Forty Millenniums of Cultivation - Chapter 500

Chapter 500: Handmade Chip

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

“How is that possible!” the host exclaimed, as if somebody had stabbed his bottom.

“Master Dustless, although I’m not a refiner, I know that chips are the most essential components of modern magical equipment. At least ten thousand tiny spiritual energy circuits have to be carved on chips only the size of fingernails for more than ten different layers to form a complicated and yet functional framework!

“Carving a chip requires a precision at the micrometer level, or perhaps even the sub-micrometer level, which means a thousandth, or even smaller, the diameter of a hair.

“It was not until the crystal processors evolved exponentially and chip makers controlled by crystal processors such as ‘Tiny Ray Etching Machine’ appeared that the microchips really thrived!

“But right now, you are telling me that a refiner is attempting to create a chip with his bare hands? Master Dustless, is it not a joke?”

Master Dustless smiled bitterly. “I know the procedure of chip production much better than you. I also believe that every member of the audience who has any common sense about magical equipment knows what a difficult and tedious job making a chip is. In fact, we have been calling the manufacturing of chips the summit of magical equipment refining.

“But facts are facts. There are no other possibilities when you look at what Li Yao has been doing.

“He is truly going to carve a chip with his bare hands!”

The host breathed heavily and scratched his head. “This is insane! This is incredible! Ten thousand spiritual energy circuits on the micrometer level without the tiniest errors. One of them goes wrong, and the entire chip will be wasted!

“Also, he has half an hour at best. Half an hour!

“Can his hands be that stable? Are they even faster than ‘Tiny Ray Etching Machines’? Then isn’t he even stronger than refiners at the Core Formation Stage?”

Bi Luoling, the other guest and the refiner from Red Line School, explained, “It cannot be compared that way.

“We all know that ancient refiners paid great attention to mini-scale etching with their hands. Many legendary refiners in history, such as Master Ou Yezi of the Hundred Smelting Clan, could even carve tens of thousands of rune arrays on magical equipment the size of millet!

“However, the modern Cultivation civilization developed together with crystal processors. Most modern refiners attached more importance to the utilization of crystal processors.

“You want to carve a chip? Then you can simply do that by operating magical equipment such as ‘Tiny Ray Etching Machines’ via a crystal processor. That will be both fast and handy.

“With the assistance of crystal processors, no rational refiners would waste their time with training themselves in the techniques of engraving chips with their bare hands. It is only a matter of preference and has nothing to do with capability or level.

“For example, fire is everywhere in modern world. We can buy a lighter that contains two rune arrays of the fire class for just one dollar.

“If so, who would bother to learn how to make fire with woods and stones? Does such a skill mean anything even if someone is adept at it?”

The host was dazed for a long time. Then he said, “Ms. Bi, are you indicating that this technique of Li Yao is like making fire with woods and stones, which is… utterly useless?”

Bi Luoling smiled bitterly. “Generally speaking, yes. But it’s a whole different case right now. I really cannot see through Li Yao. What kind of environment and which school is such a weirdo from?”

Li Yao sat straight before the operation platform. His heart was tranquil, and his eyes were scorching. After several long breaths, he had completely forgotten that he was in the middle of a fierce competition. The spectators around seemed to turn into dust. The exclamations of the host and the guests in midair gradually died down, too.

All his concentration was focused on the tiny chip.

Although he was not making a super-complicated, integrated mainframe chip but the simplest single-function control chip, it still entailed 12,330 spiritual energy circuits.

He had to divide the chip, which was as thin as the wing of a cicada, into eleven layers with the etching technique and carve more than twelve thousand circuits evenly among the layers. They could not interfere with each other and had to be connected in certain patterns.

It was like building a maze on grit, which was simply an impossible mission.

If it had been two months prior, Li Yao would’ve had no confidence that he could do it.

But right now, after the cruel training with the Purple Ring Sword Ants, his hand speed had advanced to a whole new level. The stability of his hands was far higher than that of the most advanced artificial arms, too.

He was about to declare war on the unclimbable peak with his bruised hands!

In the ancient Cultivation world, there was no such thing as a crystal processor. All the magical equipment had to be built up from scratch by refiners in person!

Today, allow me to polish this control chip, an example of the essence of the modern Cultivation civilization, with the ancient refining techniques from forty thousand years ago!

Spiritual energy was surging inside Li Yao’s body. His hands were glittering. Seven extremely tiny mystic rays were condensed in front of the seven pins among his fingers.

The mystic rays were only a thousandth the diameter of hair and completely unrecognizable to human eyes. Only through Li Yao’s special head-worn microscope could he see the mystic rays that were in the shape of ultimate sabers!

The seven light sabers had different frequencies, which allowed them to enter the different layers of the chip and carve there at the same time!

Li Yao closed his eyes and made a countdown. Three seconds later, his eyelids suddenly opened. Inside his eyes, his pupils were surrounded by bright gold rings that were expanding and shrinking like the crystal cameras with extremely high resolution!

His body was still. But there were explosive sounds coming from his hands.

The audience was immediately in a riot.

Since the match had proceeded for a while, most regular spectators were tired. Some of them were taking a tap, only to be woken up by the continuous explosions. They all stood straight and listened attentively.

The host shouted at his loudest, “What’s going on? Li Yao seemed to be frozen before the operation platform, but terrible sounds are coming from him, as if a fearsome animal is chewing its prey there! Let’s focus the camera on his hands. Zoom in, and zoom in. Ah, Li Yao’s hands have turned into a cluster of white mist where thousands of blurred shadows—”

“Not blurred shadows!”

Bi Luoling’s voice cut off the host’s scream like the sharpest saber as she continued, “It’s the sonic barrier!”

“Every finger on Li Yao’s two hands is moving rapidly and breaking the sonic barrier within the tiny distance!

“The roars that we are hearing are made by his hands when they are breaking the sonic barrier!

“His hand speed has surpassed all limits. He is carving a chip at a supersonic speed!”

The host shrieked, “Supersonic hands? Is that really a thing?”

The field was filled with whispers. Many audience members couldn’t help but stand up and gaze at the enlarged picture in midair bewilderedly.

Inside the VIP room, the experienced refiners were dumbfounded, too.

Supersonic hands were the privilege of the refiners at the Core Formation Stage by common sense.

However, every sign in Li Yao’s performance from the beginning to now suggested that he was merely around the middle level of the Building Foundation Stage. More importantly, he was only in his twenties!

What kind of horrifying training did he receive to raise his hand speed to such an extent?

The managers of the three main crystal suit centers looked at each other and suddenly retreated to a corner at the same time. They were contacting their respective human resources department asking them to draft a fat, attractive contract as soon as possible.

The manager of Red Line School was so regretful that he was almost bashing his head. Last night, they’d had an opportunity to recruit such a talent in advance, but because of a moment of hesitation, they had let the cooked duck fly away!

Seeing the beaming and greedy face of his competitors, he knew that the fight for the talent would be nothing but intense. He would have to spend quite a fortune in order to get him!

Across from Li Yao’s workshop, Mo Tianshui subconsciously stopped his actions. He gazed and walked to Li Yao subconsciously and almost hit the wall.

The talented heir of the noble family found his heart pounding and his face pale.

Impossible. It’s definitely impossible!

Carving a chip with supersonic hands? That’s outrageous!

This is a psychological strategy!

His hands might be really fast, but how can he make an authentic chip with nothing but his bare hands? He must be tricking me!

No, I must calm down. I have crushed my opponent in every competition since the first one. Today shall be no exception!

Right then, an earsplitting warning broke out from the furnace behind him.

Mo Tianshui quickly turned around and gasped.

On the control menu, several figures had turned deep red, and one of them had even gone black!

Not good!

The batch of components that he had refined for last fifteen minutes had been wasted!

Mo Tianshui gnashed his teeth so hard that he almost crushed them.

Li Yao’s hands were trembling at the top speed, while they zigzagged and bounced at a supersonic speed within the tiny distance, driving the seven cutters of mystic rays to leave clear spiritual energy circuits on the chip.

Twenty minutes later, the last line was completed. He suddenly felt his head was dizzy and almost fell over.

His hands resumed absolute stillness instantly. But they were suddenly enveloped by burning flames.

Due to the friction with the air, his hands had been heated to a very high temperature, and they were on fire like a falling star that had breached into the atmosphere.

Li Yao took a breath in relief. There was more easiness than exhaustion on his face.

Even without the protection of spiritual energy, the pain of his hands being burnt was less than one tenth the suffering from being bitten by Purple Ring Sword Ants.

He simply let his hands burn, while he stood up and stretched his arms, before he walked to a corner of his workshop slowly.

In the corner, there was a metal bucket that was filled with bright green nutrition liquids.

Since the high-intensity refining work was six hours long, it was expected that the refiners took a moment of rest every once in a while and nourish their hands with the nutrition liquids.

Li Yao stabbed his burning hands into the nutrition liquids. The flames were immediately put out.

Centered around his hands, two swirls appeared in the nutrition liquids and span quickly!

Half a minute later, Li Yao withdrew his hands. The height of the nutrition liquids dropped by one third!

“Almost one third of the nutrition liquids have been devoured by Li Yao’s hands! His—his hands are like two hungry animals!”

The host’s voice was somewhat coarse.

After witnessing so many unbelievable scenes, he had lost the strength to shout and scream.

Chapter 501: Edgeless Sword, Blood Dragon Tooth!

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

The procedures after carving the spiritual energy circuits were much easier. Li Yao crumbled Purple Soda Leaves and Phoenix Tail Willows into powder and mixed them with Rail Flower Water at a certain ratio. After they were fully blended, he dripped the solution on the chip, which was still burning hot, in order to ensure the robustness of the spiritual energy circuits. In the end, he encapsulated the chip with Grand Heavenly Copper and baked them in the fire of 355 degrees for seventeen minutes. And everything was done!

Twenty minutes later, the prolonged match of six hours finally came to an end.

When the two refiners walked out of their workshops with their marvelous weapons, the air inside the field was rattling like the sound of cloth being torn apart.

Li Yao was carrying a battle saber packed in grey linen on his back. Coldly-shining sawteeth that looked like the tusks of a fearsome animal were on both the back of the saber and its edge. On the body, zigzagging crimson traces seemed to be dragons lurking in an abyss that were about to break free from their shackles and soar to the sky!

The blade was named ‘Blood Dragon Tooth’. It was 1.3 meters long and weighed 72.5 kilograms. It could deal a lot of damage with both vibration of the edge and the revolution of the sawtooth!

The dragon-like blood stripes on the body of the saber had been stamped through the ‘Blood Baptism’ technique with ten drops of blood from Li Yao’s fingertips to strengthen the connection between him and the weapon.

The destination of the blood stripes was his manually-made control chip!

Mo Tianshui deserved to be the heir of a major sword-forging family. Although awed by Li Yao’s senseless show briefly, he resumed his calmness very soon after. Walking out of his workshop, antique and tranquil, he looked again like a statue that had just been unearthed.

Inside his arms was a vintage long sword enshrouded by green silk.

Although it was delicately-shaped and the rune arrays on it were quite sophisticated, there was no edge on the sword, nor were there any signs of sawtooth.

At first glance, it was just an iron stick that somebody made carelessly!

The sword was named ‘Edgeless’. It was 1.51 meters long and weighed 71.44 kilograms. According to Mo Tianshui himself, it was a special model that belonged to the family of chainswords.

The two refiners’ eyes collided in the air as if a blade and a saber had crashed. Many regular spectators whose metal power was relatively weak were all hearing clangs and seeing sparks!

At this moment, any words would be redundant.

Even the host, who had kept talking since the beginning, turned quiet while he watched the staff to bring the two pieces of magical equipment into the examination room.

The honeycomb-type refining center, where tens of thousands of people were seated, was now dead silent. The only thing that could be heard was the sound of racing hearts. Every pair of eyes was fixed on the giant light beam that gradually descended from the ceiling. The light beam rippled as if it could not withstand so many enthusiastic eyes.

Some spectators who were less impatient were cursing in a low voice.

The examination of the elimination matches was extremely cruel. The blades of the two players would be engaged in head-on confrontations.

Inside the examination room, their blades would be placed on special attack rune arrays which would transmit the same amount of spiritual energy to them and drive them to attack each other. Each collision would be one round.

After each round, the spiritual energy inputted would be doubled, until one of the two blades was slashed apart or blown to pieces!

In the first round, one standard unit of spiritual energy would be sent in. It equaled to the spiritual energy that a Cultivator in the beginning level of the Refinement Stage could unleash when they were fully burning their soul.

The second round would be two standard units. The third round, four. After several rounds, the spiritual energy transmitted into the blades would reach a shocking extent, and the damage that the blades dealt would be devastating, too.

As the examination proceeded, one of the two blades would give in sooner than the other. It either exploded because of spiritual energy overflow or was shattered by the hostile blade.

It was the cruelest confrontation between refiners!

‘Blood Dragon Tooth’ versus ‘Edgeless’. The examination began!

All the spectators inside the field, the experienced refiners in the VIP room, the volunteers from the two supreme universities, including Xie Anan in the relaxation room… Everyone held their breath.

Inside the spacious examination room, at two ends of a diagonal line, twenty meters away from each other, two large-scale attack rune arrays more than one meter in diameter and as complicated as a maze had been deployed.

The two rune arrays stored the fighting will and the moves of many experts. After the blades were put on them and sufficient spiritual energy was sent in, they would attack each other automatically.

Two rune arrays were now lit up, one green and one red. Edgeless and Blood Dragon Tooth floated above the rune arrays, the auras on them fluctuating.

After a buzz, the two rune arrays glittered at the same time. Dazzling spiritual energy spurted out from every rune and congregated into a raging spiritual wave that swallowed the two marvelous weapons!

In the first round, one standard unit of spiritual energy had been inputted!

Motivated by the surging spiritual energy, Li Yao’s Blood Dragon Tooth started vibrating at a high frequency. The sawteeth revolved on the back and the edge of the saber vibrated crazily, producing blood-freezing noises!

Mo Tianshui’s Edgeless suddenly glittered, too. Flames of brightness dashed out from the inside of the sword and adorned it with a quickly-spinning sawtooth made of mystic rays!

Swoosh!

Swoosh!

Driven by the attack rune arrays, the saber and the sword turned into two streaks of brightness and crashed into each other brutally!

BOOM!

A visible blast spread out from the center of collision into thousands of waves, which then formed what seemed to be transparent feathers and fell off.

The two marvelous weapons returned to their respective corner, utterly undamaged. They were roaring wildly like two ferocious animals that had been irritated!

They seemed to be bellowing ‘Not enough! Gimme more spiritual energy!’

The second round, two standard units of spiritual energy were sent in!

With double spiritual energy, the two blades were much more appalling than before. Crimson auras were raging around Blood Dragon Tooth. The dragon-like blood stripes on the body of the saber were on a rampage, too, as if they were breaking free!

Edgeless was surrounded by green fire. The air near it was compressed to the absolute minimum. A tornado seemed to be savaging inside the examination room!

Two surging waves crashed into each other, head to head. The noises they raised seemed to be enough to knock over the entire field.

The third round. Four standard units of spiritual energy were sent in!

…

It was not until the fifth around, when sixteen standard units of spiritual energy were inputted, that the first dents on the two blades appeared almost at the same time.

The host was immediately refreshed. “Blood Dragon Tooth and Edgeless are both taking damage. Their spiritual energy circulation is not as fluent now, either. It seems that they are reaching their limits! Master Dustless, which side do you think will win eventually?”

“It’s hard to say. Mo Tianshui’s Edgeless is very creative and not hamstrung by any dogma. But the design was improvised based on his original design because Li Yao took away his crucial materials. There are bound to be a lot of shortcomings and deficiencies. Look, the sawtooth made of mystic rays is showing early signs of collapse already.

“Meanwhile, Li Yao’s Blood Dragon Tooth is based on his long-prepared design. Its framework is much more stable. The two forms of damage from revolution and vibration have increased the destructiveness of the blade by multiple times.

“But he, too, has a fatal problem.

“Will the ‘Iron-Knight-II’ control chip, which he made with his bare hands just now, keep stable after so many insane collisions while being stimulated by more than sixteen standard units of spiritual energy?

“If the control chip loses control, the two spiritual energy circuits inside the blade will start conflicting. The blade will break down by itself.”

“Therefore, the key to the confrontation is the ‘Iron-Knight-II’ control chip.

“If the chip is stable, Edgeless will lose soul!

“If the chip breaks apart, Blood Dragon Tooth will shed blood!”

Hardly had Master Dustless finished his comment when the two weapons that had been injected with sixty-four standard units of spiritual energy collided heavily for the seventh time!

A weird thing happened!

The tremendous momentum did not raise any sound. The saber and the sword were stuck to each other as if they were attracted by something invisible!

The host exclaimed, “Oh! Spiritual entanglement!”

Spiritual entanglement was not an unusual phenomenon during the confrontation of magical equipment. The immense spiritual energy triggered by two pieces of magical equipment sometimes would be attracted and melted, thereby forming an enormous force field of spiritual energy.

In such cases, the confrontation would be entirely dependent on the strength of the blades. Tricks wouldn’t matter at all. They would not part again until one of them was broken or battered!

The winner would be revealed in several seconds!

Li Yao and Mo Tianshui clenched their fists at the same time.

The auras surrounding Blood Dragon Tooth and Edgeless diminished compared to a moment earlier, but the intimidating strength unleashed from the inside of the magical equipment was soaring exponentially!

The auras from the saber attacked those from the sword, and the sawtooth of the sword bit that of the saber. Two ferocious animals bit into each other’s throat at the same time and couldn’t let it go at all. They could only try to keep on mauling each other until one of them died!

Crack!

Crack!

Cracks that looked like spider nets appeared on the saber and the sword and quickly spread out.

But the cracks on Blood Dragon Tooth approached the control chip faster!

Bo!

Under the ‘attack’ of the cracks, the control chip suddenly glowed, before it exploded. Blood Dragon Tool finally couldn’t bear it any longer and broke down into thousands of pieces!

“Master Dustless’s prophecy has come true! Blood Dragon Tooth’s control chip was seriously affected and lost the ability to coordinate the two spiritual energy circulations, which ended up attacking each other.

“Edgeless took the opportunity and blew up Blood Dragon Tooth!”

“Ha!”

Mo Tianshui, who had always been as calm as dry wood, suddenly turned into someone else. He grinned, his every tooth shining. Ecstasy that solely belonged to young men beamed out of his face, while he jumped high like a monkey and waved his fist in the air!

Inside the VIP room, many experts from the Mo family were dazed.

Were their eyes deceiving him?

Was this guy the Mo Tianshui who they were familiar with?

It was well known that Mo Tianshui had never smiled after a victory ever since he was twelve.

For him, victories were as abundant as air. What was there to be excited about when breathing air?

“Blood Dragon Tooth exploded?”

The spectators were in chaos. Some were shouting.

However, in the very next second, while Mo Tianshui’s exultant smile was still spreading on his face, twelve dazzling lightings burst out, one after another, in the center of the thousands of pieces that used to be Blood Dragon Tooth.

Amid rumbling noises, the hundreds of electric arcs blossomed and connected all the pieces of Blood Dragon Tooth into a saber of lighting more than three meters long!

It was as if Edgeless had helped Blood Dragon Tooth break its seal.

This was the true form of Blood Dragon Tooth!

Chapter 502: Critical Strike!

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Lightning was crackling. Scraps were flying. Every piece of the saber was like a sharp tooth, which was revolving fast and swallowing ‘Edgeless’ as if a ferocious animal made of electric arcs had opened its bloody mouth!

Edgeless had been improvised and refined in a hurry in the first place. Its internal structure was not stable. Breaking the first form of Blood Dragon Tooth was already the best it could do. Right now, it had tiny damages inside and out, and was unable to bear the ruthless tearing of the electric arcs and the scraps.

Blood Dragon was gloating; Edgeless was screaming before it broke apart a moment later!

That was not the end of it!

Edgeless’ thousands of pieces were captured by the raging electric arcs as well and became part of Blood Dragon Tooth!

It appeared that the sword had been devoured from skin to bones!

After absorbing Edgeless’ pieces, Blood Dragon Tooth quickly expanded to more than five meters long. Electric arcs were coiled around it. Scraps from the two blades gathered into an iron tide and crashed into the wall of the examination room brutally!

BOOM!

The transparent wall made of super-hard crystals and engraved with multiple defense rune arrays was added with a deep, terrifying trace by the attack. After an earsplitting sound, thousands of cracks spread across the entire wall!

This attack apparently drained Blood Dragon Tooth. One second later, the lightning and the force field both perished. Thousands of pieces fell down to the ground.

The examination room fell into darkness, as if nothing had happened. But the remaining particles of spiritual energy in the air were still glimmering like fireflies, telling of the shocking turn of events just a moment earlier.

The hearts of all the audience almost stopped beating.

They were truly stunned by the final attack.

Inside the VIP room, refiners from the Mo family fell into their seats helplessly.

Refiners from the Huangpu family, when realizing that Huangpu Xiaoya would most likely be faced with the creator of such an unparalleled deadly saber in a few days, narrowed their eyes.

The college students from the two supreme universities in the relaxation room both exclaimed in disbelief. Xie Anan even jumped to her feet excitedly.

“Master Li Yao won!”

Yes, although Li Yao’s weapon collapsed only three seconds after Mo Tianshui’s weapon did, the time was more than enough for a Cultivator to do many things.

In a real battle, the Cultivator who carried Blood Dragon Tooth would be able to slay their enemy ten times in the three seconds!

Besides, after taking in Edgeless’ pieces, the critical strike of Blood Dragon Tooth was too formidable. Ten times was unnecessary. One attack should be enough to obliterate the enemy!

The host completely lost his calmness and started yelling. “What an unexpected outcome! Although something was wrong with Li Yao’s handmade chip, he seemed to have foreseen the situation earlier and modified his saber profoundly! The winner of this match is Li Yao, whose Blood Dragon Tooth has consumed Mo Tianshui’s Edgeless!”

The sunny smile was frozen on Mo Tianshui’s face. There was not a replacement.

He couldn’t remember a suitable expression to wear upon meeting failure at all.

His lips were still curled. But there was a plethora of emotions in his eyes—shock, shame, resent, confusion, and frustration—which made his face extremely weird.

“It—”

His lips trembling for a long time, Mo Tianshui finally regained the ability to speak. He gnashed his teeth. “It was within your expectations that your saber would shatter?”

“Correct.”

Reviewing and analyzing a competition was an excellent way of communication. Li Yao didn’t mind sharing his experience with Mo Tianshui, the talented genius from a noble family. He quickly sorted through his thoughts and explained it carefully to him.

“Although I tried several times in the Great Illusionary Land, this is the first time I’ve made a chip with my bare hands in reality.

“Iron-Knight-II control chip is too complicated for me. Therefore, what I carved was actually an ‘Iron-Knight-I’ that is relatively simpler.

“But even so, a manually-made chip definitely cannot compare to the chips made by magical equipment in regards of stability and resistance.

“Faced with such an expert like you, it’s almost a sure thing that the competition would last five or even more rounds. When dozens of standard units of spiritual energy were poured into the blade, my manually-made chip was bound to break down.

“But it was impossible for me to abandon the control chip and switch to a whole different design in the beginning, because all the materials I chose were based on my original scheme. I was more dependent on the crucial materials than you were.

“The unexpected change of rules were much less in my favor. No matter how I changed my design, many materials I selected would be wasted.

“Therefore, I made up my mind to carve a chip that would be relatively unstable and adjusted my design by adding another gadget that I’ve been thinking about for a long time. It was a gamble.”

“And you won it.”

Mo Tianshui’s eyes were crimson. The frustration of failure gradually disappeared from his face, replaced by infinite enthusiasm about magical equipment.

A refiner could lose or die, but they must know the reason of their failure!

He took a long breath and drove away the last bit of his exasperation. The sense of failure just now had been shattered by him. He then asked earnestly, “You were wagering on the second form of Blood Dragon Tooth?”

“Yes.”

Li Yao nodded and said, “The Blood Dragon Tooth I refined has two forms—the regular form and the critical strike form, which was automatically triggered when the blade was sabotaged to the point of destruction.

“In the critical strike form, thousands of electric arcs are unleashed from the inside of Blood Dragon Tooth. All the scraps are restricted, and the damage of the blade is three times higher than in the normal form.

“Besides, when Blood Dragon Tooth is in the critical strike form and tears the enemy’s weapon apart, it can devour the pieces of the hostile weapon and further increase its damage to over five times its original!

“But as you saw, the critical strike form can only last for three seconds at best.

“It is like the final roars of a deadly animal when it’s fully burning its vitality before its death!”

Mo Tianshui closed his eyes and pondered for a while. He mumbled, “An enemy unfamiliar with the weapon would definitely be relaxed briefly when they break your saber apart.

“But they won’t know that Blood Dragon Tooth is at its strongest when it is broken. By tearing their weapons, its strength can be even further improved.

“With such an unparalleled saber, you might be able to kill an enemy who is twice as strong as you with its critical strike.

“I admit my failure today. Fellow Cultivator Li’s strategies are indeed incredible. You have my admiration.

“However—

“There is something that is still baffling me. What’s the mechanism of the critical strike form? Could Fellow Cultivator Li explain it to me roughly, if it is not related to anything confidential?”

Li Yao smiled and said, “I can only say that the core of the electromagnetic force field is… the Twelve-chain Thunder Runes.”

Mo Tianshui was dazed for a moment. He was deep in thought. A moment later, his eyes were shining as he asked, “Are you referring to the hypothesis of Fiend Star, the master of classical refining theories who has become quite popular on the Spiritual Nexus recently?”

“Yes.”

Li Yao explained, “Master Fiend Star proposed that the Twelve-chain Thunder Runes could be applied to modern magical equipment, which has raised quite an intense debate on the Spiritual Nexus. I’ve been following the topic.

“Most people despised Master Fiend Star’s idea and thought that it was totally impractical.

“Yes. From the viewpoint of today, the Twelve-chain Thunder Runes are quite primitive and obsolete in regard to their spiritual energy model.

“Such ancient runes’ transformation of spiritual energy has a very low efficiency. The enhancement they provide is poor. Not to mention that they are also very unstable and can only last several seconds. It is utterly unsuitable to work as a steady, persistent attack unit of magical equipment.

“There are dozens of rune arrays of the thunder class in the modern Cultivation world that can replace the Twelve-chain Thunder Runes perfectly and deal equal damage.

“Therefore, most people thought that Master Fiend Star’s theory was unrealistic.

“But they were all wrong!

“The greatest value of the Twelve-chain Thunder Runes is not entailed in its attacks.

“Despite the primitiveness and unstableness of the runes, they have a very special feature.

“When the Twelve-chain Thunder Runes are triggered, a lot of spiritual energy of the thunder class will escape because of the deficiencies of the spiritual energy model. The spiritual energy will then generate an electromagnetic force field whose form can be shaped at will!

“With a few preset telepathic thoughts, the force field can be modified into whatever shape a Cultivator desires.

“For example, I built the force field into the form of a saber!

“The electromagnetic force field in the form of a saber mixed with abundant metal scraps bursting out all the energy within several seconds. That is the critical strike form of Blood Dragon Tooth!

“And that is how the Twelve-chain Thunder Runes should be properly used.”

Mo Tianshui’s face color changed. “You agree with Fiend Star’s theories?”

Li Yao replied in a smile, “Yes. Master Fiend Star’s theories have given me a lot of inspiration. I am an admirer of Master Fiend Star and agree with all his theories. I will try my best to put his theories into practice in the future, too!”

Hearing that, everyone present began whispering again.

Many in audience were uttering meaningless ‘Ah Ah’ sounds to let out of their extreme shock.

Some of the audience, on the other hand, were confused. They asked their friends, “Who is Fiend Star?”

They immediately sensed contempt from nearby spectators.

Although Fiend Star’s classical refining theories had been quite a hit on the Spiritual Nexus and attracted the attention of many refiners, most of the discussions had been contained to the theoretical level. Nobody thought that they could be put into practice.

However, Li Yao had applied one of Fiend Star’s theories into a real battle in such a professional match and proved it to be brilliant!

Within the next minute, the queries for ‘Fiend Star’ on the few main search engines on the Spiritual Nexus increased by dozens of times!

It was an outcome that Li Yao had hoped to achieve.

He had put a lot of thought into it and decided to keep using the alias of ‘Fiend Star, Specialist in Classical Refining Theories’.

The capability that he’d been demonstrating recently only confirmed that he was a competent practical refiner. Even if he were to join one of the three main crystal suit centers, he would most likely be engaged in the real, hands-on refining work.

He probably wouldn’t be invited to the conferences themed with the cutting-edge theories.

After all, his supersonic hands that carved a chip without any aid were not papers that could be read in a pure academic meeting.

But as long as the popularity of ‘Fiend Star’ grew until it was acknowledged by everyone to be a master in classical refining theories, he would be able to participate in the discussions about the most advanced theories of refining.

Moreover, his methods of refining had obvious traces of the ancient techniques. It was quite possible that somebody would link him to Fiend Star.

It was a better idea to disguise it first before anybody found out the truth. Hearing his declaration, people would think of him as a worshipper of Fiend Star. Then there would be nothing odd about his methods of refining being mixed with ancient techniques.

Skyhill Sword Seminar was the best opportunity to increase the popularity of ‘Fiend Star’. Was there any time better than right now to brag about himself?

Chapter 503: Best Explanation

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Mo Tianshui seemed to have found a treasure. His face was beaming with excitement as he said, “I’ve read Fiend Star’s theories before, too. But I thought that they were too invalid and impractical. I didn’t know that it was because I was too shortsighted to notice the delicacies of his theories!

“It seems that I need to study Master Fiend Star’s theories deeper in the future. I hope I can have another match with Fellow Cultivator Li someday!”

“I very much look forward to it,” said Li Yao sincerely.

Mo Tianshui was indeed a super expert. Li Yao was uncertain that he could defeat him again in a match with different rules.

Such high-level competition would be of great help to improve the Cultivation of both parties no matter which side won.

Mo Tianshui hesitated for a moment, but he still failed to contain his curiosity and asked, somewhat embarrassedly, “Fellow Cultivator Li, if you don’t mind me asking, can you tell me how you trained your hands to achieve such a lightning-like speed?”

Li Yao thought for a moment. Xie Anan had seen his training with Purple Ring Sword Ants previously. Right now, he had exposed his true capability, and Xie Anan was likely to tell her friends now that it was unnecessary to keep it a secret.

Besides, such a training method was not anything confidential. It was recorded in many notes from ancient times. Anyone determined enough could practice it in the first place.

Figuring everything out, Li Yao did not intend to keep it to himself anymore. He said seriously, “Have you ever seen Purple Ring Sword Ants at four o’clock in the morning?”

Mo Tianshui was dazed, not having the slightest clue what the question was about.

Li Yao explained, “Four o’clock in the morning is the period belonging to the tigers according to the ancient Cultivators. It is the time when day and night shift. It is also the darkest moment before dawn.

“Moreover, it is the best time of rest for Purple Ring Sword Ants.

“If you wake up them, the Purple Ring Sword Ants become infuriated into the most rampant state. They become crazy like the most aggressive tigers.

“If you train with the Purple Ring Sword Ants at four o’clock in the morning day after day, your hand speed will surely improve significantly.”

Li Yao’s words raised chaos in many refiners’ minds.

Increasing the perception and the speed of one’s hands with the Purple Ring Sword Ants was an ‘ancient secret art’ that many refiners knew about. But most people scorned it and took it as the jibber-jabber of insane Cultivators.

It had never occurred to them that the method was a real thing!

For a moment, many of them felt that their blood was freezing.

They all knew how painful it was to be bitten by the Purple Ring Sword Ants, and yet this guy chose four o’clock in the morning, when the ants were most furious and brutal, to do his training?

This was truly one mad monster! No wonder his hands had broken the sonic barrier despite merely being at the Building Foundation Stage.

In the auditorium, Tu Yongqing’s face was partly red and partly pale.

He had been quite unlucky this year. He had come across a strong enemy in the second round and was eliminated from the game in 101st place. Therefore, he could do nothing but watch as a spectator.

He remembered that, a few days ago in the sword-tasting get together, he had slated ‘Purple Ring Sword Ant Training’ in public. Ashamed, he was thinking of digging a hole right now so that he could hide himself.

With thousands of pairs of dumbfounded eyes fixed on him, Li Yao left the field through the teleportation array.

He was fatigued. Carving a chip with his bare hands had consumed too much of his energy and soul power. Right now, his hands felt like they were on fire, and yet there was a sense of numbness as if they did not belong to him. He needed to find a place to train and recover them immediately.

At the other end of the teleportation array, in a spacious hall, somebody was waiting for him.

It was Huangpu Xiaoya, another talented heir from a noble family of refining.

In the second round of competition, the total damage of the three pieces of magical equipment that she had refined was even higher than that of Li Yao’s works and Mo Tianshui’s. She ranked first currently.

Huangpu Xiaoya did not hide her aggressiveness at all. The electric arcs inside her eyes were shining ten times more brightly when she saw Li Yao was coming.

Her hands had been surrounded by lightning since she didn’t know when, which were spluttering and breaking her skin apart.

Before the blood flowed out, it was already vaporized into scarlet mist by the lightning.

Li Yao was quite familiar with the phenomenon.

It was not because she wasn’t in control of her hands but because her hands were too desperate for a real fight!

Huangpu Xiaoya snapped her fingers. Electric arcs were dancing on her fingertips. They tied up a finely-made jade bottle and sent it to Li Yao.

“This is the special hand-nourishing liquid of the Huangpu family that contains 136 Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. Every drop was made by experts in my family slowly over several years.

“Your hands must have suffered heavy injuries from the supersonic movements just now. They may look fine on the outside, but tiny damage must be all over your veins, nerves, and bones now.

“You won’t be able to completely recover them in another five days. Your hand speed will drop by 5%.

“Our Huangpu family is best known for the marvelous nourishing liquid we make. This bottle of liquid should be able to accelerate the healing of your wounds and recover your hand speed to 100% of its original or even higher within three days!”

Li Yao was dazed for a moment. He took the bottle without any hesitation and put on a big smile. “Many thanks.”

Her eyes absolutely still, Huangpu Xiaoya gazed at his hands, as if they were a piece of great artwork, and as if she was going to gobble up his hands in one mouthful. She replied, “There is no need. You should know what I want.

“I don’t want any regrets in my victory. That’s all.

“Try and get yourself well. I’m looking forward to competing with you in your best state!”

…

When Li Yao walked out of his personal chamber, the hundreds of reporters waiting outside went crazy.

Countless camera flashes were blinking. Hundreds of questions flooded at him like a boiling tide.

“Contestant Li Yao, you’ve risen to fame after one battle today by defeating the talented heir of the Mo family!”

“Contestant Li Yao, can you tell us more about your life? I’m told that you’ve been under the tutelage of a strange master before. Who was he exactly? Was he really the sole successor of a school from hundreds of years ago?”

“Contestant Li Yao, you said yourself that your training was based on the Purple Ring Sword Ants. As far as I know, such a way of training can be really cruel and excruciating. How did you manage to withstand that unbearable pain?”

Li Yao frowned. He had no opinions about reporters. But now that he had abruptly become famous from an unknown, somebody was definitely going to investigate him. It might be better to spread some of his stories first right now.

Moreover…

Li Yao thought of something. He smiled and said, “My time is limited, and I have to continue my training when I’m back. Therefore, I will answer one of your questions.

“I was roaming, struggling, and training in various relics of ancient battlegrounds in the edge of the sea of stars when I was young. It wasn’t the most pleasant experience, and I really don’t want to talk much about it.

“It was not until I joined the Great Horn Exo Society that I was completely changed and made a real breakthrough.

“The days I spent in the Great Horn Exo Society were the happiest time for me in this world! I will never forget the event of the entire Great Horn Exo Society fighting side by side against the space swirl caused by a True Fusion.

“I believe that few people here have ever observed a True Fusion at a close distance, much less struggling in the surging tides it raises, have you?

“It was like ten thousand suns exploding in front of your eyes simultaneously. The torrent of light and heat completely melted your cells and your soul!

“After enduring that kind of pain, no pain is insufferable.

“We were lucky enough to survive the catastrophe. The silver lining for me was that I was enlightened through the True Fusion and experienced a major breakthrough!”

It was the best explanation that Li Yao could think of for his capability.

Few Cultivators had ever gotten in touch with a True Fusion. It was impossible for the reporters to check what kind of experience it was. Besides, it was quite usual for a Cultivator to have a major breakthrough when they were on the brink of doom.

Smiling, Li Yao left the center of the Skyhill Sword Seminar before the reporters pursued further.

…

Other elimination matches were held in the following couple of days. They were arranged with a long gap between each other for the convenience of better communication. Therefore, Li Yao finally had the time to take a moment of rest.

When he was not training, he sometimes logged in to The World of Crystal Suits under the name of ‘Fiend Star’.

Hardly had he entered the Q&A zone when hundreds of invitations bombarded his face.

After he’d adulated ‘Fiend Star’ in front of thousands of people in the Skyhill Sword Seminar, Fiend Star’s popularity had soared. Those who were willing to discuss with him were of a higher level, too. Most of them were professionals in the circle of refiners now.

The question he was mostly invited to was ‘what reviews are there on the competition between Li Yao and Mo Tianshui in the Skyhill Sword Seminar?’

Some people were even sending private messages to him, asking him whether or not he knew Li Yao and his background.

Li Yao secretly chuckled. He considered for a while and left a comment as Fiend Star.

“I’ve never heard of the name ‘Li Yao’ before. But after studying the match of him versus Mo Tianshui, I was reminded of a certain someone from his methods and style.

“Many years ago, when I was exploring a small ancient battleground at the edge of Silver Frost Space Zone, I came across a strange guy who only had a left hand.

“We got eyes on the same scrap, and we were engaged in a competition in the arts of refining.

“Although the guy was only one-armed, I experienced a brutal failure that was far beyond my expectations.

“At that time, I was already quite confident in my skills of refining. In great shock, I naturally asked who the guy was.

“But the guy said nothing. He took away the scrap and disappeared in the stone belt. I haven’t seen him again ever since.

“At that time, he was already wrinkled and grey-haired. I assume that he was quite old at that time. Two to three hundred years old, maybe.

“Today, I seem to have found traces of my old acquaintance in Li Yao, and I can’t help but recall the past…”

After writing the intriguing little story, Li Yao logged off delightedly.

Everything he had said was purely imaginary and utterly unfalsifiable. He wouldn’t be bothered by whatever people made out of it.

In such a way, his identity and the origin of his skills would be more valid.

Instead of following the riot that Fiend Star’s last comment raised on the Spiritual Nexus, Li Yao was devoted to training and preparing himself for the competition of the next round, until he was notified of a message that made his eyes beam with joy.

It was a congratulatory message from the Great Horn Exo Society!

Chapter 504: Spider’s Thorn

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

“Li Yao, you are a monster!”

“I knew that you were better than what you’d been showing us, but I never thought that you would be that good! Even the true heir of the Mo family was sliced apart by you!”

In the middle of the light beam, Lei Dalu was as messy and insouciant as the old days. He laughed carefreely. “We were cruising through a very dangerous stone belt a few days ago and couldn’t receive any signal from the Spiritual Nexus. Everybody was shocked when we watched the video this morning!

“We didn’t bring the young boys of the Tiger Killer Camp for this mission. They are locked in a secret training camp in the Thousand Sails Space Zone for concentrated special training! However, seeing that you were so awesome, I still asked the manager of the camp to play the video for them. They all went crazy! Here, just watch their reactions!”

The picture blinked and turned into a montage. A pack of vigorous young man, who had zits all over their faces, were yelling toward the camera inside a somewhat outdated training room.

“Brother Li Yao, you are so incredible!”

“Brother Yao, you are the greatest idol of everyone in the Tiger Killer Camp!”

“Li Yao, from the Li family. That’s so cool! Allow me to be your lackey!”

Zhao Nuo, captain of the Tiger Killer Camp, was also dancing and talking excitedly. “Top 16 is not good enough. Now that Mo Tianshui has been defeated, Huangpu Xiaoya will be the next in line. Brother Yao, hurry up and crush her with your passionate charisma and nimble hands! We’re all backing you!”

“Yes, we’re backing you! You are the legend of the Great Horn Exo Society!” bellowed a hot-blooded young man.

Li Yao was calm when thousands of spectators cheered for him inside the match field, and his face remained unchanged when countless people admired him and called him a genius on the Spiritual Nexus.

But he couldn’t help but smile when he watched and listened to the desperately shouting young people who had fought side by side with him against the True Fusion and the space swirl.

“These guys!”

Li Yao chuckled after he watched the video. Then he said, “Captain, please tell the boys of the Tiger Killer Camp that, when everything is done after the Skyhill Sword Seminar, I will give every one of them a piece of melee magical equipment refined by myself! I can’t be their ‘Brother Yao’ without offering them anything in return.”

Lei Dalu whistled and replied, clicking his tongue, “You are truly a lavish one. As the new expert on sabers in the circle of refiners, countless saber wielders are hoping to purchase your masterpieces at whatever cost. How wasteful it will be to build weapons for those boys who don’t know the first thing about fighting! Why don’t you refine a weapon for me if you insist?”

Refiners enjoyed a high social position in the world of Cultivators because the ultimate magical equipment they created could significantly improve the combat ability of the battle-type Cultivators.

Li Yao’s saber-refining skills might still be too shabby for Core Formation Stage Cultivators. But for Cultivators at the Refinement Stage and the Building Foundation Stage, he was definitely somebody worth pleasing and making friends with.

In the world of Cultivators, Building Foundation Stage Cultivators and Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were much fewer after all, while Refinement and Building Foundation Stage Cultivators were the mainstream, who made up more than 99% of all Cultivators.

Considering the formidableness of the sabers Li Yao crafted, he could be a guest of whatever sect or family wherever he went in the Flying Star Sector.

Li Yao smiled and said, “My techniques are not good enough for Core Formation Stage Cultivators yet. So, I will build weapons for the Tiger Killer Camp first. Wait until I train myself in the three main crystal suit centers for a year and a half. By that time, I will certainly refine new magical equipment for every one of you, including Captain!”

Lei Dalu had mixed feelings. “Li Yao, you are truly the bringer of fortune for the Great Horn Exo Society. Did you know that the searches for the Great Horn Exo Society increased by hundreds of times on the Spiritual Nexus the day you mentioned your relationship with the Great Horn Exo Society? We even made it into the weekly ‘Trending Topics’! Right now, we are a well-acknowledged group in the circle of Exos. Many sects and star fortresses have expressed their interest in cooperating with us. A lot of strong guys are also handing in their applications, hoping to join us!

“Over the past ten years, I have been trying to make the Great Horn Exo Society larger and stronger so that we can rescue more victims of the space pirates.

“But you also knew how we brawny yet brainless barbarians used to run the Great Horn Exo Society. Without the hard work of Bai Kaixin, I’m afraid we would’ve starved a long time ago!

“This time, thanks to you, we are literally known by everyone in the world. The day of our rising is coming near!”

Lei Dalu plucked his beard and laughed very in satisfaction.

Pondering for a moment, Li Yao said, “Captain, I’ve read some news on the Spiritual Nexus and heard word on the street. It is said the Fengyu Zhong has issued tremendous bounties. Undercurrents are surging on Spider Den! Did you know—”

“No worries.”

Lei Dalu grinned, somewhat scarily. “It is not simple as it appears to be. This particular mission that Great Horn Exo Society is carrying out was not selected randomly, either. If Fengyu Zhong doesn’t come, then it’s fine. But if he does, hehehehe…”

Li Yao quickly thought everything through. He remembered that the Great Horn Exo Society had received a lot of donations the moment it arrived in the Thousand Sails Space Zone and that Gold Horn had been given priority when it was sent to a dock for modification and upgrades. He immediately understood what was going on.

It appeared that the Cultivators of the Flying Star Sector were not as inert as he had imagined.

Fengyu Zhong was a brutal bandit who countless organizations couldn’t wait to kill. However, his traces had been a secret over the past ten years. Except for Spider Den, the base for all the space pirates, nobody knew where he would show up.

The experts wouldn’t know where to chop off his head even if they were summoned together.

But this time, it was a great opportunity to hunt him down while he was hunting somebody else.

Maybe, when Fengyu Zhong marched toward the Great Horn Exo Society ruthlessly, he would find out in bewilderment that he had fallen into a deadly trap!

Lei Dalu said, “The bottom line is, keep it up in your match. Everything is smooth in the Great Horn Exo Society.

“It is you who should be more carefully. Fengyu Zhong declared quite angrily that he wanted each and every member of the Great Horn Exo Society dead.

“You were just a regular member of Great Horn, and you are barely affiliated to it now. Also, you are in the Thousand Sails Space Zone, the camp for all Exos. Therefore, I wasn’t worried about you before.

“But right now, you’ve risen to fame suddenly and highlighted your relationship with Great Horn in front of so many reporters. I’m afraid that even a dog on Spider Den knows your name now.

“On Spider Den, except for common space pirates, there is also a mysterious organization named ‘Black Spider Tower’, which is in charge of intelligence, espionage, infiltration and assassination.

“The department in charge of assassinations is known as ‘Spider’s Thorn’. It is a blood-freezing name for all Cultivators!

“In their most violent days, these assassins even dared to sneak into the headquarters of a sect and assassinate the key persons such as elders!

“Even if you are confident in your own capability, I suggest you hire a few bodyguards. With your identity as a master of saber-refining, I’m sure that, if the saber experts who are willing to be your bodyguards line up in Thousand Sails Space Zone, the last of them will end up in Heavenly Saints City!”

Li Yao felt warm. Although he had other plans, he nodded his head quickly. “Alright. Safety always comes first. I will hire a few body guards.”

While they were talking, the light beam suddenly turned fuzzy, with waves and flakes surging out, before it went completely blank.

Three seconds later, the communication was cut off.

The Great Horn Exo Society’s current mission had brought them to more than ten space zones away. The communication between them and Li Yao had been established via the dense spiritual towers throughout space.

However, the spiritual towers floating in the sea of stars were prone to the scourge of meteoroids, cosmic dust, space storms, and spiritual tides due to the lack of protection from an atmosphere. The Spiritual Nexus they constituted could be very unstable.

It was especially so when a starship was cruising past some stone belts or world fragments. An intermittent Spiritual Nexus was nothing new.

Li Yao turned off the connection and planned to retry in several minutes.

Right then, somebody knocked on his door softly.

From the monitor, Li Yao could see that it was a greasily-haired, middle-aged, fat man in a delicate robe standing on his doorstep.

He was wearing a sunny smile. His small eyes were narrowed together, which gave him an inexplicable charisma that seemed to be able to stop other people from turning down his request.

The biggest feature of this guy’s appearance was that it had no features. Despite Li Yao’s amazing computational ability, Li Yao found himself forgetting what the man looked like when he moved his eyes away after gazing at him for three seconds.

Li Yao thought of something. He quickly sorted his room for half a minute, before he cleaned his clothes and opened the door.

“Master Li Yao, greetings. My name is Fei Ming. I’m from the Silver Heart School,” said the fat middle-aged man courteously.

Li Yao blocked the door and said coldly, “Your men already came yesterday. The three crystal suit centers have all provided contracts. I need to spend a few days weighing up my options.”

Seven-colored brilliance was blinking in Fei Ming’s eyes, as he lowered his voice, as if a mosquito was flapping its wings. “The offer yesterday was for the public. Does Master Li Yao not want to hear what extra benefits we can provide you with? Why don’t we go inside and have a proper talk?”

Li Yao blinked, his pupils somewhat rigid. He mumbled to himself, “Extra benefits? I suppose we can talk about that.”

After the two of them sat down, Fei Ming brought out an octagonal metal box from his pocket in the gentlest way. He then pushed the box to Li Yao, as he said in a mild voice as if feathers were kissing the ground, “Master Li Yao, since your hands are so fast and you are so good at micro-carving, you must be very interested in delicate magical equipment. This metal box is our present for you. Consider it a sign of friendship from the Silver Heart School.”

“Delicate magical equipment?”

Brilliance of fascination beamed out of Li Yao’s eyes. He touched a crimson rune on the top of the box. After a clicking sound, the box unfolded into a weird Eight Trigram that was engraved with black-and-white helical spiritual stripes.

A small gyro rose up slowly from the center of the Eight Trigram and span silently in midair.

The edge of the gyro was carved with the most beautiful spiritual stripes, whose mystical brightness was flashing in Li Yao’s eyes.

Li Yao seemed to have fallen asleep. His eyes were absolutely still, and his breath turned slow and stable.

Fei Ming bent forward, his voice so low that it almost couldn’t be heard. “Master Li Yao, we have many other kinds of classic magical equipment, some that are so precise, it is simply impossible to dismantle them after they are assembled. For hundreds of years, none have ever cracked them successfully.

“However, this hotel is quite noisy. Why don’t we move our conversation to a less disturbed place where we can enjoy and analyze them more slowly? What do you think?”

“…Of course.” Li Yao swallowed. He stood up, holding the gyro carefully in his hands.

Translator’s Thoughts

flycrane01 flycrane01

Welcome to the beginning of a new arc!

Chapter 505: Eleven Fingers

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

The air in the hallway was thick and sticky. Time seemed to have been frozen. A weird face suddenly appeared on the colorful carpet. It gazed at Li Yao and Fei Ming, who were stepping over it in silence.

When the two of them disappeared in the emergence exit, the weird face said softly, “Plan A went smoothly. Clean up the traces and fall back in half a minute, every team.”

The weird face softly whistled. After a ‘Bo’ sound, something seemed to break. The hot and damp hallway resumed its usual wind and coolness immediately.

The weird face smiled. It melted into the carpet and vanished.

Li Yao was sitting inside a fully-sealed limo shuttle whose windows had been blocked by light beams to stop him from seeing the outside.

The shuttle was running very steadily, to the extent that it felt stationary.

Li Yao was studying the gyro wholeheartedly, with a satisfied and spellbound face.

But his computational ability surged quietly like a tide at night as he analyzed the route of the shuttle from every slight sign of slope, turn, acceleration, and deceleration, before he overlapped the route with a 3D map of the Thousand Edges Mountain.

He discovered that, although the shuttle was moving fast, it had been circling around. It seemed to have run for more than an hour, but it had returned to the building next to the hotel where he was staying!

Li Yao recalled the building to be a grey, inconspicuous plaza of seven floors.

The shuttle stopped. Ten minutes later, the door of the shuttle was opened slowly, revealing an enclosed pathway made of soft, silver materials.

At the end of the pathway was a gate in an ancient style.

Li Yao sneered. If it were a pure refiner, they would’ve thought that they had been brought to ten thousand miles away and would have been baffled about where they were now.

Fei Ming knocked on the gate three times. Then he bowed to Li Yao and said, “Master Li Yao, please.”

The gate was opened slowly. A faint scent of wood drifted into his nose. The room seemed to be a messy shop of antiques. On the lackluster closets, there was nothing but glittering artifacts, jade ware, and miscellaneous jewels.

Li Yao’s eyes didn’t stop on any of the items, for his attention was attracted by the one nearby.

Huangpu Xiaoya!

It had apparently been much more troublesome to ‘invite’ her here. There were bruises on her face and hands. Her clothes were untidy. Her eyes were bloodshot, from which electric sparks were bursting out.

She seemed to have been shackled by a certain barrier. Seeing Li Yao show up, she was beaming with joy at first. But very soon, she was caught in deeper desperation. She opened her mouth and tried to speak, only to let out meaningless hissing sounds.

Fei Ming said with a smile, “Master Li Yao, Miss Huangpu, please do wait patiently for a moment. The host will be here in no time.”

Barely had he finished his sentence when a middle-aged, somewhat tired man whose temples were grey haired slowly walked out from behind a screen of bamboo.

His face was nothing unusual. But his eyes were ten times brighter than those of ordinary people. His hands were as dry as rotten rood, and he had six fingers on his left hand.

If anybody else had six fingers, the extra one would certainly be redundant and very weird.

But this middle-aged man’s left hand looked natural and perfect. It gave the impression that having six fingers was the norm, that it was not that he had one additional finger but that everybody else was short of a finger.

Such a weird left hand made Li Yao’s heart beat fast.

When he looked at the man’s face more carefully, lightning seemed to strike his head.

Before Li Yao could open his mouth, Huangpu Xiaoya, whose barrier had been eliminated at some point, exclaimed in shock with a twisted face, as if she had seen the last person she expected to see in the world, “You are… Uncle Shiyi?”

With a closer look, the man’s face did share some similarities with that of Huangpu Xiaoya.

Li Yao’s pupils constricted violently. His face color changed as he cried, “Huangpu Shiyi 1 ?”

Huangpu Shiyi was an unavoidable figure in discussions about the most distinguished refiners of the past thirty years.

He had been the most talented, the most hard-working, and the most arrogant genius refiner of his generation in the Huangpu family.

In the Skyhill Sword Seminar 29 years ago, Huangpu Shiyi had jumped out of nowhere and won the title of ‘Sword Master’ effortlessly with unquestionable one-sided competitions. The Skyhill Sword Seminar that year could almost be called his one-man show. The skills and techniques he showed to the world were all as impressive as Li Yao’s ‘carving a chip with his bare hands’, if not more!

When Li Yao was searching for information about the Skyhill Sword Seminar, he had seen videos of Huangpu Shiyi’s arts of refining, which had left such a deep impression on him that even he found it hard to believe that such a genius could exist, although he had always considered himself to be sort of a genius!

At that year, Huangpu Shiyi hadn’t even reached thirty yet. He was in the prime of his life.

There was no telling whether it was out of arrogance or madness, but Huangpu Shiyi was not satisfied after winning the title of ‘Sword Master’ easily. He challenged the leader of the Mo family in front of thousands of spectators and all the seniors in the circle of refiners and claimed that he would defeat all the refiners of the Mo family within ten years!

“The thing about noble families of refining is that there are too many of them. One is enough!”

That was what Huangpu Shiyi had said during the ceremony.

After that, he went through the harshest training in the craziest ways.

Li Yao trained with Purple Ring Sword Ants to increase the speed and perception of his hands. But Huangpu Shiyi had found a world fragment with abundant spiritual energy of the thunder class and trained himself in the thunderstorms. He had tried to attract the lightning to his hands to trigger the ultimate potential within them!

But, alas, he was distracted due to an accident, and his hands were wasted.

The best refiner of his generation suddenly turned into the biggest joke. He fell into the abyss of darkness for all eternity before he really rose!

Later, it was said that he went to a space zone at the edge of the Flying Star Sector to look for methods to treat his hands. During his journey, his starship was destroyed in a space storm, and he was killed.

The most brilliant star had shined and perished just like that. The only thing left was the story of an insane and arrogant genius!

Li Yao and Huangpu Xiaoya never expected that the legendary refiner who should’ve been buried in the sea of stars twenty years ago would appear in the Skyhill Sword Seminar again and right in front of their faces!

A lot of things had apparently happened to Huangpu Shiyi. There was no arrogance nor insanity on his face at all. Like a gentle professor, he smiled and said, “Xiaoya, when I left for the Million Star Space Zone, you had just been born. And now you are a grown woman who is qualified to participate in the Skyhill Sword Seminar representing the Huangpu family! I’ve studied the videos of your refining a lot. You are almost as good as I was at your age!

“Li Yao, my young friend. You, on the other hand, are the biggest surprise that I found in this Skyhill Sword Seminar! Carving a chip with supersonic hands, enduring the pain unendurable for other Cultivators, and training your hands with Purple Ring Sword Ants. Madness! That is pure madness! I see some of myself from the old days in you! You and I are the same type of person, and the same type of refiner!”

There was deep confusion on Li Yao’s face, as he mumbled, “What is going—”

In the middle of his sentence, the aura around Li Yao entirely changed within a moment.

A moment earlier, he seemed to still be unclear of the situation. But now, he leapt forward like a leopard!

With two explosive sounds under his feet, every muscle on Li Yao’s body was reduced to minimum. He turned into a streak of brightness and lunged at Huangpu Shiyi like a battle saber unsheathed.

In the meantime, dazzling brilliance appeared on his left arm and wreathed it, which turned out to be a thin and sharp blade!

A paralyzed prude when quiet and a rabid rabbit when active, Li Yao attacked the enemy when he made up his mind without any hesitation!

But Huangpu Shiyi seemed to have expected his unannounced attack. His sunny smile was not affected at all.

Weird waves spread out in front of Huangpu Shiyi. The air seemed to become mud, which slowed down Li Yao’s motion a little bit.

Within the moment, two people, one fair and the other dark, appeared abruptly on Huangpu Shiyi’s two sides.

On his left was a woman who was extremely slender. Her neck was twice the length of ordinary people’s, and her skin was as dark as coal.

On his right was a stout man whose skin was so fair that it was almost transparent.

The two of them roared at the same time. They stood in Li Yao’s way and blocked his fatal attack easily.

Li Yao showed no expression, but his eyes were cold. Seeing that his attack had missed, he returned to a corner like a tornado. Then he juxtaposed his right middle finger and index finger and pointed them at his spiritual root on his forehead, while he mumbled spells in his mouth.

Streams of brightness flowed out of his body and formed around him what appeared to be an armor.

He was summoning his crystal suit!

However, he was not fast enough. Before the crystal suit was fully extracted, the long-necked dark woman appeared in front of him and struck his abdomen with her long leg.

BAM!

The dark woman was wearing multiple iron rings on her legs which appeared to be some kind of very aggressive magical equipment. Dazzling brightness surged from them and flooded into Li Yao’s chest.

Li Yao’s eyes bulged wide. His spell was disrupted. The components that he had already extracted splashed and fell to the ground. They belonged to the ‘Eight Arm Suit’, created by the Silver Heart School with both combat and maintenance functions!

Li Yao gagged and collapsed helplessly.

The dark woman’s killing intent soared like a volcanic eruption. She chuckled like a night owl, while a black, glittering blade ejected from her boot and slashed at Li Yao’s neck amid earsplitting noises.

Li Yao was wearing the most terrified expression, but he couldn’t react because his legs were no longer his.

Seeing that the blade was about to cut open Li Yao’s neck, Huangpu Shiyi coughed slightly.

There was amusement in the dark woman’s eyes. The blade was retreated, and she simply kicked Li Yao in his chest.

Li Yao screamed and rolled into the corner.

From Li Yao jumping to attack to him being kicked into the corner, the entire process had lasted only five seconds.

Huangpu Xiaoya was almost dumbfounded to see what had happened.

Her eyes stopped briefly at the dark woman and the fair man. Then she shouted again, her voice trembling, “Black Stone! White Dew! Are you not the most famous free Exos in the Sky Diver Space Zone who were assassinated by Spider’s Thorn five years ago?”

The dark woman was not Black Stone; she was White Dew.

The fair and stout man, on the other hand, was Black Stone.

White Dew and Black Stone smiled and returned to Huangpu Shiyi’s side, waiting for orders solemnly and quietly.

Li Yao was cramping and breathing like a bull. It was not until he took a rest on his knees and spat a mouthful of blood that he glared at Huangpu Shiyi and asked coarsely, “When did you find out that I was not hypnotized?”

“I knew since the very beginning that you wouldn’t be hypnotized.”

Huangpu Shiyi smiled. “If you made a major breakthrough in the True Fusion and the space swirl, your mental power must be tremendously strong. An insignificant ‘Chaotic Star Gyro’ is far from enough to hypnotize you, is it not?”

1:- Shiyi (Shiyi means “eleven”)

Chapter 506: Inhuman

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Li Yao’s eyelids were trembling violently. He gnashed his teeth and spat, “If you knew that I wouldn’t be hypnotized, why did you ask this Meditation Healer specialized in metal attacks to deal with me? How were you so sure that I would come with him instead of killing him immediately on the spot? Also, how did you know that I am not a pure refiner?”

Huangpu Shiyi explained, “Your supersonic hands during the match and your continuous usage of ‘Hitting the Cow Past the Mountain’ to spiritualize the materials for an entire hour required both enormous physical strength and an extremely sturdy body, neither of which is typical for a pure creation-type Cultivator!

“After carefully studying the videos of your match, especially where the shape of your muscles is displayed, I am very certain that you are definitely not a creation-type Cultivator who cannot even catch a chicken but a hybrid-type Cultivator!

“You are both talented in combat and in refining, and your combat ability must be good!

“It does make sense on second thought. After all, you spent your early years struggling and surviving in the relics of ancient battlefields at the edge of the sea of stars. Considering the perils in such environments, you would’ve been killed a long time ago if you didn’t have the ability to protect yourself!

“Then, the question remains, how good is your combat ability?

“I mean you no harm. This is an authentic and sincere invitation. However, I am just a pure refiner, and my combat ability is not even close to yours, even though my Cultivation is levels above you. You are just like me when I was young. Crazy, reckless, and decisive. I don’t want to be slain by you before I manage to say anything! Hahahaha!

“Therefore, I specifically devised this trap in order to test your true capability.

“I, of course, knew that Feng Ming and his Chaotic Star Gyro were not enough to hypnotize you. But I also knew that a young man who travelled in isolation for twenty years such as yourself would believe in nobody but yourself.

“From the style of your refining, I can tell that you are a confident, if not arrogant, man. You are ambitious, and you like to take chances!

“If it were someone else, they might’ve attacked Fei Ming when they saw through his faked identity.

“But if it was you, you would very likely enter the tiger’s cave, pretending to be fooled, driven by your curiosity.

“After all, in your eyes, nobody knew that you were in fact a hybrid-type Cultivator with reasonable combat ability. You were planning to capture the leader of the gang when you reached their base with this trump card. In the worst-case scenario, you could always get away freely with your combat ability.”

Li Yao was silent for a long time, before he said drily, “What if I had attacked Fei Ming on the spot?”

“Then I’m afraid we would’ve been much more impudent,” answered Huangpu Shiyi.

“You don’t think that Fei Ming was the only one who went to invite you, do you? We have backup plans to test your true combat ability too. But I guarantee that they are less pleasant.

“Black Stone, White Dew, tell me about it. What is the true combat ability of my young friend Li Yao?”

Black Stone, the fair and stout fatty, smiled. “Master Li Yao switched from absolute stillness to precipitous actions at an almost subsonic speed within 0.4 seconds. His skills in battle saber are quite proficient. In my opinion, his combat ability is as good as that of the battle-type Cultivators in the beginning level of the Building Foundation Stage!”

White Dew, the dark woman, spoke up, too. “Master Li Yao’s speed in summoning the crystal suit was quite impressive. Within 1.7 seconds, 60% of the crystal suit had been implemented. I estimate that it would’ve taken him less than 3 seconds to put on the entire suit! It is not slow even in the circle of professional Exos.

“As for the Eight Arm Suit that he summoned, it was a masterpiece by the Silver Heart School, which seemed to have been modified profoundly and added with some decent combat components!”

Amazed, Huangpu Shiyi clicked his tongue in appreciation. “Unbelievable, truly unbelievable! I never expected that my young friend Li Yao’s combat ability would be so good, considering his already incredible skills in refining! Combat ability equal to that of a Building Foundation Stage Cultivator, plus an Eight Arm Suit. They make an invincible trump card! Had I not been protected by Black Stone and White Dew, I would have been captured instantly!”

Li Yao’s face was as grey as death. He collapsed as if somebody had tugged away his spine.

Huangpu Xiaoya shrieked, “What is going on, Uncle Shiyi? Where have you been in all these years? Why did you show up at this moment? How did Black Stone and White Dew, who were allegedly killed by Spider’s Thorn, come back to life? Who are you people exactly?”

Huangpu Shiyi smiled and explained, “My original plan for this trip to the Skyhill Sword Seminar was to pick you up and kill Li Yao as a favor for one of my old friends.

“However, after witnessing young Li Yao’s arts of refining, especially his amazing hands, I changed my mind! Such a talented refiner to be killed in this place for a ridiculous reason? It would’ve been a shame. It was definitely going to be a shame!

“Therefore, don’t fret. I truly mean you no harm. I only came here to bring you away.”

“Kill me?” Li Yao murmured. He suddenly shivered and shrilled, “Huangpu Shiyi, you are a space pirate, and they—they belong to Spider’s Thorn!”

Huangpu Xiaoya’s eyes were wide open. She stared at Huangpu Shiyi in disbelief while she stammered, “It’s—It’s impossible! Uncle Shiyi, you went to Spider Den and became a space pirate?”

Black Stone sneered. He said in a sharp and high-pitched voice, “What kind of bullsh*t are space pirates and Spider’s Thorn? Compared with our organization, Spider Den is but insignificant dust!”

Li Yao sneered, “I don’t care whether you are space pirates or not. Huangpu Xiaoya and I are both important figures in the Skyhill Sword Seminar. If we don’t show up in a few hours, somebody is definitely coming to check. Do you think you can run away from the Skyhill Domain by then?”

Huangpu Shiyi, Black Stone, White Dew, and Fei Ming seemed to have heard the funniest joke in the world. They burst out into such laughter that tears were pouring down their faces.

While wiping away his tears, Huangpu Shiyi said, “Here, my young friend Li Yao. Please take a look.”

He raised his six-fingered left hand. Halos suddenly spread out on the wall on the right side of the shop of antiques. The wall gradually turned transparent and became a glass window.

Outside of the window, it was the boundless sea of stars!

The Skyhill Domain had been left far, far behind!

Li Yao’s heart suddenly palpitated. Sweat the size of beans appeared on his forehead, but it froze almost immediately.

How could it be!

He had calculated that he was in a seven-floored plaza next to the hotel he was staying in. How on earth did he end up in a starship that was distances away from the Skyhill Domain?

Why was the starship so stable without the slightest bump or slope?

Huangpu Shiyi said, “Are you curious how a seven-floored plaza turned into a starship?

“It’s simple. The shuttle you were on was specially refined by me. A piece of interference magical equipment was installed to the bottom of it, which could simulate all the information that I wanted you to know so that you would make misguided judgements.

“Also, this starship was refined by me personally, too. With the most advanced stabilizing system, it is as stable as stationary even when it is performing a space jump!

“You thought that you were still in the Skyhill Domain. So, you hoped to stall me and wait until other people notice your absence. But you didn’t know that I was stalling you, too, so that we can escape from the Skyhill Domain sooner.”

Li Yao didn’t respond. Every one of his brain cells was shaking violently as he considered the situation he was in.

Huangpu Shiyi was indeed a formidable refiner. The shuttle he’d refined had completely fooled Li Yao.

From this moment, the entire incident finally got out of his control and slid into an unknown abyss.

Huangpu Xiaoya gnashed her teeth. “We might be out of the Skyhill Domain now. But so what? We are still in the Thousand Sails Space Zone, the home camp of all free Exos! As long as somebody finds that we are missing and lets out the message, everyone in the Thousand Sails Space Zone will take action! Since your starship has been ported in the Skyhill Domain, it must’ve been disguised as a business ship or a carrier. Its firepower is definitely not strong!

“Where can you run to?”

Huangpu Shiyi nodded. “Xiaoya, you do have a point. When the Skyhill Domain finds that you are missing, we will run into a dead end.

“However, what if they are occupied by something more important and have no time to bother about you two?”

Huangpu Shiyi clapped his hands softly. More than ten light beams appeared beside Li Yao and Huangpu Xiaoya.

Inside the light beams were the pictures of the Skyhill Domain right now.

The first phase of the elimination matches of the Skyhill Sword Seminar had almost come to an end. Audience inside the match field was scarce. Two top 32 players were having their competition.

A few product release conferences, on the other hand, were lively and packed with people.

Quite a lot of tourists were gathered in the Museum of Sabers and Swords, talking and laughing.

There was a bouncing number which appeared to be a countdown on all the pictures.

Three, two, one…

Li Yao’s pupils constricted violently. The nerves all over his body were tense!

The countdown reached zero!

BOOM!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The main field of the Skyhill Sword Seminar, the Museum of Sabers and Swords, the product release conferences, fan meetings of the famous refiners, hotels that the top 32 refiners stayed in…

Serial earthshaking explosions took place simultaneously at more than ten important locations in the Skyhill Domain!

The explosions were so powerful that the anti-gravity rune arrays of two floating mountains were completely wrecked. The two mountains weighing billions of tons tilted in midair and smashed at the ground!

The Skyhill Domain had turned into a living hell!

Countless ordinary people and Cultivators were sobbing, screaming, and struggling in the flames, blasts, and earthquakes!

Huangpu Xiaoya was dumbfounded. Her body trembled beyond her control; she couldn’t believe what was happening. She cried, “You—you blew up the Skyhill Domain! You’ve blown up the Skyhill Domain!”

Queer brilliance was reflected on Huangpu Shiyi’s face as he was gazing at the inferno in the light beams. He said casually, “For now, nobody will notice that you have gone missing for maybe half a month. There will be enough time for us to perform a space jump and escape from the Thousand Sails Space Zone.”

Huangpu Xiaoya yelled. She jumped to her feet, trying to lunge at Huangpu Shiyi. But she was a pure refiner with insufficient combat ability. The barrier around her was triggered and bashed her to the ground. She screamed, “Just in order to capture the two of us, you’ve slain thousands of people. So many innocent people!”

Huangpu Shiyi said calmly, “It’s not just about you two. A lot of elite refiners have gathered for the Skyhill Sword Seminar. If I can blow several of them up, it will be a major strike to the Cultivators.”

Huangpu Xiaoya’s face was red, her eyes bulging. She shouted, “You—you don’t deserve to be a refiner of the Huangpu family. You… you don’t deserve to be a human!”

Bizarre brilliance beamed out of Huangpu Shiyi’s eyes, as he replied with a smile, “Of course, I’m not a human.”

Huangpu Xiaoya was dazed, not knowing what to say next.

Li Yao went tranquil again at the moment of the explosions. His eyes were hollow, his pupils almost purely black.

Taking a deep breath, he asked, one word after another, “Then what are you?”

Huangpu Shiyi’s face was glowing. He said softly in a weird voice, “There are billions of paths leading to the pinnacle of Cultivation. I only ask you this, do you want to walk on the immortal one?”

Chapter 507: The Temple of Immortals

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

“Our organization is called the ‘Temple of Immortals’, whose influence far exceeds your imagination. The space pirates on Spider Den are but dogs it has tamed! Without the support of our organization, what makes you think that this bunch of thieves could fight against all the Cultivators and subsist for thousands of years?

“As for members of the Temple of Immortals, we are no longer regular Cultivators. You may call us… Immortal Cultivators!”

Li Yao’s eyes stopped at the burning picture on the light beams. They swallowed the raging flames without letting out any as if two blackholes. He replied coldly, “What are Immortal Cultivators?”

Huangpu Shiyi smiled. “Cultivators who recognize how supreme they are without being bound by the ethics of mortals, who pursue the ultimate destination of immortality, and who explore the endless mysteries in the sea of stars. They are Immortal Cultivators!”

Before Li Yao opened his mouth, Huangpu Xiaoya quivered and shouted, “They are Demonic Cultivators! Huangpu Shiyi, you’ve been enticed by extraterrestrial devils and fallen; you’re a Demonic Cultivator!”

Huangpu Shiyi sneered, “What’s the difference between immortal and devil? If ants were intelligent enough, their survivors would berate you and call you the most merciless devil in the world after you stomp on dozens of them accidentally, but what would you feel?

“I believe that the only feeling you would experience is—that you simply don’t care.

“Immortals or devils, our destination and sole purpose is the pinnacle of Cultivation. Who cares about what ants have to say?”

Li Yao said, “So to speak, this Temple of Immortals is an organization of Demonic Cultivators, or, if you will, Immortal Cultivators? You do seem different from usual Demonic Cultivators.”

Huangpu Shiyi observed, “There is a kind of righteous energy in the world called spiritual energy. Those who train themselves with spiritual energy are good people and Cultivators. There is a kind of evil energy called tenebrum energy. Those who train themselves with tenebrum energy are bad people and Demonic Cultivators. They are as horrible as anyone could possibly imagine.

“I thought that such nonsense could only fool three-year-olds and that refiners who have a deep understanding about the essence of spiritual energy would never buy it.

“Energy is just energy. The only thing that differentiates spiritual energy from tenebrum energy is the wave structure and the vibration frequency. How is it possible that one of them is good and the other bad, one of them is righteous and the other evil?

“Of course, compared with spiritual energy that is relatively stable, tenebrum energy is brutal and unsteady. Those who practice tenebrum energy are more likely to suffer from metal derangement. When tenebrum energy surges beyond their control, they may need to resort to blood and slaughter to calm it down. This is why some of the Immortal Cultivators are called Demonic Cultivators.

“However, the Immortal Cultivators who have advanced to a higher level are nothing like that. Look at us. Do you think we are any different from regular Cultivators?”

Li Yao said, “So, your purpose is to invite us to join the Temple of Immortals so that we can be Immortal Cultivators?”

Huangpu Xiaoya nodded. “Don’t refuse it hastily. I’m well aware that you must be furious at this moment. Whatever I say to you, you won’t hear it at all. But the last thing we lack at present is time. We can talk later. Right now, you should have a good rest first.”

Li Yao changed his posture and aimed himself at Huangpu Shiyi, and he asked, “Where are we heading to?”

Huangpu Shiyi smiled. “Aren’t you from the Great Horn Exo Society? That’s where we are going to.”

Li Yao was dazed. His body suddenly relaxed as he asked, “Is that so?”

Huangpu Shiyi’s eyes were quite mysterious. He asked in return, “Are you curious about how we infiltrated the Skyhill Domain and planted so many bombs so easily, considering that the safety measures should’ve been thorough due to the many celebrities in the Cultivation world gathered for the Skyhill Sword Seminar?

“The reason is simple. This Skyhill Sword Seminar has the sloppiest safety measures and the fewest guards in the recent hundred years!

“In the past Skyhill Sword Seminars, dozens of Core Formation Stage Cultivators would come as sentinels. But this year there were only four. The Skyhill Domain is such a vast place. How can four Core Formation Stage Cultivators have every location under control?

“Take a guess. Where did the rest of the experts go?”

Li Yao pondered for a moment and raised his head. “They went to ambush Fengyu Zhong?”

Huangpu Shiyi clapped his hands. “You saw through the whole thing with the first clue. My young friend Li Yao, I like you better and better now!

“Not only did many experts who should’ve participated in the Skyhill Sword Seminar join the ambush against Fengyu Zhong, many other renowned Cultivators of the Flying Star Sector participated in the battle in different degrees. This time, the Cultivators have made up their mind to have Fengyu Zhong slain!

“But as a result, other than the Skyhill Domain, many important places for the Cultivators have far fewer guards than before.

“Hehe. The death of Fengyu Zhong’s only son was purely an accident, but it created a rarely-seen opportunity for the Temple of Immortals!

“Do you really think that Fengyu Zhong, the old and cunning leader of the pirates, would rush out of his home base in rage for revenge just because his only son was killed?

“Right now, the tremendous bounties have spread to every corner of the cosmos. Even a pig in the Cultivation world knew that Fengyu Zhong was coming for the Great Horn Exo Society!

“In the eyes of the Cultivators, they set up a trap that Fengyu Zhong could never avoid.

“But they didn’t know that Fengyu Zhong himself was bait; his sole mission was to draw the expert Cultivators away from their homes!

“The Temple of Immortals has been lurking in the darkness for long enough. It was the greatest opportunity for us to reveal ourselves!

“The Flying Star Sector won’t be tranquil in the coming days. Much blood will be shed. Many people will die. When everything is over in a few days, you will be awed by the formidability of the Temple of Immortals!”

Huangpu Xiaoya struggled hard and screamed, “Huangpu Shiyi, how insane you are! I don’t care what you call yourself, but you will never bend us! I am a Cultivator, and I always will be. I will never be same as devils who consider ordinary people to be ants!”

Huangpu Shiyi sighed. “Xiaoya, don’t be overconfident in yourself, especially when we all know what happened in history.

“Battle saber of humanity? Protectors of mankind? Ha. If I didn’t know ‘that thing’, I might have been fooled by you.

“You are the strongest successor of the Huangpu family in your generation. I wonder, did the leader of our family tell you about the event five thousand years ago?”

Huangpu Xiaoya tremored, as if somebody had punched her heavily, and collapsed.

“If you know what happened five thousand years ago, you should understand why we are drifting in the sea of stars, far away from planets, and why we are too ashamed to return to our real homes to this day.

“It’s ridiculous that you call yourselves that battle saber of humanity. Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators are ravens and crows!

“Besides, why did so many Cultivators demean themselves to be space pirates in the first place? I believe you must know the reason.

“Is the identity of a Cultivator really something to be proud of?”

Huangpu Xiaoya’s face was cold and rigid, yet she failed to respond.

Huangpu Shiyi said, “Alright. You can go and take a rest now. We will talk soon when everything is over in a couple of days.

“Right, you must have Cosmos Rings with you. Maybe you are even hiding some gadgets that might help you escape. As a signal of my sincerity, I will allow you to keep those items. However, try not to let Black Stone or White Dew catch you using them.

“Their sabers are fast.

“You may be unafraid of death. But as a refiner, if your hands end up like mine…”

Huangpu Shiyi waved his two withered hands that looked like dry wood with a self-mocking smile. He continued saying, “… after suffering some irrecoverable injuries, it will be more miserable than killing you, will it not?”

Li Yao stared at Huangpu Shiyi and took a long breath. “I understand it now. At first, you lure the strong Cultivators away from their homes with Fengyu Zhong as the bait. Then, you assault their homes while their guardians are out.

“When the Cultivators receive the message, they will naturally realize that it is a trap and go back to defend their homes.

“After that, you can go back to the Great Horn Exo Society and annihilate it!

“The most important thing is that the Cultivators only know Spider Den. All their evaluations are based on the assumption that the space pirates on Spider Den are their enemies. But they didn’t know that, behind Spider Den, a terrible organization of Immortal Cultivators, or Demonic Cultivators, named the Temple of Immortals, has been watching everything!

“Therefore, Cultivators have no chance of winning at all, and the Great Horn Exo Society is doomed to destruction!”

Huangpu Shiyi applauded his analysis. “Very excellent extrapolation. But don’t worry about it. I know that you only joined the Great Horn Exo Society in Star Lord Temple. The hunting of Fengyu Ming basically had nothing to do with you. If you are willing to join the Temple of Immortals and become an Immortal Cultivator, I believe that Fengyu Zhong will be lenient enough to let go of you as long as I talk to him.”

Li Yao scoffed and stopped talking.

Huangpu Shiyi waved his hands. Black Stone and White Dew walked to him, grinning at them hideously.

Li Yao followed them nicely out of the cabin.

He thought as he walked—

Who was the mysterious expert in the corner?

A moment ago, he had been about to summon the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit and put down all four of the Immortal Cultivators.

However, the moment he took action, he suddenly sensed that an invisible expert was lurking in a corner of the cabin!

The man’s scent was feeble, but it was terrifying nonetheless. His capability might be as good as his own, if not higher!

Black Stone, White Dew, and Fei Ming were not weak people. Although Huangpu Shiyi was a pure refiner, he would be carrying a lot of defensive magical equipment with him.

Considering that there was still a mysterious expert whose capability almost equaled to his own, Li Yao had no confidence that he could take down all five Immortal Cultivators at once.

Of course, even counting the mysterious expert, there wouldn’t be much trouble if he wanted to flee from the starship safely with his skills and the formidable Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.

However, now that he had learned that the starship was joining a battle to destroy the Great Horn Exo Society, there was no way that he would simply leave like that.

Moreover—

The picture of countless ordinary people struggling in flames inside Skyhill Domain had been etched into Li Yao’s brain and wouldn’t be erased forever.

The Temple of Immortals? Immortal Cultivators?

Li Yao’s eyes turned deep and dark. He gradually vanished in the dim pathway.

…

After Li Yao and Huangpu Xiaoya were taken away, a cluster of airwaves appeared in a corner behind Huangpu Shiyi and unveiled a short, skinny man.

Huangpu Shiyi put on a different expression and greeted him respectfully.

“Master Su!”

Chapter 508: Secrets After Secrets

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

The skinny, sharp-jawed old man was named Su Jiuzhen. He was an important figure in the Temple of Immortals as well as an ace assassin of Black Spider Tower. Although he was merely at the peak of the Building Foundation Stage, he was adept at disguise, poison, assassination, curses, and various other dark arts.

At least seven Core Formation Stage Cultivators had been killed by him. None of them were battle-type Cultivators, but they had all been elders of major sects who were protected by numerous body guards wherever they went.

It was by no means an easy task for Su Jiuzhen to break through the protection and assassinate them. He had been known as ‘Killer of Cores’ ever since.

Although Huangpu Shiyi was in the Core Formation Stage, he was a pure refiner with limited combat ability. He was definitely no match for Su Jiuzhen if the two of them were engaged in a fight.

Moreover, the man had spent quite a few years in the Temple of Immortals. Therefore, Huangpu Shiyi was very polite to him. He asked courteously, “Master Su, what is your opinion?”

Su Jiuzhen’s voice was annoying to listen to, like iron needles scratching glass. “It won’t be difficult to convert Li Yao.

“He is a young man who was born and raised in the edge of the sector. He has been wandering away from society basically his whole life. How much feeling would he have for ordinary people? Chances are that he has already slain some of them when he was traveling in the sea of stars!

“You saw his performance in the Skyhill Sword Seminar, too. He was brutal, aggressive, and merciless!

“Such a young man must be proud and desire to be acknowledged by other people.

“Also, it’s safe to infer from that fact that he trained crazily with Purple Ring Sword Ants that he is a maniac who is interested in nothing but magical equipment!

“As long as you lure him with magical equipment and the arts of refining, with a few lessons, I’m sure that he will recognize who he really is and embark on the path of immortality!”

Pausing for a moment, Su Jiuzhen then continued. “As for Huangpu Xiaoya, she is the tricky one. I fear that she has a deep misunderstanding about Immortal Cultivators. We’d better make preparations for the worst. She is your blood niece, but you won’t hesitate when the moment comes, will you?”

Huangpu Shiyi smiled. “Why would I? Now that I’ve joined the cause of immortality, mortal affairs have nothing to do with me. What can the mundane relationship of the ordinary people do for us? Moreover—”

He looked at his withered hands with mixed feelings and said gloomily, “It’s high time that this pair of useless hands are changed!”

…

Inside a well-decorated cabin that was almost similar to the room of a luxury hotel, two single beds were on opposite sides of room. In the middle of the room was a barrier.

At night, when the barrier was triggered, the room would be split into two independent halves. No one could see or hear what was happening on the other side of the room.

In the day, when the barrier was canceled, the room would become a large suite again.

Huangpu Xiaoya had been pacing to and fro ever since she was locked into the room. At one point, she was gritting her teeth angrily, then sobbing in a low voice, and then screaming and yelling. In the end, she couldn’t bear it any longer and put a Cosmos Ring on her finger.

Li Yao had been lying on his bed quietly with his hands as the pillow and his eyes closed. He seemed to be sleeping, but he suddenly interrupted before Huangpu Xiaoya took action. “If I were you, I wouldn’t touch the Cosmos Ring.”

Huangpu Xiaoya was dazed. “Why?”

Li Yao replied, “Why do you think they didn’t ask us to submit all our Cosmos Rings? As Cultivators, we have dozens of secret arts that can hide Cosmos Rings everywhere inside our body. Unless they mince us into pieces and dig into our every bone, they can never be certain that we are clean of Cosmos Rings.

“But right now, we are still of use to them, and they cannot resort to such violent methods. So, they could only pretend to be generous.

“I’m sure that there are more crystal cameras and detectaphones in this suite than hairs on my legs. If you are so desperate to reveal your Cosmos Rings, why don’t you just speak to Huangpu Shiyi and tell him how many Cosmos Rings you’ve brought and what kind of items are inside?”

Huangpu Xiaoya was a gifted genius but only in refining. She was quite inexperienced when it came to dealing with people. Realizing that Li Yao’s words did make sense, she was at a loss and wept silently on her bed.

Li Yao stopped talking to her and resumed his meditation. He seized every second of every minute to make his cells seethe with fury!

Huangpu Shiyi was right about one thing.

In a few days, many people would die, and much blood would be shed.

Huangpu Xiaoya sobbed for a long while. Seeing that Li Yao was indifferent the whole time, she gnashed her teeth. “Do you have any idea how many people were killed in the explosions of the Skyhill Domain just now? The two fallen floating mountains alone were enough to cause tremendous casualties! Why are you so calm? Do you not feel sorry for them at all?”

Li Yao seemed to be asleep. He didn’t reply until a long while later. “I grew up in the relics of the ancient battlegrounds at the edge of the sea of stars. I didn’t know who my parents were. It was nothing unusual for me to not see another living soul for a couple of months. The only things that accompanied me were cold scraps of magical equipment and a dead silent universe.

“It was not until I came to the Skyhill Domain that I saw such a large number of people. There were even more than all the people I’d ever met in my entire life.

“Should I feel sorry that these people died? Maybe I should.

“But the thing about sadness is that it cannot be forced. I have no tears. Should I try to squeeze some out?”

“You—”

Huangpu Xiaoya was so angry that she didn’t know what to say.

Li Yao’s eyes suddenly shone. He rose up, walked to a table, and groped around its edge. With a fascinated face, he leaned down and started operating carefully.

Huangpu Xiaoya was surprised. “What are you doing?”

Li Yao made a ‘shh’ sound and said, “Don’t disturb me. I’ve found a detectaphone. But it is very delicately embedded into a complicated alarm system. If I make an error, the alarm system will be triggered, and everybody on the starship will hear it!”

Huangpu Xiaoya was dazed. “Didn’t you say just now that there are countless crystal cameras and detectaphones inside the room? If so, won’t all our actions be monitored by them? What’s the point of dismantling it?”

Li Yao chuckled and said, “You don’t understand. This is a game that Huangpu Shiyi is playing with us. He, of course, knew that we would discover the crystal cameras and detectaphones. He also set up a labyrinth-like alarm system on purpose. He intends to see how good we are and whether or not we can dismantle the crystal cameras and detectaphones without triggering the alarm system!

“Hehe. Huangpu Shiyi is a genius that you only get to see once in your life. I’ve always dreamed about competing with experts such as him!

“I didn’t expect that my dream would come true today. Let me see with my own eyes how magnificent Huangpu Shiyi’s methods are!”

Huangpu Xiaoya was about to go mad. “So many people died right in front of your eyes just now, and a lot more will be involved in the schemes of the Temple of Immortals. And all you’re thinking about is a competition with Huangpu Shiyi?”

Li Yao raised his head. He glared at Huangpu Xiaoya like an infuriated animal. She was too scared to continue.

Li Yao scoffed and said, “Huangpu Xiaoya, I’m very disappointed in you.

“As a refiner, magical equipment is the most important thing in the world. No matter how the outside world changes, your belief and determination must not falter!

“Your mind is so easily stirred, and you don’t even know better than that. How were you planning to defeat me?

“I was kind of looking forward to the match against you. But right now, it is lucky that we were captured by the Temple of Immortals. I have found an opponent who is more suitable and won’t waste my time, unlike a useless person such as you!

“Besides, my trump cards have all been seen through. Even half of my crystal suit has been taken away. I can defeat neither Black Stone nor White Dew, and now there are two of them. What else can I do except study the magical equipment?

“If you are bored, you can come and study it together with me.”

Huangpu Xiaoya blurted, “Uninterested!”

Li Yao was still peaceful. “It’s fine that you don’t want to study the magical equipment. Why don’t you tell me the event that took place five thousand years ago, which Huangpu Shiyi mentioned just now? Was the human civilization of the Flying Star Sector based on planets in the beginning? I am not familiar with that part of history.”

It was something that had baffled Li Yao for a long time.

In the territory of the Star Ocean Imperium ten thousand years ago, the Heaven’s Origin Sector was at its edge. It was the poorest and the most undeveloped area in the entire imperium. Therefore, few relics and heritages from the Star Ocean Imperium had been discovered in the Heaven’s Origin Sector.

It had taken the Cultivators of the Heaven’s Origin Sector ten thousand years to gather and analyze the treasures from various Occult Orbs so that the civilization could be developed to such an extent.

Different from the Heaven’s Origin Sector, the Flying Star Sector was almost the center of the Star Ocean Imperium. Since an important military base had been established here, a lot of debris of ancient battlegrounds resulting from the war that caused the fall of the Star Ocean Imperium could be found. It would be logical to assume that many relics and heritages could be easily discovered.

By common sense, the humans here should’ve been able to restore their civilization to the glory of the Star Ocean Imperium after grasping the knowledge of the past. At the vest least, it should have been much more developed than the Heaven’s Origin Sector.

However, after staying in the Flying Star Sector for such a long time, Li Yao had realized that the Flying Star Sector was on par with the Heaven’s Origin Sector. In regard to crystal processors and crystal suits, the Flying Star Sector had a slim advantage. But the Heaven’s Origin Sector had quite a lot of technology that the Flying Star Sector didn’t know about, too.

As for the crystal warships and star fortresses of the Flying Star Sector, they were indeed more powerful than their counterparts in the Heaven’s Origin Sector. But they were merely larger in size and firepower. Their fundamental technologies were still the same.

What was it that had stagnated the development of the Flying Star Sector and made it as underdeveloped as the Heaven’s Origin Sector, which was in a poor and remote constellation?

Li Yao had studied it carefully, only to find that all the records about the events of the Flying Star Sector five thousand years ago were ambiguous. There seemed to be a missing two thousand years in the Flying Star Sector’s history.

Files were few about what happened during the time. But after two thousand years of blankness, just like a big bang, countless crystal warships and space towns appeared out of nowhere in the universe!

It seemed that the Flying Star Sector had a major decline five thousand years ago.

According to Huangpu Shiyi, the human civilization of the Flying Star Sector used to be based on planets. So why did they flee into space five thousand years ago? What did it have to do with the decline of the civilization?

Huangpu Shiyi also declared that Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators were ravens and crows, to which Huangpu Xiaoya had no rebuttals. That was quite odd, too.

The history of the Flying Star Sector was indeed full of secrets after secrets!

Chapter 509: Great Era of Chaos

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Li Yao said, “I know that the few inhabitable planets that have atmospheres generally have harsh environments. They are frequented by demon beasts and barbarians. Where did the barbarians come from?”

Huangpu Xiaoya bit her lips and said softly, “They are not barbarians.”

Li Yao raised an eyebrow. “Then what are they?”

Huangpu Xiaoya said, loudly, “They are— qi 1 trainers!”

“Qi trainers?”

Li Yao chewed on the name for a while, and he couldn’t be more curious. “I know the difference between regular Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators. But what are ‘qi trainers’ exactly? Judging from your reaction, I suppose that the Cultivators at that time did something they were not particularly proud of, which you are ashamed of even to this day.

“Why did so many Cultivators degrade themselves and abandon their duties as Cultivators to become ‘space pirates’ who rage in the sea of stars and raise chaos? According to Huangpu Shiyi, there seems to be more to the story!”

However, Huangpu Xiaoya stopped explaining further. Her eyes were somewhat at a loss. She gazed at the wall, as if she was watching the cold, bleak vacuum of the cosmos outside of the metal cabin.

“Did you know?”

After speechless for a moment, Huangpu Xiaoya said gloomily, “The universe is dark. Too dark.”

Having said what she had to say, she lay on her bed, too, and stopped talking, as if all the strength inside her bones had been pumped away.

Li Yao didn’t make much of it. He devoted himself to the competition against the detectaphone again.

Half a day later, the floor under their feet quivered. Spluttering sounds of electric currents could be heard. The hair of both of them was floating in the air beyond their control.

The starship had finished preparation and was about to perform a space jump!

Through a space jump, a starship could reach lightyears away within a moment through the four-dimension, but there were a lot of restrictions to it.

In the Heaven’s Origin Sector, to teleport a star shuttle less than twenty meters long to hundreds of lightyears away, it already required special rails and would cost a huge amount of spiritual energy.

The civilization of the Flying Star Sector was a bit more developed than that of the Heaven’s Origin Sector, and the space jump technologies were more advanced. But the starships here were larger in size and often carried more goods and passengers.

In essence, although the catapult had been upgraded, the stones being sent were larger and heavier. As a result, the distance and precision of the launch were not improved by much.

To shatter the void with such a large starship would consume astronomical spiritual energy, not to mention the preparation procedures that could take hours.

In addition, there could not be serious cracks or damages on the shell of the starship. Otherwise, it might break apart in the four-dimensional space during the space jump. If so, everyone on board would be ripped open.

It was why no starships ever attempted to escape via a space jump when they were engaged with enemies. That would be a suicidal action.

It was also why Gold Horn had spent several months, and even risked passing through the Dim Flame Belt, in order to return to the Thousand Sails Space Zone, instead of being teleported right back. Gold Horn was too seriously damaged to withstand the tearing force when shattering the void.

For space pirates or members of the Temple of Immortals, it was even more complicated.

The sea of stars seemed peaceful, but it was, in fact, full of fatal traps, including swirls and storms. Not every place was suitable for star beacons.

Most of the places tolerable for star beacons had been occupied by various sects, who gradually spread out with the star beacons at the center. The star beacons were intersections of the universal highways.

The so-called ‘space zones’ were actually settlements that had expanded around the large-scale star beacons.

Since this particular starship belonged to the Temple of Immortals, it was not likely that it would jump to a space beacon of the Cultivators. The starship would be turning itself in if so.

During their thousands of years of hiding and running, space pirates had built many smaller star beacons in secret in the remote, less populated areas, too. However, they were often attacked by the Exo Societies and the Cultivation sects.

Therefore, they were not able to be teleported somewhere near the Great Horn Exo Society directly.

After performing the first space jump, the starship sailed in the sea of stars for several days more.

Li Yao estimated that they’d jumped to the secret star beacon that was closest to the Great Horn Exo Society and they would cruise the rest of the way to the Great Horn Exo Society in stealth mode.

During that time, White Dew and Black Stone brought them food every day, but Huangpu Shiyi never showed up. He seemed to be rather patient.

Li Yao seemed to have really become a maniac of magical equipment. He was completely dedicated to the competition against the hidden crystal cameras and detectaphones that Huangpu Shiyi had set up.

During the three days, he had dismantled 25 crystal cameras and 18 detectaphones, but the alarm system had been triggered nine times, too.

He was completely dwelled in the world of magical equipment. He was more and more enthusiastic about it and didn’t feel tired in the least.

Huangpu Xiaoya, on the other hand, was getting increasingly anxious each day.

Every day, besides food, Black Stone and White Dew would bring them a crystal processor that had been denied access to the Spiritual Nexus. There was the latest news that the Temple of Immortals and Black Spider Tower had gathered on it.

According to the information, a lot of important things had happened over the past three days!

During his decades of lawless life as a space pirate, Fengyu Zhong had slaughtered more Cultivators than anybody could count, including disciples of major sects and many family members of Core Formation Stage Cultivators and Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators.

Even the grandson of a Nascent Soul Stage had been killed by him twelve years ago!

Besides, Fengyu Zhong was not alone. From various sources, the Cultivators had gathered that several large-scale gangs on Spider Den had marched at the Great Horn Exo Society with their full strength.

Therefore, all the Cultivators considered the battle to be a great opportunity to strike the space pirates.

Gold Horn seemed to be voyaging in the space alone. But more than eighty heavy starships were hiding in the few space zones and world fragments nearby. More than fifty Core Formation Stage Cultivators and three Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, including the one whose grandson had been killed by Fengyu Zhong and the friends that he asked to help with his revenge, had been ready.

As for Building Foundation Stage Cultivators and Refinement Stage Cultivators, there were simply too many of them. They were all the elites of the major sects and had been summoned to this place in secret.

The battle was definitely the biggest operation in the world of Cultivators in the last thirty years.

However, wherever Gold Horn wandered in the sea of stars, the said main force of the space pirates never showed up.

After mobilizing most of their elites, many bases of the sects found themselves unable to protect themselves, especially those who had deep grudges with the space pirates and had sent out all their Core Formation Stage Cultivators and Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators!

As it turned out, an important mining base of the Endless Sea Sect was assaulted!

All the stored Gold Tide Stones, which could only be produced in this particular mining base, had been looted. A lot of disciples of Endless Sea Sect as well a few specialists adept at distinguishing raw stones had been captured!

The space pirates had even blown up the entire mining base. The production wouldn’t be restored without two to three years of reconstruction!

In the meantime, the base of Red Dragon Union, which had sent its only two Core Formation Stage Cultivators and a large number of battle-type Cultivators to clear the bandits, were ambushed by space pirates. Many disciples were killed, and more were held as hostages!

The only Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator of Destructive Wind Hall went to take care of the bandits. The remaining three non-battle-type elders were assassinated at the same time!

Blood was flowing everywhere in the sea of stars.

For hundreds of years, Cultivators of the Flying Star Sector had considered space pirates to be nothing more than dermatitis.

Although space pirates meant catastrophe for the lone space towns, they could only run away like rats when faced with massive Cultivators and hide themselves in stone belts or behind space storms, hoping in desperation that they would not be caught.

It was not until this moment that the Cultivators realized how powerful the space pirates really were and how enormous their intelligence network was. Every step that the Cultivators made had been predicted by them!

To be fair, the Cultivators were still in an overwhelming advantage in regard to manpower and strength. Not just space pirates, even the Temple of Immortals behind them was not enough to confront the Cultivators head-on.

The Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were like the pillars of the world of Cultivators. They were invincible and unshakable.

The problem was, one could never know when a thief would come to visit. Not every sect was guarded by Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators. Most sects were far away from each other with very bad transportation. Timely assistance was often impossible.

As strong as the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator might be, they were dispersed in the sea of stars and had to stay in the headquarters of their own sects most of the time so as to protect the precious resources and the large number of non-battle-type Cultivators.

This time, a few Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators had seized the initiative to launch an attack, only to find that their homes were invaded while they were away!

To some extent, the Temple of Immortals had fully exploited the potential of ‘unrestricted warfare’ and ‘asymmetric strike’.

The overall peace of the Flying Star Sector that had lasted for hundreds of years was shattered in three days of chaos!

A great era of storm and thunder, when blood and bravery surged and heroes distinguished themselves, had come!

The bad news frustrated Huangpu Xiaoya, who couldn’t feel more awful.

But Li Yao completely disregarded the crystal processor. Sometimes, he would glance at it. But he devoted much of his time to the ‘competition’ between Huangpu Shiyi and himself.

It was not until the fifth day that he managed to dismantle the last detectaphone left by Huangpu Shiyi.

Huangpu Shiyi deserved to be the most talented genius in the circle of refiners for the last thirty years. The detectaphones and crystal cameras he had developed were big eye-openers for Li Yao, who had been inspired a lot by their structure.

After five days of competitive dismantling, Li Yao was soaked in sweat, but his understanding about precise magical equipment had reached a whole new level.

As the last detectaphone was removed, Huangpu Shiyi finally invited Li Yao for a second meeting.

This time, the conversation was located in Huangpu Shiyi’s refining workshop.

In the middle of the workshop was an eye-catching platform made of black wood that looked like a giant coffin. Two weird things were placed on the platform.

The first item was some sort of a model of bushes that seemed to be made of certain silver metal. It looked like a maze and gave a weird, blood-freezing feeling of beauty.

The second item was the model of a monkey. It was a regular snub-nosed monkey. Its two eyes had been specially decorated and looked very attractive. The model was as vivid as the real thing, as if it were about to lunge forward at any moment.

1: qi (See Wikipedia for more info on the term. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi )

Chapter 510: Ants and Monkey

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

“It seems you are very interested in my personal collection, aren’t you? This is a model of the black spot ants’ home. Delicate, like glittering coral, is it not?”

Huangpu Shiyi held the model in his hands carefully and touched it with a fascinated expression, as he explained, “Black spot ants are the architects among ants. They can build up a complicated, labyrinth-like giant home deep underground. Each home can accommodate millions of ants, dozens of times more than regular ant homes can. Such a splendid ant home is a piece of intriguing artwork.

“However, black spot ants prefer to build their homes in the dry and fragile soil, and the pathways inside their home are extremely delicate and feeble, too. The tiniest force from the outside is already enough to make part of the ant nest collapse.

“Do you want to know how the humans studied the black spot ants’ homes and how the most perfect model without the slightest flaw was created?

“It’s very simple.

“You melt aluminum, you find an entrance of the ant home, and your pour the aluminum down. It will naturally reach every corner of the ant home.

“When the liquid aluminum cools down and turned solid again, you uproot it as one whole piece. It will be what you are witnessing right now. Delicate, immaculate, and brilliant. It will go on for thousands of years without rotting and will be granted the ultimate ‘immortality’!

“As for the millions of ants inside the ant home, they were, of course, melted by the aluminum liquid and killed without leaving any traces.

“I bought this model from a female student of Flying Star University through the Spiritual Nexus.

“I investigated the little girl thoroughly and found that she was kind, innocent, and diligent.

“She used to be an ordinary girl in a remote town at the edge of the Flying Star Sector. Her parents were both peasants, and her mother had been ill in bed all year around. With unbelievable determination, she took care of her mother and did part-time jobs to get more income for her family, while she continued reading and training. Despite all the unfavorable conditions, she awakened her spiritual root and was admitted by Flying Star University!

“She was as hard-working as before when she went to college. She got full scholarships every year. Although her family was anything but rich, she always donated much of her scholarship to the people whose lives were even more difficult than hers.

“She sold this particular model online because she was raising money to help a child in her hometown, who suffered from a serious heart disease, secure a new heart for transplanting.

“In her hometown, all the folk said that such a girl was a goddess walking on the earth.

“Li Yao, my young friend, do you think, for the black spot ants, the girl is a divinity or a devil?”

Li Yao was silent.

Huangpu Shiyi leaned forward. His smiling face drew close to Li Yao from the other side of the platform, as he said lightheartedly, “It doesn’t matter whether she is a divinity or a devil. The only way that the ants transmit information is through waving their antennas.

“Let’s say one of the ants was standing right in front of the girl and shouted—as loud as it could—’You are a crazy devil, you ruined my homeland and you killed my family. I’m not going to let go of you. I’m going to get the most brutal revenge, even at the cost of my life!’

“However, from the girl’s point of view, she only saw that an ant was waving its antennas crazily.

“In fact, if the girl wasn’t scrutinizing this particular ant with a magnifying lens, she might not know that it was waving its antennas at all!”

Huangpu Xiaoya sat back and stared at Li Yao with a smile.

What disappointed him was that Li Yao was utterly emotionless. He only turned at the model of the monkey and asked, “What is this?”

Huangpu Shiyi put the ant home back and picked up the model of the monkey. He touched the monkey’s head and said softly, “This is a brown-tailed snub-nosed monkey, one of the most commonly-seen monkeys. They are everywhere in the Flying Star Sector. You may have seen them in many world fragments, too.

“Early in the days of the Star Ocean Imperium, the research-type Cultivators had already begun to study the mysteries of genes. Do you know what genes are?”

Li Yao nodded. “I do.

“In the legends, the ancestors of human beings were the greatest species in the primordial era, such as tyrannosaurs, Megalodons, Sarcosuchus, Eight-Armed Golden Apes, and so on!

“Despite the amazing techniques that the greatest species had, they were doomed to extinction by the wear and tear of time and the strikes of countless apocalypses.

“Before their extinction, they had condensed the essence of the experience of their entire species into an information stream and sent it into their designated successors.

“Such information is known as ‘genetic information’.

“Human beings are the descents of countless primordial species. Our cells contain the genetic information that has been passed on from billions of years ago.

“This genetic information is like mysterious helical chains that interweaved into our life and soul.

“Genetic information is the foundations of our life and the heritage we acquired from our earliest ancestors.

“Therefore, the genetic information hidden in the deepest part of our cells is known as ‘Gene Chains’.”

Huangpu Shiyi nodded in approval. “Excellent. You know the definition of genes very well! But do you know the latest conclusion of the Flying Star Sector’s experts about the difference in genes between humans and monkeys?”

Li Yao raised his eyebrow.

Huangpu Shiyi smiled and extended two of his fingers. “Two percent.

“There are many kinds of monkeys. Some of the monkeys have more different genes compared to humans’. The difference can be above 3%. Some particularly smart monkeys, who can learn how to crack open nuts with simple tools by themselves, only have a genetic difference from humans of 1.7%. By estimation, monkey genes as a whole are only 2% different compared to human beings’!”

Li Yao said, “So?”

Huangpu Shiyi’s smile suddenly turned extremely hideous. After a brief pause, he continued, one word after another. “Do you want to know how big the genetic difference between ordinary people and Cultivators is?”

Li Yao narrowed his eyes to such a degree that they became two shining lines.

Huangpu Shiyi didn’t tell him the answer. He sniffed and, touching the head of the monkey, remarked, “The most important thing about Cultivation is to find your true self and to realize what a unique existence you are in the dark universe! I placed the two personal collections on this platform. Every day, when I see them while I am working, I can always understand something new from them.

“Li Yao, I’m very happy that you’ve been dwelling in the game that I carefully prepared.

“The game was meant for Huangpu Xiaoya, but you gave me a bigger surprise by cracking so many crystal cameras and eavesdroppers in half of the time that I expected!

“From your expression, I can tell that you and I are the same type of people. We are born for magical equipment, which is our world, our universe, and our sea of stars!

“Come on. Join the Temple of Immortals and become an Immortal Cultivator. I do think very highly of you, and I’m willing to recruit you as my first, and perhaps last, disciple. You will be able to learn all my expertise!”

Weird brilliance beamed out of Huangpu Shiyi’s eyes. He extended his withered hands toward Li Yao.

Li Yao’s eyes stopped briefly at his hands, as he suddenly sneered in derision. His face turned crazy and disobedient, as he said, “Huangpu Shiyi, you are right about one thing. I don’t care about the difference between Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators. The death of the ordinary people whom I barely knew had nothing to do with me whatsoever.

“My dream is to become the strongest refiner in the universe and to refine the most terrifying, the most violent, and the most dominating magical equipment. Everybody in the sea of stars will hear the name of Li Yao. Every star in the sky will tremor in fear at the brilliance of my magical equipment!

“However, even though you are adept at theories, what makes you think you are qualified to be my master with your useless hands?”

Huangpu Shiyi’s pupils suddenly shrank.

Li Yao suddenly changed his tone and said, “Unless, of course, you prove yourself to be capable enough first!”

Huangpu Shiyi burst into laughter. “The shuttle that fooled you was not evident enough?”

“No. That was far from enough.”

Li Yao continued, “Besides, you are asking me to change my side and betray the Cultivators. Chances are that I will be hunted by them and have to hide in darkness in the future instead of receiving the cheers and admiration of thousands of people. You’ll have to pay me some ‘down payment’ first.

“I’m not some juvenile whom you can deceive with some metal garbage, a model of a monkey, and some bulls*it.

“In the place where I grew up, even a glass of water recycled from urine or a tin of man-made air had to be traded with real money. Your fancy speech meant absolutely nothing to me!”

Huangpu Shiyi slapped the platform and said, “Very soon, Immortal Cultivators will appear in front of mortals in broad daylight. Billions of people will kneel before us and worship us! You will get however many cheers you want by then!

“But it’s reasonable that you don’t believe it for now. Tell me, what ‘down payment’ do you have in mind right now?”

Li Yao licked his lips and put on a greedy face. “You showed Huangpu Xiaoya and me the scenes of the explosions in the Skyhill Domain. From the picture, I could tell that the serial explosions took place in multiple locations at the same time and resulted in tremendous damage!

“Even though there were not many Core Formation Stage Cultivators in the Skyhill Domain, their level of alertness must’ve been at the maximum, considering that it was the time of Skyhill Sword Seminar after all.

“Although you successfully infiltrated and installed bombs right before their eyes without being discovered, the bombs wouldn’t have been too numerous, and their size must’ve been small.

“My conclusion is that you had bombs whose size is disproportional to their damage.

“In the meantime, you had an expert of explosions on your side who knew how to deploy the bombs to maximize the potential damage by taking advantage of the structural weak points of the environment. The damage of the bombs could be brought up by hundreds of times in such a way. Therefore, you destroyed two floating mountains with just several bombs!

“If my guess is correct, this expert of explosions was yourself?”

Huangpu Shiyi laughed and bragged, “Yes. I’ve always believed that crystal bombs are the strongest magical equipment. Their power is limitless, and when it is fully and instantly unleashed, even an expert multiple times stronger than you might be slain easily in a single breath!

“Although I am not a battle-type Cultivator, hundreds of renowned Cultivators have been killed by my crystal bombs!”

Eagerness was shining in Li Yao’s eyes, as he blurted, “I’ve always believed so, ever since I was a kid! Crystal bombs are the best magical equipment! So, teach me everything you know about crystal bombs!”

Chapter 511: Super Explosion Expert

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

“Huh?”

Huangpu Shiyi was caught off guard.

He had made thorough plans to deal with Li Yao. He’d invited Li Yao to his workshop because he was going to convince him of the true meaning of the ultimate Daoism.

He was certain that, after a few hours of brainwashing, Li Yao’s mental defense line would definitely collapse!

He had never expected the guy to be so ‘realistic’ as to not bother about the disparity between regular Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators at all as long as the reward was attractive enough.

Huangpu Shiyi had tempted hundreds of Cultivators and turned them into Immortal Cultivators.

But he had never seen such a shameless Cultivator before!

Crystal bombs techniques were what he had always been best at. They had been gathered bit by bit at the cost of lengthy suffering after he joined the Temple of Immortals. The setbacks he had endured and the price he had paid were unimaginable for other people. He wouldn’t have been able to grasp them without his extreme craziness!

And this guy was asking for all of them just like that?

Huangpu Shiyi’s face immediately turned cloudy. He coughed and said, “We will have a lot of time in the future to discuss the techniques. Why don’t we talk about the difference between regular Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators first?”

Li Yao chuckled. “You people of The Temple of Immortals are quite verbose. You talked about immortality and endless mysteries of the universe and the path that nobody had ever set foot on before. But I didn’t expect that you would be so petty. Just a few techniques, and you are trying to keep them a secret!

“How can I believe that there will be endless benefits after I join you if you are so mean?

“Bring me back. This is my only condition. Don’t talk to me again until you agree to it.

“You can turn it down, but if you agree to it, you’d better offer me something authentic. Truth be told, I’m a bomb expert myself. If I find out that you are giving me fake techniques, I will be even more disappointed in the Temple of Immortals.”

Li Yao finished his talk and walked out of the room, not once looking back at Huangpu Shiyi.

Huangpu Shiyi was coughing louder and louder. His graceful manners when enjoying the ant home and the monkey model a moment ago had entirely disappeared.

He pondered for a moment and could do nothing but wave his hands in frustration. Black Stone and White Dew immediately showed up.

Barely had Li Yao left his sight when Huangpu Shiyi slapped the desk hard and bellowed angrily, “Damn. He is not even a Core Formation Stage Cultivator, and he dared to talk to me like that!”

In a corner, Su Jiuzhen gradually appeared out of thin air, before he shrieked, “A young man in his twenties whose refining skills are in the middle-to-high level of the Building Foundation Stage and whose combat ability is in the beginning level of the Building Foundation Stage is indeed qualified to be egotistical.”

Huangpu Shiyi gnashed his teeth. “Master Su, do I really have to bring out the best secret arts of mine to satisfy the boy so that he will be willing to join us?”

Su Jiuzhen smirked. “Alternatively, you can look at the whole thing from a different perspective. You are not the only refiner at the Core Formation Stage in the Temple of Immortals. Your techniques are not the only valuable ones, either.

“With the boy’s current capability, there are bound to be a lot of other refiners at the Core Formation Stage in the Temple of Immortals who are interested in him. If one of them recruits him as a disciple in the future, what do you think his impression of you will be?”

Huangpu Shiyi was dazed. “About that—”

Su Jiuzhen said with a cold smile, “Competitiveness is a virtue inside the Temple of Immortals. The strong feast upon the weak, and the strongest take all! You wouldn’t want an ambitious but also hostile competitor among us in the decades to come, would you?

“Let’s put that aside. The few projects of yours all require large amounts of funding, which you must fight for against other people. If another refiner gets him as a disciple and their project produces results sooner than yours, what will you do?”

Huangpu Shiyi hesitated. “Master Su, you do have a point.”

Su Jiuzhen continued his analysis. “In my opinion, this is rather a fair deal.

“Although your hands can be temporarily recovered through secret arts, they can only last a very short amount of time. If you are alone, you wouldn’t be able to proceed with many large experiments or personal training sessions with your impaired hands.

“But if you have such a strong disciple as your assistant, your project will definitely be accelerated, you will be granted more funds, the speed of your Cultivation will soar, and your position in the Temple of Immortals will be much more solid, too!”

Huangpu Shiyi’s eyes were flickering as he thought, before they gradually came to a halt. He thought for a while and was still concerned. “Master Su, you’re right. I wasn’t thinking thoroughly just now. But is this boy sincere about joining the Temple of Immortals?

“My crystal bombs and my techniques to distinguish the best points of explosion are extraordinary. If the boy learns all of them and yet has other plans, our starship might be seriously sabotaged!”

“You don’t need to worry about that.”

Su Jiuzhen explained, “Gold Horn has been travelling unpredictably for a while, but we’ve basically locked the space zone it is in, and we will capture it within half a month! Talented as this Li Yao guy may be, how much can he learn in such a short time?

“As for his sincerity and whether or not he has other trump cards… I’ll take care of that and give him another test!

“If he has made up his mind to be an Immortal Cultivator, you have countless methods to tame him in the future as his master.

“If he has other cards and is planning some petty tricks, hehe, I will let him beg to be executed!”

…

Li Yao stayed in his room for only five minutes before Black Stone and White Dew came in and handed a crystal processor to him with a weird expression.

Huangpu Shiyi’s helpless face appeared in the picture, as he said, “Are you willing to be my disciple as long as I teach you the crystal bomb techniques?”

Li Yao smiled. “I’ll decide after the quality of the goods is determined. I’ll practice when you teach for a couple of days. If you are honest and your techniques are genuine, I see no harm in being your disciple.”

Huangpu Shiyi stared at him for a long time, before he took a deep breath and said, “Alright. I’m sending you an information stream. You can study it for now. As for the files of a higher level, I’ll have to sort through them first. In three hours, Black Stone and White Dew will bring you to my workshop again.

“Remember, what I’m giving you is only half of what I know. Only after you become my disciple will I teach you the other half, which is more complicated.”

Li Yao nodded. “I kind of like the notion of being an Immortal Cultivator now.”

Li Yao tapped on the light beam and received the information. It was a notebook personally written by Huangpu Shiyi, in which the structural designs and methods of refining of 572 kinds of crystal bombs were recorded.

The crystal bombs varied from the super bombs, which could blow up a planet back in the days of the Star Ocean Imperium, to the ‘assault bombs’ that could be installed inside fly demon beasts for suicidal attacks, to the ‘anti-crystal-suit bombs’ that were only the size of fingernails and yet could penetrate through a crystal suit and kill the Cultivator inside as long as they were deployed at the right location.

The frameworks of many of the bombs had been modified, rectified, and perfected by Huangpu Shiyi. Their damage had been significantly improved.

Li Yao felt that he had received a priceless treasure and completely devoted himself to it, his hands tremoring in excitement.

Huangpu Shiyi, hearing his conversation with Huangpu Shiyi and seeing his fascinated face, felt that her hands and feet were cold. She trembled and shouted, “Li Yao, what did Huangpu Shiyi say to you? You didn’t make any deals with him, did you?”

Li Yao seemed to have heard none of it.

Huangpu Xiaoya clenched her fists and raised her voice. “Li Yao, don’t be fooled! If you take the first wrong step, you will take countless wrong steps! We are Cultivators!”

There was still no response from Li Yao. His eyeballs were shivering rapidly, his hands tapping on the light beam nonstop, his mouth murmuring things that were utterly meaningless; he had apparently gone mad.

Huangpu Xiaoya was almost crying. “Li Yao, don’t do that. Please, I—”

She summoned her courage and suddenly lunged at Li Yao, trying to snatch his crystal processor.

This time, Li Yao responded quickly. He raised his crystal processor high and, bending his right leg like a saber, kicked Huangpu Xiaoya right in her abdomen. She was blown away immediately.

Tears were all over Huangpu Xiaoya’s face. She was cramping, in too much pain to moan.

As if possessed by a devil, Li Yao strode forward with a hideous face. He clutched Huangpu Xiaoya’s hair and pulled her up to his face.

He glared at her gloomily with his bloodshot eyes until Huangpu Xiaoya couldn’t bear it any longer and sobbed silently. Then he said, one word after another, “Don’t bug me when I’m studying magical equipment!

“Every second in the coming ten days is of paramount importance to me. If you hinder me again, I will slay you before Black Stone and White Dew interrupt. Do you understand?”

Li Yao threw Huangpu Xiaoya away as if she was a ragged bag and did not bother to look at her again. He returned to his crystal processor and concentrated his attention on the structures of hundreds of crystal bombs again.

In a corner of the room, an inconspicuous crystal camera he had never seen before captured everything that had happened dutifully.

In their cabin, Huangpu Shiyi and Su Jiuzhen were monitoring them on the light beam.

“What a brutal and coldhearted young man!”

“A natural-born Immortal Cultivator!”

Huangpu Shiyi and Su Jiuzhen looked at each other and smiled.

“However, the tests we have to run cannot be saved. To this moment, we cannot rule out the possibility that he has been acting.”

In the coming few days, Li Yao dedicated himself to the training of the techniques of crystal bomb refining.

To be an explosions expert, techniques in two regards must be studied.

Firstly, the creation of explosion magical equipment.

Not only must the refiner be familiar with the classic crystal bombs in history and their variations, they must also know what natural materials would lead to explosions when they were combined.

The experts of the trade could mix dozens of daily materials that were extremely stable and in no way explosive into powerful bombs.

But if they stopped there, they could only be called top explosions experts.

The really super explosions experts must have deeper understanding about the structure of the object to be bombed.

Every super explosions expert had a pair of sharp eyes that could allow them to see through the surface of an object and perceive the deepest structure of it, so that they could find the balance point of the object.

Once the balance was ruined, the entirely object would collapse!

Huangpu Shiyi was such an expert.

Back in the Skyhill, he had paralyzed twelve anti-gravity rune arrays of a floating mountain with only two regular crystal bombs.

Chapter 512: Great Bargain

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

The technique through which Huangpu Shiyi trained his eyes was named ‘Phantom Breaker’. It allowed the user to concentrate the spiritual energy in the eyes and meld one’s spiritual threads into one’s eyesight. Wherever one’s eyes reached, the spiritual threads would penetrate into the target and sense the tiniest structures of the object that were unperceivable to eyes.

When cultivated to the highest level, ‘Phantom Breaker’ would not only make the user see through the deepest structures of an object but also allow them to sense the weakest part of them instantly.

By that time, with a quick glance, the heavily protected target would become a clear, detailed skeleton, and the weakest part of the ‘skeleton’ would emit vague red brightness. One would know where to attack without thinking, just by looking at it.

This was only for the deployment of one or two crystal bombs.

When it came to the serial explosions that required three or more bombs, more factors would be involved that would interfere with each other, and the demand on the computational ability of the bomber would soar, too. Countless theories would have to be applied, such as chaos theory, turbulence model, butterfly effect, uncertainty principle… The mysterious and complicated theories dazzled Li Yao and made him greatly enjoy himself.

To study so many theories at the same time required much more than a few days.

Thankfully, there was a mysterious zone of memories inside Li Yao’s brain. By staying in the Heaven’s Refining Tower, the virtual time could be significantly lengthened.

Li Yao sank his consciousness into the deepest part of his brain and dedicated himself to training hard with the extended time inside the Heaven’s Refining Tower.

At first, Huangpu Shiyi was not entirely open-minded.

Although he said that he had given Li Yao half of what he knew, he had only offered less than thirty percent of his knowledge, which also contained the most sophisticated theories.

By Huangpu Shiyi’s estimation, with the computational ability of a Building Foundation Cultivator, it would take Li Yao three to five months to memorize all the theories, and much longer to understand and grasp them.

Also, theories couldn’t be readily applied to real battles, and they were barely of any help to the improvement of one’s capability.

But what he didn’t know was that Li Yao was an experienced bomber who wouldn’t have defeated enemies multiple times stronger than himself in the dangerous battles without the traps made of crystal bombs!

In the subject of explosions, Li Yao had set up as many bombs as Huangpu Shiyi had. It was just that he had learned everything by himself and was lacking the support of systematic theories.

Therefore, the theories that Huangpu Shiyi had offered him were, to him, what a pillow was to a drowsy man. He couldn’t feel more satisfied!

During the prolonged time inside the Heavenly Refining Tower, Li Yao studied the theories that Huangpu Shiyi had given him and compared Huangpu Shiyi’s bombs with his self-made crystal bombs in the past.

He made new discoveries almost every second and new understandings every minute. His capability was improving at a higher speed than an exploding crystal bomb!

Only three days had passed in reality. But Li Yao had generally memorized all theories and totally grasped the structural designs of hundreds of Huangpu Shiyi’s crystal bombs.

His speed stunned Huangpu Shiyi, who was vigilant and made up his mind not to teach him the rest of his techniques easily. Otherwise, even if the guy was willing to join the Temple of Immortals in the end, he might not enjoy many benefits from it personally. It was not unusual that a master was starved after they taught everything they knew to their disciples in the Temple of Immortals!

But he didn’t expect that Li Yao wasn’t just a consumer. After getting part of Huangpu Shiyi’s knowledge, the guy seemed to be quite satisfied. His attitude toward Huangpu Shiyi had changed significantly. Not only did he often go and discuss esoteric problems about crystal bombs with Huangpu Shiyi, the guy even revealed part of his own techniques and skills of refining!

This time, Huangpu Shiyi was both surprised and amazed.

Ever since his hands had been destroyed by lightning due to his crazy training more than twenty years ago, he had basically abandoned the path of a sword-forger.

Later, on his way to the Million Star Space Zone in search of an elixir to cure his hands, he encountered a space storm and was almost killed. But the accident proved to be a turning point for him. After his narrow escape, he found the heritage of a long-deceased senior by luck, including ‘Phantom Breaker’ and half of a manual on the craft of crystal bombs.

Since then, Huangpu Shiyi had been mostly focused on the refinement of explosive magical equipment.

In the circle of refiners, this research field was not as popular as melee weapons, guns, or starships. There were not many such experts in the Temple of Immortals, either.

He barely had the opportunity to communicate with specialists who had equal expertise to himself. After a long time of practicing in solitude, he found it hard to improve after he had reached his bottleneck.

The questions that Li Yao raised had precisely hit the points he was unsure about. After several deep discussions, not only was Li Yao greatly enlightened, Huangpu Shiyi had sorted out many problems that had baffled him and made great progress, too.

He had tested Li Yao several times, but Li Yao did not care at all and shared many secret techniques with him nonetheless.

With Huangpu Shiyi’s sharp eyes, he could easily tell that much of the information Li Yao had provided was invaluable. Some of it had been lost a long time ago!

If the guy was not determined to join the Temple of Immortals, he would definitely not share such top confidential arts with him!

This time, Huangpu Shiyi was really confused.

“What is this guy, Li Yao, exactly? Is he stupid? But the tricks and responses he took in the beginning were very excellent, and he seized the opportunity to ask for more benefits greedily and right in time, too.

“Is he smart? But he did not keep anything to himself at all and brought out so many ultimate skills promptly and honestly. Even I have never heard of some of the refining methods and tricks. They are definitely top secrets of top secrets. Why did he tell me all of them so easily? Does he really consider me his Master?”

Huangpu Shiyi and Su Jiuzhen had discussed with each other for a long time. Their conclusion was: “Li Yao lived alone in the periphery of the sea of stars for more than twenty years. He was naturally quick to respond due to the suffering of the harsh environment.

“However, the number of people he got in touch with was too limited after all. He is too young, too simple, and sometimes naive.

“For such an arrogant young man who thinks too highly of himself, the only thing we need to give him is flattery and compliments. He is not afraid of sticks, but he cannot resist carrots. With some adulation, he will be so ecstatic that he won’t know who or where he is, and he will confess all the secrets that he knows about!”

After he figured out Li Yao’s personality, he was even kinder and friendlier toward Li Yao when they were together, and his tutelage gradually turned both thorough and detailed.

But, of course, he had calculated everything through.

He had concluded that, for each technique or skill that he taught Li Yao, Li Yao had returned at least two. Although they were not as good as his, but there was a great number of them!

Huangpu Shiyi was a talented genius, too. After receiving Li Yao’s techniques and Cultivation methods, he had been training crazily for several days, and his capability in refining had soared, to the extent that he felt that a breakthrough was coming near. He was so happy that he was almost crying.

At first, he recruited Li Yao as his disciple purely for the purpose of getting more skills. But gradually, he changed his thoughts. Since the boy had a simple mind despite his sharp tongue, he was quite easy to be manipulated as long as one knew how to deal with him, that is to say, how to flatter him and talk to him nicely.

It did not seem a bad idea to really treat the guy as his disciple. He could be asked to perform dangerous experiments in the future so that Huangpu Shiyi wouldn’t have to do them personally.

Besides, the guy had indeed got something in his head. He was throwing out tricks that Huangpu Shiyi didn’t know about every day. Huangpu Shiyi was completely hooked by them. To maintain the friendship, he had to trade his own techniques for them continuously.

After all, it was quite a fair deal. It couldn’t be more in his favor with a ratio of 1:2 during the barters.

Just like that, the relationship between the ‘master’ and the ‘disciple’ was getting better day after day. In the end, they really looked like a devoted teacher and a loyal student.

However, Su Jiuzhen didn’t let loose of monitoring Li Yao in secret at all.

Li Yao was still living in the same suite as Huangpu Xiaoya. It was partly for the sake of easier surveillance, and partly to set him as an example for Huangpu Xiaoya.

But Huangpu Xiaoya was not influenced at all.

In the first couple of days, she was mired in despair and irritation and couldn’t get herself out. But as time went by, she grew more and more silent and indifferent. She seemed to have become the girl made of lightning, like when Li Yao had seen her for the first time.

The only difference was that all the lighting was frozen, not jumping anymore.

Seven days after Li Yao and Huangpu Shiyi made the deal, Huangpu Xiaoya was brought to talk to Huangpu Shiyi, too.

Three hours later, when Huangpu Xiaoya was back, her eyes were hollow, and she was quieter than ever, like the tranquil and depressed ocean before a storm.

She sat cross-legged on her bed and stared at Li Yao across her, who had been carefully studying crystal bombs for an entire hour. Then she suddenly jumped up and looked down upon Li Yao in disgust, as she gnashed her teeth. “I’m not an ant, much less a monkey!”

Li Yao’s eyes were still focused on the crystal bombs. He murmured something to himself and completely ignored her.

Huangpu Xiaoya raised her voice, not speaking to Li Yao, but more like speaking to herself, “Ants can only wave their antennas, and monkeys just squeak! But when ordinary people laugh, we know they are happy; when ordinary people cry, we know they are sad! We drink the same water, we breathe same air, we speak the same language, and we sing the same songs!

“We are all ordinary people when we were born! Our parents are likely to be ordinary people, and our descendants may be ordinary people for all eternity!

“No. We are ordinary people, except that our strength may be a bit larger than the rest!

“For your and the other timid scumbags’ information, I, Huangpu Xiaoya, will never abandon my identity as an ordinary person, and I would like to fight for that until my last drop of blood is shed!”

Li Yao finally raised his head and glanced at her. He said casually, “You will die.”

Huangpu Xiaoya’s hair was messy, her face flushed. She suddenly burst into laughter like a crazy witch. She bellowed with her head held high and her face full of pride, “I may die, but Cultivators are destined to live forever! This is the ‘immortality’ that we pursue, which is totally different from you people without hearts!”

Li Yao sniffed. He stopped listening and resumed his study.

Today, the question at hand was ‘seven-star dilemma’. It was a question about which distribution of seven crystal bombs could bring up their damage to maximum when they were circuited.

If he could find out the optimal solution, the damage of the serial explosion would not be just seven times the damage of a single crystal bomb, but more than thirty times it!

Translator’s Thoughts

flycrane01 flycrane01

Weekend Bonus #1

Chapter 513: Master Li Yao, We Are Here for You!

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

It was seven o’clock in the evening. Li Yao was learning how to assemble crystal bombs in a special training room.

As he got along well with Huangpu Shiyi, he took the opportunity and asked to do real practice.

Huangpu Shiyi agreed to the request after some consideration.

However, all the experiments had to be conducted in this special training room.

The training room had been enclosed by the most advanced defense rune arrays and reflection rune arrays. It was safe from any bombs.

Even though the bombs were powerful enough to damage the cabin, part of the energy they released would be reflected by the wall and kill everyone inside the cabin first.

Therefore, it was impossible for Li Yao to escape by blowing his way out of the starship!

Besides, Li Yao had no doubt that his every action was being observed by the invisible expert hiding in the darkness. As soon as there appeared to be anything wrong with him, the stalker would immediately make his move!

The remarkable stealth ability of the expert suggested that he might be a top assassin in Black Spider Tower who was best at sneaking, hiding, and assassination. Li Yao was not confident that he could defeat such an opponent shortly in a head-on battle.

Moreover, Li Yao did not intend to leave just now. He was earnestly studying crystal bombs at present.

In front of Li Yao was a crystal chip the size of a fingernail. A small pile of luminating powder was on it.

Li Yao opened his hands. Spiritual threads extended out of his fingertips, which lifted almost a hundred thin, shining metal slices and stabbed them into the powder according to a certain pattern. He then covered another crystal chip on it and carefully sealed them together.

The simple movement took him more than twenty minutes. Li Yao’s face was solemn and coated in sweat.

Judging from the appearance, it was just a commonly-seen double-chip group that could be applied to crystal suits, shuttles, or even melee magical equipment. But after Li Yao’s modification, it was in fact a powerful bomb that, when triggered by Li Yao’s telepathic thought, could cast dozens of square meters nearby into flames of fury!

After several days of hard training and communication with the rarely-seen expert Huangpu Shiyi, Li Yao finally made major breakthroughs in crystal bomb refining!

The path he chose was different from Huangpu Shiyi’s.

Although Huangpu Shiyi was one of the most brilliant geniuses in refining, his hands had been terribly wounded after all, which prevented him from doing practical operations. Also, he was backed by an enormous organization and had countless subordinates to carry out his commands. Therefore, he was more fond of serial, large-scale explosions.

In comparison, Li Yao was by himself most of the time, and he preferred to travel in the sea of stars alone. Besides, his hands were as nimble as phantoms thanks to the training with the Purple Ring Sword Ants. He had also received the heritage of Ou Yezi and was especially good at carving tiny rune arrays. Therefore, his bombs were smaller and less conspicuous. They might not be very powerful, but they could be easily put into practice in a battle by a single person. He could deploy the bombs and cover them up without anybody knowing anything.

Li Yao blew at his palm. He rubbed his dry hands and pondered the difference of ideologies between Huangpu Shiyi and himself.

Right then, the starship suddenly trembled violently, followed by many intermittent quakes. Slight noises could be heard through the wall, too.

Li Yao was dazed for a moment. He pinned his ear to the cabin wall and analyzed the situation outside.

He could tell that the starship was enduring an intense attack. One of the power rune arrays had exploded. Shrieking noises could be heard next, as if somebody was tearing the starship’s shell by brute force.

CRACK!

Three barriers had been imposed to the cabin door. The broadcast rune array on a corner of the ceiling suddenly emanated Fei Ming’s somewhat nervous voice. “Master Li Yao, don’t worry. We are under the attack of Cultivators. Black Stone and White Dew are leading the guardians to resist the intruders. For your own safety, please stay in your refining room!”

Li Yao raised his eyebrow and did not respond. He returned to his operation platform as if nothing had happened and continued assembling the next piece of magical equipment.

The only difference was that the speed was upgraded to a much higher level and almost broke the sonic barrier again.

Explosions and shouting were louder and louder. The lights inside the cabin were flashing. For half a minute, even the balance system of the starship was malfunctioning, and the ground slanted to the left side slightly.

But none of that affected Li Yao. He kept practicing meticulously and assembled almost five crystal bombs in a row.

But of course, since Huangpu Shiyi hadn’t given him enough materials, the power of the crystal bombs was not very impressive.

Half an hour later, yelling and screaming suddenly occurred outside of the cabin door. After an earsplitting explosion, more than half of the cabin was filled in smoke. A shocking giant hole appeared on the cabin door, through which an Exo in a lead grey crystal suit that was covered in cracks and blood crept in.

There was a sigil of a bear head on the chest of the Exo’s crystal suit. The bear, whose mouth was full of tusks, was biting a blood-stained battle saber.

It was the emblem of Furious Bears Union, one of the six major sects of Heavenly Saints City!

“Master Li Yao!”

The severely-injured Exo jumped to Li Yao and said anxiously, “We are from the Furious Bear Exo Society, the armed forces directly under the command of Furious Bear Union! My name is Hu Guohao. We are here to save you and Huangpu Xiaoya. Let’s go!”

Dazzling brilliance suddenly blinked in Li Yao’s eyes. He said with the utmost surprise, “You’ve discovered that Huangpu Xiaoya and I went missing so fast? Did you find the alarm magical equipment that I hid in my room? Was it not damaged by the explosions?”

Hu Guohao was dazed for a moment, but he quickly nodded. “The magical equipment was indeed impaired by the explosions. But the experts of the six major sects fixed it up and learned that you were captured! Let’s talk more about that later. We are in an urgent situation. Our men cannot hold on for long. Let’s go now!”

Li Yao’s eyes flickered, and he said hesitantly, “It’s a pity that I cannot make up my mind to leave at present. Let me think for a while.”

Hu Guohao was stomping the ground in anxiety. “The situation is too urgent for you to consider anything now. You have to go!”

Li Yao’s eyes suddenly turned cold. He shouted, “I hate threats more than anything else. What can you do if I don’t want to go?”

Hu Guohao yelled and cursed, his crystal suit shaking violently. He pointed at Li Yao’s nose. “Master Huangpu was right. You have indeed defected. You are a filthy, craven traitor!”

Li Yao scorned, “Everybody fights for what is best for themselves. I’ve never said that I would be loyal to Cultivators. What’s this talk of defection all about?”

Hu Guohao was more than infuriated. “It’s everyone’s duty to eliminate the traitors at the first chance. Now that you’ve chosen the devil’s path, just go to hell!”

He waved his right hand. Three sharp flash talons appeared at the front end of his arm; he bellowed and swept at Li Yao brutally!

With the enhancement of his crystal suit, the strike was indeed earthshaking!

Li Yao’s Eight Arm Suit had been partly lost the first day he got on board. Besides, he would need another several seconds to summon what remained of it. The time was not enough at all.

Li Yao waved his two hands and threw the five crystal bombs on the platform at Hu Guohao, as he suddenly bent and hid himself below the platform.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Hu Guohao was immediately covered in clusters of orange brightness!

It was a shame that the crystal bombs were not powerful enough. Protected by his crystal suit, Hu Guohao suffered absolutely no damage from them except a moment of dizziness after he took a few steps back.

Taking advantage of his enemy’s brief halt, Li Yao leapt out of the platform and rushed toward the cabin door as fast as he could.

Hu Guohao was back to himself very shortly. He shouted, “Traitor, where are you going?”

Colorful exhaust flames burst out of the power rune arrays on the back of his crystal suit. He accelerated to the maximum speed and kicked Li Yao in his back brutally.

Li Yao screamed and, vomiting blood, was kicked into a corner like a kite whose string had been cut off.

Hu Guohao seized the opportunity to move forward. The electric currents on his flash claw were brought to the limits. Dazzling electric arcs were spluttering on it as he aimed the claw at Li Yao’s chest and stabbed it!

Li Yao’s face was pale. His hands dangled down helplessly. There was the deepest fear in his eyes, as if he could do nothing except wait to be killed.

Two things happened simultaneously in the next half a second!

At first, a black shadow dashed into the broken cabin door and launched a flying sword at Hu Guohao. The flying sword hit Hu Guohao’s flash claw precisely and deviated it from its trajectory!

Then, Li Yao, with the strength from nobody knew where, suddenly jerked to the left, only to unfortunately barge in the path of the flying sword.

The flying sword wreathed in crimson flames pierced into his left abdomen and left a terrifying wound there that almost reached his heart!

Li Yao’s face was twisted by the pain. He had lost the strength to scream and collapsed to the ground.

The black shadow came to a halt. It was a pure black crystal suit.

The owner of the black crystal suit seemed to be as shocked as Hu Guohao. They were dazed for more than half a second before they began fighting.

However, neither of them seemed to be interested in the battle. After several seconds of fighting, Hu Guohao turned around and ran away, roaring, “Traitor, justice will come soon!”

The black shadow didn’t pursue Hu Guohao. He jumped at Li Yao and shouted, “Master Li Yao!”

In a surveillance room not far away, Huangpu Shiyi and Su Jiuzhen both rose up and cried, “Not good! Hurry! Send him to the med bay! Give him the best treatment and the best medicine!

“He is the best disciple candidate that I have finally come across after so many years! Now that he has passed the test, his loyalty is unquestionable now. He cannot die just like that. He cannot!”

Seeing that Li Yao’s abdomen had been torn open and he was cramping with blood flooding out, Huangpu Shiyi felt that his heart was aching.

It was not Li Yao himself that he felt sorry for. The greatest pity was that there were many tricks and techniques of refining inside Li Yao’s brain that had yet to be dug out. It would be wasteful if he died just like that!

Cold sweat appeared on Su Jiuzhen’s forehead, too, as he gnashed his teeth. “Who knew that he would jump up?

“But it’s actually not bad. If his performance is only as good as this at the life-and-death moment, it is evident enough that he is really planning to join the Temple of Immortals, and his combat ability is truly at the beginning level of the Building Foundation Stage!”

Chapter 514: Malicious Li Yao

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Su Jiuzhen cast his eyes to a light beam nearby, which displayed the picture of a shallow cabin.

Inside the picture, Hu Guohao, who had been ‘rescuing’ Li Yao a moment ago, was standing beside another two Exos wearing crystal suits of the same model. Several other workers were next to them.

“Duan Hu, Duan Xiong, Duan Bao, take off your crystal suits and send them for examination. The standard crystal suits of the Furious Bears Union are not easy to find. We won’t get replacements if they are damaged. Take a rest after that. You’ve completed your mission. Job well done.

“Duan Hu, don’t let what happened just now bother you. It was because of an ill-considered plan. If something happens to Li Yao, I will take full responsibility for that. Your performance of the task was flawless.”

His words moved Duan Hu, who had pretended to be ‘Hu Guohao’ a moment ago. The guy shook in excitement and bowed. “Understood, Master Su!”

“Shua!”

The other two Immortal Cultivators had already taken off their crystal suits and handed them over to the workers nearby.

Right then, Duan Hu triggered his telepathic thoughts, too. Gold lines surged out of the crystal suit and gradually dissected it.

At present, none of the six workers and three Exos inside the cabin were protected by crystal suits. Their alarm was at the lowest point…

Duan Hu’s crystal suit was about to be taken off, when a piece of magical equipment no larger than a finger suddenly blinked in weird greenness on an inconspicuous spot below two tubes of the crystal reactor!

Huangpu Shiyi was suddenly greatly alarmed, as if thousands of needles were pricking his heart. He quivered and jumped up, while he screamed desperately, “Put on your crystal suit! Now!”

“What?”

Inside the picture, the workers were somewhat slow in reacting. But the faces of the three well-trained Exos all blanched, knowing that there must be a good reason for Huangpu Shiyi’s anxiety. They summoned their crystal suits immediately!

However, it would still take the fastest of them 1.1 seconds to finish the implementation of the whole crystal suit.

After the greenness blinked for 0.3 seconds, a narrow line of flames burst out of the magical equipment and penetrated through the crystal reactor of Duan Hu’s crystal suit!

The magical equipment was not powerful per se, but it was irritating and unsteady. It unleashed all the spiritual energy inside the crystal reactor and triggered a serial explosion!

BOOM! BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

In the Heaven’s Origin Sector, the explosion of a super-compressed crystal reactor had once ruined the entire Refining Department of the Grand Desolate War Institution.

Although the biggest reason for the accident was that the warehouse full of crystals was ignited by the explosion, the power of a crystal reactor’s explosion was definitely not something to underestimate.

Inside a starship, the explosion of a crystal reactor was more than enough to destroy several cabins!

For a moment, the starship seemed to have hit an invisible iceberg in the sea of stars. The ground was shaking, black smoke was popping up, and flames were dancing everywhere. In the center of the fire, countless Immortal Cultivators were screaming and crying!

The light beam immediately fell into darkness.

Huangpu Shiyi and Su Jiuzhen were both dumbfounded. They looked at each other in bewilderment for more than one minute. Their faces were even paler than those of a zombie, and they didn’t know what to say at all.

…

Half an hour later, standing outside the med bay, Huangpu Shiyi and Su Jiuzhen stared at Li Yao gloomily.

They could see that Li Yao was soaked in bright green medication drugs comfortably as if he were taking a hot bath. The guy couldn’t be more contented.

“The damage is very serious. Four were killed, including all the Duan triplets. Seven were too badly injured to fight again in the future. Five were crippled, with severe shock to their internal organs and brain. Their capability will be greatly compromised even if they recover from the wounds. Six of them were relatively better, but it will still take them at least two weeks before their combat ability is fully recovered.

“As for the damage to the starship, you should know it better than me as a refiner. I won’t waste my time talking about that.

“This… This is truly—”

Su Jiuzhen seemed hoarier than usual. His white hair was all standing up, revealing his bare skin on the top of his head.

Huangpu Shiyi’s face was grave, too.

However, he was the refiner on the starship. Most of the people killed or injured were under the command of Su Jiuzhen and not directly affiliated to him. Therefore, he was not as irked as him.

Thinking for a moment, he asked, “How are Li Yao’s wounds?”

Holding back his anger, Su Jiuzhen replied, “The guy is indeed unbelievably lucky. The wound he suffered from the sword seemed to be shocking enough, but it actually never reached any of his internal organs. His flesh was torn open, and one of his ribs was broken. That’s all. He will be fully recovered after staying inside the med bay for half a day!”

Huangpu Shiyi was surprised. He asked, “Is there any possibility that he feigned his wound to win our trust?”

Su Jiuzhen shook his head. “I’ve considered such a possibility. But based on what has happened, I would say that it’s very unlikely.

“Although his wounds are not serious, they are indeed close to his main organs. If he hit the sword on purpose, he would have to boast precise control over his every muscle, his every artery, and even the small-scale movements of his internal organs.

“Otherwise, the flying sword would have penetrated into his heart if he had been unlucky. He might’ve survived if the med team got there in time, but an artificial heart would cause a great loss to his capability. The price would’ve been too great to pay!

“Besides, although his critical parts were not hurt, he has still shed a lot of blood, and the outer injury was bad, too. His combat ability must’ve hit rock bottom at that time. How would someone place themselves in such a dangerous situation if they had other plans?

“By my analysis, there is only one type of person who could fake such wounds on purpose and maintain more than 90% of their combat ability after the accident.”

Huangpu Shiyi asked, “What kind of person is that?”

Su Jiuzhen replied, “Those who reject magical equipment and weapons and build up their bodies to strike the genetic chain in order to unleash the primordial force—the body practitioners!”

Huangpu Shiyi was dazed for a moment. He took a long breath in relief.

Li Yao was a crazy refiner, a lunatic bomber, and a specialist of saber refining. There was no way that he was a body practitioner who hated magical equipment most.

It was obvious and self-explanatory.

Pondering for a moment, he said, “I’m going to ask what that was all about. But the bottom line is, he didn’t know that Duan Hu was one of us. Everything is a misunderstanding.”

“I, of course, know that it is a misunderstanding, and that he has proved himself determined enough to join us. Otherwise, I would’ve stabbed the guy’s heart long ago!” Su Jiuzhen was seething with anger, yet he couldn’t find anybody to vent it on.

He had pinched himself multiple times, because he couldn’t figure out how a thoroughly-planned test ended up like this.

Even if the starships of Furious Bears Union had really caught up with them and had a big fight them with them, the damage couldn’t have been more than this.

Huangpu Shiyi took a deep breath and walked into the med bay with a smile.

When Li Yao saw him come in, his pale face that was apparently a result of the massive loss of blood was beaming with agitation. He struggled and sneered, “Isn’t the Temple of Immortals an awesome organization? You seemed to have everything under your control, but how did all the Cultivators sneak in? Is that how you usually protect people? The guy said, before he left, that he wouldn’t let go of me because I was a ‘traitor’! What am I going to do in the future? I don’t want to live in darkness and hide on Spider Den for the rest of my life!”

“Calm down. The accident was partly on you, too. Why did you leave a piece of alarm magical equipment in your room?” Huangpu Shiyi frowned.

Li Yao sniffed heavily, but he was less elaborate and murmured, “At that time, I didn’t know what was coming for me at all. Isn’t it normal to leave a piece of alarm magical equipment in case anything goes wrong?

“Right.”

Li Yao’s eyeballs rolled fast, while he asked earnestly, “After I reached the med bay, I seemed to have heard an earsplitting explosion. The entire starship seemed like it was falling apart. What happened? Were the Cultivators defeated? How about Huangpu Xiaoya?”

“Ke, Ke Ke Ke Ke!”

Huangpu Shiyi coughed uncontrollably. He managed to reply, “Huangpu Xiaoya is still under our control. The Cultivators have been driven away. But before they left, the main gun of their starship bombarded us for one last time. Our starship was somewhat affected by the attack. But it’s… not a problem. Yes. Not a problem.

“In another few days, we will meet with Fengyu Zhong. By then, everything will be back on track. There won’t be any accidents again!”

Now that Li Yao had proved himself loyal to the Temple of Immortals, Huangpu Shiyi did not mind sharing some confidential information with his ‘future disciple’ in order to leave a good impression on him. That way, he might be able to squeeze more secret arts of refining out of him.

Li Yao was apparently relieved and cursed, “These bastards ran fast enough!”

While he was talking, he touched the wound on his abdomen, which was healing quickly. He narrowed his eyes and grinned hideously. “The scumbags were indeed brutal enough. I almost kicked the bucket because of them!

“However, they won’t be any better than myself right now. Before the Cultivator retreated, I gave him a little something. Hahahaha. I’m pretty sure that they are going to love it!”

Huangpu Shiyi couldn’t help but quiver. He asked, “What—what did you give him?”

Li Yao laughed evilly and replied, “Over the past few days, based on the techniques that you taught me and my own experience in crystal bomb refining, I have finally devised a new model of anti-crystal-suit bomb that I have named ‘Crystal Suit Killer’!

“Crystal Suit Killer has three distinguished characteristics.

“Firstly, it is extremely small, light, and unobtrusive!

“I developed a deeper understanding about the engravement of tiny rune arrays through my experience of carving a chip with my bare hands in the Skyhill Sword Seminar. The size of many attack and explosion rune arrays can be reduced to one third of their usual size now. Based on that, the crystal bombs that I refine are one third the size of bombs of the same type or even smaller!

“Secondly, since the bombs are small, there is bound to be less gunpowder. But it doesn’t matter. I’ll simply install Crystal Suit Killer to the back of the enemy’s crystal suit where the crystal reactor is located!

“Once triggered, all the power of Crystal Suit Killer will be condensed into a line of spiritual energy and pierce through the enemy’s crystal reactor!

“More exactly, Crystal Suit Killer is in fact just a ‘catalyst’, whose sole effect is to transform the crystal reactor on the enemy’s crystal suit into a real bomb! I believe you understand the nastiness of the explosion of a crystal reactor as clearly as I do.”

Li Yao was smiling scarily. “Thirdly, and also the point that I’m most proud of, the trigger system!

“Crystal Suit Killer is not triggered by a countdown, nor by remote telepathic thoughts, but by a condition.

“The triggering condition for Crystal Suit Killer is when around 50% of the crystal suit has been taken off.

“You see, if the enemy is in a crystal suit, most of the explosion will be resisted by the crystal suit. There will be little real damage.

“But if they are not in their crystal suits, they will naturally be much more fragile.

“The billion-dollar question is, when will an Exo take off their crystal suit?

“They will only take off their crystal suit when they feel secure and most relaxed!

“It is possible that many of their companions, refiners, and mechanics will be with them in such scenarios, and they will be equally unalert themselves!

“If an explosion takes place right then, hahahaha, how many of them do you think can put on their crystal suit or summon their spiritual shield in time?”

Li Yao suddenly rose up from the medication drugs. Clutching the edge of the capsule he was in, he craned his head and sent his wet face right in front of Huangpu Shiyi’s head. His eyes were as sharp as knives, penetrating deep into Huangpu Shiyi’s head, as he said, one word after another, “Revenge is a dish best served cold, and I, Li Yao, happen to be a man with an excellent memory!

“Whoever, or whatever, decides to be my enemy must be ready to pay a good price!

“I wonder, is the guy named Hu Guohao going to take off his crystal suit when he is back on Furious Bears Union’s starship surrounded by his senior brothers and junior brothers?

“I get really excited whenever I think about what will become of them! Haha, hahahaha!”

Chapter 515: Natural-born Immortal Cultivator!

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Huangpu Shiyi’s face was pale. Li Yao’s laughter seemed to be punching him right his chest, and he felt that he was having a heart attack. Moaning for a moment, he asked, “How did you plant the bomb on the back of the enemy’s crystal suit?”

Li Yao answered delightedly, “Did you forget? I threw the crystal bombs on the platform at the enemy in the beginning. Then I snuck below the platform and ran to the front.

“It appeared that I was in too much of a hurry to find a way out. But in fact, I’d dashed to the back of the enemy when the other bombs exploded.

“The small training room was filled with smoke and dust at that time. His vision was limited.

“Was it really difficult for me to pin such a small crystal bomb to the back of his crystal suit with my hands that can reach subsonic speed casually?

“Huh. Huangpu Shiyi, why does your face look so awful? Somebody seemed to have slapped you in the face! What, were you ambushed and wounded by the Cultivators?

“You’d better not die! There are many other things that I’m hoping to learn from you!”

Huangpu Shiyi took quite a few long breaths to recover his face color. Then he gnashed his teeth and said, “I—I am fine. I was merely feeling dizzy due to the previous explosion.”

“That’s good. That’s good. After all, I wouldn’t have successfully devised and created Crystal Suit Killer without your tutelage. If some Cultivators are indeed blown to pieces, you should be credited for our accomplishment. Greatly credited!” said Li Yao solemnly.

Huangpu Shiyi felt like vomiting blood. He held his chest and said, difficultly, “As—as long as you are sincere about becoming my disciple, everything—everything is alright.”

Li Yao grinned. “Let’s talk about that later. Since the Cultivators considered me a traitor and want me killed so much, then as their wish, I will embark on the path to immortality and become an Immortal Cultivator!”

Huangpu Shiyi had been looking forward to Li Yao’s renouncement for a long time, but he was not expecting to hear it in such an awkward situation. Pausing for a moment, he replied, “Take a good rest now. When you recover, we might need you for the maintenance work of the starship.”

“Is that so?”

Brilliance blinked in Li Yao’s eyes, as he nodded quickly. “That’s not a problem. Repairing a starship—is my thing!”

…

Leaving the med bay Li Yao was in, Huangpu Shiyi and Su Jiuzhen went to another med bay that was larger in size on the second floor of the starship.

Compared to the cleanness and tranquility of Li Yao’s room, this med bay was truly a living hell.

The entire med bay reeked of burnt flesh and blood, which could not be entirely driven away no matter how much the ventilation system worked. The screams of countless Immortal Cultivators consolidated into gloomy clouds that enshrouded them.

Many broken, burnt bodies, whose arms or legs were gone, were in fact still alive because of the tough vitality of the Immortal Cultivators. They were floating inside the medication drugs as if they were chopped meat. Faint breaths could be heard occasionally. It was truly a blood-freezing scene.

Resolute and iron-willed as Su Jiuzhen and Huangpu Shiyi were, they couldn’t help but sigh when they saw such tragedies.

“Master Su. This is horrible. Too horrible!” Black Stone and White Dew exclaimed in grief and anger.

They were the captain and deputy captain of the assault team on the starship. The Exos killed in the explosion were mostly their subordinates.

The two of them had not been in the zone of the explosion and therefore had not been affected by it. But they were still more than infuriated seeing that their loyal subordinates whom they had carefully trained for a long time were now disabled or even dropped dead!

White Dew, the dark, long-necked, woman, shouted shrilly, “I’ll just leave everybody else alone. The three brothers of the Duan family were triplets whose minds were connected. They had been trained in Black Spider Tower since they were young!

“Although they were merely in the beginning level of the Building Foundation Stage, they had taken care of a lot of high-level Building Foundation Stage Cultivators with the assassination skills that they were adept at and the seamless cooperation that was based on their bloodline bond.

“Moreover, they were all showing signs of advancement lately. If they could have advanced into the middle level of the Building Foundation Stage; they could even have been assigned to deal with Cultivators in the beginning level of the Core Formation Stage after a few years of training!

“Such triples are indeed rarely-seen! If they had been killed in a real battlefield, so be it. But now, they’ve been killed absurdly! More than ten years of effort has been wasted. All wasted!”

“Oh?”

Su Jiuzhen replied peacefully, “Are you insinuating that it was wrong of me to have arranged the test?”

White Dew quivered and immediately stopped. Her body was shaking like a sieve, and she dared not say another word.

Su Jiuzhen scoffed and said, “The Duan triplets were indeed useful and hard to come by. But are they really more precious than Li Yao?

“You’ve all seen that Li Yao is cruel and cunning without any moral standard. He does not care about the righteous path of Cultivation that other Cultivators deem most important, and he simply asks what benefits he can get from joining us.

“Besides, there was not the slightest hesitation when he assaulted Huangpu Xiaoya. Attacking a woman seemed as natural as breathing air for him!

“A guy of no restrictions with profound skills in refining who has crafted such an excellent piece of magical equipment like ‘Crystal Suit Killer’!

“He was born to be an Immortal Cultivator, one that only appears once in a hundred years! He is the Immortal Cultivator of Immortal Cultivators!

“Let’s me give you a few reminders.

“I don’t care if some of you are discontented today and go looking for trouble with him.

“However, you’d better bear in mind that, for a guy like Li Yao, with his expertise and his personality, his position in our organization will definitely shoot up quickly.

“He is definitely not the most lenient man in the world. In fact, he was petty enough to set up a bomb hoping to blow up his enemy and his enemy’s companions just because the guy slashed him!

“If you are determined to piss off such a merciless man, just follow your heart! I will not stand in your way if you want to kill yourself!”

His words rendered everybody speechless. A cold wind seemed to be sweeping inside the med bay. Even the moaning and screaming injured Immortal Cultivators lowered their voices subconsciously.

“Li Yao…”

Everybody was reciting the upsetting name. They shivered as if they were tied up by a viper.

…

Half a day later, Li Yao was fully recovered. He was immediately asked to fix the starship.

According to Huangpu Shiyi, the starship had been seriously damaged by Furious Bears Union in the battle yesterday. A lot of refiners had been killed, too.

Li Yao didn’t ask any further. He did what he was asked to dutifully without any complaints.

Now that he had gained the trust of Huangpu Shiyi, he was granted with part of the permissions to the crystal processor of the starship, which allowed him to browse and download its structural designs.

After analyzing the structural designs carefully, he discovered that the starship was actually an ‘Ox-level’ middle-sized carrier. This model of carrier was simple-structured and sturdy and often used for transportation of tremendous goods. It was one of the most commonly-seen business starships of the Flying Star Sector.

Although it had been upgraded with some firearms, they were all regular modifications. Most Cultivation sects often upgraded their starships in similar ways. There was nothing special about this particular starship.

It was exactly as he had speculated.

Li Yao estimated that, as an underground organization, the Temple of Immortals must’ve considered intelligence collection as one of its top priorities. If so, the majority of their starships were very likely to be such carriers, which wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow, unlike armed starships.

It was even possible that this carrier had once been registered to a Cultivation sect before. It would be under the Cultivation’s name. Even if it were stopped at certain checkpoints in the sea of stars and searched on the Spiritual Nexus, nobody would be able to find anything wrong about it.

Such a starship had entered the Skyhill Domain in broad daylight because it was completely legal.

If it were a warship that had been armed to teeth, everybody would have noticed it coming distances away.

‘Stormy Sword’, the manual of robbery for space pirates written by Fengyu Zhong, was stored inside Li Yao’s brain. It had detailed descriptions on how to sabotage various kinds of starships.

‘Ox-level’ carriers, as one of the most popular business starships, were of course taken special care of by Fengyu Zhong.

There were more than a hundred methods recorded in ‘Stormy Sword’ that could dismantle the ‘ox’ into several parts like a butcher.

Other than the structural design of the starship, Li Yao had also received part of the simplified information about the space zone they were in and the cruising status of the next few days.

The information was necessary.

Refiners had to foresee what was coming in the future in order to perform the necessary strengthening procedures.

For example, if the starship was passing through a stone belt of the fire class, the refiners would have to cover the shell of the starship with patches of anti-heat rune arrays.

If they were going through a stone belt of the ice class, the refiners would have to do it the other way around.

Before Huangpu Shiyi and Su Jiuzhen set off, they had thought that it would be a simple task to capture two refiners.

Therefore, they had picked a middle-sized carrier and did not bring too many battle-type Immortal Cultivators along.

As for refiners, since there was already a super expert named Huangpu Shiyi, it would be highly redundant to bring too many of them!

As it turned out, quite a few refiners were involved in the gory explosion. Unlike the battle-type Immortal Cultivators who summoned spiritual shields in time, they were mostly killed on the spot. Those who had survived had suffered heavy wounds.

Therefore, Li Yao became the most proficient refiner aboard, other than Huangpu Shiyi. Besides, everybody knew that he was partly in charge of the maintenance of the Great Horn Exo Society’s starship and therefore must have a lot of experience.

At this critical moment, who else was more fit for the job other than him?

Two days passed. Rumor had it that they would be meeting Fengyu Zhong’s fleet soon.

As time went by, Li Yao’s plan gradually took shape.

However, a new situation disrupted his scheme again.

Inside the med bay, Huangpu Xiaoya was locked by a barrier and couldn’t move at all. She could only glare at Li Yao with her eyes from which lightning was bursting out.

Black Stone and White Dew were standing behind her. They were emotionless, but their eyes were somewhat weird.

Huangpu Shiyi was standing nearby, smiling. He lifted Huangpu Xiaoya’s hands with a metal manacle and fixed them up. Then he said to Li Yao, “Come and help me chop off this pair of hands!”

Chapter 516: Chopping Hands

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Li Yao narrowed his eyes and carefully observed Huangpu Xiaoya’s hands. He remembered how the pair of hands was wreathed in dazzling lightning in the Skyhill Sword Seminar.

Huangpu Xiaoya tried to spit in his face, but she was unable to move at all. She could only gnash her teeth. “Bastard!”

Li Yao asked peacefully, “Why?”

Huangpu Shiyi replied, emotionlessly, “I paid this trip to the Skyhill Domain in the sincere hope that the best of the younger generation of the Huangpu family could set foot on the path of immortality and be an Immortal Cultivator.

“But after I spent all the time and efforts talking sense into her, she still refused to wake up. Last time, when the Furious Bears Union broke into the starship, she was even trying to run away!

“Ah. She’s been on the wrong path for too long to turn back now. It is not going to help anyone if we keep her alive. So, just melt her without leaving a trace like those ants and let her be doomed for all eternity!

“However, before that, her hands could be recycled.”

While talking, Huangpu Shiyi extended his hands that were as withered as dry wood. “My hands were destroyed because of crazy training. For dozens of years, I’ve been looking for methods to treat them, but the best thing I can do right now is recover them briefly and occasionally.

“The doctors in the Temple of Immortals told me that, since my hands have been withered for so many years, the veins, nerves, and cells in them have lost all vitality. If it were an ordinary person, they would’ve been beyond repair. It is because of the sturdiness of Immortal Cultivators that vitality is transferred from my other body parts to my hands. That is why my hands are still functional, however terribly.

“My hands are already dead, and no medicine is going to bring them back to life. The only possible solution is to transplant a new pair of hands.

“If I were a battle-type Immortal Cultivator, it would not be bad for me to switch to a pair of artificial hands that were embedded with all kinds of magical equipment.

“However, since I am a refiner, the perception of my hands is of paramount importance to me. I cannot use artificial hands.

“The doctor then told me that I can transplant a pair of hands whose owner shared the same blood as mine. He also taught me the secret art of the transplantation in great detail.

“If Huangpu Xiaoya had been smart enough to retreat from the wrong path and be an Immortal Cultivator, I couldn’t bear to do that now. However, it’s not my fault that she is so obstinate. She is going to be executed anyway. I might as well chop off her hands and replace mine with them. That way I can study the more mysterious and complicated magical equipment!

“This is a great opportunity for her, too. Although her body is going to perish, her hands are going to live with me forever and witness the birth of so much powerful magical equipment. Hahahaha!

“Li Yao, your hands are fast, and you have a deep understanding about precise magical equipment. I believe that the capillary vessels and muscle fibers are not going to trouble you. You don’t have to be very precise. All you need to do is chop off the forearms roughly from the elbow at your highest speed. The medication magical equipment will take care of the rest.

“Come on!”

Huangpu Shiyi waved his hands. Black Stone, the fair fatty, immediately presented a tray on which more than ten scalpels in different sizes were shining coldly.

“So, that’s the reason you summoned me,” Li Yao said casually.

He extended his right hand to the tray. Four scalpels instantly disappeared, only to turn into four streaks of silver brightness and dash among his fingers like silver dragons.

Black Stone was amazed. He smiled and said, “I didn’t know that Master Li Yao was good at using sabers besides your expertise at refining them. Although not as good as White Dew and I, you are quite skilled for a refiner. I believe that you will chop off the arms flawlessly.”

Huangpu Xiaoya struggled and screamed hard.

She was not scared of death. But it was the natural instinct of any refiner to protect their hands. Chopping of her hands was even more miserable than killing her directly.

Moreover…

Huangpu Xiaoya felt sick when she thought that her hands would end up in Huangpu Shiyi’s body and help the devil refine magical equipment that could potentially slaughter countless ordinary people. Her mouth was sour and bitter, and she was about to throw up!

“Bastards. You are all bastards,” she mumbled to herself. Helpless tears dripped down her face.

Li Yao didn’t move. But the scalpels were dancing in his hands faster and faster. He seemed to be hesitating.

“Huh?”

Huangpu Shiyi’s gaze gradually turned sharp. “You cannot make up your mind to do that? I am her blood uncle, and I have slashed off the mortal relationship in pursuit of immortality. She is only a stranger to you, and you are hesitating to do what I told you? It does not befit your personality in the past few days, Li Yao!”

Black Stone and White Dew moved forward, one from left and one from right, and surrounded him silently; they grew somewhat suspicious about him again.

“Shua!”

The four scalpels in Li Yao’s hands came to a sudden halt, as he grinned and admitted frankly, “Truth be told, I’m indeed hesitating to chop off her hands, because Huangpu Xiaoya offered me a bottle of the secret nourishment liquids of the Huangpu family without me asking after my battle against Mo Tianshui. It was more or less a favor to me. If I chop off her hands just like that, where will my conscience be?”

“Oh?”

His hands gesturing in his back, Huangpu Shiyi took a step forward, ready to launch his aggressive magical equipment. He smiled. “Then what should we do with your conscience?”

Li Yao chuckled and said, “If I chop off her hands, my conscience will be hurt. Do you think you should at least pay me some ‘medical fee’?”

“Huh?”

Huangpu Shiyi was dazed. “What—what do you mean?”

Li Yao licked his lips greedily and opened his right hand. He explained, “It’s simple. Compensation for the twinge of my conscience! I don’t want gold or treasure. But you haven’t told me the fastest ways to calculate the optimal solution to ‘seven-star dilemma’ yet. Consider the methods as the compensation for my injury!”

Huangpu Shiyi was stunned, and so were Black Stone and White Dew. The three of them looked at each other in bewilderment and failed to respond.

Li Yao continued quickly. “What about it? If you give me the calculation methods right now, I’ll immediately heave the blades and chop off her hands. I guarantee that it will be so fast that blood will not flow out of her limbs until five seconds later. There will be enough time for your following procedures!”

Huangpu Shiyi was utterly dumbfounded, not knowing what to say or do.

Black Stone and White Dew took a step back at the same time with disgust in their eyes.

Even for Immortal Cultivators, Li Yao’s shamelessness still far exceeded their expectations.

Huangpu Xiaoya shouted, “Li Yao, how sordid and brazen you are! I must’ve lost my mind to offer nourishment liquids to such a scumbag like you! You are definitely the most shameless person I’ve ever met! You will die miserably one day!”

Li Yao was not affected. The fingers on his left hand were dancing as he said, “How about it? If you are unwilling to give them to me, you can chop them off yourself!”

Huangpu Shiyi was still unsure about whether or not Li Yao meant what he said. He rolled his eyes and said, “Alright. I’ll give you two of the fastest algorithms to calculate the optimal solution to ‘seven-star dilemma’. You can chop off her hands after that!”

He turned on a light beam and tapped on it for a while. Then he extended his wrist-worn crystal processor to Li Yao’s and tapped on it. Two complicated formulas were immediately transmitted over.

Li Yao opened a light beam and read at ease.

Huangpu Shiyi glared at him and said in dissatisfaction, “I’ve given you the calculation methods. Why are you still dawdling?”

Li Yao replied, “Of course, I’m examining them for myself. What if I find out that you’ve given me false methods after I chop off her hands? It’s not like I can connect her hands back to her arms.”

While he was talking, he even closed his eyes, while he murmured something to himself. His fingers bouncing randomly, he brought his computational ability to maximum in front of everyone!

Three minutes later, when he opened his eyes again, there was a confident brilliance in his eyes.

“They are real.”

“Of course they are real. Just chop off the hands already!”

“Alright, I’m doing it now. New, vigorous hands, guaranteed before tonight.”

Li Yao grinned hideously. The four scalpels turned into four streaks of silver brightness again and tied his arms. He strode to Huangpu Xiaoya, before he observed her elbow with sharp eyes, as if he was pondering the best point of cutting.

Blood seemed to be spurting out of Huangpu Xiaoya’s eyes. She yelled, “Li Yao, I will come back to you after I die!”

Li Yao smiled casually. “Don’t blame me. I’ve received a decent sum of compensation for my conscience. Besides, I want Huangpu Shiyi to have a pair of new hands, too, because—”

Li Yao suddenly stopped. There was a weird expression on his face. He turned around and asked, “Did the doctor tell you how much time it will take for you to return to your original capability or get even better after you transplant a pair of new hands?”

Huangpu Shiyi replied, “Since she is of the same bloodline as me, my body will not reject her hands. In less than three days, my body and the new hands will be joined perfectly, and 70% of my capability will be restored. In ten days, I will be fully recovered. After one month, I will be able to march toward a higher level!”

Li Yao frowned and withdrew the scalpel. He asked again, “Then what about one day? How much can you recover within one day?”

Huangpu Shiyi answered, “Probably 30% to 50%. What about it?”

Li Yao said, “If so, can you transplant the new hands tomorrow? We won’t meet Fengyu Zhong until two days later anyway.”

Huangpu Shiyi squinted. There was killing intent in his eyes, as he asked, “Why?”

“Because—”

Flames of frenzy were burning on Li Yao’s face, as he slowly continued, one word after another. “Tomorrow, I want to challenge you, Huangpu Shiyi, the Sword Master of the Skyhill Sword Seminar thirty years ago and the allegedly strongest heir of the noble families of refining!”

“What? You want to challenge me? Do you know what level you are in and where I am at? How arrogant of you!” Huangpu Shiyi was laughing in disbelief.

“Other people might think that I am too arrogant, but I believe that you must understand me, because you challenged the leader of the Mo family in the Skyhill Sword Seminar thirty years ago just like me today!

“At that time, the gap between you and the leader of the Mo family must’ve been greater than that between me and you, was it not?

“Besides—”

Li Yao smiled and said slowly, “I’m very curious how formidable my master is when he is doing his best!”

Huangpu Shiyi’s pupils suddenly widened. “You finally agree to be my disciple now?”

Li Yao sneered, “If you utterly crush me, and I see the magnificent arts of refining in you, I am, of course, willing to be your disciple.

“However, if I defeat you tomorrow by luck, it’s going to be the other way around. You can kneel down and call me your master!”

Chapter 517: Sword Seminar in Space

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Huangpu Shiyi was hooked by Li Yao’s words. When he was young, he had been as arrogant and flamboyant as Li Yao. He had only learned to be more or less prudent after the suffering caused by his hands being destroyed and the vicissitudes of his life that followed.

But deep in his bones, he was definitely still a proud man!

Furious flames were surging in Huangpu Shiyi’s eyes, as he remarked, “For so many days, I’ve never revealed my real capability to you. It was wrong of me to trigger your thought of challenging me! You want me to call you master? Good boy. I like your self-confidence. But I don’t know whether or not you are capable enough for that!”

Li Yao rolled his eyes and said, “About me being your master, that’s just an idea. How about this. You and I will bring out ten techniques respectively tomorrow, and we will compete with them as stakes!”

Huangpu Shiyi narrowed his eyes, “Stakes?”

Li Yao licked his lips and said, “Yes. I know you never taught me the real essence of crystal bomb crafting. Also, as the most distinguished person in the Huangpu family thirty years ago, you must have many personal understandings about the refinement of melee magical equipment! You will pick ten techniques from those two fields and save them in a jade chip.

“Of course, I will bring out ten of my techniques and save them in the jade chip, too. Tomorrow, we will hand over the two jade chips to someone else, say, Black Stone or White Dew, as the stakes for our competition!

“Don’t look at me as if I am taking advantage of you.

“We are both clear that, although you seem to have been teaching me over these days, we are, in fact, exchanging our techniques. The techniques that you have gotten from me are more valuable!

“But I don’t care. Do you know why? Because there are more advanced techniques in my brain than I can count!

“You should know that I was born in the remote area of the sea of stars, and I was taught by a strange master. Also, I experienced some other fortuitous incidents and received the heritage of a lot of other techniques, too.

“It’s a shame that, when I was seventeen, I was engaged in a fight for a half tin of fresh air. I lost control and killed the five persons of the family. After the old fart discovered this, he immediately made up his mind to kill me without offering me a chance of explanation. Hehe. Thankfully, I’d been long prepared for that. By the martial arts that I practiced secretly, I slayed the old fart in a counterattack!

“However, without the help from the old fart, I was not able to comprehend the too sophisticated techniques with my wisdom and could only learn them by heart.

“Damn. If I had seen that coming, I wouldn’t have killed the old fart so easily. I would’ve definitely minced him into pieces and sprayed his ashes in the air!”

Li Yao gnashed his teeth with a twisted face.

Huangpu Shiyi sniffed to himself as he listened to Li Yao. If you killed someone on the spot in a fight, it might be because you lost control. But you killed the entire family? That was totally intended murder! You are indeed cruel. No wonder the legendary strange master tried to eliminate him. He must’ve seen through the boy’s personality!

However, the strange master must’ve been a pure refiner. He was no match for Li Yao, only relying on the aggressive magical equipment he had. As a result, he was the one who got killed!

As for Li Yao, without the enlightenment of a tutor, of course, he found it hard to study the more advanced techniques. He must’ve participated in the Skyhill Sword Seminar in order to gain fame and attract more attention so that someone else would be willing to give him a hand and help him crack the techniques.

At this moment, the question that had been baffling Huangpu Shiyi was finally solved. He realized that Li Yao had only provided so many techniques generously because there were even advanced techniques inside his brain that the guy couldn’t grasp by himself and had to study together with another expert.

Wasn’t Huangpu Shiyi a super expert himself?

Huangpu Shiyi gulped. His face beamed with delight as he said, “What techniques do you have?”

Li Yao pondered for a moment and replied, “There are three ancient formulas to calculate the Daoist Mammoth Algorithm. They are all at least one third faster than the popular methods nowadays. But the three formulas are all broken; I cannot finish all the calculations by myself.

“There’s another technique that could transform the Green Cloud Purple Glow Array into seven variations. The strength of the array will be improved by four times at best! But there are two critical points about the technique that I haven’t entirely figured out yet.

“I have dozens of other techniques just like them. After studying for five years, I have made zero progress. I could only reach the conclusion that the wisdom of myself is not enough and that I’m in dire need of someone else’s input.

“But, naturally, I don’t want to share my knowledge with any random refiner. I have two conditions.

“Firstly, they must be both good at theories and practical work. Secondly, they must provide an equal number of techniques for me!

“Only idiots would give away the techniques in their heads for free. Even if I cannot make anything out of the techniques, if I don’t get enough benefits from them, I would rather keep them rotting in my brain than let somebody else take advantage of me!

“The reason I’ve been hesitating to be your disciple is that your hands are completely useless. There’s no way that you can train with me for a long time with them.

“However, I didn’t know that you had a secret art of hand transplantation. It’s no problem anymore, then. If you had told me about such a secret art sooner, I might’ve agreed to be your disciple long ago!

“How about it? From the techniques that I talked about just now, I’ll select ten and save them in the jade chip. Black Stone and White Dew will look after the jade chip. You are free to examine it beforehand, but I guarantee that there won’t be anything wrong with the techniques.

“Then, we will have a real competition. If you win, I will be your disciple without further ado. The ten techniques will be my tuition fee.

“If I win, you don’t have to call me your master. What I demand is that you give me your ten techniques, and that we be equal partners in the Temple of Immortals!”

Huangpu Shiyi’s eyes were flickering. The techniques that Li Yao provided these days were already captivating enough. He didn’t expect that there were many more even more advanced techniques inside his brain.

As a frantic refiner, he found absolutely no reason to turn down the offer.

Huangpu Shiyi grinned and replied, “So, you are still planning to take advantage of me. You are not willing to be my disciple, and you want to take away my techniques! However, your chance of winning is slim. If you unfortunately fail, you won’t go back on your words, will you?”

Weird brilliance shined in Li Yao’s eyes. One of the scalpels suddenly vanished and circled around his fingertip.

Blood immediately spurted out.

Li Yao moved his fingers and quickly drew a complicated rune in the midair with his blood as ink.

While he drew, he said solemnly, “I swear by the blood of my fingertip that I, Li Yao, will have a fight in the arts of refining with Huangpu Shiyi tomorrow, and if I fail, I will kneel down and respect Huangpu Shiyi as my master immediately! Should the oath be broken, my mind shall be haunted for all eternity, my hands shall be shaking forever, and I shall never refine a piece of qualified magical equipment for the rest of my life!

“Blood Oath, now!”

Li Yao finished the last stroke and opened his mouth. The blood rune in the midair immediately turned into a red streak and dashed into his mouth.

Li Yao tremored for a moment. There was hint of blood in his eyes.

The faces of Huangpu Shiyi, Black Stone, and White Dew all blanched.

A ‘Blood Oath’ was a general method of vowing for all Cultivators.

It was not as effective as recorded in ancient classics, which stated that what the oath taker swore would definitely come back to them when they broke their vow.

A Blood Oath was, in fact, more of a psychological phenomenon. For example, although Li Yao had made such a terrifying oath, his hands would not necessarily tremble all day when he broke it. But the idea would stay in his mind nonetheless. When he thought about it occasionally during his refining, his hands might indeed shake and thus reduce the success rate of the refining a little bit.

The thought might haunt him for a year and a half, or maybe several years. No one could tell how long they would be bothered by their vow-breaking memories.

Huangpu Shiyi believed that, if he were in Li Yao’s shoes, he wouldn’t bear to see any drop of the success rate of his refining, even if it was as small as one percent.

The foolish boy meant what he said!

Huangpu Shiyi was almost touched hearing Li Yao making such an irreversible oath.

In the eyes of the regular Cultivators, they might find Li Yao’s arrogance in the beginning intolerable.

But for Huangpu Shiyi, an Immortal Cultivator, it was nothing unusual.

Selfishness was the greatest virtue among Immortal Cultivators. Cruel competition was everywhere in the Temple of Immortals, too. There was not the slightest warmth between masters and disciples.

Many disciples were loyal and dutiful when they hadn’t learned their masters’ knowledge. They only hated that they couldn’t be a dog barking for their masters.

However, when their wings grew strong and their masters somehow wound up in trouble, it would be considered very nice of them to only ditch their masters immediately.

The more considerate disciples even concocted plans in secret and killed their masters without alarming anyone. Their masters’ belongings would all be theirs in such a way!

Huangpu Shiyi would never dare recruit such disciples.

It was also the reason he didn’t have any acolytes or assistants even though he had been in the Temple of Immortals for twenty years.

His hands were too useless. He was afraid that, if his disciple became too strong someday, they might have second thoughts.

But things were different about this silly boy, Li Yao. The fact that he was bragging about himself openly suggested that he had no other plans. If the guy were onto something else, he wouldn’t have been so arrogant and tried to piss him off at all!

It seemed a better option to recruit an arrogant yet simple-minded boy as his disciple than to recruit a hypocrite whom he had to be wary of all day. Besides, there were so many techniques inside his brain. After he got Huangpu Xiaoya’s hands, his capability would definitely soar with Li Yao’s helpful techniques. Chances were that he might even be able to march into the high level of the Core Formation Stage and became a renowned Core Formation Stage Refiner!

By that time, he would be appreciated by everyone in the Temple of Immortals. Who should he be scared of then?

Thinking about that, Huangpu Shiyi laughed. “Great! Great! Great! I crushed the Skyhill Sword Seminar thirty years ago, the only one that I ever participated in, without meeting any trouble whatsoever. The matches were even getting boring for me as I proceeded.

“This year, I interrupted your Skyhill Sword Seminar. It’s only reasonable that I make up for that.

“Then, tomorrow at this time, the two of us will have a special Skyhill Sword Seminar in the sea of stars!

“It will decide whether I, the dominator of the Skyhill Sword Seminar thirty years ago, or you, the most brilliant star in the Skyhill Sword Seminar thirty years later who outshone all the other contestants, are the real King of Skyhill Sword Seminar!”

“It’s a deal then! This time tomorrow, a Skyhill Sword Seminar in space!”

Li Yao took a long breath and walked up to Huangpu Xiaoya. He drew a line on her elbow with the pommel of the scalpel and smiled at her vaguely. “I’ll keep these hands of yours for another day.”

Huangpu Xiaoya was already exhausted. She gazed at him, not even having the strength to curse anymore.

Chapter 518: As Venomous as Viper

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

An hour later, in their suite…

The manacle that confined Huangpu Xiaoya had been relieved. But she was imposed upon yet another few barriers. It was fine for her to eat or drink, but she could only summon the least spiritual energy. Whenever she had the idea of self-torturing, she would immediately receive an electric shock and be paralyzed to bed.

Therefore, just like a beast that had fallen into a trap, Huangpu Xiaoya could do nothing but glare with her bloodshot eyes at the bed on which Li Yao was reading an ancient book comfortably on the other side of the room. The book was Huangpu Shiyi’s personal collection. It was offered to Li Yao without him asking because Huangpu Shiyi felt extremely good today.

Huangpu Xiaoya stared at Li Yao for a long time, only to discover that he was smiling as airily as before. She gnashed her teeth. “Shameless!”

Li Yao laughed and replied, “You think this is shameless? Then I’m afraid that your eyes will be opened today. Do you want to hear it?”

Huangpu Xiaoya was dazed, not knowing what he meant.

Li Yao continued instead of waiting for a reply. “When I reflected on the whole thing, there are several points that have been bothering me. Look, according to Huangpu Shiyi, his sole reason for going to the Skyhill Domain was to invite you to join the Temple of Immortals and become an Immortal Cultivator, was it not? At that time, he was not aware of my capability yet. He merely planned to kill me as a favor for Fengyu Zhong, who is also a member of the Temple of Immortals.

“I was never his focus; you were.

“Then, here comes the question. Do you not think that there should be a step-by-step process to lure in other people, especially hardcore Cultivators who were born in the noble families in the Cultivation world and firmly believe in the ethos of Cultivators?

“For example, he could’ve elaborated to you about how merciful and beautiful the Temple of Immortals is, or that it was established for the peace of the universe and for the happiness of the people. At the very least, he should’ve explained that there were good reasons that the Temple of Immortals were killing other people, say, killing some was actually saving more, or that it was not the Immortal Cultivators who were wrong but the other living souls in the multiple worlds, bla bla bla.

“Then, he could’ve shown you the dark side of the Cultivators and let you realize that Cultivators were actually pretentious people whose actions turned out to be the very opposite of their claims, and so on.

“The process could be repeated until you were brainwashed and gradually accepted their stance. You would’ve been transformed slowly but surely.

“This should be the standard procedure to get more people to join his organization!

“But what did Huangpu Shiyi do exactly?

“He showed the serial explosions in the Skyhill Domain to you before anything else, as if he was afraid that you could not see through his evilness. He seemed to be trying to trigger your fury and resistance against the Temple of Immortals.

“Right now, we’ve been held captive for more than half a month, but he’s only spoken to you less than three times. By logic, it’s perfectly normal that an avid believer of the Cultivators’ creeds could not change their mindset in such a short amount of time, is it not? Why doesn’t he take you to the headquarters of the Temple of Immortals and ask a few more kindly-looking, preferably middle-aged, nuns to take their time to work together and talk sense into you?

“If the Temple of Immortals really is so bad at recruiting new people, I can only wonder how the organization has existed for such a long time and is even showing signs of thriving.

“The Huangpu family is a noble family of refining and one of the most renowned families in the circle of refiners. You are the most talented genius in the younger generation of such a family. To deal with such an important figure like yourself, it won’t be a waste of time even if it has to take several years, will it?

“Thirdly, even if Huangpu Shiyi is in dire need of a pair of new hands, does he really have to be so hasty? The medical staff on this starship are definitely less proficient than the doctors in the headquarters of the Temple of Immortals. Why can’t he wait until we reach the headquarters and ask a professional doctor to do the transplantation? Why is he not patient enough to wait for another half a month?

“Those three points have been baffling me for an entire hour. However, I suddenly figured everything out when you called me ‘shameless’ just now!”

Huangpu Xiaoya was dazed. She pondered for a long time and still failed to get what Li Yao was trying to say. She murmured, “What do you mean?”

Li Yao smiled knowingly. “It’s simple. If Huangpu Shiyi’s purpose was to tempt you to join the Temple of Immortals, what he has been doing is idiotic and unreasonable.

“So, the fact is, since the very beginning, he had never wanted you to join the Temple of Immortals, and he was even scared that you might decide to join it.

“His one and only purpose at the Skyhill Domain was your hands!”

Taking a deep breath, Huangpu Xiaoya felt that several bolts of lightning were striking inside her head.

After she heard Li Yao’s explanation, she found everything clearer and yet more desperate!

“So, this was his scheme all along. He—he is my blood uncle, but he has been coveting my hands!”

Huangpu Xiaoya was trembling beyond her control. “Terrible. You Immortal Cultivators are too terrible! You are not humans. Definitely not humans!”

Li Yao smiled. “Huangpu Shiyi is a super refiner. Since he was in need of a pair of new hands, he definitely wouldn’t choose any random person’s. Inside the Huangpu family, the hands of his relatives of his generation or senior to him were too old. He wouldn’t be able to use them for long even if he transplanted them. So, he could only look for alternatives in the younger generation.

“Who in the younger generation has better hands than you, the talented heir of the Huangpu family?

“As it happened, you were his blood nephew. Your father and him were brothers. You shared the same bloodline. His body wouldn’t have a problem to accept organs from you.

“Therefore, these young and vigorous hands of yours were apparently destined for him!

“He played the scenes of the Skyhill Domain’s explosions on purpose so that you wouldn’t even consider surrendering to the Temple of Immortals. He is so eager to chop off your hands now because he wants to settle everything as soon as possible.

“There will be too many uncertainties when you return to the headquarters of the Temple of Immortals. Let’s say you suddenly change your mind and decide to join the Temple of Immortals. If so, there will be absolutely no reason for him to cut off your hands anymore! Haha!”

Huangpu Xiaoya was almost stunned. She stammered, “If—if you have seen everything through, are you still willing to be a disciple of such a venomous viper?”

Li Yao chuckled. “What’s wrong with that? I’ve slain my own master before, haven’t I? Huangpu Shiyi and I are merely taking advantage of each other. Now that we are still of value to each other, we will always restrain ourselves and be friendly to one another. A relationship bound by interests is so much more solid than one built on feelings!”

“Indeed.”

Huangpu Xiaoya closed her eyes, cold tears dripping down her face. She mumbled, “I almost forgot. You are also a vicious, filthy, cowardly, and selfish Immortal Cultivator!”

…

Inside a dark room near the suite…

Although Li Yao had proved himself to be loyal enough, Huangpu Shiyi and Su Jiuzhen had never let loose of monitoring him.

Three crystal cameras and detectaphones had been hidden in the corners of the room. They were five times more inconspicuous than the previous ones!

It was a smart psychological strategy.

After Li Yao dismantled so many crystal cameras and detectaphones in the beginning, he would inevitably think that Huangpu Shiyi’s methods about deploying surveillance equipment were only as good as that.

Therefore, Li Yao had never discovered the last three crystal cameras and detectaphones that were much more discreetly than previous ones.

However, his blunt words, since he thought no one was watching him, cast the dark room into awkward silence.

Su Jiuzhen said coldly, “Is it true, what Li Yao just said?”

Sweat appeared on Huangpu Shiyi’s forehead, as he stuttered, “Well, about that…”

Su Jiuzhen snorted. “It’s your own business to chop off Huangpu Xiaoya’s hands. But you have mobilized so many resources of our organization without telling us your true purpose. Have you notified the Lotus King of your jobbery?”

Huangpu Shiyi was trembling violently. With a bitter face, he replied, “I… I…”

“I suppose that’s a no?”

Su Jiuzhen sighed and said, “Rest assured, I will not report the matter. After all, we are both subordinates of the Lotus King. If I were to blab about it, we might have to turn against each other. What benefits can I get from that?

“However, what if someone else learns of the matter and attacks the Lotus King for his lack of control over his subordinates?

“When we return, you have three days to explain yourself to the Lotus King. If you don’t tell him everything after three days, I’m afraid that I’ll have to brief the Lotus King myself.

“Huangpu Shiyi, I’m not criticizing you, but why didn’t you talk to the Lotus King before you did such a thing, which is not entirely forbidden? Why were you so self-willed? How foolish you were!”

Huangpu Shiyi’s face was as pale as sand. He murmured, “I thought… I thought…”

Su Jiuzhen looked him in the eye and said, “You didn’t think that the Lotus King would help you, did you? Then you couldn’t have been more wrong! Now that you have chosen to serve the Lotus King, and you are well aware of the Lotus King’s power inside our organization, you should have every faith in him!

“I’m clearer than you about how the Lotus King returns his subordinates’ loyalty. If you had talked to the Lotus King in advance, he would’ve arranged everything perfectly for you. There wouldn’t have been the slightest chance that other people might see through the operation.

“Alright. What is done is done. It’s needless to say anything else. After your competition with Li Yao tomorrow, just ask him to chop off the hands and replace yours with them as you planned. Then, you’d better be prepared to ask for the Lotus King’s pardon. I will try to say something nice for you, too.”

Huangpu Shiyi wiped his sweat quickly. “Thank you very much, Master Su! After my body is accustomed to my new hands, I will immediately turn on my furnace and refine a set of the most delicate ‘Thirteen Ghost Soul Needles’ for you!”

Huangpu Shiyi’s promise was apparently what Su Jiuzhen had been waiting for. But he simply grunted, not showing approval or disapproval. He squinted and looked at Li Yao inside the light beam again. “This boy was smart enough to see through your ruse, though.

“However, since he is speaking evil of you, his future master, so patently, it is evident enough that he does not know that there are other bugs inside the room and that we are still supervising him to this moment!

“His declaration about joining the Temple of Immortals for his own benefits seems more valid now.

“Alright, now, I can finally say with a hundred percent certainty that Li Yao is willing to join the Temple of Immortals sincerely and that he is a real Immortal Cultivator!

“Excellent. A great talent has joined the Lotus King’s cause. How can the other three expect to compete with the Lotus King now?”

Chapter 519: Sparks in Darkness

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Watched by the hidden crystal cameras, Huangpu Xiaoya took a deep breath and tried to resume her calmness. She bit her lips so hard that blood was zigzagging out the corners of her mouth like crimson snakes.

She gnashed her teeth. “You are telling me all this because you want me to be more depressed and devastated before I die?”

Li Yao sneered. “I’m telling you this because I want you to clearly see the reality. ‘Survival of the fittest’ is the only truth in this dark universe. It is also why I decided to embark on the path of immortality to make myself stronger!

“As for weaklings such as you, you will always be the prey of the strong. In the end, your body and your Cultivation will be gone, and you cannot even protect your hands!”

Huangpu Xiaoya was silent. She licked the blood on her lips. It was bitter and unsmooth.

Li Yao suddenly rose up. He walked to her and, looking down upon her, said disdainfully, “You call yourself an unyielding and unchangeable Cultivator, but just think about it. What did you do in the half a month after you were captured by the Temple of Immortals except panicking, cursing, yelling, and crying? Have you made any endeavors that could help free yourself from the current predicament? No. None whatsoever!

“You have even forgotten the daily training of your hands, the most fundamental task of every refiner!

“During the last ten days, you have been lying on bed like a useless bum every day without doing any training. Your hands must have retrograded. I guarantee that your capability is at least 10% lower than before!

“Let’s be honest. Even if an opportunity miraculously presents itself to you, are you even qualified to seize it right now? Am I wrong in calling you a useless weakling?”

As if somebody had smacked her in the face, Huangpu Xiaoya was dazed and failed to come up with anything.

Li Yao said coldly, “Yes, your speech is wonderful. You are on the moral high ground, and I’m filthier than a swine. However, words cannot kill anybody! I’m standing right in front of you, torturing and humiliating you. Tomorrow, I’m even going to chop off your hands. But what can you do to me?

“You said that you would come back for revenge after you died, didn’t you? For useless crap like you, you will only fall into the Temple of Immortals’ control if you really become a spectral Cultivator after you are executed. Chances are that you will be sealed into some magical equipment by Huangpu Shiyi or me. Haha. Let’s see how you can seek your revenge then!”

Huangpu Xiaoya was dumbfounded. She suddenly felt cold to the bones.

She was not scared of death. But for Cultivators, death was not necessarily their final destination. If her soul unfortunately lived on after her death and was refined into a devastating soul by the Immortal Cultivators to butcher innocent people, it would be an outcome that she would rather die ten thousand times to avoid!

Huangpu Xiaoya was immediately breathing heavily.

Observing her reaction, Li Yao said casually, “Do you regret it now? It’s too late!

“When I was in the Great Horn Exo Society, there was one saying that I heard all the time: if you want to shout, let your weapons be your voice; if you have tears, let your enemies shed them for you!

“I’ll forward the words to you now. Although you probably won’t get the chance to use them in this life, you can try to bear them in mind in case you are fortunate enough to be reincarnated into a human again!”

Finishing his speech, Li Yao retreated. He waved his hands. The barrier in the middle of the suite gradually moved and divided the suite into two separate rooms.

Before the barrier was fully closed, Li Yao looked at Huangpu Xiaoya, who was deep in thought, through the gap and said, “Sleep tight. Tomorrow, a lot of blood will be shed.”

…

The next day, in the early morning…

The suite had no windows. It was dim and hazy. One could not even see their own fingers. Li Yao was woken up by the noise of the relief of the barrier, only to discover that Huangpu Xiaoya had opened the wall that blocked them.

Huangpu Xiaoya did not turn on any lights. There was not the slightest trace of rays. Darkness dominated the entire room.

Occasionally, clusters of spluttering sparks would burst out from Huangpu Xiaoya’s direction, which formed elegant yet feeble runes in midair, flashing and vanishing quickly.

Illuminated by the sparks, Huangpu Xiaoya seemed to be very focused. Her tranquil and solemn face appeared and disappeared in the darkness.

Although he could only see her briefly, Li Yao sensed that she was vastly different from the previous day. Her softness, hesitation, and desperation were nowhere to be seen.

“What are you doing?” Li Yao couldn’t help but ask.

“Can’t you tell? I’m training myself.”

Huangpu Xiaoya answered peacefully, “Due to the barriers they planted inside my body, I cannot perform higher level training sessions. I can only summon such weak sparks to practice drawing runes. But it’s still beneficial for me to maintain the nimbleness of my fingers.”

Li Yao raised his eyebrow. “Why are you training?”

Huangpu Xiaoya said seriously, “Li Yao, although you are an unforgivable scumbag, the final words you said last night do make sense.

“Shouts and tears are the most useless things in the world.

“If I want to shout, my weapons shall be my voice; if I have tears, my enemies shall shed them for me!

“Over the past ten days, I’ve let out too many useless shouts and cried too many meaningless tears. I thought that I was brave, but after a night of reflection, I realized that it was simply cowardice in a different form.

“I was merely resorting to shouts and tears to avoid the real fight!”

Li Yao blinked his eyes and said, “So?”

Huangpu Xiaoya continued her explanation solemnly. “So, after I realized what I’ve been doing, I decided that I would stop shouting and crying, and I should dedicate myself to a real fight until my blood runs dry like any righteous Cultivator would.

“As a refiner, I am not good at waving weapons. Thus, I simply consider the training of my hands a special fight!

“You were right about one thing. I wasted too much time after I was captured. My hands are much less deft than before. Thank you for pointing that out. After drawing runes for an entire night, they have recovered a lot.”

Li Yao smiled. “You are going to die today. What difference does it make?”

Huangpu Xiaoya said, “If one understands the great Dao in the morning, they can die peacefully at the end of the day. Even if I am going to be killed tonight, I am still alive at this moment.

“And if I am alive, I will have to fight. One more second of life means one more second of fighting.

“If I turn into ghosts after I die, I will continue fighting. If I fail and fall into your hands, and you turn me into a devastating soul, then so be it. At least, I’ve fought the good fight.

“However, don’t expect Huangpu Xiaoya to surrender! Human or ghost, I will always be an outright Cultivator, and I will never demean myself by joining you unscrupulous Immortal Cultivators!”

As if intimidated by her rectitude, Li Yao laughed weirdly and yet failed to respond.

Huangpu Xiaoya kept on training. Tiny sparks were bursting out of her fingertips nonstop.

However, the majority of her spiritual energy had been sealed. After a night of hard training, she was over-exhausted. The sparks on her fingertips were getting weaker and weaker. In the end, they only shone for 0.1 seconds before they were swallowed by darkness.

After breathing heavily for five seconds, she summoned new sparks on her fingertips which blinked stubbornly and vanished into darkness again.

Inside the darkness, Huangpu Xiaoya suddenly asked, “Do you think darkness and darkness are the same?”

This time, Li Yao really failed to understand what she meant. Pondering for a moment, he asked, “Can you explain?”

Huangpu Xiaoya’s voice was somewhat enticing, filled with a sense of mystery, as she said, “There are two identical rooms with no windows or doors. Inside the rooms is absolute darkness. Some creatures are locked in the two rooms.

“One of the rooms is always filled by absolute darkness. There has never been any light before, and there will never be any in the future.

“In the other room, a tiny, feeble, and short-lived spark will burst out occasionally after a long time. The spark will illuminate a limited space very briefly and leave a message about brightness in the heads of the creatures inside the room.

“But eventually, the spark will be gone, and the room will be embraced by darkness again. Another tiny spark that can burn for only one second might not show up again until a hundred years or even a thousand years later.

“Do you think the first darkness and the second darkness are the same?”

Li Yao was silent for a long time.

In the darkness, he glanced at the last detectaphone in a corner of the room, while he exhaled and said, “Are they not?”

Huangpu Xiaoya laughed, in great relief and satisfaction, as if she had completely comprehended something. Her belief turned firm, thorough, and unshakable.

“They are not.”

She replied confidently, one word after another. “Maybe they are the same for you Immortal Cultivators. But for us, the true Cultivators, the two types of darkness are different!

“Even if this universe is truly nothing more than a brutal, bloody, shadowy forest, we Cultivators will burn all that we have just to give off a single weak flickering spark in the darkness!

“No matter how weak each spark is, how short-lived, how small… As long as the sparks flow unabated, then one day, one of those sparks will light some tinder, and that tinder shall light some fallen branches, and those branches shall set ablaze each and every last tree of the forest!

“In the end, even the smallest sparks will eventually set the shadowy forest ablaze and illuminate the whole world!”

Taking a deep breath, Li Yao said drily, “Igniting the entire forest with a flickering sparkle? What are the odds? One thousandth? One millionth? One billionth?”

Huangpu Xiaoya said softly, “One billionth is still not zero!”

Li Yao was dazed.

The sentence sounded rather familiar. He must’ve heard it somewhere else.

Pondering for a while, he finally remembered it.

Back when he selected the Grand Desolate War Institution in his hometown Floating Spear City in the Heaven’s Origin Sector, he had challenged Deep Sea University, the ‘Holy Land of Refiners’, in front of everyone.

Xie Tingxian, a professor of Deep Sea University, had asked him whether or not the odds of him defeating Deep Sea University could reach one billionth.

It was exactly what he had said at that time.

“One billionth is still not zero!”

Li Yao stopped talking and turned on the illumination rune arrays in the room.

Dazzling brightness immediately sprayed out and shattered the darkness like countless light swords!

Li Yao warmed up his fingers, his bones uttering cracking noises as if blades were colliding.

Storms and thunder were brewing under his fingernails, which were about to explode!

Taking a deep breath, he smelled the scent of sparks in the air. His every nerve couldn’t be more sharp and excited!

The day of the final battle had come!

Chapter 520: Let’s Fight!

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Eight o’clock in the evening, inside the vast warehouse of the ‘Ox-level’ carrier…

The business starships of this model were usually used as carriers. Therefore, the Cultivation sects had performed large-scale modifications before they were delivered. In the middle and rear parts of such starships, there were often several vast warehouses that could be hundreds of square meters.

This particular warehouse, on the other hand, had been modified into a refining center for explosive magical equipment.

Huangpu Shiyi was an expert of the trade. This trip to the Skyhill Domain also demanded crystal bombs to help them get rid of the potential pursuers. Therefore, he had made the modifications in advance so that he could refine explosive magical equipment on the way.

The warehouse had three layers of walls made of strengthened alloys. Between each wall were defense rune arrays. On the innermost wall, there were defense, soundproof, and buffer rune arrays. Together with other secret arts, they blocked any sounds or shaking in warehouse from affecting other cabins.

It was safe to say that, even if a heaven-splitting explosion took place inside the warehouse, nobody outside would notice anything wrong.

Inside the warehouse, necessary facilities to create explosive magical equipment had been deployed, including protective devices and damage examination systems that could help Huangpu Shiyi measure the performance of each bomb precisely.

At this time, all the lights inside the warehouse were on. Huangpu Shiyi, Black Stone, White Dew, Fei Ming, and another four gloomy yet brawny men were standing in the middle of the warehouse.

This place would be the battlefield of the ‘Sword Seminar in Space’!

Li Yao stood in front of everyone peacefully.

Huangpu Xiaoya, in the meantime, was sitting in a corner. She had been tied up by barriers and crammed into a specially-designed anti-explosive suit.

However, she was quite peaceful too, and she eyed Li Yao and the rest of them as if they were dry bones in a grave or zombies that had come back to life.

Li Yao glanced over everyone and paid special attention to the few brawny men. Two of them still had medication runes on their bodies. They did not look very friendly, but they dare not stare back at him, either, and merely lowered their heads.

Black Stone, the fair fatty, smiled. “Master Li Yao, they are the subordinates of White Dew and mine. They look somewhat haggard right now because they suffered tiny injuries from the Furious Bears Union’s assault the other day. But they are usually very trustworthy.

“Now that Master Li Yao has become an Immortal Cultivator, we are all on the same boat. You can ask them to do anything for you. I guarantee that they will treat you just like they treat us!

“You are a refiner, and we are all battle-type Immortal Cultivators. We are complementary in every sense. If you ever need anything to be done, you don’t have to it in person. With a hint or a gesture, White Dew and I will immediately see to it. We only hope that Master Li Yao could be kind enough to craft a few tailor-made sabers for us if possible.

“The day we invited Master Li Yao here, White Dew and I had offended you a lot. But everything was different back then, and we were merely carrying out our commands at that time. I hope that Master Li Yao can forgive us. Anyways, we are all serving the Lotus King, and we should fight side by side against the common foe!”

“Lotus King?”

Li Yao blinked and looked at Huangpu Shiyi suspiciously.

Huangpu Shiyi smiled drily. “The Lotus King is a giant in the Temple of Immortals. You won’t regret joining the Lotus King’s cause! When we’re back at our headquarters, I will introduce you to the Lotus King immediately. He will be so happy to see yet another brilliant young man walk on the righteous path. Chances are that he will grant you a lot of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures!”

Li Yao’s face was beaming with joy. He said hurriedly, “I can refine sabers for anyone as long as the price is decent. I wonder, where are we right now, and how long will it take us to annihilate the Great Horn Exo Society and meet the Lotus King in the headquarters?”

Huangpu Shiyi had completely let down his defenses. He replied, “We have now arrived at the Iron Plateau Space Zone. However, since transmitting telepathic thoughts over a long distance might be noticed the Cultivators, we have kept silent and dared not reach out to our comrades. But half a day ago, we received a message from Fengyu Zhong that he has stopped Gold Horn!

“But Gold Horn is not alone. It is in the company of another two starships. Therefore, the battle is dragging on for longer than we expected. Fighting and running, it may take two to three days before they are finally defeated. We will catch up with them tomorrow, and it will be the perfect time to join the battle!

“Although it may take longer for us to put down Gold Horn, you don’t need to worry about anything. After more than half a month of assaults and ambushes, the Cultivation world has been stabbed multiple times. It is bleeding everywhere. Even those sects that were not attacked are also greatly panicked. The starships and experts from various Cultivation sects lurking not far away from Gold Horn retreated and went to defend their homes long ago! There’s no large star beacon near the Iron Plateau Space Zone that can support a space jump, either!

“Therefore, in the next five days, no other forces of Cultivators will be able to reinforce them. We can take our time and enjoy the meal that is the three starships!

“Haha. Hahahaha. After that, the morale of the Cultivation world will definitely be wrecked. Just think about it. They went through all the trouble and made so many plans. Such a great number of experts were dispatched to protect the Great Horn Exo Society. However, with a few tricks of ours, they were split and had to go back to their homes exhaustedly, and the Great Horn Exo Society was destroyed anyway!

“When the news is out, I don’t know how many Cultivators will be distressed and how many will be intimidated. By then, many of them will see through the weakness of Cultivators. They will be turned into Immortal Cultivators with only a few words!”

Li Yao racked his brain and soon found the information about the Iron Plateau Space Zone.

It was one of the largest and most ancient space zones of the Flying Star Sector. ‘Iron Plateau’, the biggest inhabitable planet of the Flying Star Sector, was located in the space zone.

However, this planet was dominated by demon beasts and barbarians, or in Huangpu Xiaoya’s words, qi-trainers.

For some reason, the planet was a taboo for the residents, be they Cultivators or ordinary people, of the Flying Star Sector. They barely mentioned anything about the planet.

The Iron Plateau Space Zone was like a strange forbidden area. It was very underdeveloped. No large star beacons were established in this place, either.

As a result, a starship could not be teleported to the Iron Plateau Space Zone directly. It could only cruise slowly and dutifully like them, which took a lot more time.

It was not hard to guess that Fengyu Zhong had spent a lot of effort driving the Great Horn Exo Society to the land of death.

“Alright!”

Li Yao eyes turned cold as he said, “Let’s cut the nonsense and begin now! I thought that Mo Tianshui and Huangpu Xiaoya would be the best opponents I got in the Skyhill Sword Seminar, and since I knew I was definitely better than them, I could never summon 100% of my fighting will!

“I didn’t expect that the Skyhill Sword Seminar would end up like this, me challenging the ‘Sword Master’ of thirty years ago!

“How exciting and enjoyable! I can sense that my fighting will is soaring!”

Huangpu Shiyi smiled vaguely. Now that the topic at hand was refining, the king of his era showed an unparalleled dominating aura. He said casually, “What are the rules?”

Li Yao squinted and replied, “I’m a man who likes to challenge the impossible. Since you are adept at explosive magical equipment, and we’ve been talking about that for many days, let’s just have a match of crystal bombs!

“We will refine a crystal bomb respectively and compare their damage. The one with a higher damage output will be the winner. There will be three rounds.

“Don’t be hasty. I’m not done yet.

“You’ve studied explosive magical equipment for twenty years, and you are in the Core Formation Stage. You are better than me in every regard. I don’t stand the slightest chance of winning in a normal competition!

“If you are brave enough, why don’t you ask me to select the materials, and we will refine crystal bombs with identical materials?

“Also, for the three rounds, only if you win them all will you be the final victor; if you lose any of them, I will be the winner!

“Do you think such rules are fair?”

Huangpu Shiyi considered them carefully for a moment. His eyes suddenly shone as he said in amusement, “Good boy. It seems that you are not as foolish as I thought. You came up with such a way and want to try your luck! Excellent. Such rules indeed make up for the gap between our levels and experience. Very reasonable!

“However, they are still useless. An egg crashing into a stone ten thousand times will only break ten thousand times. It will never be able to leave the tiniest crack on the stone!

“Not just three rounds, even if there are a hundred rounds, I will still crush you effortlessly!

“You may choose materials freely at your will, but they have to be in the inventory that I prepare. After all, I only brought some thirty-six hundred materials for the trip. If you ask for random materials, I may not be able to provide them!”

Li Yao agreed quickly, “It’s a deal. If the egg is really broken, I will respect you as my master immediately, and this jade chip will be my tuition fee. You can check it out first!”

Li Yao took out a jade chip from his pocket and threw it over without any hesitation.

Huangpu Shiyi picked the jade chip. He was going to insert it into his crystal processor, when he stopped briefly and tossed back a jade chip, which he had retrieved from his sleeve, as he said, chuckling, “My good disciple, your master won’t deceive you, either. Inside this jade chip are the ten best techniques that I spent all the night deliberating over, including the ultimate knowledge about crystal bombs and the delicate tricks of sword-forging from the Huangpu family. You can browse through them first!”

Li Yao was not courteous at all. He took over the jade chip and inserted it into his crystal processor. After reading them for three minutes, he was certain that there was nothing wrong with the techniques.

It was only reasonable that Huangpu Shiyi was giving him authentic techniques right now because the man was trying to dig out more techniques from him. What good could the man get by giving him false techniques and pissing him off?

Meanwhile, Huangpu Shiyi was exclaiming in a low voice, “Such magnificent ancient rune arrays? So many tricks about refurbishment? Where did you get so much good stuff?”

Li Yao smiled and said, “This is just a small proportion of what is inside my brain. It will be great if you can understand it all. You can analyze the techniques first and explain them to me in detail later. When I have grasped all of them, I will give you new ones. It will be a win-win!”

While talking, he threw Huangpu Shiyi’s jade chip to Black Stone unhesitatingly. “Fatty, this jade chip will be in your custody for now. I will come back for it myself in a moment.”

Huangpu Shiyi swallowed and, managing to suppress his greed, gave Li Yao’s jade chip to White Dew slowly.

The ten techniques inside Li Yao’s jade chip were even more valuable than those he had picked.

Now, all of Huangpu Shiyi’s suspicion had disappeared. After he took a deep breath, his eyes were focused again, and he was wreathed in an unshakable vibe; he had entered the state of a super refiner.

“Thirty years later, a Skyhill Sword Seminar in the sea of stars… Let’s begin!”

Chapter 521: Boom!

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Half an hour later, hundreds of materials were all set. Li Yao and Huangpu Shiyi each stood on one side of the warehouse with an operation desk in front of them. Below their feet were large defense rune arrays that were emitting gold brilliance. They constituted translucent circular walls around them.

Black Stone, White Dew, and the other spectators all hid themselves in a strengthened room in a corner of the warehouse.

The refinement of crystal bombs was not something to be underestimated. Although both of them were experts, nobody could guarantee that their products would not explode half way through their work.

“The first round, twenty-seven materials, ten minutes. It’s just a warm-up!”

“Come on!”

A queer smile popped up on Huangpu Shiyi’s face. His eyes suddenly bulged. Wrinkles appeared in the corner of his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he extended his withered hands and opened his palm!

“He!” Huangpu Shiyi roared. Blood spurted out of his pores and quickly span around him!

A weird thing happened!

The flesh, blood, and vigor of his body seemed to have been pumped away instantly. He became dry and shrank in size, turning into a walking skeleton!

His head was just a skull with a thin coating of skin now. However, the veins there were as thick as before. As a result, his face seemed to have been cut with countless wounds and couldn’t be more hideous!

All his vitality and strength had been absorbed by his hands, which quickly expanded like a balloon. They were even more flawless than regular hands now, as if they were carved out of white jade. Bizarre brilliance was beaming out of them!

His left hand, which was born with six fingers, was particularly impressive. With a tiny movement, thousands of waves were already raised in the air!

“Hehe. Hehehehe!”

In Huangpu Shiyi’s fleshless head, the two bloodshot eyes were more obtrusive than ever. They were focused on his own hands in fascination, while he laughed annoyingly and declared to Li Yao, “Come on!”

Li Yao seemed to be shocked, but he did not respond and simply nodded his head gloomily.

The first round had begun!

Li Yao’s hands suddenly vanished into thousands of shadows that swept over the materials on the desk and polished them in midair!

Yet, Huangpu Shiyi was not in a hurry to start at all. With a captivated expression, he gazed at his own immaculate hands narcissistically and mumbled, “What a pair of beautiful, delicate, and unblemished hands!

“If you could consume less of my vitality and last for more than an hour, I would never bear to replace you!

“It’s decided then. After I put on Huangpu Xiaoya’s hands, I will refine you into magical equipment so that you can accompany me forever…”

Huangpu Shiyi’s caressed his dry cheeks with his hands while letting out sensual moans. It was not until he had enjoyed them for five minutes that he suddenly acted!

When he was still, there seemed to be nothing extraordinary about him. But when he acted, earsplitting noises were echoing nonstop. Rumbling thunder burst out in front of him, and white mist the shape of umbrellas appeared and spread out!

Huangpu Shiyi’s two hands had entered the supersonic state simultaneously!

“Boy, don’t think that breaking the sonic barrier with your hands is something worth being proud of!

“Maybe you are a somebody in the Building Foundation Stage Cultivators. But always remember that there are people stronger than you that you haven’t met yet!

“In the world of magical equipment, you are just a frog at the bottom of a well. There is still a long way to go, and there are still a lot of walls to hit! Today, let me help you taste the feeling of being completely crushed. Haha. Hahahaha!”

At that moment, Huangpu Shiyi seemed to become the lunatic from thirty years ago who had dominated the Skyhill Sword Seminar and challenged the leader of the Mo family in front of thousands of spectators!

He laughed crazily. His hands were unpredictable and as fast as lightnings. He had started much later than Li Yao, but he caught up to him quickly and finished the first crystal bomb ten seconds earlier!

“Huchi! Huchi! Huchi!”

Li Yao was like an irritated bull. His eyes were red, his sweat was pouring, and he gazed at his opponent while breathing raggedly.

“Come on. Come on. Let’s cut the nonsense and test them!”

Huangpu Shiyi grinned. He marked his own mini crystal bomb and sent it to the examination platform together with Li Yao’s work.

The magical equipment to test the power of a crystal bomb was a pair of hemispheric iron shells. When they were combined and sealed by rune arrays, they would make a perfect iron ball.

This hollow iron ball was connected to a spiritual energy metric by a tube.

When the bomb was detonated, the power of the bomb would be transmitted to the metric through the tube. By looking at the reading of the metric, the specific power of a bomb would be calculated.

Two pieces of such magical equipment were placed next to each other. The two metrics were juxtaposed, too. One would be able to tell which of the two bombs was better with a quick glance.

Li Yao was apparently very nervous. He gazed at the metric without even blinking.

Huangpu Shiyi, on the other hand, was apparently quite relieved; a confident smile was plastered on his face.

BOOM!

The two bombs were triggered at the same time!

Outside of the two black, hollow iron balls, hundreds of rune arrays shone at the same time and locked the explosion inside the balls. The power of the explosions, having nowhere else to run to, had to crowd into the metric through the tube before they were transformed and diminished multiple times!

Shua!

Two streaks of redness jerked like two hot springs. But Huangpu Shiyi’s reading was apparently soaring faster. It was a third higher than Li Yao’s. When Li Yao’s reading culminated and plummeted, Huangpu Shiyi’s reading still persisted for five more seconds before it gradually fell.

The test result suggested that Huangpu Shiyi’s crystal bomb was more powerful and would take less time to be triggered. The power of the explosion sustained for a long time, which meant that the crystal bomb could still deal a lot of damage five seconds after it was detonated!

Li Yao suffered a brutal failure in the first round!

“Do you still want to finish the other two rounds?” Smiled Huangpu Shiyi.

“Why not?”

Li Yao gnashed his teeth, his face gloomy.

The second round, eighty-five materials, twenty minutes. The goal was a small-scale bomb!

“Li Yao, I was merely playing with you, who only has the capability of the peak of the Building Foundation Stage.

“This time, I will be using the true capability of the Core Formation Stage and show you how terrifying a refiner in the Core Formation Stage is when we get serious!”

While talking, Huangpu Shiyi opened his spotless hands. Spiritual energy spread out of the pores bit by bit and enveloped him, making his body somewhat blurred and wreathing him in an aura of divinity and unpredictability.

When Li Yao closed his eyes and perceived the situation with his spiritual root, Li Yao ‘saw’ that Huangpu Shiyi was like an erupting volcano. Inside his abdomen, tremendous spiritual energy was entangled and transformed into a half-solid thick pool!

Forming the Core! His spiritual energy was becoming solid. It was the sign of the Core Formation Stage!

Huangpu Shiyi burst into laughter. His hands were absolutely still, but hundreds of silver spiritual threads stabbed out of his eleven fingers and tied all the materials.

Huangpu Shiyi’s fingers shivered slightly, as if he were controlling puppets by the strings behind them. Under the delicate control of the tiny muscles in his fingers, the hundreds of spiritual threads were operating on the materials swiftly!

It was like Huangpu Shiyi had suddenly grown another hundred fingers.

Li Yao’s face suddenly turned extremely awful. He grunted and started his own refining work.

Twenty minutes later, when he completed his work, his hands were bleeding, and holes deep to the bones could be found on his index finger and middle finger, where vague smoke was still popping up!

“Well, well, well. Very hardworking!”

Huangpu Shiyi chuckled. “It’s too bad that refining is not all about hard work! Li Yao, let me tell you some experience of a super expert now: when we reach the Core Formation Stage, our hands can break into the supersonic speed any time we want, but normally we wouldn’t do that.

“Because the arts of refining are not just about speed. Even ‘precision’ is not as important as you think!

“The most important thing is to sense, feel, and listen to the materials according to their characteristics before you process them in their unique way!

“Remember, even the same materials will have many variations if they were gathered from different locations at different times!

“Only after you grasp the variations can you really appreciate the arts of refining and become a super expert!

“You are still far away from that!”

In the second round, Huangpu Shiyi was still in the lead. Made of the same materials, his bomb was a third more powerful than Li Yao’s!

Li Yao’s eyes were bloodshot, as he mumbled, “It’s impossible. It’s impossible. I’m the best refiner. The best!

“Come on, let’s do it again! There’s still the third round! I’m going to craft a destructive bomb and blow you up!”

Huangpu Shiyi smiled calmly. “You already failed. Your current metal state is not fit for refining. Let’s stop here. I think very highly of you. If you follow me and train yourself, you will be as good as me one day with my guidance.”

“Haha. Hahahaha! You are scared. Scared!”

Li Yao laughed crazily. He pointed at Huangpu Shiyi and shouted, “You do not dare to fight the third round because you have reached your limits. You can’t persist any longer, can you?”

Huangpu Shiyi glared. There was anger on the skeleton’s skull. He sneered, “Alright, in the third round, the crystal bombs I craft will be twice as powerful as yours. Come on!”

The third round, one hundred and seventy-four materials, thirty minutes. The creation of mid-sized crystal bombs began!

This time, Huangpu Shiyi stared at Li Yao’s face from the beginning.

He discovered that, maybe because Li Yao had never been defeated before, he was somewhat crazy. The guy was enthusiastic one moment, then frustrated, next he was cramping, before becoming desperate, and later excited.

Li Yao’s hand speed was brought to the highest and entered the supersonic speed without bothering about anything. His sweat was vaporized and formed a vague mist around him.

The mist blocked Li Yao’s hands and made Huangpu Shiyi unable to determine what bomb Li Yao was working on.

However, judging from his shaking hands and unstable metal state, Huangpu Shiyi did not expect his product to be anything good. Chances were that his result would be even worse than the previous two rounds.

Time went by one second after another.

15 minutes, 20 minutes, 25 minutes, 28 minutes… And finally, in the 29th minute!

Li Yao had completely gone mad. His face was even more hideous than Huangpu Shiyi’s skeleton-like face, and he murmured to himself. “No. This is still not powerful enough. It has to be better. I’m going to carve another attack rune array. I’m going to add another…

“Blow you up. I’m going to blow you up!

“I’m not going to fail. I’m the best!”

Right then, Li Yao’s body suddenly shivered, as if he’d accidentally pierced the cutter through his finger and exclaimed in pain.

In front of his face, weird spiritual waves flooded out!

Huangpu Shiyi couldn’t be more familiar with the situation. His face suddenly turned pale as he shouted, “Not good. The bomb is exploding!”

Hardly had he finished his sentence when a large fireball broke out in front of Li Yao and consumed him!

“Save him!” Huangpu Shiyi shrieked.

The best disciple he could ever get was about to be his. Countless techniques were waiting to be excavated. How could he allow such a guy to be killed without a good reason?

If he survived the explosion but somehow suffered brain injuries, it would still be an unacceptable outcome for him!

Not far away from Li Yao, the air suddenly blurred, and waves spread out!

Su Jiuzhen, the ace assassin who had been lurking behind him and monitoring him for more than half a month, finally revealed himself!

Su Jiuzhen did not want such a promising Immortal Cultivator to be destroyed just like that, either.

The young man was ambitious. His hands were fast, and his brain was faster. With a few years of studying, he will be a great assistant for the Lotus King!

After the multiple tests, Su Jiuzhen had no doubt about Li Yao anymore.

Therefore, he showed up without any hesitation and dashed at Li Yao, trying to pull him out of the sea of flames!

Right then, the defense ring Li Yao was in was filled with fire and smoke. It was impossible to tell what was going on inside!

Translator’s Thoughts

 flycrane01

Weekend Bonus #1

Chapter 522: Kill When He Must

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Su Jiuzhen was as agile as a phantom. He slid forward and rushed into the smoke.

However, the moment he entered the fire, the experienced assassin felt something was wrong.

The glamorously-burning crystal bomb did not cause an intense blast. The only thing it emitted was a dazzling ‘fire ball’, smoke, and spiritual waves that apparently could block any observation from outside!

It was not a powerful crystal bomb, more of a cross between a smoke grenade, a flash bang, and a jamming grenade!

Su Jiuzhen was greatly alarmed.

Although he didn’t know exactly what had happened, he simply shouted and pointed his two fingers at the center of his eyebrows, trying to summon his crystal suit!

But there was no time!

In the middle of the eye-catching firewall and the dense smoke, a furious, dominating aura surged close like a tsunami!

The smoke and dust in its way was slashed apart. The roaring flames outlined what seemed to be a crystal suit!

What a terrifying crystal suit it was!

The crystal suit as black as ink seemed to have been painted with the darkness of night. It seemed to be able to swallow all rays of light.

Reflections of blood were blossoming in the gaps of the crystal suit. They congregated into interconnecting red lines, as if they were muscles and veins, making the crystal suit a living thing.

With a closer look, one could notice that gold brilliance was buried deep under the crystal suit, as if countless stars were brewing and shining inside the suit!

The shoulders, elbows, knees, and toes of the crystal suit had been modified into headbutting thorns with the bones of some horrendous demon beast. Su Jiuzhen had never seen or heard such a dreadful demon beast before!

As for the critical parts, such as the chest and the abdomen, they were covered by a soft material that was almost transparent. It seemed to have been refined out of the flesh and blood of a certain demon beast. The dominating aura it unleashed suggested that it used to belong to a great demon above the level of demon emperor. The defensive ability it boasted was surely extraordinary!

On the facial cover that was as deep and dark as a starless night, six crimson crystal cameras in two rows were glaring. Below the crystal cameras was a giant, grinning mouth painted by materials as red as blood that almost extended to the earlobes, as if the crystal suit was laughing out loud.

It was not a crystal suit; it was a devil!

A devil that devoured devils!

Su Jiuzhen felt that his blood was freezing. He was shouting to himself crazily, “Why?

“Why does he still have such a powerful crystal suit?

“How did he put on his crystal suit so fast? Last time, it was estimated that it would take him at least three seconds to put on a crystal suit. Three seconds!”

Su Jiuzhen did not realize that he had been fooled until this moment.

They had all been fooled!

Li Yao, the evil douchebag, had deceived them all!

He wanted to retreat, but there was not enough time. A queer arc blinked in front of the devil-like crystal suit, as a vicious, cruel saber slashed upwards from Su Jiuzhen’s loin!

“Ahhh!”

Su Jiuzhen had only summoned half of his crystal suit to protect his arms and legs, when stinky mist of blood burst out from his abdomen. All his internal organs were exposed to fire and smoke!

If he hadn’t been in a hurry to rescue Li Yao, if he had put on the crystal suit in advance, or if he had kept hiding in the air with his stealth ability, he wouldn’t have been hit by the crystal suit, no matter how formidable it seemed to be, with his amazing combat ability at the peak of the Building Foundation Stage and his abundant experience in stealth and assassination!

If he had survived the first attack, he could’ve have circled around with the complicated territory on the starship and summoned his subordinates to attack him together. The situation might’ve been very different!

Too bad that was only a hypothetical!

The life and death in a fight of two experts could be determined within a millisecond. Su Jiuzhen could tell that the sordid Li Yao’s real combat ability was no lower than the high level of the Building Foundation Stage and only slightly worse than his. But with the enhancement of his brutal crystal suit, the guy’s combat ability even surpassed his!

In the meantime, he was foolish enough to crash into his saber without wearing his crystal suit!

It could not be helped. His techniques hadn’t been practiced to the highest level. If he wanted to hide in the air perfectly, he couldn’t wear a crystal suit. Otherwise, the quakes and spiritual waves of his crystal suit would expose his location.

Just then, the accident had not been within his expectations. The explosion was a momentary thing. He was trying to rescue the victim as quickly as possible. Why would he waste one more second putting on his crystal suit?

He had thought that an explosion of such a level could never really hurt him. Rescuing the injured was the priority. But reality proved him foolish!

Could it be that Li Yao had calculated everything?

The idea scared the heck out of Su Jiuzhen.

Like a viper who seemed to be hibernating in the deepest part of a tree hole, Li Yao was harmless when he was peaceful, but when he acted, he instantly bared the sharpest fangs and spurted the deadliest venom!

The upward slash had destroyed all of Su Jiuzhen’s internal organs. The aura of the blade even pierced forward into his spine and nerves!

Su Jiuzhen did not feel much pain yet, as that had all happened in only 0.1 seconds. But he did realize that his organs and spine had been locked onto by Li Yao’s saber. His speed of summon the remaining crystal suit would be greatly undermined.

After Li Yao drew his saber out of Su Jiuzhen’s chest, he raised it high in the air, gripping the handle of the saber so hard that it was almost breaking. He seemed to be ready to slash apart the sea of stars!

The smoke resulting from the explosion was dancing and jumping on the shining edge of the saber, like countless screaming unrested souls!

Su Jiuzhen’s face was pale. The cunning, experienced assassin knew very clearly that there was no way he could dodge the unstoppably attack!

In that moment, the only thing he could do was trigger a telepathic thought inside his brain and pierce an information stream at Li Yao.

“You can’t kill me!

“I’ve imposed a protective method on my body with the secret arts of Black Spider Tower!

“My soul will become a Black Spider Evil Spirit and haunt whoever kills me. It will be an endless curse!

“Those who kill me will be cursed by me!

“You can’t kill me. You can’t!”

In the end, the information stream was almost screaming.

Inside the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, Li Yao’s eyes were narrowed into two red lines, as if they were butcher’s cleavers stained with blood.

He did not doubt Su Jiuzhen’s words.

If the guy’s stealth skills were so proficient that even he could not locate him precisely during the last ten days before the trap he set up that day, the guy was definitely a top assassin of Black Spider Tower.

Black Spider Tower boasted tremendous evil arts. Such an eccentric curse was actually very normal.

But so what?

Li Yao had been waiting for eighteen days. He had been concealing and preparing for 18 days, 9 hours, 32 minutes, and 44 seconds. Everything he did was to make the assassin, whose capability was higher than his, show a loophole.

This was his best and only chance.

If he failed to kill him instantly right now, the guy wouldn’t give him a second opportunity with his remarkable stealth and assassination skills!

In an instant, 41,523 names popped up in Li Yao’s brain.

They were the innocent victims in the big explosion of the Skyhill Domain.

Huangpu Xiaoya had thought that he was merely glancing at the news. She didn’t know that all the names of the deceased were etched into his brain without missing any.

Right now, the names flowed through Li Yao’s arms into his saber and roared in the sound of revenge!

Curse? So be it.

Li Yao’s belief surged forward like rushing star cruising through the sea of stars. Nothing could stand in his way!

In that moment, even all the gods in the heavens kneeled down and begged him, they wouldn’t be able to stop the slash that had been tied up by countless unrested souls who were desperate for revenge!

Even if thousands of devils in the deepest level of the hell cast the most vicious spell on him at the same time as his attack, the speed of his saber would not be diminished in the least!

A man in space would kill when he must!

“Die!” Li Yao roared.

Two crystal bombs seemed to have exploded under his feet at the same time. He leapt forward, his every muscle and every bone adjusted to the perfect state. The tens of thousands of unrested souls on the edge of his saber resonated with him, as he slashed down ruthlessly!

“Hu!”

The aura of his saber turned into a bloody lightning and cut in the gaps of Su Jiuzhen’s crystal suit before it finally enclosed his body. His spiritual energy burst out while he pushed his saber forward!

Su Jiuzhen’s body was split into two halves, which flew off in two different directions!

The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit passed through the middle of Su Jiuzhen’s halves!

Su Jiuzhen, an important figure in the Temple of Immortals, the ace assassin of Black Spider Tower, and the seasoned expert who had killed countless Core Formation Stage Cultivators, had been slain!

The moment Su Jiuzhen lost his breath, a few streams of black mist flowed out of his dead halves and condensed into nine sharp needles, which pierced into Li Yao’s body, ignoring the defense of the crystal suit.

It was a curse that ignored the defense of a crystal suit or a spiritual shield!

Li Yao grunted. He felt as if nine vicious snakes had slithered their way into his body and were rushing inside his veins and nerves, looking for his critical parts.

He burnt his spiritual energy to the maximum. A lot of torches were ignited inside his body to drive away the snakes. He held back the excruciating pain and managed to suppress them.

It was not the time to deal with the curse yet.

A lot of killing had to be done first!

From the explosion triggered by Li Yao’s ‘mistake’ to Su Jiuzhen’s miserable death, the whole process had only lasted three seconds.

In the meantime, the mixed bomb, which Li Yao had carefully created, had spread intense black smoke to every corner of the warehouse.

Even the furthest place from the explosion was enshrouded in darkness now.

Despite the obscurity, Black Stone, White Dew, and the other Immortal Cultivators were keen enough to sense that something was not right. Including Fei Ming, the Meditation Healer, everyone summoned their crystal suits.

Swoosh!

Swoosh!

Black Stone and White Dew’s four subordinates dashed forward first and spread out in battle formation as they moved toward where Li Yao had been.

Black Stone and White Dew, on the other hand, maximized the resolution of their crystal cameras, trying to figure out what was going on inside the smoke with all the probe methods possible.

Finally, a fuzzy figure appeared on their light beam.

The fuzzy figure did not look like a human, but more like some kind of hungry primordial beast. It lunged at their four subordinates at an unbelievable speed!

Chapter 523: I Admit My Failure, Master

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Within a moment, one of their subordinates had already been wreathed by the aura of blood from the deadly beast!

This subordinate was at the peak of the Refinement Stage and had almost advanced into the Building Foundation Stage. He was a skilled, experienced Immortal Cultivator.

The crystal suit he was wearing had been manufactured by one of the three main crystal suit centers and modified by the experts on Spider Den!

However, in front of the ferocious beast, his bones and teeth were broken within half a second, and he seemed to have become a cub at anyone’s mercy!

Miserable screams echoed inside the communication channel, only to end abruptly in less than one third of a second.

Black Stone and White Dew, however, could see from their blurred light beam that the four limbs of their subordinate had been chopped off before his head had separated from his body as well!

Although Black Stone and White Dew were seasoned Exos who had witnessed countless battles, they felt their head was dizzy nonetheless. The floor under their feet did not seem solid; it seemed like a dark abyss, at the bottom of which the most terrifying devils were waiting for them!

“Master Su! Master Su!”

Master Su didn’t respond to their call. Yet, screams continued.

The speed of the ferocious animal was beyond their imagination. Like a cluster of crimson brightness, it dashed past their four subordinates. The first three of them had time to utter a final scream before their death, but the last one did not even let out any sound. His spine seemed to have been unplugged, turning him into a pile of meat that even his crystal suit couldn’t support, before he collapsed to the ground.

Four of them were killed instantly within three seconds!

Black Stone and White Dew looked at each other. Brutality burst out of their eyes at the same time. They roared and unsheathed their sabers, charging forward into the black smoke!

Clang!

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Inside the black smoke, metal collided, and sparks spluttered. But everything came to a stop three seconds later.

Black Stone and White Dew were in perfect poses. One of them raised the saber high above the head, while the other one hid the sharpness of the saber behind them. They looked like a furious tiger and a sordid leopard. Like two frozen statues, they surrounded Li Yao in the middle.

“I was told that your sabers are fast.”

Li Yao waved his saber to clean the last drop of blood on it, before he sheathed his saber and walked out of their siege slowly. He continued casually, “If I were not in a hurry today, I would have definitely liked to witness it.”

He didn’t even bother to look at them. As if the well-prepared, malicious assassins were nothing but air, he strode away, leaving them behind him.

Clang!

Clang!

Black Stone and White Dew’s sabers fell to the ground one after the other. Their facial covers exploded after cracking noises, too, revealing two shocked and baffled faces.

“How did you… launch the attack?”

His hands shaking, Black Stone tried to touch his thick neck. Half way through his movement, a terrible wound that had severed his veins, wind pipe, and spine appeared on his neck. Stimulated by the tremendous pressure inside the body, blood spurted out through the wound like a growing red tree. Half of his head was twisted backward weirdly. His eyes, resembling those of a dead fish, gazed at the wandering smoke near the ceiling.

Inside the smoke, countless restless souls seemed to be grinning hideously at him.

“Hiss… hiss…”

White Dew, the dark woman, was better than him. She covered her neck with her hand in time, but there was no way that she could stop her blood from flooding out through the gaps of her fingers!

She stared at Li Yao with her grey eyes. To this moment, White Dew still found it hard to understand. The first day that guy had gotten aboard, she had kicked him down in one attack. He had been completely useless back then. How come everything ended like this? Why?

Black Stone and White Dew, two Exos who used to be somewhat famous among Cultivators and two experts best known for their fast sabers, kneeled down, collapsed, and died behind Li Yao.

Because of the dense black smoke inside the warehouse and the interference waves Li Yao had added to his crystal bomb, Huangpu Shiyi didn’t know exactly what was going on, but he did know that something was happening.

His face pale, he summoned a maintenance suit and put it on. Then he hid several pieces of powerful aggressive magical equipment in his hand. He felt somewhat relieved after doing all that.

With a cruel smile, Li Yao walked toward Huangpu Shiyi, neither too quickly nor too slowly.

“Ma—Ma—Master Li Yao…”

Fei Ming, the Meditation Healer who had ‘invited’ him onto the ship with hypnosis arts, was in his way, shaking with the utmost fear.

As an expert of mental warfare, Fei Ming was not good at combat with real guns and swords. But Li Yao was apparently not someone he could hypnotize, and his combat ability was strong enough to take down Su Jiuzhen, Black Stone and White Dew!

Faced with such a monster, Fei Ming had completely lost his fighting will. His head was in a mess, but his natural instinct of survival made him kneel down and kowtow before Li Yao.

“Master Li Yao, spare me. Please spare me! They did everything! I’m just a Meditation Healer. I knew nothing about bombs or killing! I did nothing! I was coerced. I was coerced!”

Li Yao frowned and sighed. “Were you really coerced?”

“Yes, yes!”

Fei Ming couldn’t be more excited, seeing a slim chance of survival. He looked up and immediately started rambling. “The Temple of Immortals kidnapped my entire family, including my two daughters, one five and the other three! They said that, if I didn’t cooperate with them, they would feed my family to demon beasts! I had to do what I was asked to! There were no alternatives!”

Li Yao snorted in acknowledgement and said, “If so, take off your crystal suit and throw it to the ground. Go to the corner and check Huangpu Xiaoya’s status. If you dare mess with me, you will definitely regret it!”

“Of course, of course. Thank you, Master Li Yao. I would definitely follow your order. I’m now abandoning darkness for light!”

Fei Ming was so happy that he was almost crying. He rose up from the ground and took off his crystal suit quickly.

Hardly had his helmet split from his chest armor when a silver brightness flashed in Li Yao’s right hand. Fei Ming’s big head soared to the ceiling, span several rounds in midair, and smashed to the floor heavily. His eyes were still open and beaming with the ecstasy from seeing a chance of survival!

His headless body shook violently. His hands seemed to be groping for his head. After half a second of struggling, it fell beside Li Yao’s feet helplessly, cramping.

Li Yao kicked the dead body aside and continued walking toward Huangpu Shiyi.

This warehouse had only one gate. Since it was a laboratory for the study of crystal bombs, the walls of the room had been strengthened. They were solid and soundproof. Therefore, Li Yao was not worried that he might escape from somewhere else at all.

It was also the main reason Li Yao had asked for a competition of crystal bombs with Huangpu Shiyi. This was the best slaughterhouse!

Li Yao finally reached Huangpu Shiyi. He opened his facial cover and stared at his opponent emotionlessly.

To this moment, if Huangpu Shiyi hadn’t figured out what had happened on the spot, he wouldn’t have deserved to be a Core Formation Stage Cultivator!

However, although he was a Core Formation Stage Cultivator, most of his time and effort had been dedicated to the arts of refining. In regard to combat, his capability was merely in the middle-high level of the Refinement Stage, which was of little help now he was faced with such a formidable enemy!

Huangpu Shiyi’s face was grim and pale. His lips shivered for a long time before he finally managed to open his mouth. “You—you were not meaning to join the Temple of Immortals. You didn’t plan to become an Immortal Cultivator at all!”

With a wicked smile, Li Yao replied, “You know too much.”

Huangpu Shiyi grunted and shouted, “But we tested you, multiple times. Even if you reserved your strength during the first test, how did you see through the Furious Bears Union’s assault? Or was it that you were blowing them up regardless of whether or not they were real Cultivators in order to win our trust?

“How sleazy you are!”

Li Yao scorned, “Not as sleazy as you think. Of course I knew that those scumbags were not Cultivators from the Furious Bears Union, because I didn’t install any alarm magical equipment in my room when I was captured by you.”

Huangpu Shiyi was stunned. It took him a long time to recover. He shouted again, “Then, your conversation with Huangpu Xiaoya was also faked in order to fool us, and you knew that there were still crystal cameras and detectaphones inside your room?

“It’s impossible! The remaining three devices were refined with the best of my knowledge. They were utterly unobtrusive and in no way noticeable for you!”

Li Yao replied, “Indeed, I was not sure if there were still crystal cameras, although I did feel a little ill at ease. However, noticeable or not, I simply assumed that there were still crystal cameras and detectaphones in my room. There wouldn’t be a problem, then.”

Huangpu Shiyi was truly dumbfounded. He finally thought through everything Li Yao had done since he’d gotten aboard and figured out why Li Yao had been so generous as to share all the techniques with him.

It was because he was already a dead person in the man’s eyes!

However, the dead person was idiotic enough to teach him so many techniques sincerely and even provided ten authentic and precious techniques today before he died!

He had been exploited by Li Yao, the evil, insidious brat!

Regret! Desperation! Fury! Fear!

Complicated emotions surged on Huangpu Shiyi’s skeleton-like face simultaneously.

“Wait!”

As if a drowning man who had found a straw, he suddenly yelled, “Blood Oath! You swore a Blood Oath yesterday! You cannot go back on your vow! Otherwise, you will be haunted forever, and the success rate of your future refining will plummet!”

Li Yao raised his eyebrow in surprise and replied, “When did I say that I would go back on my vow?

“Indeed. I swore a Blood Oath yesterday that I would respect you as my master if I lost the competition today.

“Huangpu Shiyi, you are truly an unparalleled genius and a super expert of refining!

“In this battle, you’ve shown me the invincibility of a Core Formation Stage refiner. I know my weakness and insignificance much better now. In the profound and magnificent world of magical equipment, I am just a beginner, and I’m not capable enough to be arrogant yet!

“I have lost the Skyhill Sword Seminar in the sea of stars. My failure was brutal, and I have no excuse for that. You’ve crushed me!

“Therefore, I will honor my words and respect you as my master now!

“Master Huangpu Shiyi, please accept the bow of your disciple Li Yao!”

With a solemn expression, Li Yao bowed toward Huangpu Shiyi in the strictest manner. Then, his saber flashed and cut through the gap in Huangpu Shiyi’s crystal suit, chopping off his hands!

Translator’s Thoughts

flycrane01 flycrane01

Weekend Bonus #2

Chapter 524: Karma

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

After a ‘Clang’ sound, two broken hands covered in armor fell to the floor. Several pieces of aggressive magical equipment yet to be triggered splattered and, after emitting dazzling brilliance for a while, lost their sharpness.

Huangpu Shiyi was dazed for a moment. He lifted his arms which had been cut off from the elbows and observed them, his head tilted.

For a second, the section was as smooth as a mirror. Bones, veins, and nerves were clear and distinguishable, as if they were pictures from a textbook.

It was not until one second later that two springs of blood suddenly erupted and dyed his face and head red.

Huangpu Shiyi screamed desperately, “My hands! My hands!”

As a Core Formation Stage Immortal Cultivator, he should’ve had better self-control than to exclaim so uncouthly just because of the loss of two hands.

But the problem was that he was still in the eruptive phase, and he had poured all his vigor and vitality into his hands!

His body was dry and thin, no better than a skeleton, and he seemed to be on the verge of starvation, all because he was nourishing his hands!

By cutting off his hands, Li Yao had taken away ninety percent of his vitality!

“Hands! My hands!”

Huangpu Shiyi cried dreadfully and lunged at his broken hands without caring about anything, only to be kicked right in the chest by Li Yao!

With Li Yao’s surge of spiritual energy, the chest armor on Huangpu Shiyi’s maintenance suit exploded into pieces, before he flew backwards by almost ten meters.

There was a grunt inside Huangpu Shiyi’s facial cover, which was now stained with blood!

Crack!

Crack!

Li Yao stomped on the two broken hands mercilessly!

The hands of Huangpu Shiyi, the super refiner and unparalleled genius, which had been revitalized by his life and soul, had now turned from a piece of immaculate artwork to a pile of meat under Li Yao’s feet!

Huangpu Shiyi’s eyeballs nearly bulged out as he saw the devastating scene. He almost passed out in anger.

“You blew up my hands. My perfect hands!”

Li Yao pulverized the hands below him carefully and made sure that every finger had been ground into the tiniest pieces by the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit’s iron feet, while he said casually, “One must prepare to lose when one decides to gamble. I have indeed lost the game today. Therefore, I will abide by my promise and respect you as my master. I will always remember you as my master, Huangpu Shiyi. In such a case, the Blood Oath will have zero effect on me!”

Li Yao walked toward Huangpu Shiyi, leaving deep and bloody footprints behind as he moved forward.

Wearing a vulture-like smile, Li Yao continued, “I believe that you must have discovered that I’m a trustworthy man. One of my friends told me that the most important thing about Cultivation was that we must be credible!

“I found the words very true.

“Therefore, if I’ve said that I will respect you as my master, I will definitely do so.

“However, I also said yesterday that I would chop off a pair of hands after today’s competition. I didn’t forget that promise, either. If I said that I would chop off some hands, I would definitely do that! Otherwise, how am I going to hang out with Cultivators anymore?

“Master, it might be a little painful in a moment. Please try to hold it back!”

Huangpu Shiyi couldn’t be more scared. He waved his broken arms and shouted, “What—what do you want? Stop there! Don’t come close!”

Li Yao drew close one step after another.

“You—you can’t kill me! Let’s make a deal. A deal!”

Huangpu Shiyi quickly continued, “I have many other techniques in my possession, including the secret tricks to craft melee weapons of the Huangpu family and the special skills to refine crystal bombs. I even know something about the techniques to modify crystal suits on Spider Den! All these techniques are inside my brain. You wouldn’t be able to get them if you kill me!”

“Okay.”

Li Yao continued moving forward. He replied peacefully, “I’m not a smart guy, and I wouldn’t be able to comprehend too many techniques. Thanks to your wholehearted tutelage in the past days, I’ve learned enough techniques for me to digest for a while! I’m not greedy. Also, I’m very loyal and thoughtful. Just consider the remaining techniques as sacrificial offerings for your funeral!”

Huangpu Shiyi was shaking violently. He held his body with two broken arms and slithered like a caterpillar, as he begged, “Don’t kill me. I can give you whatever you what. I’m open to any negotiations. Just don’t kill me…”

“Negotiations are great. However, why don’t you negotiate with the 41,524 innocent victims of your serial explosions in the Skyhill Domain?”

Li Yao suddenly burst out in fury. He shouted and punched at Huangpu Shiyi’s chest, as if his fists were two tornadoes!

In a moment, sparks were dancing, metal was twisted, skin was blossoming, and bones were breaking. A magnificent orchestra of fists kissing flesh, bones, and internal organs was playing!

Li Yao’s every punch hit Huangpu Shiyi precisely at a speed close to that of sound. They shattered every piece of armor on Huangpu Shiyi and his every bone from head to tone!

“This punch is for Sha Guoan!”

“This punch is for Su Hongzhi!”

“This punch is for Tao Xiaofang!”

“You motherf*cking douchebag, die now!”

Huangpu Shiyi’s crystal suit exploded. His body turned soft inch by inch. He was spasming and screaming in the beginning, but later, the only sound left was his breathing. Li Yao punched thousands of times, before he suddenly retreated his right hand. He extended his middle finger and his index finger. Gold brilliance in the form of a helix was brewing on his fingertip like a sharp piton!

“What—what are you doing?”

An expression showing his yearning for death’s embrace appeared on Huangpu Shiyi’s skeleton-like face, whose left eye had exploded because of the punches. Blood and tears were flowing out, as he moaned feebly.

“I’ve punched you 4,722 times just now. That’s revenge for only four thousand unrested souls, one tenth of the whole!

“Let’s avenge the remaining nine tenths with this.

“Scumbags like you don’t deserve to utilize spiritual energy. I’m going to help the victims dig out your spiritual root. No. Since you are an Immortal Cultivator, yours will be ‘immortal root’ then!”

“No. Noooo!”

When a Cultivator’s spiritual root was destroyed, they would become useless. Although Huangpu Shiyi was no better than a bag of mud right now, he still screamed with whatever strength he had left.

But how could screams stop the unstoppable Li Yao?

Li Yao grinned hideously and pierced his two fingers into the middle of Huangpu Shiyi’s eyebrow where the conarium 1 was!

His spiritual energy surged through his fingers and raged inside Huangpu Shiyi’s brain. Finally, he sensed an extremely thick object made of spiritual energy.

Li Yao roared and curled his fingers to dig into it. Then he pulled it up brutally!

A lackluster gold line that constituted what seemed to be a tiny, translucent ginseng was plucked from the middle of Huangpu Shiyi’s eyebrows!

It was the spiritual root of a Core Formation Stage Cultivator!

Li Yao opened his hand and held the bright gold spiritual root in his hand, before he squeezed it tightly!

Pa!

After a crisp sound, gold brilliant spots dispersed through Li Yao’s fingertips and vanished into thin air.

Dissipated!

Li Yao had dissipated the spiritual root of a Core Formation Stage Cultivator!

Huangpu Shiyi had turned into a disabled man without his spiritual root!

He shouted ten times more miserably than before as if it was his genitalia that had just been ruined!

Even the devils in the deepest depths of hell would shake in fear with their blood freezing when they heard such screams!

“Kill me… kill me…”

His hands lost, his bones broken, his spiritual root crumbled, Huangpu Shiyi had been grasped by desperation and had only this luxury hope.

Li Yao licked the blood on his lips and smiled, “Don’t hurry, Master. You still have some value that your disciple can make use of!”

Hardly had he finished his sentence did he punch forward and stabbed his fist into Huangpu Shiyi’s mouth, blowing up his teeth, tongue, and the vocal cord deeper inside!

The bottom half of the skeleton face had now turned into a hollow. There was no sign of his mouth at all!

Right now, Huangpu Shiyi had no hands to write and no mouth to speak. He couldn’t even crawl because all his bones were broken. Since his spiritual root was crumbled, he was not able to communicate with other people through telepathic thoughts, either.

In short, he had completely lost the ability to send any message to the outside world.

Li Yao’s movements were very precise. Even in his fury just now, his attack was still well-controlled so that Huangpu Shiyi wouldn’t be killed immediately and could at least make his way to the med bay.

Looking at Huangpu Shiyi, who was wriggling beside his feet like a maggot, Li Yao spat at him. Then he took a long breath and tried to calm himself down.

He then walked toward Huangpu Xiaoya.

When he passed by Black Stone’s and White Dew’s dead bodies, he stopped briefly and sent dozens of spiritual threads groping inside their pockets. Soon, he discovered two jade chips.

The spiritual threads tied them up and pulled them back into Li Yao’s hands. Li Yao whistled and said, “Much obliged, fatty!”

When he finally reached Huangpu Xiaoya, he had already concealed his Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.

At this moment, the smoke occupying the warehouse was finally driven away a little bit by the powerful ventilation rune arrays on the ceiling.

Huangpu Xiaoya’s mouth was so wide open that one could stuff the biggest duck egg into it.

Most of her spiritual energy had been sealed and therefore could not help her enhance her vision. She only saw that an explosion took pace when Li Yao was refining the last crystal bomb. Then, her eyesight was blocked by smoke, and she could only hear screams, each louder than the previous one.

She could tell that the desperate screams came from multiple Immortal Cultivators, even including Huangpu Shiyi himself!

Huangpu Xiaoya was quite nervous, not knowing what was happening. Had other rescuers arrived?

The last thing she expected was that it was the sordid, shameless traitor Li Yao who stood in front of her in the end.

“You—”

Huangpu Xiaoya’s heart was racing when she saw Li Yao, whose killing intent was soaring and whose face was caked with blood. She didn’t know what to say next.

When she looked past Li Yao, she was even more shocked!

Black Stone and White Dew were dead, and so were their four subordinates!

Huangpu Shiyi was still alive, but he might be hoping that he was dead. He was squirming and struggling on the floor.

“What—what has happened?”

Huangpu Xiaoya was startled. She murmured to herself, “Who are you exactly?”

Li Yao wiped off the blood on his face and pondered for a while, before he answered seriously, “In fact, I’m a good man.”