defensive strength. They were experts in lying in wait and evading.

Was it actually killed in a single shot by Bei Jingjing?

“The bullet can curve, yet there’s still so much power. That’s so awesome!”

Compared to these three professional firearms cultivators, Li Yao felt he was just holding onto a flaming rod.

The battle ended half an hour later. Six people sat together performing maintenance.

In the end, Li Yao couldn’t help ask.

“Fellow student Ma Jiao, why is it that your might is so strong when you use standard weapons? You’re more amazing than me using my Six Barrel Rotary Cannon. Is it because your guns have been specially modified?”

“And fellow student Bei Jingjing was able to get rid of the Poison Dart Scorpion with a single bullet. I looked at the corpse of the Poison Dart Scorpion just now. It totally exploded. There was not even a shred of flesh bigger than the size of a fist. What kind of bullet can have such strong destructive power and turn?”

Ma Jiao laughed and spoke with pride.

“We use the most common standardized firearms. Though Bei Jingjing sniper bullet is a bit more powerful than normal, it’s still common mass-refined goods. They’re nothing special.”

“However, we are firearms cultivators, the gun fighting techniques we cultivate are naturally different from those of amateurs.”

“Gun fighting techniques?”

Li Yao’s curiosity began to rage and burn.

Chapter 179: Fearsome Gun Fighting Technique

“That’s right, although our battle profession, the ‘firearm cultivators,’ was created only after the creation of firearms, we can be dated way before that. We can even be dated back to the ancient cultivators’ era of forty millenniums ago.”

“Our ‘gun fighting technique’ cultivation is also succeeded from the most orthodox ‘Sword Controlling Technique’ of the ancient cultivators’ era!”

As he mentioned the origin of gun fighting techniques, Ma Jiao’s face flushed as he straightened up his spine and spoke.

“We firearm cultivators are also one of the traditional successors of the ancient sword immortals, just like Fellow Student Zhao Tianchong. There isn’t any difference; it’s just that what we inherited is different. That’s all!”

Zhao Tianchong coldly snorted. Apparently, he didn’t agree with Ma Jiao’s argument.

However, it was a long-standing controversy in the world of cultivation. Both sides blowing their own trumpet, yet after a couple millenniums, nothing had been cleared. He, too, was disinclined to argue with Ma Jiao.

Whereas the more Li Yao came to hear, the more confused he became.

Firearms, they were pieces of long-range magical equipment that gradually emerged during the late Great Dark Age; they were pieces of equipment that fired bullets with the help of spiritual energy explosions from the crystals, thereby allowing ordinary people, who lacked the strength, to have enough battle force to put up a fight.

Therefore, many cultivators using firearms were deemed weak.

But how was this related to the ancient sword immortals of forty millenniums ago?

Noticing the perplexed look on his face, Ma Jiao slightly smiled and continued:

“Fellow Student Li Yao, I don’t know if you have read some of the ancient records in which the ancient sword immortals of forty millenniums ago had a powerful magical equipment called the ‘Sword Pill.’ It was usually ingested where it was spiritually refined, and at the most crucial moment, as long as they opened their mouth or snuffled through their nose the sword pill would fly out, whereupon it would transform into a sword aura, which would draw a long rainbow as it took the heads of anyone within a range of 500kms, as easily as picking one’s own pocket?”

Li Yao nodded, “I believe I have.”

With Ou Yezi’s powerful memory, how could he not know of a “sword pill” like most common magical equipment of the ancient cultivation world?

For ancient cultivators, the flying sword may be one of their most commonly used magical equipment.

However, the ‘flying sword’ was not just one kind of magical equipment at all, but two.

The first type of flying sword looked just like any ordinary long sword; it had an edge, a cross-guard, a hilt, a scabbard, and a blade which was engraved with spirit array glyphs, protected by a mystic glow shining with colors and light, and could unleash thousands upon thousands of magical powers.

This kind of flying sword, on one side, could be used as a means of transportation, allowing the cultivators to step on and ride it; it was nothing to travel 500 kilometers in a day.

On another side, it could also be used as a divine weapon to fight in close quarters; occasionally, it could also be thrown to attack a relatively close enemy.

However, if the enemy was 500 meters away, it was inappropriate to use this kind of flying sword to attack.

First, this kind of flying sword was quite heavy, and it didn’t have a sufficient streamlined body, making its flying trajectory very unstable. Also, the speed at which it could be thrown wasn’t too high.

If a cultivator was riding the blade and controlling it, it was still alright; however, once there was no one to control it, it could very easily stall and spiral down its path, missing the target and quite possibly tumbling to the ground.

Second, if the distance was too far, there would be too many variables. Such as, if the enemy was powerful or had some kind of magical equipment to attract or absorb the flying sword, the flying sword would be taken away suddenly and quite possibly fired back down its path; wouldn’t that be quite embarrassing?

In anecdotal records of Hundred Smelting Clan, Li Yao had also seen a very funny story.

According to which, there was a sword immortal during the ancient era who racked up hardships and used multitudes of heaven and earth treasures to meticulously refine a flying sword. When he fought with an enemy, he shot the flying sword, and sure enough, it was shockingly powerful; with one shot he pierced the enemy in the chest, at his heart.

Unexpectedly, the enemy happened to be ruthless. Upon realizing he was going to die, he clutched the sword’s hilt with both hands forcefully, making it impossible for the sword immortal to retrieve the flying sword with his telepathic thoughts, and the enemy before dying blew himself up and ruined most of the flying sword.

Meanwhile, the sword immortal was soon to be surrounded by a large crowd of experts from the enemy’s side.

If a divine sword like that was in his hand, the sword immortal could naturally unleash a superb sword technique, and even if he could not win he, at any rate, could still ride the sword and escape into the sky.

However, his hands were empty and even if he wished to escape, he could not. Finally, the sword immortal was surrounded and beaten to death; it was truly miserable to the extreme.

Then, there was a sword immortal who had spent a mountain load of wealth to refine a flying sword, and when he hunted a spirit beast with it the sword, instead of striking the vital point, pierced the rear end of the spirit beast, where it was stuck between the muscles and bones, deadly.

Whereupon, the spirit beast, in a lot of pain, “wailed” as it ran away with the priceless flying sword; it ran and ran…

Precisely because of numerous tragedies like this, cultivators slowly discovered during combat that if they wanted to hurt someone by controlling something, there was really no need to use a flying sword as such a large piece of equipment; in fact, there was no need to have crossguard or hilt, and even the edge of the sword wasn’t necessary at all.

Under the heavens, among the various magical powers, there was nothing indestructible, even with all the firmness and hardness any man could achieve; only with speed could one be invincible. When speed is taken to the extreme, even a hair could kill a person. So was there any need for a sharp edge?

Because of this the second type of flying sword, the sword pill, came into existence!

Generally it was just the size of a Longan[1], easy to refine and convenient to carry; furthermore, because it was small in size, it was relatively easy to manipulate with telepathic thoughts. Usually, it was ingested, where it would be refined, and when encountering an enemy, it could be shot in the air where it would be transformed into three-inch sword aura, which could be manipulated using telepathic thoughts and fired, killing the enemy.

Any ordinary sword cultivator could launch the sword pill a couple kilometers; whereas it was a cinch for a first-grade sword immortal to have an attack range of a few dozen kilometers.

In this way, while an enemy was in close-range, the sword cultivator could use the flying sword to fight; while an enemy was in long-range, the sword cultivator could use a sword pill to greet them. It would be alright even if the sword pill missed or was received by the enemy, for the cost of refining was very low. Each sword immortal could carry a few of them and conveniently fire one.

Li Yao was struck with a thought as if he discovered something.

Ma Jiao smiled, “It seems you already understand; the sword controlling technique was precisely the ability to manipulate the sword pills by the ancient sword immortals. We ‘firearm cultivators’ inherited this very ability of the sword immortals. For ordinary people and an amateur gunman like yourself, bullets are just bullets, nothing more and nothing less, but for us firearm cultivators, the bullets are sword pills!”

Realization suddenly dawned upon Li Yao, he could not help but gasp in astonishment.

In the anecdotes of the Hundred Smelting Clan, he had once read of some powerful sword immortals who could manipulate hundreds of sword pills with one deep breath, forming a sword array that emanated with endless sword auras and could strangle the enemy ruthlessly.

How could the firearm cultivators like Ma Jiao not fire over hundreds of bullets in one deep breath?

Although they could not necessarily fire with power as strong as the ancient sword immortals, if these bullets were sword pills, then it was indeed a terrifying profession!

Upon noticing Li Yao’s expressions, Ma Jiao felt prouder and slightly pondered as he muttered to himself, “This is just basic stuff; there is nothing secret about it. If Li Yao had researched before hand, he could have very easily found this from any channel. Telling him about it would not pose any harm; on the contrary, we could have a better relationship. After all, there will be many opportunities for cooperation in the future.”

Ma Jiao stretched out three fingers and spoke, “Obviously, powerful firearms cultivators at the Building Foundation Stage and above had the ability to control thousands upon thousands of bullets, these special sword pills; as for the firearms cultivators who had just stepped into the Refinement Stage, they mainly cultivate three kinds of abilities.”

“First is the shooting technique.”

“The shooting technique of cultivators is not the kind of ‘three points in one line, breathing evenly'[2] like a conventional shooting technique, but rather to study how to control the point of impact; so it is about controlling the point of impact of over hundreds of bullets at one point.”

Ma Jiao looked around before he dragged a completely mutilated and torn up corpse of a Black Armored Saber Mantis from nearby and spoke, “Fellow Student Li Yao, this Black Armored Saber Mantis was shot by you, and as you can see, its whole body is broken into pieces; your points of impact are scattered in a very large area. The bullet did not strike at one place at all.”

Following that, he once again dragged a corpse of a Black Armored Saber Mantis over: “This is the Black Armored Saber Mantis shot by me; as you can see, the points of impact are gathered at one location. All the bullets are basically at the same place.”

Li Yao carefully inspected the difference between the two corpses and lightly nodded his head.

Ma Jiao said:

“Rather than hurting ten fingers, it is better to cut one finger off. Although the fire power of the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon is fierce, you are unable to control its points of impact. Every bullet’s point of impact is different from the other; it is the equivalent of letting the demon beast bear the destructive force evenly throughout its body, and naturally, the local destructive force can not be increased.”

“Whereas we, firearm cultivators, try to control the placement of bullets to ensure that every bullet impacts the locality of the entrance wound. In this way, the injuries will continue to add up, and the destructive force will be concentrated at one point; the power will be greatly enhanced as well.”

“Maybe a moment ago you thought Fellow Student Bei Jingjing had fired a headshot with the pistol, but it was, in fact, not one shot but five shots instantaneously. Her speed was so fast that it sounded like one shot, and all the bullets instantly struck the same point. Not to mention the Black Armored Saber Mantises, she would have had the chance to even headshot the Gold Armored Saber Mantis!”

“The Building Foundation Stage and above, those truly powerful firearms cultivators are even able to fire hundreds of bullets instantaneously, and all the bullets will pierce through the same entry wound, giving the impression of just one shot and one entry wound.”

“The destructive force it would possess could be imagined!”

Li Yao frowned as he ruminated for a long while before he humbly asked for advice:

“I do understand the reason for concentrating the fire at one point, but the recoil of the firearm is simply too much. Although I am doing all I can to control it, every shot is a spiritual energy explosive shell; as a result, the muzzle will slightly jolt, and the shooting trajectory will slightly deviate.Thus, the resulting points of impact will deviate from the original point of impact. So how do you reduce the recoil?”

Ma Jiao burst into a hearty laughter as he responded:

“The recoil cannot be resolved. With the increase in strength, the firearms cultivator can subsequently use more and more powerful firearms and bullets, and as long as you pursue fire power, it will always have a recoil, and the muzzle will naturally snap back.”

“Our idea is not to control the barrel so that the muzzle will be motionless; this way is too stiff, too rigid.”

“The right thing to do is perceive the degree of deviation of muzzle after every shot and again calculate the shooting trajectory; then carry out minute tuning in the opposite direction, ensuring that the points of impact remain consistent.”

“For instance, if a shot made the muzzle jolt upwards by 0.001 mm, then just press your wrist down bit by bit, so that the muzzle is shifted down by 0.001 mm.”

“Of course, this is just the principle. In combat, there are many things to consider, such as the direction of the wind, the change in distance between you and the enemy, your breathing, heartbeat, and the subtle changes in muscle movements; in short, it is ever-changing and inexhaustibly profound.”

Li Yao pondered for a moment before his eyes went wide:

“You mean to say that for every shot, you calculate the shooting trajectory again?”

Ma Jiao thought before he nodded and answered:

“Although in combat, it is impossible to calculate every shot; theoretically, it is possible. At present, I can calculate the shooting trajectory per 4.7 shots, for which dealing with ordinary demon soldiers is just about enough.”

Li Yao was shocked.

The rate of fire of modern firearms was quite fast; as many as a dozen bullets could be fired per second. That is to say, Ma Jiao can calculate the shooting trajectory once or twice again just every second, and also bear in mind the wind direction, wind speed, and the high-speed movements of the demon beasts.

The amount of calculation he had to do was quite shocking indeed!

However, if he could master this shooting technique, there would be no need for him to calculate once every five shots; even if he could calculate the shooting trajectory once every ten shots, the power of Six Barrel Rotary Cannon would be greatly enhanced.

By then, not to mention middle-rank Demon Soldiers, he would have the chance to blow high-rank Demon Soldiers and even Demon Generals away!

Chapter 180: Thunder Palm

When seeing Li Yao’s expression, Ma Jiao knew that he was letting his imagination go wild. Ma Jiao couldn’t help laughing as he said:

“Though the theory is short, it isn’t easy to truly cultivate it. Incisive understanding of various algorithms is needed, and one must also possess powerful computational ability and hand-mind coordination ability. There’s no need for an amateur gunman like yourself to waste too much time in this field. In any case, you’re just substituting in as a heavy firepower user for the moment. There isn’t a high need for precision when it comes to your task of laying suppressive fire.”

Li Yao’s heart pounded and throbbed.

He was a refiner. He was no stranger to abstract, profound, and complicated algorithms. His computational ability was also higher than that of a normal close-combat soldier. As for his hand-mind coordination ability…

Under the Super Perceptive State, the grave issue of his hand and mind being uncoordinated had appeared. He had grit his teeth and trained past it quite painfully.

His hand-mind coordination ability absolutely surpassed his peers!

After a short mutter to himself, Li Yao asked:

“Fellow student Ma Jiao. You just said that there are two types of mystical abilities?”

“Not bad, the other two types of mystical abilities are Baptism and Soul Division.”

Ma Jiao replied readily:

“The so-called Baptism is using various secret techniques to perform a second refining on an ordinary bullet. It lets the bullet connect with one’s spirit, and the most commonly seen baptism is the Blood Baptism. The gunman’s blood is used to baptize the bullet, increasing the spirituality of the bullet. Naturally, the gunman comes to have perfect command over the bullet, landing wherever he points.”

He paused a bit before explaining further, “However, Blood Baptizing has enormous limitations, because it consumes way too much blood. It’s impossible to refine all of your bullets using Blood Baptism, for we fire out hundreds of thousands of bullets a day. If each bullet were to be Blood Baptized, we would die of blood loss before even setting foot on the battlefield.”

“Typically speaking, snipers like fellow student Bei Jingjing are more suited to using Blood Baptizing to strengthen the spirituality of their bullets. Every sniper bullet they fire has undergone Blood Baptizing of many years. Their bullets can curve and do all sorts of oddities.”

“People like Chunyu Peng and I have slowly baptized a few ammo clips of Blood Bullets. Normally we hate to use them, but in critical moments where our lives are at stake, we will bring them out.”

“As for Soul Division, when one opens fire, a strand of the soul is attached to the bullet. It follows with the bullet as the bullet gets fired, increasing the ability to control the bullet. It is much more powerful than typical telepathic manipulation.”

“When cultivated to the peak, the bullet becomes equivalent to a clone. This mystical ability is too wonderful for words.”

“However, it must be noted that for Soul Division, during the instant the bullet is just about to hit the target, one must perform a ‘Soul Retrieval’ and retrieve this strand of the soul. Otherwise, when the bullet explodes, this strand of the soul will scatter and dissipate as well, causing great damage to the gunman. If the damage to the enemy is 1000, then the damage to one’s self is 800. It’s a situation where both sides suffer.”

Ma Jiao’s words set off a wild surge in the bottom of Li Yao’s heart.

Through endless days of bloody battle, he had discovered his weak point of having inferior attack power.

His absolute strength was excessive enough, his burst strength was high enough, and his ability to resist blows was strong enough.

But he didn’t have a set of outstanding techniques. He was incapable of completely transforming his strength into destructive power.

This was the reason why he had to go through great amounts of calculations to use his Heavy Vibrosaber and Six Barrel Rotary Cannon; this was his only method to draw out his max destructive power in his current circumstances.

How could he not know just how utterly tiring and cumbersome it was to carry the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon and an entire giant crate of ammunition?

Even though he had enough physical ability to carry all of this, what if he could carry less ammunition? Wouldn’t his speed increase?

If he could learn some super basic gun fighting techniques, it was super clear that his combat ability would increase. It was all good, whether it be carrying less ammo or switching to a lighter, more portable firearm. The margin for his tactical options would become much greater!

‘Calculations of the firing trajectory can be slowly tempered on a live battlefield. Dividing out a strand of the soul to control the bullet… this sort of mystical ability sounds difficult to the extreme the instant one hears it. This isn’t something that could be learned in a short time. What’s more, there’s no place to learn it!’

‘What about Blood Baptism, Blood Baptism?’

Li Yao’s heart stirred and he was wild with joy.

There were countless different types of Blood Baptism methods in the Hundred Smelting Clan!

The greatest experts of the ancient refiners would take their own blood and essence and assimilate them into their magical equipment. There were even legends of ancient sword forgers who, for the sake of forging swords, jumped into furnaces to forge swords with their bodies.

There were quite a few low level Blood Baptism techniques on the first floor of the Heavenly Refining Tower. Though they weren’t sufficient to be used to baptize and strengthen magical equipment, baptizing a few small bullets to slightly strengthen their might should be more than enough, right?

“I’ve decided that next I will focus on blade techniques, shooting techniques, and even blood baptism techniques in cultivation!”

Li Yao was a refiner. Obviously, in battle, he had to walk the path of a massively equipped man and use all sorts of powerful magical equipment to engage in close-combat slaughter.

Whether it be close-combat magical equipment or long-range magical equipment, he had to be proficient in using them. Only in this way could he display his superiority to the maximum.

“We’re heading out. Let’s continue to slay the demon beasts!”

They had rested for half an hour. After a small hunting squad had sent a report back to the command center about the current situation and location, they continued to head forward!

“Rumble rumble!”

“Rumble rumble rumble rumble!”

Gold Phoenix Road isn’t a street; it’s a bustling area where high-rises stand in great numbers. Sounds of explosions and fighting came from all around.

Other hunting squads were engaging in bloody combat.

Everyone knew that this was their last chance. They wasted no second of time to train, sweep the area, and to rack up their meritorious military service!

“Whoosh!”

There weren’t many demon beasts left on the surface that possessed anti-air attacks. The armed forces of humanity could boldly fly in the skies above the cities in their flying shuttles and small battleships. They dropped one flickering and glistening metal crate after another down with enormous parachutes appearing above them. The crates swayed as they fell to the ground.

“Bang!”

A large metal crate smashed to the ground not to far away from Li Yao and the others.

Li Yao advanced with large strides. He spread out his hand and pressed against the array glyph slightly infused with a blue glow on the large metal crate.

“Beep Beep!”

The array glyph turned green, a hissing noise sounded, streams of air spouted out from all sides of the metal crate, and the crate slowly opened.

The insides were packed to the brim with high-energy nutrition doses, clean water, ammunition, and close-combat weapons.

“Everyone quickly calm yourselves and replenish your gear. This supply crate is quite decent. They even sent us a hundred Thunder-Palms refined by the Dragon Tiger Sect!”

Li Yao’s eyes lit up as he hung twenty Thunder-Palms on his combat vest and stuffed his ammunition box full.

The other people also replenished their ammunition, food, and water. Their original body armor was nearly exhausted of their spiritual energy, so they swapped to new ones.

The six people looked completely new a moment later. They went towards the depths of the Financial District to go killing.

After repelling two parts of the beast tide, they finally reached the core region of Gold Phoenix Road.

Quite a few financial companies had their headquarters here. The signs of banks, financial companies, and insurance companies hung on all the tall and large buildings to either side of them. They could vaguely see the the bustling activity of the past.

In the past, there were people coming and going; this was the center of the city, bustling with activity. Yet, now it had turned into a demon area where the chilly wind came in waves and the ghostly air was dense. The howls of demon beasts sounded out over and over, endlessly lingering in their ears.

Everyone’s gazes gradually swept across the large buildings surging with demonic energy.

Explosions, roars, screams, and powerful spiritual energy waves came from some of these buildings. Clearly, some people had gotten here early.

“The most powerful demon beasts must be hiding in these buildings!”

“Which building are we choosing?”

“The bank or the insurance company?”

“Huh? This is…”

The gazes of the six people were simultaneously cast towards a large building. They all felt the powerful demonic energy coming from within.

“So its the stock exchange center!”

“No wonder, the demonic energy is this intense!”

“Wow, the green demonic energy is surging out from the broken windows to congeal into a layer of green miasma, firmly enveloping the entire stock exchange center!”

“There must be a lot of ruthless demon beasts that can kill through underhanded means hibernating within this stock exchange center!”

The six people glanced at each other and nodded their heads at the same time. They rushed into the stock exchange center after uttering low growls.

The first floor of the stock exchange center was a spacious and wide hall. Countless Green-Skinned Saber Mantises and similar demon beasts were gathered here.

These demon beasts’ strengths were low. They didn’t dare to go out and court death. They could only lie in wait within the large building.

Because they were short on food, they had actually started to kill each other.

Upon entering, Li Yao and the others just so happened to see a weaker Green-Skinned Saber Mantis get killed by its own kind. Seven, eight Green-Skinned Saber Mantises laid on its corpse, eating with great delight.

The Green-Skinned Saber Mantis with stomachs rumbling with hunger weren’t willing to let go of their food even when they noticed the intruders. They tore off pieces of meat from the corpse of their companion before shrieking and pouncing onto Li Yao’s group.

Li Yao and the others opened fire. Their crossfire was like three scarlet waves that instantaneously engulfed the Green-Skinned Saber Mantises completely, leaving not even dregs.

Upon hearing the gunfire, several hundred Green-Skinned Saber Mantises came rushing down from the second floor. Mixed among them were a few dozen Black Armored Saber Mantises, and at their rear were five Gold Armored Saber Mantises.

“Come then!”

Everyone glanced at each other, took out their Thunder-Palms without the slightest hesitation, and sent them to cleave and smash the skulls of the beast tide.

The Thunder-Palm was a secret equipment of the Dragon Tiger Sect. At first glance, it just looked like a pitch-black and unremarkable metal shell, but it was hiding intensely condensed thunder crystals and even a miniature Five Thunder Punishment Formation.

When it’s set off, it would be like a field of small descending Thunder Tribulations.

From the perspectives of the demon beast, it was in no way inferior to punishment from heaven!

The Green-Skinned Saber Mantises were all fried and smashed to pieces. The Black Armored Saber Mantises had their skin and flesh split and rendered, blood and flesh flying all around. And even the Gold Armored Saber Mantises, under the chain of explosions from the several dozen Thunder-Palms, were dizzy and disoriented, staggering.

“Kill kill kill kill kill kill kill!”

Six people were like six fierce tigers with stomachs rumbling with hunger pouncing on a flock of sheep. They were like a hot knife through butter as they threw themselves straight to the Gold Armored Saber Mantises!

Li Yao remembered the words Ma Jiao had spoken earlier. He simply relaxed his control over the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon and increased his rate of fire. The jump of the muzzle of the gun increased in scope.

And Li Yao was in deep concentration as he carefully analyzed the trajectory of his own bullets.

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!”

Before his eyes, the entire world seemed to transform into a transparent blueprint. The distance between him and the demon beasts, the relative velocity, and the firing angle were all transformed into a series of data. Like a torrential downpour, the data cleaved into his cranium.

The countless data collided together in an instant to condense and form an incomparably clear trajectory that came extending perfectly straight out from the muzzle of his gun. It extended until it reached the dead center of a Gold Armored Saber Mantis’ skull!

Chapter 181: Demon General!

Holding his breath, Li Yao tried to lower the rate of fire of the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon to the minimum, as he consciously tried to control the firepower and press the trigger along with the rhythm of his heartbeat.

For the first few seconds, the line of fire was consistent with the trajectory he had calculated.

The spiritual energy explosive rounds struck dead right at the center of Gold Armored Saber Mantis’ head. And obviously, the power had also greatly elevated. After just a dozen rounds, the armor of the Gold Armored Saber Mantis was opened and a large mass of sticky liquid burst forth from inside.

However, after a few seconds, Li Yao was unable to hold on.

With every shot fired, the muzzle would slightly deviate. Meanwhile, the Gold Armored Saber Mantis also had a very quick reaction time; it would constantly jump here and there, dodging most of the bullets.

Every second, the distance, position, speed, and all kinds of information would have subtly changed; each parameter was having all kinds of varying changes.

Analyzing and calculating the new bullet trajectory in accordance with the new variables would at the very least take a second or possibly more. Meanwhile, the Gold Armored Saber Mantis would have long moved to a new location, thereby turning the new line of fire null and void.

Li Yao’s computational ability was elevated to the extreme, yet he could barely calculate for a few seconds before he felt dizzy. All the values of the parameters had turned into series of stars that were revolving around his eyes.

This kind of dynamic calculation of madly changing variables was ten times more difficult compared to the calculating the static magical equipment structure!

If he forcibly continued down this path, perhaps even before the Gold Armored Saber Mantis was killed, his brain would overdraft and he would faint.

“The difficulty of calculating the bullet trajectory in real time is really too high, I can not easily master it for now. Even if I entered the super perceptive state so that my brain activity is elevated to more than 150%, I am afraid I am still unable to do it! Perhaps if my brain activity was elevated to 300% or more, I could barely calculate once every second. However, this way, I will simply be unable to hold on for too long and quite possibly have Qigong deviation.”

Having thought this, Li Yao abandoned the plan of entering the super perceptive state. It was his secret life-saving method, and since he still had control over the current situation, there was no need to display it so early.

Under the Thunder-Palms and everyone’s fire, even before 10 minutes were up, all the Saber Mantises were blasted into nothing but slag.

“Let’s keep going!”

The six continued down the stairs, cleaning floor after floor. After they had killed four low-level demon beasts, they finally encountered big guys at the trading hall on the seventh floor.

There were seven 2 meters long and over 500-pound demon beasts that looked like huge lizards. Their entire bodies were covered in colorful and gorgeous scales, and no matter where they crawled, the scales would change their colors with the surrounding environment instantaneously. At first glance, they seemed to completely blend in with the environment, making them extremely difficult to distinguish.

The seven lizards were lazily gnawing the corpses of a few Green-Skinned Saber Mantises. When they caught a whiff of human smell, they became completely vigilant; their scales turned red as blood before they returned to their previous color of the surrounding environment in the blink of an eye. They shook their heads and flicked their tails before surrounding the six humans silently.

“Mystic Chameleons? We hit it big this time!”

Ma Jiao mischievously laughed as he glanced at the trio from the Grand Desolate War Institution with a provocative look. “What do you think? The Mystic Chameleon is one of the strongest middle-rank Demon Soldiers. Not only does it have an inherent camouflaging ability, it can also release peculiar demonic fluctuations that could disrupt our telepathic senses, making it very difficult for us to sense its accurate location. In addition, it also has an extremely corrosive and long tongue; it’s a very nasty piece of sh*t!”

“There’s nothing wrong with being afraid. Our way of escape is not yet closed off, it’s not a big deal for us to retreat. We can end this mission right here, right now!”

Zhao Tianchong, Li Yao, and Lu Tieshan glanced at each other, and upon noticing the sharp war intention flickering in the depth of the eyes of the others, they sneered.

“Ma Jiao, there is really no need to goad us, we are all cultivators and have long been playing with fire and skating on thin ice, risking everything for just for one thing and one thing only, ‘bravery’! Beheading a Mystic Chameleon is many times more beneficial than cutting ten Gold Armored Saber Mantises. If we are not going to fight them, then what did we come here to do? Then wouldn’t it better to obediently return to the university and tuck our heads under the blanket?”

“Alright!”

Ma Jiao’s pair of eyes almost turned blood-shot as he pulled out a magazine that was laced with blood-colored tattoos to reload. He burst into laughter and said, “Teaming up with brothers of the Grand Desolate War Institution is the best thing ever, you guys aren’t people who are afraid of how others would perceive you running away, and try to tuck your heads under the blanket. Getting rid of these few Mystic Chameleons would be greatly rewarding, so please take out all your aces in the holes!”

“Whoosh!”

Before Ma Jiao’s voice could fade away, Lu Tieshan had already torn away his body armor. Even the melee combat suit was torn to pieces, revealing his black-iron-tower-like majestic body.

His body was painted with gorgeous tattoos which gave the impression of golden snake-like lightning dancing amidst the billowing dark clouds one after another that flashed and rumbled with the bulging of his muscles. They looked quite alive.

With a roar from Li Tieshan, the lightning tattoos, like a living thing, actually jumped up as they ran around his body, forming an armor of lightning. The two iron-hammer-like fists, in particular, had hundreds of lightning bolts running around each of them, and when he smashed them with each other, they subsequently burst forth with lightning and thunder; it was quite deafening!

Unarmed body practitioner, sword cultivator, and firearms cultivator, these three professions had launched all their tyrannical, odd, and marvelous skills at this moment. This not only caused Li Yao to secretly be astounded, but the three firearms cultivators of the Federation’s First Military College were dumbfounded as well; they felt their scalps tingle.

Zhao Tianchong coldly snorted as he drew an oddly-shaped longsword from his back. With distinct edges and corners, the blade consisted of segments upon segments, as though it had been forged from the spine of a demon beast. Even though no blood had been drawn, it was exuding an intense bloody aura.

“Kacha Kacha!”

The three firearms cultivators changed their bullets with the precious blood bullets that had been baptized with their own blood essence, and as they started chanted something, their eyes turned brighter and brighter. In the outer rim of their pupils, ring after ring of aura emerged, and each ring of aura was rotating at high speed.

Battle started!

Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan protected the forefront, whereas Li Yao started his crazy onslaught of spiritual explosive shells, suppressing the few Mystic Chameleons in the front. As for the three remaining firearms cultivators, they were outpouring their firepower together on a Mystic Lizard at the rightmost side.

The bullets baptized with their own blood essence were incomparably powerful. The air was filled with ear-piercing howls. The Mystic Chameleon didn’t even have the time to react before it fell backward with its limbs in the air. Just as it was flipping backward, a scorching hot sniper bullet drilled its way into its right eye, ruthlessly blowing away the inside of its head.

It didn’t even have the time to scream before twitching for a moment and laying flat on the ground, with a light yellow liquid pouring out from its eyes, nose, and ears

“Whoosh!”

Watching this, the six remaining Mystic Chameleons entered the camouflage state and blended with their surrounding environment. Meanwhile, they started emitting demonic fluctuations, disrupting the spiritual energy perception of the six humans.

Li Yao pursed his lips into a smile as he aimed the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon at the ceiling and aimlessly started firing.

Under the large range of suppressive fire, a few Mystic Chameleons were bound to be hit by the aimless bullets. Although it wasn’t enough to cause them significant damage, it was enough for the rest to lock onto their position!

“Hiss! Hiss!”

After a moment, the six Mystic Chameleons were laced with bruises, bleeding a large amount of yellow brown mucus. They were unable to hide their traces anymore.

One of the Mystic Chameleons was even hit in the heart by a sniper bullet, causing it to writhe on the ground and scream.

The remaining five Mystic Chameleons no longer concealed themselves either; they revealed themselves from the various corners of the ceiling as they vigorously jumped towards the six.

At this time, it was the cultivators’ turn to demonstrate their close combat might. Even Li Yao threw the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon down and drew the Windcutter, greeting the demon beasts.

“Whoosh!”

The five Mystic Chameleons simultaneously projected their long tongues, which were full of barbs. Their tongues were covered in a light yellow corrosive substance, which, upon contact with the ground, hissed and caused white fumes to rise into the air.

Li Yao’s eyes quickly went wide as spiritual energy madly burst forth from every pore of his body, forming thousands of large and small airbags which bounced off the two long tongues. Meanwhile, taking advantage of the situation, he stepped forward and swung the Windcutter forward from bottom to top, drawing a perfect semi-circle!

This strike was the perfect attack line he had drawn after repeated calculations, enough for him to unleash his strength and speed to the extreme. Even if it was the Armored Snapping Turtle’s most solid shell, this strike could chop it in half, needless to mention the soft tongue of the Mystic Chameleon!

With a flash of the blade, half of the long tongue was ruthlessly chopped off. It writhed on the ground like an earthworm burning in the sun.

The Mystic Chameleon threw caution to the wind as it desperately shook its head and revealed its fragile jaw, which was subsequently blown off by the crossfire of the three firearms cultivators.

Since there was a team behind him for protection, Li Yao had nothing to fear. After swinging that strike with all he had, not only he did not halt, he, purely relying on his calf muscles and ankle movements, forcibly took a large step forward. His entire body drew a semi-circle, dragging the saber, whereupon by virtue of the subsequent centrifugal force, its speed reached a whole new level. The blade’s tip almost broke through the sound barrier as the Windcutter ruthlessly landed upon another Mystic Chameleon.

This strike was not looking for the weakness of the Mystic Chameleon at all, instead contending with just pure strength. The Windcutter ruthlessly cut the hide of the Mystic Chameleon and embedded itself deep inside its flesh. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Li Yao activated the oscillating array glyphs to the maximum, causing the Windcutter’s edge to madly vibrate thousands of times every second. The blade cut through the flesh and bones, forcibly chopping off the Mystic Chameleon’s foreleg.

Just as the Mystic Chameleon opened its mouth to scream from losing its foreleg, its brain had been blown away by a quick sniper shot.

Li Yao clicked his tongue in marvel as he raised his thumb towards his back without looking.

A prideful whistle responded from behind.

The female sniper Bei Jingjing was not as cold and proud as her appearance suggested; after getting along with her for a long while, one could see her secret half.

The six became more and more skilled in coordinating. After five minutes, the final Mystic Chameleon fell on the ground with lightning running all over its body. It convulsed for a moment before finally remaining still.

Among the six, only Lu Tieshan happened to have his chest hit by the long tongue of Mystic Chameleon, leaving a seared line. However, from the calm look on his face, it was quite clear that it wasn’t any life-threatening injury; he could hold on long enough to reach the medical center at the campsite.

“We made it big this time!”

“Seven Mystic Chameleons! On average, everyone has killed a little more than one Mystic Chameleon, which is enough for us to proudly return!”

Ma Jiao gasped for breath; apparently, he was very excited.

Zhao Tianchong also agreed as he nodded and said, “Everyone is quite exhausted and we have used up most of our ammunition. Our close combat equipment has also suffered some losses. We ought to return, any undue delay may bring us trouble!”

“Alright, let’s return. Chunyu Peng, how many rounds do you still have left?” Ma Jiao did not turn his head for a reply.

In response to his question, only a muffled sound came as two hundred plus pound Chunyu Peng ruthlessly flew out like a sack. While spewing blood, he flew for twenty or so meters before heavily crashing into the wall, drawing a human-shape pit.

“Slither! Slither!”

A new demon beast, which was surrounded by the matchless aura of a leader, slithered out from the complex criss-cross ventilation pipes in the ceiling. Its narrow eyes seemed like topaz as they coldly stared at everyone, while its eyes flickered with a sliver of ridicule.

The complexions of Li Yao, Ma Jiao, Zhao Tianchong, Lu Tieshan, and Bei Jingjing all changed at the same time.

“Such an intense demonic energy, is it a high-rank Demon Soldier?”

“No way, it is stronger than the high-rank Demon Soldiers. It’s…it’s a Demon General!”

Chapter 182: The Bravest One Wins!

More than ten meters in length, the lower half of a giant python that was as thick as a bucket, an upper body resembling that of a human covered in snakeskin, and a total of six limbs with three fingers. Four of its limbs were close to the abdomen and were used to assist in crawling, while the remaining two were located on either side of the humanoid torso and each tightly clutched a blood-stained saber.

The Six-Armed Naga was a low-level Demon General; its strength was comparable to that of a low-level Building Foundation Stage cultivator. It was a demon beast with which six medium-level Refinement Stage cultivators who still had not reached their teens could not compete!

“No!”

Just when everyone was perplexed as to what to do, Li Yao shouted, “This Six-Armed Naga is definitely grievously wounded!”

“If it wasn’t injured, it would have long returned to the underground. If not, then what it is doing above the ground? Waiting for death?”

“Furthermore, we are simply not its opponent, and it could have killed us all long before!”

“If its injuries were light, it would have taken the opportunity to attack when we were fighting with the Mystic Chameleons. If that had happened, we would not have even had a 0.1% chance to win!”

“As it dared not attack us, it’s quite clear that it must have a reason not to do so!”

“And as you can see, I have been talking for a long while, yet it did not attack. It must have internal injuries!”

At first, everyone was surprised for a moment before they pulled themselves together.

That’s right, the Six Armed Naga was brutal in nature; had it not been grievously injured, it would have torn them into pieces long ago.

A fiery light that could simply burn a hole through the sky emerged from the depths of Li Yao’s eyes as he said with teeth clenched:

“The moment the Six-Armed Naga appeared, it also put on an imposing and menacing appearance. It wanted to scare the hell out of us so that we would flee, and in the process of our escape, when we revealed our flaws, it would destroy us!”

“When two people meet on a narrow path, only the brave wins. This is our only opportunity, so instead of drawing back, we must step forward and fight with it.”

“Either it will kill us, or we will kill it!”

Everyone took a glance at each other and saw flickers of flames burning in the depths of each other’s eyes.

Li Yao was absolutely right. When placed on a field of death, one would fight to live[1]! Even if it was the Demon General, once its head was chopped off, would it not still die!?

Zhao Tianchong quickly glanced at the crystal processor before a sliver of ferociousness crept into his voice:

“The Spiritual Nexus is jammed, there is no signal. We can’t even call for help, so it seems we have no choice but to fight with it!”

The Spiritual Nexus was the third greatest invention of the cultivation revolution, and since then the cultivation world had officially entered the information age, an era of networking. The cultivators could very easily transfer telepathic thoughts and send information through the Spiritual Nexus; it was an efficient and orderly way for the federation to come together.

In a protracted war with the mankind, the demon beasts were also constantly evolved. Many powerful demon clan experts, after paying the price of blood, had gradually grasped the demon technique of blocking the Spiritual Nexus.

In a demonic energy filled war zone, where flashes of lightning and peals of thunder burst forth and flames of war reached the sky, the Spiritual Nexus would most likely be jammed.

“Fight!”

“Fight!”

“Fight!”

Li Yao and the three took the front line, meanwhile, Ma Jiao and Bei Jingjing quickly retreated towards the back, searching for the right position to shoot.

A newborn calf is unafraid of a tiger. Facing the all-powerful Demon General, except for the panic at the beginning, all five burst forth with excitement to fight, disregarding their lives and deaths entirely. Even if they died, they would still bite off a piece of meat from the Six-Armed Naga!

“Hiss!”

The Six-Armed Naga didn’t expect these teenagers to be so brave; the ridicule in its eyes turned to hesitation.

Apparently, Li Yao’s guess was right on the mark. The Six-Armed Naga was indeed grievously injured in the underground battle by an intermediate-level Building Foundation Stage cultivator. It had fled in panic for a few days to find a foothold, where it gathered a bunch of Mystic Chameleons as subordinates and ordered them to catch Green-Skinned Saber Mantises daily for it to consume. Originally, it thought that after recovering from injuries for a few days, it would sneak into the underground, and find an opportunity to return to the Blood Demon Sector.

However, never had it imagined that it would encounter these pricks instead!

Although these kids’ cultivation was not too high, their firepower was quite powerful and they had good teamwork. If it wanted to kill all of them, it might have to pay a relatively large price. And if its old injuries relapsed, it would have to stay here and recover for three to five days.

Meanwhile, if, in a one in a million chance, the underground battle came to end, the remnants of the beast tide would withdraw to Blood Demon Sector, and it would die without a burial.

However, the six kids had powerful spiritual energy stored within their flesh and blood; if it could engulf them, it would help it recover early.

It was also impossible for the Six-Armed Naga to give up such a scrumptious piece of meat from its mouth.

Therefore, its plan was indeed the same as Li Yao had said; it wanted to scare the six and make them flee, then tail them and hunt them down.

Even if it was impossible for it to kill all of them, as long as it could devour two or three, it was sufficient for a while.

Never had it imagined that after Li Yao laid bare its plan, the kids would want a fight to the death, forcing it into a dead end.

The Six-Armed Naga fumed in anger. It could understand the human language; it knew it was none other than Li Yao who had foiled its plan. Its body shrunk before it fiercely shot its snake tail. “Whoosh!” Just like a spring that had been tightly pressed and then released, its tail shot at Li Yao with astonishing speed!

For Li Yao, it was as though a storm was blowing past his face. The subsequent wind made it impossible for him to open his eyes, whereupon he simply closed his eyes and only perceived the world through his telepathic thoughts. After his premolars almost broke from clenching, he tightly clutched the Windcutter, raised it above his head, and facing the vigorous gales, ruthlessly cleaved down!

“BOOM!”

This saber strike felt as though it was cleaving a speeding super fast crystal train.

The blade was suddenly adorned with cracks, while its tip also broke and flew away.

As though it was none other than Li Yao who was hit, he retreated a dozen steps in one go. His legs went numb as he fell down on his ass on the ground, spewing a mouthful of blood.

His hands, on the other hand, felt as though they had been deep fried in a seething oil pot for three minutes; on the surface, they were numb, whereas a drilling pain constantly spread out from the depths of his bone marrow.

Li Yao raised his hands to look. His hands were torn from the jaws of death; they were badly mutilated and were involuntarily trembling. He simply unable to hold the saber.

“A Demon General is actually so frightening!”

The Six-Armed Naga’s narrow snake face revealed an incomparably shocked look as a somewhat deep slanted wound appeared on its left shoulder. It was even unable to operate its left arm a bit as the saber in its left hand fell on the ground.

Its topaz-like eyes turned cloudy, as though the killing intent in its eyes would materialize and ruthlessly shoot towards Li Yao.

Just as it twisted its body to ruthlessly strangulate Li Yao, Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan charged in from left and right and attacked.

Zhao Tianchong’s long sword issued “Wu Wu”-like sharp howls as the sword aura exploded to three meters in length, while the lightning surrounding Lu Tieshan’s body got brighter as though he turned into huge spherical ball of lightning.

Both of them had their speed burst out to the extreme. Under the dizziness, Li Yao was simply unable to make out anything. All he saw was a mass of vague gray shadows stuck in a stalemate for three to five seconds before Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan flew out while spewing blood, giving the impression of two withered rice sacks falling on the ground.

Only the hilt of his blade remained in Zhao Tianchong’s hand, whereas Lu Tieshan’s entire body was laden with terrifying, crisscrossed injuries. The beautiful tattoo on his body was a terrible mess; the gorgeous scene of lightning and thunder had completely dissipated. Occasionally, it would burst forth with tiny electric sparks, like a flickering candle in the wind which could be extinguished momentarily.

“Hiss! Hiss!”

The Six-Armed Naga issued a series of furious hisses.

Its body had dazzling lightning arcs wrapped around it, and the broken half of Zhao Tianchong’s sword was deeply embedded in its chest. Finally, all the lightning arcs charged down the blade and into its body, running between its internal organs and causing it to be in unbearable pain. Under the stimulation of lightning arcs, its old heart injuries were just about to relapse!

Originally, the Six-Armed Naga was seriously injured, and its strength fell to that of a high-rank Demon Soldier. The five kids thought they were against the ropes and unleashed their strength to the extreme. The lightning arcs had coincidentally flowed into its body, which actually caused it to sustain serious injuries.

Before the Six-Armed Naga could respond, the two firearms cultivators also unleashed their final attack. A couple dozen quick gunshots sounding like incomparably short, sharp howls rang out as a couple dozen crimson streaks of light, dragging long streaks of flames and drawing strange arcs, hit the various vital points of Six-Armed Naga at inconceivable angles from all directions!

“Tuk-tuk-tuk, tuk-tuk-tuk!”

Tens of bloody fountains shot out from all over the Six-Armed Naga’s body and shrouded it in a dense bloody mist. It seemed to have stopped struggling.

“How should we deal with it?”

The five had their hearts in their mouths.

Li Yao, Zhao Tianchong, Lu Tieshan, Chunyu Peng… the four were grievously injured!

In contrast, Ma Jiao and Bei Jingjing were out of blood bullets and were even running low on conventional bullets, which simply weren’t enough to deal fatal damage to the Six-Armed Naga!

At present, the battle strength of the hunting squad had been pummelled down to less than 10%!

“Hissss, Hiiiissssss!”

Amid the bloody mist, a wail which seemed like a wail of doom, but also like a strange ear-piercing scream, as though wails of countless demon beasts were superimposed, rang out; when it rang in the depths of everyone’s ears, it caused everyone to feel endless fear.

This was one of the inherent demon techniques of the Six-Armed Naga. Once it was cast, it would consume its life source, the demonic essence of the Six-Armed Naga, which would aggravate its injuries. Thus, it was reluctant to utilize it until a moment ago.

At this moment, the Six-Armed Naga’s anger soared to the highest heavens; it became extremely mad. The demonic energy spread just like a flood. The Six-Armed Naga wanted to tear these brats into pieces by all means!

“Escape!”

Having hit by the demonic technique, everyone had the same idea and involuntarily retreated towards the stairs as though they were hypnotized.

“Escape through the window!”

Li Yao’s soul was firmer than that of his counterparts. Under the attack of Six-Armed Naga’s demonic technique, he still remained clear-headed.

It was the seventh floor, and by virtue of the cultivators’ tyrannical bodies, even if they jumped down, they wouldn’t fall to their deaths; not to mention, it was much faster than taking the stairs!

Everyone woke a bit from their stupor by Li Yao and suddenly came to realize this.

Throwing the sniper rifle to one side, Bei Jingjing clenched her teeth as she somehow carried the unconscious Chunyu Peng.

Ma Jiao helped Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan. Although the two were seriously injured, they weren’t unconscious; they could still walk. The three with their arms on each other’s shoulders tottered their way towards the window.

“Do you…want…to escape?”

Amid the blood mist, the Six-Armed Naga issued a savage laugh with a very strange tone.

“Slither, Slither!”

Slithering with its blood-covered body, the Six-Armed Naga once again appeared before everyone.

Despite having one of its limbs broken, receiving a huge charred wound on its chest from the lightning, and being riddled with thousands of bullets…

The overflowing demonic energy only grew in intensity; its topaz-like narrow eyes were completely red as blood at this moment.

At this moment, it had finally madly mobilized its demonic essence despite the recurrence of its old injuries and burst forth with its true strength!

To retaliate against the Six-Armed Naga, under the push from the electrical array glyphs, the six barrels of the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon started rotating at high-speed, emitting a weak whirring sound.

This was the sign of the impending bulletstorm!

Chapter 183: Want to Kill Me? Taste The Hellfire-Lightning!

“Pop Pop Pop Pop Pop!”

Before the spiritual energy explosive shells burst, a series of firecrackers burst in the air around Li Yao, as though storm kept on coming from inside his body. On the either side of his torso, innumerable transparent plumes appeared as the two wings of spiritual energy were formed. When they spread, they tore through the air, emitting an eagle’s cry.

Soul Igniting Law, Soaring Into Heaven in One Leap – the falcon king soaring into the sky in one leap!

Li Yao released his soul completely, making his fire of life unscrupulously burn as he constantly broke through the limits and burst to his highest state possible!

Meanwhile, all the windows on the floor they were on instantaneously shattered, leaving fragments floating around in the air. Amid the energy waves, they were crushed into transparent particles which seemingly gathered around Li Yao to create a crystal armor.

“Refinement Stage’s 3rd level?”

“Refinement Stage’s 4th level?”

“Refinement Stage’s—5th level?”

None of them dared to believe their eyes, but their spiritual roots clearly perceived Li Yao’s flames of life soaring, releasing light and heat which was already far beyond their level.

“He is truly in the 5th level of the Refinement Stage!”

No matter how many times Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan swore again and again, no matter what inconceivable things had occurred with Li Yao, both of them would not find it strange, but this time, they were still—

Left! Extremely! Shocked!

Li Yao was surrounded by spiritual energy wings that were visible to the naked eyes, while violent spiritual energy just like lava course through his blood vessels. Under the fierce explosion of spiritual energy, his brain activity tremendously exceeded the norm.

150% brain cell activity!

The entire world in Li Yao’s eyes gradually became translucent as all things turned into nothing but constantly changing parameters.

200% brain cell activity!

The Six-Armed Naga disappeared and became a combination of parameters; body, vital points, speed, movement trajectory, everything turned into parameters!

250% brain cell activity!

All the parameters madly clashed with each other, lines intersected with each other, bullet trajectories fiercely moved up and down one after another, and finally combined together.

300% brain cell activity!

Locked!

The Six-Armed Naga was completely locked.

No matter how the Six-Armed Naga moved, no matter how the thousands of parameters changed, Li Yao could always calculate the new bullet trajectory instantaneously. He was firmly locked onto the target!

331% brain cell activity!

Li Yao’s entire body roared as his muscles rapidly expanded to the point that the highly flexible combat tights were taut to the extreme. They tore at a few places on his arms and chest, revealing the light gold, hard skin.

Suddenly, his gun exploded before him like a volcano as he ruthlessly fired a scorching crimson line of bullets at the Six-Armed Naga!

A sliver of disdain appeared in the blood-red eyes of Six-Armed Naga. It twisted and jumped, but as it tried to dodge the fire line…

It never imagined that the fire line seemingly had long eyes and would be tuned and re-adjusted instantaneously; it ruthlessly lashed out just like a red-hot iron whip. The strike’s power was far more than it had imagined, a bloody flower burst at the Six-Armed Naga’s chest!

Suddenly, the Six-Armed Naga’s pupils shrunk into two lines as it emitted a blood-curdling scream and performed high-speed maneuvers in an effort to dodge.

However, no matter how the Six-Armed Naga dodged, the fire line, like a deep-rooted ulcer on the bones, was right on its tail. Having been continuously hit, its body was badly bruised. Its skin burst open and its flesh hung in shreds as it let out blood-curdling screams one after another.

“BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!”

Half of the trading hall was covered by the crazy onslaught of the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon, giving off the impression of hundreds of Thunder Palms simultaneously exploding.

Wherever the fire line went, everything was smashed into pieces!

For an entire half-minute, Zhao Tianchong, Lu Tieshan, Ma Jiao, Bei Jingjing…all of them dumbfoundedly watched Li Yao and his crazy onslaught, seemingly watching the arrival of a war god as it slaughtered everything in his wake!

When the shots stopped, Li Yao threw the Six-Armed Rotary Cannon as well as the huge ammunition case forward before he quickly ran to their side. Whereas, his companions had yet to react.

“Did…did you kill it?”

Ma Jiao asked in a quaking voice.

Having watched Li Yao’s terrifying performance, Ma Jiao was completely sure that once this guy acted, he would become crazy; even if a mountain was blocking him, he would directly blast the mountain!

“What the hell do you think?! That’s a Demon General!”

Blood seemed to be overflowing from the Li Yao’s eyes, ears, and the corners of his mouth; his appearance was somewhat hideous. And, because he over-drafted his brain, he was not far away from having a Qigong deviation!

Stepping on the windowsill, Li Yao crazily roared:

“Hurry up, or you’ll never escape!”

Everyone woke from their stupor and carried their injured companions to the windowsill.

“Hiss! Hiss!”

The Six-Armed Naga behind them, whose entire body was badly mauled from the explosions, let out a series of despotic screams.

The Six-Armed Naga’s condition was extremely bad. Its whole left arm along with the scapula was shot off and its heart had suffered serious injuries. If Li Yao could sustain the onslaught for another half-minute, maybe the Six-Armed Naga would have been killed.

Unfortunately, Li Yao had reached the end of his computing power. Even a second more and he would have suffered Qigong deviation on the spot!

“BOOM!”

Just as the Six-Armed Naga gave a chase, the interlacing exhaust pipes and lights on the ceiling came crashing down, right on top of the Six-Armed Naga’s head.

It was nothing other than Li Yao’s making; having known that he could not sustain his onslaught any longer, he intentionally diverted some of the shots at the last minute and broke the supports of the fixed pipes and light fixtures one by one.

Certainly, there was no way these things would crush the Six-Armed Naga to death, but it could stop it for a few seconds.

And taking advantage of these few seconds, Li Yao and the six jumped down from the seventh floor!

“Activate the spiritual energy shield with maximum power!”

In the air, amid the howling wind, Li Yao shouted in a high voice.

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”

Everyone stimulated the spiritual energy of their body armor to the extreme before curved transparent shields were released one after another.

“Hiss!”

Finally, the Six-Armed Naga broke out from the twisted group of metal pipes. In a breath, it shot its way to the window.

Having been driven to madness, it lost its mind and seemed to not care whether it would be found by some high-level cultivator. Its brain was only filled with one thought and one thought only: chase these humans and kill them all!

At the very least, kill that kid who used the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon to seriously injure it!

Having thought this, the Six-Armed Naga resentfully took a glance at the cannon and the ammunition box thrown by Li Yao.

It had long seen this kind of weapon, all it could do was deal with those insignificant Demon Soldiers. Never had it imagined that such a weapon would cause it to sustain serious injuries!

At this moment, the Six-Armed Naga turned stiff. Suddenly, it sensed an incomparably sharp danger.

It was as though some peerless expert had broken space and appeared beside it.

Every scale on Six-Armed Naga’s body shrunk as its terrified gaze swept everywhere for a long while before finally stopping on the ammunition case not too far away from it.

“Inside…”

The Six-Armed Naga trembled as it let out terrifying shrieks.

Almost at the same instant, just as Li Yao was about to fall on the ground, he fiercely pushed his waist down.

“BOOM!”

The three floors of the stock exchange center were instantly enveloped in a sea of fire. Flames were shooting up from every window, giving off the impression of countless ferocious beasts angrily trying to escape only to be pulled back by some kind of invisible power. In the wake of the powerful explosion, everything inside the building was devastated.

Billowing hot waves just like six hammers ruthlessly impacted the six before they heavily crashed into the ground.

Even with the powerful physique of a cultivator, it was difficult for them to persevere. Ma Jiao and Bei Jingjing each spat a mouthful of blood; they had broken their fair share of bones.

However, at this moment, there was no time to take a breather.

“Hurry up!”

Li Yao slapped a freezing glyph on his head to quickly cool his boiling brain down before the six, with their arms around each other, ran hundreds of meters in one deep breath. Finally, they could not hold on and fell to the ground, laying flat on their backs.

“Beep!”

The spiritual nexus was online.

Zhao Tianchong sent a request for help right away.

In all directions, where there was nothing but buildings, there were also many battle squads who had noticed the explosion at the stock trading center. Several dozen cultivators rushed over at high-speed.

Everyone dumbfoundedly looked at the stock trading center.

The three floors were completely engulfed in fire which continued to spread upwards, painting the entire building red.

A black silhouette jumped out from the raging flames. It quivered atop the windowsill before it fell from the seventh floor. It was completely charred. And even before it could crash to the ground, it broke into four to five pieces in the air and breathed its last breath.

“T-that wouldn’t be the Six-Armed Naga, right?”

“What the hell is going on? How the hell could there be such a powerful explosion?”

“Is it a bomb? Li Yao, you also carried such a powerful bomb? This bomb must be huge, right?! So where were you hiding it? How come I never saw it?”

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”

Everyone turned their gaze at Li Yao.

“It’s the Hellfire-Lightning!”

Lightly rubbing his temple, Li Yao explained with a tired look on his face. “When I was modifying the weapon case into an ammunition case, I realized that we would be fighting on the front lines and could get support anytime. Although two bullet belts were a bit insufficient, there was no need for an entire box of bullets.”

“Wouldn’t it be a waste if I brought so many bullets and didn’t finish them? Not to mention the possibility that the barrel might even get overheated or damaged somehow?”

“So, I changed the ammo case into a double-layered structure. The outside had the bullets and the inside was a personally-modified super bomb created by combining ten Hellfire-Lightnings.”

“Ten Hellfire-Lightnings?!”

Everyone was shocked as they gazed at Li Yao with a dreadful look in their eyes.

The Hellfire-Lightning was an explosive-type magical equipment specifically crafted by the army by connecting highly condensed fire crystals and lightning crystals in series by a special triggering array glyph.

It was true to its name; once it exploded, the blast was akin to lightning strikes and volcanic explosions!

However, the Hellfire-Lightning was huge and very heavy. Even though its power was quite strong, it was not suitable for a soldier to carry or throw at all.

It was mainly used as a landmine or utilized for blasting a fixed demon beast lair.

No one had ever thought that Li Yao would be crazy enough to carry ten of them together, and even more so, chain them together. It was truly crazy!

From the get-go, the Six-Armed Naga was seriously injured. Then, it had suffered a crazy bombardment from the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon for half minute, and then finally got to taste ten Hellfire-Lightnings at close range. It had truly suffered a wrongful death.

“However…”

After they came to know the truth, everyone was drenched in cold sweat; they could not utter a single word for a long while.

Just the thought of themselves having been in such a close proximity to ten Hellfire-Lightnings was terrifying. And, if Li Yao’s modification technique was even a bit worse, if the bomb happened to get set off, not even a single hair of them would have remained!

It was absolutely terrifying!

“Wh-What were you planning on doing with so many Hellfire-Lightnings? Had you long planned to deal with a Demon General?”

Ma Jiao stammered.

Li Yao smiled:

“No way! The reason I carried so many Hellfire-Lightnings was that if, and only if, I somehow ended up at a dead end, where I was surrounded by powerful demon beasts and had no room for escape, I could blow them.”

“I am Vulture Li Yao. Although I may be a nameless newbie in the cultivation world who has insignificant strength, I am not so easy to kill.”

“You want to kill me? No matter whether you were Demon General or Demon King, you would have to pay a fatal price!”

Everyone was rendered speechless. After remaining silent for a while, Bei Jingjing heaved a long sigh of relief as she whispered to Ma Jiao:

“When I first saw him, I could not believe that a guy who was carrying a Six Barrel Rotary Cannon and a Heavy Vibrosaber could infiltrate Gao Ye’s command center and execute the Beheading Technique against a talented commander like him!”

“But now…I believe!”

Chapter 184: Total Victory

Early morning, two days later.

The harsh winter was already over and with the advent of spring, everything was coming back to life; the grass was growing, birds were chirping.

Li Yao jumped out from the medical treatment pod, but there was still some light green high-energy nutrient solution covering his body. With a few strange movements of his muscles, it was absorbed through his pores into his flesh and blood, nourishing his strong physique.

After a moment, quite a few black droplets oozed out from all over his body, emitting a pungent smell.

It was the extravasated blood and the waste from the body circulation.

With a slight shake of his body, the hairs across his body immediately stood while all the droplets disappeared without a trace from the shock.

Li Yao burst into a jovial laughter as he wore the tight black combat suit and comfortably stretched his muscles before casually doing a few sets of [Thirteen Forces of War Beasts].

Suddenly, tiger and dragon roars could be heard coming from inside the medical tent.

Having been undergoing treatment for two days, not only had all the internal injuries Li Yao had sustained been cured, the excessively overdrafted brain cells had also recovered. Furthermore, carrying out the battle under the limit state of 331% brain cell activity had faintly stimulated the potential of Li Yao’s soul, giving him the chance to touch the barrier of the 6th level of the Refinement Stage.

And despite not having entered the 6th level Refinement Stage, Li Yao could vaguely see the high and abstruse glittering great Dao which was gradually opening in front of him, leading him to the highest heaven beyond the clouds, to the endless cosmos.

“I have really reaped a great harvest in the battle of Verdant Tarn City. Not only have I raked in a lot of credits, I have also grasped a little chance to rush into the intermediate-level of the Refinement Stage.”

“Once I entered the intermediate-level Refinement Stage, I can utilize the spiritual energy for combat. My battle force will experience a breakthrough, and it will be quite different compared to my strength in the low-level Refinement Stage!”

“Ah, right, two days have already passed, I wonder whether the credits for the final battle are calculated or not?!”

Without further ado, Li Yao started up the crystal processor as he entered the mission interface of the Grand Desolate War Institution.

Since the last battle was fought together with the students of the Federation’s First Military College, the allocation of merits involved negotiations between the two universities. The algorithm for the allocation was quite complex, and hence the final settlement could not be done on the spot at all.

When Li Yao accessed the mission interface, the translucent holographic screen immediately burst with a long list of credits awarded as crisp “Beep Beep Beep Beep” sounds of notification rang incessantly.

“Wow, I made a fortune!”

Li Yao’s eyes lit up brightly.

The Gold Phoenix Road was the last stronghold above ground for the demon beasts and was extremely dangerous, and as such, additional credits were awarded to the low-level students like Li Yao who dared to take such risks.

After the system had done complex calculations, most of the merits for killing the Six-Armed Naga landed upon his head.

He alone was assigned 60% of the battle merits, while the rest of the 40% was allocated between the five.

In addition, there were battle merits for killing Mystic Chameleons and a large number of low-level demon beasts, as well as merits for suppressing the entire stock trading center, then there were also the battle merits accumulated from the previous battles.

All in all, when all of Li Yao’s military achievements in the Verdant Tarn City battle were converted into credits, they surpassed 10,000 and reached a terrifying number of 16,993, which compared to the credits acquired during the previous semester was quite a lot!

Adding the previous credits, Li Yao’s total credits were 23,749.

Had it not been for Li Yao procuring various magical equipment as well as raw materials, for which a large number of credits were spent, the total number of credits would have surpassed the 25,000 mark.

Even so, it was still an astonishing figure.

Even Ding Lingdang and Peng Hai had not achieved such terrifying result till the second half of the 1st year.

Li Yao had already set a record as the fastest scorer in last two decades of Grand Desolate War Institution.

“Amazing, this time my luck was too good.”

Li Yao slightly smiled, from the 20,000 or so credits, a vast majority came from killing the Six-Armed Naga during the last battle.

The Six-Armed Naga was a low-level Demon General, whose strength was comparable to a low-level Building Foundation Stage cultivator. Compared to him, who was just a low-level Refinement Stage cultivator, there was too big of a gap.

He was an epitome of the weak overcoming the strong. Not only had he put a demon beast that was far stronger than him to death, he had also rescued his five teammates. When these factors were finally calculated, the subsequent bonus reward was an astronomical figure.

The system finally showed a long list of information on military exploits, and at the end, presented him with three choices.

First, it was converting all the military achievements into credits, which amounted to 16,993 credits.

Second, he could convert a certain percentage of his military achievements into a lump sum.

Some of the money was awarded by the nation itself.

The Star Glory Federation was in a state of war year around, thus, among all the taxes, the most important was the “National Defense Tax”.

While the National Defense Tax on one side was used as military expenditure, on the other, it used to set up a special fund which provided rewards to the non-military personnel depending on the strength of the demon beast they hunted.

In addition, the demon beasts’ body was also very valuable.

The Six-Armed Naga goes without saying. Although its flesh and blood were charred, its snake bile, heart, and other similar organs were precious heaven and earth treasures.

Even low-level Demon Soldiers had valuable parts. The Black Armored Saber Mantis’ incomparably sharp saber-like limb was a rare material.

After the battlefield was cleaned by the army, all the corpses of the demon beasts would then be collected and sorted out, which after being processed could be taken out for sale.

And finally, a small part of the total income would be turned over to the federation, while the majority of the money was allocated to the staff participating in the battle in accordance with the merits recorded in the battle video.

It was also an another way to promote the enthusiasm to fight.

Or else, the cultivators who came all the way and busted their asses may fall due to the slightest bit of inattentiveness.

It would be too much to ask the people to live up to justice without a little bit of reward.

The third option was to acquire materials.

Obviously, if Li Yao was interested in some material, let’s say if he was in need of Six-Armed Naga’s bile for cultivation, after he had filed an application for it, the snake bile would be returned to him, and the subsequent money or credits awarded would be a little less.

What it’s gonna be? Credits, money, or materials?

Li Yao sunk into thought before he chose to convert all the merits to the credits.

At present, he was really not short of money as there was the scholarship and the special allowance provided as a result of him being the Federation’s 1st Class Disabled Servicemen. In addition, he didn’t have to pay the tuition fees too.

As for the materials from the demon beasts like the Six-Armed Naga and the Gold Armored Saber Mantis, they were not too beneficial to him.

Credits, they were more precious than the money and materials.

With more than 20,000 credits, he could apply for some high-rank courses of Combat Department, cultivate powerful superior exercises, and tread further on the road of cultivation. In the future, he might even earn hundreds of millions.

Imagining the better days ahead, Li Yao grinned as he switched to the forum interface.

The battle of Verdant Tarn City was everyone’s focus of attention. Every day, the students who had not participated in the battle watch the progress of the war through the network. The university had specially opened up a Verdant Tarn City battle zone section in the forum, which was a place where the battle situation was discussed.

The students were highly excited. Over thousands of posts were made just within a few days, where every post had hundreds of thousands of threads.

Among which, many posts’ main topic was none other than Li Yao!

“Wow! A freshman vs Armored Snapping Turtle! Damn, so strong! He has so neatly blasted the demon beasts!”

“Crazy! This is completely crazy! Just a Refinement Stage student can confront a Six-Armed Naga head-on with a Six Barrel Rotary Cannon!”

“Vulture Li Yao? What’s so good about him?”

Posts just like these were jampacked with battle videos of Li Yao. Even some people had dug out the videos from the Limit Challenge Competition at the Devil Scaly Dragon Island. The awe-inspiring fame of “Vulture Li Yao” had already spread through the entire Grand Desolate War Institution. Even some of the cultivation sects located at the Wild Waves City had heard of a ruthless freshman who had carried ten Hellfire-Lightnings with him!

In a moment, Li Yao had become a famous figure who was known to all of the residents of the Wild Waves City. His fame had completely covered the special enrolled students like Zhao Tianchong’s and Lu Tieshan.

Many people believed him to be stronger than Ding Lingdang and Peng Hai back in their days, but even more believed that regardless of whether Li Yao was stronger than the two during their time in college, his craziness at the very least was far more than theirs.

After all, whether it was Ding Lingdang or Peng Hai, they had never carried ten Hellfire-Lightnings along with them to the battlefield like they were walking in their own backyard!

The students of Grand Desolate War Institution held strong lunatics in awe and veneration even more so than they revered the strong. Many people held Li Yao in admiration to the point that they would be willing to throw themselves at his feet. Some even secretly reckoned that maybe no one could stop Li Yao from amassing 40,000 credits, and subsequently creating an unprecedented record!

Having seen these posts, the corned of Li Yao’s lips involuntarily rose as he began giggling in an exaggerated manner.

How could the hot-blooded youth not have some vanity?

Li Yao sighed in self-satisfaction as he thought of the irony of life; just last year he was still struggling with the idea of whether he could be accepted into a good university or not, just like wandering in the vast and dark cosmos, where he could not see any sign of light at his front. The Nine Elite Universities were like stars hanging above the clouds, simply out of his reach.

Whereas in just one year, he had become a famous figure of the Grand Desolate War Institution. It was like quickly running on the road of his dream.

What’s it going to be like after another year?

Li Yao felt extremely excited as he let his thoughts run wild.

At this time, a hubbub suddenly came from outside before Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan happily came running inside the tent while dancing and shouting:

“Victory! We have won!”

“The beast tide was pushed back and the wormhole is also sealed!”

“We have not only completely won, we have also captured a Demon King!”

“Li Yao, hurry up! A regiment is about to drag the captured Demon King from the underground. Let’s quickly go and see the Demon King!”

At first, Li Yao was taken by surprise before he jumped high up in the air as he vigorously waved his fists, giving rise to seven subsequent waves in the air:

“A live Demon King? Awesome!”

After the bloody battle at the stock trading center, where the three went through fire and water together, a deep friendship was forged. Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan did not put any airs of being special recruited students in front of Li Yao. The three with their arms around each other made their way out while laughing.

The news of victory sent dozens of campsites in ebullition as everyone gathered to celebrate.

Whether it was low-level cultivators or young soldiers in the army, everyone swarmed outside to watch the spectacle. The soldiers could barely curb their excitement. As for the local cultivators, they could not control themselves as well as the soldiers. Many among which were raising cries of cheers, shooting in the air, some even launched their flying swords in the air, covering the sky in resplendent colors as they clashed with each other, bursting forth with colorful fireworks one by one.

“Victory! We won!”

“Hip-hip-hurray, hip-hip-hurray!”

“So what if it’s a Demon King? If he dares to intrude upon our Heaven Origin Sector, he will be captured!”

Li Yao and the three somehow climbed their way atop the crystal tank as they stood on their tiptoes to watch.

Under the brilliant lights, a team with soaring killing intent gradually walked from afar.

“Look, our team is triumphantly returning from underground. Wow, so many high-rank demon clan experts are captured!”

Chapter 185: Lawful Punishment

At the forefront of the parade walking in, there were twenty cultivators, each armored from head to toe in a crystal suit. They were at the very least in the Building Foundation Stage, and after the boost from the crystal suit, they gave off the impression of twenty torches burning through the sky that were absorbing powerful spiritual energy waves all the time.

The spiritual roots of low-level cultivators like Li Yao felt an absolute pressure as their pores sealed up in the blink of an eye, not daring to release even a single spirit thread.

And the intense killing intent emanating from them was not intentional at all, but rather due to fighting a bloody battle repeatedly in the dark and dreary underground with the demon beasts. Their spirit was naturally shrouded in a layer of fiendish aura.

It was as if they had gone through hundreds of battles, killing everything in their wake, causing the fiendish aura to materialize. When it was used on the battlefield to kill, it was a hundred times sharper than the spiritual energy itself.

Regardless of the fact that their crystal suits were incomplete, ladened with blood stains, or the fact that a majority of the crystal suits’ joints and exquisite glyphs were corroded…

Li Yao’s eyes when looking at them were filled with envy and jealousy. He wanted to run over to them, snatch a suit, and don it.

The twenty crystal suit cultivators walked in an ostentatious and awe-inspiring manner. Following them were ten trucks that sent demonic energy soaring to the sky and had thick liquid dripping from every opening. They were filled with demon beasts’ corpses.

This was the just first batch. There were still a large number of demon beasts’ corpses remaining underground which had to be dealt with as soon as possible. Otherwise, an epidemic would soon follow, which was nothing to joke about.

The convoys of trucks transporting the demon beasts’ corpses were followed by crystal tanks that were pulling large iron cages one after another. Each iron cage had hundreds of array glyphs carved upon them, countless crystals inlaid on their bases, and crackling lightning arcs running between the railings.

Imprisoned inside the cages were powerful demon beasts who were restless upon finding themselves being displayed to the human onlookers. They were rampaging more violently than the lightning itself, desperately jumping up and down, struggling with all they had.

However, every time they touched the cages, they would be stuck by a bolt of lightning, causing them to grimace in pain while their scales stood erect. The air was filled with a faint stench.

“These are all Demon Generals. This time, we have captured a total of nineteen Demon Generals; it was truly difficult!”

Zhao Tianchong said while laughing.

Li Yao looked fixedly and noticed that the Demon Generals in the cages were completely different from the low-level demon beasts such as Demon Soldiers. Most of them appeared to be similar to humans.

Especially their eyes; in them, one could clearly find panic, anger, hatred, and a sharp killing intent.

Even though some of these particularly aggressive Demon Generals were repeatedly struck by lightning, so much that their bodies were laden with deep wounds where even the bones were visible, they did not care and cast a deadly glare upon the cultivators and soldiers nearby.

As though they would tear the humans into pieces just with that brutal gaze.

“Even such aggressive Demon Generals are captured. It’s quite difficult to imagine how intense the underground battle was!”

Li Yao clucked his tongue in marvel, he could not help but feel a bit ashamed.

Just a while ago, when he got to see the posts about him, he was getting all proud and mighty; believing himself to be quite formidable for being able to kill a grievously injured Demon General.

Now, he only got to realize how big of a gap was actually there between him and a true expert.

If he had entered the underground battlefield, perhaps he would not have been able to hold on for one short hour before getting crushed into nothing but slag.

“I am still not strong enough!”

“At present, I only have just an itsy-bitsy bit of reputation in the Grand Desolate War Institution. Everyone is only optimistic about by potential, nothing more, nothing less!”

“In this vast cultivation world, I am just an insignificant figure, who doesn’t even have the qualifications to participate in the underground battle!”

“I have to become stronger as soon as possible! At the very least, I have to enter the Building Foundation Stage even earlier than Ding Lingdang and Senior Brother Peng. Only then would I have the qualifications to participate in the undoubted battles in the world of cultivation!”

Li Yao silently pondered. Suddenly, Lu Tieshan nudged him a bit:

“Demon King is here!”

Li Yao turned excited as he stood on his tiptoes and stretched his neck to gaze far away.

Even before he could see the Demon King, his line of sight was taken away by an ugly-looking, long-bulbous-nosed man who in some ways resembled a pekinese.

This person wasn’t wearing a crystal suit, he was just draped in a loose linen robe, while his hands were hidden inside wide sleeves.

He was all secretive and low-key; very difficult for anyone to find his true colors. Nevertheless, the air around him was stronger than the cultivators who had donned crystal suits.

In particular, his long sleeves seemed as though they were hiding a terrifying blade. Even though Li Yao was hundreds of meters away from him, he could still feel the dangerous aura emitted by that blade.

“Is it a saber?”

From the vague outline mapped on the sleeve, this person was apparently carrying a saber-type magical equipment.

At present, Li Yao was researching sabers, and thus, his gaze focused involuntarily upon that man’s sleeve as it was attracted by that peerless saber hidden inside.

Having stared at that man’s sleeve for three seconds, Li Yao suddenly felt his scalp tingle, as if an invisible saber was launched from within that man’s sleeve towards him, sweeping away everything in its path before it struck dead right upon his throat!

“Ah!”

Li Yao could not help but scream as he tottered and retreated two steps back; almost falling off the crystal tank.

The sudden burst of pain he felt coming from his throat was so real that goosebumps had exploded all over his body as his hands covered his throat, while cold sweat oozed out from his forehead. He felt as though he had died once!

Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan took a glance at him with a bewildered look in their eyes. They could not understand why Li Yao suddenly went limp.

Hundreds of meters away, the bulbous-nosed man felt the oddity of Li Yao as he calmly glanced at him before his eyes flickered with a sliver of surprise.

“That man is Long Wenhui, an illustrious demon beast hunter of wasteland and the vice president of Hundred Saber Alliance. He is in the Core Formation Stage and was one of the peak battle forces in the battle of Verdant Tarn City. He is also the one who captured the Demon King!”

Zhao Tianchong introduced.

“So he was a Core Formation Stage powerhouse, no wonder his strength was so tyrannical. I just spied on him a bit, but it felt like I had been cut by a blade. I was simply unable to block!”

Li Yao still had a lingering fear. If he had known that he was a Core Formation Stage expert, how could he have dared to peep at his blade?

Taking a deep breath, Li Yao stabilized his mind before he narrowed his eyes as he tried to peer behind Long Wenhui.

Behind Long Wenhui was two crystal tanks side by side that were dragging an enormous transparent cage. All the railings had been forged using crystals which were not only engraved with dense glyphs on the surface, but had numerous micro-array glyphs which were floating within the crystal. They glowed with ever-changing brilliance.

Within the cage stood an over two-meter tall humanoid monster with a body covered in light blue scales. It had a long and narrow tail, clear and distinguishable facial features which seemed like a distorted human face, and two horns on either side of its head that were pointed towards the sky. The horn on the left side was broken and a light golden liquid was flowing out.

The Demon King’s palms and feet had been pierced with long crystal nails which were affixed to crystal chains, connecting his limbs to the four corners of the cage. His scapulas had two light purple cones deeply embedded which were releasing lightning with no end.

Even Li Yao, who was a hundred meters away, could hear crackling sounds coming from inside the Demon King’s body.

However, there wasn’t even a sliver of change in the expression on the Demon King’s face. Only the deepest part of his eyes occasionally flickered with an extremely brutal aura as he gradually swept his gaze over the audience, giving the crowd the impression that he was looking at a group of insignificant ants.

Suddenly, the Demon King’s glance skimmed over Li Yao.

Powerful! Terrifying! Tyrannical! Brutal!

These words suddenly popped out from the depths of his brain one after another.

Regardless of him being heavily shackled to the cage, a tyrannical aura unscrupulously emanated from the Demon King that made Li Yao highly tense. An urge to fight a battle to the death rose up in him.

One could only imagine, if the Demon King hadn’t been shackled and became crazy, how horrible would it be?

“Beep Beep!”

“Beep Beep!”

“Beep Beep!”

The mini-crystal processors of Li Yao and the other two simultaneously rang. Having taken a glance, the three simultaneously revealed an ecstatic look.

“The three of us have been selected as representatives of the Grand Desolate War Institution!”

“This peerless Demon King is going to be beheaded by us!”

…

The outskirts of Verdant Tarn City was a temporary safe zone, which was filled with a sea of tents.

All the rescued citizens were safely reallocated here, where they were waiting for the end of the beast tide before they could return to their homes.

It was also one of the reasons why the army would rather initiate bloody battles street by street and was unable to use heavy firepower.

The wasteland was sparsely populated and poor in transportation modes. There was an extreme shortage of a variety of building materials, making it rather difficult to build a large city that could harbor a couple hundred thousand people.

If a city that size was leveled to the ground with heavy firepower, not only would it be impossible to safely reallocate so many citizens, the reconstruction would also be a huge, long, drawn-out project that would cost an astronomical figure.

In the meantime, mankind would have lost a permanent base and the subsequent consequences would be immeasurable.

Therefore, unless it was a last resort, the federation army would not personally destroy a city that was built after over a hundred years of painstaking effort. This way, not only could humankind could preserve their strength a bit, it would also be rather convenient to reconstruct homes.

At this moment, the entire temporary safe zone was bursting with joy upon learning of the great victory.

From the child who had just started babbling to elderly folk with long beards, everyone was shouting and jumping for joy, shouting the slogan, “Long live the cultivators and the federation army!”

Especially when the convoy of captured demon clan experts gradually passed through the temporary safe zone, the atmosphere was hot to the extreme; the masses broke into loud cheers and their hands were almost swollen from clapping.

Many had tragically lost their relatives during the beast tide outbreak, so their hatred for the demon clan ran deep. The masses charged toward the convoy without a care in the world, only to be blocked by soldiers.

“Don’t be anxious, you will have the time to take your revenge!”

Next to the temporary safe zone, a simple war tribunal that could accommodate 100,000 people was built within a few days with the help of a few cultivation sects.

In just a short amount of time, it was jampacked. The citizens who had lost their relatives in the beast tide outbreak were arranged in the VIP seats, while the seats of the rest of the people were decided through lotteries. Those who could not get seats gathered outside the war tribunal, where they could watch the proceedings live through a huge hologram in the sky.

Today, a Demon King and nineteen Demon Generals would be publicly tried in the special war tribunal of Verdant Tarn City!

This was the custom of the Star Glory Federation.

As far as the Demon Soldiers and incoming demon beasts were concerned, all of them were treated as nothing more than wild animals; it didn’t matter how they were killed.

However, when they reached the Demon General level, their wisdom wasn’t any worse than that of a human. They too had established a Demon Beast Empire, dominating the universe for tens of millenniums and once posing as masters of humankind.

This was a humiliating history which humankind had engraved into their hearts and bones.

Therefore, if the high-level demon clan experts were treated as wild animals, it was tantamount to insulting themselves.

Thus, humankind defined the war between the demon clan and themselves as a war of survival between two different civilizations.

The demon beasts of or above the level of Demon General were treated as commanders of the enemy civilization. Once they were captured, they would be treated as POWs and get a trial in the war tribunal, where they would be punished properly according to the laws.

As for the outcome of the trial, there has always been just one.

The death penalty, which would be carried out immediately!

Not only that, the death penalty would be enacted by two kinds of people.

First would be low-level cultivators who had personally taken part in the war and performed brilliantly on the battlefield.

Second would be ordinary citizens, the relatives of the people who had died under the jaws of demon beasts and had a blood feud with them.

As far the sinister Demon Generals, Demon Kings, and even Demon Emperors went, they were not afraid of death at all.

They were no different than the high-level cultivators of humankind, who would also magnanimously die when there was no way left.

However, for the Demon King who was a respected figure in the Blood Demon Sector, dying in the hands of low-level cultivators and the ordinary citizens who did not even have the strength to tie up a chicken was truly a humiliating thing.

In the Star Glory Federation, even an insignificant ordinary worker had the chance to kill a Demon King and personally avenge their families. This was the greatest solace and the greatest inspiration for mankind’s morale!

So, Li Yao gloriously became one of the thousand executioners.

The peerless Demon King who was equivalent to a Core Formation Stage powerhouse of humankind would die in his and 999 fellows’ hands!

Chapter 186: The End of Hunters

2:59 PM.

The trial was about to begin.

Billions of citizens across the entire Star Glory Federation were closely watching the war tribunal of Verdant Tarn City through a live telecast on the Spiritual Nexus.

Each and every bustling city, which had previously been hustling and bustling with traffic, had now become deserted and quiet. Every flying car floated motionless in the air as everyone watched the live telecast through the hologram inside the car.

Many people also stood on the road as they stretched their necks to watch the huge hologram installed on sky-rise buildings with mouths agape.

These holograms originally used to telecast ads, but at present, all of them were telecasting the war tribunal of Verdant Tarn City, focusing on the savage-looking Demon King who appeared fierce, but was devoid of his strength.

Every place was full of noisy crowds. Teahouses, restaurants, pubs, and other establishments were all burning with ardor. However, no one was speaking loudly, everyone had their fists clenched and breath held as they waited for the coming of justice.

The Star Glory Federation believed in one justice and one justice alone.

Tooth for a tooth, eye for an eye, blood for blood.

Under the burning hot gazes of 100,000 citizens, twenty demon clan commanders led by Demon King Pieu who were imprisoned in special restrictive barriers gradually rose to the center of the war tribunal from underground.

Demon King Pieu was condemned by resenting masses, dragged from his high and aloof position in the Blood Demon Sector to that of a prisoner. He was now surrounded by a furious mob and was soon to be punished under human laws. He felt powerless; this feeling of not being able to control his own destiny was not something he had ever experienced.

Even under the restrictive barrier, Demon King Pieu straightened up his chest. He wanted to release a huge amount of demonic energy to deter these insignificant ants.

However, all of his tendons had been cut off and 1,800 demon locking nails were embedded inside his flesh and blood. How could he still muster up any demonic energy?

When the Demon King discovered a teenager with one arm on his hip, while the other pointed at his nose as he cursed and spat towards him, the great dignity and arrogance of the Demon King was finally shaken.

The Demon King was a bit terrified as he gnashed his teeth towards the teenager. He proceeded to sit down in a trance at the center of the restrictive barrier.

Now the Demon King had finally realized that all the might, ferocity, honor, and glory in his life had come to an end in the hands of these insignificant ants.

At 3:00 PM, the trial officially began.

Three judges dressed in blood-colored robes sat down on the bench seats. First of all, they each drew an incomparably sharp longsword from their waist and lightly touched their forehead.

It was the custom of Star Glory Federation.

The judges of war tribunal were the most aggressive, most bloodthirsty, and most crazy powerhouses from the army. They were dressed in blood-red robes that were lacking any fancy shades. Before the hearing, touching their forehead with a sharp blade signified that they would act as the sharpest blade for the federation and implement the harshest laws of human civilization. Any alien fallen in their hands would have one end and one end only, and that was death!

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”

A couple dozen huge holograms appeared in the sky before playing the early videos of the beast tide outbreak.

The video showed the quiet and peaceful city, where countless citizens were working, studying, participating in recreational activities, spending their money…

A mother, with her baby in her warm embrace, leisurely strolling down a boulevard. In a secluded location, a young boy and girl, who seemed to have skipped their classes, were billing and cooing.

Suddenly, countless manhole covers flew up to the sky as demon beasts like black fountains surged out from the ground.

Even from the exit of the underground crystal train, countless demon beasts charged out before they began a bloody slaughter.

Despite the fact that the video wasn’t accompanied by any sound and all the gory details were blurred, everyone was still terrified as though it was the end of days.

The center of the hologram was filled with a black background, painted upon which were white characters. It was showing the names of thousands upon thousands of victims; it was like a long river, which was quietly flowing to no end.

Having watched these videos, billions of humans in the entire federation were extremely furious.

Even Li Yao’s breathing became quicker as he involuntarily clenched his fists. His face was terribly hot, the anger seemed to have materialized into lava and filled his chest.

“One day, we humans will invade the Blood Demon Sector like a torrential current of iron and steel, and make bastards pay a hundred times over!”

Li Yao silently thought.

The war judge began to read the counts of the twenty demon clan commanders, which lasted for a whole three hours.

Starting from the beginning of the second hour, the video playing on the hologram changed as it switched to the videos of joint street fighting of the army and the cultivators.

The whole federation, which had fallen into a solemn mood, began to recover their fighting spirit after watching the bloody slaughter for an hour.

Countless ordinary people on the streets, in the restaurants, tea houses, pubs, wherever they were, began to cheer for the heroic performance of army and the cultivators.

“Long live the federation army!”

“Long live the cultivators!”

“Long live the Star Glory Federation!”

“Long live the human civilization!”

Having watched the videos, Li Yao’s mind too was astir as his blood began to boil.

He also saw himself in one of the pictures among the videos.

It was the scene after an intense battle; he was laden with dust, leaving only his white teeth visible as he laughed like a fool while carrying the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon.

Hearing everyone cheering at the top of their lungs, Li Yao suddenly came to realize that among the cheers raised by hundreds of thousands of people, some of the many people were also cheering for him.

This made him very, very, very proud.

Following that, the videos slowly began to show the underground battle which was just starting to get bloody.

In the underground battlefield that was meticulously constructed by the high-rank demon clan experts, countless experts fell!

Especially during the last fight with the Demon King Peiu, where seven Building Foundation Stage cultivators had lost their lives in his hand, and a dozen people were left grievously injured!

“Cultivators aren’t afraid of death; if they are, they shouldn’t embark on the road of cultivation!”

This sentence was often hanging on Yuan Manqiu’s lips.

Only at this moment did Li Yao finally came to completely understand what kind of righteous ardor and sacrifice did these sixteen simple words entail.

Watching the cultivators swooping towards the Demon King regardless of the increasing death tolls, a deep pride once again began to rise in Li Yao’s heart.

“After becoming a cultivator, I can be associated with these heroes. This is so awesome!”

At last—

After the trial continued for five entire hours, the chief judge once again drew the sharp sword and pointed at Demon King Pieu and the nineteen Demon Generals.

“The tribunal has reached a verdict. We, the tribunal court, find the defendant Demon King Pieu on the count of war crimes, guilty, on the count of crimes against humanity, guilty, and on the count of massacre, guilty. The war tribunal sentences Demon King Pieu to death, which is to be carried out immediately. His demon soul shall be scattered, never to be born again!”

“We, the tribunal court, find the defendant Demon General Gulun on the count of war crimes, guilty, on the count of crimes against humanity, guilty, on the count of massacre, guilty. The war tribunal sentences Demon General Gulun to death, which is to be carried out immediately. His demon soul shall be scattered, never to be born again!”

“We, the tribunal court, find the defendant Demon General Suoshan, on the count of war crimes, guilty, on the count of crimes against humanity, guilty, on the count of massacre, guilty. The war tribunal sentences Demon General Suoshan to death, which is to be carried out immediately. His demon soul shall be scattered, nevermore to be born again!”

“We, the tribunal court, find the defendant Demon General Qitian…”

Once the verdict was announced, the tribunal, in the blink of an eye, changed into an execution ground without the slightest bit of nonsense. An execution platform built from crystal rose from the underground, sketched upon which were hundreds of thousands of glyphs that ultimately formed a huge array.

The Spirit Gathering Slaughtering Demon Array could gather the spiritual energy of countless cultivators, which, after being compressed to the extreme, could be shot instantly. The power of countless low-level cultivators would be superimposed, and it would blast with a huge amount of energy which was comparable to a shot from a high-level cultivator using all his strength!

Demon King Pieu was the first to be pushed upon the execution platform.

Until now, this fiend remained calm. He shook his head as though he disdained this Spirit Gathering Slaughtering Demon Array.

However, the constantly twitching corners of his eyes betrayed him as it revealed the struggle in the depth of his heart.

A crystal ball was present in front of five hundred low-level cultivators who were to act as his executioners. At this moment, the crystal ball began to flash.

Recalling the wanton slaughter carried out by the beast tide on the ground as well as the cultivators throwing themselves at Demon King Pieu without care for their lives in the final battle, only to fall one by one…

Li Yao, without a sliver of hesitation, placed his hands on the crystal ball before he burned his life force to the max; thereupon, his spiritual energy madly surged into the crystal ball, down the thick crystal tube, and was gathered at the Spirit Gathering Slaughtering Demon Array.

“Swish!”

A tiny ball of light appeared upon the Spirit Gathering Slaughtering Demon Array, which slightly trembled, giving the impression of holding a life. Following that, it constantly grew and became brighter and brighter, just like a rising sun.

The spiritual energy provided by the five hundred low-level cultivators burning their life forces gathered into a huge mass of spiritual energy.

The five hundred ordinary people who had been chosen through the lottery also had a crystal ball in front of them which simultaneously began to flash, sketching out the outline of a palm.

This was a special trigger mechanism. When all five hundred ordinary people had placed their palm on the crystal ball, Demon King Pieu’s head would be suddenly blasted by the huge mass of spiritual energy; he would be thoroughly killed by the explosion.

This means that the five hundred ordinary people would “personally” kill the culprit, taking revenge for their relatives who had lost their lives during the beast tide!

At this moment, Demon King Pieu finally started screaming at the top of his lungs:

“Do you think that these ants are worthy of killing this King?”

“You just wait and watch, Verdant Tarn City is just the beginning. Someday, my Demon Beast Empire will rise again in the endless cosmos. You, ants, are destined to be food and slaves for my demon clan! Slaves, nothing more!”

In response to his outcry, slight beeping sounds rang.

“Beep!”

Yao Guifen, a middle-aged female worker of Verdant Tarn City’s Second Woolen Mill had triggered the array.

“Beep!”

Mao Xiaowei, a 3rd class student of Verdant Tarn City’s No.12 High School had triggered the array.

“Beep!”

Yang Shuijin, the owner as well as the chef of Verdant Tarn City’s Unforgetful Stewed Meat Shop at the Red Star Farmers’ Market on the Eastern Happy Street had triggered the array.

“Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!”

All five hundred ordinary people had placed their palm on the crystal ball.

The Spirit Gathering Slaughtering Demon Array was completely energized. The light ball jumped up as it stretched into a long arrow of light which pierced the head of Demon King Pieu in the blink of an eye.

Demon King Pieu’s roars came to an abrupt stop before being replaced by desolate screams. The huge mass of spiritual energy tumbled around left and right inside his head before it broke the entire skull into pieces in the blink of an eye, distorting his face to the extreme.

Thereupon, Demon King Pieu’s body constantly expanded, as his true form was revealed under the stimulation of extreme pain—a ten-meter-long giant beast that seemed to be a cross between a scaly dragon and a lizard.

Regardless of how he struggled, from beginning to end, he was firmly locked in place by the barrier. Finally, his body stopped expanding, but his head grew bigger and bigger as strange bulges appeared one by one.

“Swish, swish, swish, swish!”

The bulges began to rupture as numerous streams of spiritual aura intermingled with blood gushed out; the entire head of Demon King Pieu exploded.

“Rumble!”

At the same time, a bolt of lightning flashed in the sky, followed by a light drizzle.

Watching the gradually stiffening corpse of Demon King Pieu amid the drizzle, Li Yao felt incredibly excited. His hands kept on shaking, and he was unable to calm them down no matter what he did.

Before coming to the Verdant Tarn City, how could he have ever thought that he would actually get the chance to personally kill a Demon King?

“Today, I could only behead a Demon King by the virtue of the execution ground.”

“However, someday, I will fight on a true battlefield with a peerless saber in my hand, and butcher the Demon Kings just like pigs!”

“The battle of Verdant Tarn City is already over. Now, I have to embark on a new journey. I still have three months’ time to accumulate around ten thousand more credits. It’s not impossible, but I must work harder and harder!”

“I have to keep on moving forward for my dream!”

Chapter 187: Lone Hunter

One month later.

Zenith Province at the northwest of Wasteland.

Amid the desert that stretched as far as the eye could see stood jagged rocky mountains of all kinds of shapes and sizes, just like a forest carved out of rocks.

Each piece of rock was peppered with hundreds of thousands of holes. On the inside, they were full of caves that stretched out in all directions, carving out a cave which was no different than a maze.

In addition, hidden under the ground were many-hundred-meter-long underground rivers, turning this seemingly lifeless stone forest into a paradise in the Wasteland.

It was also the best hiding place for the demon beasts.

Crouching inside a gray-brown thermal camouflage netting, Li Yao looked just like a piece of rock.

A poisonous scorpion crawled its way from his ass to his head before slowly crawling down, its tail all curled up, apparently searching for a prey between the rocks.

“It seems today isn’t good as well!”

Very carefully, Li Yao sucked in a mouthful of water with a straw.

Because it was in the sun for a very long time, the water bag that was stitched up using the demon beast leather was sizzling hot, and sucking the water brought a sour taste to his mouth.

Nevertheless, Li Yao was reluctant to waste even a drop of water. He slowly nourished his parched throat with a small mouthful.

He recalled the events from one month ago, where he slaughtered everything in his wake in Verdant Tarn City, madly raked in credits, and even beheaded a Demon King as an executioner… These scenes filled with zeal and morale caused him to be fired up with boundless enthusiasm!

However, in that battle, he seemed to have used up all his luck. In the following month, his progress wasn’t that smooth.

Since the battle of Verdant Tarn City, the demon clan seemed to be well-behaved all of a sudden. Or perhaps, after losing a Demon King, the high-level demon clan experts of Blood Demon Sector didn’t dare to act rashly and were readjusting their battle strategy.

In short, in the following month, the southern regions of the Wasteland were pretty calm. Only two small-scale beast tide outbreaks had occurred, and the wormholes only opened up within the wilderness.

When Li Yao received the news, the army had long mobilized a large number of crystal battleships and bombarded the beast tide to the point that not even slag remained.

The northern part of the Wasteland, the vast domain which was not yet fully under control of humans, had several demon beast lairs hidden. A few even sheltered small wormholes, which would open several times in a year, allowing a large herd of demon beast to enter the Heaven Origin Sector.

However, only high-level cultivators or an army regiment dared to deeply venture into this perilous domain. No matter how gutsy Li Yao was, he knew the difference between seeking death and taking a risk.

Once, Li Yao and a team of senior students who had at least reached 7th level of the Refinement Stage had taken a high difficulty mission to hunt a high-ranked Demon Soldier, Red Griffin.

After spending seven days and seven nights straight, experiencing countless storms and eating loads of sand, they finally killed the Red Griffin. However, as Li Yao was the weakest, his contribution was the least, and therefore the credits he obtained were just crumbs . He might as well honestly stay at the institute and take the courses!

After eating such a loss, Li Yao was no longer willing to team up with senior students.

In contrast, Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan weren’t in immediate need of credits like him. They would rather proceed step by step and steadily cultivate than go out and take risks every now and then.

Anyhow, they had earned a lot of credits in the battle of Verdant Tarn City, which would last for a while.

Having thought this over again and again, Li Yao bit the bullet and made a decision which would be considered crazy in others’ opinion.

He applied for multitudes of hunting missions and prepared to go solo, freely hunting the demon beasts in the Wasteland.

Acting solo was not good at all. Although he would be free to act as he wished and have a monopoly on credits for the demon beasts hunted, he would not have any support, supply or intel; he would be on his own for everything.

In this crisis-ridden Wasteland where demon beasts were everywhere, it was the most dangerous profession.

Obviously, Li Yao wasn’t heading for his doom, he also had a secret weapon.

It was precisely the self-cultivating magical equipment—the Black Wing Sword!

Although Little Black was a piece of magical equipment, it cultivation was even crazier than Li Yao’s. Among the credits Li Yao had spent, a large portion of the credits was used for buying high-purity crystals for Little Black to engulf.

After engulfing the crystals, the black spirit threads that spread around its body would grow in number and become thicker; they could now be very clearly intertwined into black wings.

When these black wings spread, Little Black could also get faster.

Li Yao, for one, had experienced this firsthand. Little Black’s speed could very easily break through the sound barrier and reach Mach 2.

After that, Little Black could still increase the speed by a notch, but Li Yao’s body was unable to hold on.

If the sword sped up, his body could very well be torn to pieces by the air resistance.

This speed had already surpassed many combat-class flying shuttles.

And as an incomparably flexible flying sword, Little Black’s small maneuvers were far more intricate and complex than that of the Mystic Bird Battle Shuttle, Crimson Flame Battle Shuttle, and other comparable vehicles.

It was because of Little Black that Li Yao dared to venture alone in the Wasteland.

He had specifically selected the missions for which he would not have to venture far away from the military base, allowing him to stay within a relatively safe zone. The demon beasts he would hunt were not strong either, but they still had precious materials on their bodies.

And once a high-ranked Demon Soldier or any enemy ranked above that appeared, he would hug the Black Wing Sword and escape through the sky immediately.

Once, he also let his imagination run wild: maybe, without any ability, he could directly stab a demon beast or even a Demon General with the quick speed of Black Wing Sword.

However, Little Black’s master forgot that it didn’t have any limbs; if it was restricted by some kind of barrier, it would lose its ability to attack.

Whenever Li Yao drove the Black Wing Sword to launch an attack at a demon beast, this guy would always circle around constantly, seemingly confused.

Li Yao studied for half a day, but could not find any reason why it couldn’t attack. He could only give up and treat the Black Wing Sword as a pure escaping tool.

In the vast expanse of the Wasteland, the fighting between the human and demon beasts was completely different than street fighting in the city.

Here, there were no impetuous demon beasts who would gather and rush at Li Yao like a tide, only to be killed by him in the end. The Six Barrel Rotary Cannon and Heavy Vibrosaber-like heavy weapons were cumbersome. There was too much room for the demon beasts to escape. Just as the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon started to spin, the demon beasts would escape underground. So, no matter how fierce the firepower was, how could it do anything?

Since he didn’t have the support of any heavy magical equipment, Li Yao could only take risks to cultivate a powerful technique and take very difficult Combat Department courses in order to up his offense and hunt powerful demon beasts.

The course he chose was “Desert Storm Saber Technique!”

This domineering-sounding saber technique originated from the frequently-occurring desert storms in the Wasteland. When it was trained to its highest level, the subsequent energy released from the saber would rotate just like a hurricane; sand and stones would fly, giving rise to thousand-meter-high waves of sand, which would gather into a giant sand blade that would ruthlessly slash towards the enemy.

Among all the courses in the Combat Department, the “Desert Storm Saber Technique” course was one of the most difficult. Usually, only 7th level Refinement Stage and above senior students would learn this technique.

In order to strengthen his offense, Li Yao spent close to 2,000 credits without an ounce of care and chose the “Desert Storm Saber Technique”.

In the end, reality taught him a deep, harsh lesson—he failed!

Although university life wasn’t complete without a failure, Li Yao was so depressed that he was about to vomit blood.

The loss of 2,000 credits wasn’t as important as the fact that he didn’t have much time remaining.

Li Yao discovered that he had fallen in a vicious circle.

If he wanted to earn a lot of credits in a short period of time, he had to take risks and head into dangerous zones to hunt high-ranked demon beasts.

And if he wanted to hunt high-ranked demon beasts, he had to improve his strength as soon as possible.

And if he wanted to improve his strength, he had to take risks and spend a lot of credits to train in highly difficult and powerful techniques.

However, once he failed, the large number of credits he had to spend would go down the drain.

And while he was going around and around in this vicious cycle, the time was quickly passing by the minute.

The deadline for the Refiners’ Registration Examination was also not far away!

Fortunately, it seemed that every cloud has a silver lining. At the beginning of last week, his luck gradually returned to him.

First, under the stimulation of failure, he gave full play to his craziness. When he was madly training the “Desert Strom Saber Technique” during a stormy night, under the madness brought about due to his wish and his fanatic training, he actually rushed into the 6th level of the Refinement Stage and became an intermediate-level Refinement Stage cultivator!

With such strength, one could also hold a basic-level post even in the top five hundred cultivation sects of the federation.

Afterward, splurged and once again applied for the “Desert Storm Saber Technique” course. Whereupon, by relying on the comprehension he gained during the stormy night, he finally cleared the course. As a result, not only did he make up for the loss of credits, he also earned a bit.

Immediately following his recent success, Li Yao rode the Black Wing Sword and flew thousands of kilometers away as he arrived at the Zenith Province to the northwest of the Wasteland.

It was the active region of high-rank Demon Soldiers and Refinement Stage cultivators, and a place where priceless prey lurked.

Li Yao quickly found a Three-Horned Lancehead[1].

An adult Three-Horned Lancehead could be as strong as an intermediate-rank Demon Soldier. Its venom contained a very rare ingredient that was an essential raw material for producing many high-rank strengthening agents after it was purified; furthermore, it could not be produced artificially.

Therefore, the Three-Horned Lancehead’s value was pretty high. If its venom gland remained intact, it could be converted into a lot of credits, a lot more than what he could receive for hunting some of the many high-rank Demon Soldiers.

However, the Three-Horned Lancehead was extremely vigilant. Usually, it would hide inside its complex, maze-like lair, avoiding the attacks of human experts and crystal battleships. It would seldom come above the ground.

Unless…

The sand scorpion which had just disappeared amid the stones once again appeared, crawling under Li Yao’s nose.

Li Yao utilized the “Soul Converging Technique” to the extreme. All his pores were sealed tight.

Not only was he not emanating even an ounce of spiritual energy, he even had slowed his breath down a lot.

And as his entire body was covered with a thermal camouflage netting, all the heat was completely locked inside so that his temperature was one with the surrounding rocks.

The favorite prey of the Three-Horned Lancehead was none other than the sand scorpion.

Since the appearance of the sand scorpion, Li Yao had been continuously staring at the Three-Horned Lancehead, which had been hiding in the darkness for four hours already.

Finally—

Watching the sand scorpion crawling towards the distance, the Three-Horned Lancehead could no longer hold itself back.

With a flash, the Three-Horned Lancehead, like a javelin, ruthlessly charged towards the sand scorpion at lightning fast speed.

Just as it opened its mouth and swallowed the sand scorpion, the “rock” nearby suddenly cracked.

With a roar, Li Yao took a step before turning his body!

His body, under the influence of tremendous centrifugal force, turned into a whirlwind. Only then was the saber drawn from its sheath as its tip blew away the sand in its path. A fist-sized head flew into the sky; its eyes were still filled with the satisfied look of enjoying its meal. Even in death, it could not react.

In just half a second, the curtain of perfect hunting fell.

This was a contest of patience, in which Li Yao was the final winner.

Chapter 188: Hunting Efficiency

With a slight shake of his wrist, the slightly curved blade vibrated at high-frequency as the stinking snake blood disappeared immediately.

Li Yao sheathed the saber. He was very satisfied with this blade.

In order to display the maximum might of the “Desert Storm Saber Technique” and apply the shortest and most direct attack to subdue his foes, Li Yao had optimized the Windcutter by reforging it, reducing its weight, and slightly curving its blade. It now appeared to be a combination of straight saber and scimitar.

He was most satisfied with the eight grooves on either side of the blade. They were the fruit of countless air propulsion tests, accurate calculations, and forgings carried out by him. These grooves would guide the wind to the flat side of the blade, which would create a propulsion force and push the blade from behind, thereby improving the speed of the saber when attacking by a notch.

Today was its first trial in the real combat. Sure enough, the results were pretty good. While still ensuring lethality, the attack speed had increased to a whole new level, allowing him to unleash the essence of the “Desert Storm Saber Technique” most vividly.

Li Yao’s raised the corner of his lips and a sliver of smile appeared on his face as he walked towards the corpse of the Three-Horned Lancehead.

Squatting down, just as he was about to extend his arm to pick it up, his smile suddenly froze.

With wide-open eyes, as Li Yao carefully inspected it using his scabbard to turn the snakehead over and over again, his smile grew stiffer and his complexion grew uglier. Finally, he could not help but ruthlessly curse.

He was fooled!

This demon beast was not the Three-Horned Lancehead at all, but its close relative called the Hump-Nosed Viper.

The two had a striking similarity, however, the former’s forehead had three very sharp little horns, while the latter’s forehead had three pointed sarcomas.

At ten to twenty meters away, amid the flying sand, even a cultivator with keen vision would be easily confused.

Because Li Yao didn’t want to scare the snake away, he had only used his peripheral vision to scan the prey. He simply dared not gaze at it directly. Only at this moment did he discover that he was mistaken.

Although the two were close relatives, the Hump-Nosed Viper was just a low-level Demon Soldier whose venom was quite ordinary and could be synthesized.

Comparing it to the Three-Horned Lancehead was like comparing clouds and mud; it could not even be converted into a few credits.

Remembering himself laying prone on the ground for an entire four hours in this scorching desert, where he was not far away from turning into a dehydrated mummy, only to ambush such waste… Li Yao had no way to vent his anger; he could only blame his bad luck.

The Zenith Province was the paradise of the Wasteland, both predators and prey lurked and hid in the darkness.

Just this short fight had already garnered the attention of many. Furthermore, the faint smell of the Hump-Nosed Viper’s blood was also permeating into the air, which had been perceived by many powerful hunters.

“Crash!”

Suddenly, some movement could be seen at three nearby places amid the stones as three chubby heads emerged.

Three very cute small animals with fleshy and stout heads drilled out from the ground.

They looked like overly obese marmots which were carefully sniffing the bloody air as they awkwardly wriggled on the ground, twisting their obese asses while slowly crawling towards Li Yao.

“What is this?”

Although at first glance they didn’t look dangerous, it was imperative to never lower one’s vigilance in the Wasteland.

Clutching the hilt of the saber, Li Yao bent his waist as he slowly retreated, quickly searching his brain for any info as to what kind of beast they were.

After three seconds, a name suddenly popped out from the depths of his brain as Li Yao suddenly turned pale.

“Barbed Rock Pig, a high-rank Demon Soldier, specialized in long-range attack!”

“Little Black!”

Li Yao screamed.

Three high-rank Demon Soldiers who specialized in long-range attacks was not something he could deal with.

The moment Li Yao screamed, the three Barbed Rock Pigs also tore their disguises as their bodies, just like filling a ball, expanded to ten times their previous size. Their cute faces turned incomparably hideous, their soft and supple hair stood erect, appearing as though they were acupuncture needles. Under the sunlight, they sparkled with a strange blue gloss.

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”

The moment the bodies of Barbed Rock Pigs swelled to the extreme, they immediately shrunk as a few dozen poisonous thorns headed towards Li Yao like bullets.

With a shout, Li Yao heavily stamped on the ground, splashing countless stones around and creating a thin barrier before him as he flew a dozen meters back. While he flew, his arm stroked his waist.

A shiny ebony pistol appeared in his hand.

“BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!”

Even without looking, Li Yao, fired six shots as six beams of blood-red light shot out from the muzzle almost simultaneously. With ear-piercing howls, the bullets headed towards the three Barbed Rock Pigs.

Blood bullets!

They were the special bullets baptized with Li Yao’s blood using the secret technique of Hundred Smelting Clan!

Not only were they tremendously powerful, they even had a mysterious contact with his soul; as a result, after they were shot, they could be controlled with his mind. Their strike rate was 100%.

“Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!”

The three Barbed Rock Pigs once again fired multitudes of poisonous thorns that directly struck his six blood bullets.

The six blood bullets exploded into six bloody veils of mist in the air.

Li Yao didn’t even look back. In one breath, he had retreated by fifty meters. Thereafter, he once again exerted his legs as he rose into the sky just like a firecracker. Not so far away from him, a black beam of light quickly arrived in front of him and was grabbed tightly in his embrace.

How could the Barbed Rock Pigs willingly watch their cooked duck fly away? After the three furiously roared, their bodies swelled, reaching almost two meters in diameter, while their gray-brown skin turned completely red. In one go, they had fired hundreds of poisonous thorns which were even faster than bullets!

“Swish!”

The Black Wing Sword’s speed soared to the limit. The hilt seemed to have eyes; it continuously rotated and changed direction as it weaved through the dense screen of poisonous thorns, displaying fantastic dodging maneuvers.

As the speed of the thorns and the Black Wing Sword was almost the same, Li Yao helplessly watched countless blue poisonous thorns gradually fly past him. As he watched some of the many poisonous thorns nearly pierce his skin, only to be dodged by a hair’s breadth at the last moment, Li Yao felt cold sweat dripping down his forehead.

After hovering at death’s door for a second, the Black Wing Sword carrying Li Yao soared out of the rainstorm-like cluster of poisonous thorns!

The three Barbed Rock Pigs let out furious howls, all of which were ignored by Li Yao. Li Yao, lying atop the Black Wing Sword, flew over fifty kilometers away in one breath.

Only when they arrived near the military base did Li Yao dare to slow down.

First, Li Yao spread his spirit threads as far as he could to determine that there were no powerful demon beasts around.

Only then did he vigilantly jump off the Black Wing Sword. Li Yao slumped down on the ground with his back against a giant rock. He sighed with relief while his heart remained throbbing with fear.

“Little Black, you have saved me once again!”

Li Yao’s chest still heaved up and down when he recalled the soul-stirring scene from a moment ago.

In the crisis-ridden Wasteland, who was the predator and who was the prey could change in the blink of an eye. Even a powerful hunter could very likely become prey in a second.

If he did not have Little Black, this ace in the hole, Li Yao simply didn’t dare to come here alone to hunt.

“These demon beasts are truly cunning!”

Li Yao had wasted half a day over nothing and had even nearly died to the poisonous thorns of the Barbed Rock Pigs. Being unable to vent the fiery anger in his heart, Li Yao slammed his fist on the rock, cracking the giant rock in four to five places.

Demon beasts were originally extremely clever, especially the demon beasts of the Wasteland.

Nature is all about survival of the fittest. All the demon beasts who were not intelligent enough to survive had already vanished in a puff of smoke under the repeated cleansing of powerful human experts and crystal battleships. They had died a graveless death.

On the other hand, the demon beasts who could survive under the nose of human civilization were all sly and crafty.

These demon beasts were completely opposite of the demon beasts who had just arrived from the Blood Demon Sector that were quite impatient to charge towards the human cities. The demon beasts who had survived in the Wasteland for a few decades or over a century might not be tyrannically strong, but they had all kinds of strange life-saving means.

Hunting these demon beasts was rather difficult compared to annihilating a large beast tide.

“It can’t go on like this. My hunting efficiency is too low. If this goes on, I simply will not be able to reach 40,000 credits in the next two months.”

“What to do? How can I increase my hunting efficiency?”

Supporting his cheeks, Li Yao devoted his mind to finding a solution.

Having analyzed the hunt over these few days, Li Yao discovered that his low efficiency could be mainly attributed to two reasons.

First, playing the tiger to scare the pig.

Second, playing the pig to eat the tiger.

The so-called “playing the tiger to scare the pig” refers to the ordinary demon beasts and low-level Demon Soldiers, who, in order to survive, have gone through a slow and long evolution, and gradually looked more and more like powerful demon beasts.

This was a natural and special camouflage.

For instance, the Hump-Nosed Viper from a while ago. Originally it was just a low-level Demon Soldier, however, after slowly evolving, it developed a striking similarity to the Three-Horned Lancehead, which allowed it to disguise itself as an intermediate-rank Demon Soldier.

The world of demon beasts follows the law of the jungle. Many middle-rank Demon Soldiers, when seeing the Hump-Nosed Viper from afar, may not dare to attack it.

In nature, this is a very common phenomenon.

Many butterflies’ wings are bright-colored, extremely gorgeous, and can simulate the textures of ferocious beasts so that other carnivorous insects dared not approach them.

On the other hand, the so-called “play the pig to eat the tiger” was exactly like the Barbed Rock Pigs. Obviously, they were very powerful high-rank Demon Soldiers, yet they camouflaged themselves as low-level Demon Soldiers. Some even camouflaged themselves as far as developing the appearance of ordinary demon beasts, which in turn made their prey relax their vigilance and allowed them to kill with one strike!

Often during the hunt, Li Yao encountered these two cases, which gave him a great deal of trouble.

In the final analysis, it was all because he was not familiar with the different species of demon beasts. In other words, he was unable to identify the species, values, and characteristics of the demon beasts.

He was finding it very difficult to solve this problem.

After going through millenniums of evolution, the number of species of demon beasts far surpassed ten million. Just the number of most common demon beasts found in the Heaven Origin Sector numbered in millions, where each demon beast had a certain probability to mutate.

A few million species of demon beasts, where each demon beast had completely different characteristics. Some might even have very subtle differences in their appearances, making them hard to recognize.

Even a cultivator who had extremely strong computation ability would find it impossible to remember everything.

The memory is a very strange thing. Even if one could remember, he might not remember quick enough in the crisis-ridden battlefield.

Take the Barbed Rock Pig for instance; Li Yao had obviously seen the details of this demon beast in the database along with the details of over ten thousand demon beasts, the information on which was sealed in the depths of his brain.

However, when he saw it for the first time, he had taken three seconds, a whole three seconds before the details of the Barbed Rock Pig popped out from the depths of his sea-like memory.

During a fight between a cultivator and a demon beast, life and death could be determined in a fraction of a second; three seconds was way too long.

“What to do? The details of demon beasts are too complex, I am simply unable to remember in a short period of time. And even if I could remember it somehow, who’s to say that I could remember it at the most crucial moment?”

“Mini-crystal processors could store the details of many demon beasts, but it would be too idiotic to lower my head to look at the crystal processor at the moment when life and death could be decided.”

“Furthermore, even if there is a huge database, without the name of the demon beast, it would still be very difficult to find the specific details of the demon beast.”

“And if I used the ‘general search’ function, information on a few dozen similar demon beasts would be shown, how could I actually determine which one is correct?”

“Is there a magical equipment which could accurately display the information on demon beasts with one scan, and is also convenient to look at so that it would not affect the fight?”

Li Yao quietly pondered. If there was such a magical equipment that could identify the species, value, and danger-level of demon beast with one scan, it would greatly improve his efficiency and would also ensure his safety for sure!

Chapter 189: Self-Crafting a Magical Equipment!

Once this idea emerged in his mind, he was no longer able to contain himself.

Li Yao returned to the Grand Desolate War Institution at lightning-fast speed and headed straight to the 2nd laboratory of the Refining Department.

With progress being made on the cleaning of the wreckage, plus the sponsorship of the Empyrean Terminus Sect, the Refining Department’s situation was getting better and better. Two small-scale laboratories were built, which were used by Yuan Manqiu and Li Yao respectively.

Even though Li Yao’s laboratory was not too big, the crystal processor used there was assembled from the wreckage of the super crystal processor recovered from the ruins, causing its computing power to be extremely strong.

In addition to the processor, Li Yao had bought a Super Perception Cabin at cheap price from the Combat Department shamelessly through his relationship with Ding Lingdang.

As far as others were concerned, the Super Perception Cabin was useless to them. However, he could utilize its full effects.

Li Yao had directly installed the Super Perception Cabin in the laboratory. Whenever he encountered a problem which needed careful consideration, he would flee to the Heavenly Refining Tower through the Super Perception Cabin and research there.

Apart from the training in the Billowing Star Sea and hunting demon beasts in the Wasteland, Li Yao would spend rest of his remaining time in the laboratory, thereby greatly improving his efficiency.

In the pitch black 2nd laboratory, tens of shining holograms floated in the air as information quickly fell from above like a waterfall, along with complex blueprints that would trickle down every now and then.

These were relatively popular methods that were used to detect demon beasts in the Star Glory Federation.

Sitting on the ground with his legs crossed, Li Yao would slap freezing glyphs on his temples from time to time, cooling down his brain that was sizzling hot from operating at high-speed.

In the darkness, his brightly lit eyes were just like those of a beast that was hiding in the depths of a forest, ready to hunt a wild animal at any moment.

At present, there were three kinds of commonly used demon beast detection methods in the Federation.

The most popular was what Li Yao had been using before. He would feed the crystal processor with the details of all the demon beasts, which could be activated with sound and then retrieved via special telepathic thoughts.

It was just like the time when Li Yao had encountered the Black Armored Saber Mantis in the Verdant Tarn City. As long as he yelled “Black Armored Saber Mantis!”, the telepathic thoughts would automatically be activated, which would then retrieve all the details of Black Armored Saber Mantis from the database and display them before Li Yao in a translucent hologram.

Even though it sounded good, many times the user didn’t know the scientific name of the demon beast.

At that time, the telepathic thoughts would use the default “general search” function.

For instance, if the user didn’t know the scientific name of the demon beast, but could see that the demon beast belonged to Saber Mantis Family from its appearance, he could shout “Saber Mantis” and thousands of saber mantis’ images would appear for the user to refer to.

If the description was more detailed, like “Black Saber Mantis” or “Black Saber Mantis with two blade-like forelimbs”, the subsequent search options would be fewer and more accurate.

The problem with this type of detection method was that the species of demon beasts were too complex and too many. Even if described as “black colored Saber Mantis with two blade-like forelimbs and sturdy armor”, the search options would still not be limited to Black Armored Saber Mantis, as there is also the Black Armored Large Sickle Mantis, Black Armored Small Sickle Mantis, Seven-Starred Black Sickle Mantis, Nine-Starred Black Sickle Mantis… and a few dozen more species.

The appearance of these demon beasts were strikingly similar, but in strength, they were far apart.

The Black Armored Saber Mantis was just a low-rank Demon Soldier, while the Nine-Starred Black Sickle Mantis was a vicious high-rank Demon Soldier that could even tear the Gold Armored Sickle Mantis apart just for food!

“This kind of search method is too slow!”

“By the time I could accurately determine that I was facing a Nine-Starred Black Sickle Mantis among the several dozen other black-colored Saber Mantises, the Nine-Starred Black Sickle Mantis would have already arrived before me to play with my life!”

The second method was by sensing the particular vibration frequency to detect any nearby demon beast.

When Li Yao was living as a scavenger in the Magical Equipment Graveyard, the essence watch he had that was manufactured by the Zephyr Guild possessed the same function.

At that time, he used that function to detect the priceless garbage ships. Every time, he was faster by a step and could seize the initiative.

However, this method could only tell its user the existence of a powerful demon beast nearby at the most or could determine the distance between the two. It was very difficult to accurately determine the demon beast’s species.

If it was used for hiding and escaping, it was an excellent method.

As for attacking, it was not appropriate at all.

The third method was employed by the military, who used a huge long-range detector.

The operating principle of this magical equipment was completely different and could be subdivided into “optical detectors” and “sound detectors”.

Either detector could accurately detect the scale and approximate strength of demon beasts from hundreds of kilometers away to thousands of kilometers.

However, this kind of magical equipment was engineered to deal with beast tide outbreak. Although it could determine the scale and an approximate number of demon beasts, it was impossible to determine the species of every demon beast. Not to mention, the magical equipment was rather huge; the smallest one still needed a crystal battleship to carry it.

“Among the common magical equipment in the market, there is nothing that suits my needs.”

“Who could I blame them; after all, hunters who are as weak as me and yet wander alone in the Wasteland are the minority.”

“If it’s the powerful high-level cultivators, their computation ability is relatively high and they could remember more information of demon beasts.

“And if it’s a hunting team, then among the numerous people, someone would always know the details of the demon beasts, and even if no one knew, one of them could always refer to the crystal processor slowly.”

“Since I cannot find anything in the market, how about… I craft it myself?”

Li Yao’s head was struck with a thought; suddenly, his fingers started to itch.

Since the winter break, during which he had refined some flashy magical equipment, he just stuck to the basics. Usually, he would refine some complex structural components to practice the basics; at most he would modify his own saber and firearm.

Could someone like him, a freshman, craft a completely new magical equipment?

The frequency of freezing glyphs pasted on Li Yao’s forehead increased significantly, while his teeth clattered from cold.

On one side, he was shivering, while on the other, thinking calmly.

“For my needs, the magical equipment must be pre-inputted with a database of millions of demon beasts’ species.”

“No, there is no need to have millions; as long as it is pre-inputted with the demon beasts that would appear in the specific area, it would all fine.”

“For instance, if I am hunting on the Wasteland, obviously, there is no need to include the information for the demon beasts residing in the sea as well as in the forest.”

“This way, the amount of information will be greatly reduced, I will only have to store the information of a couple hundred thousand species which could be stored in an ordinary memory crystal card.”

“Second, the magical equipment needs a very high precision camera that can find a demon beast from a distance; most importantly, it should be able to scan every detail of the demon beast’s body.”

Li Yao pondered for a bit and summarized that it could be done.

The camera was a special magical equipment. In the cultivation world, it was also known as “crystal eye”. It had a highly complex structure consisting of numerous lenses and imaging array glyphs.

The highest-grade camera could even take a picture of a cultivator’s soul as well as a high-level demon beast’s true form. It was known as the “Dæmon Illuminateur”!

In the world of cultivation, there was a fair share of refiners who would spend their lifetime crafting the crystal eye.

Some even spent over a decade on a top-grade crystal eye, utilizing great care and precision. However, they would never sell it, only keep in their hands to play with and take a picture.

According to them, there was no need to let others know the indescribable pleasure of gazing at the beautiful world contained within a square inch.

No matter whether others said something like “crystal eyes ruined three generations of fortune or the camera ruined their life”, they would still never be bored with it.

Although Li Yao was utterly ignorant of the crystal eye, nowadays, whether it was the cultivators or ordinary people, they loved taking pictures using the mini-crystal processor; as a result, the crystal eye technology was continuously developed and commercialized.

Currently, on the market, there were many powerful crystal eyes to choose from.

Although for the accuracy required by Li Yao, the price of crystal eye wasn’t cheap, this thing could be used for a long time; thus, he could only clench his teeth and accept it.

“The next problem would be how to compare the images of demon beast taken by the crystal eye with the vast database.”

“This needs a very powerful algorithm, and also a unique analogizing array glyph.”

Li Yao tensely pondered. Just as the cold sweat dripped down his forehead, it was immediately frozen into ice pellets by the freezing array glyphs.

Not long after, his forehead was covered in ice pellets.

However, his eyes were getting brighter and hotter as though they could melt the ice pellets one by one.

“The algorithm is not a problem. I have many ancient and modern algorithms in my hands. I could always find a suitable algorithm through repeated trials with the help of the large crystal processor.”

“The analogizing array glyph is even less of a problem!”

“Every crafting furnace has a set of analogizing array glyphs. We, refiners, are most familiar with this type of array glyphs!”

When the refiners mass produced magical equipment, it was impossible to refine each component one by one.

Last time, when he and Jin Quan, the refiner of Empyrean Terminus Sect, dueled, the two respectively forged a nail purely for the sake of showing their abilities.

In a normal crafting process, hundreds of thousands of the same type of components were forged all at the same time.

And whether these components were “exactly the same” or there were there any flaws was judged with the help of analogizing array glyphs.

Many pieces of magical equipment needed a high degree of precision for their components. High-grade analogizing array glyphs could even distinguish a hair’s difference.

Different species of demon beasts looked similar, but could the difference between them be any smaller as compared to that between an ideal nail and defective nail?

When even ideal nails and defective nails could be identified in a furnace, would it not be a piece of cake to identify the species of a demon beast?

“Alright!”

Li Yao snapped his finger. He was so excited that he wanted to shout.

“Database, crystal eye, analogizing array glyph, algorithm… all the crucial points are no problem, they can be completely resolved with the current technology!”

“The only problem is to assemble the crystal eye, memory crystal card, and the processing crystal chip carrying the array glyphs in a square inch of space. The magical equipment cannot be too big, it has to be very light and conveniently carryable. When fighting, it should be able to automatically retrieve the information so that both hands are free to use!”

“Think, think…”

In Li Yao’s mind, countless magical equipment blueprints emerged, as they quickly rotated, constantly expanded, and broke into pieces.

After half a minute, his eyes flickered with an intelligent gleam as the blueprint of a slightly weird magical equipment jumped out.

“That’s it!”

Li Yao fiercely waved his fist, as though he was trying to grasp a fleeting speck of dust in the air.

He immediately plunged into the Super Perception Cabin and his consciousness fled to the Heavenly Refining Tower, where he began drawing the blueprint with madness!

Chapter 190: Just Out of the Furnace!

Three days later, in the refining room.

Over these three days and nights, Li Yao didn’t sleep a wink. His eyes were almost blood-red, his hair was disheveled, and incoherent mumblings could be heard coming from his mouth.

A silver-white metal ring was wrapped around his forehead, engraved upon which were a few dozen freezing array glyphs. Whenever his body temperature shot higher than 40 degrees, it would automatically start operating, releasing a cold stream of air which would keep his brain temperature lower than 38 degrees.

“Whish! Whish!”

From the metal ring, a cold stream of air was constantly released, forming a faint layer of mist around Li Yao’s forehead. It made him look almost like an extremely mysterious immortal.

Licking his dry lips, Li Yao inputted over a thousand blueprints and spiritual energy flow diagrams into the command crystal processor of the crafting furnace.

Although he wanted to invent a tiny magical equipment, in order to pursue lighter, faster, and more ergonomic design, he had made hundreds of thousands of changes in each component within these three days, and finally devised the most optimal structure.

In order to bring this model to fruition, the refining process was extremely cumbersome. Its difficulty was comparable to modifying the 1st Generation Tai’e Crafting Furnace.

“Let’s begin!”

Inputting the blueprints and spiritual energy flow diagrams, debugging the performance parameters and the mixing ratios of various raw materials…

Li Yao moved his hands in a neither hurried nor slow manner. His flexible hands, after being trained using the “Thousand Fingers Supple Bone Exercise”, seemed as if they had no bones.

Li Yao’s breaths grew longer and longer, the blood in his eyes gradually began to fade away and was replaced with a deep, pitch-black calmness. The deepest point was dotted with a twinkling of stars, as though the entire universe was hidden inside his eyes.

Gradually, Li Yao entered the intangible state of no-joy-no-sorrow, no-self-no-world, giving off the impression of a peerless master refiner from forty millenniums ago. All the fatigue from three days and three nights had flown away, the anxiousness over 40,000 thousand credits was thrown to the back of his mind, he had even completely forgotten who he was. In his brain, there were only over a thousand blueprints that intensely collided with each other again and again.

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”

Ten translucent holograms appeared before him as they surrounded him in a circle before gradually rotating.

In order to craft this new magical equipment, Li Yao had made relevant upgrades to the 1st Generation Tai’e Crafting Furnace, installing two units for specially crafting ultra-small components. As a result, the complexity of the refining interface had tremendously increased. The ten translucent holograms consisted of thousands of command array glyphs, where each array glyph could control a few dozen variations.

When Li Yao lightly touched the starting array glyph, the steel giant beast that had occupied half of the warehouse once again let out a low hum.

Steam spouted from the joints of the metal pipes, the crystals inlaid in the magical equipment units flickered, while the temperature within the furnace constantly increased.

Watching various jumping parameters on the monitoring hologram with rapt attention, Li Yao didn’t even dare to blink, his pupils were completely transfixed as though he had lost his mind.

“Whoosh!”

After 37 seconds, a large gust of cold air was once again released by the silver-white ring covering Li Yao’s head. Apparently, his brain was operating at the limit.

As if the horn for the battle had resounded, Li Yao’s pupils suddenly shrank to the size of a needle tip and his hands transformed into two masses of gray mist; moving at such a fast speed that only the afterimages were visible.

After several months of training, Li Yao’s refining techniques had experienced amazing progress.

At first glance, his hands would not even have the slightest bit of wasted movement, just like the movements of Elder Lie Yongming’s hands, which were not that fast but not too slow either; there was not a single trace of any rashness or anxiety.

Upon looking carefully, one would discover that although the range of his arm movement was not too large, even being somewhat slow and unperturbed, his palms and ten fingers were moving like a whirlwind. Every second, they would move more than a hundred times, tapping those few dozen command array glyphs, issuing over a hundred refining instructions.

The combination of calmness above the wrist and madness below the wrist gave a strange yet beautiful feeling, as if a storm was blowing within a teacup!

Under the incomparably precise operations of Li Yao, water, wood, metal, fire, earth, and various aspects of spiritual energy set off a small storm within the furnace, causing newly-entered raw materials to be molded into a strange form as they were slowly purified, compressed, cut, and combined.

After 47 minutes, the first batch of components was taken out of the furnace.

From a total of hundred and four components, only thirty-seven were perfect; the rest were defective.

This was quite normal.

After all, there were new components which were designed by Li Yao, many of which he had never refined before. Furthermore, he was refining a dozen kinds of components of varying shapes all at the same time within one crafting furnace.

With Li Yao’s refining methods, such yield was already outstanding.

In Li Yao’s vision, the new magical equipment consisted of 1,424 components.

In today’s world, where the magical equipment was getting increasingly complex, this was not a big figure.

However, most of the components were very small in size, they belonged to the category of mini-type components[1]. Refining these was quite troublesome.

Having poured a can of high-energy drink in his mouth to regain strength, Li Yao crushed the can into a ball and threw it towards the back, whereupon the ball made a beautiful arc as it fell right into a dustbin twenty meters away with a “clang”.

“Let’s begin the second batch!”

Li Yao rubbed his hands before another storm appeared between his ten fingers.

After a day and night of endless refining, the entire set of magical equipment components was finally finished. In order to prevent any mishap during assembling, he refined two sets of components.

However, this was not the most difficult step. The most crucial part of the entire magical equipment was the command crystal chip.

To distinguish between an ideal and defective product within a furnace, there wasn’t any high-requirement as to how much time it would take. The analogizing array glyphs could take from a dozen seconds to a whole minute, identifying the components slowly.

In contrast, Li Yao needed the analogizing array glyph to identify the species of the demon beast in the blink of an eye. Not to mention a few seconds, even a second was too slow.

This required very powerful boosting array glyphs to speed up the operation speed of the analogizing array glyph.

In order to shorten the recognition time to within a second, Li Yao planned out an accelerating group that combined 31 boosting array glyphs in series with a special algorithm.

Then, he would add the rest of few dozen essential array glyphs on the finger-nail-sized command crystal card. All in all, he had to engrave one-hundred-and-one array glyphs.

It was a test of the micro-engraving technique of a refiner.

The five hundred top super sects of the federation possessed a mystical magical equipment called “Mystic Laser Micro-Engraving Machine”, which could assist the refiners in engraving hundreds of thousands of array glyphs within a square inch.

However, the Mystic Laser Micro-Engraving Machine was highly expensive. So expensive that it was a couple dozen times more expensive than an ordinary crafting furnace.

At present, the Grand Desolate War Institution’s Refining Department didn’t have a need for such a configuration.

Li Yao could only rely on his hands.

A pair of hands that had been repeatedly trained in the Heavenly Refining Tower of the Hundred Smelting Clan from forty millenniums ago.

The time passed on, second by second.

Li Yao was like a stool attached to the front of a table as he showered his talent and creativity on the fingernail-sized crystal card under the magnification of a microscope that consisted of twelve crystal lens and eleven magnifying array glyphs.

An entire nineteen carving pens crafted from adamantyl stone had been ruined. Only God knew how many times his ten fingers had been blistered. However, after soaking them in the medication for a while, regardless of the drilling pain he was experiencing, he would once again begin carving like an insane person.

Finally—

Since the flash of inspiration in his mind, an entire week had already passed.

A new magical equipment shining with a magnificent gloss appeared on the scarred palm of Li Yao!

Watching his very own idea come into being and seeing it lying quietly on his palm, Li Yao felt like crying.

Over this one week, the painstaking effort, the sweat and blood, the frustration and depression whenever he failed…was worth it!

All of it was worth it!

This magical equipment weighed only 97.45 grams. The memory crystal card and command crystal card were integrated upon a mini-crystal panel which was firmly wrapped in a silver-white shell that was refined from a titanium alloy.

It looked like an ear pad. It was created totally in accordance with the contours of Li Yao’s ear, allowing it to seamlessly fit upon his left ear. No matter how severe the movements were, it would never fall off.

The front of the ear pad had two titanium alloy brackets that extended towards the front, while sandwiched between them was an ultra-thin lens crafted from red silicon crystal, which could be controlled with the rotation of his eyeball as well as the expansion and contraction of his pupils.

In appearance, this magical equipment was a combination of communicator and monocle.

The lens that was slightly glowing in red light was in particular strangely enchanting.

Li Yao could not help but put the magical equipment on his left ear before vigorously shaking his head.

There was no discomfort. It fit quite perfectly. As long as the head was not hit directly, no matter how much the head swayed, it would not fall off.

And, due to a special ventilation design, wearing it for a long time would not produce a hot feeling.

Adjusting a hologram onto the lens mode and looking carefully at the lens, Li Yao was extremely satisfied with the magical equipment’s appearance.

His somewhat valiant face appeared even more aggressive against the slightly red lens; it brought a faint antagonistic appearance.

As far as he, the “vulture” who grew up in the Magical Equipment Graveyard, was concerned, this shape was very much to his liking.

“Good, that’s a hundred points for the appearance. The trends of this year’s teenagers would change completely—if they had this magical equipment in one ear, with the red lens covering an eye, their aura would shoot up by 300%!”

Li Yao slightly smiled.

Although its appearance would dazzle everyone, its performance was even more powerful.

The magical equipment was equipped with a “super falcon”-class crystal eye that was manufactured by the Holy Light Sect. It was a quasi-military-grade crystal eye. Its dynamic imaging performance was quite powerful. Once it was pushed to its limit state, it could easily capture any object moving at a subsonic speed within a range of three hundred meters.

Meanwhile, the memory crystal card could store the information of 990,000 demon beasts.

Additionally, the boosting group on the command crystal card had reduced the identification time to 0.78 seconds.

It could even take a photo and identify three kinds of demon beasts simultaneously!

“Awesome! In the past, I have always been working on and modifying someone else’s magical equipment.”

“And now, the first magical equipment designed and crafted by me is finally finished!”

Despite it being a very common auxiliary magical equipment, Li Yao’s heart was racing; he was extremely excited as he let out cheerful cries.

After having thought for a long time, Li Yao finally decided to name the magical equipment “Demon Beast Detector!”

Chapter 191: This Magical Equipment is Somewhat Interesting

After a break of one week, Li Yao once again arrived at the Zenith Province to conduct the first combat trial of the demon beast detector.

Chopping a rattlesnake into two, Li Yao quietly placed it on the desert floor, whereupon the sweet scent of fresh snake blood wafted hundreds of meters away.

This was Li Yao’s bait.

Very soon, a half-meter long lizard crawled out from the cracks between the rocks. It stuck its head out and looked about. Having carefully observed its surroundings for a long while, it could no longer endure the torment of its hungry stomach and jumped.

“Whoosh!”

Two skin membranes just like two wings opened on either side of its body, making it glide extremely fast in the air as it swooped towards the rattlesnake in the blink of an eye.

However, its vigilance was much higher than that of the the Hump-Nosed Viper. The moment it pounced on the rattlesnake’s corpse, it vaguely sensed that something wasn’t right.

“Whoosh!”

Once again two semi-circular fleshy wings opened from either side of its head, making its head look ten times bigger than usual.

In nature, it was a very common intimidation technique.

Under the setting sun, the fleshy wings radiated with a strange glow as round after round of blue annular stripes appeared on them.

At first glance, it seemed to be a highly toxic Blue-Ringer Flying Lizard.

In addition to having quick movements, it had poisonous glands under its tongue that could shoot fatal poison a dozen meters away. It was a very nasty high-rank Demon Soldier.

However, in Li Yao’s eyes, there was a completely different scene.

“Beep! Beep!”

Within just half a second, the crystal eye had scanned all the characteristics of this flying lizard and was carrying out a comparison with 1,875 species of lizard-type demon beasts.

In less than one second, a short paragraph of information appeared in the light-red lens:

“Purple-Ringed Flying Lizard, low-level Demon Soldier, non-poisonous, agile, can glide for a brief period, specializes in disguising itself as its close relative the Blue-Ringed Flying Lizard to scare off enemies.”

“An adult Purple-Ringed Flying Lizard’s battle force is comparable to a 5th level Refinement Stage cultivator at most.”

Li Yao grinned as he jumped out from his camouflaging netting. A blade of light flashed from his waist, blowing sand and stones in the air.

“Waste of space with a battle force less than 5th level of Refinement Stage, just die!”

…

When Li Yao was slaughtering demon beasts in the Zenith Province with the help of the demon beast detector, the HoD of Grand Desolate War Institution’s Refining Department, Yuan Manqiu, was conversing with the logistics supervisor of Mountain Sea Sect, Jiang Wenbo, via the spiritual crane messenger in the 1st laboratory.

Jiang Wenbo was also a refiner from the grassroots faction. Since he had discovered Li Yao, this rising star, he held a quite a bit of love for him. Every once in a while, he would converse with Yuan Manqiu regarding the progress of Li Yao’s cultivation. Not only that, he had also taken the post of a guest professor and opened up two specialized courses for Li Yao. He even persuaded the Mountain Sea Sect’s management to provide a sponsorship of five million to the Refining Department of the Grand Desolate War Institution.

Such funding could not be considered much, but for the past two years, the Mountain Sea Sect was in deficit due to poor management. Although it was not to the point that they could not make the ends meet, the current cash flow was comparatively tight. Both Yuan Manqiu and Li Yao were very pleased and were grateful for their kind intentions.

In the hologram, Jiang Wenbo looked somewhat frustrated as he dejectedly said:

“Big Sis, I am entrusting this matter to you. You have a wide range of connections, and you also have some connections with the army. If there is someone who needs a ‘Mystic Laser Micro-Engraving Machine’ and its supporting assembly line, please help us communicate with them!”

“Alright! But let me forewarn you, the Mystic Laser Micro-Engraving Machine and the mini-components assembly line is very expensive. More importantly, it has few and specific applications. I am afraid I cannot find anyone in a short period; by my estimate, it will at least take a few months.”

Yuan Manqiu paused for a bit before speaking in a slightly reprimanding tone:

“Old Jiang, don’t be offended, but your Big Sis told you when your Mountain Sea Sect was spending a large fortune to purchase this piece of equipment to launch some ‘essence watch project’ that the current essence watch market is already saturated. There is a giant called Zephyr Guild who has been manufacturing the essence watch for a few centuries.”

“Your Mountain Sea Sect doesn’t have any experts and doesn’t have any new technology. How are you to compete with the other party?”

“I have told you that the precision of the essence watches manufactured by you is pretty good, but they make a lot of tick-tock-tick-tock noises which can be heard be demon beasts from over a hundred meters away. How can anyone be able to hunt while wearing it? It would be even more strange if someone bought your magical equipment!”

Jiang Wenbo took a long deep breath before he helplessly said:

“Do you think I don’t know of these problems? However, in the Star Glory Federation, sects are everywhere. Not only are the top five hundred major sects taking more and more aggressive stances, there are many young cultivators who are establishing their own sects. Although they are not too strong, they are creative and have enough tricks to craft magical equipment that fits the liking of youths. Furthermore, they can enter the market without any burdens, it is easier for their small enterprises to change their line of products, some of which would eventually show results.”

“Our, Mountain Sea Sect is a second-grade sect and is out of luck. We are squeezed in the middle, we are not able to go up, nor can we afford to go down; we are not that big but not too small either. We don’t have some powerful magical equipment to take hold of the market, nor do we have a Core Formation Stage or above expert who could lead a team to kill high-level demon beasts. We didn’t know what we could do. The entire sect, from top to bottom, has to live on air!”

“When we were feeling desperate, we could only think of purchasing a new facility; we wanted to change our structure.”

“But who would have thought that the difficulty of manufacturing essence watches would be so high? With the functions of mini-crystal processors getting stronger and stronger, the market for traditional essence watches is gradually shrinking.”

“These days, even the Zephyr Guild is having a hard time, how could we have a way to make a living?”

“In short, we have arrived on a fork in the road. We could only hope to sell this set of equipment asap so that we can recover some of the loss.”

Yuan Manqiu nodded and said:

“I guess that’s right. Walking on the road of cultivation is like sailing against the current, we have to move forward or we’ll fall behind. This is true for humans and the same goes for the sect as well. If we can’t think of a way to ensure the competitive edge, we could be by eliminated any time!”

“Worry not, I will find a way to help you contact the buyers.”

“Thank you, Big Sis.”

The two chatted for a bit before Yuan Manqiu terminated the call. Afterward, Yuan Manqiu pulled up a huge telepathic thought message sent by Li Yao from her mailbox.

Although Li Yao was Yuan Manqiu’s only disciple, she didn’t interfere too much with Li Yao’s training as in accordance with the institute’s tradition.

Until and unless Li Yao took the initiative to ask her guidance, or she needed his help in refining, the two researched independently. They did not bother each other.

Yuan Manqiu had long known that Li Yao was crafting a completely new magical equipment, but she held her curiosity in check. She did not ask until now.

“What the hell is that kid refining? Is it an incomparably powerful saber?”

Yuan Manqiu knew Li Yao was studying saber-type magical equipment and his progress was amazingly fast. His understanding of many sabers had already surpassed hers and he could even draw dozens of blueprints of rare ancient sabers.

As she opened the message, instead of finding some saber, all she saw was an auxiliary magical equipment.

“Demon beast detector? This is a bit interesting.”

An auxiliary magical equipment with such a function was rare in the market. Yuan Manqiu’s interest was piqued.

As she turned page after page on the hologram, the look on her face became more and more solemn, the expression in her eyes became hotter as she grew increasingly excited.

“If this thing can be improved a bit, it has a wide range of applications in combat.”

“Furthermore, its components aren’t that complex; aside from the high-precision crystal eye which is relatively expensive, other things don’t need any heaven-and-earth-class treasures. This can be mass produced.”

Yuan Manqiu spent an entire five hours studying the report on the demon beast detector.

At this moment, Li Yao, with his body wrapped in a bloody aura, returned from the wasteland. He respectfully knocked on the door, waking her up from her stupor.

“Why are knocking on the door, it’s such a waste of time, quickly come in!”

Sitting in front of Yuan Manqiu, Li Yao was feeling somewhat apprehensive.

The results of the first combat trial were pretty good. His hunting efficiency had increased by 500%. Not only had he hunted a dozen relatively weaker low-level Demon Soldiers that were worth a lot of money, he was able to promptly see through the disguises of high-rank Demon Soldiers, which allowed him to avoid their fatal traps. He didn’t even waste a fraction of a second on a needless fight.

What would the opinion of Yuan Manqiu, this experienced and knowledgeable “Deep Sea Goddess,” be for this piece of magical equipment?

“Teacher, what do you think?”

Li Yao asked in anticipation.

Yuan Manqiu carefully observed the demon beast detector on his left eye as she nodded. After having pondered for a moment, she said:

“If I approve this magical equipment, what are you going to do next?”

Li Yao replied in a natural manner:

“Obviously I am going to craft more of them and sell it to the students!”

Yuan Manqiu shook her head and said:

“In my opinion, the demon beast detector has a great value in combat, but I am afraid acquiring 40,000 credits by selling them will be pretty difficult.”

Yuan Manqiu paused for a bit before explaining:

“First of all, this magical equipment is completely new and most of all, it is invented by a freshman. How can you make everyone believe in the reliability of this magical equipment?”

“Yes, you have once modified some close-combat magical equipment and your fundamentals of classic magical equipment have also progressed, but you didn’t alter the overall structure of the equipment.”

“Furthermore, close-combat magical equipment has always been treated like a consumable, the emergence of some minor failure on the battlefield is pretty normal!”

“However, the demon beast detector is completely different, this is a very sophisticated piece of magical equipment. How can you make others believe that this piece of magical equipment could differentiate between two different species of demon beasts with 100% accuracy?”

“Even if the probability of mistaking a Demon General for a Demon Soldier was 0.1%, it would be disastrous for its user.”

“For matters of life and death, everyone is very cautious. They would rather choose products of a more reliable sect, or choose the products crafted by well-known senior refiners in the industry. They might not completely believe a 1st-year freshman like you.”

Li Yao’s lips parted, wanting to justify. However, having wracked his brain for a long while, he could not say anything.

“Second and most important of all, you have used purely your hand to engrave the crystal card. This technique is really superb, even I’m very shocked.”

“But what about the output? Can you even craft three or five a day?”

Li Yao shook his head:

“No matter how fast I am, it would take me at least five days to craft a demon beast detector.”

Yuan Manqiu said:

“So to say, after working tirelessly for one month, you can craft six demon beast detectors at most.”

“Furthermore, you have used a quasi-military grade crystal eye, and hence, your production cost would not be very low.”

“What kind of price will you set in order to earn more than 10,000 credits in the remaining two months?”

“Perhaps even 2,000-3,000 credits per piece would not be enough!”

After having carefully pondered this, Li Yao came to the same conclusion. Furthermore, no one would be willing to spend so many credits just to buy an auxiliary magical equipment.

Scratching his head, Li Yao asked in a perplexed tone, “Teacher, what should I do?”

Yuan Manqiu smiled:

“Don’t you worry, in my opinion, the demon beast detector is pretty important in combat. Its prospects in the market are very broad, it will not just bring you 10,000 or so credits.”

“However, first you have to apply for a patent for the demon beast detector.”

Chapter 192: 30,000 Credits!

“Apply for a patent?”

Li Yao blinked his eyes, stupefied for a brief moment.

Although the Demon Beast Detector was invented by him, the array glyphs and algorithms it employed were the creation of others. Even the most important crystal eye was manufactured by others. How could he even apply for a patent?

Yuan Manqiu said:

“The technology employed by the Demon Beast Detector is very well developed and is ready to use, but its components are new and very creative, greatly elevating the practicality of many array glyphs and algorithms. Therefore, you can apply for a ‘utility patent’ and the probability of it getting approved is rather large. And once you have obtained the utility patent, you will also be awarded 3,000 credits as per the Institute’s rules and regulations!”

Li Yao smacked his head as he suddenly came to realize.

The Star Glory Federation’s patent system consisted of two kinds of patents: the invention patent and the utility patent.

The invention patent had very stringent requirements. It required that the corresponding array glyphs, algorithms, and technology be completely original. Furthermore, it had to go through a review for a long period of time, and also needed its creator to explain its origin and development clearly. If it was array glyphs, algorithms, and the like, then the creator had to provide all the first-hand drafts.

When Li Yao had just obtained multitudes of classics from the Heavenly Refining Tower, he had also wondered whether he could copy some of the ancient array glyphs and apply for some invention patents.

However, after having meticulously studied the review process of invention patents, he dispelled this notion.

He wasn’t confident at all that not a single flaw would be discovered by Core Formation Stage powerhouses and Nascent Soul Stage old monsters in the firsthand draft forged from ancient books from forty millenniums ago.

In contrast, utility patents were not the same. One could use the works of predecessors for reference so long as one could create a new concept. And the auditing process was also relatively standard. It would only take one or two months before the results were out.

However, the patent term for utility patents was comparatively short. Generally, it was about three to five years. In addition, if one wanted to commercialize his or her invention, he or she would have to pay a certain share of the profit to the creators of the array glyphs and algorithms mentioned in the patent.

For instance, for the boosting array glyphs employed in the Demon Beast Detector, Li Yao would have to pay a certain share of the profit to the inventor of boosting array glyphs for every Demon Beast Detector sold.

Of course, he could also pay a huge lump sum up front and buy out the utilization rights of boosting array glyphs for several years.

In the world of cultivation, all the array glyphs, algorithms, exercises, spiritual powers, and everything else that one could think of were considered intellectual property.

To be precise, intellectual property was the foundation of the cultivation world and was sacrosanct.

All the mainstream cultivators attached a lot of importance to this very point.

Yuan Manqiu continued:

“The most valuable part of your magical equipment lies in its new structure, and to be honest, it could very easily be copied.”

“This is also one of the reasons why I don’t agree for you to trade it.”

“If it is acquired by someone with aspirations once it is out in the market, and he applies for the patent before you, then you can cry all you want but it will do you no good.”

“Only when you have first applied for the patent can you boldly sell it. Furthermore, you should not sell it on small scale by crafting it with your own hands. How many do you think you could craft in one day?”

“If you mass produced it through a magical equipment assembly line, you could manufacture hundreds of Demon Beast Detectors a day. And who knows, maybe you could even earn a few billion annually!”

“A few billion?”

Li Yao’s eyes went wide with disbelief. The first thought in his mind was:

“Then wouldn’t I be able to buy two luxury flying shuttles?”

“I would be able to buy a Mystic Bird Battle Shuttle and a Crimson Flame Battle Shuttle! At that time, my prestige will be comparable to Senior Brother Peng and Ding Lingdang!”

Scratching his head, Li Yao pursed his lips into a stupid grin:

“Is this toy so good? However, it would still be okay if I could earn only a few hundred million. Our Refining Department has thousands of pending tasks. If we want to restart Project Mystic Skeleton, we also need to throw in a lot a money. If I can earn a few hundred million, it can be used as initial capital!”

Yuan Manqiu smiled:

“Silly Kid, don’t you remember the last failure? Project Mystic Skeleton is a bottomless pit, even the Institute doesn’t dare to invest in it. Do you really want to throw in your hard-earned millions into this bottomless hole?!”

“Even if you could somehow earn 40,000 credits, that is still not the endpoint. The future holds infinitely wonderful starting points. The road of cultivation is very long, there will be many times where you might need to use the money. If you can earn some money, it’ll be smooth sailing going forward. As your teacher, this can be also be considered to be my duty!”

Li Yao felt warm in his heart. Rolling his eyes, he said:

“I am not throwing the money at this in vain. Think of it as an investment. After I put in the money, I will be a shareholder and will be entitled to a certain share of the profits once we are successful in crafting the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit. Don’t you think this would make me look majestic! Wouldn’t it be a lot better!?”

Yuan Manqiu was angry, but happy as well. Stretching her plump arm, she slapped Li Yao’s forehead as she shouted:

“The chicken has not even laid any eggs, and you’re counting your chickens! First, think of some way to earn 40,000 credits!”

“Yeah!!!”

Li Yao started to frown.

Even if the application for the utility patent was approved, it would only earn him 3,000 credits. How could he earn 10,000 or so credits in the next two months?

“I have to fight it out!”

“Next, I need a big kill in the Wasteland!”

“With the Demon Beast Detector, not only my hunting efficiency is improved, I can also notice powerful demon beasts nearby in advance. Now I can venture into more dangerous zones to hunt.”

“While hunting, not only can I hone my battle force continuously, I can also discover any defects in the Demon Beast Detector and thereby make subsequent improvements at the same time!”

“On another note, it can also serve as a great advertisement!”

“Since I am just a freshman, it is natural that no one will believe that I can craft my very own magical equipment!”

“Later, it can also prove how useful the Demon Beast Detector is for everyone!”

From this day on, Li Yao began to make hunting trips in the Wasteland like a madman.

Besides occasionally returning to the Institute for some maintenance and recuperation, he would wander in the Wasteland day and night.

All the low-danger demon beast zones had been swept clean by him just like a hurricane.

He avoided the dangerous high-rank Demon Soldiers as well as the low-level Demon Soldiers that were somewhat difficult to hunt but were less valuable thanks to the Demon Beast Detector.

He particularly hunted the low-level Demon Soldiers that had lower battle strength but had valuable and precious materials on their bodies.

Every time, Li Yao would return with a large haul. He was like a tiger heading down the mountain to hunt. He was no different than a hungry wolf pouncing on sheep; his success rate was 100%. This flabbergasted everyone.

On the newcomer ranking list, Li Yao’s name was sitting up at the leading position and was followed by a long series of five figures. It had not changed much for a month or so.

Everyone thought that Li Yao had reached a bottleneck and would have to stop for some time.

Even when the amount of credits took a giant leap once in a while, it could all be accredited to luck. Li Yao just so happened to encounter another priceless prey.

However, no one had imagined Li Yao’s luck to be so scary that his credits would climb at an explosive speed. He was so fast that his earning speed could be compared with Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan combined, who were in 2nd and 3rd place on the list!

All of a sudden, Li Yao became the talk of the campus forums. Every day, someone would post a comment:

“Once again, the insanity of Li Yao starts!”

“27,000 credits! His credits have broken the twenty-seven freaking thousand mark!”

“28,000! What the hell happened, how did he get a thousand credits? He can’t be this fast unless he’s cheating!”

“Today, Li Yao hunted two very precious Silver-Striped Fragrant Foxes!”

“Damn, last time, our team of seventeen to eighteen people wanted to hunt this thing. In the end, we spent three days and three nights and somehow caught two. But when we looked closely, we found out that they were just worthless Grey-Striped Fragrant Foxes. Damn it, I’m about to explode!”

“His luck is truly too good! Every time he’s been hunting, he hasn’t missed, not even once. Moreover, he would return with an amazing haul every time. Just the Silver-Striped Fragrant Fox has been captured by him, and twice at that!”

“This is still nothing; check out some of the missions he has taken, all of them are hunting missions in dangerous zones. Even seniors do not dare to rush into many of these regions, but how could he, who is just a low-level Refinement Stage cultivator, withdraw with at most some minor injuries every time?”

In order to advertise, Li Yao did not hide the Demon Beast Detector and even swaggeringly walked around the campus while carrying priceless demon beast corpses and wearing it a few times.

Such flamboyance naturally didn’t go unnoticed.

Discussion about the Demon Beast Detector suddenly appeared in the forums.

“Did you notice? Li Yao was wearing a weird magical equipment on his left eye. It looked a lot like a monocle.”

“What is that? Is it some kind of telescopic magical equipment?”

“Idiot, how can it be a telescope? I looked at the list of common magical equipment and did not find this kind of equipment. It seems that it is some kind of magical equipment modified by him. It is certainly not as simple as a telescope!”

“In my opinion, maybe this thing is related to all his good fortune! After all, he has returned with a big haul every time!”

However, many comments posted by the girls were focused on a completely different thing:

“Li Yao wearing a light-red monocle looked… so handsome!”

“Right! Right! His aura was totally astonishing. I secretly took a photo!”

“Wahhh, I so want to go and confess to him. However, everyone said that he is a bit fierce. I heard that his former moniker was ‘Vulture’, it totally doesn’t sound like he is a good man.”

“Don’t talk nonsense, I’ve talked to him twice. How do I say it… rather than saying he is fierce, he is someone who is immersed in his own world. His eyes would go wide whenever he began to study close combat magical equipment! He is totally unaware of what is happening in the outside world. He only appears cold and detached, that’s all.”

“Besides, who cares if he doesn’t seem like a good person. This year, only the bad boys are sexy!”

Li Yao didn’t look handsome; he wasn’t nowhere close to being some dandified, handsome-looking young man.

However, the girls of the Wasteland wouldn’t care about some scholar who couldn’t even kill a chicken.

They worshipped the strong and liked dauntless and robust men.

Li Yao was one of the three experts among the freshmen. For three to five days, he would hunt alone in the Wasteland, and with the domineering Demon Beast Detector, he looked exceptionally fierce. Very soon, he became the idol of many female students.

However, Li Yao had no time to concern himself with this. The only thoughts in his mind were those of wandering and hunting alone in the Wasteland.

Finally, there was just a month left until the registration deadline for the Refiners’ Registration Examination.

Meanwhile, Li Yao’s credits had broken through the 30,000 mark!

Chapter 193: One Against Two Thousand?

“Now, only the last 10,000 credits remain!”

In a cave, Li Yao carefully baked a hare with the help of a fire glyph. Meanwhile, he had also laid down fresh air glyphs around so that all the air would remain in one place and the demon beasts outside the cave would not get a single whiff.

A knowing smile appeared on his somewhat gaunt face. His deep black eyes seemed to appear bigger.

Spending a month alone in the Wasteland, Li Yao’s appearance had undergone enormous changes. Not only had he become slender, his skin also had a metallic luster, but it didn’t radiate light like steel.

At first glance, he looked no different than an ordinary rock found in the Wasteland.

However, once he discovered prey, he would suddenly erupt, while his speed and strength soared to the limit. He would turn into a ferocious hunter in the blink of an eye.

Over this month, he had not only amassed credits, he had also accumulated hunting experience.

The demon beasts of the Wasteland were a treacherous, cunning, and vigilant bunch. More importantly, these demon beasts were the best at camouflaging and sneak attacks.

If one wanted to hunt such demon beasts, he or she would need to be even more treacherous, more cunning, and better at camouflaging and sneak attacks.

On one side, Li Yao was hunting, while on the other, he was learning as well. All the demon beasts were Li Yao’s teachers.

He learned how to hide like a poisonous snake, crawl like a centipede, kill prey in one attack like a scorpion, glide like a flying chameleon, and even studied how to lay down traps and put out bait like a spider.

Soon afterwards, these techniques, along with a decade or so of techniques honed through surviving in the magical equipment graveyard, turned into even more powerful hunting techniques. With these skills, he became a field survivor as well as a hunting expert. He became a true guerrilla expert!

“One month and 10,000 credits.”

“Even if the utility patent is approved, I will only earn 3,000 credits. I’ll still be lacking 7,000 credits.”

“The demon beasts in the southern regions of the Wasteland are too weak. If I keep hunting in this area, I’ll simply be unable to amass 7,000 credits.”

“Moreover, it’s is not 100% certain that the utility patent will go through. If I fail at the most crucial moment, it will be truly embarrassing.”

“It seems I have to take the risk and head deep into northern regions!”

The forces of the Star Glory Federation were concentrated more on the southern regions of the Wasteland. There were fewer cities deeper into the north. Meanwhile, the lesser the signs of humans, the more powerful demon beasts could be found.

In order to acquire 10,000 credits within one month, Li Yao was prepared to play with his life.

He planned to wander fifteen days in the southern regions of the Wasteland.

And if he was unable to save enough credits, or if the utility patent wasn’t passed, he then planned to go to the northern regions of the Wasteland and wander in more dangerous regions!

“But first, I should return to the Institute and cash in the prey from this trip.” Weighing the heavy, rumbling backpack, a satisfied crept upon Li Yao’s face.

Li Yao’s harvest from this trip was also pretty good. He would probably be able to exchange it for a few hundred credits.

Having returned to the Institute and converted the spoils of his hunting for credits, Li Yao returned to the medical room to deal with some minor injuries. He had not even taken a rest before he received an invitation from Ding Lingdang, asking him to celebrate breaking the 30,000 mark.

“Li Yao has arrived! Li Yao has arrived!”

In front of a small house amid the sea of bamboo, a colorful and gorgeous parrot squawked as the door automatically opened.

Just as Li Yao stepped into the door, a light breeze brushed his face.

Li Yao was taken by surprise. He had been suddenly caught by Ding Lingdang.

The latter also ruthlessly twisted his arm behind his back, making him grimace in pain.

“What the hell is going on? Didn’t you ask me to dinner to celebrate breaking the 30,000 mark?”

“Of course, we are going to eat, but first of all—”

Having twisted his arm a bit again, Ding Lingdang angrily said, “Let this sister first twist your arm for a while so that I can vent my anger. You, Smelly Brat, have so quickly and quietly broken the 30,000 mark. You also broke the record for the fastest student to attain 30,000 credits, taking down Senior Brother Peng!”

“At the beginning, I was the second fastest student to break the 30,000 mark, but now, you have thrown me into third place. Tell me, is that all right? You are truly a monstrous genius. Maybe one day you will even become stronger than me. Then, would I not be bullied to death by you? Absolutely not! While I’m still stronger than you, I’ll crush you a bit; I might as well get the most out of it until then!”

Twisting his hand once again, she exclaimed:

“What is going on? In the one month I have not seen you, your muscles are even more solid. Twisting your hands feels like twisting a stone. It’s not even a bit interesting, forget it! Let’s eat!”

Without uttering even a word, Li Yao followed her to the living room. But when he got to see the dinner placed on the table, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“Didn’t you say we were going to celebrate? So, did you invite me to eat noodles?”

Ding Lingdang, who was carrying a bowl of noodles, sat down on the ground as she started slurping the noodles. She was eating with one hand and was handling some work on the crystal processor with the other. She muttered:

“I have been swamped with work and had no time to cook fish or meat. Make do with it for now. Didn’t I add two soy eggs to your bowl?!”

Having said that, she paused a bit before continuing:

“I have seen your hunting results, you’re really doing a good job. From looking at the wounds, you’ve attained perfection in the ‘Desert Storm Saber Technique’. Even if it was me hunting in the southern regions of the Wasteland, I would also be unable to do better than you!”

“However, high-value demon beasts are, after all, rare in the southern regions. If you want to amass 10,000 credits in one month, you have to head north, which is the habitat of high-level demon beasts.”

“I know that you are quite crazy and like to take risks. Maybe someday you will secretly head north, playing with your life. So, today, I specifically asked you to come to tell you that you don’t need to worry.”

“Recently, I have been very busy and could not spare any time. However, I’ll be done in ten to fifteen days, after which I have some days off. At that time, I will accompany you to the north and help you hold the line!”

Li Yao felt warmth in his heart.

So this was the real reason why Ding Lingdang asked him to come.

With Ding Lingdang, one of the youngest Building Foundation Stage experts in the federation, holding the line, the danger would drop significantly. He could hunt demon beasts far more easily.

Holding the bowl of noodles, Li Yao was at a total loss; he didn’t know what to say.

Ding Lingdang burst into jovial laughter, a noodle dangling at the corner of her mouth. Waving her hand, she said:

“You have been acting as a human sandbag for me for a long while, so why can’t I help you a little? Besides, you, ‘Vulture Li Yao’, are currently at your peak. You are an influential figure among the freshmen of our Grand Desolate War Institution. For a genius like you, the Institute is surely going to provide special care so that we can speed up your progress. This is absolutely normal! If I had not been swamped with work recently, I wouldn’t have waited to accompany you to the northern regions!”

“Sister Ling, thank you!”

After having hesitated for a long while, Li Yao somehow uttered these words.

Having sat down next to Ding Lingdang, Li Yao took a big bite out off the fragrant soy egg.

“En.”

Ding Lingdang’s response was just one word as she began dealing with her work with rapt attention.

Li Yao, while slurping the noodles, happened to take a fleeting glance at Ding Lingdang’s face. Suddenly, he discovered that as long as this ferocious dragoness in human skin didn’t utter one word and concentrated on her work, she looked incredibly beautiful.

This kind of quiet and indifferent temperament gave off the aura of a completely different person, someone completely different from the person that talked non-stop and charged around impulsively.

It appeared as though there were twins who looked exactly the same but had diametrically opposite dispositions. It was extremely weird.

“What are you looking at?”

Ding Lingdang somewhat discontentedly stared at him as she found the strange look in Li Yao’s eyes.

“Nothing.”

Li Yao’s face suddenly flushed red. Instantly, he turned his gaze at the hologram as he changed the topic in a panic. “I’m looking at your work. Recently, you have been so busy. Are you starting a lot of new courses? Hey, ‘All-Freshmen Interdepartmental Thunderbolt Cup’? What is this? The winner will be awarded…10— 10,000 credits!”

Suddenly Li Yao sprang from the ground. Half of the bowl of noodles even fell of his chest. Nevertheless, he didn’t even care to clean up his mess as he anxiously shoved his head towards the hologram.

“Freshman tournament… the winner will be awarded 10,000 credits? Awesome, I want to register! I am going to register now!”

Li Yao began to dance with joy.

Ding Lingdang forcibly pushed him back. She was angry and found it funny as well.

“Don’t get excited, first take a look clearly. This interdepartmental match is a group match where each student union has to act as one unit. It is not an individual match. I admit that you are strong, but you are the only student of the Refining Department. How are you going to participate?”

“Based on student union? There are no individual matches?”

All of a sudden, cold water had been poured over his excitement.

“That’s right, in accordance with previous years’ conduct, it’s a match between the freshmen of two student unions in the Combat Department, the Chaos Edge Hall and the Iron Fist Club. Both sides will choose their best 1,000 freshmen and carry out a contest.”

“And as I am a new professor, I’m mainly responsible for freshmen’s chores. Also, I am relatively familiar with the situation, so I am one of the staff for this year’s tournament. This is the reason why I have been swamped with work recently.”

The All-Freshmen Interdepartmental Thunderbolt Cup was the traditional tournament of the Grand Desolate War Institution. It had been going on for a few decades already.

Its purpose was to allow the freshmen to display the results of their first year of cultivation at the Institute, while also allowing various sects to select geniuses in the process.

On another note, it also served as the competition to decide how resources would be allocated next year.

The main sources of income for the Grand Desolate War Institution were the multitudes of combat sects who revered martial arts. They provided a lot of resources, and obviously, they would want their resources to be spent on the strongest department.

Since the beginning, the Thunderbolt Cup had been sponsored by the Devil Fist Sect, the Hundred Saber Alliance, and a few dozen other famous combat sects of the Wasteland. During the tournament, a real-life combat scenario was simulated and the winner would take all!

In short, the Thunderbolt Cup was a way for the two student unions of the Combat Department to compete for the annual resources. The tournament was specifically tailor-made for them.

According to the rules, other departments could participate too. As long as they were strong enough, they could get the sponsorship of numerous combat sects.

However, in combat, how could other departments compete with the Iron Fist Club or the Chaos Edge Hall?

They would simply be tidied up in minutes.

Ever since the first decade or so, where some departments took part in the tournament to try to gain some undue advantage only to end up last, for the last three decades, there had been fewer departments registering for the Thunderbolt Cup.

Over time, the Thunderbolt Cup turned into a civil war between two student unions from the Combat Department.

Li Yao was immersed in magical equipment all day. He simply had no free time. Therefore, it was quite normal for him to be completely ignorant of the details of the Thunderbolt Cup.

Having gained some knowledge of the details, Li Yao sank into deep thought.

As he wracked his brain, Li Yao thoughtfully asked:

“According to the rules, student unions of all departments can participate in the Thunderbolt Cup. The upper limit for people from any one union is 1000. However, there is no lower limit.”

“As long as one wins, he or she could get 10,000 credits, which would be subsequently divided among the participants.”

“In short, I, as the president of Refining Department’s student union, have all the qualifications to register for the tournament. And as long as I win, I alone could enjoy all 10,000 credits, for I’ll be the only student from the Refining Department who would be taking part in the tournament.”

“Theoretically, that’s right!”

Ding Lingdang snappily said, “The problem is, there would be 1,000 participants from the Iron Fist Club and 1,000 participants from Chaos Edge Hall. My smart little brother, do tell me, how are you going to compete? How are you going to knock out all 2,000 opponents?”

Chapter 194: Impossible Misson

One vs. two thousand?

Such a massive difference between the two sides was more than enough to deter the vast majority of people.

However, Li Yao wasn’t just everyone.

His eyes started to squint ever so slightly as though a venomous snake was eyeing prey that was a hundred times bigger than itself.

“Assuming that my Refining Department’s student union can register for the tournament, what kind of match is it gonna be?”

“Will there be 2,000 participants on one side of the ring while I’m on the other side, just fighting directly?

“And I think that as this tournament relates to the allocation of resources for the next year, the Iron Fist Club and Chaos Edge Hall are going to be true opponents, but I’m sure they are not monolithic. I guess that it will impossible for them to act together to fight me, right?”

Very calmly, Li Yao shared his thoughts.

Having pulled the specific information about this year’s tournament from the crystal processor, Ding Lingdang said:

“The Grand Desolate War Institution pays more attention to the actual combat. And of course, the competition is not some simple hand-to-hand combat. Each match is equivalent to a small-scale drill. There is a backdrop, and victory conditions as well. It’s not necessarily enough for one side to eliminate everyone from the other side, but—”

“At present, you are an influential figure of the Grand Desolate War Institution. The illustrious name and fame of ‘Vulture Li Yao’ have spread throughout Wild Waves City. You, Zhao Tianchong, and Lu Tieshan are known as the top three experts of the freshman class. Moreover, you are also in the leading position.”

“Leaving your strength aside for the moment, just wandering around the field while carrying ten Hellfire-Lightnings was enough for everyone to know your ferocity.”

“If you really do sign up for the tournament, do you think that everyone will not fight you to the death? Do you think that everyone will let you relax in the cool shade? Do you think that everyone is so stupid!?”

“Besides, the rules of the tournament would absolutely not let you reap profits without lifting a finger while the rest fight with each other. The victory conditions of the tournament will definitely be set so that it will be highly difficult for you to win.”

“After all, if you won, the credits awarded to you will be a thousand times more than the others.”

“Therefore, it will be a thousand times more difficult for you to win and it’s also right and proper!”

“A thousand times,” these three words made Li Yao’s pupils constrict suddenly.

Li Yao didn’t utter a single word as he sucked in his lip while carefully looking at the hologram.

This year’s match would take place after ten days and would be carried out in a world fragment with a very complex environment using various kinds of terrains.

Just as before, only the Iron Fist Club and Chaos Edge Hall would be participating this year at present.

Each side would be sending 1,000 freshmen, many of which would have reached the 3rd level of the Refinement Stage or maybe higher.

In order to stick close to the actual combat, each year a theme would be set for the tournament. The winning conditions would be formulated around the theme for both sides.

The theme of this year was “The Mayhem of Jade Chip”. There was also a backdrop around the theme:

“The Iron Fist Club and Chaos Edge Hall are two contradictory cultivation sects. There have been many conflicts in order to compete for their commercial interests and military contracts.”

“According to the legend, both sides have fought in the dark many times already and have even lost many experts. An endless blood feud has been forged in between them.”

“The Chaos Edge Hall, in order to completely disintegrate the Iron Fist Club, had sent a spy who had infiltrated the Iron Fist Club for two decades and had been scheming day and night to get ahold of concrete information. Finally, he stole highly confidential secrets, including a variety of secret array glyphs, exercises, and even commercial secrets of the Iron Fist Club, all of which are stored inside a jade chip. Now he is preparing to flee to the Chaos Edge Hall.”

“Unexpectedly, his escape has been discovered and 1,000 clansmen from the Iron Fist Club are on his tail.”

“Meanwhile, a reinforcement of 999 clansmen from the Chaos Edge Hall is also in front.”

“A great battle between 2,000 people to seize this jade chip is imminent!”

Li Yao frowned:

“What nonsense is this?”

Ding Lingdang pursed her lips:

“A backdrop setting! This is done in order to increase the sense of competition between the students and also make the competition interesting!”

“In short, the theme of this year is a jade chip battle. This kind of theme, rather than asking one side to completely decimate the other side, asks the participants to bring the jade chip to their base and insert it in a huge crystal processor for a certain amount of time. If the opponent has not been able to grab it back in that stipulated amount of time, they would win.”

“In fact, in order to foster a combative atmosphere among the students, the Institute very much wants to encourage other departments to participate in the tournament. The winning condition will also be made a bit more flexible”

“Twenty-seven years ago, the student union of the Medical Department, the Lancets, participated in the tournament. The theme at that time was ‘The Great Escape’. As long as the members of the Lancets could flee from the Iron Fist Club and Chao Edge Hall, they would win.”

“However, no matter how flexible the conditions were, at the end of the day, fists and swords had to be used to decide the outcome.”

“Five hundred Lancets members were wrapped up in just three minutes. All of them were captured and they became a big joke.”

Since then, there have been no other departments willing to register for the tournament.”

“If you do register, I think, the Institute will probably set an escape-like winning condition for you. In other words, as long as you can escape from the combined assault of 2,000 members of the Iron Fist Club and Chaos Edge Hall, you will win.”

“However, like I said, you are a well-known dangerous figure. If you took part in the competition, others would definitely crucify you first. They would absolutely not let you have an opportunity to sit back atop the mountain to watch the tigers fight. So save your breath!”

Li Yao’s eyes spun in circles before they burst forth with a sharp gleam:

“Escape-type mission? If I can escape from the encirclement of 2,000 participants, I will have the opportunity to win 10,000 credits?”

“2,000 participants, among which a vast majority are cultivators. And there are experts like Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan as well. Since the two have been cultivating for so long, they might have also reached 5th level of the Refinement Stage, yeah?”

“Plus, there will also be hundreds of 3rd and 4th level Refinement Stage experts; it will be really frightening.”

“However, at the end of the day, they are still not monolithic. As long as I could find a gap between them, I do have the opportunity…”

Having thought of this, Li Yao’s eyelashes shook as he said while gnashing his teeth:

“I am going to represent the Refining Department’s student union, the ‘Starfire Union’, and sign up for the All-Freshman Interdepartmental Thunderbolt Cup!”

Ding Lingdang pursed her lips:

“I knew it, you brat. There’s no way you would not give up on your sinister designs. You can fill out your details on the Battle Network. Well then, I’ll give you this soy egg.”

Grabbing a soy egg from her bowl, Ding Lingdang stuffed it into Li Yao’s mouth.

“Why?” Li Yao was dumbfounded.

Ding Lingdang rolled up her eyes:

“If you are going to eat so little, how will you have the strength to take the beating of 2,000 robust fellows?!”

The news of Li Yao’s participation in the tournament spread like wildfire, setting off a huge uproar in the campus.

After a lapse of twenty-seven years, a group other than the student unions of the Combat Department was going to sign-up for the Thunderbolt Cup for the first time.

And the group participating turned out to be just a single student from a tiny student union.

Li Yao would be competing alone, challenging 2,000 stocky and murderous students from the Combat Department!

In a moment, the entire Institute was in an uproar.

Half of the forum’s posts were discussing Li Yao’s suicidal and crazed behavior:

“Oh, no! Li Yao is actually going to represent the Starfire Union and will be challenging the Iron Fist Club and Chaos Edge Hall? Each side will be sending 1,000 members, while he is just one man!”

“This is too reckless, right? Although we all know that he is one of the three experts among the freshmen, so what? There are still two others who are neck and neck with him! Even though Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan’s levels are lower than his, both of them are pure battle-type cultivators. Their battle force is not much weaker than his!”

“He’s just one man! Does he think that he can fight with Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan who will be leading 2,000 students?”

Although the winner would be awarded 10,000 credits, no matter how much everyone wracked their brains, they could not imagine Li Yao having any chance of winning.

Even if it was an escape-type mission, his chance of escaping from a heavy encirclement of 2,000 Combat Department students was close to zero!

After this matter spread, a fair share number of people immediately went to interview the two leading figures of the freshmen, Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan. They wanted to ask how were they going to deal with Li Yao if he really participated.

The two strongly expressed that Li Yao was the most dangerous and most terrifying figure among the freshman without any doubt. If he did participate, the Iron Fist Club and Chaos Edge Hall would first eliminate him before they confronted each other.

“We both are Li Yao’s friends. We do know that he needs to earn 10,000 credits in one month.”

However, as far as the tournament is concerned, the Thunderbolt Cup is related to the honor of two student unions. In addition, it is also related to the allocation of resources next year, which concerns thousands upon thousands of students.”

“If necessary, we are willing to team up with Li Yao and head north to hunt, helping him amass credits.”

“However, we will most definitely not throw the game.”

“If Li Yao is going to be participating, we will certainly knock him out—mercilessly!”

Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan resolutely and decisively said.

The Institute was also a bit surprised by Li Yao’s application.

Although the match each year had turned into a civil war between the two major student unions of the Combat Department and become a bit boring since the last two decades or so, the Institute very much hoped that even more student unions would participate and add some unknown variables to the tournament. They might even give a bit of trouble to the Iron Fist Club and Chaos Edge Hall, which would help the Institute assess their ability to adapt to chaos.

However, the Starfire Union was the smallest student union in the history of the Grand Desolate War Institute. It had only one student. Even if it did participate, what would be the use?

He was no different than a tiny mouse sandwiched in between two colliding crystal battleships which could barely make a squeak before being crushed to death.

However, Li Yao turned a deaf ear to all these criticisms.

After having set off a huge uproar, it was as though it was of no concern to him. He was still wandering and hunting alone in the Wasteland.

However, no one was aware that he had consciously increased the training of his camouflaging and escaping techniques.

The most common method he used was swaggeringly appearing under the eyes of a group of middle-rank Demon Soldiers. Occasionally, he would even cut his finger and bleed some blood to increase the appetite of demon beasts. After attracting their attention, he would escape from the chasing group of Demon Soldiers at lightning-fast speed; he would flee like crazy!

After five days, Li Yao received the reply of the Institute.

His application had been approved. In this year’s All-Freshmen Interdepartmental Tournament, the Starfire Union, Iron Fist Club, and the Chaos Edge Hall would be participating together, vying for the Thunderbolt Cup!

The theme of the match remained the same. It was still “The Mayhem of Jade Chip”, but they changed the corresponding backdrop slightly. It read:

“The Starfire Union is the most secretive, evil sect in the world of cultivation.”

“Li Yao, who is an evil expert from the Starfire Union, has infiltrated and spied on the Iron Fist Club for years. Finally, he has stolen the core secrets of the Iron Fist Club, which are stored inside a jade chip.”

“Right as he left, his identity was discovered and now a thousand clansmen of the Iron Fist Club are on his tail.”

“On another side, the Chaos Edge Hall, which was hostile to the Iron Fist Club, also came to know of this matter. They too sent a thousand elites and set up an ambush along the route Li Yao had to take in order to return to the Starfire Union. They want to kill Li Yao and grab the jade chip.”

“And although the hatred between the Iron Fist Club and Chaos Edge Hall runs as deep as the seas, they are determined above all else to win the jade chip. After having learned of Li Yao’s identity as an ‘evil expert’, they will stop at nothing to capture him and satisfy their vengeful desires.”

“Once they encounter him, Li Yao will be the priority target. Although they may experience intermittent skirmishes, only after they have captured the jade chip will the large armies fight each other all-out.”

“Li Yao will face pursuit by a thousand students from the back and a blockade of thousand students in the front. If he can cut through the entire battlefield and reach the designated Starfire Union’s point of contact while in possession of the jade chip, he will be the final winner and claim the Thunderbolt Cup. He will also get to enjoy 10,000 credits alone!”

Chapter 195: Escape

“Whoosh!”

Included in the instruction manual was a 3-dimensional map, which introduced the site of the competition, the “Yellow Wind Ridge”.

The Yellow Wind Ridge was a world fragment which was no different than the Heaven Origin Sector. It was not suitable for cultivation, but it was the best place for combat drills.

From south to north, it measured roughly twenty kilometers long and was successively divided into flatland, jungle and canyon regions.

Among which, the jungle region, which was the centermost region of the whole world fragment, was filled with swamps, hills, shrubs, and caves. It was the largest region among all three.

It was also perennially filled with a light yellow mist. Although it was harmless to human body, it caused some interference with the line of sight, hence the name, Yellow Wind Ridge.

It was quite foreseeable that the jungle region would be the main battlefield of this match.

Such complex terrain along with the interference of the mist would add a large number of variables to the entire match. The freshmen could quite possibly encounter their foes waiting in ambush at any time, which would subsequently develop into brutal encounters.

Such a terrain was a paradise for guerilla warfare.

Nevertheless, Li Yao was anything but pleased.

His winning conditions weren’t something like surviving in the Yellow Wind Ridge for few hours or a couple of days. Instead, starting from the southernmost part of the Yellow Mist Ridge, he would have to go through the flatland, the jungle, and the canyon. His goal was the northernmost region of the map which was the “contact point of the Starfire Union”.

However, the Chaos Edge Hall’s base was located in the two-kilometer-long canyon.

The canyon region had steep mountains on either side. There was only a narrow winding pathway in the middle.

It was quite conceivable that Chaos Edge Hall’s base would certainly be heavily guarded.

Even if Li Yao could somehow break through the encirclement in the jungle, he would still have to forcibly rush through the two-kilometer-long canyon.

There was no other way!

More importantly, according to the enactment, although the Chaos Edge Hall and Iron Fist Club were rivals who were absolutely irreconcilable, as Li Yao was a notorious evil expert and was also carrying a jade chip for which each side would stop at nothing…

Li Yao would become the priority target of 2,000 members from both the Chaos Edge Hall and the Iron Fist Club. Therefore, without acquiring the jade chip first, both sides would not open fire for sure. Maybe they would even collaborate to search for his whereabouts.

“It is indeed a thousand times more difficult!”

Li Yao was having a hell of a headache.

Slowly rubbing his temples, Li Yao researched the map over and over again.

The layout of Yellow Wind Ridge was shaped like an ellipse. The base of both Iron Fist Club and Chaos Edge Hall were located on the two tapered ends of the ellipse respectively.

And according to the victory conditions for them, after having taken the jade chip from Li Yao, they would have to return to their own base while also facing the pursuit of their rivals. They would then have to insert the jade chip into a static-type crystal processor for one hour.

During this period, if their base camp was attacked by other side and the jade chip was pulled out, then the countdown would start over again.

The only advantage for Li Yao was that he was allowed to use magical equipment.

However, all magical equipment must be included in the magical equipment list specified by the Institute. He absolutely couldn’t use some extremely brutal magical equipment like “Hellfire-Lightning”.

Of course, he still had five days to modify the magical equipment specified in the list.

However, apart from the blade, the carried magical equipment eventually had to be able to fit inside a standard military jungle backpack.

The explanation given by the institute was also quite reasonable—it was an escape, not some goddamn war.

It was impossible for someone to carry a Six Barrel Rotary Cannon along with a huge case of ammunitions on his back along with ten Hellfire-Lightnings. After all, he would be running for his life, right?

More importantly, in complex terrain like jungles and swamps, where the line of sight was also impeded by a faint mist, “masterwork weapons” like the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon would simply be nothing more than iron scraps, which only served to slow him down and make him a bigger target.

Even if the rules allowed it, Li Yao would never even want to carry heavy machine guns while he was running for his life in a jungle. This was simply courting death.

“All I can carry is magical equipment that can fit inside a standard military jungle backpack, and all of the magical equipment must be chosen from the specified list. Even though I can modify, I only have five days?!”

“It seems that earning 10,000 credits at once is as hard as climbing the sky!”

“Beep! Beep!”

Just when he was ruminating and wracking his brain, Ding Lingdang sent him a spiritual crane message.

“Ha, I just applied and became the Institute’s liaison with the Starfire Union for this tournament. My dear Starfire Union president, the extremely dangerous ‘evil expert’, Student Li Yao, do you have any questions regarding the rules of this tournament?”

“If you have any doubts, I’ll—answer. If you have any request, I will forward it to the Institute. However, the victory conditions are already set. There will be no further changes!”

Ding Lingdang said with a mischievous laugh.

She seemed to be enjoying Li Yao’s crushed appearance.

Li Yao turned a deaf ear. His eyes seemed to be transfixed as he supported his cheeks. Apparently, he was deep in thought. He pondered for a long time, and only after Ding Lingdang had yawned a couple of times did he suddenly say:

“Sister Ling, since the match is a simulation of an actual combat scenario and I’m playing the role of a meticulous evil expert who has infiltrated the enemy camp for ten years, then should I not be like a spy? If so, then in accordance with my identity, can I mention some requirements that tally with common sense?”

Ding Lingdang was surprised for a moment. She pouted her pink lips:

“Tell me the specifics, but I will not let you take advantages of any loopholes!”

Li Yao slightly smiled as the depths of his eyes twinkled. Stretching a finger, he said:

“First of all, since I’ve used a jade chip to steal the core secrets of Iron Fist Club, then should this jade chip not be provided by me?”

Ding Lingdang pursed her lips as she spoke in proud and self-satisfied manner:

“Ha, I figured that you would want to mess with the jade chip. Alright, you can provide the jade chip, but it must be one of five most common jade chips specified on the magical equipment list. Moreover, you have to hand over the jade chip a day before the match so that the Institute can inspect it. Only after that will the special telepathic thoughts that will represent the core secrets of the Iron Fist Club be inputted.”

“More importantly, you can neither tamper with the telepathic thoughts stored inside the jade chip nor carry out any disruptive modifications on the jade chip. You must ensure that the jade chip is the most common jade chip found in the cultivation world. Let me put it in simple terms—the jade chip should be such that any person could recognize it at first glance!”

“You are dumbfounded, right?”

“Do you think that the Institute would not foresee your little trick?”

“Do you think that you can grab 10,000 credits under the eyes of 2,000 members of the Iron Fist Club and Chaos Edge Hall so easily?! Don’t forget that this sister was the former president of Iron Fist Club. How could I watch your treacherous plan succeed!”

“Just wait a few days, then this sister will be free and will accompany you to hunt in the northern regions, okay!?”

Li Yao remained unmoved. He stretched out his second finger:

“Second, according to the rules, I can only use the magical equipment from the list. I think that’s not fair. I think that as a meticulous spy, I should have already predicted that I will have to flee; therefore, it is quite reasonable to say that I would have crafted one or two life-saving pieces of magical equipment in advance. So I request that I be allowed to use a special magical equipment, the magical equipment crafted by me.”

Li Yao tapped his left ear: “I want to use the Demon Beast Detector. This is just a field survival-type auxiliary-class magical equipment. It doesn’t have any attack capabilities, and it is also not going to explode. The Institute can confirm it with my teacher.”

Ding Lingdang tilted her head as she thought a bit before she nodded and said:

“Alright, this requirement is not too excessive. It is indeed in line with a spy’s behavior. The Institute should agree.”

“However, is this thing really so good? Is this thing the reason why you could gather so many credits recently? When are you going to craft one for your sister to play with?”

Li Yao chuckled:

“It is still in combat trials as there are some minor problems waiting to be solved. The detection speed of the demon beasts can also be improved a bit. Once I have resolved all the flaws, I’ll definitely craft a special version just for Sister Ling. Rest assured!”

Having said that, Li Yao raised his third finger:

“Third, I need the concrete details of all 2,000 participants from the Iron Fist Club and Chaos Edge Hall, including their strength, the martial arts they are specialized in, and their combat videos. I need all of their information.”

A frown crept upon Ding Lingdang’s face:

“What do are you planning? This is cheating, right?”

Li Yao shook his head:

“I beg to differ, I think that it is perfectly reasonable.”

“Because I am an evil expert who has infiltrated the Iron Fist Club for almost a decade and is also a meticulous spy, over these years, I must have gathered information on a lot of the Iron Fist Club’s experts, and as Chaos Edge Hall is the biggest enemy of Iron Fist Club, the information on their clansmen should also be within my scope of investigation.”

“Even if I don’t have the information of all the experts, at the very least, I should be well aware of some hundred top experts of each side, otherwise it will not be in accordance with the character setting.”

“Furthermore, this info is not some top secret information. All the students cultivate openly in their day to day life. What martial technique courses they have chosen can also be found out, and many people like posting their combat videos to show off. As long as I have some time to gather information, even I could figure everything out.”

“However, at present, time is very pressing, so I need the Institute to gather this information for me, that’s all.”

“However, if I was truly an evil expert who had infiltrated for a decade, I could have calmly collected every piece information over these years, maybe even be perfectly clear of which expert got a hernia too!”

Ding Lingdang stared at him suspiciously:

“Listening to you, your request does sound reasonable, but why do I always feel that there is some kind of conspiracy!?”

Li Yao curled his lips:

“Of course there is a conspiracy. If there was no scheme, would I really tussle with 2,000 robust fellows!”

Having contemplated for a moment, Ding Lingdang nodded:

“Alright, at least you’ve persuaded me. I will do everything I can do get them for you from the Institute. Are there any more requirements?”

“There is one last thing.”

Li Yao slowly raised his thumb:

“Since the Thunderbolt Cup is a tournament which determines the allocation of next year’s resources, does that mean that if I am somehow lucky enough to win the match, the Refining Department will get more resources than the Combat Department?”

Ding Lingdang sucked in a cold lump of air:

“Do you really think you can win?”

“But of course.”

Li Yao said, “I’ll fight it out and will win!”

…

Five days later, under the dark sky before dawn.

The 1st Generation Tai’e Crafting Furnace in the refining room without any lights seemed like a pitch black jungle of steel.

Sitting in the Lotus position, Li Yao rested in the deepest part of this seemingly steel jungle.

In the darkness, even his fingers that were arms apart weren’t visible. All one could see was a weak red light which seemed to be emitted by the Demon Beast Detector. It was operating at high-speed, giving his left eye a dangerous appearance.

After five hours, the All-Freshmen Interdepartmental Thunderbolt Cup would begin!

Chapter 196: Eliminate Li Yao First!

Regarding the conditions proposed by Li Yao, after careful consideration, the Institute had finally agreed to let Li Yao use the Demon Beast Detector as well as give the necessary details of the 2,000 students participating the match.

The Thunderbolt Cup was carried out under the banner of actual combat. In the real world, if there was indeed such a dangerous spy, it would be absolutely impossible for him to know nothing about his opponents.

More importantly, the Institute also hoped that Li Yao could hold on for a long while and give some more trouble to the Iron Fist Club and Chaos Edge Hall. He could add some itsy-bitsy bit of variability to the tournament that had been repeated again and again over a few decades.

Maybe with these conveniences, Li Yao could hold on for…30 minutes?

And as for the fourth point, it was absolutely impossible to be honored completely.

After all, the Thunderbolt Cup was just one match among series of matches held by the Combat Department; it was just a contest between the freshmen.

After the Thunderbolt Cup was over, the senior students of the Iron Fist Club and Chaos Edge Hall would start an even more intense match, which was the main highlight of the fight for the allocation of the resources.

However, after careful rumination, the Institute had made a public announcement:

If Li Yao could break through the heavy encirclement and win the Thunderbolt Cup, not only would he alone enjoy the reward of 10,000 credits, the Institute would invest ten times more resources into the Refining Department next year!

One must bear in mind that the resources invested in the Refining Department this year were calculated when the department had nearly a thousand people. And next year, even if the Refining Department remained, it would be impossible for it to recruit a couple hundred students. The Refining Department would certainly be taking a small but smart route. Maybe they could recruit one or two classes, or at most a hundred students.

In other words, as long as Li Yao won the Thunderbolt Cup, the cultivation resources that the students of the Refining Department would get to enjoy next year would be ten to twenty times more than the average amount of resources obtained by the Combat Department’s students!

This was absolutely a second-to-none treatment in any university in the entirety of the Federation.

All this could come true under only one eventuality

Li Yao had to cross tens of kilometers under the encirclement and pursuit of 2,000 stalwart students. He had to fight his way out through them!

“Beep! Beep!”

The crystal processor signaled that it was 7:00 AM in the morning.

In the dim morning twilight, Li Yao suddenly stood up and slowly walked out from the depths of the steel jungle.

Appearance wise, although he looked a bit haggard, his eyes were as sharp as two flame sabers that could melt and cut everything blocking their path!

Last night, he had already prepared all the magical equipment he would need.

For the following twelve hours, he had been quietly sitting in the depths of the steel jungle, trying to comprehend the mood of an evil expert in the darkness.

He tried to think, feel…

If the three cultivation sects, the Starfire Union, the Iron Fist Club, and the Chaos Edge Hall were indeed there, and if there was indeed a spy who was undercover for a decade, what would he do when he had flee, when his life was on the line?

The vague outline of a plan that had been circling in his head for past few days gradually began to clarify itself in his head.

As for whether it would work, it would become clear after four hours!

8:00 in the morning.

There were only three hours left until the match begin.

Since a couple days ago, the freshmen arena zone of the Wasteland Battle Network began to seethe. And at this moment, it was blazing to the extreme.

All the previous Thunderbolt Cups were just a civil war between the freshmen of the Combat Department, therefore, the students of other departments weren’t very concerned about it.

However, this year’s Thunderbolt Cup was quite different. With the variable known as Li Yao, the contention of 1,000 vs 1,000 that more or less remained the same over the years had now become a contention of 1 vs 2,000. Meanwhile, “1 vs 2,000” glittered at the topmost part of the arena zone!

Whether it was the Combat Department or other departments, the curiosity of all the students was piqued to the apex.

Everyone wanted to know, how would Li Yao actually deal with 2,000 heavily-armed, stocky and murderous opponents in the match?

Even before the match had started, various tactical prediction posts had been flying high in the forums. All the students were discussing Li Yao’s tactics:

“I’m sure Li Yao will quickly flee into the jungle and deal with the 2,000 opponents with the help of the complex terrain there!”

“The Yellow Mist Ridge is huge and is also filled with a faint mist. It is the best battlefield for guerilla warfare. Even if all 2,000 participants head into the jungle, they would not be enough to comb through the entire jungle. If Li Yao is lucky, maybe he can make his way out of the dragnet[1]!”

“Not to mention, he is obviously more powerful than everyone else. As long as he doesn’t encounter Zhao Tianchong or Lu Tieshan-level experts, he could kill everyone else in seconds!”

Not even two minutes had passed since this thread was posted, it had been immediately submerged in angry posts like a tide:

“Since even you can think of this, then do you think that Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan cannot think of it?”

“I agree that the main battlefield of this match is the jungle, however, if Li Yao wants to win, he needs to pass through the two-kilometer-long canyon which is surrounded by steep cliffs on either side. There is only a narrow and winding pass in the middle, where the base of Chaos Edge Hall is located. As long as there are a few dozen people blocking the way, no matter how strong is Li Yao, can he do anything? Can he kill a few dozen people in seconds?”

“Furthermore, as long as the slightest trace of him is discovered, the remaining 1,900 people would then all be on his tail. Slowly, the encirclement would become smaller and smaller, and finally, Li Yao would definitely be caught. He ain’t got no opportunity!”

In a short period of time, similar kinds of tactical analysis posts popped up in droves. Tens of thousands of students discussed his chances at great length. However, the only conclusion that was drawn was that so long as the 2,000 members of the Chaos Edge Hall and Iron Fist Club remained clear-headed and eliminated Li Yao first, his defeat was certain. There was not a single thread of opportunity that Li Yao would win the Thunderbolt Cup.

And whether it was because of the tournament’s rules, the identity settings of both sides, or from the pre-game speeches of both of the leaders’ points of view, how could they lose their heads and give Li Yao any opportunity to sit atop the mountain and watch the tigers fight?

Thus, two and a half hours before the start of the match, the topic of discussion changed from what tactics Li Yao would employ to how long he could survive.

Because in everyone’s opinion, continuing a discussion regarding Li Yao’s tactics was meaningless. No matter what tactics he was going to employ, Li Yao was going to lose without a shred of doubt!

From the polls with the largest number of respondents, 57% of the respondents believed that Li Yao would surrender within half an hour, 22% of the respondents believed that Li Yao could hold on for one hour before he was captured, and 15% of the respondents believed that Li Yao could hold on for 90 minutes.

The number of respondents who believed Li Yao could win was zero. There was absolutely no one who believed in Li Yao’s victory.

9:00 AM.

There were only two hours remaining until the match started.

The Chaos Edge Hall’s headquarters glittered like ice and snow as 1,000 armed freshmen, each sporting soaring killing intent, assembled. All in all, there was an oppressive pressure in the air.

Meanwhile, a surround-type hologram repeatedly played a series of combat videos, where the protagonist was none other than Li Yao!

Not only were the battle videos from Verdant Tarn City were being played, even his awe-inspiring performance at the Devil Flood Dragon Island during the last year’s Limit Challenge Competition had been dug up.

Zhao Tianchong, who stood before the surround-type hologram, tightly sucked in his lip. A grave look appeared on his face, while his eyes turned red as he tried to arouse 999 of the Chaos Edge Hall’s top freshmen:

“My fellow students, as you all know, the Thunderbolt Cup is the highest honor a group of freshmen can attain, and more importantly, it is also related to the amount of resources we are given next year. Therefore, it goes without me saying that everyone should go all out in the match, not just for the glory of Chaos Edge Hall, but for yourselves as well. Let us all fight to the bitter end!”

“However, this year’s Thunderbolt Cup is different from previous ones. Not only are we going to be facing our old rival, the Iron Fist Club, there is a new enemy as well, the Starfire Union. Although the Starfire Union only has one student taking part in the much, don’t make the mistake of underestimating this student, because…he is none other than Li Yao—Vulture Li Yao!”

“All of you have repeatedly studied Li Yao’s combat videos for past couple of days, and you’re all clear that his strength is absolutely not below mine. Furthermore, he is a guerrilla expert who is good at jungle warfare. And maybe, in this complex jungle terrain, he could display an even more aggressive battle force. He is also more likely to use various kinds of weird magical equipment!”

“Therefore, let me repeat it one last time, there is no doubt that the Iron Fist Club is our biggest enemy, but Li Yao is our most dangerous opponent. In the match, our first priority target is gonna be Li Yao; we are going to remove this variable first, and once we have captured the jade chip, only then will we compete with the Iron Fist Club!”

“I have faith in Lu Tieshan’s wisdom, he must also be giving a similar briefing at the Iron Fist Club. There is a tacit understanding between us and no one is allowed to break it, not in a million years. Do you all understand?”

“Hooah!”

999 young sword cultivators shouted at the top of their lungs. Apparently, their blood was boiling.

“Alright! Let’s get rid of Li Yao, capture the jade chip, and clash with Iron Fist Club. The final victory is gonna be ours!”

Zhao Tianchong, while zealously waving the Chaos Edge Hall’s banner, shouted:

“Chaos Edge Hall members, move out!”

Almost at the same time, at the Iron Fist Club’s headquarters, Lu Tieshan, with his head held high and Iron Fist Club’s banner in his hand, marched ahead.

Following him were 999 robust teenagers, each strong as a bear and supple as a tiger. Every single one had a vivid spirit tattoo that radiated a powerful and majestic aura.

“Let’s eliminate Li Yao, seize the jade chip, and steamroll the Chaos Edge Hall. The final victory belongs to us!”

“My brothers of the Iron Fist Club, follow me!”

10:00 in the morning.

Only one hour was left until the start of the match.

A dozen luxury flying shuttles smoothly and quietly flew into the Grand Desolate War Institution.

Aboard these flying shuttles were the executives of various combat sects in the Wasteland; they were all VIPs who had been specially invited for the Thunderbolt Cup.

A large part of the educational fund of the Grand Desolate War Institution was sponsored by these sects. As far these sects were concerned, the Grand Desolate War Institution was equivalent to a youth training center.

With the year at an end, they would most definitely want to check the good seedlings fostered by the youth training center this year.

If there was a freshman with incredibly good potential, he or she would become the key focus of their investment. Maybe they would even sign a contract with him or her on the spot, entice him or her into joining them.

It seemed that the news of three student unions contenting for the first time in twenty-seven years had piqued their interest. This year’s VIP list was nothing but exemplary and magnificent. Many sects sent their elder-level executives to participate.

The Hundred Saber Alliance had sent their Vice-President, Long Wenhui.

The Devil Fist Sect had also sent their Elder, Bai Mushen.

Both of them were illustrious and super fierce people who had roamed the Wasteland freely for decades and left mountains of corpses and seas of blood in their wake. Both of them were in the Core Formation Stage!

As the matter stood, a total of four Core Formation Stage powerhouses, including the Dean of the Grand Desolate War Institution, Xiong Baili, and the head of the Combat Department, Xia Yanyan, were watching. Several dozen high-level Building Foundation Stage experts were also paying attention to the match at real time inside the VIP Hall.

10:55 AM.

Only 5 minutes left before the All-Freshmen Interdepartmental Thunderbolt Cup started!

Chapter 197: Can He Fly to the High Heavens?

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”

Thousands of crystal eyes hidden in various parts of the Yellow Wind Ridge started up, providing a clear shot of each and every corner.

The campus which used to be hustling and bustling was now utterly silent.

Everyone was logged into the Wasteland Battle Network through the crystal processors to watch the match live.

“Hurry up, the match is about to start! 1 vs 2000, Li Yao is definitely going to be trampled upon, devastated, hung up and beaten!”

Whether they were in a dormitory, classroom, canteen, or playground, all of the students on campus had formed groups of two or three so that their heads were leaning against each as they waited for the match to start with bated breath.

Meanwhile, 200 of the strongest experts of the Combat Department, under the leadership of the Iron Fist Club’s President, Hua Tianxiong, and the Chaos Edge Hall’s President, Xu Ge, were watching their younger brothers compete together in the auditorium of the Combat Department.

After the end of freshmen competition, it was the senior students’ turn to compete

“I just hope that this year’s freshmen of your Chaos Edge Hall are a bit stronger, unlike last year’s, who were not even able to hold on for five hours and were completely blown away by our Iron Fist Club. It was truly boring.”

Hua Tianxiong spoke slowly and imperturbably while caressing his fists.

Xu Ge coldly laughed. The blade hanging on his waist slightly trembled as he retorted; he was reluctant to appear weak:

“Our Chas Edge Hall’s freshman, Zhao Tianchong, has been pressing your Iron Fist Club’s freshman, Lu Tieshan, on the newcomer rankings. This year, it will be you who is going to be blown away for sure!”

Last three minutes.

The 2,000 participants of Iron Fist Club and Chaos Edge Hall appeared through their respective large teleportation arrays at the base camps on the either side of the Yellow Wind Ridge.

In accordance with the rules of the match, the members of Chaos Edge Hall could only use the mass-produced Chainswords, Vibrosabers or other close combat magical equipment specified on the list.

The members of Iron Fist Club could only utilize the most common 1,300 spirit tattoos. They weren’t allowed to utilize powerful secret tattoos.

In addition, the contestants weren’t allowed to wear their own armor. All they could wear was the gray-colored light armor provided by the Institute.

One should not underestimate this armor. Even though it looked quite ordinary, it was top quality defense-class magical equipment. It was worth a lot. At a critical moment, it could release a powerful spiritual energy shield that could greatly mitigate the enemy attack.

As long as the attack did not exceed the full-force attack of a high-level Refinement Stage cultivator, the light armor would mitigate the damage by one-third.

Its effect was equivalent to the pink gel spouted by the puji critter during the Limit Challenge Competition. It would ensure the safety of the contestant.

More importantly, it was subtle, convenient, did not need some puji critter to fly over one’s head, and most of all, there was no need to worry about accidentally damaging the puji critter, thereby losing the protection.

However, even though the light armor would mitigate the attack, the sensory array glyphs on the light armor would calculate the corresponding damage.

When the damage value reached a certain figure, the light armor would automatically apply different magnitudes of electric currents to the wearer which would correspond to different degrees of injuries.

And if it was “irreversible, chronic injuries”, then the corresponding current would continue all the time.

The strongest current could even knock the contestant out, which would mean that the contestant had been killed in a second!

Last two minutes left until the start of the match.

In the VIP room, four Core Formation Stage powerhouses and several dozen Building Foundation Stage experts stared at hundreds of constantly flashing holograms with interest.

Especially when the crystal eyes swept through the 2,000 well-trained, powerful and grim-looking freshmen of the Chaos Edge Hall and Iron Fist Club, all of them, even more so, burst forth with a series of praises.

“This year’s Combat Department’s freshmen are very good. They are comparable to Peng Hai and Ding Lingdang!”

The Hundred Saber Alliance’s vice president, Long Wenhui, was the Core Formation Stage powerhouse who had captured Demon King Pieu. However, at this moment, there wasn’t even an iota of murderous aura emanating from him. His amazing cultivation was sealed tight such that not even the slightest trace of energy could escape from his body. He seemed just like a fat, middle-aged businessman. He smiled at an emaciated old man and continued, “It seems to me that the Iron Fist Club’s leader, freshman Lu Tieshan, is from the Devil Fist Sect, am I right? Old Bai, congratulations! If my insight is right, if this kid is still alive after ten years, he will definitely be in the Building Foundation Stage!”

The emaciated old man was none other the Devil Fist Sect’s Elder, and a Core Formation Stage powerhouse, Bai Mushen!

When Lu Tieshan’s father was still among the living, he was Bai Mushen’s favorite direct disciple. And after the death of his father, Bai Mushen directed Lu Tieshan and watched him grow up. In Bai Mushen’s eyes, Lu Tieshan was no different than his grandson.

Today was Lu Tieshan’s most important battle after having entered the university, so Bai Mushen specially came to watch the match. And the results did not let him down.

Although the match had yet to start, from Lu Tieshan’s subtle movements, it was quite evident that he had advanced by leaps and bounds. As compared to the naive and ignorant juvenile from a year ago, he seemed to have been reborn completely; he had cast off his old self and taken on a new self.

However, what made Bai Mushen most gratified was Lu Tieshan’s ability to command.

Under his leadership, 999 of the Iron Fist Club’s freshmen strictly followed orders and prohibitions just like a true army.

This kind of leadership was even rarer than battle force.

However, Bai Mushen’s eyes didn’t reveal the slightest bit of smile as he spoke:

“Chaos Edge Hall’s Student Zhao Tianchong is also a one-in-million cultivation genius. In my opinion, he will become an outstanding sword cultivator within ten years!”

“Zhao Tianchong is pretty good, but his parents are loose cultivators. If I am correct, then he will walk on the path of loose cultivators. Even if he joins some cultivation sect, it would absolutely not be the Hundred Saber Alliance as he is a pure sword cultivator!”

Long Wenhui sighed before smiling again, “However, I did not come just for Zhao Tianchong, there is yet another freshman who is also very interesting. He is none other Li Yao, who is taking part in the match on behalf of the Refining Department. Old Bai, in just a minute, you will need to pay attention to him.”

“I have indeed heard of this Li Yao. He is one of the three experts among this year’s freshmen. In the battle of Verdant Tarn City, his performance was shocking, if not crazy. Not only had he carried a Six Barrel Rotary Cannon while casually walking through the battlefield, he also had ten Hellfire-Lightnings strapped on his back, which he finally blasted a Six-Armed Naga to death with. He is indeed quite formidable!”

“However, from his combat videos, in my opinion, he is a very powerful refiner. He specializes in modifying and controlling heavy magical equipment.”

“In the city battle, he had logistics support and also had the support of his teammates.”

“However, now, all he can carry is a backpack full of magical equipment. He doesn’t have any logistics support. Not to mention that inside the jungle and swamps, he will be encircled by 2,000 contestants. Can he fly to the high heavens?”

Bai Mushen disapprovingly said.

He was the most traditional body practitioner who only believed in fists. Even though he had seen Li Yao ‘s combat videos, he did not appreciate the combat method employed by Li Yao. Li Yao placed too much emphasis on magical equipment, a trait Bai Mushen did not appreciate.

Long Wenhui calmly smiled.

“Maybe, maybe not. In any case, at least Li Yao’s appearance has added a small bit of variability to this match, which has been dull for over two decades. I believe that this year’s match will be very exciting. Ah, only ten seconds are left before the game starts.”

Last ten seconds to the start of the match.

Li Yao, through a small teleportation array, entered the Yellow Wind Ridge!

“Look, it’s Li Yao!”

Three crystal eyes simultaneously turned towards Li Yao. All the holograms switched to different angles of his face in the blink of an eye. Tens of thousands of spectators in the campus had their eyes upon him; not bit of the expression on his face could be missed. Everyone was hoping to guess his plans from his expression.

However, everyone was disappointed.

Li Yao wore green jungle camouflage clothing. Even his face was painted with alternating yellow and green stripes, making it extremely difficult to discern even his eyes and nose, much less the expression on his face.

The only thing that could identify him as Li Yao was the weird magical equipment worn on his left ear. At present, many people were already aware that this thing was called a Demon Beast Detector, a reconnaissance-class magical equipment invented by Li Yao himself.

“Why is he wearing the Demon Beast Detector?”

Although the Yellow Wind Ridge was home to some demon beasts, they were of “ordinary” level. As far as cultivators were concerned, they were nothing more than clay chickens and pottery dogs. They could be easily killed; there was simply no need to take any kind of precautions for them.

Apart from the Demon Beast Detector, Li Yao had a bulging, standard-issue jungle backpack strapped to his shoulders as well as a short, double-edged scimitar hooked to his belt. Dressed in his neat and tidy jungle camouflage uniform, Li Yao didn’t give any kind of impression of someone who had carried Six-Barrel Rotary Cannon and ten Hellfire-Lightnings during the battle of Verdant Tarn City.

“Li Yao’s skills completely lie in heavy magical equipment. Without the Six-Barrel Rotary Cannon and Hellfire-Lightnings, he is unable to do anything and will be eliminated at once!”

Many people said it with certainty.

Making the best use of the last few seconds, Li Yao jumped and rotated his joints with all his concentration; stretching each and every strand of muscle to the limit.

At this instance, he was at the southernmost tip of the Yellow Wind Ridge.

Right behind him was the Iron Fist Club’s base.

1,000 stalwart and tall fellows cast a covetous stare right at the back of his head.

Li Yao could not help but turn his head to take a glance, but all he saw was countless big and bulky fellows with their arms crossed, smiling at him.

“Fellow Student Li Yao, we all admire your spirit and courage, but this is a competition where our Iron Fist Club’s honor is on the line, so we will show no mercy. We are gonna treat you just like a true evil expert and a spy, we will not hesitate to blast you away!”

From the base of Iron Fist Club came a coarse and unrestrained shout.

Li Yao pursed his lips before turning his gaze towards the front once again, peering at the mist-filled jungle.

In accordance with the rules of the match, Li Yao would be given a ten-minute head start. He would have to cut through the flatlands, jungle, and canyon, breach through the Chaos Edge Hall’s base, and reach the northernmost tip, which was the contact point of the Starfire Union.

The distance between the starting point and the finishing point was 20.5 kilometers.

“Five…Four…Three…Two…One…Let the All-Freshmen Interdepartmental Thunderbolt Cup commence!”

When the starting signal was transmitted from the sky, the fierce group of Iron Fist Club members became even rowdier.

As for Li Yao, he turned a deaf year to everything, took a deep breath, bent his legs, and ran like hell!

His attitude was quite strange. It seemed as if he was frightened and fleeing in panic like a centipede, but on the other hand, he was also like a poisonous snake that was quietly moving around as it slowly crawled its way towards its prey. With each step, all the joints in his body would twist, making it difficult to distinguish whether he was running away or attacking.

Nevertheless, his speed was incredibly fast. In a blink of an eye, he had already cut through the two-kilometer-long flatlands and made his way into the jungle.

His ten-minute head start was quickly over.

“We don’t want to have any kind of conflict with Chaos Edge Hall for now. First of all, we have to find Li Yao, eliminate him and obtain the jade chip!”

One thousand angry men from the Iron Fist Club madly roared as they ran out, seeming like a thousand ferocious tigers heading down the mountain as they charged into the jungle!

Chapter 198: If You Want to Kill Me, Let’s Die Together!

At the northernmost region of the map, Zhao Tianchong ordered a hundred members of the Chaos Edge Hall to remain at the base, blocking the canyon so that not even a drop of water could trickle through.

And in order to prevent Li Yao using some kind of flying magical equipment to fly over their head, all the contestants left by Zhao Tianchong were flying sword experts.

In the event that Li Yao tried to traverse the canyon through the sky, dozens of flying swords would immediately greet him and treat him as a live target!

Afterward, Zhao Tianchong led 900 remaining experts from the Chaos Edge Hall to the jungle, pressing towards the center of the map.

Before the Iron Fist Club had a chance, they must find Li Yao, eliminate him, and grab the jade chip. The first one to seize the initiative would be the one who would take the jade chip back to their respective base and insert it into static-type crystal processor.

Following which, they would just have to hold the line while facing the fierce attack of the opposition, that’s all.

A defensive war was always a bit more advantageous.

“Time is pressing, keep up the pace!”

“There are 1,000 of Iron Fist Club’s members behind him and they can only head north. Everyone, please maintain formation, you can’t be too scattered. The mist in the jungle is quite dense, so everyone has to make sure that each of you has at least two of your companions in your sight!”

“Once you have found Li Yao attacking your companions, do not engage. First, you have to greet with at least two of your companions and form a tactical team of three; only then should you respond to the enemy attack!”

“I repeat, three, at least three people; only then should you go and engage with Li Yao. In any case, we have 100 people posted at the canyon, the sky is also completely blocked. Even if he has wings, he cannot fly through!”

“And most important of all, before anyone has taken the jade chip, no one, and I mean no one, is allowed to engage with Iron Fist Club!”

On the live broadcast system in the Wasteland Battle Network, an enormous hologram displayed a translucent three-dimensional map of Yellow Wind Ridge. It was spotted with 2,001 tiny dots of light.

The red dots represented the Iron Fist Club.

The blue dots represented the Chaos Edge Hall.

While the lone black dot represented the Starfire Union, or to say, Li Yao!

After having scurried into the jungle, the black dot seemed to be aimlessly moving around in circles. Li Yao seemed to have qualms regarding the hunters in the front. He dared not proceed forward and tried to find a hiding spot at the center of the jungle.

Not long after, a large number of red and blue dots slowly fanned into the jungle, pressing onwards from the both sides towards the center.

In order to prevent anyone being left alone and subsequently being attacked by Li Yao, both sides maintained a tight formation; they did not spread throughout the jungle at all, leaving many gaps behind.

Nonetheless, it seemed that they were gradually tightening the noose. As they moved back and forth, the room for Li Yao to move was definitely getting smaller and smaller. But they would always get noticed for a short moment.

Both sides gradually got closer. Finally—

The blue and red dots representing the vanguard teams overlapped. Both sides made the first contact.

In the mist-filled jungle, the vague towering trees looked as though they were gigantic beasts that were bearing their fangs and brandishing their claws.

Amid the shrubs, the croaks and shrieks of unknown demon beasts made the already tense atmosphere even more scorching.

Everyone’s forehead was drenched in sweat, their nerves highly taut.

Meanwhile, their eyes moved here and there; taking precautions against any kind of sneak attack made by Li Yao from each and every direction.

From the opposite side of the mist, a tall and stalwart human silhouette gradually revealed itself, its eyes not concealing its hostility.

“Slow down and sheath your swords. Now is not the time to fight with the Iron Fist Club!”

Zhao Tianchong shouted at the top of his lungs.

He knew that everyone was a hot-blooded youth. Generally, their relation was already anything but harmonious. In the past, small conflicts had taken place just to compete for training equipment and field space.

It was difficult to ensure that no one would do a stupid thing in a moment of hot-headedness. If so, then everything would be finished.

Meanwhile, from the opposite side, Lu Tieshan’s voice likewise resounded from the mist.

Zhao Tianchong was quite pleased.

Lu Tieshan’s temperament was rather stable. He was not some boorish fellow who had well-developed limbs but a moronic head. Furthermore, during the battle of Verdant Tarn City, they had also forged a deep friendship.

Now that he was found, presumably the scene would not get out of control.

“Lu Tieshan, it’s me, Zhao Tianchong. Let’s have a chat.”

Soon, Lu Tieshan, along with a few capable and vigorous-looking Iron Fist Club members vigilantly drilled their way out of the mist.

Spreading his hands, indicating that he had no malicious intentions, Zhao Tianchong, along with a few core members of the Chaos Edge Hall, walked to the center of the jungle.

“Lu Tieshan, although your Iron Fist Club and my Chaos Edge Hall have had many contradictions in the past, at the end of the day, we both belong to righteous factions. At this instance, we’re hunting a notorious evil expert. We don’t have any reason to seek each other and mutually destroy each other first, do we? I think that you are very clear on the meaning of the saying—’Fisherman benefit from the tussle between sandpiper and clam’!”

Since it was a simulation of true combat, Zhao Tianchong had also completely entered into the role as he gradually spoke in accordance with his identity.

Lu Tieshan nodded and said:

“Indeed, I have already informed all brothers that without finding the jade chip first, no one is allowed to engage with the Chaos Edge Hall. I just hope that your people do not act on impulse!”

Zhao Tianchong slightly smiled as he said:

“You don’t need to worry, over these days, we have repeatedly studied Li Yao’s combat videos. His aggressiveness and craftiness have left a deep impression, they will not act rashly and give Li Yao any opportunity to sit atop the mountain and watch the tigers fight!”

“Well, I’ve got a better idea, how about we divide the jungle between you and me? You will be responsible for the southern part of the jungle and I will be responsible for the northern part of the jungle. We will slowly search inch by inch, leaving no stone unturned. Only after having found Li Yao and the jade chip should we resolve our grudges!”

Lu Tieshan’s eyelid dropped down. Just as he was about to nod, a shriek suddenly came from a distance.

Both of them happened to have their pupils constrict to the limit at the same time, cold sweat appeared on their foreheads in anxiousness as both of them coincidentally and simultaneously shouted:

“WHAT’S GOING ON? DON’T DO ANYTHING!”

Having said that, each led a dozen core members towards the direction of the scream.

At the same time, they also transmitted orders to various members of their respective clubs via the crystal processor telling them to remain calm, relay all of their information, and to not take any action until further notice.

Unfortunately, the Yellow Wind Ridge was filled with mist and was a world fragment that was quite far away from the Heaven Origin Sector, making the network unstable and filled with interference; the network was going on and off every now and then.

Many battle teams seemed to have thrust into the enemy’s rear, and when the mist cleared slightly, they discovered that they were already entangled with each other.

However, everyone did keep in mind that they could not engage, so all they could do was give a black look to each other.

When Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan arrived, they discovered a three-man team from the Chaos Edge Hall and a similar team from the Iron Fist Club side in a stalemate.

Both sides were poised on a razor’s edge; there was a chill in the air, and a conflict could break out at any moment.

“What’s going on? Haven’t I told you that without finding the jade chip first, no one is allowed to…”

Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan snapped at the same time. However, they were not able to berate them in full.

Because at that moment, they noticed a giant tree between the both sides which happened to have its bark peeled out, thereby revealing its white part, upon which two crooked characters were engraved.

“Jade chip!”

There was also a small arrow pointing towards a tree hole.

Meanwhile, half of the jade chip was sticking out of the tree hole.

In the blink of an eye, Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan had an impulse to swear, while a sense of helplessness and powerlessness welled up in their heart.

“Calm!”

“Everyone please remain calm!:

“This is obviously a trap, can’t you see that? Li Yao just wants us to kill each other, this jade chip is obviously false. There might even be a bomb hidden at the back of the jade chip, and as long as we moved it, you might all be blown away!”

Zhao Tianchong shouted in a strict voice. Having said that, he too was having some doubt in his own speculation.

As Li Yao could only a backpack full of magical equipment, which even if it was filled with bombs, no matter how they were arranged, the subsequent explosion would not be that big. Whereas in an open terrain, the explosion would not even be able to blast a few people away.

“Everyone, retreat, hide behind the trees, I’ll check it out!”

Everyone retreated a dozen meters away and took cover behind the towering trees.

Releasing his spirit threads, Zhao Tianchong slowly approached the jade chip.

“Whoosh!”

The moment his spirit thread touched the jade chip, a mutation occurred as a small paper crane suddenly flew out of the tree hole, dancing in the air.

It was the most common magical equipment in the Star Glory Federation, the “Transmitting Paper Crane”.

From the paper crane rang Li Yao’s voice:

“Friends of the Iron Fist Club and Chaos Edge Hall, hello!

“Please don’t doubt the authenticity of the jade chip in front of you, I am sincerely handing the jade chip over to you.”

Assuming an air of self-conceit, the Transmitting Jade Chip spoke freely and frankly just like Li Yao:

“If I don’t hand over the jade chip, all 2,000 contestants will treat me as their target. I will be hunted down by all of you. I simply did not have a single shred of opportunity!

“Therefore, my plan goes like this—first I will hand over the jade chip to you and let all of you fight to the death with each other. In the best case scenario, both sides will be defeated and wounded, then I will swaggeringly come and effortlessly reap the spoils of a contest fought between you two!

“If you are worried about the authenticity of the jade chip, it’s very simple; you can take it to a static-type crystal processor on any of your bases and check it out. You can check whether the stored data are authentic or not. The chip is encrypted with special telepathic thoughts that I am unable to copy or tamper with.”

Having finished speaking, the paper crane paused for a long while; seemingly giving both sides time to consider.

Only when both sides were somewhat dazed did the paper crane continued as it flapped its wings:

“Of course, even if say this, there is 90% chance that everything I just said is a lie, this jade chip is false and I am just luring both sides into a fight.

“You can all think that I am bluffing and continue to hunt me down. I believe that under the web of 2,000 contestants, I cannot hide for too long.

“However, it has never been my style to play the pig to eat the tiger, so let me forewarn you.

“I have already advanced into the 6th level of Refinement Stage, my spiritual energy can now be used in combat and as such my battle force has advanced by leaps and bounds. I can say for sure that three to five of you can’t deal with me.

“If you truly want to eliminate me, you have to form a team of thirty to fifty people!

“However, friends of Chaos Edge Hall, I advise you to be a bit slower when hunting me down; do not rush too fast, or all of you will become my hunting targets!

“Once you have formed an alliance to hunt me down, I will specifically target your Chaos Edge Hall members!

“Anyone armed with swords and sabers will become my hunting target!

“Believe me when I say that before you can eliminate me, I will take thirty to fifty members of Chaos Edge Hall with me!

“From the beginning, your Chaos Edge Hall’s strength has been worse than the Iron Fist Club’s. In all the Thunderbolt Cups held in the past decade, you have only won twice. Just last year you suffered a crushing defeat; it was quite miserable already!

“I am quite sure that with my ‘help’, you will lose even more miserably!

“Especially Zhao Tianchong… you are the most crucial member of the Chaos Edge Hall. You’d better hope that you don’t encounter me in the jungle, for I will eliminate you at any price without any hesitation, maybe even die along with you.

“If you come to kill me, I will take the Chaos Edge Hall down with me!”

Chapter 199: Daggers Drawn

The pale green paper crane danced energetically, seemingly harmless to humans and animals, and the voice it transmitted was also quite calm. Nevertheless, it caused everyone to feel a chill running down their backs.

After having scared the hell out of everyone to the point that they were all drenched in cold sweat, he continued:

“However, if Chaos Edge Hall forgoes hunting me down and engages in full-scale war with Iron Fist Club instead, then I will attack the Iron Fist Club members with all I’ve got until the outcome is no longer a foregone conclusion!”

“The reason is quite simple. Among all three of us, the Iron Fist Club is the most powerful. Only if the two of us align ourselves together and weed out Iron Fist Club will we have a chance of victory!”

“Zhao Tianchong, and friends of the Chaos Edge Hall, as long as you stand where I stand and calmly think, you will realize that I am not necessarily deceiving you; this is the only method for me to improve my chance of winning!”

“After Iron Fist Club is eliminated, my chance of winning may increase from 0 to 10%, while your chance of winning will increase from 0 to 90%. If we formed an alliance, it would be way better for the Chaos Edge Hall!”

“I rest my case here. Now the outcome of the match in is your hands, ladies and gentlemen. As for where we go from here, it all depends on your decision!”

The paper crane slightly shook as it slowly floated down to the ground.

In everybody’s eyes, it seemed as though a thousand kilogram boulder had been smashed onto their hearts, causing a great stir.

Whereas at every corner of the campus, everyone watching this scene through the hologram had long since been dumbfounded.

Before the start of the match, everyone had proposed countless strategies which Li Yao could employ. Many people believed that the only way for the Li Yao to win was to propagate dissent and discord, setting a spark between the Iron Fist Club and Chaos Edge Hall in advance.

However, no one had ever imagined that driving a wedge could be done in such a fair and square way!

The Devil Fist Sect’s Elder, Bai Mushen, slightly frowned:

“This tactic is… somewhat despicable, right?”

Most of the body practitioners were straightforward. They had always advocated physical strength and head-on confrontation, and had always been less interested in scheming and such.

Whereas the eyes of the Hundred Saber Alliance’s vice president, Long Wenhui, burst forth with a sharp gleam as he smiled and said:

“From the start, Student Li Yao is playing the role of an evil expert. These kinds of tactics totally sync with his identity. And most of all, it’s 1 vs. 2,000, how can he win without being a bit despicable?”

Meanwhile, as far as the said victims of all this debacle who were presently at the center of the jungle were concerned, the so-called “despicable” tactic of Li Yao wasn’t as simple as it seemed.

Even before the paper crane landed on the ground, the Chaos Edge Hall members already had an ugly complexion.

Everyone whispered to each other:

“Is he serious? Doesn’t he just want to drag our Chaos Edge Hall members into a fight? Isn’t this bullying? What have we done wrong? Why does he have enmity with us?”

“Of course, it is serious. It’s 1 vs. 2,000. He made it quite clear that if he dies, he will drag a few of us down with him. What is so strange about that?”

“Didn’t you hear what he said at the end? As long as we fight with the Iron Fist Club, he will stand by us!”

“Thinking about it, he is indeed right. Our overall strength is weaker than that of the Iron Fist Club. Even if they paid heavy price to capture him, in all likelihood, we still could not endure the wanton attacks of the Iron Fist Club!”

“We might as well form an alliance with him first and eliminate the Iron Fist Club…even if we are only left with 100 people, I think we can capture a single person, yeah?”

“What do you think, is this jade chip authentic?”

“Who knows! There is a 99% chance that it is false, but what if it is authentic? Maybe it’s the so-called, ‘when false is taken for true, true becomes false[1].’ Li Yao is so treacherous. Maybe he has brazenly placed the real jade chip here, and wants us to think that it is false. When we are finished fighting with each other, he will boldly come back and retrieve the jade chip. Wouldn’t it be very retarded of us to leave it here?”

“No matter whether it is real or false, let’s take the jade chip first and take it to the base to check it; if it’s false, we will throw it away, and if it’s real, we will keep it!”

Along with the whisperings of Chaos Edge Hall members, the members of the Iron Fist Club knowingly or unknowingly drew close to each other and caressed their spirit tattoos, drawing every strand of their steel-like muscles taut. They each entered a battle state so that they could activate their spirit tattoos at moment’s notice.

“Hey, something doesn’t feel right, I feel that the opposite party’s murderous aura is getting more and more intense!”

“Nonsense, didn’t you hear what Li Yao said? If you were a member of Chaos Edge Hall, would you still cooperate with us if you knew you will lose without a doubt?”

“It seems that they are ready to attack us at moment notice. How about we attack first and take the initiative?”

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”

Numerous gazes turned towards Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan.

Lu Tieshan’s complexion looked bleak. A soybean-sized drop of sweat even had oozed out on his forehead as he spoke in a hoarse voice:

“Zhao Tianchong, you can’t walk into his trap. This is clearly a trap, I can bet that there is 99% chance that this jade chip being false. Are you going to fight with us over a false jade chip!?”

Zhao Tianchong’s eyebrows twitched as he stressed each and every word:

“Of course I know this is Li Yao’s scheme. This jade chip is most likely false, but in any case, Li Yao is right: if he targeted our Chaos Edge Hall, we would lose no doubt. Lu Tieshan, tell me, why should we work together?”

Lu Tieshan rolled his eyes in circles as he hastily said:

“How about our Iron Fist Club takes the front line? If someone is going to die, it will be us. Is this good enough to show our sincerity?”

Zhao Tianchong sneered:

“If you are the vanguard, then Li Yao would be captured by you, meaning the jade chip will also be acquired by you. We would still lose, wouldn’t we?”

Lu Tieshan was tongue-tied.

He came to realize that this hand of Li Yao’s was quite good. Li Yao was simply unafraid of it being seen through.

It was not a conspiracy, but at the same time, it was!

Zhao Tianchong coldly said:

“Lu Tieshan, I have a suggestion. Let’s see if you have the courage to go through with it!

“If you want to work together, we can. However, in order to do so, you have to make up for the losses the Chaos Edge Hall would suffer during the hunt. The Iron Fist Club must choose a hundred people and let us strike them down, eliminating them from the tournament.”

“This will balance the overall battle force of both sides. Only then will we continue to cooperate.”

“In addition, this jade chip must be kept by me; I will take it to the Chaos Edge Hall’s base to check its authenticity.”

Lu Tieshan was stupefied:

“Zhao Tianchong, are you kidding? You want a hundred people on my side to ‘suicide’, and you want us to hand this jade chip over to you? This is absurd! It is impossible!”

While remaining expressionless, Zhao Tianchong stressed each word:

“I know that my request is absurd. However, in all likelihood, Li Yao is hidden somewhere nearby and is ready to perish together with me! If I am finished, the Chaos Edge Hall will lose for sure. Tell me, if you can’t satisfy these conditions why should I cooperate with you?

“If you don’t agree, then even if I clearly know that it’s a scheme, I still have to bear with it and cooperate with Li Yao to eliminate you first!

“This way, at least I will have a better chance of winning!”

Lu Tieshan remained silent. After Zhao Tianchong finished speaking, he too fell silent while grasping the hilt of his sword, waiting for an answer.

The people behind the two discussed in low voices. However, gradually they turned unscrupulously noisy.

Both sides’ hostility was getting stronger by the second. The sword cultivators all had grabbed their swords, while the spirit tattoos on body practitioners emitted a strange brilliance. Their murderous aura was like two continuously expanding bubbles which were on the verge of colliding with each other.

“Calm down, for f*ck’s sake, all of you calm down!”

The blue veins on Lu Tieshan’s neck stood out. In the blink of an eye, his eyes were completely bloodshot. His throat became hoarse as he spoke:

“Zhao Tianchong, even though your requirements are outrageous, they are not without reason. But give me time to explain them to everyone; it really cannot be done in a short amount of time! Now the most important thing is to restrain our forces. We absolutely cannot have anyone taking any action! Once anyone attacks, everything will turn chaotic!”

Lu Tieshan was someone who acted decisively. Having mused and gnashed his teeth for a moment, Lu Tieshan was actually ready to accept Zhao Tianchong’s conditions.

Zhao Tianchong too heaved a sigh of relief as he let go of the hilt and spoke frankly while raising his hands:

“Alright, only you can do it. I will not ask for more; let’s work together to find Li Yao and eliminate him. Even if several dozen experts of my Chaos Edge Hall fall, or I am eliminated, I will accept everything and will not make a fuss!”

“Alright, a real man—!”

Lu Tieshan had hardly spoken before sounds of fighting, through the mist around them, came from both far away and nearby.

The two had their complexions change at the same time. Both of them started the communication channel and shouted in strict voices:

“Who the hell attacked?”

“We have not even finished the negotiations here, don’t attack, stand down quickly!”

Due to the interference from the mist, “buzz buzz” noises came from the communication channel, mixed in with shouts and sounds of taking attacks. The communication channel was going on and off continuously, no one responded to their shouts.

Only after listening with rapt attention for a while could they make out few words:

“Jade chip!”

“The jade chip is in his hands, ah, quickly grab it back!”

Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan looked at each other:

“Jade chip?”

Wasn’t the jade chip in front of them?

“Damn it!”

The two of them simultaneously thought of one possibility. In the blink of an eye, they felt a chill down to their marrows.

Back at the Institute, tens of thousands of spectators came to know Li Yao’s entire plan a few minutes in advance through over a thousand monitoring crystal eyes.

Li Yao had not just placed one jade chip in the jungle, but one hundred.

All hundred jade chips along with one hundred Transmitting Paper Cranes were evenly distributed in conspicuous locations at the center of the jungle.

Once they received even the slightest bit of disturbance, the Transmitting Paper Crane would dance in the air and lay out Li Yao’s entire plan without missing anything.

Currently, the contestants from both sides were thrust deep into each other sides. Almost everyone knew of Li Yao’s “scheme”.

They also understood the dilemma they were facing.

And they knew that the jade chip before them was…

99% false.

However, what if Li Yao was using this very psychology and passed off the real jade chip as false?

Or maybe they could take it back to the base to check it out, just to be sure. They might as well bet on this 1% chance, they just might acquire the jade chip!

Having thought like this, everyone quietly moved closer to the dubious jade chip.

Afterward, they discovered that not too far away on the opposite side, their old opponent was also eyeing it and was ready to make their move.

In the blink of an eye, Li Yao’s words from a moment ago welled up in their mind.

“What if the Chaos Edge Hall’s guys are thinking of cooperating with Li Yao and attacks our Iron Fist Club?”

“What if these kids of the Iron Fist Club are afraid of us cooperating with Li Yao and attack us first to take the initiative?”

Each side was thinking like this. Meanwhile, this daggers-drawn situation was getting more and more tense.

Gazes from both sides were ruthlessly clashing in midair, seemingly giving birth to crackling sparks.

Until now, everyone was still exercising patience and didn’t take any action.

The nerves of 2,000 people were like 2,000 bowstrings that were stretched to the limit. And all of them were using their last bit of reasoning to restrain their hands.

Suddenly—

“Ah!”

“They took action!”

From the mist all around them, extremely unexpected voices resounded.

It was another 100 Transmitting Paper Cranes which were all hidden amid the shrubs and grasses and were skillfully imitating the screams.