Forty Millenniums of Cultivation - Chapter 425

Chapter 425: Ares Reincarnated!

Awesome, dominating, brutal, bloodthirsty, and unstoppable!

Faced with such a powerful starship beyond his wildest imagination, Wang Ji, although maintaining a furious face, had a frozen heart. Every one of his cells started trembling uncontrollably.

“Why is there such a powerful starship hiding in the depths of the silver ocean? Judging from the appearance, it looks like a warship from the era of the Star Ocean Imperium.

“But why on earth would a warship thousands of years ago end up here, and why is it still drivable?!

“And who is it that is steering it?!”

Both shocked and exasperated, Wang Ji couldn’t help but scream to suppress the deepest fear in his heart.

In the meantime, the eight surviving Orb Patrollers, including Yan Jun, were also stunned at the starship that had come from nowhere and were speechless for quite a long time.

They had thought that they would be dead for sure today. No one had anticipated a fortuitous twist at the end of the episode. The moment the powerful yet mysterious starship appeared, almost twenty demons were already blown to smithereens, their blood dying the silver ocean red.

“Incredible! Incredible! The bombardment is even more destructive than the triplicate main gun of the main force warships of the federal army!

“Who is the captain of the starship? Is there a senior Cultivator living a hermit life in the underground of Boneyard?

“It is approaching!”

The demons freaked out, while the Cultivators were exuberant. All their eyes were glued to Sparkle. Holding their breath, the dozens of creatures here waited for its arrival silently.

Right then, an intense explosion suddenly took place on the above of Sparkle. A cluster of orange brightness pushed away seawater and expanded while it flowed toward the surface of the ocean.

The rain of arrows came to an abrupt halt.

A moment later, the assault cabin at the bottom of Sparkle was opened, from which four streamlined thick ‘cannonballs’ were ejected and tossed into the battlefield in a moment while slashing the seawater in their way.

The ‘cannonballs’ exploded, unveiling four impressive crystal suits!

The four Orb Patrollers of Team Blue Bronze joined the battlefield!

“So, it was you, the ants!”

Wang Ji was dazed for a moment. He glanced over the four of them while his dim, yellow eyeballs rolled over and over. His eyes turned from hesitation to ecstasy and eventually brutality.

The horror in his heart was entirely gone. Confidence was flowing crazily inside his veins again. Wang Ji burst out in laughter, because he had figured out what had happened.

“I didn’t expect that you would be as robust as cockroaches. Not only did the collapsing rocks fail to bury you, you even discovered a warship from the Star Ocean Imperium. Your vitality is really impressive!

“However, I’m afraid that you haven’t got through all the technologies on the warship, and you are merely swaggering around just based on the only useable cannon on board.

“A warship from the Star Ocean Imperium can’t be readily drivable. The only cannon has been wrecked by you. That’s why you can only rush out and fight face to face!

“You have taken down almost twenty demons of our side in a breath, but so what? We still have more than twenty left. You are still totally outnumbered. And we have the assistance of powerful biochemical beasts.

“There are only twelve Cultivators in total. We will have backup even if we are to attack each of you with two of us. You are doomed to die after all!”

Wang Ji was greatly reassured.

As powerful as the warship was, it must be unavailable for the moment. Otherwise, the Orb Patrollers of Team Blue Bronze wouldn’t have any reason to go out and fight them in person.

The logic was simple.

He even began to secretly feel happy about it.

Of all the demons teleported to Boneyard, he was among the noblest ones. But there were quite a few other princes and young masters who were of similar position and capability to him.

It was because he concocted the trap plan and proposed it that everyone listened to his command temporarily.

Once the residence of Skeleton Dragon was opened, those demons would be too selfish to allow him to loot everything inside first.

But right now, after the bombardment a moment ago, many princes and young masters had been blown to pieces. On the other hand, he was barely injured with the help of the weird black biochemical beast.

He was almost the one who boasted the highest capability from the noblest background among the surviving demons now!

“Nice kill! Really nice killing! After you take down each and every one of them, Skeleton Dragon’s heritage will all be mine!

“Team Blue Bronze, I cannot thank you enough! Haha, hahahaha!”

Wang Ji grinned hideously. His eyes were brimming with cruelness. A weird soundwave spread out quickly in the seawater through the throat of the biochemical beast.

“Don’t panic!

“Their cannon has gone dead. They have to come and fight us in person! Twelve badly injured Cultivators versus thirty demons, what’s there to be scared of?

“Au contraire, this is a tremendous windfall!

“Not only are we getting a residence of Skeleton Dragon, we are also getting a warship from the Star Ocean Imperium!

“Kill! Kill! Kill!”

The demons were not all slow-witted. Seeing the explosion on Sparkle, the sudden dumb fire of the cannon and Team Blue Bronze which was charging close, they realized what was going on without too much trouble.

Their morale which had hit rock bottom a moment ago was immediately boosted to its maximum. The bloodthirst in their bones was entirely triggered. Their fright a moment ago turned into savageness and viciousness, while they bared their fangs, waved their claws, and screamed horrifyingly.

Yan Jun and his teammates had only just felt relieved when their hearts skipped a beat again. They were both dumbfounded and frustrated.

“The starship is being steered by Team Blue Bronze? Where did they find such a powerful vehicle? And how did they activate it?”

“Not good. The only piece of attack magical equipment on the starship seems to be broken now. They have to come out and fight face to face!”

“Twelve of us against almost thirty of them. We barely stand any chance!”

“However, the outside-world Orb Patrollers of Team Blue Bronze… indeed have guts. They are charging close to reinforce us, knowing that they are terribly outnumbered…”

Starry brilliance was consolidating again in the bottom of Yan Jun’s eyes. The scar through his left eye was glittering, like a dragon which was stretching its wings.

“Good. Good. Team Blue Bronze, if you are audacious enough to fight until the last breath, Team Thunder Soul and the rest of the Children of Occult Orbs will not shy away, either!

“What’s the big deal with death? Let’s see who slays more demon scumbags before we die!”

On Sparkle, Li Yao’s telepathic thoughts were switching at the top speed among hundreds of light beams, while he operated rapidly to set Spark into automatic cruise mode.

The breakdown of the Rogue Meteorite was within his expectations.

Such an air defense cannon was not designed to provide tremendous damage after all. The side effect of bringing up its damage with the Flowing Brightness Crystals by force was that the components inside the weapon would degrade hundreds of times faster. As it turned out, the crystal barrels twisted and fractured in the end, leading to the big explosion.

But he didn’t have an issue with that.

If he hadn’t brought up its damage by force, he wouldn’t have been able to blow more than ten demons into smithereens as if they were chickens within a breath.

The Rogue Meteorite had fulfilled its destiny. There were only some twenty demons left now. The capability difference between the two sides was not irreversible now.

“You think we’re going to just wait to be killed now that we’ve lost the cannon?” Li Yao scoffed. Finishing the cruise mode set-up, he leapt up and retrieved the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit from his Cosmos Ring.

In the meantime, inside the magical equipment warehouse, a giant metal box was sliding quickly on the rails, too.

“Ares Extension, prepared!”

A moment later, Li Yao reached the assault cabin and dived out of Sparkle in the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.

A silver, streamlined ‘cannonball’ that looked like a dolphin glided at the top speed for several kilometers, before it exploded and revealed Li Yao, who stood on the above the battlefield and stared at the demons below him coldly from a high stance.

“It was you!”

Wang Ji was more than enraged. He finally realized that it was the dangerous Vulture who had sabotaged his endeavor again when he was one step away from victory.

“I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! In the Thunderous Sound Mountain, in Red Lotus City, and on Boneyard, you have meddled with my affairs time and time again, rat!

“This time, I’m going to capture you and soak you in the blood pool. I’m going to skin you, pull out your nerves, and cut your flesh off your bones three times a day, and when you are cured, I will do that to you again! Ten years, a hundred years later, you will beg me to kill you!”

The black biochemical beast that Wang Ji was reining, simulated by his fury, had bloody stripes on the mantis-like shell, making it appear more terrifying than ever!

The bone tail of the biochemical beast waved, as Wang Ji was preparing to lunge forward. But he suddenly felt that something was wrong and came to a sudden halt, while he gazed at Li Yao’s back in suspicion.

A new ‘cannonball’ was rushing close toward Li Yao’s back. It was more thick and brilliant than the previous manned cannonballs. Surrounded by rounds of runes, it was wreathed in a dazzling splendor.

BOOM!

The streamlined cannonball exploded, releasing countless glamourous runes which were emitting octagonal brightness at first. Then, a myriad of strengthening components appeared around the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.

Hand strengthening component!

Chest strengthening component!

Helmet strengthening component and spiritual energy enhancing system!

Leg strengthening component and brand-new power rune system!

Unbelievably powerful one-time remote attack system and fully upgraded melee combat system!

And also, more than three hundred ancillary components to increase manipulability!

All the strengthening components were bright green. Countless interweaving gold threads were covering their surface. At first look, they were the most awe-inspiring dragon scales!

Hiss. Hiss.

Bright green electric arcs were triggered by the strengthening components. Attracted and pulled by the electric arcs, they drew close quickly, assembled and combined, and stuck to the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit one by one!

Ka! Ka! Ka! Ka!

While the strengthening components were loaded one after another, the size of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit grew larger and larger. The intimidating aura that it let out soared exponentially, too.

A moment later, all the strengthening components had been pinned to the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit by the electric arcs and magnetic field.

The crystal suit which had been strengthened was almost four meters tall, with stabbing horns and unparalleled dominance, like a ferocious green dragon. Unfathomably sharp-edged fins stood erect on the arms and legs and behind the back. Bone spurs refined out of super alloys were beaming out bloodthirsty brilliance.

The most eye-catching part was the chest, where a strike cannon in the shape of a dragon head was crouching. Its bloody mouth was wide open, keeping a dazzling, rapidly revolving, green light ball surrounded by dancing electric arcs inside. A scent of extreme danger could be felt from it.

The Ares Extension had been fully loaded!

This was an Ares Extension designed for undersea usage named ‘Dragon Scale’!

With the Dragon Scale Extension added, Li Yao was standing in the water like an unstoppable God of War!

Chapter 426: Killing Spree!

Shua!

Every auxiliary fin on the Dragon Scale Extension was trembling rapidly, while Li Yao turned into a streak of greenness and pierced toward the demons!

“What is this crystal suit? Why is it so intimidating?!”

“Beware!”

All the demons felt unprecedented pressure. The seawater seemed hundreds of times thicker. Despite the assistance of the biochemical beasts, they still found it hard to breathe.

The demons were all frightened and shunned away.

But two demons were in Li Yao’s path and had been locked onto by Li Yao’s sharp killing intent. All the cells inside their bodies seemed to have been frozen into ice, making them rigid for a moment. The time window for running away had passed, and they had no choice except to grit their teeth and fight the incoming enemy the hard way.

One of the two demons was reining a biochemical beast in the shape of shark that was more than four meters long, with three sharp headbutting horns on its head.

The other demon was hiding inside a biochemical beast that resembled a giant lobster that was more than five meters long. Its two claws opened and closed in clattering noises.

The two demons charged at Li Yao, one from the left and the other from the right!

BOOM!

The furiously burning greenness crashed into the two demons. Thousands of green streams flowed out and wreathed the shark-shaped biochemical beast within a moment, before they were stirred brutally!

“Ahhhhh!”

The middle-level demon general inside the shark-shaped biochemical beast could do nothing but cry out before he was minced into pieces together with the flesh and blood of the biochemical beast. A cluster of bloody mist suddenly exploded in a boom.

A middle-level demon general had been slain by Li Yao within a second!

“The horror. Oh, the horror!”

The other high-level demon general was so panicked that he completely lost his fighting will. While his companion was being pulverized, he hurried to run away!

“Run away, now! Such a monster is too much for me to deal with!”

Rushing forward more than a hundred meters in a breath, the high-level demon general was greatly relieved sensing that Li Yao didn’t come after him.

But when he turned back his head, he found that everybody was looking at him in a daze.

The high-level demon general was finally grabbed by an ominous feeling, as if he had stepped onto nothing into an abyss. The pores all over his body shrank at the same time!

Behind his back, a weird green shadow had appeared without him knowing. The proudly-standing strike cannon on the chest of the Dragon Scale Extension was adorned with splendid stripes of blood. The light ball in the mouth of the dragon was more and more dazzling and, before he was able to react, exploded abruptly!

A pillar of brightness as wide as a bowl jetted out of the mouth of the dragon and pierced through the solid shell of the biochemical beast, similar to a chopstick stabbing through a cooked egg.

Luminescent blood flowed out of the gap of the shell. After a ‘BAM’, the two eyes of the giant lobster exploded simultaneously. It struggled for a moment and dropped dead.

The high-level demon general hiding inside of it was pierced through by the pillar of brightness without even being able to grunt. His internal organs were all vaporized, resulting in his instantaneous death!

After several seconds, two elite demons had been slain by Li Yao as if they were harmless chickens!

“Vulture Li Yao has become so formidable now that he’s put on such a weird crystal suit!”

“We are no match for him!”

“We are all going to die here!”

Witnessing Li Yao’s invincibility, the demons were terrified again and sent into chaos.

“Li Yao, where did you find such a powerful crystal suit?!”

Wang Ji’s eyes were blood red. His fury was almost burning his pupils through. He couldn’t hate it more!

“This is… an Ares Extension! The most formidable one-off strengthening plug-ins in the era of the Star Ocean Imperium!”

“Li Yao has miraculously found an Ares Extension. No wonder he is so brutal today!”

“We are saved!”

The Cultivators were overjoyed; their morale couldn’t be higher.

Staring at the glamourous Dragon Scale Extension covering Li Yao, Yan Jun was caught in mixed feelings.

A few months ago, when he first met Li Yao, Li Yao was merely a rookie who had just ascended to the Building Foundation Stage. He didn’t bother to look at him after all and thought that he would hamstring the Children of Occult Orbs in the missions like the rest of the outside-world Orb Patrollers did.

He didn’t expect that the guy would make so much progress in several months and even save his own life someday.

Right then, a telepathic thought was sent to him. His crystal processor received a request to share the communication channels. Team Blue Bronze had docked their communication channel to Team Thunder Soul’s.

“Yan Jun! The Ares Extension that I am wearing is a one-off expendable, and it won’t last long! Crush them while the demons are in a mess right now!” Li Yao bellowed in the communication channel.

Yan Jun was dazed for a moment. He took a deep breath. The complicated expressions on his face were replaced by fervent fighting will. His eyes glittered while he laughed.

“Alright! Let’s talk later!

“Right now, let’s just kill!”

Thirteen Cultivators, from three Star Teams, charged into the crowd of demons like thirteen sabers, slashing everything in their way apart.

The demons still outnumbered them in the field. But Li Yao was the sharpest blade edge wherever he went. He led the attack and stirred the formation of the demons into further chaos.

Barely any demons could survive one strike from him. Once they were engaged with him, their biochemical beasts were often seriously injured and had to be abandoned, if they were not killed instantly on the spot.

The other thirteen Cultivators were greatly encouraged by Li Yao’s valiance. They exerted all their might and followed him closely.

For a moment, the silver ocean turned red. More than ten demons had been slaughtered mercilessly one by one!

“Li Yao!”

Wang Ji was furious. Demonic energy surged out of his body and condensed into countless bubbles around him before they all exploded suddenly!

The bone tail waved. He dashed forward and reached Li Yao in the blink of an eye.

“Go to hell!”

Almost a hundred sharp bone spurs protruded out of the bone tail, and it slapped at Li Yao at more than three times the speed of sound, tearing the seawater in between apart.

Li Yao squinted. Every muscle on his body was constricted as much as possible, making him seem smaller than he actually was. Then, like an elastic spring that had been compressed to minimum, it bounced back all of a sudden. All the strength inside his muscles flooded into his right arm like thousands of rivers gathering into an ocean, providing spiral explosive power, before he punched the tip of the bone tail!

The Dragon Scale Extension had enveloped Li Yao’s fists in a thick layer of green plate armor that was covered in scales and sharp thorns. After the punch, the seawater around was pushed away, and a spacious waterless chamber was formed, like an invisible fist more than one meter in diameter had punched in advance.

BOOM!

The iron fist and the bone tail collided brutally. The immense blast caused a giant swirl in the seawater.

Li Yao barely moved, while Wang Ji was blown backward more than ten meters with a scream!

Tiny cracks were appearing on the fist part of the Dragon Scale Extension.

But half of the bone tail of Wang Ji’s biochemical beast had been blown off. The remaining half of the tail was smooth without any bone spurs anymore, cramping.

His nerves had been connected to the brain of the biochemical beast. The pain of the tail being cut off was excruciating, but he was so astounded that he almost ignored it.

“His strength is even higher than mine!

“How can that be! How is it possible?!”

Two years ago, when they encountered in the Thunderous Sound Mountain, Li Yao was but a Cultivator at the Refinement Stage. Under the pressure of the prince of the Kingdom of Lion Butchers, he could only hide here and there like a rat in a ditch, and only got away because of luck.

One year ago, when the two of them met again in Red Lotus City, Li Yao was merely at the peak of the Refinement Stage and wouldn’t have defeated him without the sordid tricks.

But right now, Li Yao had completely suppressed him in a face-to-face confrontation!

Regretful!

Wang Ji couldn’t be more regretful!

Had he foreseen what was going to happen today, he would have cut Li Yao into pieces at whatever cost, even letting go of the Mutated Lion Dragon in the Thunderous Sound Mountain two years ago!

But it was a pity that the past could not be altered. Who could’ve anticipated that a Mr. Nobody as humble as an ant before would soar to the sky and overturn the world one day?

“Wang Ji, I’m going to avenge Captain Hong!” Li Yao roared and sprinted again.

Gritting his teeth, Wang Ji turned into a cluster of blackness and dashed forward, too.

The two clusters of brightness crashed into each other heavily, raising a blast that resembled an overwhelming tsunami.

The Ares Extension that Li Yao carried was one-off magical equipment in the first place. Therefore, he was not afraid of the impact at all. The plate armor on his shoulder was shattered, but a large part of flesh was torn off from Wang Ji’s biochemical beast, too.

“Ahhhhh!”

Wang Ji felt that he was going to be killed by the agony. The biochemical beast suddenly spat out a cluster of black mist, which quickly spread out in the silver ocean like ink.

Run! Run! Run!

Wang Ji fled without bothering with anything else.

Shua!

Li Yao broke through the black smoke, only to find that Wang Ji was escaping in a rush toward the undersea town.

“You want to run away?”

Li Yao sniffed. The power rune arrays of the Dragon Scale Extension spurted out streams of water, pushing him into a streak of greenness again closely behind the enemy.

One was running and the other was pursuing. The two of them left the battlefield quickly and both dived into the undersea town.

The pavilions and buildings in this place were extremely delicate. However, there was no sign of any creature wherever they went. No fish, no coral, and no shellfish, as if they were too intimidated by Skeleton Dragon to come close to his old home.

Even the undercurrents did not dare to intrude into the town. The seawater here was absolutely still, but the environment was extremely creepy. It seemed to be a town of ghosts in the deepest level of the hell.

In the middle of the town stood a conical, splendid building in a completely different style to the rest of the architectures in the town. It appeared to be both a den of a great demon beast and a dead volcano.

It was Skeleton Dragon’s residence.

Wang Ji swam toward the residence like a stray dog.

In the middle of his pursuit, Li Yao suddenly had a palpitation. He sensed that a great danger was coming and halted all of a sudden.

An abrupt change took place right at this moment!

Almost a hundred giant clusters of brightness burst out from the entire undersea town, including Skeleton Dragon’s residence.

The intense blast demolished more than half of the undersea town like a volcanic eruption and swallowed Li Yao momentarily.

“This is—”

Li Yao was caught in the middle of the blast and the turbulences. Although the Dragon Scale Extension absorbed most of the blast, his head was still quite dizzy.

On his light beam, redness was blinking nonstop. The durability of the Dragon Scale Extension was dropping fast. Many components had been blown into pieces!

As it turned out, Wang Ji had planted a huge amount of crystal bombs in the undersea town!

Chapter 427: Ancient Demon

Li Yao’s head was dizzy, his throat filled with blood. But he was not sure whether he should laugh or cry.

The scenario was quite familiar, albeit with the bomber and the bombed swapping their roles.

Before, he was the one who had set up a myriad of traps in order to survive when he was hunted by strong enemies; today, he was the one doing the hunting, while Wang Ji, a renowned demon, had been forced to flee like a rat with his head in hands and resort to bomb traps to struggle against him.

‘I was too careless. I thought that I was invincible with the Ares Extension. But Wang Ji is much more cunning than before!

‘As a bomb expert, I was negligent and fell for the trap. This is really a terrible mistake!’

Li Yao frowned. By analyzing the situation, he reached the conclusion momentarily that the explosion was a quite powerful one. If the bombs had been planted in the right locations, the entire undersea town might’ve been demolished.

The Ares Extension was a one-off expendable after all. Affected by the blast, one component after another lost its functionality and detached from the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, sinking to the bottom of the ocean.

Li Yao’s crystal suit was immediately shabby again, the previous splendor gone.

But he was more concerned about the situation inside Skeleton Dragon’s residence.

‘This moron… Don’t play with the bombs when you don’t know how to use them properly!’

Gnashing his teeth, Li Yao furrowed his brow. He had anticipated a lot of things, but never did he expect that Wang Ji would be so crazy as to open Skeleton Dragon’s residence in such a violent way.

“Haha. Vulture Li Yao, you didn’t see this coming, did you? I learned a lot of things from you after the tremendous failures I suffered against you. Explosive magical equipment is your favorite. How does it taste?”

Wang Ji’s cocky laughter came over from a dirty undercurrent. “You’ve lost your Ares Extension. What can you rely on to fight against me right now?”

Li Yao’s eyes were glittering. He completely ignored Wang Ji’s provocation and extended his telepathic thoughts to the undersea town.

More than half of the undersea town had been utterly demolished. The seabed was full of craters as if it had been bombarded by a meteor shower for three days and three nights.

Wang Ji stood right in front of Skeleton Dragon’s residence, more arrogant than ever.

Li Yao was greatly alarmed. He stared at Skeleton Dragon’s residence carefully.

The cone-shape architecture was carved with dense rune arrays, but in two completely opposite styles.

Some of the rune arrays were crude, simple, and askew, as if a wild animal had engraved them with its claws and teeth forcefully. They were brimming with viciousness and bloodthirst. One would feel terrified just looking at them.

But the other runes were square and upright, full of astounding dignity.

The rune arrays in two different styles were engaged in a fierce battle like two formidable armies.

However, because of the intense explosion, a lot of stones were blown off the cone-shaped architecture. The rune arrays were all mottled. Many of them were even completely destroyed.

‘Not good!’

Li Yao’s heart was pounding. He found a crack that was more than half a meter long but thinner than a hair on the surface of the building!

‘Was this crack originally in this place, or was it caused by the explosion just now? Does it affect the inside of Skeleton Dragon’s residence?’

Cold sweat was appearing on Li Yao’s forehead. He gazed at the crack, not even blinking, only to discover that the crack thinner than hair was growing, splitting and spreading as if it were a living fungus. Very soon, it covered more than ten square meters. A spider net of cracks had formed on the surface of Skeleton Dragon’s residence!

“Go away!

“Leave Skeleton Dragon’s residence right now!”

Li Yao summoned his spiritual energy and shouted. His voice turned into intense vibration in the seawater and crushed over toward Wang Ji like wind and thunder.

Wang Ji’s face color changed. He was so furious that he laughed, while he gnashed his teeth.

“Vulture Li Yao, without the Ares Extension, we are very alike to each other in capability. Do you still think you are the sure winner right now?

“I have sworn in the Pantheon of Demons to all the demon spirits that I will not stop hunting you until I die. You will beg me more mercy, but I will—”

Before Wang Ji was able to complete his sentence, a weird aura leaked out through the spider-net gaps on the surface of Skeleton Dragon’s residence, which interrupted Wang Ji’s egotistical declaration.

LUM DUM!

Li Yao suddenly heard a clear heartbeat in the depths of his brain.

The feeling was extremely strange. The sound seemed to be from Skeleton Dragon’s residence, but it exploded directly inside Li Yao’s brain, completely overlooking the distance in between.

At the same time, somebody seemed to clench his heart, press it hard, and let it go abruptly. He felt extremely uncomfortable.

LUM DUM! LUM DUM!

Heartbeats echoed like dull drumming neither too fast nor too slowly. But the frequency and the pitch were becoming higher and higher.

LUM DUM LUM DUM LUM DUM LUM DUM LUM DUM LUM DUM LUM DUM!

In several seconds, the beating heart already turned into a raging storm, raising a chaotic tsunami in Li Yao’s brain and chest.

Li Yao felt like his head was exploding. His eyes were crimson. The bloodiest scenes were unfolding in front him.

He saw countless Cultivators and ordinary people crying in burning flames, tens of thousands of years ago.

Many other Cultivators were fighting the demons on flying swords.

But after a weirdly drifting breeze, the blood and flesh of the ordinary people, the Cultivators, and the demons were all corrupted, turning them into bare bones.

A moment later, the bones stood up robotically and constituted countless hideous killing machines. Then, they spread out in various directions like a swarm of locusts.

‘This is—’

Li Yao bit the tip of his tongue and shook his head hard, freeing himself from the illusion. He found himself soaked in sweat. His brain seemed to have been emptied, and he had never been more exhausted.

Wang Ji’s declaration came to an abrupt end. Like a puppet whose string had been cut off, he floated in the seawater numbly. Suddenly, cracking noises burst out from the inside of the biochemical beast. All its joints had exploded. Its head, limbs, and broken tails were each twisted in a different direction, while it dashed toward Skeleton Dragon’s residence in an extremely awkward posture, cramping.

BOOM!

Wang Ji crashed into Skeleton Dragon’s residence and hit the spider-net-like cracks precisely!

The cracks quickly expanded, revealing the darkness inside.

For some reason, Li Yao felt that thousands of pairs of eyes were staring at him in the dark residence penetrating through his crystal suit and his flesh and blood into the deepest part of his bone marrow.

It was at this moment that Wang Ji was back to himself because of the excruciating pain. He waved his hands and legs, struggling crazily and screamed in despair.

He seemed to be fighting an invisible enemy. He tried his best to run away, only to be pulled back time and time again and smashed against the cracks.

Li Yao activated his crystal camera on full power. He could vaguely see that countless transparent tentacles were wrapped around the black biochemical beast, pulling and corrupting it. The shell and flesh of the beast was torn apart, through which the tentacles crammed in and attacked Wang Ji himself directly!

Finally—

After almost ten clashes, the widest part of the cracks was more than two meters wide. Like a wide-open bloody mouth, Skeleton Dragon’s residence sucked in Wang Ji together with his biochemical beast brutally.

CRACK! CRACK!

“Chiliu! Chiliu!”

“Squeak! Squeak”

Blood-freezing, leg-souring noises reverberated inside the dark gaps. Thousands of sweltering steel needles seemed to be stinging Li Yao’s brain.

Wang Ji screamed desperately, not befitting an eminent demon; he was more like a pig which had been skinned and was ready to be butchered!

The desperate wailing gradually turned into helpless screaming, and then intermittent moaning, until it became feeble muttering in the end.

But another aura that was much more dangerous was getting more and more dense. Li Yao felt that an invisible demon was talking in a low voice right behind his ears.

Shua!

Li Yao’s heart seemed to have been stabbed by a spike. All of his hair stood up, while he turned around abruptly and slashed out his Boiled Blood Wind Slashing Saber.

There seemed to be nothing in the seawater, yet he had hit something extremely tensile.

Li Yao extended all his telepathic thoughts and detected the surroundings as best he could, only to find that it was a weird creature that looked like a tentacle of a jellyfish, but multiple times thicker, which was swimming swiftly.

It seemed as soft as gel, but it was much harder than it appeared to be. Li Yao had extended the aura on his saber to some twenty meters long, but he could barely cut into the tentacle. The tentacle was not affected at all; it even crawled upwards along the body of the saber.

Wang Ji’s scream was still ringing inside his ears. Li Yao did not dare fight the weird tentacle the hard away. He quickly withdrew his saber and leapt backward.

The tentacle didn’t chase after him and simply retreated to the cracks. Then, a shrilling roar exploded in the deep inside of Skeleton Dragon’s residence, as if countless crystal bombs had been detonated in everyone’s brains at the same time!

The Cultivators and demons which were fighting in the battlefield not far away were all shocked by the shrilling roar and rendered dumb like puppets for a moment.

“What is it?”

“Such a terrifying aura!”

“It’s demonic energy! Unparalleled demonic energy!”

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The piercing roar represented the final awakening of the ancient deadly demon from forty thousand years ago. Earsplitting collisions occurred in the depths of the residence, triggering chaotic turbulences in the silver ocean. The seawater was raging, and the ground was shaking!

The other twelve Cultivators sensed that a great demon was going to appear, too, and all swooped above Skeleton Dragon’s residence.

BOOM!

After an ear-splitting crash, the upper half of the cone-shape architecture was demolished to smithereens.

The muddy seawater gradually dispersed, revealing a frightening figure more than thirty meters long which was slowly stretching its body.

Skeleton Dragon was exactly what its name suggested. Its arms were made up by countless bones which were emitting a bright silver glow. Its body was like a gargantuan egg, but the bones supporting the body were quite messy. With a careful look, one would notice that they had the characteristics of various creatures, as if the body had been piled up by the bones from countless species.

Nine arms made of bones extended out of the egg-shaped torso. The front end of each arm was a skull of a different species with its bloody mouth wide open, making the body look like a prehistoric hydra, only much more hideous and vicious.

In the middle of the empty chest was soft flesh that looked like jelly, which was heavily protected by the bones, emitting glamorous, translucent brightness.

The jelly was in the coagulation state. Watery liquid flowed slowly toward the nine arms, controlling each and every bone on them delicately.

In the center of the jelly, a cluster of crimson brightness was glistening wetly, expanding and shrinking like the beating heart of a human being.

Skeleton Dragon, an ancient deadly beast which had hibernated for forty thousand years, had finally broken free from the barriers and returned to reality again!

Chapter 428: Preternatural Horror!

Other than the giant skulls at the ends of the nine arms, Skeleton Dragon did not seem to have its own head. But on the top of the round torso, dozens of transparent tentacles lifted a bruised, swollen, and twisted face that everyone could see clearly.

It was Wang Ji!

Wang Ji’s face was expanded to almost ten times its normal size. It was limp like a cake which had been stomped on. Somebody seemed to have smashed all the bones in his face and reassembled them in a hurry, making his countenance unfathomably weird.

The misery beaming out of the hollow eyes indicated that the owner of the face would be better off dead. But Wang Ji’s mouth curled. Some uncanny power seemed to be forcing him to put on a smile that was even more ugly than crying.

His body was entirely gone. The only thing left was his face, which was laughing according to the rhythm of the fluctuation of the tentacles.

“Wang Ji!”

Almost ten demons had survived the previous battle. Seeing that ‘Wang Ji’ had put on a brand-new appearance, they were not sure what had happening, but they did sense overwhelming demonic energy from Skeleton Dragon. Therefore, they were all overjoyed and came close.

When they were a hundred meters away from Skeleton Dragon, their hands and legs were all twisted weirdly just like Wang Ji a moment earlier, before they were tied up by the transparent tentacles and absorbed into Skeleton Dragon’s body without even being able to cry out.

The most disgusting scene took place!

Skeleton Dragon’s body seemed to be extremely corrosive. The flesh and blood of the eight demons, together with the biochemical beast they were in, were sucked up completely within a moment, while the shell and bones gradually floated to the surface of its body, making the bone armor covering its body more complete and bloodthirsty!

Devouring the meat of the eight demons, ‘Wang Ji’ moaned in great satisfaction. The size of Skeleton Dragon expanded noticeably. The dominating aura surrounding it was even more intense!

Li Yao felt cold sweat trickling down his forehead. He started to realize that Skeleton Dragon was not a dragon-type demon beast, but some sort of weird demon mollusk or demon plankton, like a venomous super jellyfish or an enormous octopus!

No wonder its residence was hidden in an underground silver ocean!

Its most distinguishing ability should be that it could swallow other creatures and transform their bones into weird plate armor to protect its soft body.

There was a large skull at the end of every one of the nine bone arms. They must’ve belonged to nine powerful demon beasts which had fallen victim to it.

If that was the case, the eccentric barrier on the surface of Boneyard and the enormous corpse of the dragon-type demon beast would be very easy to explain.

The dragon-type demon beast hundreds of meters long must’ve been one of the victims captured by Skeleton Dragon. But it had been too large to be absorbed directly. Therefore, Skeleton Dragon had locked it in the barrier to weaken it first.

Or maybe, Skeleton Dragon was refining its bones with secret arts and would absorb the bones into its own body when the bones were indestructible!

‘This life form is indeed terrifying. No wonder Skeleton Dragon had been one of the ancient demons who were knocked out of the game in the very beginning.

‘It was not necessarily because Skeleton Dragon was not good enough. Chances were that the other demons were all in fear of its terrible ability and suppressed it joint-handedly!

‘Right now, it has just woken up from tens of thousands of years of dormancy. It is currently the weakest it will ever be!

‘We have to destroy it immediately, or we may never be able to!

‘If it devours a huge number of spiritual beasts and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures on Boneyard and resumes its peak capability, no, if it resumes 10% of its peak capability, it will be a catastrophe for the Heaven’s Origin Sector!’

Li Yao made up his mind quickly. His gaze turned sharp again.

Skeleton Dragon’s soft body wriggled nonstop. Manipulated by transparent tentacles, Wang Ji’s twisted face unleashed queer brightness. The strange laughter gradually stopped, until it turned into an ancient dialect in the end, and Skeleton Dragon muttered to itself, “Forty thousand years… I have slept for forty thousand years!

“The Demon Beast Empire has been destroyed? Hahahaha. Well done! Well done! But I wonder, have the bloodlines of the demons who fought for the reign of the cosmos against me gone extinct or not?

“Oh? Cultivators reappeared, and mankind thrived again and took over most of the worlds? Excellent! Excellent! Human beings are the most delicious cuisine! To think that such a small body contains such a powerful soul! It is even more enjoyable than the demon beasts hundreds of meters long!

“Crystal suit? What is that? They are using strengthened external-skeletons to improve their combat ability?”

The more Li Yao heard, the more he was petrified.

He had been planning to deal with Skeleton Dragon by taking advantage of its ignorance, an inevitable result from forty thousand years of seclusion. But judging from the current situation, it could suck knowledge and memories directly from the brain of the creatures that it devoured!

Right now, it knew exactly as much as Wang Ji and the rest of the demons did.

A moment later, the smile on the big face of ‘Wang Ji’ was even more cheerful. Sharp brilliance was being condensed in the bottom of the hollow eyes, while it stared at Li Yao and the other Cultivators.

Everyone felt that their heart were pierced through by its eyes instantly.

“Blood Demon Sector? Heaven’s Origin Sector?

“A single planet accommodates thousands of Cultivators and billions of creatures! After I absorb all of them, at least thirty percent of my capability can be restored!”

Li Yao’s heart almost skipped a beat. The most horrible thing had happened.

Skeleton Dragon had learnt the information regarding the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector from the memories of Wang Ji and the other demons.

They were the two worlds that were closest to Boneyard.

In twenty days or so, the Heaven’s Origin Sector would launch a new star shuttle to Boneyard.

As long as Skeleton Dragon absorbed a Cultivator, it would be able to acquire his memory, learn how to pilot a star shuttle, and thus embark on his journey to the Heaven’s Origin Sector!

“Ahhhhh!”

Right then, abrupt changes took place. An Orb Patroller of Team Thunder Soul suddenly cried out, while he trembled violently beyond his control.

He was tangled by Skeleton Dragon’s transparent tentacles!

“Be careful!”

It was not until this moment that Li Yao realized that countless transparent tentacles interweaved into an impregnable dragnet which was about to enclose them without anybody knowing anything.

“We were fooled!

“Skeleton Dragon is not a moron. There is no need for it to mutter to himself and tell us what it is going to do!

“It was merely trying to attract our attention so that it could spread all its tentacles around us!”

Li Yao gritted his teeth and dashed forward into a streak of brightness toward the Cultivator who was dancing uncontrollably. He bellowed and ignited his soul. The handle of the Boiled Blood Wind Slashing Saber was clutched so hard that it was almost broken.

Enhanced by the last proportion of the Ares Extension, the aura of the blade was extended to unprecedentedly twenty meters long, making it as unstoppably as a solar storm!

Shua!

In an upward motion, a perfect bloody curve was drawn. A transparent tentacle had been cut into two halves down the middle!

Skeleton had just woken up. It was at the weakest moment of its life. Due to the sharp pain of the chopped-off tentacle, it shrank suddenly, delaying its attack for about half a second.

Awed by its eccentric appearance, the Cultivators had been greatly alarmed. They discovered the transparent tentacles surrounding them instantly after Li Yao’s reminder and all got away in time before the tentacles were able to bind them.

Team Blue Bronze sent a lot of information to the crystal processors of the other two Star Teams.

“Skeleton Dragon has been awakened!”

“He wants to swallow our home to regain his strength!”

“He must be stopped!”

All the Cultivators realized at the same time that Skeleton Dragon was the most dreadful demon they’d ever seen.

Right now, it had just woken up from a prolonged sleep and was at its lowest point. The only opportunity to destroy it would be this moment.

If it was not cleared in time, the Heaven’s Origin Sector would be doomed!

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

‘Shell’ Leng Ziming was the first to launch an attack. Countless gold lasers rushed out from every corner of his body and darted toward Skeleton Dragon while altering their trajectories in graceful curves nonstop!

The rest of the Cultivators summoned their strongest remote magical equipment, too. Flying swords, mystic rays, crystal cannons rained upon Skeleton Dragon like thousands of rainbows without any spot left.

Skeleton Dragon burst out into laughter in the bombardment. Silver waves were triggered on the surface on the bone armor, which offset most of the damage. In the meantime, the jelly-like body pulled the magical equipment into it with a weird attraction force. Once the magical equipment penetrated into Skeleton Dragon’s body through the gaps between bones, the magical equipment would be like a statue made of mud sinking into the ocean. The masters of the magical equipment were not able to reach out to their equipment at all.

Bullets, flying sabers and flying swords were all taken away!

Li Yao was dumbfounded. He realized only then that another several dozen pieces of magical equipment were hiding in Skeleton Dragon’s translucent body.

According to their vintage style, they were all ancient magical equipment from forty thousand years ago.

Skeleton Dragon’s body was a walking magical equipment arsenal!

“Are you kidding me? The monster can devour magical equipment, too?”

“The silver bone armor covering its body is clearly refined with secret arts. Most of the damage has been offset.”

“Even if the damage is too intense and the bone fractures, it is not a big deal for him. It can just move a bone from other body parts to replace the broken bone!”

“But the body of Skeleton Dragon is made of soft flesh with extremely high elasticity. However powerful an attack is, most of the damage will simply be absorbed by it, without causing any real harm at all.”

“How can we fight such a thing?!”

Li Yao was not a man who would give up easily. Although he was also shocked by the formidability of Skeleton Dragon, he still squinted and observed carefully.

The corner of his mouth suddenly twitched, as he suddenly realized something.

Skeleton Dragon seemed to be arrogant enough to just let everybody fire upon itself freely and absorb one item after another.

However, although it paid no attention when the bone armor covering other body parts was shattered, it would quickly wriggle and transport new bones to fill up the bone armor in the center of the round torso once the bone armor in this particular region was broken. It seemed to be fearful of the attacks at the center of its body very much.

In the center of its body, the cluster of red brightness that was fluctuating like a beating heart was blinking nonstop.

For the flying swords and bullets that had penetrated into Skeleton Dragon’s body, even though they were quite far away, the red brightness would shrink suddenly in a defensive posture as if great enemies were coming.

Li Yao immediately realized something. The cluster of red brightness was Skeleton Dragon’s weakness!

“Don’t disperse your attack! The bones are not its true body. It is useless even if we blow the bones into pieces! The cluster of red brightness at the center of its body is its actual fatal weakness!

“Focus our firepower on one part and dig a hole on its body so that we can smash the cluster of red brightness!”

Chapter 429: Desperate? Definitely Not!

As if they had been woken up from a dream, every Cultivator changed their attack strategy after hearing Li Yao’s words. The crystal cannons and the mystic ray cannons all fired upon the center of Skeleton Dragon’s body.

As for bullets and flying swords which were real entities, they were all aimed at the nine bone arms surrounding Skeleton Dragon’s body.

In a moment, the colorful mystic rays were blossoming, dust was blown off the silver bones, and a deep hollow was pressed into Skeleton Dragon’s soft body by the collective brute force!

Skeleton Dragon’s laughter came to an abrupt end. It was replaced by murderous roars.

Li Yao raised his head and bellowed. Previously-unseen craziness beamed out of his bloodshot eyes, while endless desire for killing surged out of his pores and created dancing and crackling flames around him.

BOOM!

The last bit of the remnant of the Ares Extension on the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit was blown away by his spiritual energy, revealing his true body like a black falcon. The blood-dyed outline of his crystal suit was glittering. Although it was much smaller in size, its speed had soared exponentially as it turned into a streak of blackness and sprinted toward Skeleton Dragon!

The transparent tentacles of Skeleton Dragon had been entirely seen through by Li Yao, who brought his brain cell activity to more than 600% and calculated the tiny gaps among the tentacles crazily.

In hundreds of blurred shadows, the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit cut through the gaps among the tentacles from unimaginable angles and approached Skeleton Dragon!

Meanwhile, behind Li Yao—

“Wait for me!”

Ding Lingdang rushed close like a furious mammoth!

Her style was the opposite of Li Yao’s. Five dragons of spiritual energy in different colors surrounded her and would lunge at the transparent tentacles brutally when any of them came close. Even though the transparent tentacles were too hard to be bitten or burnt through, they were always pushed away without being able to reach Ding Lingdang.

Yan Jun, captain of Team Thunder Soul and the top expert of Occult Orbs Fellowship, also dashed near like a flash in a deep blue, magnificent crystal suit!

Thousands of electric arcs danced around him and formed a dazzling, crazily-revolving ball which secluded him from the outside world.

Any transparent tentacles which dared to draw close would be attacked by dozens of electric arcs simultaneously.

“Li Yao, we will fight side by side!”

Ding Lingdang and Yan Jun came later than Li Yao, but they caught up with him quickly and marched forward, one to his left and the other to his right.

Li Yao’s nose suddenly itched. He felt warmth bursting out from the bottom of his heart and he was more impassioned than ever.

‘You may be Skeleton Dragon, an ancient deadly demon from forty thousand years ago, but so what?

‘Today, you shall be split in two halves!’

Within a moment, the three of them were only thirty meters away from Skeleton Dragon.

Skeleton Dragon seemed to have been suppressed by the remote attacks from the other Cultivators and was not able to move at all. It was merely trying its best to gather the bones from its other body parts into its chest.

Two crystal cannons on Li Yao’s back flipped up to his shoulders. Four strengthened Triple-headed Six-barreled Vulcan Machine Guns were also summoned. The six pieces of remote magical equipment snarled at the same time and rained spiritual energy upon Skeleton Dragon.

The endless desire to kill coursed in his veins and was finally condensed in his hands. The Flash Claw on his left hand and the Boiled Blood Wind Slashing Saber in his right hand both extended auras that were more than ten meters long. The auras were then consolidated, compressed and perfected, until in the end they were only three meters long, but with such a dazzling brilliance that nobody was able to look at them in the eyes!

Swoosh!

Swoosh!

The auras from the claw and the saber rushed out and stabbed at the hollow in the center of Skeleton Dragon’s body!

“Nona-colored Fire, Chain of Five Flames, Fury of the Dragon!”

Ding Lingdang crossed her arms with the backs of her hands against each other. Her palms were opened like a deadly rose. The dragons of flames in different colors spiraled around her arms and briefly stopped in her palms, before they were jetted out like a spring that had bounced up after being fully compressed!

“Thunder Supreme Spear, Lighting Soul Arrow. Explode! Explode! Explode!”

The electric arcs that had been covering Yan Jun were constantly lengthened, until they became a spear of electric arcs almost twenty meters long, which gave the feeling that a thunderstorm was imminent, even though the three of them were at the bottom of an ocean.

His body bent in a weird way, like a resilient bow that had been stretched to the limit. Then he suddenly stood straight again, hurling the electric spear unstoppably with an earsplitting boom, as if the entire ocean would collapse because of the attack!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Li Yao, Ding Lingdang, and Yan Jun, three tops experts of Occult Orbs Fellowship, had hit Skeleton Dragon’s true body precisely with their ultimate attacks.

Countless silver bones were shattered. Thousands of waves were rippling on the jelly-like soft body and spread out to the peripheral bones, a lot of which were shaking and colliding in cracking noises.

Skeleton Dragon’s true body was torn open with a shocking wound. But the rampant spiritual energy was still savaging and charging at the cluster of redness which was beating like a heart.

Five meters to the redness!

The ancient secret treasures previously swallowed by Skeleton Dragon, however, squirmed over at this moment. A few pieces of shield-like magical equipment blocked the path of the attacks just in time.

Huala!

The three pieces of shield-like magical equipment emanated colorful brilliance and took the attacks completely.

On one of the three pieces of shield-like magical equipment, a tiny crack appeared, but the other two were intact without suffering the least damage. The only difference was that the brilliance on them was somewhat dimmer than before.

Li Yao was shocked and distraught.

Those ancient treasures must’ve been the loot from when Skeleton Dragon slayed countless ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago. It had kept them inside its own body for the protection of its essential core in emergencies!

After breaching the silver bones and marching into Skeleton Dragon’s body for so long, their spiritual energy had run out of momentum and was not enough to smash the ancient magical equipment at all!

Their full-strength strike was resolved easily just like that. In consternation, Li Yao lost control over his brain, which was immediately invaded by a demonic force. He seemed to hear a low chuckle.

“Kicking against the pricks. You don’t know what you are doing!”

Scenes of bloodshed were unfolding in front of his eyes. In the vintage towns, many humans in traditional robes were crying and screaming, as they were faced Skeleton Dragon which had expanded to the size of the sky. Countless Cultivators were trying their best to deal with the monster on their flying swords, but they were as insignificant as ants in front of the gargantuan demon.

Soon, the picture changed. The ancient towns turned into the coruscating skyscrapers of the Heaven’s Origin Sector. But just as their ancient counterparts, the buildings fell into an ocean of fire and became the most miserable hell under Skeleton Dragon’s intrusion.

“Li Yao!”

Wang Ji’s grinning face suddenly spoke. “The power of Skeleton Dragon is not something that you can stop. Come and join me in the arms of Skeleton Dragon and be part of the great demon!

“Skeleton Dragon may be lenient enough to spare some of your self-awareness. You will live for hundreds or thousands of years or even for all eternity in the form of a telepathic thought!

“Come on. Don’t resist. Embrace it and be immortal. Be immortal!”

“Get out of my brain!”

Li Yao’s brain seemed to be scraped by thousands of knives at the same time. Holding back the excruciating pain, he summoned the power of his soul and finally drove the weird mental intruder out of his brain.

Before he was able to catch his breath, he suddenly felt a wind was blowing at his face.

One of Skeleton Dragon’s nine arms was suddenly lengthened and pierced at him like a spear!

Each of the nine bone arms had been connected by the extremely tensile transparent tentacles. When they were compressed together, the arm was only some twenty meters long. But when they were stretched out, the arm could easily reach fifty, or even a hundred, meters long.

The area of a hundred square meters was Skeleton Dragon’s hunting ground!

BOOM!

Li Yao had just escaped the scourge of Skeleton Dragon’s mental attack. He did not have any time to dodge and could only trigger his spiritual shield as best as possible. He had barely crossed his arms when he was blown away heavily!

His spiritual shield exploded suddenly, its scraps dispersing everywhere. Scary cracks appeared on the shoulders and the chest of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit. Li Yao felt like ten thousand electric currents more powerful than thunderbolts had penetrated into his body through the gaps of his crystal suit and crushed all his veins and nerves.

The attack blew Li Yao more than a hundred meters away. He couldn’t help but spurt out blood which dyed his helmet red.

Ding Lingdang and Yan Jun grunted in the communication channel, too. They were also blown hundreds of meters away by Skeleton Dragon. Hot blood was gradually spilling out of their bodies!

Skeleton Dragon ejected a powerful water current below its body, which pushed it upwards from the demolished town slowly. Its nine arms were all stretched to dozens of meters long and launched attacks at an eye-dazzling speed!

The Cultivators were immediately mired in a fierce battle, like a pack of cheetahs and tigers which were haunted by nine extremely thick boas.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

Skeleton Dragon was like a slug in a turtle shell, an oily and tensile soft body which was defended by powerful ancient magical equipment, and nine arms that could be stretched to a hundred meters away and even more agile and ferocious than the most daunting dragon-type demon beasts. It could even launch mental attacks!

“It’s indeed powerful!”

Li Yao finally realized the formidability of an ancient deadly demon who had been qualified to fight for the sovereignty over the universe.

Even though it had been wounded multiple times, even though it had hibernated for tens of thousands of years, even though its capability was only 1% of the peak, it was Skeleton Dragon after all!

Li Yao felt cold to the bone.

For the first time, he realized that the Heaven’s Origin Sector was only one millimeter from doom.

Cities, villages, valleys, and plateaus. The old, the young, men, and women. Cultivators and ordinary people. Magnates and hobos. Teachers and soldiers…

None would survive when doom befell the sector.

“The attack speed of Skeleton Dragon is increasing, and so is its strength. Its demonic energy is not spreading out outrageously anymore but being contained and condensed to be purer.

“We Building Foundation Stage Cultivators are no match for it at all. It played with us for such a long time because it was merely warming up!”

“Yes, warming up! It has just woken up from forty thousand years of stillness. Its body’s reflexes are not as quick as before, nor is it familiar with the ways that the modern Cultivators fight. Therefore, it decided to play with us while it slowly regained its strength!”

Desperation!

For the first time in his life, Li Yao was grasped by hopeless desperation!

But in the very next second, the desperation was smashed into smithereens by his never-give-up attitude.

‘No, I can’t give up now. If I do, Senior Gao Xingce’s thousands of years of pain and persistence will have been in vain!

‘I am not alone. Behind me is the entire Heaven’s Origin Sector. If I fall here, I will not be the only one who dies. The entire Heaven’s Origin Sector will be destroyed soon!

‘What do we do? All our magical equipment is not powerful enough to drill into Skeleton Dragon’s body. Even if it does, the ancient magical equipment will simply block it!

‘Wait, drill?!’

Li Yao suddenly thought of something. It had been mentioned in Senior Gao Xingce’s journal that he had once drilled a giant demon beast hundreds of meters long to death with the drill of mystic rays on Sparkle.

‘Right, the drill of mystic rays!

‘The drill that can dig through the most solid rocks and metal mother lodes ten thousand meters below the ground!’

Chapter 430: One Minute!

The formidable, even suffocating, Skeleton Dragon’s might caused the communication channel to fall dead silent. The only things that could be heard were painful grunts and heavy breathing.

A Cultivator suffered too many wounds to maintain the defense line of his soul. He was swallowed by Skeleton Dragon’s mental attack and screamed uncontrollably as if he was stuck in an endless nightmare.

“What do we do?”

Gritting her teeth, Ding Lingdang jumped above of one of Skeleton Dragon’s arms and crashed into the skull at the end. One of the tusks in the skull was blown off, but yet another new crack was added to her already fragmented crystal suit!

“What do we do?”

Yan Jun stretched his bow and shot arrows again. The long bow condensed by spiritual energy let out a rain of hundreds of arrows, but in a much more lackluster hue than before.

The shooting seemed to have consumed most of his soul power. His body shivered beyond his control.

“What do we do?”

Leng Ziming was firing upon the demon crazily, when he suddenly heard an ominous reminder from his crystal processor. The Cosmos Ring fully loaded with ammunition was running out of supplies. There was only 10% left!

“What do we do?!”

Everybody was shouting crazily in their hearts.

Right then, Li Yao rumbled in the communication channel, “Ding Lingdang, Yan Jun, Leng Ziming, and everyone else, please hang in there and stall it for one minute. I’ve figured out how to deal with it!”

Li Yao activated his power rune arrays to maximum and also triggered Black Wing. His speed was ten times faster than before, as he withdrew from the battlefield and turned into a streak of blackness, dashing toward Sparkle.

“One minute?”

Seeing Li Yao running away desperately, there was suspicion in many Cultivators’ eyes.

“Alright, one minute!”

The first one to respond to him was not Ding Lingdang, but Yan Jun!

Determination was beaming out of the best Child of the Occult Orbs. He gritted his teeth so hard that his molars were almost ground to dust. “One more time. Let’s gamble one more time! Vulture Li Yao, I will give you one minute, but don’t you disappoint me!”

While he was talking, Yan Jun consolidated a giant bow of spiritual energy right in front of him. But this time, he put himself on the bow and was shot toward Skeleton Dragon unstoppably like a flash arrow!

“Li Yao, you’ve never let me down before. I know you won’t this time!”

Ding Lingdang burst into laughter like a volcanic eruption. The flames surging out of her body were in terrifying seven colors now!

At the critical moment, she had brought Nona-colored Fire, the dominating Cultivation art of the fire class, to the seventh level by activating her spiritual energy beyond her limits!

A hundred, ten thousand, a hundred thousand rainbows were dancing crazily around her body, while Ding Lingdang charged at two of Skeleton Dragon’s unfathomably thick arms head-on like a Valkyrie reborn!

“Okay. We will try our best to buy you one minute!”

The other ten Cultivators roared frantically, too. The exhaust flames behind their crystal suits vented brilliant colors, pushing them forward into streaks of brightness, tackling the nine arms of Skeleton Dragon!

Even the Cultivator who had fallen into hallucinations because of the breakdown of his soul had stopped screaming.

Although he was still trapped in the nightmare, he sensed vaguely a familiar, vigorous, and passionate power!

It was the hymn of battle, echoing in the nightmare!

He ceased crying and cramping, and thundered like an animal, while he attacked the empty seawater restlessly.

Even in the nightmare, he had remembered that he was a Cultivator and started fighting the invisible enemies!

Hearing everyone’s roars and seeing that they were fighting Skeleton Dragon without caring about their own lives, Li Yao felt that his eyes seemed to have turned into two volcanoes that were about to erupt. Something even hotter than magma was about to burst out!

He sniffed his nose nonstop. “I will not fail you. One minute. One minute is all I need!”

Shua!

Li Yao swept into Sparkle like a tornado and zigzagged in the narrow pathways until he rushed into the cockpit.

At this moment, eleven seconds had passed.

There were only forty-nine seconds left!

Li Yao’s eyes were glittering like the morning star. Even the rising sun could not eclipse its dazzling brilliance.

He extended his right hand, where three glamourous pearls in an air of divinity appeared. They were the last three Flowing Brightness Crystals.

CRACK!

The three Flowing Brightness Crystal were crumbed into cluster of scraps large and small and powders in his palm.

In the meantime, he retrieved a large bottle of strengthening drug concentrate from his Cosmos Ring.

The concentrate was meant for the convenience of carrying for the Cultivators who were going to train in the wilderness. Its concentration was dozens of times higher than the common strengthening drug, and it could only be taken after being diluted by a great amount of nutrition liquids, pure water, and neutralization drug.

This bottle of concentrate was enough for one month of training for a common Building Foundation Stage Cultivator.

Li Yao poured the scraps and powders that used to be the three Flowing Brightness Crystals into the concentrate and sealed the bottle without the tiniest gap. They, he held it with both his hands and shook it at a frequency of hundreds of times per second!

His two hands immediately turned into a cluster of humming grey mist.

Two seconds later, he opened the cap. Spiritual gas as intense as steam immediately soared to the ceiling and condensed into splendid clouds there in hissing sounds.

Inside the bottle, the liquid was in various colors. Bubbles were popping up nonstop as if it was boiling.

Three Flowing Brightness Crystal, with the highly-purified strengthening drug concentrate and the high-frequency vibration, led to drastic chemical reactions, even though Flowing Brightness Crystals were known to be extremely mild and stable Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures.

The corner of Li Yao’s eyes twitched violently. Gritting his teeth, he craned his neck and drank the bottle of concentrate in three mouthfuls.

BOOM!

He felt that ten thousand crystal bombs had exploded in his stomach at the same time, or that a giant tree was rooting and sprouting in his gastrointestinal system. The roots pierced through his gastric wall, mingled with his veins and nerves and spread to his limbs. Poisonous thorns seemed to be growing from the roots which tore his internal organs apart and ripped open his every cell!

“Art of the Swallowing Whale, activate!”

Like a crazy devil, Li Yao held back the excruciating pain while his gastrointestinal system melted the magma-like spiritual energy flowing out of the Flowing Brightness Crystals with his soul. His flesh and blood were not able to withstand the raging spiritual energy and there were holes all over his body, but he couldn’t care less about it!

Strength. It was strength that he needed!

At this moment, there was thirty-nine seconds to go.

Hoooooo!

In an earsplitting roar, Li Yao rushed to the captain seat and sat on it majestically. Thousands of light beams appeared in front of his eyes again, while the telepathic thoughts overly-triggered by the Flowing Brightness Crystals and the strengthening drug concentrate were transmitted to every corner of Sparkle through his hundreds of spiritual threads.

Sparkle was bathed in brilliance all of a sudden. The scale-like plate armor on its shell all stood up high like that of an infuriated dragon. Every magical equipment unit was roaring and yearning for blood and killing!

“Excellent! The manipulability of Sparkle is more than 10% for me right now. Sparkle will be even more powerful than before!”

Li Yao’s lips curled. His teeth were like dozens of interconnecting battle sabers, while his hair was standing up like needles tousled by spiritual energy. The tip of his hair was as red as blood!

It was the ultimate sign that a Building Foundation Stage Cultivator had reached their limits in undying fighting will!

At the tail of Sparkle, the eight power rune arrays in a circle sent out astounding exhaust flames in earsplitting noises, driving Sparkle several kilometers away almost instantly at a speed bordering on its maximum!

Li Yao’s consciousness, soul, and senses were all minced to pieces by the unexperienced power. The hideous expression on his face would terrify even the most daring devil. There was only one thought in his head that he knew: to rush over and drill through it!

At this moment, more than half a minute had gone.

There were only twenty-one seconds left.

“Drill of mystic rays, activate!”

A third of Li Yao’s hair had turned blood red. His skin was chapping, his veins bulging. Countless round steel pebbles seemed to be rolling inside his veins toward his brain.

The thousands of light beams in front of him were blinking. Information was flooding down rampantly as if a dam had been breached.

Nine mystic colors suddenly surged out in front of Sparkle and interweaved into a cone-shaped cluster of brightness that looked like a giant drill. It grew brighter and brighter and eventually became eye-dazzling, while its rapid revolutions stirred up the seawater with awe-inspiring roars!

Seventeen seconds to go!

A thousand meters away from Skeleton Dragon!

Skeleton Demon also sensed that a great danger was coming. Its nine arms were waving at a much higher speed than before, and the water streams that it ejected from its bottom were getting more and more forceful. Its body was still like a monolithic mountain, but it was somewhat unpredictable now, as if it was overlapped by countless blurred shadows.

“It is trying to dodge. Stop it now!”

“We must hold it there for the full minute!”

“Seed explosion! Seed explosion! Seed explosion! Whoever still hasn’t detonated your spiritual seed, now is the time!”

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Three Cultivators suddenly turned into light balls that were even more blazing than the sun, while they exerted strength almost equal to the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators’ and crashed into Skeleton Dragon’s three arms brutally like three sprinting falling stars.

The giant skulls at the front ends of the three arms exploded at the same time!

Nine seconds to go!

Sparkle was five hundred meters away from Skeleton Dragon!

“Ho! Ho! Ho!”

Skeleton Dragon groaned in shock and anger. Its nine arms turned into thousands of phantoms, whipping, striking and biting!

The mental attack unleashed by its true body was brought to maximum, too. The brains of all the Cultivators were filled up with squeaking noises and plagued by invisible tides!

“One minute!”

The crystal suit on one of the Cultivators had almost been entirely battered. The plate armor in the chest fell off, revealing the ragged mustard suit inside.

Blood was spurting out of his chest like a fountain.

But he still roared and rushed toward the giant skull that was apparently too fearsome to be coped with by him.

“One minute!”

A Cultivator’s flying swords and sabers were all broken. His crystal cannon had run out of spiritual energy. But he simply climbed up a giant skull with all fours and fought against the tusks inside barehanded!

“One minute!”

Ding Lingdang and Yan Jun had cut in above Skeleton Dragon’s body and attacked its true self at the risk of being tied up by its transparent tentacles!

Three seconds to go!

Sparkle was only eighty meters away from Skeleton Dragon!

Li Yao’s telepathic thoughts almost compacted into a real, visible thing. They crowded into the mainframe crystal processor in thousands of lasers. The mainframe crystal processor was functioning at the maximum, while the drill of mystic rays expanded yet again. Thousands of runes appeared on the surface of the drill and revolved as well, vaporizing the seawater nearby into an overwhelming smoke of brightness!

Three seconds, two seconds, one second!

Fifty meters, thirty meters, the last ten meters!

There was nothing that could stop it now.

Even if a god or Buddha were to appear in Sparkle’s way, Li Yao would drill them through easily!

In soul-stirring screams, Skeleton Dragon mustered all its silver bones to the center of its body where the strongest defense was constructed.

Li Yao had no time to adjust the course, nor did he plan to.

In the very last second of the minute, he roared with all his might and drove Sparkle into Skeleton Dragon’s thickest defense brutally!

Chapter 431: Spiral Thrusting!

The underground ocean was raging, raising waves that were about to consume the sky. The blast spread out in white halos. All the Cultivators were blown hundreds of meters away!

In the middle of Skeleton Dragon’s chest, silver brightness burst out. Its monolithic body was moved dozens of meters backward.

However, the unstoppable strike of Sparkle finally came to a stop because of the piled-up silver bones.

“Didn’t drill into it?”

All the Cultivators were upset, with desperation brimming in their eyes.

Inside the cockpit of Sparkle, Li Yao stood with his head held high. There was no sadness or delight in his face. His messy hair was suddenly prolonged and covered his shoulders. Two thirds of it turned blood red, drifting in the air although there was no wind and burning like furious fire!

Deep inside his brain, his spiritual energy condensed into countless transparent pearls which bombarded the glittering light spot in the center of his brain.

Spiritual seed!

It was the spiritual seed of Iron God Yan Ba, a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator!

BOOM—

Under hundreds of collisions per second, the glittering light spot suddenly shrank, and then unleashed endless brightness and heat, as if a supernova had exploded inside Li Yao’s brain. The dominating storm of spiritual energy swept over his body instantly and swallowed all his cells!

The power that originated from the primordial creatures in the beginning of evolution and buried in the deepest parts of the cells was awakened!

Li Yao’s every cell seemed to have undergone a lightning-like evolution from plankton to trilobite, to shark, to sarcosuchus, and to tyrannosaurs.

The ancient gate that had been sealed for millions of years was pushed open. The primeval force was set free!

“Hoooo!”

Li Yao raised his head and roared to the sky. His soundwaves seemed to have consolidated into a real thing, as if he had just spat out a cluster of black ink. His body size grew suddenly, and dark gold stripes appeared on his skin. Gold brilliance was also appearing in his bloodshot eyes.

His brain cell activity rushed beyond 1000% as soon as he entered the seed explosion state!

Countless dark gold giant creatures, draconic sharks, sarcosuchus, hydras, tyrannosaurs… The once ruthless dominators in the history of evolution appeared behind Li Yao, overlapping one another!

Hua! Hua!

Around the cockpit, the crystal wires that were as thick as boas suddenly ridded themselves of the fixation shelves and danced crazily around Li Yao!

The dark gold giant shadows behind Li Yao turned into thousands of streaks of gold and span around the crystal wires. At the command of the mainframe crystal processor, they lunged at the mystic ray drill.

Gold spirals suddenly appeared on the surface of the drill, whose speed was higher than it had ever been!

“EXPLODE!” roared Li Yao.

BOOM!

After an earthshaking explosion, the mystic ray drill battered the silver bone armor on Skeleton Dragon’s chest into smithereens with the enhancement of the primeval force and dug into the hole!

“Stab! Strike! Through!”

The mystic ray drill was marching forward continuously, irrespective of how the tensile and weird soft body tried to block it. The redness in the center of Skeleton Demon’s body seemed to realize that it was in peril. It shrank and shivered like a candle in the blowing wind.

At the critical moment, Skeleton Dragon’s nine arms retreated suddenly and smashed Sparkle’s shell brutally without bothering about the rest of the Cultivators.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The shell of Sparkle hadn’t been entirely repaired from the erosion of thousands of years. Against Skeleton Dragon’s full-strength strikes, it was soon full of breaches. Cracks, and even giant holes, were appearing in many places!

Skeleton Dragon’s arms pierced into the interior of Sparkle like a dragon diving into the sea.

Gritting his teeth, Li Yao sealed all the compromised cabins and abandoned them on the crystal processor.

Skeleton Dragon’s arms couldn’t breach into the cockpit for a moment. Therefore, they simply pushed Sparkle away.

Forward and backward!

The two unimaginable forces were at an impasse. Sparkle was under so much pressure that its structure was uttering blood-freezing screeching noises as if it was going to break up any second!

Li Yao opened his arms. His heart was pounding like a drum, while his fire of life was burning more furiously than ever and drove the mystic ray drill forward without bothering about anything else!

Ten meters! Seven meters! Five meters!

The drill of mystic rays penetrated deep in and was only five meters away from the red core!

The dozens of ancient magical equipment stored inside Skeleton Dragon’s body were all triggered crazily.

Four pieces of shield-like magical equipment stood in the path of the mystic ray drill quickly.

Seven flying swords scraped the drill of mystic rays brutally, producing colorful brilliance.

Two pieces of gourd-shaped magical equipment, on the other hand, was spurting purple and crimson venomous gas nonstop.

The other magical equipment simply crashed into the drill like moths darting into flames!

The drill of mystic rays continued marching forward!

The shield-like magical equipment exploded!

The seven flying swords were broken!

The both pieces gourd-shaped magical equipment were shattered to pieces!

Four meters! Three meters! Two meters!

“Sprint! Sprint!”

The Cultivators who were observing the situation in the periphery all launched attacks again now that Skeleton Dragon’s nine arms were occupied by Sparkle.

But they were well aware that their attacks were merely scratches to Skeleton Dragon.

The key to the victory depended on Li Yao!

At this moment, there was only one meter between the drill of mystic rays and Skeleton Dragon’s red core!

However, blocked by the nine arms of bones and countless pieces of ancient magical equipment, Sparkle was moving more and more slowly.

Inside the cockpit, Li Yao was breathing heavily; his eyes appeared hollow. Black blood was leaking out of every pore on his body.

He stumbled and fell to one knee. Craning his head, Li Yao gazed at the weird redness in the middle of the light beam and ushered the last bit of his fire of life and the remaining momentum of the power rune arrays to push Sparkle forward, forward and forward!

Two meters, one meters, half a meter!

Every centimeter forward meant hundreds of collisions with the ancient magical equipment. The drill of mystic rays was finally dampened. The speed of Sparkle was lower and lower, until it was stuck by more than ten scraps of a broken shield and came to a halt when it was only half a meter away from the red core of Skeleton Dragon.

“S—Stopped!”

All the Cultivators felt that their blood was freezing.

Too shocked to restrain himself, a seriously wounded Cultivator was invaded by Skeleton Dragon’s mental power and exclaimed desperately in the communication channel, “All in vain! Our endeavors were all in vain! Skeleton Dragon is an ancient deadly demon from forty thousand years ago. We Building Foundation Stage Cultivators stand no chance against it at all! Absolutely no chance!”

As if to prove what he had said, Sparkle was pushed back inch by inch after trembling crazily for a minute in the competition of the two formidable forces.

The drill of mystic rays was still revolving rapidly, but the power rune arrays of Sparkle had exploded one by one. The remaining rune arrays were far from enough to provide sufficient impetus. Therefore, Skeleton Dragon was pushing it back slowly but surely!

Inside the cockpit, components and units exploded one after another, and more and more light beams fell into complete darkness.

The overall structure of Sparkle had been under tremendous pressure, too. It would crumble in less than five minutes.

Doggedness was beaming out of Li Yao’s eyes as he tried to stand up. But he still fell to the ground after shivering for a moment and vomited a mouthful of black blood.

“Limit. This is… my limit!

“I can’t defeat it. It was an unparalleled deadly demon forty thousand years ago and must’ve been far stronger than Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators when it was at its peak. I can’t defeat it even though it has only several percent of its original capability!”

Li Yao was in a trance. His self-doubt was immediately detected by Skeleton Dragon, who launched immense mental waves scourging his brain.

Once again, Li Yao was faced with a hell on the earth.

Floating Spear City, his hometown, and the Grand Desolate War Institution, his mother school, were mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

All his family and friends and everybody he knew, Ding Lingdang, Yuan Manqiu, Peng Hai, Guan Xiong, Meng Jiang, Jiang Shaoyang, Principal Mao, Grandpa Wang, and so on were all crying and screaming in the seas of blood, before they turned into piles of bones.

An irresistible thunder rumbled inside his brain over and over again.

“You are just an ant at the Building Foundation Stage, and you dare to hurt me like this? Very soon, these scenes will become reality to your world, your home, you family and your friends!

“In the meantime, you will be melted and become part of me. The great chaos and slaughter will be started by you in person! Haha. Hahahaha!”

“Hu… Hu…”

Li Yao was breathing heavily. Two streams of blood were dribbling from his eyes.

The cruel scenes did not terrorize him but triggered the remaining fighting will in the deepest parts of his body.

It was all he had left right now.

‘No…

‘I will not let it go your way. I will not allow you to ruin my home, my family, my friends, my compatriots, and my civilization!

‘What do I do? The impetus of the power rune arrays is not sufficient. My seed explosion state is about come to an end. The spiritual energy of the warship is running out. The hardness and revolution speed of the drill is diminishing. There are no other weapons on Sparkle. I can’t even self-detonate and perish together with it!

‘What do I do?! What do I do?!’

Li Yao buried his head in his hands painfully. He resisted Skeleton Dragon’s mental attack while he quickly searched the inventory of magical equipment on Sparkle, hoping vaguely in the overwhelming desperation to find a hidden fatal weapon!

Suddenly, his body was frozen as if he had been hit by a lightning.

Ecstasy burst out of his eyes.

In a moment, Li Yao turned tranquil, somewhat frighteningly.

Sparkle was still being pushed away by Skeleton inch after inch. Another power rune array had exploded, resulting to a loss of impetus of 7%. The warship was obviously lopsided now.

But Li Yao had already put on a cruel smile. Taking a deep breath, he turned his two hands into hundreds of blurred shadows and raised a storm of information on the light beams.

“Ding Lingdang.”

While Li Yao operated quickly to shut down and turn on certain components and units and to reconfigure the route of spiritual energy circulation, he said softly in the communication channel, “And everyone else. Please cease fire and keep a distance of at least two hundred meters from Sparkle.”

Maybe because his voice was unusually calm, Ding Lingdang, who had been living with him side by side, sensed that something was wrong. She shrieked, “Li Yao, What—What do you want? You are not going to play the self-detonation move, are you?”

Li Yao smiled and replied, “Don’t be silly. Self-detonation is too much a cliché for me. Besides, the spiritual energy reserve on Sparkle is insufficient. I can’t detonate anything even if I want to. Detonating a Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit alone is not enough to blow Skeleton Dragon up.”

“Cut the nonsense! I know you too well! You are definitely concocting some sordid tricks!”

Ding Lingdang bellowed, “Come on and speak up! What are you planning to do?!”

Li Yao gritted his teeth and remained silent. He spared thirty percent of his computational ability to maintain the normal functioning of the mystic ray drill and the power rune arrays, while he constructed a brand new and even more complicated spiritual energy circulation model with the remaining seventy percent of his computational ability.

A group of components and units that had never been used in the previous fierce battle were activated!

“Li Yao, Li Yao!”

Hearing no reply for a long time, Ding Lingdang was almost crying, but her words were as stubborn as before. “I’ve never stopped you from doing anything. Whatever you do, I always believe in you and support you!

“However, listen to me carefully!

“Whatever you do, just don’t die!

“Don’t you ever die!

“If you dare to die casually without informing me, I swear that, even if you soul falls to the deepest level of hell, I will simply kick open its gate, drag back your wretched soul, stuff you into a puppet, and blow up your stupid head again!”

Chapter 432: Li Yao’s Choice

“I won’t die,” said Li Yao softly.

It was both like a promise to Ding Lingdang and a murmur to himself.

The faster his hands were moving, the more tranquil his face became. His firm voice was transmitted to everyone’s ears like unstoppable falling stars.

“I promise you that I definitely won’t die. I will just… be away for a while!

“But I will come back again very soon. I will return to the Heaven’s Origin Sector and fight with you and everyone with stellar magical equipment under my feet!”

“Away?”

Everyone was dazed.

Ding Lingdang was somehow confused. Then, she realized what was going on as if lightning had struck her mind. She lost control and burst out, “Li Yao, you—”

Li Yao licked his dry lips and connected the last crystal wire. A new spiritual energy circulation started functioning!

Whatever was left of the spiritual reserve on the warship surged crazily toward the ‘space jump system’!

The large teleportation array in the center of Sparkle suddenly glittered. Spiritual patterns and rune arrays spurted out colorful brilliance which rippled out like rainbows!

As a multipurpose exploration warship, the space jump system loaded on Sparkle far exceeded its scale; it was supposed to be installed on the main force warships more than three thousand meters long.

Usually, Sparkle and all the materials five kilometers nearby could be transported thousands of lightyears away with the teleportation range locked in 50%.

When Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures too large to be stored or dissected were detected in a foreign constellation, they could be bound to the shell of Sparkle and be teleported back to a base by upgrading the teleportation range to 60% or even higher.

But right now, Li Yao had overridden the warnings and set the teleportation range at 120% by force without care for himself!

As a result, everything within a hundred cubic meters of Sparkle would cruise the sea of stars by shattering the void!

Shattering the void meant going into the four-dimensional universe from the three-dimensional one before being compressed back. It was an extremely dangerous process.

Even the Cultivators who boasted abundant spiritual energy in a starship whose shell was intact might suffer serious consequences because of breaking through the void after a space jump.

It was inevitable for any creatures undergoing the process!

Right now, Skeleton Dragon was weaker than ever. In order to counterattack the drill of mystic rays, it must’ve used up most of its strength. Li Yao didn’t believe that it could keep itself safe and sound with nothing but its body in a crazy space jump!

The odds were ten to one that its body would be torn apart by the endless cosmic storms!

Also, Li Yao didn’t input the coordination of his destination because of the lack of a star map. Even if Skeleton Dragon was lucky enough to survive the disaster, since Sparkle could be transported to any random point in the furthest space jump distance, both of them would be far away from the Heaven’s Origin Sector wherever they ended up in the boundless universe.

This was the ultimate plan that Li Yao came up with now that he was caught in a hopeless situation!

Since most of the spiritual energy was supplied to the space jump system, the drill and the power rune arrays slowed down all of a sudden. Skeleton Dragon was under much less pressure and pushed Sparkle out of its body at a higher and higher speed.

At first, it was exuberant and thought that Li Yao had already given up resistance due to exhaustion.

But a moment later, it sensed that a calamitous danger was coming!

On Sparkle, the mustard-level maintainers that resembled liquid metal were crowding to the damaged places resulting from the intrusion of its arms and filled up the holes at any cost.

In the meantime, a huge amount of super sticky foam that was meant to seal cracks temporarily in emergences was sprayed out into the cabins.

As a formidable demon forty thousand years ago, Skeleton Dragon boasted amazing computational ability, too. Based on these insignificant clues, it formulated a deadly possibility instantly!

In a moment, Skeleton Dragon shrieked in bewilderment and fury. Its mental waves penetrated the shell of the warship like countless ice pitons into the deepest part of Li Yao’s brain where they captured a few crazily bouncing telepathic thoughts.

A tenth of a second later, Skeleton Dragon knew Li Yao’s plan as clearly as Li Yao did.

“What are you doing?!

“Your warship is already riddled with holes. There is no way that it can support a space jump. It is definitely going to be ripped apart!

“Even if you are lucky enough to make it, we both might be teleported to a barren area in the universe far away from stars, planets, and world fragments because you don’t have a star map at all. We won’t be able to retrieve any materials or energy and will be starved to death in the darkness!

“Stop! Stop there!”

Li Yao was dazed for a moment. Then, his face was gleaming with amusement.

“So, you are scared of death, too.”

Li Yao spat a mouthful of saliva mixed with blood. He shook his head violently to refresh his vision which had gone blurry. His hands maintained the same high speed and his fingers were almost broken off. Finally, all the parameters were set, and all the operations were completed!

“No. The teleportation array must not be activated!” Skeleton Dragon bellowed.

The red core at the center of its body shrank into an egg-shaped cluster of brightness the size of a human heart, before it suddenly bounced and released tens of thousands of red threads!

The red threads pierced forward rapidly like electric arcs. They avoided the drill of mystic rays and penetrated through the cockpit into Li Yao’s brain as if the solid shell of the warship was nothing.

“Ahhhh!”

Li Yao’s eyes were bulging wide. His feet had left the floor, because the red electric arcs were grabbing him by his neck. His eyes had rolled back and were filled with the whites. His limbs were all cramping crazily!

Skeleton Dragon had burnt its demonic soul madly despite the seriously wounded body and unleashed the most formidable mental attack, trying to take over the control of Li Yao’s body.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Li Yao’s joints were uttering blood-freezing squeaking noises. His arms were twisted in an unnatural way. No matter how he tried to resist, his arms were approaching the operation menu and about to cancel the space jump parameters that he’d just set.

Li Yao’s brain was occupied by a surging ocean of blood. From the deepest part of the crimson swirls came countless voices.

“Stop!”

“Stop now!”

“You will die!”

Some of the voices were coarse, some high-pitched, some naïve and childish, some elderly and blended with coughs… All the voices gathered together, emanating alluring, soul-stirring temptation.

“Yes. That’s my boy. Cancel the teleportation and join the arms of Skeleton Dragon with me…”

Wang Ji’s extremely-twisted big face was floating in front of Li Yao again and grinning hideously.

Li Yao was breathing heavily like a bull. Every joint of his was trembling. His hands touched the light beam completely beyond his control.

Skeleton Dragon’s soul was hundreds of times more powerful than Li Yao’s. It was not something that a minor Building Foundation Stage Cultivator could deal with.

A dialogue popped up in the light beam: do you want to cancel the random space jump?

Right then, the mental power of Skeleton Dragon had descended to the deepest part of Li Yao’s brain.

But a glimmering gold giant tree then released an enormous, unconquerable power!

It was the tremendous soul left by Ou Yezi that Li Yao hadn’t digested and absorbed yet!

Skeleton Dragon’s mental power was immediately dissipated like ice pitons being inserted into burning flames!

“What is this?!”

Skeleton Demon gasped in disbelief and bafflement, having no idea why the brain of a Building Foundation Stage Cultivator should contain a soul power than was even more immense than the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators’!

In Li Yao’s head, the billions of enticing voices turned into billions of screams, and then vanished into thin air like vampires meeting the sunlight!

With a shiver, Li Yao was back to himself again.

Skeleton Dragon recovered from its shock, too, and launched the mental attack once more, but it didn’t get a second opportunity.

Li Yao’s eyes were as clear as water, where many high and mighty figures were floating.

He recalled Ding Yin, Wei Qingqing, and the other five Cultivators who had charged against the demon giant formed by the Ghost Face Silver Mosquitoes gallantly for the protection of all the ordinary people on the crystal train, including himself.

He recalled all the Cultivators and soldiers who had fought valiantly in the bloody battles of Verdant Tarn City and the War of Seven Cities.

He also recalled Senior Gao Xingce who had erased his identity, his past, his wife and children, everything but his last mission, just in order to fulfil his responsibility.

Every one of them seemed to be standing at his back and smiling at him, while they held back Skeleton Dragon’s mental bombardment for him.

Li Yao smiled and said softly in the communication channel, “Ding Lingdang, I feel that I have never fully awakened as a Cultivator… until this moment.”

“Li Yao, I will wait for you. Ten years, fifty years, a hundred years, I will be waiting for you! Even if you are teleported to the end of the cosmos, I will still be waiting for you! You must come back! You will come back!”

Ding Lingdang sobbed and screamed in her loudest voice.

“Don’t you dare! How dare you! No! Nooo!”

Skeleton Dragon twisted and struggled to break away from Sparkle. But its nine arms had pierced into Sparkle too deeply to be withdrawn quickly. Under the diligent work of the mustard-level maintainers, they had melded with Sparkle.

How could it free itself quickly?

On the contrary, Li Yao took the opportunity of the shock of Skeleton Dragon’s soul and drove Sparkle further ahead. The drill of mystic rays pierced in brutally once again. Skeleton Dragon’s previous efforts proved to have been futile!

CRACK!

In the competition over the control of his body, Li Yao’s phalange, forearm, and scapula on the right side of his body had all fractured. His entire arm dangled down freely.

But he did regain control over his left hand, which darted out and pointed softly on the light beam like a lightning.

The space jump system was successfully activated!

For a moment, Sparkle, as well as the entangled Skeleton Dragon, became a phantom, as if dozens of their shadows were overlapping in their original places, before they turned into streaks of smoke and dispersed continuously.

“Ahhhhh!”

Skeleton Dragon had never been more scared. Under its inconceivable brute force, three of its arms were broken off from their roots, while it screamed miserably in excruciating pain.

But there was no time.

The front half of Sparkle had almost entirely crawled into his body. Billions of stars were shining and spreading from the teleportation array, wreathing Skeleton Dragon in a rapidly-revolving crystal ball more than a hundred meters in diameter.

The splendid scene awed all the Cultivators watching it.

They could both hear Skeleton Dragon’s poignant yelling and growling and eventually begging, and Li Yao’s violent coughs and heavy breaths in the communication channel.

In a few seconds, the crystal ball was already revolving so fast that nobody could see it clearly. Its brightness was hundreds of times more dazzling than previously.

The Cultivators’ eyes were then filled with pure whiteness, making them unable to see anything.

They could only hear an earsplitting boom, as if the universe had been drilled through by Li Yao!

When they opened their eyes again, both Sparkle and Skeleton Dragon were gone.

The only thing left were the scraps of the torn-apart crystal ball, which were floating in the seawater like thousands of brilliant feathers of a vulture, until they dispersed gradually.

The scene was etched on the hearts of all the Cultivators present for all eternity.

Chapter 433: Resounding Hero

One month later, in the Heaven’s Origin Sector, all the important figures of the Star Glory Federation and the ultimate Cultivators of the sector had made their way to Empyreal Star City and gathered in the Temple of Fallen Stars in the center of the city that had been built in honor of the sacrificed heroes.

More than half of the members of parliament, the commanders-in-chief of several military bases, the commanders of the first, the fourth, and the seventh fleet, the leaders and elders of the top hundred sects, the principals, deans, and professors of the Nine Elite Universities, the chairman of the Demon Hunters’ Association, the councilors of the Refiners’ Association, the top experts among the unaffiliated Cultivators, together with the journalists from the most influential media and websites of the federation, all fixed their eyes on the Temple of the Fallen Stars.

Everyone showing up to this place was a renowned leader in their respective field, whose coughing was enough to trigger an earthquake in their trade.

But right now, the eminent celebrities were all standing straight in solemnness.

The national anthem was played. The Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars Flag gradually rose up in front of the Temple of Fallen Stars and fluttered in the wind.

The martyrs of the Star Glory Federation had perished like falling stars, but their sacrifices had earned the flying, bloodshed flag in the blowing wind. The great dragon stopping in the highest sky stepping on all the stars was raging with its mouth and claws wide open!

Inside the Temple of Fallen Stars, the perished Orb Patrollers were represented by holographs, as well as the intense, sparking battle videos.

Xu Haoran, the Speaker of Parliament and a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, walked to the front with heavy steps, and glancing around as if his eyes were lightning, opened his mouth to speak.

“Today, I would like to reveal a top-secret operation to all the citizens of the Star Glory Federation as the Speaker of Parliament.

“In the meantime, I would also like to pay my utmost respect to all the Cultivators who have perished in the secret operation together with all of the citizens of the Star Glory Federation.

“Because they have saved the entire federation!

“A month ago, we sent out five Star Teams with thirty Orb Patrollers to explore an Occult Orb named ‘Ultimacy’.

“It was not until we reached Ultimacy that we learnt that the true name of the planet was ‘Boneyard’, and that a gruesome demon was lurking ten thousand meters below the ground…”

Every town, mine, and farm in the Star Glory Federation, and all the other places that were connected to the Spiritual Nexus and had light beam facilities, were streaming the unprecedented memorial ceremony.

Men and women. The young and the old. Everyone dropped their work and listened carefully to Speaker Xu Haoran’s speech wholeheartedly.

In the more than ten minutes of speech, there was not a single sentence of propaganda rhetoric. Xu Haoran told a soul-stirring, blood-boiling story slowly and touchingly.

“Other than the martyrs that have died for the federation, there is a special Cultivator who sacrificed himself at the critical moment with wisdom and courage and teleported Skeleton Dragon to somewhere else in the boundless universe. He saved the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Star Glory Federation!

“He is a real hero of the federation, a Cultivator who deserves his name to be known!

“Currently, his status is unknown. It is very possible that he is still drifting in the depths of the sea of stars.

“However, every one of us believe that he is alive and not lost in the cosmic turbulences. He has taken the first step of conquering the universe on behalf of the Star Glory Federation and the human civilization of the Heaven’s Origin Sector!

“His name is Li Yao!”

From this moment, Vulture Li Yao’s name was known by everyone in the Star Glory Federation.

…

2,600 kilometers away, in No. 1899 boot camp, hundreds of newly-recruited soldiers whose heads had been shaved clean were gazing at the light beam.

Hearing the name of ‘Li Yao’, one of the soldiers was dazed for a moment. He gritted his teeth, trying to contain himself, but eventually failed. His nose was twitching, his eyes red with tears brewing inside.

“Meng Jiang, what’s wrong?” his companion beside him asked in a low voice.

“It’s alright. I’m fine.”

Meng Jiang, Li Yao’s best friend in high school, took a heavy breath and gnashed his teeth.

His clenched fists were gripping his trousers so hard that the veins on the backs of his hands were bulging. The extremely elastic military suit was about to be torn open by him.

‘Li Yao, never did I expect you to accomplish something so extraordinary!

‘As your best friend, I can’t be left behind by you by too much!

‘Although I’m just an ordinary person and cannot awaken my spiritual root to be a majestic Cultivator, I’m officially a soldier of the federal army right now.

‘Who says ordinary people can’t fight demon beasts?

‘Just wait for it. I will train as crazily as you do. By the time you come back, I may have already slain… a thousand demon beasts!’

…

On the playground of Floating Spear City’s Mining Clan High School of Floating Spear City, all the students were weeping.

The training facilities of Floating Spear City’s Mining Clan High School had all been sponsored by Li Yao. Many underprivileged students wouldn’t have been able to go to school and train themselves without Li Yao’s help.

Li Yao had even established a special fund to maintain the normal operation of Floating Spear City’s Mining Clan High School.

Therefore, the students here all admired Li Yao and considered themselves to be Li Yao’s young junior brothers. They had established an interest group named ‘Vulture Squad’ to collect all the news in which Li Yao appeared.

They had never expected that they would hear the news that Li Yao had gone missing in the sea of stars from the Speaker of Parliament one day.

The students were too young to have the basic concepts about the universe and other worlds. They only knew that Senior Brother Li Yao had gone to a place far, far away with no way of knowing if he was dead or alive. Inevitably, they all shed tears.

“Don’t cry. We can’t cry!”

A tall, thin boy who looked like a reed suddenly jumped up. He wiped his tears and announced, “Senior Brother Li Yao is a big hero from Floating Spear City. He will be fine! One day, he will come back as he promised. He will return splendidly with stellar magical equipment under his feet and blow the venomous pests of the Blood Demon Sector into smithereens!

“Until then, we, as his junior brothers, must not disgrace him!

“Senior Brother Li Yao is nicknamed as ‘Vulture’, which is the reason we created ‘Vulture Squad’.

“Before he comes back, we will try our best to train ourselves and let the name of ‘Vulture’ resound on behalf of our senior brother!”

…

In the floating mountain of the Refining Department of the Grand Desolate War Institution, there was nothing but dead silence.

Surrounded by more than ten Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit of different models, Yuan Manqiu and a lot of other professors were watching the live stream quietly.

Yuan Manqiu’s eyes were red. Two lines of dirty tears were flowing on her plump face.

“Li Yao, Li Yao…”

She sighed softly.

“Hahahaha. Senior Brother Li Yao, you must rest in peace! From today on, the banner of the Refining Department of the Grand Desolate War Institution shall be flown by me, the legendary super awesome lightning-hand, the rising superstar in the world of refiners, the puncher of Jiang Sheng and the kicker of Li Yao, sorry, the kicker of… Jiang Shaoyang. Yes, that’s what I, Li Sanhao, will do!”

A young fatty was dancing merrily and declaring confidently in a classroom of freshmen and sophomores, only to be kicked to a corner after a cry.

…

In Serpent City in the south of the federation, Jiang Shaoyang was faced with a giant mountain of rusted magical equipment components.

But there was nothing except easiness in his face. Whistling a song out of tune, he was moving his hands so fast that thinking appeared to be redundant for him. Hundreds of his spiritual threads pulled almost a thousand components, removed dust from them, scraped them to the proper size, polished and reassembled them as quickly as a lightning.

Brand new magical equipment was born one piece after another in his hands which seemed to be an assembly line.

Occasionally, Jiang Shaoyang would raise his eyebrow and glanced at the light beam beside him.

“Li Yao, there is not really a winner between us yet. You don’t want to run away just like that, do you?

“I hope you can train yourself to be a stronger, and even greater, person in the depths of the sea of stars!

“Only in such a way can I be granted a supreme sense of accomplishment after I defeat the invincible you!”

…

In the Dark Desolate Domain deep inside the Grand Desolate Plateau, thunder was rumbling, lightning was striking, and a storm was raging.

A somewhat lonely girl was traveling by herself in the wilderness. The occasional lightning illuminated the world and cast a narrow, long, and sharp shadow that looked like a saber behind her.

“Puff. Puff. Puff.”

Dozens of hungry demon wolves approached the lone girl stealthily in the heavy rain.

Before the wolves were about to lunge forward, their leader suddenly had a sense of great danger. A ferociously flame seemed to be burning its heart into ash.

The girl was wearing a blood-red ring on her middle finger, which blossomed momentarily like a lotus of fire. It was sharp-edged and brimming with brutality; it had turned into an intimidating knuckle!

The girl walked toward the wolf pack with a smile and stretched to warm herself up. Explosive noises could be heard from the joints all over her body.

“My man is a hero of the federation.

“One day, he will come back with stellar magical equipment under his feet.

“I need to make use of every minute in training, too, in order to be the strongest person in the Heaven’s Origin Sector before he returns!”

…

In the Blood Demon Sector, more than ten demon emperors in different yet equally hideous appearances gathered beside the raging, dark blood pool.

Countless demon kings and demon generals were kneeling humbly in panic beside their feet, waiting for the murderous fury to be rained upon them.

The intelligence from the Heaven’s Origin Sector had been sent back.

The mission videos from Boneyard were all stored in the information bugs which were flying around them.

Elder Blood Robe waved his hand. Some ten information bugs were swallowed by the redness released and exploded into mists of blood after cracking sounds.

The mists of blood twisted and turned into life-like 3D videos, which were enough for the demon emperors to learn what had happened on Boneyard, even though the videos were mottled with blood.

In the videos, Li Yao steered Sparkle and activated the Rogue Meteorite at first, blowing countless demon generals into smithereens.

Then, with the enhancement of the Dragon Scale Extension, he turned into a God of War and slew everything standing in his way, causing immeasurable casualties.

One demon after another was slaughtered and cut into pieces as easy as pie amid their dying screams!

“Ughhhh!”

While he was watching, one of the demon emperors was too angry to contain himself anymore. His body quickly expanded and revealed his true self, an enormous crocodile with fearsome horns!

He slapped his tail hard, smashing the solidest rock into powder that was even finer than sand, as he exclaimed, “My grandson! My most excellent descendant with the most amazing power of bloodline whom I’ve bred wholeheartedly for twenty years has been slashed in two by Vulture Li Yao! Just one slash!”

Another demon emperor roared, too, “One of my true disciples was blown into pieces by him! This particular disciple had just accepted a tenth of my demonic blood. It seems it was a waste now!”

“And also my youngest son!”

“And also my disciple who has followed me for thirty years. The disciple that I’d spent so many Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures on modifying was killed! All my previous endeavors are in vain now!”

“Kill him! Kill Vulture Li Yao, pull his soul of his body, soak it into the blood pool, make him a pet of the Blood Demon Sector, and torture him for a thousand, no, ten thousand years!”

The anger of so many demon emperors congregated and triggered a surging tsunami inside the blood pool. Even the purple sky had been stabbed through, through which countless stars peered through.

Intimidated by their daunting aura, the demon kings and demon generals were all shaking in fear. Some of the weak demon soldiers in the periphery even passed out.

“What?”

“Li Yao has been teleported to the depths of the sea of stars together with Skeleton Dragon?”

“Damn it! Damn it!”

“Vulture Li Yao, you can’t get away, not even if you hide in the other shores of the sea of stars. All the demon emperors of the Blood Demon Sector will join hands to find you and let you taste the fury of the Blood Demons!”

Chapter 434: Challenge the Storm

The central constellations in the sea of stars were often the ancient battlefields of the wars between the Demon Beast Empire and the Star Ocean Imperium, or the Cultivators and the demonic Cultivators.

Here, many worlds had been entirely shattered and broken into billions of world fragments.

Even the intact worlds were sometimes plagued by furious cosmic storms, spiritual tides, space turbulences, and even aggressive magical equipment left by past Cultivators, demonic Cultivators, or demons.

These places were places of perils.

One of these places was an exceptionally unfertile world, without a planet or a fragmented continent that was suitable for the survival of intellectual creatures. Even the star of this particular world had become dim and lackluster due to countless brutal, bloody wars over the past forty thousand years. It was emitting its last bit of brightness exhaustedly.

The edge of this world was a frozen hell. There were no planets, satellites, comets, or world fragments.

As far as one’s eyes could reach, there was nothing but an overwhelming purple-red cosmic storm, which was raging and rushing in its orbit like a giant animal that was about to consume everything in its way.

The cosmic storm which was as vast as an ocean was mixed with a lot of meteorites. The smaller ones were only the size of fingernails or fists, but the bigger ones were more than a hundred meters in diameter. All the meteorites were shaped bizarrely with sharp edges, emanating brilliance of weirdness.

Maybe a long time ago, they had all belonged to the same planet. But the planet had been unfortunately captured by the cosmic storm, making its fragments the teeth of the cosmic storm.

Right then, a peculiar black swirl appeared in the way of the cosmic storm, like an invisible giant beast had opened its bloody mouth, spurting out dazzling brightness.

In the center of the brightness was something that couldn’t be more ragged and twisted.

It was Sparkle and Skeleton Dragon!

Sparkle seemed to have been crumpled by a devil and then straightened carelessly. The previously streamlined shell was riddled with folds, fractures, and holes, from which air currents of red, orange, green and various other colors were spraying out nonstop.

Many metal scraps had broken up and exploded, like parasites which were desperate to run away from a dying host.

Skeleton Dragon was in an even worse state.

Sparkle had the last bit of its spiritual shield as well as its metal shell for defense, but Skeleton Dragon held back the tearing force of the space jump with nothing but its flesh-made body which had already fallen to its weakest point before the incident.

The majority of its silver bones had been battered. Seven out of its nine arms were broken. Two of the nines arms had been entirely blown to smithereens. There was only one last functional arm floating poorly in the vast space, trembling violently like the tail of a tadpole.

Its transparent body was now dirtier than ever. The strength that supported its body had been drained.

Crimson liquid flowed out of the red core in the center of its body which looked like a rotten apple right now.

The wounds were too heavy for Skeleton Dragon despite its amazing vitality. While it was struggling, it sensed the cosmic storm behind which was rushing close. Desperate mental waves burst out from its body.

“Die! We are all going to die!

“This cosmic storm is going to swallow us both! We can’t run away! We can’t!”

The lights inside the cockpit of Sparkle were all blinking. Most of the light beams were gone. Some ten crystal wires had cracked. Large clusters of sparks were bursting out from the mainframe crystal processor every once in a while.

The blood beside Li Yao’s feet had gathered into a lake. His eyes were deeply hollowed and looked like two burning coals embedded in his head. With a smile of craziness, he ushered the remaining four power rune arrays to fully speed up without caring about Sparkle’s extremely fragile state. Stunning brilliance burst out from the drill of mystic rays again!

There was no gravity in the space. Pushing Skeleton Dragon forward, Sparkle reached the limit of its speed in the blink of an eye and charged at the cosmic storm which had been blended with a cascade of meteorites.

“For the last time!

“SPIRIAL THURSTING!”

With Skeleton Dragon in its front, Sparkle crashed into a seven-colored meteorite almost a hundred meters in diameter like a lightning!

BOOM!

The meteorite exploded!

Skeleton Dragon let out a dying scream. It was drilled through by Sparkle from the center of its body. The red core shaking in fear in the beginning was punctured and split into multiple parts, dispersing into the universe!

Swoosh!

Sparkle turned into a streak of gold and continued drilling through Skeleton Dragon’s body and into the meteorite until that was dug through, too!

Losing the enhancement of the red core, Skeleton Dragon’s body parts finally couldn’t stay together any longer. It collapsed magnificently like a tower built by sand being blown by savaging wind.

The silver bones with extraordinary defense ability which had been created based on the bones of countless strong demon beasts exploded!

Many pieces of the ancient magical equipment exploded!

The body tissue of Skeleton Dragon which was almost transparent exploded!

The remaining demonic energy that Skeleton Dragon had turned into intense demonic gas which spread out to form a blood-red cloud due to the loss of the demonic soul.

Skeleton Dragon, the ancient deadly demon from forty thousand years ago, had finally been slain by Li Yao and gave away a lot of precious Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures!

The silver bones, the scraps of the ancient magical equipment, its body tissues, and even the giant cluster of demonic energy were all ultimate treasures that every Cultivator craved for.

However, Li Yao had no time to collect all that stuff, because he was in the middle of a great crisis!

Sparkle had been completely devoured by the cosmic storm.

The purple-red cosmic storm was a result of the collision, absorption, and division of countless spiritual tides. It could invade the spiritual energy network of a warship easily and sabotage the spiritual energy circulation system, not to mention that the swarm of meteorites in it was at its top speed, the potential damage of which was no less than the full-strength strike of a Core Formation Stage Cultivator!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Sparkle’s spiritual shield, which was already as thin as paper, was torn apart by the cosmic storm instantly. Most spiritual energy routes had been jammed or entirely cut off. Three of the four power rune arrays had broken down. The one that was still functioning seemed like it could join them at any moment.

The cascade of meteorites tore open Sparkle’s weathered shell effortlessly and mauled the cabins and paths to its heart’s content.

Li Yao’s legs suddenly lost strength. He collapsed to the ground and gazed at the blinking ceiling in a trance.

“The damage of Sparkle has reached 62%, and is still soaring.

“The last bit of spiritual energy has been used up. The mustard-level maintainers are the only magical equipment that work right now. The spiritual shield and the power rune arrays are all unusable at this moment, let alone another space jump!

“The structure of Sparkle is in the worst state, too, and is not enough to support a second space jump. Even if there is enough spiritual energy, I will probably be ripped apart in the four-dimensional space and end up being a speck of dust in the universe if I perform a space jump recklessly!

“My own situation is much worse. The sequela of detonating the spiritual seed is attacking. My soul is dry, my body heavily wounded, and I need to summon all my strength just to lift one of my fingers. There is no way that I can repair Sparkle right now.

“What can I do even if I miraculously fix it up?

“Based on the lackluster sun of this world, I am certain that no habitable planet or world fragment can be supported by such a star, let alone one that is suitable for Cultivators!

“I am hopeless now.

“Even if I’m lucky enough to survive the cosmic storm, I can’t repair Sparkle or embark on a new journey just by myself.

“I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept faith… There’s really nothing I can do now except to listen to the call of fate now.”

Li Yao took a long breath. His eyes dimmed. Like a dying drowning person, he stopped struggling and simply stretched out his arms, allowing his body and soul to be consumed by the warm water, while he sank to the deep, dark bottom of the ocean…

The moment he was about to close his eyes, Ding Lingdang’s vigorous roars suddenly rumbled beside his ears.

“Promise me that you won’t die!”

Li Yao’s eyes bulged open again. He gnashed his teeth.

“I can’t die!

“I promised Ding Lingdang that I won’t leave her in any case. I have to return to the Heaven’s Origin Sector splendidly with stellar magical equipment under my feet one day!

“I can’t give up. I can’t give up as long as my heart is still beating! One more second of life means another second of hope!”

By this point, Sparkle had entered the zone where the meteorites were densest. It seemed to have been tossed into the bloody mouth of a space beast which was chewing it thoroughly.

Most of the cabins had been pierced through by the meteorites. Even the cockpit had been hit by one. The temperature inside was plummeting, and a huge amount of air was escaping.

If it were an ordinary people in such a harsh environment, they would’ve died instantly with their blood being forced out of their body a long time ago.

Li Yao found it hard to breathe even though he was a Cultivator. He felt that somebody was scraping his body with tiny knives, and he couldn’t have been in more pain.

Thankfully, the meteorite which breached through the cockpit didn’t hit him directly. Otherwise, nobody in the entire universe would have been able to save him.

Li Yao gritted his teeth and summoned the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit with whatever strength he had left.

He put on the crystal suit, activated the internal circulation system, and injected a dose of strengthening drug that could stimulate the central nerves. Taking a moment of breath, Li Yao started making his last attempts!

With the remaining functional modules of the mainframe crystal processor, Li Yao moved all the mustard-level maintainers to the cockpit.

From the outside, mustard-level maintainers looked like clusters of slowly-flowing silver liquid metal. They wriggled and covered the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, quickly mending the cracks on the surface of the crystal suit.

Sparkle was too large, and the mustard-level maintainers were too few. It was impossible to fix it up in such a short amount of time.

Therefore, it might be a better idea to focus them on his own body to repair the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit first.

Once the crystal suit was damaged by a meteorite, they would crowd over and fix the cracks.

The odds of survival would be relatively higher this way.

As for how he could survive in a barren, desolate vacuum with nothing but a crystal suit after Sparkle was shattered, Li Yao hadn’t really considered the question yet.

He concentrated his full attention on the crisis at hand and tried his best to make himself live one second longer… and another second longer…

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

The crystal processor of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit and the mainframe crystal processor of Sparkle both sent out warnings.

Both of them had detected that intense spiritual waves and a meteorite shower were coming at Sparkle unstoppably from the front.

Taking a deep breath, Li Yao rested for a moment on one of his knees. Then he struggled to his feet stubbornly. His right arm was dangling from his shoulder softly because of the bone fractures, but his left arm had been placed beside his waist; it was the preparation posture of the Chaos Gale Hammer Technique.

He was waiting patiently to fight the last battle with the cosmic storm!

Chapter 435: No Longer Alone

After God knows how long, Li Yao felt that he had turned into a drill pushing forward helically in the sticky darkness.

After each rotation, he would move forward one centimeter; another rotation, he’d move another centimeter. He kept moving forward, forward, and forward, until the thick darkness was broken through and he saw vague brightness in front of him again.

His consciousness hadn’t regained control over his brain yet, but he heard whispers beside his ears, as if many mice were talking,

“The technology of the Star Ocean Imperium is indeed impressive! 95% of the power rune arrays are no strangers to us. But look at their construction model! With the same spiritual runes and energy intensity, the impetus that their power rune arrays can provide is dozens of times greater than ours!

“The mustard-level maintainers are amazing, too! The Heaven’s Origin Sector has only just started studying the mysteries of the mustard-level world. Although we can also manufacture mustard-level magical equipment that is one billionth the size of sand, we are not capable of carving so many rune arrays to endow it with such amazing repairing ability!”

“Treasury! Sparkle is truly a boundless treasury! If we can scrutinize everything on board, the development level of the refining techniques of the Heaven’s Origin Sector will leap forward by at least thirty years!”

The voices turned into earsplitting noises in Li Yao’s muddled brain, giving him a headache instead of actual meanings.

Li Yao blinked his eyes hard. After each blink, the blurry picture in front of his eyes became somewhat clearer. After hundreds of blinks, he finally realized that it was the cracking ceiling in the cockpit that he had been staring at the whole time.

Sparkle still existed!

‘I’m not dead? I’m still in the cockpit? Sparkle didn’t explode, either?’

Pictures popped up in Li Yao’s brain like fist jumping out of the water. Li Yao remembered everything.

He remembered that more and more meteorites hit through the cockpit and brushed past him, whacking the mainframe crystal processor into garbage.

He punched at the cosmic storm and the cascade of meteorites, but the vacuum took all his attacks.

Until in the end, a gold meteorite the size of a fist rushed close and hit his chest brutally…

Li Yao was great alarmed. He lowered his head and examined his chest in a hurry.

The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit was already on the verge of destruction. But there was a lot of silver brightness on the cracks in its chest. The mustard-level maintainers seemed to have mended it in time.

His ribs were still aching, many of which must’ve broken. There was also a large area of bruising on his chest, as if it had been burnt by purple fire.

Li Yao was baffled. The gold meteorite had been travelling at an incredibly high a speed yet dealt such little damage. It didn’t even pierce through his body?

How uncanny!

Quite a lot of silver powders were left on the skin of his chest. Several silver scraps even stabbed into his chest, but not very deeply. Therefore, he didn’t feel much pain.

It appeared that some silver metal object had exploded in front of his chest and resisted the catastrophe for him.

“It was my Soul Condensing Pendant! My Soul Condensing Pendant is gone!”

Li Yao felt that his neck was empty. Extending one of his spiritual threads to sense the situation, he found that the pendant hanging on his neck had disappeared.

Three years ago, on the very first day of his life in the Grand Desolate War Institution, the test of the super-compressed crystal reactor had failed, leading to a calamitous explosion in which almost all of the professors and students of the Refining Department perished. But there was not a single spectral Cultivator that survived the disaster. The only thing left on the spot was the remnant of a half-melted Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.

However, a year and a half later, Li Yao had perceived weird spiritual waves from the remnant of the crystal suit. It was then that he’d learnt that not everyone in the accident had been burnt into nothingness. Some professors and students had fled to the interior of the crystal reactor at the critical moment, but only ended up being Phantom Entities, a life form that was even more queer than regular ghosts!

Phantom Entities were scraps of ghosts in the two-dimensional universe. They had no self-awareness and no memories. The only thing that they possessed was the last bit of the perseverance that motivated them to never give up!

That day, Li Yao had vowed to the Phantom Entities that he would let them resume their past and consciousness, let them remember who they were and where they were going to, and let them be unfolded from the two-dimension to the three-dimension, so that they would turn from Phantom Entities to spectral Cultivators that could Cultivate again!

The source of these particular Phantom Entities’ perseverance was the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.

Therefore, Li Yao had refined a Soul Condensing Pendant and hidden all the Phantom Entities within. He had been wearing the pendant through all the fierce battles that he had been engaged in with the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.

Although the reactions from the Phantom Entities were more and more intense, the crucial leap never happened.

When one died, one would be gone for all eternity. It was an arduous task to regather the souls when they had already dispersed.

Never did he expect that the Soul Condensing Pendant would block a meteorite and save his life one day.

However, the Phantom Entities residing inside the pendant, his professors and Senior Brothers, were probably truly gone this time without the slightest race left, were they not?

Li Yao sighed and extended his arm, trying to touch his chest where the pendant had been hanging, only to tear one of his wounds open. The pain was so excruciating that he gasped.

The whispers which sounded like mice drifted into his ears again.

“Excellent! Li Yao has woken up!”

“Great! How long till the med bay is ready?”

“65% has been repaired. But I haven’t figured out the mechanism of many rune arrays yet. I need more time!”

This time, Li Yao heard them loud and clear, which creeped the hell out of him.

In a supposedly empty warship floating in the depths of the sea of stars, so many weird voices were speaking, some of which even sounded familiar.

What was even creepier was that the owners of these voices even knew his name!

Cold sweat immediately drenched Li Yao. He bellowed in a low voice, “Who? Who’s there?!”

Shua!

The cockpit was illuminated. Five clusters of round liquid metal wriggled close like five lovely newborn animals. Four of them were relatively smaller, surrounding the bigger one in the center.

They had previously been the mustard-level maintainers on Sparkle. But right now, they seemed to be blessed with their own will.

The five clusters of liquid metal flowed slowly. One bump protruded out on each of them and was stretched out until it became a metal membrane that was almost transparent.

The metal membrane vibrated at a high frequency, creating soundwaves that were audible to human.

The biggest cluster of liquid metal started ‘talking’, somewhat in delight. “Mr. Li Yao, you’ve finally woken up! We were afraid that moving you might aggravate your injuries and therefore simply left you there. How about it? If you feel that you are able to walk, let’s head over to the med bay!”

The more he listened, the more he found the voice familiar. Despite the shrill, metallic sound, he was certain that he had heard the same coarse voice somewhere else.

The liquid metal then continued speaking. “Although we can communicate with you telepathically, it would be great burden for us to do so. Our souls have just been unfolded from the two-dimension and can’t suffer too much fatigue yet. Therefore, we’d prefer to talk with you in such a way. Are we good? Can you understand me?”

Unfolded from the two-dimension… Unfolded from the two-dimension…

Li Yao’s eyes were bulging wider and wider. Thousands of lightning bolts were brewing in his eyes, while he felt like shouting to the sky in joy.

He finally remembered whom the voice belonged to!

Once upon a time, in so many days and nights, he had been receiving the enlightenment of the master of the voice through the teaching videos and learnt so much invaluable knowledge from him!

A messy-haired, red-eyed figure who was dancing with glee as if he were a patient of epilepsy seemed to have appeared above the cluster of metal liquid!

It was Professor Mo Xuan, the unquestionable leader of the grassroots refiners of the Heaven’s Origin Sector, and the previous dean of the Refining Department of the Grand Desolate War Institution known as ‘lunatic’ who had challenged the elite refiners alone, led his department to pioneer the Project Mystic Skeleton, and eventually sacrificed himself for what he believed in!

“Professor…”

Li Yao’s eyes were red. He was more thrilled than ever as he asked, “You—You finally unfolded yourself from the state of Phantom Entity and turned into a spectral Cultivator? Great! This is just great!”

“And me! And me!”

The four clusters of liquid metal that were relatively smaller all vibrated violently one after another.

“My name is Shi Tengfei. I was a final year student, and I’m best at the refining and research of power rune arrays!”

“My name is Gao Yang. I was in my final year, too. I like the magical equipment and technology related to teleportation arrays best!”

“I am Hua Yuanjia. My research field is defense rune arrays and spiritual shields. My dream is to build the strongest spiritual shield in the Heaven’s Origin Sector!”

“I am Xiong Qili. Material science and structural planning are my specialties. To put it more simply, I study how to finish the manufacturing and assembling of super-large magical equipment with the most suitable materials in the most delicate architecture!”

“Hohohoho. We were the legendary four top experts of the Refining Department of the Grand Desolate War Institution. We are the ‘Four Kings’ of the grassroots refiners!”

Li Yao couldn’t help but grin.

He had read a thing or two about the combination of ‘Four Kings’ in some notes and files of the Refining Department before. They were indeed four remarkable students before he’d arrived there. Although their research fields were very broad, they were the best experts in their respective research fields.

It was with their collective work that Project Mystic Skeleton was nearly accomplished.

But it was a pity that there were no experts in crystal reactors among them. Therefore, no one had been able to foresee the tragedy.

However, as it turned out, they’d all survived the disaster as Phantom Entities and now restored their self-awareness and memories!

Although he was in the middle of nowhere, he felt good knowing that his professors and senior brothers were with him and that he wouldn’t be walking down the path alone.

It was a marvelous feeling!

“Mr. Li Yao, thank you very much. I do appreciate everything you’ve done for us and the Refining Department of the Grand Desolate War Institution!”

Professor Mo Xuan’s metal membrane vibrated and spoke solemnly.

Then, the ‘Four Kings’ each spoke one after another.

“Senior Brother Li Yao, thank you very much!”

“Although our senses were very weird when we were Phantom Entities and we couldn’t perceive much except for some information pieces, we could feel a hundred percent the furiously-burning fighting will of yours when you were in the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit every time.”

“It was the fighting will that nourished and protected us so that we didn’t disperse over the passage of time, but instead became stronger and clearer!”

“Just now, your fighting will suddenly increased to five times what it had ever been before. It was like the detonation of a giant bomb and helped us unfold instantly!”

Chapter 436: Star Spirits

Somewhat embarrassed, Li Yao scratched his hair and changed the topic.

“Are your memories and self-awareness fully back? I remember that there were more Phantom Entities than yourselves. Have the other Phantom Entities… disappeared?”

Mo Xuan sighed and said, “Spectral Cultivators are already a very mysterious life form that is entirely made up of spiritual energy; Phantom Entities are hundreds of times more mysterious than them. From humans to ghosts, from ghosts to Phantom Entities, and from Phantom Entities to spectral Cultivators. What happened to us is too implausible. Even we find it hard to describe our current status.

“Our self-awareness has been restored. But our memories stop at the moment of the crystal reactor’s explosion. The prolonged time we spent as Phantom Entities is like smoke in the wind for us. The memories of that period are mottled and fragmented. It’s hard to get through all of them.

“After we became Phantom Entities, our consciousness and memories were both lost. The only thing left for us was the thinking and computational ability, as well as the connection to magical equipment.

“Maybe it was the persistence and the thinking and computational ability that kept our souls from completely dispersing.

“But, I’m afraid that we are not technically spectral Cultivators yet, because real ghosts are able to leave the puppets and float in the air freely as long as the environment is favorable.”

Li Yao nodded. Back when he had been searching for Wei Qingqing’s broken soul in the battlefield, he had discovered her floating in midair.

Metal bodies were but clothes for spectral Cultivators. They could be changed to new ones at any time.

Later, Wei Qingqing had chosen a crystal green bird as her shell.

Mo Xuan mumbled, “I remember vaguely that I was floating in the black ocean where a lot of transparent numbers, lines, runes, and structure maps were glittering in octagonal gold brightness. They were spinning, bouncing, and colliding quickly, and I subconsciously calculated, contemplated, and created new structure maps with all my computational ability.

“I had no idea why I needed to calculate these stuff, nor did I know what it was that I’d been calculating. I only had a vague feeling that it was my most important mission, and that if I stopped calculating, I would collapse and be gone forever!”

“Me, too!” the Four Kings agreed.

Professor Mo Xuan continued speaking. “Then, the black sky was torn by something, through which countless gold rays beamed in. Bathed in the brightness, I immediately remembered who I was.

“My soul was consolidated, but my head was still in a mess. I didn’t have any clue where I was. I merely swam toward the gold rays out of instinct.

“These gold rays seemed to boast endless attraction force; they pulled me into the hole in the sky effortlessly.

“Later, my soul suddenly felt heavier than before, as if it had been stuffed into a new body. Abundant spiritual energy and electromagnetic waves of weird attributes were dashing and dancing from my soul to my new shell.

“After a long time, I finally realized that I had melded with the mustard-level maintainers, or rather, the warship, into one!

“Gao Yang and the rest of them had similar experiences.

“We discussed it for a long time. Based on the mottled memories pieces, we inferred that we’d been existing as Phantom Entities over the past few years, until we were discovered and brought away by you. In the end, for reasons we didn’t know, we were caught in the middle of an overwhelming cosmic storm and meteor shower.

“With the boost of your soaring fighting will and the countless kinds of foreign electromagnetic waves inside the cosmic storm, our self-awareness was restored, but with additional qualities that are not present in common ghosts.

“It may sound unbelievable, but the unfolding of Phantom Entities is an extremely rare event that might only happen once in a thousand years due to billions of favorable coincidences.

“Maybe, some sort of special energy contained inside the cosmic storm and the meteor shower made us what we are right now. Haha. Maybe we shouldn’t call ourselves spectral Cultivators, but ‘Star Spirits’; we are the spirits wandering among the stars!

“At first, we had almost a hundred companions. But most of them have dissipated due to corrosion of time. Many of them didn’t survive the great outbreak of the cosmic storm and were obliterated in the dark sea of stars.

“However, the way that Phantom Entities exist is quite different from that of humans or ghosts. The most precious thing for us is the computational ability and the thinking patterns.

“Before other Phantom Entities perished, they copied their computational and thinking ability to our thinking models in a way that we can’t comprehend.

“You may understand that they have handed over their ember of wisdom to us so that their will and mission could be passed on in such a way!”

“Yes, indeed. I feel that my computational ability is dozens of times higher than before. Many complicated problems can be solved easily. The optimized solution of many algorithms that I used to spend hours thinking about can be calculated within several seconds right now!”

Gao Yang condensed two arms that looked like matches with the liquid metal and danced airily.

“Me too, me too! Before I turned into a Phantom Entity, I’d been reflecting on the optimization of the structure of 253 commonly-seen power rune arrays. But just now, ha, I devised more than 325 brand new optimization plans for 74 of them in only ten minutes!”

Shi Tengfei twisted in excitement, too.

Li Yao took a long breath in relief. He finally realized what had happened. “So, it was you who repaired Sparkle?”

The cosmic storm had passed. It was peaceful outside. Although the cockpit was still riddled with holes, at least it had stopped trembling and was sealed again. The temperature and oxygen concentration were in an acceptable range, too.

Countless runes were jumping on several light beams, indicating that more than fifty components and units were being examined at the same time.

Sparkle had stabilized, however dangerously.

Mo Xuan smiled. “Correct. Death is indeed scary. But when we discovered that we had been melded with a powerful starship from the Star Ocean Imperium and had become its ‘soul’, we were immediately grabbed by excitement. As a refiner, you must understand the feeling as well!

“We wasted no time investigating every corner of the starship and discovered that it was on the verge of collapse. Therefore, crazy maintenance work was immediately initiated. Based on the amazing computational ability that we accumulated when we were Phantom Entities, we managed to make it survive the cosmic storm and the bombardment of the meteor shower!

“Right, we have been very curious. What exactly happened to the Heaven’s Origin Sector after we ‘died’? Where did you find the starship? Why are you steering the empty starship without a second crew member?

“You are a refiner and an Exo of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit. But in any case, you shouldn’t be the one that is piloting a starship. Aren’t there a lot of seasoned Warship Connoisseurs in the military?

“Where are we right now? A new world?

“Although we don’t know how far away we have moved, our observation is that the star here is ten times dimmer than the sun of the Heaven’s Origin Sector, which is far from enough to support a world of Cultivators. Therefore, this area should be a barren wasteland. What are we doing in a wasteland?”

The senses of Phantom Entities were quite different from those of human beings. When Mo Xuan and the rest of them were in the state of Phantom Entities, they could only perceive Li Yao’s intense spiritual waves and his calculations, creations, and questions concerning the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.

They had no idea what was happening in the outside world just as much as Li Yao had no idea what was happening to them.

Li Yao thought for a while and told them the most important events after the explosion of the Refining Department as briefly as possible, including the invasion of the Blood Demon Sector, the competition of MP crystal suits, Occult Orbs Fellowship, and the exploration of Boneyard.

Although he had left many enticing details, the five spectral Cultivators were still greatly impressed.

Xiong Qili, one of the ‘Four Kings’, extended one narrow, long arm of liquid metal and patted Li Yao’s shoulder. “In order to extinguish Skeleton Dragon, you decided to jump into the depths of the sea of stars? Mr. Li Yao, that was awesome!”

Hua Yuanjia also smiled. “When I was told that a freshman set up his goal as challenging the Refining Department of Deep Sea University and taking their title of ‘Holy Land of Refiners’, I thought that he must’ve been another big-mouthed idiot. But as it turns out, he was a… real hero!”

Li Yao coughed in embarrassment.

A hero?

He had no idea that he would be connected with the word one day.

But it felt truly incredible thinking about the changes that had happened to him over the past few years.

When he was in high school, Fiend Blade Peng Hai’s visit to the No. 2 Crimson Nimbus High School taught him the first lesson about the formidability of Cultivators.

At that time, he had wanted to be Cultivators. But his biggest motivation had been the rumors that Cultivators such as Peng Hai all lived in villas, drove limos, and earned tens of millions every year easily.

Then, on the crystal train north to the Grand Desolate Plateau, the picture of the seven Cultivators who fought side by side and sacrificed themselves without hesitation had been etched in his memory and allowed him to awaken his spiritual root the next day and embark on the path of Cultivation.

Later, he’d trained himself continuously with the success of Project Mystic Skeleton as his target. But his ultimate desire had still been fame. He had never planned to be a hero one day.

Nevertheless, after the Battle of Verdant Tarn City, the War of Seven Cities, and the countless missions in Occult Orbs Fellowship, after witnessing Cultivators and ordinary people who had dedicated themselves to the bloodshed battlefields together and their choices between life and death, his personality had been gradually altered.

Then, on Boneyard…

Reading Senior Gao Xingce’s journal and envisioning the future catastrophe descending upon the Heaven’s Origin Sector due to Skeleton Dragon’s mental attack, he didn’t have a second thought.

Li Yao was sure that he was not a hero, and he didn’t want to become any hero.

He simply wanted to be what he had always tried to be, a Cultivator!

A Cultivator just like Ding Yin, Wei Qingqing, Guan Xiong, Gao Xingce, and so on. Nothing else!

Li Yao’s eyes glittered. He said, “Now you have learnt everything: the six of us are floating god knows where in the sea of stars in a boat that is close to garbage.

“What can we do to find our way home?”

Chapter 437: Stride Forward!

The five spectral Cultivators, including Mo Xuan, were silent for a long time. The liquid metal was rolling with bubbles popping up nonstop as if it were boiling, indicating that they were in the middle of high-intensity thinking and computation.

Ten minutes later, Professor Mo Xuan finally spoke again.

“No matter where we are right now, the most important issue at hand is to repair Sparkle and make it able to perform space jumps once or twice.

“This is a gaunt wasteland. We will be hopeless if we are stuck here.”

Li Yao nodded his head and said somewhat worriedly, “What is the situation of Sparkle?”

“Very terrible.”

Professor Mo Xuan added, “According to what you said just now, Sparkle suffered serious damage seven thousand years ago and was locked in an undersea rock stratum until recently. Although the mustard-level maintainers have been repairing the warship slowly, they are only able to fix the external components and units that are relatively simple in structure. As for the core magical equipment that is more precise, such as the mainframe crystal processor, they can’t fix it without the manipulation of a refiner.

“After thousands of years, Sparkle was finally fixed to the extent that it was functional. But then, it was engaged in a fierce battle against Skeleton Dragon, before it performed an insane, aimless space jump. 99% of the units on board were already on the verge of collapse at that time.

“After that, Sparkle encountered a cosmic storm and a meteor shower. Even its shell is battered now.

“Had we not woken up in time, I’m afraid Sparkle would’ve broken down and ended up as dust in the universe.

“Although we maintained the warship as quickly and thoroughly as possible, we only ensured that its structure remained intact. Right now, Sparkle has lost most of the impetus and abilities; it is no better than an empty shell!

“Therefore, whatever our future plan is, we need to fix up Sparkle first.

“The refining level of Sparkle is far beyond the knowledge of the Heaven’s Origin Sector. It’s impossible to restore it to one hundred percent with just the few of us.

“Thankfully, the Heaven’s Origin Sector has abundant experience in refining crystal warships, too. We can modify Sparkle, however primitively, and make it regain thirty percent of its abilities. That shouldn’t be a problem. Then, we will be able to perform one to two space jumps and leap out of this doomed wasteland.

“The biggest problem we are faced with right now is the lack of materials and spiritual energy. A cook cannot make food without ingredients, however skilled they are. Without sufficient Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and spiritual energy, we will not be able to conduct the maintenance work.”

It was indeed a tricky problem. Li Yao started pondering.

Since they were in a wasteland, there were not too many Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures or spiritual energy available for them.

Even if there were, the desired items were most likely to be buried in the planets and stone belts that were close to the star.

With Sparkle’s current status, it was impossible to fly to the nearby of a star. When they came too close, they might be consumed by a stellar storm instantly because of the debilitated spiritual shield.

After remaining silent for a while, Li Yao suddenly thought of something and exclaimed excitedly, “Wait, how are we lacking Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and spiritual energy? Isn’t Skeleton Dragon’s dead body scattered around us? We can make the best use of whatever’s left of it, even though most of it has been swept away from the cosmic storm and the meteorite cascade!

“Skeleton Dragon’s strengthened bones were all created through secret arts forty thousand years ago based on the bones of the most formidable demon beasts at that time. They are extremely hard!

“Although most of the ancient magical equipment inside its body has been drilled to dust with their abilities gone, the scraps can be used to fill up the cracks and holes of Sparkle!

“Its transparent flesh is extremely elastic; it can be stretched from ten meters to a hundred meters momentarily. It can also offset the enemy’s attack like jelly. Such an excellent material is bound to improve the defensive ability and agility when it is applied to the key structure of Sparkle after we fully grasped its mysteries!

“When its demonic soul was annihilated, a lot of demonic energy was left, which can be transformed into spiritual energy that Sparkle can use through purification procedures. The spiritual energy can be used for our training, too!

“Anyway, Skeleton Dragon has offered us an enormous treasury. With its body’s remnants, it’s definitely possible to repair Sparkle and restore its space jump ability!”

Li Yao’s words excited Mo Xuan and the others. Their membranes were pulsating quickly.

“Correct. Building magical equipment with the flesh and bones of demon beasts is a regular method in the art of refining. We are all experienced at this. The odds of success are not slim at all!

“As long as Sparkle is repaired, we will be able to perform a space jump again and land in a new world. So long as it is not as barren as this one, we will definitely be able to collect new materials and spiritual energy.

“Space jump after space jump, we will definitely meet other Cultivators in other human civilizations in the sea of stars one day!”

“A new world of Cultivators…”

Li Yao was fascinated by the idea. Confidence and determination brewed in his chest, as he mumbled to himself, “Yes. The Heaven’s Origin Sector is on the edge of the sea of stars. Since we arrived at this place randomly, it’s very unlikely we’ll be teleported back with just one space jump.

“Now that we are not going to find the way home any time soon, we might as well stride forward confidently!

“To the new world of Cultivators! To the center of universe! To the end of the infinite stars!

“The worlds in the center of the universe are very likely to possess technology, magical equipment, and secret arts that are more advanced than those of the Heaven’s Origin Sector. I can learn from them and train myself crazily so that I can be stronger!

“I’m still too weak at this moment. Middle level of the Building Foundation Stage is absolutely nothing in front of the real experts! Skeleton Dragon would’ve slain me effortlessly if it had regained 5% of its peak capability when I faced it!

“The previous captain of Sparkle was a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, too. Sparkle could function at the 100% level in his hands.

“But the acting captain right now is only in the middle level of the Building Foundation Stage, who can only bring out 10% of Sparkle’s potential. Senior Gao Xingce would be ashamed of me if he knew this!

“It’s officially decided then. I will traverse the sea of stars and advance into at least the Core Formation Stage in the coming few years. In the meantime, I will try to collect a few pieces of planetary magical equipment, if not stellar magical equipment, along the way. Then I will return to the Heaven’s Origin Sector!”

According to the astrologists of the Star Glory Federation, the final melding of the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector would take place in twenty to thirty years.

Until then, neither of the two worlds had an overwhelming advantage against the other one.

Therefore, Li Yao set a ten-year limit for himself.

In the next ten years, he would try to build up himself, excavate powerful magical equipment, and then announce his grand return!

Mo Xuan and the other spectral Cultivators agreed unanimously.

Professor Mo Xuan chuckled in satisfaction.

“Cultivators of the Heaven’s Origin Sector have always yearned to reach out to other Cultivators in the center of the sea of stars. But our starships are still too underdeveloped. Even the stars around the Heaven’s Origin Sector are not entirely clear to us yet.

“Now that we have jumped out of the Heaven’s Origin Sector by accident, of course we need to make best use of the opportunity to travel, train, and take in as much knowledge as possible. We will not go home empty-handed, but with a huge amount of magical equipment and Cultivation arts!”

Xiong Qili was a war maniac. He shouted, “In my opinion, we should establish our own forces in the sea of stars and bring a fleet of starships home with us!”

Everybody was amused.

Professor Mo Xuan then said, “Establishing our own forces may be unnecessary. But since Sparkle, as a multipurpose exploration starship, boasts a lot of labs, refining workshops, and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures analysis chambers, I think it is quite feasible that we can establish a ‘Space Branch of the Refining Department of the Grand Desolate War Institution’ on this ship!

“Mr. Li Yao, hasn’t your dream always been to defeat the Refining Department of Deep Sea University and take over their title of ‘Holy Land of Refiners’?

“It is also a dream of mine, as well as the rest of the professors and students in our department, which has never to been forgotten.

“However, to be completely honest, it’s hardly likely for us to realize the dream within the Star Glory Federation.

“But now, everything is different!

“Right now, we are in possession of a multipurpose exploration starship from the Star Ocean Imperium. With its amazing space jump system, we are blessed with the opportunity to get in touch with hundreds of new constellations, other human civilizations and worlds of Cultivators, and previously-unseen magical equipment, Cultivation arts, and refining techniques!

“Let’s make Sparkle our base as we will explore, research, and study the best magical equipment in the universe. We can even recruit the prodigies with potential in refining from other worlds in the name of the Refining Department of the Grand Desolate War Institution!

“If so, when we return to the Heaven’s Origin Sector in ten years, our capability in refining will definitely be hundreds of times higher than Deep Sea University’s; our department will be the well-deserved Holy Land of Refiners!”

Li Yao’s blood was boiling while he was listening.

Beating the Refining Department of Deep Sea University had been his dream even before he took the College Entrance Examination.

However, as he walked further down the path of refining and climbed higher and higher, the formidability of the Refining Department of Deep Sea University was clearer and clearer to him.

It was true that the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit suppressed the Tiger King Battlesuit and became the most renowned MP crystal suit model in the federation.

However, the MP crystal suit project was just one of the dozens of projects of the same level for the Refining Department of Deep Sea University.

The behemoth known as ‘Deep Sea’ was too huge, too strong, and had lived for too many years. The failure of an MP crystal suit project was but a scratch for it.

Therefore, the dream hadn’t occurred to Li Yao for a very long time. He didn’t forget it, but he failed to find a way to achieve it.

But right now, Professor Mo Xuan’s words ignited his passion once again.

Li Yao’s eyes were glittering, his fists clenched. He seemed to be able to see the brilliant future in ten years’ time.

Professor Mo Xuan’s voice was coarse, but it was getting louder and more impassioned.

“Haven’t you always planned to bring back a piece of stellar magical equipment?

“In my opinion, since the Star Ocean Imperium has been gone for thousands of years, it is an impossible task to find a piece of intact yet unowned stellar magical equipment.

“However, aren’t we all refiners?

“Why don’t we create our own stellar magical equipment with Sparkle as the core?”

Professor Mo Xuan’s bold proposal almost made Li Yao’s eyes and nostrils spurt fire.

He finally realized why Professor Mo Xuan was known as ‘lunatic’ in the world of refiners.

It was because he was indeed a lunatic, even more insane than Li Yao himself!

Assembling each component, carving each rune, and refining a piece of stellar magical equipment that could suppress an entire galaxy with one’s own hands?

Li Yao was so ecstatic and enthusiastic that he was dancing, despite the sharp pain all over his body.

“Then what are we waiting for? Hurry up. Let’s have a brainstorm and discuss the general modification plan for Sparkle now!”

Chapter 438: Go Forth, Sparkle! (End of Volume I)

One month later, in the edge of a cold, bleak wasteland, a sliver-glittering scrap from a piece of ancient magical equipment was spinning and floating.

Sparkle snuck close from behind without making a sound. Two ropes that had been refined out of Skeleton’s skins and veins extended from the front of the starship, and when they arrived at the scrap, the ropes snatched at it quickly with the two metal claws at their ends.

Several rune arrays on the scrap were still intact, with feeble spiritual energy left. Sensing a threat, it immediately formed two bright gold shields.

However, the blue and purple electric arcs on the two metal claws crumbled the defense of the scrap instantly, before they pinned the scrap and took it back to Sparkle.

“Another scrap of ancient magical equipment has been retrieved. ID number, 14734. Preliminary analysis suggests that it belongs to an ancient shield of which 79% has been collected. If we combine them into our defense system, the defense ability of Sparkle will be improved by 3.2%!”

Sparkle today was entirely different from a month ago.

The Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and demonic energy that had burst out from Skeleton Dragon had almost all been gathered by them, who immediately made a great fortune.

Most parts of the shell too damaged to be repaired were ripped off, refined into raw materials, and replaced by silver bones, scraps of ancient magical equipment, and Skeleton Dragon’s flesh.

Since time was of the essence, all the maintenance work was done in the most practical way without the least consideration of aesthetics. All the bones and scraps were piled up in a what looked like a careless mess, making Sparkle look like a ragged remnant of a starship, if not a heap of garbage that had been floating in the cosmos for thousands of years.

But on the mainframe crystal processor inside Sparkle, the specifications in various aspects had been greatly improved.

Strengthened by the silver bones and the body tissues of Skeleton Dragon, many parts of Sparkle had an overall hardness that was even higher than previously!

Inside the maintenance workshop at the rear of the starship…

“Based on the seven spiritual runes that we just analyzed, and with the remaining Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, I can totally improve the eight power rune arrays in the most classic Eight Trigrams distribution, which will make Sparkle’s ability of instantaneous acceleration at least 80% higher than before!

“If so, the power of the mystic ray drill will be able to be fully demonstrated. However formidable my enemy is, I can just give ’em a spiral thrusting and simply drill a hole in their heart!”

Li Yao’s face was flushed as he slapped the desk hard with his hands wide open.

“Instantaneous acceleration is just nonsense! The Eight Trigrams distribution is indeed classic. But the power rune arrays in such a distribution can only maximize the impetus when the vehicle is moving linearly! You want to move in a straight line when we are engaged with strong enemies in new worlds? We will only wind up being walking targets!

“In my opinion, we should think more carefully and refine twelve power rune arrays with less impetus. The Twelve Stars Chain distribution is the plan that we ought to adopt!

“Although the distribution guarantees less instantaneous acceleration and overall impetus, the agility of the vehicle will be greatly enhanced. Our course will be mysterious and unpredictable. It is best for small-scale dodging movements and will significantly improve our odds of survival when we are attacked by unknown enemies!”

Shi Tengfei, the expert in power rune arrays, was waving his two liquid-metal arms in the air crazily. To express that he was also ‘flushed’, the surface of the liquid metal was covered in a layer of redness.

Li Yao chuckled.

“Of course, it is a well-known disadvantage of the Eight Trigrams distribution that direction changes are awkward and linear acceleration is what it’s best at.

“But I have analyzed more than ninety-five kinds of similar rune arrays from the ancient Cultivation world and come up with seven upgrade plans inspired by the control rune arrays of fifteen ancient flying swords. By revising the traditional Eight Trigrams distribution, the powerful linear acceleration is kept, and the agility in turning and dodging is greatly improved to the extent of the Twelve Stars Chain’s, if not higher.

Shi Tengfei couldn’t help but sneer.

“What a coincidence. I’ve made a lot of revisions to the Twelve Star Chain, too. The essence of the Seven Stars Asymmetric distribution, the Sweeping Wind distribution, and the other seven classic power rune array distributions have been melded into it now!

“Not only does the Twelve Stars Chain distribution perfected by me boast extraordinary dodging and mobilizing ability, its instantaneous acceleration is also as good as the Eight Trigram distribution’s!”

Li Yao was suspicious.

“Are you exaggerating? Show me your distribution design!”

Shi Tengfei smiled assuredly.

“Of course. I would very much like to see how far you can go with the obsolete Eight Trigrams distribution!”

The hundreds of light beams floating around them all started blinking, where countless complicated structure designs manifested.

With his cheeks puffed up, Li Yao stared at the light beams and studied them carefully.

Shi Tengfei fell silent, too. The body of liquid metal was trembling violently as he was analyzing Li Yao’s distribution plan.

A moment later, both of them were too astounded to say anything.

This was a regular scene that had been happening every day over the past month.

Professor Mo Xuan, Shi Tengfei, and the rest of the ‘Four Kings’ of the Refining Department had represented the top of the grassroots refining methodologies in the first place.

In the years when they were Phantom Entities, they were troubled by no trivia and only maintained their lives with their computational ability.

At the critical moment, they inherited the computational ability of other Phantom Entities.

It was not overstating it to say that they were the best experts of the Heaven’s Origin Sector in the arts of refining right now.

In comparison, Li Yao was a professional in ancient refining techniques. Brilliant sparks immediately burst out when the two parties collided.

They were having furious arguments every day, as if two meteor showers crashing into each other.

Li Yao was often awed by their unbelievably amazing modern refining techniques.

They too were often so shocked by Li Yao’s insane notions that their computational ability was almost frozen.

Together, they were like six top experts in martial arts who were practicing with each other every day. Greatly enlightened by the different ideologies, they found that their training efficiencies were hundreds of times higher than when they were alone.

It was because of these sparking collisions that Sparkle was being repaired at an inconceivable speed and renovated toward a monster-like starship blended with bones, flesh, and scraps which boasted unparalleled performance despite its grotesque appearance.

While Li Yao was scratching his head in great admiration, Professor Mo Xuan’s unusually excited voice echoed in the broadcasting rune array in a corner of the cabin.

“Li Yao, I’ve made new discoveries. Come to the cockpit now!”

Inside the cockpit, Professor Mo Xuan was glittering at a high frequency, indicating that he couldn’t be more thrilled.

Over the past few days, the maintenance and modification of the shell had been close to completion. Professor Mo Xuan was occupied by the recovery of the mainframe crystal processor.

“I’ve found a crystal chip deep inside the mainframe crystal processor which had been burnt before being smashed into pieces by a meteorite. After three days and three nights of maintenance and reverse engineering in the mustard level, I’ve finally decoded some information pieces, including the coordinates of a star beacon!”

Professor Mo Xuan’s words raised tides thousands of meters high in Li Yao’s heart.

The coordinates of a star beacon marked the location of a teleportation array. As long as they typed the coordination into the space jump system, it was very likely that they would be transported to somewhere near this particular star beacon!

Since star beacons were clearly man-made establishments, it was very likely that other worlds of Cultivators might be around this particular star beacon!

Professor Mo Xuan continued saying, “I cross-checked the coordinates of the star beacon with other information pieces that I gathered from the mainframe crystal processor. My conclusion is that the coordinates probably represent an interstellar dockyard of the Star Ocean Imperium.

“According to Senior Gao Xingce’s journal, Sparkle underwent tremendous modification during their last stop, in which the main gun of the starship was replaced by a drill of mystic rays.

“Therefore, it is safe to infer that the interstellar dockyard must be a large-scale fleet base with abundant maintenance and refining facilities that can allow such an advanced starship like Sparkle to be modified and transformed.

“What do you think we can get from such a base?”

Li Yao was greatly interested. But he shook his head after thinking for a while. “Senior Gao Xingce said in his journal that they lost contact with their base after they reached Boneyard. It’s very likely that the base was demolished in the ‘Armageddon Rebellion’.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Professor Mo Xuan added, “For a base with extraordinary repairing and modifying abilities such as this one, it must’ve been built in a place where there were abundant spiritual energy and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. Even if the military has been destroyed, the world where the star beacon is located must still be very richly endowed. At the very least, we can definitely acquire much more resources there than we can in this wasteland. After we teleport there, we will be able to acquire ample spiritual energy and materials!”

Considering the situation carefully for a moment, Li Yao realized that it was a very reasonable assumption.

With any luck, he might be able to visit a logistic base of the Star Ocean Imperium. He was sure that he could dig out something useful there!

…

Ten days later…

“Chi…”

The door of the training room was wide open, spurting out bitter cold wind.

Inside the room, gravity was increased to twenty times normal and the temperature was minus a hundred and fifty degrees.

Li Yao was practically naked, wearing nothing but boxer shorts. He strode out of the room. There was not the tiniest speck of frost on his skin; it was red, shining, and elastic.

“My strength has fully recovered.”

Clenching his fists and sensing the majestic strength flooding inside his flesh and blood, Li Yao smiled in satisfaction.

The sequela that he’d suffered from the fierce battle against Skeleton Dragon was completely gone now.

Because of the detonation of the spiritual seed, his limbs, veins, nerves, and internal organs had all been cleansed to the extent of being entirely reborn. During the seed explosion state, he had experienced the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators’ feeling of dominating the entire world with nothing but their own hands.

The large quantity of Flowing Brightness Crystals he had consumed in a hurry were not entirely digested yet. Some of the leftovers which also contained immense spiritual energy were stored inside his body, which would certainly be of great help in his future training.

Although he was only at the middle level of the Building Foundation Stage, Li Yao was very confident about his future path of Cultivation, because he had seen clearly what he was pursuing instead of running around like a headless fly.

“Let’s go!”

Taking a deep breath, Li Yao strode to the cockpit in high spirits.

Inside the cockpit, all preparations for the space jump had been completed. The five spectral Cultivators had manipulated the liquid metal and melted into the key units of Sparkle, monitoring the functioning of all the magical equipment on board.

Inside the operation menu, the coordination of the star beacon had been typed in.

There was still an important thing to do.

Sitting on the captain seat, Li Yao dabbed his fingers on the operation menu swiftly.

On the brand-new shell of Sparkle, an ensign as red as blood, as airy as fire and as brilliant as star replaced the Red Dragon Swallowing the Sun emblem of the Star Ocean Imperium. It gradually revealed itself and was clearer and clearer until it was shining.

A scary dragon was crouching on a giant pearl in which there were nine glittering pentagrams.

It was Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars, the national flag of the Star Glory Federation and the battle emblem for the Cultivators of the Heaven’s Origin Sector!

Gazing at the dark universe in front of him that looked like a night sky, Li Yao smiled and put his hand on a sliding spiritual rune on the light beam. Then he pushed it forward and bellowed, “Go forth, Sparkle!”

=====Translator’s Thought=====

Hi, guys. Welcome to the grand finale of Forty Millenniums of Cultivation. Li Yao was lost in the space and never heard again. End of story.

…

Haha. Just kidding. But this chapter does mark the end of Volume I of FMC. For me personally, it is also a 200-chapter (give or take) milestone. I was reluctant at first to pick up a novel that had already been translated (by multiple persons, lol), because it involved a lot of additional work of familiarization with the pervious plots and terminologies. But as it turned out, I began to fall in love with the novel as more and more chapters are translated (although collaboration with another translator could be indeed exhausting, if you know what I mean).

Admittedly, many plots in the book may be a bit incondite, and there are quite a few “filler” chapters that you might regret buying. But generally speaking, I think most characters in the book have been making sensible choices based on their background knowledge and current situation, which makes the story more logical and convincing.

The “filler” chapters actually help a lot in the world-building and make the book feel less like an “EXP-level up, EXP-level up” game but more like a real-life experience. The male protagonist is smart and strong but not overly so; the female protagonist plays her own role instead of just being a decorative vase. Also, the theme of the novel is devotion and sacrifice(in my opinion). Most characters in the book (at least the good ones) actually bear their companions and compatriots in mind, unlike many other Cultivation novels where the insignificant lackeys will simply die for the protagonist’s cause without a good reason. I quite like that.

Chapter 439: Splendid Universe

This was a glamorous constellation.

As far as one’s eyes could see, colorful cosmic dust and world fragments were everywhere. Vigorous spiritual tides were surging like flooding rivers and collided with each other, raising ripples that looked like rainbows which spread out to the distance.

At the edge of the constellation, a super-large star beacon more than a thousand meters in diameter was floating silently.

The star beacon was oval shaped and looked like a monolithic olive. After almost ten thousand years of drifting, its surface had become riddled with hollows and bumps due to the meteors. Many sharp-edged meteorites had even stabbed into it.

Even the Red Dragon Swallowing the Sun emblem was somewhat faded right now.

Eight enormous nets were extended out of the star beacon.

Four of the nets had been sewn with metal pieces and membranes carved with countless runes, allowing the nets to absorb the precious spiritual energy from stars, cosmic storms, and spiritual tides.

The holes of the other four nets were miniature. They were designed to capture the meteorites and dust passing by and transport them inside the star beacon where the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures inside the material would be purified for the purpose of self-maintenance.

Just like that, the star beacon revolved slowly. On a level that was invisible to human eyes, it emitted mystic rays in thousands of different colors, broadcasting its location for all the worlds that could receive the signal.

Right then, a rune array inside the star beacon was triggered by a strange power. As if a sleeping animal had been woken up, many runes on the star beacon were illuminated in the chain reaction.

Countless metal antennas hundreds of meters long protruded out of the star beacon, making its size multiple times what it had been.

Its oval body split in two. Ripples spread out from its center to the far, far away, covering tens of thousands of square kilometers momentarily.

As the star beacon revolved slowly, the constellation within the tens of thousands of square kilometers was bathed in mild gold brightness. Then, the runes blinked. The gold brightness seemed to be boiling. A lot of tiny bubbles were popping up.

One of the ‘bubbles’ suddenly twisted and blurred, before it constricted into the shape of a starship.

The bubble broke. A starship appeared abruptly in the space out of nowhere.

After the prolonged interstellar teleportation, the shell of the starship was damaged again, making it look somewhat haggard.

But the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars emblem on the front of the starship was still shining brilliantly.

The star beacon had finished its guidance. The gold mystic rays were absorbed back into its body; the guidance antennas retreated. The body which had been split in two reassembled into one and fell silent again, waiting for the arrival of a new interstellar guest.

“We’ve made it!”

The cockpit of Sparkle was now a sea of cheers.

The probe system of Sparkle had scanned the appearance of the star beacon clearly. Even the mottled Red Dragon Swallowing the Sun emblem was detailed in the picture.

According to the ancient books, the larger a star beacon was, the higher its level would be and the more constellations and worlds it would be able to cover.

The star beacon that Li Yao had established on Boneyard was of the lowest level, which could only radiate out to less than ten thousand lightyears away.

But this star beacon in front was more than a thousand meters in diameter. It must’ve been a piece of high-level super-large magical equipment even in the era of the Star Ocean Imperium. To complete such giant architecture required a huge amount of spiritual energy and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures.

Since the Star Ocean Imperium had established such an advanced star beacon in this place, the very world here must’ve been of great significance!

As a multipurpose exploration starship, Sparkle boasted a lot of different probe magical equipment. Li Yao’s spiritual threads extended into the mainframe crystal processor and started sensing the basic conditions of the world.

“Ho!”

After wandering in an infertile wasteland for over a month, Li Yao felt like a mouse which had fallen into a tank of rice now that he’d arrived in a new world.

This was indeed a prosperous world. Although Sparkle was quite a distance away from the star, the spiritual waves nearby were still very intense.

Sparkle had hardly begun searching when it detected several clusters of cosmic dusts and cosmic storms with abundant spiritual energy.

However…

The spiritual energy of this particular world was too abundant, to the extent that one might say it was chaotic.

Yes, chaotic!

Something must’ve happened to the world before. Sparkle failed to detect many stable planets but had found a lot of stone belts, garbage belts, and world fragments.

It appeared that more than half the worlds here had been blown to pieces a long time ago.

Half a day later, steering Sparkle, Li Yao flew toward some coordinates where metal reactions were extraordinarily intense.

After flying for five days and five nights, he finally arrived at the coordinates, only to find that it was a boundless ancient battleground.

This ancient battleground was thousands of times larger than the ancient battleground remnants in orbit around Boneyard. Li Yao couldn’t see the edge of the battleground despite his remarkable sight. It was like an ocean of remnants.

Warship remnants that were riddled with holes, battered star fortresses, broken limbs of crystal suits and Cultivators, and countless lackluster metals and bone scraps were all floating in the dark space, silently displaying the results of the bloody, violent war thousands of years ago.

But this was just one of the ancient battlegrounds in this world.

The probe magical equipment of Sparkle had detected another dozen locations closer to the center of the constellation which were sending out similar metal reactions. Judging from the distance and the intensity of reactions, those remnants were of similar scale to the one that he was in.

“It seems that our deduction was correct. This world used to be an important military base of the Star Ocean Imperium. But during the ‘Armageddon Rebellion’, an unprecedented battle broke out. Billions of Cultivators and rebelling demonic Cultivators were engaged in furious combat nearby. Maybe, the few worlds nearby were involved, too. The constellation we are in right now was entirely blown up and stirred into chaos,” Li Yao mumbled.

Then he was excited again. Rubbing his fits, he exclaimed, “But it couldn’t be better for us! With so many ancient battleground relics, we can always find materials that are of use to us, even though most of the magical equipment and starships have been wrecked! Together with the abundant spiritual energy, it should be enough for us to further modify and strengthen Sparkle!”

Before Mo Xuan and the others could respond, red lights were suddenly blinking inside the cockpit. Broadcasting rune arrays were sending out urgent warnings.

“Intense spiritual waves detected!”

“Activities of intellectual creatures detected!”

Li Yao’s eyes were immediately shining. The speed of his hands was brought up to a whole new level as he triggered the probe magical equipment.

He found that the center of the relic was wreathed in a cluster of vague grey mist, which made it looked like a round eggshell.

Around the grey mist, there were a lot of traces that looked like capillaries, a clear sign that the solidarity of the grey mist was being disturbed by many objects which had been flying in and out.

“It’s a world fragment. A fairly large one!”

Li Yao was greatly interested.

A world fragment was originally part of an intact world. They only came into being because of the collapse of the mother world they were in. The natural laws that made them exist were completely different from those of the intact worlds. They could stay stable even though they were only dozens of kilometers in diameter, with air, sunlight, water, and everything necessary for the survival of human beings.

“Excellent!”

Li Yao licked his lips and swallowed.

Although he had a much stronger body than ordinary people as a Cultivator, he still couldn’t wait to enjoy some fresh air after breathing the recycled air inside Sparkle for such a long time.

However, one could never be too prudent. As a ‘vulture’ born and raised in a magical equipment graveyard, Li Yao wouldn’t overestimate the integrity of certain human beings.

The chaotic environment of the world should be enough to prove that the surviving human beings here wouldn’t be the most lenient persons in the universe.

For a moment, a familiar feeling suddenly occurred to Li Yao.

“This world is crumbled and chaotic, messed up with large areas of ancient battleground relics and countless invaluable garbage. Isn’t this a universe-level ‘magical equipment graveyard’?

“Let’s see what kind of treasure we can dig out in this place!”

Li Yao smiled confidently and said to Mo Xuan, “Now that signs of living creatures have been detected, let’s carry out the ‘infiltration’ plan!”

Li Yao raised his right hand and pressed his index finger and middle finger to his forehead above his spiritual root. He muttered spells as his Cosmos Ring glittered.

“Shua!”

A weird scene took place!

His body was suddenly enveloped in a black and red glow. The flowing brightness span and tied him up. One third of a second later, the brightness had been entirely consolidated.

The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit covered him!

This was a secret art to retrieve a crystal suit from a Cosmos Ring in the era of the Star Ocean Imperium.

In the past, after Li Yao had retrieved his crystal suit, he would have to open it with his telepathic thoughts, turn around, and walk into it; the entire process would take more than five seconds.

If he was engaged with a super expert, he would’ve been blown to pieces before he was able to put on his crystal suit.

But if he were to wear his crystal suit all the time, not only would it consume a lot of spiritual energy, the likelihood of him being exposed would also greatly increase, not to mention that he wouldn’t be able to fit in many tight spaces such as the cockpit of an armed shuttle.

However, with the secret art of the Star Ocean Imperium, he would be able to put on his crystal suit within one tenth second when he was more familiar with it.

It was only one of the twenty or so secret arts recorded in Senior Gao Xingce’s journal.

The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit at this moment had undergone tremendous changes compared with previously, too.

Large quantities of silver bones, ancient magical equipment scraps, and flesh and blood harvested from Skeleton Dragon had been integrated into the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.

Together with Mo Xuan and the ‘Four Kings’ who had spent their entire lives studying the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, a lot of strengthening and modification plans had been formulated after the sparking collisions of their wisdom.

Right now, the surface of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit had been strengthened by a lot of silver bones, which had significantly improved its defense ability.

Li Yao had also torn off a lot of tusks from the giant skulls on Skeleton Dragon’s arms. After mixing them with the scraps of ancient magical equipment, he’d refined them into headbutting horns and combat thorns and added them to the elbows, knees, helmet, and shoulders of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.

As for Skeleton Dragon’s flesh and blood, which were surprisingly tensile, they had been used to fill the gaps of joints and the interior of the crystal suit.

The materials were the best buffer that could even dissipate the enemy’s strike to every part of the body.

With the ‘Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining’ technique which endowed Li Yao with impressive defense ability, Li Yao was confident that he could grit his teeth and hold back a Core Formation Stage Cultivator’s full-strength strike should he suffer one!

Chapter 440: First Contact

Crack! Crack!

Five sharp talons stuck out of the left arm, which had been refined out of silver bones and scraps of the ancient magical equipment. It had an air of the brutality and bloodthirst of the demon beasts as well as a vintage and ancient aura.

Their hardness, strength, flexibility, and spiritual energy conductivity were dozens of times higher than those of common super alloys.

With a telepathic thought from Li Yao, the sharp talons started vibrating at a high frequency, triggering purple electric arcs and blue fire, whose brightness consolidated into almost a real thing. The damage of his attack would be five times stronger than before when he performed the Purple Electric Blue Fire Claw Art.

He unsheathed the Boiled Blood Wind Slashing Saber with his right hand. The crimson body of the saber seemed very similar to before. But there were rounds of ripples caused by runes on it right now.

Li Yao waved his saber. After a ‘shua’ sound, the body of the saber split into dozens of sections like a spine. Each section was connected to the next one by Skeleton Dragon’s transparent flesh that was as thin as a hair. Under the surging spiritual energy, the saber extended to almost a hundred meters long, dancing and circling him like a bizarre boa that was baring its fangs.

The attack range of the strengthened Boiled Blood Wind Slashing Saber had been expanded to a hundred square meters. Multiple attack modes were added, and the attack angles were much more unpredictable!

As for Li Yao’s favorite Triple-headed Six-barrel Vulcan Machine Gun, its barrels had been significantly improved, too. More importantly, since many silver bones and scraps of ancient magical equipment had been too broken to be reorganized, Li Yao had refined them into special silver bullets and sealed Skeleton Dragon’s intense demonic energy into them, before performing the Blood Baptism by mixing the blood from his fingertip, the tip of his tongue, and from his heart with his telepathic thought!

Once the bullets were triggered, he would be able to control them fully at his will. They were like countless tiny flying swords that would go anywhere that he wanted.

The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit which had been comprehensively upgraded was both gruesome and murderous, and in every way intimidating. If it were in the Heaven’s Origin Sector, its specifications would be as good as those of Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators’ super crystal suits, if not better.

Other than that, Mo Xuan had also conducted a lot of modifications on the crystal processor of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit and remotely docked it to the mainframe crystal processor of Sparkle.

Within a certain range, Li Yao could control Sparkle with his telepathic thoughts even if he was not in it.

Even though Li Yao was distances away from Sparkle, as long as they were on the same world without too much interference, they would be able to construct a communication channel and contact each other.

A silver brightness was flowing slowly among the gaps of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit which was part of the mustard-level maintainers. Li Yao carried them with him for the simple maintenance work.

Li Yao also stored a lot of silver bones, scraps of ancient magical equipment, and Skeleton Dragon’s flesh inside his Cosmos Ring. He would be able to complete more complicated modifications when the actual situation demanded.

Li Yao, at this moment, was truly armed to the teeth.

Yet, he was not satisfied yet. He touched his forehead with his two fingers again. A lot of additional components appeared on the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.

These were the plug-ins that they had refined based on the mechanism of the Ares Extension, but they didn’t provide any extra abilities at all; they were just a layer of camouflage.

In a moment, the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit was covered in a layer of ragged, broken plate armor. Many parts of it were rusted as if they had been deeply corroded by something.

Whoever saw the crystal suit would be given the impression that it would crumble in the very next second.

Li Yao scanned his appearance with crystal cameras and nodded in satisfaction. Then, he reached a cabin in the center of the starship.

A long-prepared oval escape capsule was waiting patiently. Its shell was full of dints that were clearly the result of a shower of small meteorites, indicating that it had gone through a protracted, perilous journey.

“After I take off, you just hide in the depths of the ancient battleground and cover the surface of Sparkle with the ragged remnants nearby. Try to conceal Sparkle and yourselves!

“There are thousands of remnants of starships in this place. Hiding here is like placing a pebble in a riverbed. Nobody will notice anything abnormal at all.

“You can also explore the ancient relics and search for valuable remnants, but take care of yourselves. Safety first!

“If there’s anything wrong on my side, I will reach out to you and you can reinforce me as soon as possible.”

Li Yao crawled into the escape capsule after issuing his instructions to Mo Xuan and the rest of them.

It was a plan they’d settled on after lengthy discussions. When they came across a new world of Cultivators, Li Yao and Sparkle would part with each other and start their respective operations until the details of the new world had been figured out.

Sparkle was too large in size, after all. The starship was two hundred meters long. It was but millet compared to the vast universe. However, it would be quite a conspicuous target within the atmosphere. Somebody would definitely notice it.

If strong forces that boasted one or even more Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators resided in the planet, Sparkle would be like walking right into a trap.

If Li Yao were alone, the target would be much smaller, and he would be able to do whatever he wanted freely.

Once he was caught in any danger, Sparkle would be his trump card to reverse the situation.

“Rest assured. We’ll definitely make Sparkle stronger than now while you’re away!”

Professor Mo Xuan grinned.

Li Yao smiled. Triggering his telepathic thoughts, he activated his escape capsule, which slid out of Sparkle and dived into the world fragment enveloped in the grey fog.

Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!

The sixteen miniature power rune arrays around the escape capsule spurted thin air currents. Steering the vehicle delicately, Li Yao avoided the remnants by a close margin.

However, he would crash into a remnant or two on purpose, leaving new hollows on the shell of the escape capsule to make it more like an authentic one.

When he approached the grey fog, he even crashed into an extremely sharp remnant, which produced a giant hole on the escape capsule and caused all the air to leak outside.

Therefore, he had a perfect reason to be wearing a crystal suit.

The escape capsule dashed into the grey fog and landed toward the world fragment.

…

Mu Ping grunted. He swallowed many times but finally failed to hold it in. A mouthful of black blood was vomited out.

His helmet was immediately filled with an intense stink of blood.

“We are screwed. Even the mercenary Exos that we hired have been killed miserably. What can the shrimps in town do?”

Mu Peng was desperate.

He was in his sixties. The interconnected scars on his haggard face were scary, but they also made apparent his seniority on the battlefield.

But right now, it was not the flames of determination that were burning in Mu Ping’s eyes, but the deepest fear.

In front of him, in a continuous plateau of metal, more than ten Exos were besieging a big fellow dozens of meters long, launching futile attacks nonstop.

A few other Exos were crying wretchedly amongst the heap of garbage in broken crystal suits.

Several other Exos were dead quiet. Blood was flowing out of their crystal suits. There was no telling whether they were alive or dead.

The big fellow… looked like a crab, only countless times larger and completely made of rocks. Many key body parts were emitting dull, metallic lights.

Spiral stripes were growing on its shell. Traces of weird runes could still be found in the stripes.

It was even carrying a double-headed crystal cannons on its back.

The giant crab looked like a hybrid of a demon beast and a machine. It seemed to be a devil from the bloody hell appearing in the human world!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The crystal cannon on the back of the giant crab was apparently much more life-threatening than the long-range magical equipment of the Exos. Every time it opened fire, three to five people would be blown away.

In a flurry, many other Exos were snatched by the fearsome pincers of the crab. After cracking sounds, some of their body parts would be cut off from their bodies!

The town is doomed! Mu Ping thought painfully. But he opened his eyes wide and roared. Holding his chainsword which had run out of spiritual energy, he charged forward again.

Right then, a thunder rumbled in the sky. A cluster of brightness that was hundreds of times more dazzling than falling stars precisely hit the center of the battleground, resulting in a crater several meters deep and raising countless broken stones and metal scraps like blossom. The battlefield was immediately shrouded in smoke.

The Exos and the demon beast were all taken aback. The bloody battlefield was immediately caught in an awkward silence.

“What is this?”

“A broken escape capsule?”

Li Yao kicked open the door of the capsule which was already deformed. His crystal camera immediately captured the demon crab which was waving its enormous pincers. He frowned.

To pretend that he had been drifting in the sea of stars and only fell into the world fragment by accident, Li Yao gave up the control of power rune arrays after he broke into the grey fog and simply allowed the escape capsule to fall freely, driven by gravity.

He had not expected that he would end up in the center of a battleground.

The crystal camera of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit glanced over everyone on the spot.

Li Yao studied the crystal suits that the Exos were wearing with the eyes of a professional.

He discovered that, although the crystal suits were all different models, they were in an equally clumsy style. They were more than 2.5 meters, with too thick plate armor and too crudely-connected joints. They did not look like crystal suits specialized for combat, but suits that had been meddled with to add engineering magical equipment.

Are you kidding me? This world is so luxury as to equip the engineering workers with crystal suits?

Also, why can I not feel the tiniest hint of spiritual energy from those Exos? They can cover up their spiritual energy so skillfully that they are alike to ordinary people?

That can’t be right. Quite a few of them are lying on the ground. This is the critical moment of a battle. It’s time to burn one’s soul and detonate one’s spiritual seed. Who would conceal their capability at such time?

The demon beast behind him gave him a big surprise, too.

It was not because the demonic energy of the crab was too immense, but because of the double-headed crystal cannon on its back!

The crystal cannon had been refined in a style that was different to any piece of magical equipment Li Yao had ever seen. The barrel was narrow and long, surrounded by countless sharp thorns, giving out an air of doubtless evilness. One look at it was enough to filled one’s heart with fear.

A hybrid of a demon beast and a piece of magical equipment? What is this?

Li Yao had been thinking of concealing his capability before he figured out what was going on.

But right now, it seemed impossible because the giant crab was greatly shocked by the suddenly appearance of the escape capsule. Apparently infuriated by the intruder, it charged at Li Yao and stabbed Li Yao with its pincers covered in sharp thorns, while layers of wave-like redness appeared on its iron shell!

Chapter 441: Flying Star Sector

Before the pincers reached him, an invisible wave of air stirred up Li Yao’s surroundings. The turbulence covered Li Yao like an impregnable net.

In the meantime, the double-head crystal cannon on the back of the giant crab emitted weird redness, too. Spiritual waves were condensing in the depths of the barrels. The frequency and wavelength were totally different from the hundreds of spiritual energy condensing methods that Li Yao had seen before; the spiritual waves he was witnessing at this moment were much more shrill, furious, and unstable.

After a single glance, Li Yao’s mind was already greatly disturbed. All kinds of dark feelings were popping up inside his brain weirdly.

Li Yao showed no expression. His eyeballs were rolling at a high speed as he captured every movement of the giant crab.

This was his very first battle in a foreign constellation, and he didn’t want to end it so quickly. Instead, he was planning to analyze the crab to get more information about this particular constellation.

“The guy is doomed!”

Mu Ping and the other Exos were back to themselves. Seeing that the unfamiliar Exo in tatty armor standing dumbly in front of a demon beast doing nothing but watching its pincers waving at him, they all thought that he was a rookie or that he had a brain concussion because of the huge impact when the escape capsule hit the land, and therefore exclaimed in shock.

They had no doubt that the blundering Exo would be cut in half by the crab’s pincers in the very next second!

Swoosh!

Li Yao retreated quickly, leaving grey blurred shadows behind him. The seemingly broken crystal suit was actually performing small-scale dodging movements at an unbelievable speed. Although the pincers of the crab were smashing crazily, they couldn’t touch the swiftly jumping Li Yao.

“Such impressive speed!”

“The movements are so delicate! No gap is wasted, not even a millimeter!”

“The guy is not influenced by the air turbulence at all. How skilled he must be at manipulating the power rune arrays!”

“He must be a Cultivator, and a very strong one! Chances are that—he is in the high level of the Refinement Stage!”

“You must be kidding. His capability is apparently even higher than the experts that we hired. He can’t be just in the high level of the Refinement Stage. At the very least, he must be in the peak of the Refinement Stage!”

Everyone’s eyes were bulging wide, including Mu Ping’s. They had seen experts before, but none of the self-proclaimed experts who were obviously more talkers than doers had such unpredictable movements and delicate dodging abilities!

“Hiss!”

The crab’s dozens of smashes all missed their target, which made it more infuriated than ever. Its entire shell turned crimson. The double-headed crystal cannon on its back blew out two clusters of raging redness which split into some twenty streaks and darted at Li Yao from different angles in weird curves.

“Is this everything you can do?

“Not as good as I expected!

“Although you look intimidating and even carry a piece of magical equipment on your back, your attack pattern is too monotonous. Every one of your attacks has been in fixed routes as if they were following a set pattern. You are even more useless than the demon beasts of the Heaven’s Origin Sector!”

Coldness blinked in Li Yao’s eyes. He put on a cruel smile casually and sprinted through four streaks of redness. The Boiled Blood Wind Slashing Saber was extended abruptly, circling him and withstanding another seven streaks. Eventually, he dodged the siege of the two incoming pincers at a close distance and reached the front of the crab.

CRACK!

The Boiled Blood Wind Slashing Saber stabbed deep into the crab’s eyes. Li Yao burnt the power of his soul furiously. Spiritual energy in bright gold was dancing around his body like flames. The aura on his saber was instantly triggered to twenty meters long, which pierced through the crab’s body out of its back and minced all its weak internal organs hiding behind the solid shell into pieces!

Shua!

Li Yao withdrew his saber and danced in the air to dodge the last three streaks of redness. Landing softly, he shook off the blood stain on his saber. Then he sheathed his saber and walked to the bystanders without looking back.

BOOM!

Behind him, the crab was still trying to wave its pincers. Struggling for three seconds, it finally collapsed to the ground. The pincers were twitching, and the crystal cannon dangled helplessly.

The Exos were so shocked that their jaws were nearly touching the ground.

One attack!

One attack was enough to slay the demon beast which was about to destroy the entire town!

The erratic movements, the ghost-like dodging, and the ferocious saber art were actually performed by a battered crystal suit which could break any second!

Who exactly was this super Exo that had fallen from the sky with such brutal skills?

Cold sweat was dripping off everyone’s foreheads. They were frozen and didn’t even dare to blink their eyes.

This mysterious Exo walked to the middle of them. A bright gold hexagon appeared on the helmet of the crystal suit, before the facial cover split into six petals and retreated, unveiling a face that was almost too young.

There were low exclamations in the crowed, which were immediately shut by biting their lips. Deep reverence appeared in their eyes.

Mu Ping’s heart was not peaceful, either. However, he had no other choice except to walk forward and bow respectfully. “Master, if I may ask…”

Beyond his expectation, the face of this ‘master’ was twitching violently with a baffled expression. The eyes of the newcomer seemed to be covered in two clusters of grey mist, and there was no telling what he was actually thinking about.

Then he mumbled, “What… is this place?

“Who… am I?”

“Huh?”

Everybody looked at each other in bewilderment.

…

Half a day later, in Black Iron Town at the other end of the garbage plateau…

This was a town with a population of several thousand. It was located in the center of dozens of endless garbage hills that were hundreds of meters high. There was nothing but glittering metal wreckages as far as one’s eyes could see.

Black Iron Town was itself almost exclusively built on debris.

All the houses had been constructed using the remnants of starships. Fleet emblems and numbers that were all mottled could be found on the walls of many buildings.

The streets of the town were made of starships’ floors, too. They were all different colors as if patches piled up together.

On the two sides of the streets grew a lot of tall trees. But with a closer look, one would notice that the so-called ‘trees’ were actually vines which were climbing on the rebar, crystal tubes, and crystal wires on the starships. They brought greenness to the desolate town.

At this moment, almost every household was working out of the town, dissecting the great crab dozens of meters long merrily.

A simple examination had suggested that the big fellow had no poison whatsoever and contained enough spiritual energy and nutrition to fill a lot of people’s stomachs.

For the residents who lived in an austere world fragment and always tricked their mouths with recycled food, this was rarely-seen delicious food worthy of feasting upon.

They were also particularly excellent food ingredients for the few brawny fighters and Cultivators to help them with their training.

On the street, a few children with running noses and naked bottoms were wearing thin steel clothing connected by crystal wires and pretended it to be a crystal suit as they brayed and played with each other with abandoned air transmission tubes.

“Ho. ‘Lightning Man’ Zhao Xiaobao, the best Exo of the Flying Star Sector, is here! Take my Lightning Sword!”

“Hehe. I, Wang Tiehu, am the best Exo of the Flying Star Sector, and I am wearing the most awesome ‘Angry God Battlesuit’. Your sword won’t be able to break through it in a thousand years… Ah, no, no, I’m bleeding, I’m bleeding!”

More children, on the other hand, had gathered outside of Mayor Mu Ping’s house and peeped into it in great interest through the fence that had been built up by metal tubes.

“An awesome uncle fell from the sky!”

“He had only just landed on the ground when he put down an enormous crab!”

“Is he from the Heavenly Saints Alliance? My dad said the most brilliant Exos of the Flying Star Sector are all from the Heavenly Saints Alliance!”

Sitting below the roof, Li Yao accepted the respect of the little children somewhat embarrassedly.

There was a fully-automatic spiritual energy water cleaner that had been dismantled from a starship. It could put twenty-one flavors into the water by adjusting the vibration frequency.

Right now, it was set to the green tea flavor. The air was filled with a vague scent of freshness.

Amnesia was his best disguise. On one hand, he was saved the trouble of explaining his identity; on the other hand, if he was engaged with formidable enemies, there would be more room for him to act.

Therefore, Li Yao ‘forgot everything’ except for his own name.

But the actual situation seemed to indicate that he had worried too much.

This world fragment was at the edge of the constellation. Although it was fairly large, there was only one town with a population of several thousand. There were no strong experts here. Even Mu Ping, mayor of the town, was only in the middle level of the Refinement Stage.

Li Yao left a deep impression on everybody by slaying the giant crab with one slash. Therefore, he didn’t meet too much trouble in getting along with them.

Despite his suspicious claim that he couldn’t remember anything, Mu Ping and the rest of the folks did not dare to make light of him. They invited him into town respectfully and explained the basic situation of this constellation for him at his request.

Li Yao’s speculation proved to be correct. The world here was named ‘Flying Star Sector’. Since the environment here used to be very favorable for a lot of rare metals and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, this place had been an important base of the Star Ocean Imperium ten thousand years ago. Quite a few crystal suit refining centers, research institutes, and universities had been established here.

In order to protect the crystal suit manufacturers as well as the experts and specialists, a large fleet of starships had been based in the Flying Star Sector, too.

After the ‘Hundred-Million Lightyears Expedition’ took away seventy percent of the troops of the Star Ocean Imperium, the Flying Star Sector had in effect become one of the most important strategical establishments in the rear.

Therefore, after the outbreak of ‘Armageddon Rebellion’, the army of demonic Cultivators corrupted by the extraterrestrial devils and the remnant demons collaborated to assault the Flying Star Sector without warning.

The alliance of the demonic Cultivators and the demons was engaged in a protracted fierce battle with the army of Cultivators who were loyal to the Supreme Emperor and mankind. The Flying Sector was turned upside down during the battle. More than half of the world collapsed and broke into smithereens.

After thousands of years of recovery, the Flying Star Sector was still an unstable place, plagued by cosmic storms, cosmic turbulence, and space garbage. The few planets that were left intact had harsh natural environments that were not suitable for the survival of mass human beings despite their atmosphere.

Therefore, different from the human civilization of the Heaven’s Origin Sector, the human civilization of the Flying Star Sector was actually not rooted on a planet, or a fairly-large and even boundless world fragment; mankind in the Flying Star Sector lived in small world fragments, starships, and star fortresses and roamed the sea of stars. Theirs was a brand-new space civilization!

Chapter 442: Chaotic Constellation

“This is the basic situation of the Flying Star Sector. The planets relatively larger all have extremely harsh environments. Either boundless deserts, surging oceans, or highlands with ragged mountains more than five thousand meters tall.

“The air of such planets often contains all kinds of impurities, if they have air at all. Ordinary people and low-level Cultivators find it barely possible to survive. Some ordinary people decided to live and procreate in such planets, only to experience various mutations and end up nothing like humans. We space residents call them the barbarians.

“Only the high-level Cultivators land on the planets occasionally to obtain rare materials or hunt demon beasts.

“Most people prefer to live in the sea of stars.

“Take us for example. Our town is in the periphery of the Flying Star Sector and based in this small fragment. Although I wouldn’t say it is prosperous, there are quite a lot of ancient battlegrounds nearby where we can excavate valuable items to trade for food and other daily necessities with other towns. Life here is not the most comfortable, but we can make do with it.

“Cultivation sects, on the other hand, prefer to live in starships. The headquarters of a sect are often located in a giant starship carrier. A large batch of cruisers and destroyers that are less aggressive will be their branches. When all the starships go out together, it can be quite a splendid scene.

“What I was talking about is the sects that are relatively smaller in size. For the top ten sects of the Flying Star Sector, their headquarters are often a super-large star fortress!

“Such star fortresses were originally the ultimate weapons of the Star Ocean Imperium. After the sects retrieved them, they spent thousands of years gathering new usable debris and materials which they affixed to their star fortresses to enlarge them. Eventually, the star fortresses have become colossal cities in space that can accommodate millions of people and even more!

“Several ultra-strong super sects simply emptied some smaller planets and their satellites before carving extraordinarily large power rune arrays that can be hundreds of square kilometers on their surfaces. Then, such sects built the planets and satellites into their headquarters and all their disciples have been living inside!”

Mu Ping said with a smile, “Master Li Yao, I don’t think that your remarkable combat skills are self-taught. You must be a disciple from one of the major sects. Something went wrong, perchance an assault of the space pirates. You escaped the disaster and somehow ended up here.

“You might as well settle yourself in Black Iron Town first. Then, you can try to recover your memories while you train yourself. When there is a chance, we will ask around to see if any Cultivation sects’ transportation teams have passed by us recently. It’s very likely that you belong to the sect.”

Li Yao nodded his head, showing neither approval nor disapproval. However, something Mu Ping said aroused his interest and he pursued further, “What are space pirates? Thieves in the sea of stars?”

Mu Ping did not doubt Li Yao’s authenticity. In his eyes, Li Yao was way above himself and had absolutely no need to cheat country folks such as them. He replied frankly, “Space pirates are one of the three hazards of the Flying Star Sector.

“Our Flying Star Sector was a crucial battleground ten thousand years ago. Therefore, the entire constellation is brimming with war wreckages.

“Those wreckages are inexhaustible treasuries for us.

“What’s more, most people live in world fragments, starships, and star fortresses which are, in effect, lone islands in a vast ocean.

“All factors considered, free trade in space is of paramount importance for us.

“Some star fortresses can’t produce food, some world fragments are in lack of certain Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, and some starships need to change their air circulation system regularly… The demands have encouraged very prosperous space trade. There are countless trade routes.

“Take Black Iron Town for example. Although we are far from the center of the sector, we still have to go out and participate in several fairs to exchange for things we need every year.

“As the scale of the trade grew, naturally, some bad, strong guys decided that killing and stealing were more suitable for them.

“At first, they might have had good reasons. For example, a starship of a certain sect encountered a meteorite cascade and cosmic storm and was almost blown to pieces. Perhaps it was in desperate need of certain goods, but it had lost all its resources to trade for them. In the emergency, they might have been grabbed by devastation and decided to rob someone else of what they needed.

“But later, those people tasted the fun in it. They turned from amateurs into professional space pirates. After all, the conditions of the Flying Star Sector couldn’t be more suitable for them. They could simply hide in a random stone belt after each job and nobody would ever be able to find them!

“And now, the influence of the space pirates is growing stronger and stronger. The several kitties in the beginning have now evolved into more than ten infamous gangs.

“As for the smaller space pirate gangs and the space pirates who prefer to run solo, there are simply too many of them to count!

“Even some business caravans which are made of conspicuously legal merchants and behave obediently in the trade spots garrisoned by strong Cultivators will often cut off the communication of a starship much weaker than theirs when they run into one in the desolate sea of stars and loot whatever is on the captured starship secretly. It is not unusual at all.”

Li Yao’s face turned extremely weird as he listened to Mu Ping’s words.

Cultivation sects could disgrace themselves so much as to live on robbery?

It was something inconceivable in the Heaven’s Origin Sector.

The most scandalous Cultivators might play dirty moves on other Cultivators for their own interest. But would they ever rob ordinary people?

They would kill themselves before they did that because it was considered a public humiliation.

The Flying Star Sector was indeed a world of chaos!

“You just mentioned ‘one of the three hazards’. What are the other two hazards other than space pirates?” Asked Li Yao calmly.

Although the spiritual energy in the Flying Star Sector was much more abundant than that in the Heaven’s Origin Sector, the situation here was much more messed-up. It was best to get a big picture of everything so that he could be prepared for whatever was to come.

Mu Ping counted his fingers and said, “The second hazard is the demon beasts.

“There are no powerful demon forces in the Flying Star Sector except for the occasionally-seen demon beasts. However, those demon beasts are all offspring of the alliance of the demon race and the demonic Cultivators. They have inherited some secret arts of their ancestors which allow them to meld their bodies with the magical equipment left by the demonic Cultivators!

“The big crab that you killed is precisely one such demon beast.

“As to how they are melded with the magical equipment, we don’t have the slightest clue. We only know that the beasts will lurk in meteorites and drift in the sea of stars looking for the scent of human beings.

“Black Iron Town was unfortunate to have been detected by the beast when we were collecting the remnants of the starships. It then followed our scent and made its way here. Thankfully, Master Li Yao came in time. Otherwise, the entire town would’ve been slaughtered.”

Li Yao was dazed for a moment. He didn’t know that the eccentric double-headed crystal cannon was made by the demonic Cultivators. No wonder the way that its spiritual energy took shape was completely different to the appearance of spiritual energy from Cultivators’ magical equipment; it was much more brutal, ferocious, and malevolent.

He would definitely spend some time studying it when he had a spare minute!

Mu Ping paused briefly and then continued.

“The third hazard is, obviously, the demonic Cultivators!

“The Flying Star Sector was one of the main battlegrounds of the ‘Armageddon Rebellion’. Countless corpses of the demonic Cultivators were left in this place. Perhaps that’s the reason demonic Cultivators have a special interest in our sector.

“Also, because of the disordered environment, many wavering Cultivators are often tempted by the extraterrestrial devils and transformed into demonic Cultivators.

“There are even cases where the Cultivators of an entire starship were turned into demonic Cultivators and the vehicle they were taking became a ‘satanic warship’.

“For ordinary people and low-level Cultivators such as myself, if we are caught by the ‘befallen fiends’, there would be absolutely nothing we can do except to close our eyes and wait for our death.

“But thankfully, the appearance of demon beasts or demonic Cultivators is highly unlikely. It is extremely improbable for us to run into one. In comparison, the likelihood of the space pirates’ visits is much higher. That’s why space pirates are listed first and foremost on the list of hazards in the Flying Star Sector!”

Deep in thought, Li Yao nodded his head. But excitement was beaming out of his eyes.

Demonic Cultivators…

They were brand new enemies for him.

The biggest threat to the Heaven’s Origin Sector was the Blood Demon Sector. News about demonic Cultivators was rare. Li Yao had once run into a mediocre demonic Cultivator named Zheng Dongming. However, the guy had to wag his tail and did not dare to reveal his true identity.

But as it turned out, demonic Cultivators were one of the major hazards in the Flying Star Sector. How interesting!

Pondering for a moment, Li Yao asked, “If the three hazards are causing so much damage, how has the government been handling them?”

Mu Ping was startled. He blurted out, “Government? What government?”

Li Yao was startled, too. He scratched his head and frowned.

“The national government. The army. Are they taking any measures against the three hazards?”

Mu Ping stared at him for a long time, as if he had said the most hilarious thing in the world. After a long while, he shook his head and said, “There hasn’t been a nation in the Flying Star Sector for thousands of years! A starship represents a Cultivation sect. The Cultivation sects are scattered everywhere in the constellation and rely on the debris of ancient battlegrounds and the world fragments to provide supplies. The concept of a nation is highly redundant.”

Li Yao raised his eyebrows.

He had read in the text books that, before the Star Glory Federation was established, the Heaven’s Origin Sector was in an anarchistic state where all the sects minded their own business in a disorganized manner.

He didn’t expect for the Flying Star Sector to be still in such a state right now.

However, it seemed to be pretty plausible on second thought.

After all, most of the spiritual energy and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures in the Heaven’s Origin Sector congregated in one planet which only had one main continent.

In such a case, the Cultivation sects tended to bond and form a nation when they were faced with the threat of a common foe.

In comparison, the Cultivation sects of the Flying Star Sector were scattered in the sea of stars. Each of them could get their own supplies from the ancient debris. It was pretty understandable that a unified nation and a central government did not exist.

After Mu Ping’s explanations, Li Yao finally learnt that most people living in the Flying Star Sector paid taxes to and did business with selected Cultivation sects in exchange for their protection. When they were threatened by the three hazards such as a space pirate assault, they could send distress calls to the Cultivation sect they had chosen and ask for their help.

In order to suppress the space pirates and ensure the safety of the trade routes between different sects, a lot of high bounties had been declared, resulting in the ever-appearing unaffiliated Cultivators and hunters who chased and preyed on space pirates, demon beasts, and demonic Cultivators in the sea of stars for the generous rewards.

Chapter 443: Heavenly Saints City

Generally speaking, the Flying Star Sector was more chaotic than the Heaven’s Origin Sector, but it was freer. The Cultivation sects here had more power, too. They were in effect the miniature governments in this world.

Li Yao thought of something and asked, “Then, which sect does Black Iron Town belong to?”

Mu Ping smiled, somewhat embarrassedly, and said, “Black Iron Town does not belong to any sect.”

As it turned out, Black Iron Domain, the world fragment that Black Iron Town was located in, was at the edge of the Flying Star Sector, surrounded by dangerous stone belts and cosmic storms and haunted by spiritual tides. Sailing in this area would consume a lot of resources.

Although there was an ancient battleground here, it was one of the relics that had been developed in the earliest years. After thousands of years of exploitation, the key components and precious Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures had been drained a long time ago. What was left were nothing but broken remnants riddled with holes or empty starship shells. For high-level Cultivators, they were not of much value.

This was a typical backward village. None of the big sects thought highly of the place. Even sending a large starship to establish a ‘branch’ here was a waste of time and resources in their eyes.

Previously, a small sect named ‘Trinity Sect’ had been stationed in this place. But it was quite unlucky that a cosmic storm struck them when their leader was advancing to a higher level in seclusion. Two of the three starships of the sect had been blown into smithereens. The leader of the sect had been so irked that his breakthrough was disturbed, leading to his mental derangement and eventually his death.

The survivors of the disaster were far from enough to run a sect. They decided to join other big sects in the center of the constellation flying their last starship.

As a result, the dozens of world fragments and starship towns became unprotected by the sects.

Thankfully, this place was too remote and infertile. Not just the Cultivators, even the space pirates barely had any interest in it. Also, since the residents living in such harsh environments, be they low-level Cultivators or ordinary people, were all equipped with crystal suits, they were capable of protecting themselves during the assaults of small demon beasts. As long as large batches of space pirates did not invade, they would be relatively safe.

The benefit of having zero protection from Cultivation sects was that the residents did not have to pay taxes and fulfil the labor duties. The dozens of towns here traded with each other and supplied themselves with whatever they needed. Their life had been peaceful and comfortable.

The enormous crab that Li Yao had slayed had drifted to this place on a meteor. It was not a local demon beast. That was why they’d found it so tricky to deal with it.

Li Yao nodded and realized that it was very fortunate of him to land in this place.

Since there were no Cultivation sects, nobody would investigate his identity. Later, he would be able to travel in the Flying Star Sector as a resident of Black Iron Town. Unless somebody was suspicious and decided to pursue it further, his faked identity would be seamless.

However, the fact that there were no Cultivation sects meant the general knowledge of Cultivation remained insufficient in this area, which could be inferred from how everyone was addressing him.

He was merely in the middle level of the Building Foundation Stage, and yet everyone was calling him ‘Master’, as if he were one of the top Cultivators in the universe.

Although it was not unusual for Cultivators in the middle level of the Building Foundation Stage, who were considered to be the most promising persons among all Cultivators, to work as the key personnel of Cultivation sects or university professors, the gap between them and the real ‘masters’ was not negligible.

He had to get out of here as soon as possible and find the real Cultivation sects in the center of the Flying Star Sector which were more prosperous.

If he could join one of the Cultivation sects and learn the advanced Cultivation arts of the Flying Star Sector, it would be best.

Thinking about this part, Li Yao continued posing questions. “Mayor Mu, which sect is the most influential one in the Flying Star Sector?”

Hopeful brilliance beamed out of Mu Ping’s eyes as he replied with a smile, “There are almost a hundred well-known sects in the Flying Star Sector. But the biggest one of all is unquestionably the ‘Heavenly Saints Alliance’!

“The Heavenly Saints Alliance is not one sect, but the coalition of the six strongest sects of the Flying Star Sector.

“A thousand years ago, they bridged their main starships and star fortresses and built a grand, magnificent super metropolis in space named ‘Heavenly Saints City’! After a thousand years of development, Heavenly Saints City has grown larger and larger like an enormous animal devouring new starships and star fortresses.

“I’m told that Heavenly Saints City is the biggest man-made structure in the Flying Star Sector; it can accommodate tens of millions of people!

“Heavenly Saints City is not only the place where the six strongest sects of the Flying Star Sector are headquartered, but also boasts the best universities, the most advanced crystal suit refining centers, the biggest and most extravagant arenas, and the most Exo associations…

“Anyways, although the Flying Star Sector does not have a capital, Heavenly Saints City is the well-deserved center of the Flying Star Sector!

“What’s more, it is said that the high-level Cultivators have modified the interior of Heavenly Saints City tremendously, to the extent that the residents inside the city do not feel that they are floating in space at all.

“What they see are white clouds and blue sky. What they smell is fresh air. They can enjoy the beautiful landscapes such as man-made lakes, rivers, mountains, and even oceans. It is truly heaven on earth. Everyone in the Flying Star Sector yearns to live in Heavenly Saints City, even for just a month!”

Mu Ping’s face was gleaming. The interconnecting scars on his face started twitching, suggesting his intense desire.

Li Yao was quite shocked, too.

A city in space that boasted man-made oceans?

What a marvelous splendor it must be!

Heavenly Saints City! It would appear that he had his goal now.

When he arrived in Heavenly Saints City, he would be able to join the strongest Cultivation sects where he could learn the most sophisticated skills and the most advanced technologies!

Even if these Cultivation sects rejected him, according to Mu Ping, there were still universities, arenas, crystal suit refining centers, and Exo associations in Heavenly Saints City. It seemed that information regarding the magical equipment and technology of this Sector was not too confidential, and there were public forums where people could study and communicate.

If so, he could learn many things as long as he could reach Heavenly Saints City!

Li Yao swallowed so as to suppress the desire in his heart. Then he asked casually, “How far is it from here to Heavenly Saints City? What kind of procedures are there to live and study in Heavenly Saints City and even join a Cultivation sect?”

Mu Ping coughed and said, somewhat embarrassedly, “Nobody can say for sure the distance between us and Heavenly Saints City. The Flying Star Sector is a fairly large place and a very chaotic one. Many routes are often cut off by stone belts and cosmic storms. Dangerous space turbulence and swirls are not uncommon either. If a starship sails into the seemingly peaceful area, they’ll fall into the four-dimensional universe and be teleported to god knows where. In the worst cases, they might be torn apart directly.

“The point is, our starships may not be able to reach Heavenly Saints City in several years.

“Besides, Heavenly Saints City is not fixed in one place but a moving metropolis floating in the sea of stars, searching for the areas with the most abundant spiritual energy; it will fly to any place that has more resources.

“Sure, there are star beacons. But they are not prepared for country folks such as us.

“Heavenly Saints City is the holy land for all the people in the Flying Star Sector. Everyone craves to be a resident of Heavenly Saints City and will head there at whatever cost.

“Even though Heavenly Saints City is being enlarged every year, there are still too many people crowding into it.

“Five hundred years ago, orbital rings started to be built on the periphery of Heavenly Saints City to accommodate more residents. They are known as ‘star rings’.

“At first, there was one ring. Then, two rings. Currently, even the ninth ring has been filled. The tenth ring is under construction!

“Therefore, since three hundred years ago, Heavenly Saints City stopped opening to the general outsiders.

“Every year, Heavenly Saints City will propose a certain quota of population and issue corresponding residential certificates to the outsiders. To apply for a residential certificate, one must first prove that one is a qualified talent for Heavenly Saints City.”

Li Yao frowned. “And how can one prove oneself?”

Mu Ping extended two of his fingers and said, “There are two ways. The first one is to participate in the various matches hosted by Heavenly Saints City, such as Exo championships and refining competitions. The winners of the games will be entitled to enter Heavenly Saints City.

“The matches are not necessarily for Cultivators. Many of them are for ordinary people, too. For example, last year, the management of Heavenly Saints City discovered after prolonged calculations that the city was short of three hundred chefs. Therefore, a match of cooking skills was held, and the top three hundred winners were authorized to live in Heavenly Saints City even though they were just cooks.

“The second way is to accomplish certain special tasks.

“For example, a space pirate has fled to the depths of the sea of stars after committing felonies in Heavenly Saints City. The guardians of Heavenly Saints City are not able to catch him for the time being. Therefore, they may propose a bounty with additional rewards, say, the permission to live in Heavenly Saints City, besides the monetary benefits.

“However, either the matches hosted by Heavenly Saints City or the bounty tasks are usually only open to other major sects and the ordinary people under their protection. Small places like ours do not have the ticket to take part in such matches at all. On the other hand, we often miss the latest news, because we are not covered in the Spiritual Nexus. We can only learn what is going on in the outside world when we are attending kermises. It is hard for us to hear of the bounties in time.

“Therefore, although Heavenly Saints City is heaven on earth, it is but a daydream for us. Haha.”

Mu Ping smiled, bitterly and regretfully.

Li Yao scratched his hair. Kermises?

In a place filled with remnants of starships where giant light beams were hanging on the walls, kermis sounded like a pretty odd word.

But he didn’t pursue it further. Pondering for a moment, he reflected on what Mu Ping had just said.

It seemed that entering Heavenly Saints City would not be an easy job. But first of all, he had to move to the center of the Flying Star Sector where the news was more frequently updated. Or, he could join a random sect first in order to be qualified to participate in the matches of Heavenly Saints City.

As for what kind of matches to take part in…

In either the competitions of crystal suits or those of refining, Li Yao was confident that, even though he might not be the best in the Flying Star Sector, his skills were more than enough to earn him a place in Heavenly Saints City.

Ten of millions of people lived in Heavenly Saints City. A vast majority of them must be ordinary people. Li Yao didn’t believe that he would be worse than them.

Suddenly, Li Yao thought of something that Mu Ping just mentioned. Confusion clear on his face, he asked, “Mayor Mu, you just said that every household in this area has crystal suits… But from what I’ve seen, there are not many Cultivators in the town. Then, who are the people wearing the crystal suits?”

Chapter 444: Skill Card

Confused, Mu Ping blinked his eyes and asked, “What do you mean, Master Li? Our crystal suits are not specialized combat suits but are modified based on engineering suits and farming suits. They don’t require Cultivators to wear. It is our country folks who have been using them.

“There are only four Cultivators in Black Iron Town. I am the strongest one of all, although I am merely in the middle level of the Refinement Stage. That’s why I was elected as the mayor.

“This place is poor and underdeveloped, not something that young people with talent in Cultivation are particularly fond of. Most of them leave their hometown and make their living in bigger world fragments or starship towns. Young people want what is best for themselves. It’s hard for us to say no. Therefore, the only Cultivators in town are the few old fellows like me, who have endured a lot of setbacks and haven’t accomplished anything remarkable over the dozens of years of travelling outside. Now that we are old and our capability is unlikely to grow, retiring and resuming our old lives in our hometown is a better option for us. We quite enjoy it.”

Li Yao was confused and startled. He could guess a thing or two about engineering crystal suits, but what were farming crystal suits? Did farmers in this place till the land in crystal suits?

It must be a joke!

Besides, ordinary people could wear crystal suits?

Li Yao’s mindset was completely reshaped.

Crystal suits were magical equipment of magical equipment. They were the ultimate weapons in the Heaven’s Origin Sector. Not just random fighters, not many low-level Cultivators had even been equipped with crystal suits before MP crystal suits were promoted.

It was partly because crystal suits were unaffordable, and partly because wearing a crystal suit required high personal abilities.

First of all, through the high-sensitivity crystal cameras and ears, a crystal suit could gather a huge amount of information within a moment and pour it down into the brain of the Exo. The computational ability of the ordinary people was far from enough to handle it.

Secondly, combat with a crystal suit was a great burden for the body of the Exo. The backlash against the body resulting from accelerating to sub-sonic or even super-sonic speed instantly and halting, turning or spinning in the very next second almost equaled to a free fall from dozens of floors high.

If an ordinary person were to wear such a crystal suit, it was quite likely that, after an instantaneous acceleration, a suddenly halt, and a zigzag, their internal organs would all explode.

Not to mention that the blast of spiritual energy when the formidable attacks were carried out in a crystal suit would definitely be enough to batter the soul of an ordinary person and turn them mentally retarded.

Therefore, in the Heaven’s Origin Sector, even Li Yao as a Cultivator had to learn crazily in a special Exo training camp for quite a few months in order to familiarize himself with the skills of how to manipulate a crystal suit, let alone ordinary people.

But Mu Ping seemed to be implying that every household in the Flying Star Sector had a crystal suit and they were at full disposal of ordinary people without causing any injuries.

That was indeed incredible!

If I can learn such technology and equip every soldier of the Star Glory Federation with a crystal suit, a steel torrent of billions of crystal suits will be created. It will be as easy as pie to crush the Blood Demon Sector!

Li Yao was greatly interested.

Pondering for a moment, Li Yao realized that he wouldn’t know what the crystal suits in this place were exactly until he saw them with his own eyes. Therefore, he asked Mu Ping to bring him to check them out.

Mu Ping gladly agreed. Surrounded by dozens of children, he brought Li Yao to the outside of the town where the giant crab was being dissected.

The residents of Black Iron Town lived on the relics of an ancient battleground. They occasionally hunted down intruding demon beasts, too. Therefore, they were quite familiar with the job.

Dozens of muscled men were waving chainswords and battle axes in somewhat clumsy engineering crystal suits to cut open the solid shells. The scraps of the solid shell were then cleaned up, sanitized, put through anti-corrosive procedures, and stacked orderly.

The solid shell was one of the best materials that could be used to trade with other towns.

As for the crab meat contained inside, it was rough and hard, not readily edible. It would have to be minced and mixed with other meat and a nutrition drug, but it did have a special flavor with it. For the residents, it could almost be called delicious.

Seeing that Li Yao had arrived, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him in reverence.

Mu Ping called down a hefty, brawny guy from the back of the giant crab. Together with his thick and black crystal suit, he was almost three meters tall.

“This is Zhang Heiniu. Twenty-five years old. His Spirit Actualization Quotient has reached 85%. It’s very likely that his spiritual root will be awakened soon. His fighting skills with a crystal suit are among the best in the few towns nearby!” said Mu Ping with a smile.

Zhang Heiniu held his head high and grinned innocently, too.

“Heiniu, this master wants to see your capability. You must try your best!” informed Mu Ping.

As a remote village, Black Iron Town was not frequented by crystal suit masters. Zhang Heiniu was in high spirits the moment he heard the news. He rubbed his fists and asked the bystanders to clear the area.

Suddenly, he stomped on the ground and sprinted forward dozens of meters like a black tornado. Then he came to an abrupt halt and punched the air in front of him twice. Waves were rippling out in the air, producing rumbling thunder-like noises.

Li Yao was somewhat startled.

Zhang Heiniu’s attack was, of course, not very impressive, but it had far exceeded the limits of an ordinary person. By logic, the bones throughout his body should’ve been shattered into pieces by the immense blast.

Right then, Zhang Heiniu bellowed. His body span weirdly, bringing out an intimidating aura around him as if he were a different person. Two clusters of black air circled his arms, which were pushed forward forcefully. The black air drilled forward like a helix and blew two giant holes on a metal remnant some twenty meters away.

“This is—”

Li Yao’s eyes were almost frozen, and his mind was greatly shocked.

Such a remote attack must have a high demand on the control of the shape and trajectory of the spiritual energy, not to mention the huge cost of spiritual energy and computational ability. It was clearly a move that only Cultivators could manage. How could Zhang Heiniu carry it out as an ordinary person?

Zhang Heiniu seemed exhausted after performing the attack. He bent his body and took a moment to rest before he came back to Li Yao and said respectfully, “Master, my previous attack, ‘Black Tiger Explosion’, is supposed to hit a target at least twenty meters away. But the best I can do is reach fifteen meters however hard I train myself. I don’t know if there is something wrong with my posture or the way I exert my strength. Please do enlighten me, Master!”

Holding back the surprise in his heart, Li Yao asked Zhang Heiniu to take off his crystal suit.

Since the main livelihood of Black Iron Town came from dismantling, recycling, and modifying the remnants, there were quite a few maintenance platforms in the town. Li Yao examined this particular engineering crystal suit on an open-air maintenance platform.

“The crystal suit is not made of precious materials, just regular strengthened alloys. No wonder the crystal suit is refined in such a clumsy style. Otherwise, the demand in hardness wouldn’t be satisfied.

“The framework is quite impressive, in distinctive grassroots fashions. Simple, practical, highly-replaceable, and easy to fix. Very low requirement in maintenance skills.

“The joints of the crystal suit are quite unusual… Brilliant, truly brilliant. Even the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit can learn many things from the brand-new design of the joints!

“This is just an engineering crystal suit, and it already has so many extraordinary designs and structures. I wonder, how fabulous will the real combat crystal suits of the Flying Star Sector be?

“Huh. What are these?”

Li Yao discovered almost a hundred of rune arrays on the interior of the crystal suit that he had never seen before. Judging from the constitution and the circulation model of the rune arrays, their purpose was to buffer the blast and enhance the strength of the Exo.

It appeared that these rune arrays provided perfect protection and tremendous aid to the Exo so that the body of an ordinary person was enough to support the crystal suit.

As for information processing, Li Yao paid special attention to the crystal processor of the engineering crystal suit.

He discovered that, not only was the crystal processor added with quite a few miniature units that were new to him, there were even two small slots on it. One of them was empty, while the other one had a card inserted in it.

Li Yao took out the card with a pair of forceps.

It was a card no larger than a fingernail and less than a millimeter thick. But there were countless crystal wires on the edge of the card. It appeared that the card had been piled up by layers of extremely thin crystal membranes.

The surface of the crystal card was carved with more than twenty miniature rune arrays, which were bathed in glamourous brightness, with spiritual energy flowing vaguely.

Such a sophisticated steric rune arrays building technique!

The crystal card is only one millimeter thick, but it is actually a set of at least a hundred crystal membranes. If each of the membranes has been carved with twenty miniature rune arrays, there will be so much things that this fingernail-like crystal card can do!

Li Yao secretly paid his compliments. Then he frowned as if he were deep in thought and asked Mu Ping, “What’s the name of this? It looks rather familiar, but I can’t remember what it is called.”

“This is a skill card. I believe Master Li must’ve been using them all the time before. Of course it looks familiar.”

Mu Ping explained, “For us the low-level Cultivators and ordinary fighters, although we can complete the simple attack and defense movements in a crystal suit, the more complicated skills and the ultimate ones are tantalizing yet unachievable for us.

“But a skill card can store the ultimate moves of the high-level Cultivators. When they are inserted into a crystal suit, they will be automatically triggered. All the skills stored inside will be ready. With a telepathic thought, the crystal suit will take control of our body and let us perform the ultimate skill that we chose!”

Li Yao’s eyes bulged wide open. The Flying Star Sector was indeed a place of marvels. There were even such amazing things!

Cultivators could seal their own moves in a crystal card and let someone else to use them?

Mu Ping grinned. “The Flying Star Sector is too large a place, and the residents are scattered everywhere in the sea of stars. There are bound to be places Cultivators may not be able to attend to. Therefore, the skill cards were invented to equip the ordinary people and low-level Cultivators with their remarkable moves. The capability of the recipients is able to soar instantly.

“This skill card has been sealed with ‘Peak Fighters Luxury Bundle’ provided by ‘Ferocious Tiger Sect’. It is designed for the super experts among the regular fights and includes twenty uses of ‘Black Tiger Explosion’, five uses of ‘Tiger Devil Slash’, and one use of the extraordinarily fearsome ‘Tiger Satan Heart Piercing Barrage’. The moves have all been sealed into the cards by the elites in Ferocious Tiger Sect who spent a huge amount of their soul power sealing their telepathic thoughts. More importantly, such a skill card sells at only five thousand Flying Star dollars apiece. A marvelous item with a decent price. It is one of the most popular skill cards for Exos nearby.”

Chapter 445: Kermis Visiting

Li Yao was almost baffled. Even skills could be mass produced and sold?

Pondering for a while, he decided to insert the skill card back to the slot of the crystal processor and reactivated the engineering crystal suit named “Rockman”.

The crystal suit had been designed for the purpose of dismantling and maintaining large starships in the vacuum of space. But the residents of Black Iron Town had added alloy plate armor and chainswords to it to make it a usable tool in a combat.

Since it could be manipulated by an ordinary fighter, Li Yao had no trouble wearing it at all as an expert Exo.

After reading the tutorials of the Rockman in three minutes, Li Yao took a few steps forward stumblingly.

The Rockman seemed no different from the crystal suits that he used to wear, but it felt much more soft and gentle. Li Yao felt like he was soaked in a hot spring and couldn’t tell that he was wearing a large crystal suit weighing more than ten tons.

The buffer system and the assisting system are smartly designed. I barely need to exert my own strength. Every movement can be performed by the suit.

The comprehensive information processing system is quite advanced, too. Most of the information has been preprocessed by the crystal suit. Only the final outcome and the most crucial information are displayed. Together with the simple and straightforward operation menu, even ordinary people will know what situation they are in and what they should do to cope with it.

Although such a design may lead to monotonous tactics due to the lack of changes, it is something not unacceptable for ordinary fighters and low-level Cultivators.

Li Yao secretly compared Rockman with other crystal suits that he had worn and discovered that the operation pattern of Rockman was even easier than the ‘beginner mode’ in many crystal suits. It could almost be called ‘auto mode’.

The Exo could choose from several combat styles, including ‘assault’, ‘guerilla warfare’, ‘stall’, ‘remote attack’, ‘strength saving’, and so on. Then, the crystal suit would act accordingly and automatically adjust the power rune arrays, defense shield, and the crystal reactor.

The Exo could also input simple instructions such as ‘attack to the left’ or ‘defend on the right’. Their crystal suit would immediately complete the instructions.

Such a mode significantly improved the independency of a crystal suit and diminished the importance of the Exo. It had both disadvantages and advantages.

For experts such as Li Yao, he disliked the dull, boring combat style where the crystal processor took care of everything; he preferred to handle all the information he needed personally.

From the wind and direction of a breeze a hundred meters away, to the activation level of one of the runes on one of the thirty-two power rune arrays on his back… Everything must be under his control so that he could pick one of the thousands of possible combat plans at his will.

Such an ‘auto’ crystal suit was like a puppet with strings. Most of its movements had been preset. All the Exo had to do was to cooperate and do what the crystal suit asked to.

It may not be a big deal if the Exo was faced with a mediocre enemy. But the experts were likely to notice the pattern in the attacks and eventually locate loopholes.

But Li Yao had to admit that, for ordinary fighters and low-level Cultivators, such an ‘auto mode’ might be their best choice.

After all, not everyone had the talent required to be an expert Exo. They were hardly likely to encounter the real formidable enemies, too.

Even if they were engaged with a real formidable enemy, they could simply crush the enemy with their advantage in numbers!

Therefore, although he was not particularly fond of the crystal suit himself, Li Yao still paid his respect to the designer of such a crystal suit.

At this time, Li Yao noticed that, right beside the attack and defense instructions, there was another row of brilliantly shining buttons surrounded by right gold lines.

The words on them were the three moves comprised in the ‘Peak Fighters Luxury Bundle’.

Black Tiger Explosion, Tiger Devil Slash, and Tiger Satan Heart Piercing Barrage!

Li Yao was greatly interested. He locked onto ‘Black Tiger Explosion’ with one of his telepathic thoughts and triggered it softly.

In a moment, a transparent phantom seemed to break apart in front of his eyes. Intense spiritual waves and telepathic thoughts were ringing around him. The Rockman produced a shrill sound, with an intimidating aura surrounding him. New reminders appeared on the light beam, asking him to carry out certain movements with his arms and torso.

Li Yao crossed his arms and pushed forward. He had barely exerted any of his strength when two streaks of immense spiritual energy blew out of the crystal reactor furiously like Zhang Heiniu just did, except that the black swirl of spiritual energy reached more than thirty meters away!

As I expected, not only does the ‘skill card’ store the instructions of a certain move, it also contains one of the telepathic thoughts of the Cultivator who produced it. The Cultivator must have spent a lot of time and effort on it. It is as authentic as their own attack. Quite impressive!

Greatly satisfied, Li Yao took off his crystal suit. He said to Zhang Heiniu, after thinking for a moment, “The most important thing about Black Tiger Explosion is not how much force you exert to push it out, but the inward helical strength when you are punching. You should ‘swing’ your strength instead of ‘pushing’ it out. Try to understand it. The damage of your attack should be able to be increased by 10% after you do.”

“Thank you very much, Master!” yelled Zhang Heiniu in excitement.

Li Yao smiled. Pondering for a moment, he said to Mu Ping, “Mayor Mu, I would like to make a deal with Black Iron Town.”

…

In the next half month, Li Yao stayed in Black Iron Town, partly to collect all the useful information about the Flying Star Sector, and partly to study the ‘auto’ crystal suits of the Flying Star Sector more carefully.

In order to deal with the giant crab, several Exos suffered tremendous wounds, and two of them had perished on the spot. Almost all the crystal suits had been seriously damaged.

Some of the minor damage could be maintained by themselves. But the crystal suits with more damage had to be sent to a bigger town named ‘Star Lord Temple’ for examination.

Li Yao had proposed to maintain and also strengthen the broken crystal suits in exchange for one of them.

The style of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit was different from the crystal suits in the Flying Star Sector after all. Also, it had been affixed with a lot of materials from Skeleton Dragon.

Skeleton Dragon had been an ancient deadly demon forty thousand years ago. Its body materials and the scraps of the ancient magical equipment it collected were definitely treasures that were not seen every day.

Although Li Yao had covered them up and nobody had noticed anything wrong in Black Iron Town, Li Yao was certain that, since this world boasted such advanced technology in crystal suits, it was quite possible that somebody would see through the secrets of his crystal suit after he reached the more prosperous places and encountered the real specialists of the trade.

If so, he might be blamed even if he did nothing wrong just because he had an unparalleled treasure. Somebody might covet the body materials of Skeleton Dragon and decide to hunt him down. It would be a great nuisance for him.

Therefore, Li Yao had made up his mind that the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit would be his secret weapon which wouldn’t be used unless it was absolutely necessary.

And when the secret weapon was to be used, all the enemies who saw it would have to be eliminated!

So, he needed a common crystal suit of the Flying Star Sector for his daily use.

Right now, he could make do with an engineering crystal suit. After all, he could always upgrade the crystal suit after he arrived in the more prosperous places.

Li Yao spent ten days maintaining all the engineering crystal suits and farming crystal suits. He had basically grasped the refining style of the preliminary crystal suits of the Flying Star Sector.

Although he hadn’t completely figured out the complicated rune arrays inside the crystal suits yet, he found no major trouble performing the rudimental repair work.

Then, he started to modify his own Rockman.

Since it was an engineering crystal suit and wouldn’t boast enough combat ability no matter how it was modified, Li Yao decided to go exactly the opposite way. He fully restored the characteristics of an engineering crystal suit for Rockman and added two extra multipurpose arms that were filled with all kinds of maintenance and refining tools.

The Rockman right now had four arms, with an enormous storage bag on its back which could carry bountiful magical equipment units and components. It looked somewhat clumsy and eccentric.

Purposefully, Li Yao didn’t polish or strengthen the surface of his new crystal suit. He even left a few meteorite scratches and patches of rust undealt with, making the crystal suit look heavy, stupid, and utterly harmless.

In a battleground, it would fit every description of a standard logistic crystal suit for maintenance.

In accordance to the Rockman was the new identity that Li Yao set for himself.

Li Yao, twenty-three years old, born and raised in a minor relic at the periphery of the Flying Star Sector. Because of the poor transportation, he had never gotten in touch with the outside world, except for the stories that he had been told and the knowledge he’d learnt from books.

Since he had been living with the garbage in the relic since he was a kid, his talent for magical equipment maintenance was discovered very early. He was especially good at the maintenance and modification of beginner-level crystal suits.

Half a year ago, his hometown was destroyed by an unexpected rain of meteorites; only a few survived. He had since been wandering in several other space towns and eventually learnt more about the outside world, especially the information regarding Heavenly Saints City.

As a young man who desired to be a master in crystal suit refining, he was now striving to reach Heavenly Saints City.

There were more young men in the Flying Star Sector that had shared similar life experiences than specks of dust here.

Making their way to Heavenly Saints City was almost a ubiquitous dream for everyone in the Flying Star Sector.

Such an identity was both inconspicuous and hard to falsify. It offered a fairly plausible explanation for his maintenance and modification skills, too.

After he left Black Iron Town and marched into the depths of the sea of stars, no one would doubt his background.

Mayor Mu had told him that there would be a kermis in a bigger town nearby named Star Lord Temple during the last five days in each month. At that time, the fleets of dozens of towns and villages in this place would all take part in the kermis, exchanging news and bartering goods.

There was cargo that set off to the more prosperous places regularly in Star Lord Temple, too. The young men who wanted to make a living in the outside world often chose to take the cargo ships because of the fairly reasonable ticket prices. For those who were adept at certain skills and could work as sailors or mechanics, they could even take the cargo ships for free.

Black Iron Town had suffered tremendous losses. Not only were some of their own residents killed or injured in the battle, the professional guards that they had hired from Star Lord Temple had passed away, too. It was expected that they sent the dead bodies back.

Besides, the precious materials they retrieved from the giant crab could only be sold in Star Lord Temple.

Therefore, the kermis this month was something that they had to attend.

Li Yao offered to go with them. Mu Ping was worried about the safety issue since they would be carrying so many demon beast materials and therefore agreed happily.

Chapter 446: News Store

Six days later, on a shabby carrier, Mu Ping bowed to the light beam and said to Li Yao solemnly, “In front of us is the Temple of Lord Sea Stomper.”

Inside the light beam was the remnant of a cruiser more than three thousand meters long with defense rings around it. The head and the tail of it were both shattered, a clear sign that the cruiser wouldn’t be able to cruise anymore. The middle part of the cruiser was still intact and emitting seven-colored faint mystic rays.

Mu Ping explained, “Lord Sea Stomper used to be a ‘Sea Stomper’-level cruiser of the Star Ocean Imperium ten thousand years ago. Right now, most of its structure is too damaged to repair. But many living quarters in the middle part of the starship are still functioning. Also, since defense is highlighted in the design of the starship of this particular model, the protective rings around it are still working and can release solid spiritual shields.

“Five hundred years ago, a fleet which was blown off course by a cosmic storm found the place accidentally and survived the disaster by hiding inside the protective rings. Since then, the place has become well known.

“Everybody says that the soul of the starship has become a divinity, guarding the residents in this area from the unseen world. This place is the best port around.

“As time’s gone by, the starship has become known as ‘Lord Sea Stomper’ and the place in general is called ‘Star Lord Temple’. It is the trading center of the dozens of space towns nearby. Many other people have moved into the living quarters of the starship, gradually turning it into a teeming town itself.”

“Fourth brother, offer incense to our Lord!”

A stout man answered and rubbed his hands on his linen trousers. Then, he typed quickly on the light beam. The carrier shivered and sent out three ivory light beams from its head to the front end of Lord Sea Stomper.

The three mystic rays were not aggressive at all; they carried the purest and most stable spiritual energy. After they pierced into the front end of Lord Sea Stomper, the hundreds of holes there all started glittering like countless blinking eyes, bringing out a sense of mystery.

Mu Ping and the townsfolk all shut their eyes and prayed.

“May Lord Sea Stomper watch over Black Iron Town and see that it is not disturbed by demon beasts, space pirates, or cosmic storms. It will be better if we can find more precious treasures in the ancient relic. If we make a fortune this year thanks to your help, we will definitely deliver you a water circulation system next year!”

Li Yao found it very amusing. As a determined modern Cultivator, he did not believe in the supernatural powers whose existences were hard to prove. He reached out to Mo Xuan during the time being.

Mo Xuan and the rest of the crew hadn’t idled around while Li Yao was staying in Black Iron Town. They had collected a lot of warship remnants in the ancient battlegrounds and covered Sparkle with them in a messy manner.

Right now, even if Mo Xuan were to park Sparkle right in front of Li Yao, he wouldn’t be able to recognize it.

Then, after riveting a bunch of other starship remnants, Mo Xuan drifted after Li Yao.

Battlegrounds were everywhere in the Flying Star Sector. Stirred by cosmic storms, countless remnants were floating in the sea of stars. Nobody would pay attention to them at all.

Li Yao exchanged the latest progress with Mu Xuan and his lot. Mu Xuan was quite interested in the refining style of the Flying Star Sector’s crystal suits, too. They agreed that they would start a large-scale telepathic thought transmission session to send the detailed information over when they arrived at a relatively safe location.

Right then, the carrier drew close to Star Lord Temple.

Li Yao could see that dozens of small carriers were docked in the port at the tail of Lord Sea Stomper. Another few carriers were entering the port slowly.

They all detected the carrier of Black Iron Town and emitted mystic rays in a fixed rhythm one after another, broadcasting their identity to the newcomer.

The carrier of Black Iron Town followed them and sent out its spiritual authorizations, before it entered the port slowly, too.

…

“Supreme Scorpion Sword Art, simple yet scaring! Remote learning through telepathic thoughts. Organized in small classes. One month of concentrated learning will be enough for you to learn the first three levels. The tuition fee is only 15,000 bucks. The first fifty students to sign up, for an additional 5,000 bucks, will receive a complimentary well-tempered Supreme Scorpion Sword which is 2.4 meters long with three venomous thorns embedded on the tip. A hundred percent true and authentic. Our headcount is limited. Come on and sign up if you are interested!”

“Skill cards. New skill cards have arrived!”

“Super skill cards produced by elders of Cheetah Teeth Sect, all Core Formation Stage Cultivators, containing an entire set of seventy-two deadly serial moves, are now available! Once you start the first move, you won’t be able to stop the following three minutes of storm-like attacks at all! Look. There are signatures of the elders of Cheetah Teeth Sect. They are totally authentic. Everybody is welcome to check them out in the branches of Cheetah Teeth Sect!”

“Do you want to be an unparalleled expert in the world? Are you eager to let your name resound in the Flying Star Sector? Do you want to fully appreciate the mysteries of the Cultivation world? Join Rumbling Thunder Union!

“Rumbling Thunder Union boasts both a long history and an immense capability right now! We have experience in the transportation industry, the mining industry, and the crystal suit refining industry. Right now, we have thirty-five starships in total, thirteen large-scale mines, and refining centers on four planets. Our comprehensive capability always ranks in the top twenty in the Flying Star Sector!

“Rumbling Thunder Union is headquartered on the super starship ‘Rumbling Thunder’. Not only does the starship have unimaginable firepower and an amazingly high speed, it is also installed with a one-hundred percent real simulation of the natural environment. There are many attractions in the living quarters, including lakes, beaches, and hills. You will feel that you are standing in a natural paradise instead of floating in the sea of stars!

“Right now, we sincerely invite promising young men below the age of eighteen with a Spirit Actualization Quotient higher than 80% as our intern disciples. The length of internship will be three years, during which time your living expenses will be covered, and you will be enlightened by the real masters. Once your spiritual root is awakened, you will be registered as an official disciple! Even if your spiritual root isn’t awakened in three years, you will still have the opportunity to work in the Rumbling Thunder Group with a decent salary!”

Half a day later, as Li Yao walked through the packed streets of Star Lord Temple, watching the colorfully blinking light beams in the air, hearing the tempting commercials, and even smelling the vague scent of the delicious food, his lips curled up without him knowing.

The feeling… was so familiar.

It was the time of the monthly kermis. A lot of visitors had come to this place. At least ten thousand people were roaming on the street.

Outside of the starship, it was cold, lonely space. Inside Star Lord Temple, it was a lively world of laughter and happiness.

In a trance, Li Yao felt like he was back to a certain underground city of the Heaven’s Origin Sector.

They were both raucous, noisy, and chaotic. But they were equally vigorous, too.

At this moment, Li Yao bade farewell to the folks of Black Iron Town.

As a gesture of gratitude, Mayor Mu Ping had given him a large sum of money after the shell of the giant crab had been sold.

Li Yao was a newcomer to the world and literally cash-strapped. Therefore, he’d accepted Mu Ping’s generosity, which had met his urgent need.

Firstly, he bought an old wrist crystal processor in a second-hand crystal processor store.

The Flying Star Sector was much more advanced than the Heaven’s Origin Sector in miniaturizing the crystal processor. The wrist crystal processor was very light and thin, just like a watch.

Then, Li Yao visited a store named ‘Know-All’, a special shop that did not sell concrete goods but the latest news.

Since the area of Star Lord Temple was too far away from the central zone of the Flying Star Sector, it often lost connection to the Spiritual Nexus. Therefore, such news stores were opened in many remote villages and towns which were often short of information.

The residents in such places could go to a news store and browse the latest news in the outside world at the cost of a tiny bit of money.

The news would usually be fully updated on a monthly or bimonthly basis. Considering the vastness of the Flying Star Sector, it could almost be called timely.

Sitting in a corner of the news store, Li Yao turned on four light beams in front him and skimmed the news at a speed that wouldn’t shock the fellow readers around him.

The news from the central zone of the constellation gave him a much deeper understanding of the Flying Star Sector.

Most of the news contained briefs about cosmic storms or meteorite cascades in certain coordinates or about the newly found space swirls in certain other coordinates.

It appeared that the anomalies in space were of paramount importance for the human civilization of the Flying Star Sector which lived on sailing through the sea of stars.

Li Yao also saw a lot of news about the assaults of space pirates, the latest rank of pirate gangs, and the most wanted list with their respective bounties.

The most wanted list was brimming with names, each of which represented loads of appalling murders. The perils of cruising through the sea of stars couldn’t be clearer.

There wasn’t much news about the scourge of demon beasts and the demonic Cultivators, suggesting that these two hazards only appeared sporadically and that they were less threatening than space pirates.

But what Li Yao was most concerned about was the general capability of the Cultivators in the Flying Star Sector and that of the top ones.

If this was a world where there were too many Core Formation Stage Cultivators and Nascent Soul Cultivators, he would have to tuck his tail between his legs and behave nicely however ambitious he was.

Thankfully, after browsing through all the news, he didn’t find enough evidence to support the hypothesis. Several names of the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were brought up in the news, but in a very respectful tone. The leaders and elders of many famous sects seemed to be only at the Core Formation Stage, too.

As for the Divine Transformation Stage Cultivators that were even stronger than the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, Li Yao read about none of them in the recent news.

This is rather odd. The spiritual energy of the Flying Star Sector is clearly much more abundant than that of the Heaven’s Origin Sector. Why are the number and capability of the top Cultivators of the two worlds so similar?

Li Yao pondered the question while he continued reading the news.

Half an hour later, he came to an uncertain conclusion.

It was true that the spiritual energy of the Flying Star Sector was more abundant. But since this place was an ancient battleground where a large number of relics of starships and magical equipment had been left, the Cultivators of this sector attached more importance to the creation and utilization of magical equipment.

After dedicating most of its manpower, resources, and time to the refinement of magical equipment, the Flying Star Sector was blessed with an extraordinarily advanced and popularized crystal suit system. This was a world where crystal suits mattered most. Most of their training and combat theories featured crystal suits as the core.

In comparison, the Heaven’s Origin Sector did not have enough resources nor were there enough ancient relics to excavate. Therefore, crystal suits were never promoted on a large scale. Most Cultivators still highlighted the training of themselves and considered crystal suits to be auxiliary tools.

As a result, although the resources of the two Sectors were not even, the top experts of them were of similar level.

However, it was also possible that the stronger experts of the Flying Star Sector had been training in seclusion recently and therefore did not appear in the news that Li Yao read.

Chapter 447: Incoming Space Pirates!

Other than that, the most viewed news was that about Heavenly Saints City. There were even some paid Great Illusionary Land programs which could simulate the splendid experience inside Heavenly Saints City.

Li Yao tried a few of them himself. It was indeed quite impressive.

The living quarters of Heavenly Saints City included not only lakes and oceans, but also continuous highlands and canyons that were hundreds of meters deep. Many floating mountains were moving in midair, from which thousands of waterfalls rushed down and turned into fuzzy drizzle half way. Rainbows were forming among them.

The working and studying quarters of Heavenly Saints City were spread across several districts. Numerous skyscrapers were connected to each other by vacuum tubes and teleportation arrays. Packs of people were coming and going on the bridges that were almost transparent as if they were strolling on the sky. Shuttles in all kinds of weird shapes were commuting among the bridges, producing colorful exhaust flames behind them at an amazingly high speed, but they never ran into one another. An invisible hand seemed to be manipulating everything behind the scenes.

Li Yao found it hard to accept that such a grand, prosperous city was built in space instead of on a planet. No wonder all the residents of the Flying Star Sector were captivated by Heavenly Saints City.

However, what interested him more were the training facilities of Heavenly Saints City.

As the training center of the Flying Star Sector, not only were the six largest Cultivation sects headquartered there, they had also established all kinds of institutions such as elementary, middle, and high schools, training camps, crystal suit refining clubs, and so on.

The most renowned crystal suit refining centers of the Flying Star Sector were based in Heavenly Saints City, too.

Li Yao discovered the promotion video of one of the crystal suit refining centers in the database.

What was shown in the promotion video was a super large training laboratory of more than eighty acres, an endless assembly line of magical equipment, and an automatic loading and distribution system utilizing countless mechanical arms driven by spiritual energy.

A common engineering crystal suit or a farming one could be manufactured unceasingly by dozens of low-level Cultivators and hundreds of ordinary workers supervised by only a few real refiners.

This was the true sense of mass-production!

Such advanced production facilities and technology had reduced the cost of a crystal suit to as low as possible, which was why they were so popular in the Flying Star Sector. Just like the shuttles of the Heaven’s Origin Sector, crystal suits were affordable to every household here, even if they might not be considered low-priced, either.

As for battlesuits, although Li Yao failed to find their refining process, he did find a commercial of ‘Nine Cauldron Arena’, a place where crystal suits specialized in combat competed against each other.

Since crystal suits were popular in the Flying Star Sector, it was almost every Cultivator’s dream to be a formidable Exo. Therefore, crystal suit competitions were a trendy activity.

The Flying Crystal Racing game in the Heaven’s Origin Sector was but a daily routine in this world. There were more thrilling ways of competition in other forms.

All kinds of crystal suit arenas had thus been built everywhere in the Flying Star Sector like mushrooms after a spring rain. Not only did Cultivators like to practice with their peers inside, ordinary people enjoyed entertaining themselves by crashing into each other while wearing engineering and farming crystal suits. The satisfying scent of rust and sweat was the best reward for them.

Crystal suit competitions and championships, open and underground gambling games… An enormous chain of interest had been formed. Together with crystal suit refining, modification, and maintenance as well as the training of Exos, the industry of crystal suits was the unquestionable pillar of the Flying Star Sector.

The Exos who secured victories in the top arenas were seen as celebrities and big heroes to everyone. They often earned an abundance of admiration from young boys and girls and offers from big sects. Plentiful training resources were available for them at any time.

While he was watching the commercial of the arena which was displayed in the form of the Great Illusionary Land, Li Yao felt that he was seated in the vast ball-shaped arena and attracted to his seat by electromagnetic force, spinning.

Two crystal suits, one red and the other white, were floating in the middle of the arena. They turned into two streaks of brightness and bombarded each other with the most eye-catching attacks.

Sometimes, their attacks were only the width of a hair away from the audience, but the defense rune arrays managed to block them all the time. However, the hair of the audience was often tousled by the blowing wind, making them exclaim in satisfaction while their hearts was pounding.

The amateurs were enjoying the visual show, but the specialists were examining the skills. The more Li Yao watched, the more shocked he became.

According to the introduction, the two Exos in the commercial were only in the middle level and high level of the Building Foundation Stage state, but he was impressed by their speed, strength, small-scale movements in combat as Cultivators at the peak of the Building Foundation Stage, if not the Core Formation Stage!

Li Yao observed and remembered their every action. Then, he closed his eyes. Two translucent figures popped up in his brain while he started computing quickly.

A moment later, he came to the conclusion that, without the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit which had been added with the strengthening materials from Skeleton Dragon, it was very likely that he wouldn’t be able to defeat the two Exos if he were wearing the same crystal suit they did!

To think that the two Exos were far from the best ones of the ‘Nine Cauldron Arena’.

This is incredible. The appearance, structure, and firepower of the battlesuits of the Flying Star Sector are all at least a hundred years more advanced than those of the Heaven’s Origin Sector!

Besides, the Exos here have multiple special techniques to drive their crystal suits which allows them to meld themselves with the crystal suits. Their combat ability is improved by more than five times!

I really can’t wait any longer. I have to go to Heavenly Saints City and learn the secret arts of crystal suit refining and the techniques to drive them!

Watching the fierce battle of the two Exos in the Great Illusionary Land again, as a maniac of magical equipment, Li Yao was rubbing his fists in exhilaration, his drool almost dribbling down.

The news store also provided a lot of information for young men who wished to visit Heavenly Saints City such as himself.

A travelling agency had proposed a package to Heavenly Saints City. Not only would tourists be able to spend their vacation in the living quarters of Heavenly Saints City, they could also go to the top arenas and watch the competitions of the real expert Exos in person. The package had a duration of one month. Purely for recreation. No shopping detours included. Hand-written autographs of the real expert Exos were available if the tourists were in luck.

However, such a package was extremely costly, too. Even the cheapest package required tens of thousands.

There were also some other obscure messages which were channels through which one could smuggle themselves into Heavenly Saints City.

However, even if the smuggling succeeded, they could only live beyond the sixth ring of Heavenly Saints City secretly because they did not have residential certificates; it was impossible to enter the real training centers.

The messages that were much clearer were the notices of matches.

Different from what Li Yao had expected, the notices were issued not in the name of Heavenly Saints Alliance, but by the different organizations inside Heavenly Saints City.

For example, if Heavenly Saints Alliance gave fifty slots to a certain crystal suit refining center, this refining center would host refining matches publicly. The top fifty winners would be entitled to enter Heavenly Saints City and work as employees of the refining center.

As a result of such a policy, there were all kinds of matches taking place everywhere.

It was a pity that most of the matches were held in the relatively more prosperous zones. Underdeveloped areas such as Star Lord Temple and Black Iron Town, naturally, had none.

It seems that I’d better go to a more developed area before making any further plans.

Li Yao searched for cargo ships that were going to pass by Star Lord Temple soon and found that two cargo ships were coming to the place in three days. After simple maintenance and refilling of supplies, they would set off on a long journey to the Triple Lights Zone that was quite close to Heavenly Saints City.

Triple Lights Zone boasted a space spiritual lode which mostly contained spiritual energy of the fire class. If starships were docked in such a space spiritual lode, it would be a great help for those who majored in Cultivation arts of the fire class. Therefore, several medium-sized sects had headquartered in this area, making it one of the wealthier zones in the Flying Star Sector.

Then, I shall head off to the Triple Lights Zone first!

Cargo ships were the first choice for most of the residents of Star Lord Temple and nearby when they wanted to travel in the outside world. Therefore, the procedures to board a cargo ship were pretty standard now.

Through an agency, Li Yao reserved a seat on one of the ships.

Later, the agency asked a Meditation Healer at the Refinement Stage to hypnotize him and check out his identity.

Li Yao’s soul power was too immense for him to be hypnotized by a Cultivator at the Refinement Stage. After the examination, the guy was convinced of his faked identity. He got his ticket without any trouble.

For the next three days, Li Yao stayed in the news store, absorbing information like a sponge sucking water.

…

In the morning, three days later, Li Yao was still huddling in a corner of the news store. His eyes were even more fresh than three days ago, even though he hadn’t slept at all during the time. While others were taking a nap with their eyes closed, Li Yao secretly sped up his reading.

There was half a day to go before the cargo ship took off. He was planning to get more knowledge about the Flying Star Sector before he boarded the starship.

Right then, his seat suddenly shivered before it jumped abruptly. Several glasses on the desk nearby fell to the ground and shattered. Many readers were woken from their dreams and mumbled unclearly.

Beep—Beep—Beep

The hasty alarms shattered everyone’s drowsiness.

“Space pirates! Space pirates are here!”

Residents of Star Lord Temple immediately recognized the alarms. Their faces turned pale as they cried uncontrollably.

The earth was shaking more and more violently. Many people were helplessly waving their arms and legs as if dancing. Some were so scared that they hid below the desks, but more people swarmed to the street.

Li Yao frowned and cursed in a low voice. He followed the crowds to the street, too.

Today was the second to last day of the kermis. Although most of the visitors had left Star Lord Temple, several thousand of them were still lingering. The street was a mess, congested by people who were running about like headless chickens. The blue sky and white clouds in the sky which were simulated by giant full-coverage light beams died down one after another under the intense impacts, revealing a bleak, cold dome of steel.

Dark red light beams were gradually condensed in midair, displaying a fierce battle in space.

A somewhat coarse voice said solemnly, “Please don’t panic, everybody. We are engaged in a battle with intruding space pirates!

“Star Lord Temple boasts an extremely advanced defense system which is impossible for the space pirates to breach through. Lord Sea Stomper is with us!

“I believe every one of us knows the cruelty of space pirates.

“Perhaps, they might’ve spared our lives after looting everything of value in Star Lord Temple, if we had decided to surrender in the beginning.

“But now, the two parties have both opened fire, and we have slain multiple space pirates. There’s no way that they will let go of us!

“If the space pirates break into Star Lord Temple, we will all be dead for sure!

“Therefore, please keep calm, everyone. Those of you who have crystal suits, please put them on; those of you who don’t, please go to the shelter according to the guidance of the signal arrows. We will possibly be in a vacuum if the shell of the starship is compromised!

“Exos who have received space combat training before, please gather at the closest deck to you out of No. 1, No. 4, and No. 6. You and the Guardians of Star Lord Temple will work together to defeat the space pirates!”

Chapter 448: Storm Prison

BOOM!

As the speech was concluded, another earthquake took place in Star Lord Temple. The steel dome screeched while its metal constituents fractured one after another. Some ten iron tubes couldn’t bear the pressure any longer and smashed down.

Li Yao’s pupils shrank to the size of two needles. The muscles all over his body tensed, making him, for a moment, appear smaller than his actual size. But his clothes puffed up as if they had been filled with air, with noises indicating that they were going to torn open at any moment.

Li Yao stomped on the ground. The workers’ shoes he was wearing had no obvious changes on the surface, but the bottom of the shoes made of strengthened rubber had been pressed into powder. The ends of his trousers suffered collateral damage and were torn into ragged cloth, too. Then, Li Yao turned into a streak of brightness, darting toward where the iron tubes were falling.

Shua!

Li Yao’s arms turned into more than ten blurred shadows and swallowed fourteen iron tubes like whips. The last iron tube hit the ground where nobody was standing with an earsplitting noise.

Although no one was hurt by the iron tubes, they were truly shocked. The crowds that just went tranquil were seething again. The old, the young, the disabled were falling over due to the intense pushing. Helpless cries of a little girl could be heard not far head.

CRACK!

Li Yao clenched the iron tubes so hard that imprints of his hands were left on them.

Li Yao’s face was emotionless, but flames of fury were bursting out of his eyes.

He squinted and observed the situation of the battle through the light beams in the air.

Appearing abruptly in space was a hideous starship more than a thousand meters long that looked like a crocodile. The giant turrets on the back of the crocodile were spurting dazzling clusters of spiritual energy nonstop, bombarding Star Lord Temple.

However, the defense of Star Lord Temple was apparently beyond the expectations of the space pirates.

The defense ring of Star Lord Temple quickly spun. The spiritual shield it released absorbed all the energy of the attack. Its gravity interference system caused all the incoming attacks with real entities to deviate from their flight path; the rushing bullets and cannonballs all brushed past Star Lord Temple and darted elsewhere into the dark depths of space.

A moment later, the space pirates reduced the frequency of the bombardment. Instead, a lot of crystal suits jetted out from the stomach of the warship, trying to breach the defenses themselves.

The guardians of Star Lord Temple flew into space, too. Hundreds of Exos were engaged together. The cold sea of stars seemed to be boiling. Spiritual energy rippled out crazily like floods.

The space pirates did not have the advantage in numbers.

Since the local area was too remote to be protected by any Cultivation sects, the men of almost every family knew how to wear a crystal suit and the simple combat skills.

However, most of the residents in this place were ordinary people after all. Even of the guardians of Star Lord Temple, there were only several Refinement Stage Cultivators, who had retired to their hometown because of old age or disability.

In comparison, the space pirates were all ruthlessly desperadoes, most of whom were in the high level of the Refinement Stage or even the Building Foundation Stage. They were experienced in fighting and equipped with specialized battlesuits that had armed themselves to teeth. It was as easy as chopping wood when they were engaged with the amateurs.

The guardians of Star Lord Temple could only struggle to stall the enemies with the help of the powerful defense ring.

Everybody could tell that it was only a matter of time before the defense ring was broken.

But Li Yao was somewhat confused. He narrowed his eyes and scanned the crocodile-shaped warship.

Two enormous words were engraved on the head of the warship: ‘Storm Prison’!

Li Yao quickly searched the latest information he collected for the name.

Storm Prison was a large space pirate gang ranking in the top twenty in the Flying Star Sector. It was unpredictable and merciless, known as one of the most notorious criminal organizations in this world.

Fengyu Zhong, the leader of the gang, was a Cultivator at the Core Formation Stage. He was both smart and quick-minded. The Heavenly Saints Alliance had convened several sieges against Storm Prison and even summoned a Cultivator at the peak of the Core Formation Stage once.

Members of Storm Prison were all wiped out after each siege. But Fengyu Zhong somehow survived each hunt, and before they knew it, he would have gathered another bunch of outlaws and rise again, with even more lackeys and even nastier reprisals!

It was possible that, when the management of Star Lord Temple saw the name of Storm Prison whose destination was clear to them, they immediately started preparing active defense without even considering surrendering at all.

This is odd. Why is a space pirate gang ranking the top twenty in the Flying Star Sector wandering in such a poor area?

Studying the light beams carefully, Li Yao was deep in thought.

He found that, despite the intimidating appearance of the crocodile-shaped warship, many damages and fractures could be found on it. Several turrets had been already blown apart, too. The exhaust flames on its back were blinking intermittently, suggesting that there was something seriously wrong with the power rune arrays of the warship.

The space pirates fighting were clumsy and hasty, and they seemed to be lacking spiritual energy and ammo, evidenced by the fact that they hardly performed remote attacks and preferred head-on combat.

In short, the guardians of Star Lord Temple were, of course, no better than the meat on a chopping block. But the space pirates of Storm Prison were swinging rather blunt cleavers, and it would be quite troublesome for them to mince the meat even if they could cut it.

They must’ve experienced a fierce battle just now and are running out of supplies.

Li Yao came to that conclusion. The Guardians of Star Lord Temple are but mobs made of ordinary people and low-level Cultivators. In other words, farmers with armor.

With Storm Prison’s expertise, by logic, they should’ve settled the battle easily a long time ago, even if they are affected by the defense ring. How come they have been caught in a stalemate?

The Core Formation Stage Cultivator Fengyu Zhong, the boss of the gang, must either be away from the warship or have suffered such serious injuries that he couldn’t even stand up. Otherwise, with the strength of a Core Formation Stage Cultivator, he could’ve broken the defense effortlessly with just one leg and one foot.

The Flying Star Sector is indeed an interesting place. Not only do the supposedly upright Cultivators refuse to protect the ordinary people, they even turn into space pirates and butcher those weaker than themselves?

Li Yao recalled the crimes and felonies of Storm Prison recorded in the database. Brilliance sharper and colder than icy pitons beamed out of his eyes as he dashed forward to No. 1 deck.

No. 1 deck was in an utter mess.

Without the protection and guidance of Cultivation sects, the ordinary people and the low-level unaffiliated Cultivators were but loose sand. They simply roared, put on their crystal suits, and charged into space with their hot blood.

Li Yao found himself in a dilemma.

If somebody were to quantify his abilities and set his combat ability as 60, then his commanding ability… was approximately zero. He had no idea how to organize the headstrong fighters at all.

Li Yao sighed. Having no alternative, he summoned the Rockman and leapt into space, too.

But instead of roaring and rushing into the battlefield like everybody else, Li Yao observed the situation carefully and soon discovered that several space pirates seemed to know what they were doing. He estimated that they were at least at the Building Foundation Stage.

He might have been able to cope with two of three of them. But if five or more of them came at him together, he would definitely be stalled.

The turrets on their crocodile-shaped warship, on the other hand, were definitely not decorative. They might not be powerful enough to blow up the defense ring of Star Lord Temple, but it wouldn’t be a different task for them to blow himself up at all.

“Li Yao, what is going on there? We sensed immense spiritual waves from Star Lord Temple and nearby. Do you need us to come over to you?”

Mo Xuan’s anxious voice came through the communication channel.

“Not for now.”

Li Yao pondered a moment and said, “We are now under the attack of space pirates who have a warship with tremendous firepower. Sparkle is a multipurpose exploration starship with only a few auxiliary cannons repaired right now. It would be completely disadvantaged against the warship.

“It is a total mess here right now. I don’t know whether or not they have backup. Sparkle is not to be exposed yet.

“You guys keep drifting in disguise and mute the spiritual communication channel. When we are safe again, I will contact you from my side.

“As for this particular warship… Let me take care of it!”

Until today, Li Yao had hardly fought in the space with zero gravity; he was used to the ubiquitous restriction of the earth.

He slowly warmed up the power rune arrays as well as his own limbs as he watched and thought of possible combat plans one after another.

It would be hard to break into the crocodile-shaped warship from the outside even for the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, let alone the Rockman that I’m wearing. I have to find a way to sneak inside.

What do I do?

Although the warship’s shell is full of holes, the space pirates are apparently well aware of that, too. All the open areas were specially attended to by the air defense cannons. Whoever gets too close will be greeted by a dense barrage.

Even if the barrage can be breached through, the enemies inside the warship will definitely notice the intruder. The whole point of stealth will be meaningless.

Where can I sneak into the warship without anybody noticing?

The starry brilliance inside Li Yao’s eyes was trembling violently as he had brought his computational ability to its peak, thinking hard for a solution. Suddenly, he noticed a weird phenomenon. His face was immediately filled with joy.

At the tail of the crocodile-shaped warship, there were ten groups of spurts in two rows from which scorching exhaust flames were spraying out providing incessant impetus for the warship.

However, due to the unknown serious injuries, the flames from four groups of the spurts were sporadic.

The group with the longest gap spewed flames every nineteen seconds for a duration of five seconds.

By his preliminary estimation, the tubes in each group of spurts were all more than three meters in diameter.

“I should be able to make use of that.”

Although Li Yao had never seen a warship in such a shape before, its inner structure shouldn’t be very different from other crystal warships whose engine systems were located in the rear.

The tubes transmitting exhaust flames were often extended to the bottom of the engine compartment in the middle-rear part of the warship. To better dissipate the heat, a lot of room would be spared near the tubes. Sometimes, there were even cooling pools filled with special cooling liquid around the tubes.

The engine compartment was often heavily guarded. But nobody would watch over the cooling pools as long as they did not malfunction.

This is the spot!

Storm Prison has come to such a poor area without a good reason and launched attacks against a town which is apparently the opposite of wealthy, and yet they failed to take it down after such a long time. For them, it must be a great shame.

If they had additional forces, they would have already sent them out to join the raid of the defense ring.

Therefore, those in battle right now should be most of their manpower.

There shouldn’t be too many experts within the warship!

Inside Li Yao brain’s, everything he saw turned into translucent phantoms, and then billions of numbers. He calculated the distances, speeds and angles crazily. A moment later, the Rockman waved its four arms and charged into the battlefield, somewhat clumsily!

Chapter 449: Sneaking In

Just like a newbie taking part in his first battle, he completely lost control over the power rune arrays perhaps because of panic and dashed at a space pirate awkwardly like a dancing crab.

The space pirate was wearing a crimson crystal suit shaped like a lobster whose two arms were attached to giant pincers. He was fighting two Exos of Star Lord Temple and seemed to be unaware that Li Yao was coming.

But when Li Yao reached his back, the space pirate suddenly turned around and kicked him with explosive spiritual energy right in his chest. More than ten high-frequency vibrating thorns stuck out from his shoes, too!

In a moment, the plate armor on the chest of the Rockman broke apart, before it was blown away like a cannonball. Li Yao struggled for a while and gradually turned rigid, unable to move anymore.

Other space pirates who saw the scene would naturally think that an idiotic bumpkin had tried to ambush a seasoned bandit only to be discovered by the enemy who had set up a trap and killed him without any trouble.

Judging from the quick movement and the brutal kick, the bandit was at least in the high level of the Refinement Stage, not something that a bumpkin wearing a Rockman could deal with!

Flowers of death were blossoming in the battlefield. No one paid any additional attention to the Rockman whose chest had been shattered, including the space pirate who made it so.

Inside the destructed Rockman, Li Yao’s lips curled cruelly.

For his monster-like body built up by the Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining technique, the strike from a Refinement Stage Cultivator dealt absolutely no damage to him except to make his heart beat a bit faster for a moment.

Like a hibernating animal, he kept his arms and legs still and drifted through space silently.

However, a lot of steam was popping up from his forehead. His sweat was vaporized before it came into being.

His soaring computational ability allowed him to see thousands of interrelated rays of light in front of his eyes. The course of the crocodile-shaped warship, the direction to which he was drifting, and all the interferences standing in his route had all been taken into consideration.

Chi… Chi…

Li Yao adjusted the power rune array to the minimum level. Only when his body was not in anybody’s sight would the crystal suit spurt out a wave of lackluster exhaust flames occasionally to change course slightly.

Sometimes, he crashed into other Exos who were still fighting or the remnant crystal suits which had been torn into pieces. His direction would be changed again.

There were quite a lot of other corpses and remnants floating in the battleground just like himself.

Nobody seemed to notice that, impact after impact, he was gradually drifting to the tail of the crocodile-shaped warship.

Last five hundred meters.

Li Yao stared at the crimson flames jetting out of the back of the crocodile-shaped warship like volcanic eruptions. His eyelids were shivering as he swallowed uncontrollably.

He was well aware that the power rune arrays to drive a crystal warship more than a thousand meters long would be enormous and that the exhaust flames they let out had a scarily high temperature mixed with intense, furious spiritual energy.

The Rockman sent out warnings. Such an engineering crystal suit could barely withstand the high temperature of the exhaust flames. As it drew close, some units and components that were not well-sealed had already started melting.

Last three hundred meters.

Li Yao felt that he was in the middle of a furnace. His hair was burning and his mouth dry.

On the Rockman’s light beam, the specifications of many units had hit rock bottom, suggesting that they had lost their functions.

Li Yao gritted his teeth and continued dashing toward the exhaust flames.

Last hundred meters!

If the trajectory of his movement remained unchanged, a giant exhaust flame would sweep over and obliterate him in three seconds.

This was the most critical hundred meters!

When the exhaust flame erupted, Li Yao activated all the working power rune arrays on his crystal suit which was shining crazily as if it had been hit by a lightning. The Rockman sprinted instantly at a speed that almost tore itself apart, making it brush past the exhaust flame at a close distance and stop above a group of intermittent spurts!

Even if somebody in the battlefield was observing this, their eyes would be attracted by the suddenly bursting exhaust flame and fail to notice that a crystal suit was moving unbelievably fast below the surging, scorching fire.

They would have naturally thought that the Rockman was swallowed by the exhaust flames and melted tragically.

Huchi… Huchi… Huchi…

Li Yao breathed heavily. But the air circulation system of the Rockman had been wrecked by the high temperature. The air he was inhaling felt like sweltering magma, making him moan briefly.

The next step was the most difficult one.

The group of spurts below Li Yao was only activated every nineteen seconds. So, the temperature around here was relatively lower than elsewhere.

However, ‘low’ was still almost a thousand degrees!

“Hu…”

A flare reminiscent of one tossed out of the sun was ejected from the tail of the ship.

Li Yao suddenly gritted his teeth and freed himself from the Rockman!

Right then, the only thing standing between him and the heat of a thousand degrees was a thin mustard suit!

In a moment, Li Yao was on fire, his skin chapping and his eyes red.

Shua!

In the very next moment, a weird, black crystal suit appeared on his body. Streaks of redness were flowing slowly among the gaps of the suit. Deep silver brightness could be found on many of its critical parts.

Li Yao had put on the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit!

With the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit which had been strengthened by the body tissue of Skeleton Dragon and the scraps of ancient magical equipment, the heat of a thousand degrees was not entirely irresistible. Li Yao crouched above the spurt holding back the hotness like a black ghost. The crazy operation he was going to carry out made his heart race and his blood boil!

“HU—”

After another round of brilliant exhaust flame eruption, Li Yao roared and charged into the spurt like a black laser even though the flames hadn’t died down yet.

The countdown now began. Nineteen seconds left!

Inside the spurt was a high temperature of thousands of degrees, which was not something that the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit could entirely overlook.

Li Yao’s eyes had been seared. He moved forward almost thirty meters in just one second and continued marching toward the interior of the crocodile-shaped warship.

The tubes in the front were narrower and narrower, bifurcating into various directions. It was impossible to go forward any longer.

Shua!

The Purple Electric Blue Fire Claw on the left arm of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit suddenly stuck out. Then, its talons joined together and formed a rapidly-revolving drill.

Purple electric arcs and blue fire surged out continuously and decorated the drill with a layer of helical mystic rays, which was revolving crazily, too!

Drill of mystic rays!

Impressed by the powerfulness of Sparkle’s drill of mystic rays in the battle against Skeleton Dragon, Li Yao had thoroughly studied the rune arrays and technologies that it entailed together with Mo Xuan and the rest of the crew. More than three hundred brand new rune arrays had been discovered and analyzed, as well as the complicated spiritual energy circulation pattern. The new findings had all been applied to the modification of the Purple Electric Blue Fire Claw.

Right now, the front end of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit’s left arm was made up of five sharp talon blades strengthened by the silver bones and ancient scraps. When they were opened, they would form a deadly, treacherous claw; when they were folded away, they could revolve rapidly and turned into an unstoppable mini drill of mystic rays with the immense spiritual energy provided.

It was not enough.

Li Yao was clear that the hardness of the materials making up the tubes must be extremely high since they were supposed to function normally in an environment of thousands of degrees. Even a drill of mystic rays might not be able to dig a hole in it shortly.

Shua!

Li Yao raised his right hand and pinned several cylindrical crystal bombs on the tubes.

After several gentle explosions, the tube nearby was rendered into a mysterious bluish color, its temperature plummeting.

They were Frigid Prison Grenades, the most powerful freezing bombs that the Heaven’s Origin Sector had ever excavated!

Li Yao had been fully armed when he went to explore Boneyard. As a frantic bomber, naturally, he had taken hundreds of various kinds of bombs with him.

However, the bombs had never gotten to play their parts on Boneyard. It wasn’t their show time until right now.

The materials of the tubes boasted supreme resistance against high temperature. But the designers of the tubes hardly considered the scenario of an extremely low one.

Under the thermodynamic effects, the tubes were much more fragile than before.

At this time, five seconds had passed.

Li Yao roared and struck the drill of mystic rays at the wall of the tubs.

One second, two seconds, three seconds…

The next exhaust flame eruption was drawing closer and closer.

Li Yao attention was so focused that his eyes didn’t move or blink. He didn’t consider that he might not have enough time at all, but instead, he burnt his soul and unleash all his spiritual energy. Dazzling brilliance bloomed on the drill of mystic rays as it pushed forward, forward, and forward!

Finally!

The wall of the tube couldn’t stand it any longer. The drill of mystic rays blew out a giant hole on it.

Li Yao dashed into the hole without bothering anything.

Inside the hole was a spacious hollow with a forest of tubes. They were dense, interconnected, and seemed to be various different models.

Gusts of wind swept over and left, carrying away the heat.

This is the air cooling chamber.

As it turns out, this crystal warship is using an air cooling system. The entire engine system is encircled by a large rune array of the wind class. There seem to be several freezing rune arrays, too. Together, they produce cold wind to cool down the power rune arrays and the transmission tubes.

Li Yao was thinking fast, but he was moving faster. Like a giant ape, he climbed and leapt among the tubes, fleeing toward the depths of the darkness. The broken hole that he’d dug out was getting further and further away from him.

BOOM!

The exhaust flames erupted again. A fraction of the flames charged into the hole and raged like a giant animal of fire.

But Li Yao had long run out of its savaging range and reached a corner of the chamber.

In the darkness, he gazed at the labyrinth-like forest of tubes above his head and speculated the distribution of cabins in the rear part of the warship and, more importantly, the location of the engine compartment.

Judging from where the tubes are going, the engine compartment should be in the top left corner, and it’s most likely that the bottom right corner is an unattended zone.

Li Yao groped for the cold steel blocks and smiled. The drill of mystic rays appeared again in his hand.

Ten minutes later, at the tail of the crystal warship, in a cooling pool where nobody was watching, below a cover that was used to inject cooling liquids, squeaking noises came out, followed by a series of small, intense sparks which were bursting out through the gap between the cover and the cooling pool.

The cover was opened slowly. A black ghost gradually emerged from the cooling pool.

Without anybody knowing, Li Yao had breached to the inside of Storm Prison’s starship.