Forty Millenniums of Cultivation - Chapter 875
Chapter 875: Sacred Mausoleum
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
“A believer of Chaos?” Mo Tiesheng sneered.
In the legends of the demon race, Chaos was an enemy of the Pangu Clan and the evilest existence in the universe. Because of the propaganda, most of the demons had no positive impression about ‘Chaos’.
“You’ve all been fooled!”
Seeing the despise on Mo Tiesheng’s face, Ba Mingsong explained, “All this time, the high-level demons have been fooling you by telling you that Chaos was a great enemy of the Pangu Clan and the entire demon race. But in fact, it is far from the truth and nothing but a lie that the high-level demons utilized to paralyze us!”
Mo Tiesheng frowned. “Then what is the truth?”
Ba Mingsong closed his hands and put them into a triangle. In the weird gesture, he said respectfully, “Chaos was never the enemy of the Pangu Clan. On the contrary, God Chaos was the real successor of the Pangu Clan!”
“What?” Mo Tiesheng and Li Yao both exclaimed in amazement.
Ba Mingsong lowered his voice again and talked like a humming mosquito. “You must know that there was a huge gap between the thirteen clans in the primeval era and the Demon Beast Empire thirty thousand years ago. During those millions of years, there were not many demons, much less a systematical civilization.”
Mo Tiesheng nodded. “That’s the era of the ancient Cultivators, the time when humanity thrived.”
Ba Mingsong blinked. “Exactly. But have your ever wondered why the bloodlines that had been lost for millions of years were suddenly awakened forty thousand years ago? Why did the vast majority of the modern demons show up abruptly in less than a hundred years forty thousand years ago like a big bang?”
Li Yao was deep in thought. According to the well-accepted theory of the Star Glory Federation, a Cultivator forty thousand years ago developed a ‘Demon God Virus’ by accident and refined a large batch animals into slaughtering machines named ‘demon beasts’, and the intelligence of the demon beasts grew exponentially during the fierce battles. Eventually, the demon race was born.
Later, after the demon race swallowed the three thousand Sectors in the universe, an enormous Demon Beast Empire was established on the foundation of the civilization of ancient Cultivators!
When Li Yao was young, he had never doubted such a theory.
However, after more than ten years of travelling and training, as an expert close to the Nascent Soul Stage, he had become more and more suspicious about such a narrative.
The most crucial factor leading to his suspicion was the protraction of evolution. It had taken human beings hundreds of thousands of years before they evolved to possess basic intelligence. The usage of fire alone might have taken mankind tens of thousands of years to grasp.
Even if the Demon God Virus could endow ordinary animals with strong bodies and killing instincts, was it possible that the virus could grant animals intelligence that was similar to human beings, if not even higher, in only a hundred years?
Li Yao found such a theory unacceptable.
“Tell you what,” Ba Mingsong said mysteriously, “it was exactly God Chaos who caused the ‘big bang’ of the demon race!
“At the end of the era of the ancient Cultivators, human beings shattered most of the three thousand Sectors. Every Sector was in ruins, and catastrophes were falling upon the entire universe.
“God Chaos was born in such crisis. He found the relics of the thirteen ancient clans and excavated the legacy of the primeval era. Eventually, he created the modern demon race!
“Therefore, God Chaos is our creator. He is the one true god for us!
“When he created the modern demons, God Chaos did not set up the hierarchy of bloodlines at all. In his eyes, all demons are equal. He merely helped us awaken in different appearances for the purpose of different jobs!
“The goal of God Chaos was to ask us to replace the brutal human beings and repair the broken worlds so that the universe that was about to be destroyed by the wars of human beings would be revived again!
“However, hehe, God Chaos was too lenient. He underestimated the evilness and ambitions of human beings. He did not anticipate that some of the demons he created would be corrupted by human beings and turn against him. In the end, the traitors heavily wounded and suppressed him before they established their own reign!
“Before, all demons were only different in the talents that they awakened, but their blood was exactly the same.
“However, the demons who were corrupted by the evil, ambitious human beings locked up the bloodlines of all the other demons through secret techniques and enslaved the other demons by setting up the classes such as saint-blood, silver-blood, bronze-blood, black-blood, and chaotic-blood!
“Those demons are so evil that they are no different from human beings!
“Their reign lasted thirty thousand years. Finally, what happened to the human beings before happened to them again. The enormous empire collapsed, and whatever was left of their remnants could only hide in the corners of the cosmos, breathing their last breath.
“What is hilarious is that, even in such a far-flung area in the universe, they are still clinging to the decayed ‘Four Pillar System’, unwilling to let it go. They are still hoping to continue enslaving the black-blood demons and the chaotic-blood demons, but they do not know that they are seeking their own death!
“Right now, the Blade of Chaos has risen. The believers of Chaos crave nothing except to chop off the shackles that lock up our bloodlines so that all demons can be restored to their original appearances. From then on, there will be no distinction among the silver-blood demons, the black-blood demons, the bronze-blood demons, and the chaotic-blood demons. That is the only time we will be really free!”
Ba Mingsong’s words greatly stirred up Li Yao’s mind.
He had thought that the so-called ‘Chaos’ was just an evil god in the legends, which was possibly an alien civilization that was hostile to the Pangu civilization billions of years ago.
He did not know that the history of Chaos was much shorter than he imagined. According to Ba Mingsong, it appeared only forty thousand years ago.
Besides, Chaos was the creator of the modern demon race?
Behind the curtains of propaganda and myth, what was the true history?
Mo Tiesheng was silent for a moment, before he said, “I’m told that the Blade of Chaos has failed. Their uprisings in the Blood Demon Sector have been suppressed everywhere!”
“Hehehehe!” Ba Mingsong laughed out, somewhat insanely. “You don’t understand it at all. The Blade of Chaos will never fail in the Blood Demon Sector. It will come back again even if it is suppressed a thousand, ten thousand times. Do you know why?”
Li Yao and Mo Tiesheng stared at him with great interest.
Ba Mingsong took a deep breath and said, “Because the mausoleum of God Chaos is somewhere deep below the surface of this planet!
“God Chaos was never really dead. Very soon, God Chaos will be reborn, and he will lead all the demons to create an immaculate new world!”
The hair on Li Yao’s neck stood on end. What does he mean? Is ‘Chaos’ not a groundless figure in the legends but an existence with a real entity?
While talking, Ba Mingsong took out two pendants from his pockets and handed them over. Then he said solemnly, “These are the charms of God Chaos. Under the radiance of Chaos, all demons are brothers. I hope that you two can survive more days in the arena!”
With the help of the burning torches, Li Yao opened his hands and observed. It was a crude pendant made from a brown bone with a pattern of a saber tied up by countless double helixes that looked both like gene strands and solid shackles.
Li Yao narrowed his eyes and said, “Uncle Ba, are you not scared of being captured by preaching on the ideas of the Blade of Chaos here?”
Ba Mingsong smiled, apparently not bothered at all. “What can they do even if they take me away? The worst outcome is nothing but death. After struggling on the Skeleton Island for so many years, I’ve lived a long enough life!”
The old demon staggered to his feet, flapping his wings. He walked away, as hunched as before, and gradually disappeared into the depths of the forest.
Li Yao and Mo Tiesheng looked at each other. They both hid the charms of the Blade of Chaos in the safest place.
…
The crimson rocks were burning like fire. Sweat was falling down, only to be vaporized the next second. Occasionally, rock thorns would pierce out rapidly from deep below the ground.
It was one of the most terrifying dungeons on the Skeleton Island, the Thorny Flame Dungeon! All the floor tiles were carved out of crystals of the fire class, with a temperature of more than three hundred degrees. The joins of the floor tiles would also spurt out rock thorns without any pattern, driven by the underground magma. A moment of carelessness, and one’s foot would be pierced through.
It was a month and a half after Li Yao reached the Skeleton Island, and this was the fourth game that he had participated in.
Over the past forty-five days, Li Yao had become a legend that rose like a volcanic eruption among the gladiators of the Skeleton Island!
“‘Bloody Claw’, the most brutal, strong, and mysterious gladiator over the past five years, has shown up! He’s only been here for a month and a half, but we’ve all witnessed his performance in the three most dangerous battles!
“In the Lightning Dungeon, he killed a Soul-Splitting Behemoth with only one attack!
“In the Ice Desolation Dungeon, he twisted off three heads of a Six-Feet Ice Lizard by force!
“In the Black Water Swamp, he escaped without being hurt at all from the attacks of dozens of Transformative Spider Snakes!
“What marvelous performance is he going to demonstrate today? Let’s wait and watch!”
The shrieking bugs in the sky were yelling nonstop, elaborating on his feats to the audience. Even without the exciting voice, the local audience of Void Turmoil City who had often watched the games were already more than thrilled. Countless bronze-blood demons were shouting the name of ‘Bloody Claw’. Even many silver-blood demons were craning their heads out of their boxes or observing him condescendingly with their telescopes.
Li Yao slightly lowered his head. In his eyes, the rowdy audience was nothing but piles of rotten meat.
He was not fighting for the crazy cheers of the audience. It was only because the words of Ba Mingsong, a worker of the Skeleton Island, greatly aroused his curiosity.
From that moment on, he was certain that the Skeleton Island was a secret training camp where the Blade of Chaos recruited new members.
In order to catch the attention of the Blade of Chaos, he would have to show distinguished capabilities.
Therefore, from that day on, Li Yao had quietly accelerated the speed of his training. He also released his strength, gradually improving it from 7% to 7.5%. After he continued making advancements and finally increased his capability to 9%, even many seasoned gladiators who had gone through dozens of games in the arena were no match for him. As a result, he was permitted to participate in the next game to be hosted in the arena.
Chapter 876: Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders ##
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
In the scorching Thorny Flame Dungeon, Li Yao peacefully watched at the highest place of the auditorium through the air that was even hotter than the burning ground.
Yuchi Ba, the owner of the Skeleton Island, was still seated at the highest place. The young females of the Feather Clan blocked the sunlight with their broad wings and flapped them occasionally to give him a cool breeze. Eight loyal guards were standing around him like spears. They were all the dominators of the arena in the past, but right now, they all boasted a new name, which was the ‘Death Teeth Guards of the Skeleton Island’!
Although Yuchi Ba’s small eyes were blocked by the wings of the young females of the Feather Clan, Li Yao could still sense that a pair of interested eyes were scanning him up and down.
Li Yao was very clear that Yuchi Ba and his Death Teeth Guards were paying close attention to him, both in the previous games and in every minute of his daily training.
It was exactly what Li Yao needed. He had to convince Yuchi Ba and the Death Teeth Guards that he was really a gifted hunter and someone that they were in need of.
“Are you ready?” Li Yao asked without looking back.
A cold grunt echoed behind him in acknowledgement, which was the affirmative response of Mo Tiesheng.
Li Yao smiled.
The death games on the Skeleton Island were rarely held as duels except for those between super experts who had a winning record of dozens of games because the larger the number of participants in a game, the more changes there would be, and the more unexpected the outcome of the game would be.
In the previous games, Li Yao and been fighting side by side with Mo Tiesheng. The two of them had always practiced with each other during their personal training, too.
For Li Yao, fighting against Mo Tiesheng the ‘Mad Bull’ while suppressing his strength to 8% was an excellent approach of training, just like when his senior brother Fiend Blade Peng Hai went to practice with him while suppressing his strength to 5%.
After a month of getting to know each other, Li Yao had to admit that Mo Tiesheng was a natural-born commander in a battlefield. He seemed to boast a special aura that made everybody, including those stronger than himself, listen to his commands willingly.
Even when openings were revealed in his commands that were not mature enough, he would block all the openings with his furious strength, unstoppable air, and fearless determination.
Li Yao knew that he was not someone who enjoyed standing in the spotlight commanding everybody. He preferred to lurk in the shadows and manipulate everything in secret, securing the victory of a game without anybody knowing.
In the arena, one of them worked in the daylight while the other walked in the darkness. On the surface, Mo Tiesheng was the commander of the battle while Li Yao was an assaulter who wandered away from the main battle formation.
But in secret, Li Yao had been testing how to impose more ‘interference’ on the situation of the battle with his own strength.
BOOM!
At the center of the arena, a fireball soared into the sky, exploding into an ugly mushroom cloud in midair, which then dispersed into an abnormal skull, before everything spread out and dispersed in the end.
Hardly had a gap appeared in the bronze gate in the front when countless giants shrouded in flames forced it open. Almost forty demons strode out with their heads held high.
They were around three meters tall, like giant lizards that were standing on their feet. Their long and thick tails were packed with spurs, and the tips of their tails were huge bone hammers that looked like a heavy bomb.
This time, Li Yao’s opponents were not demon beasts but bronze-blood demons.
The Skeleton Island not only arranged games between gladiators and demon beasts but also welcomed demons from Void Turmoil City to join the matches personally. The bronze-blood demons, as the warrior class, were particularly fond of such entertainment, and their masters, the silver-blood nobles, were often very proud of the bloody glory that their subordinates won in an arena, too.
After Li Yao, Mo Tiesheng, and the other gladiators rose to fame on the Skeleton Island, many demons had fixed their sights on the newcomers. A silver-blood demon who came to Void Turmoil City to purchase strengthening drugs paid a high price so that his guards would have the right to tear apart the gladiators.
Those brutal demons known as ‘Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders’ were among the most infamous ones in the group of bronze-blood demons, too. They had natural glands that could absorb and spurt out high-temperature flames. When the bone hammer on their tail bashed the ground, the spiritual energy of the fire class would shake violently on a large scale, like the explosion of a crystal bomb.
The games between the bronze-blood demons and the gladiators were not fair. Not only was the battlefield chosen according to the advantages of the Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders, they were also wearing the strongest armor and the sharpest gloves carved out of crystals. The sabers and swords that they were carrying were also the most marvelous weapons made by the top craftsmen of the Blood Demon Sector.
However…
In Li Yao’s eyes, the Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders, although armed to the teeth, were nothing but hens that were wearing fancy clothing.
“Yuchi Ba, open your eyes and watch my performance closely!”
The slaughter began!
In Li Yao’s eyes, the arena stopped being a simply three-dimensional space, and his opponents were no longer living creatures made of flesh and blood. The vast battlefield, the Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders in the front, and the gladiators behind him all turned into the most fundamental streams of data that were connected with each other through the complicated, inexplicable formulas and theorems. The smallest change of a number would trigger a series of chain reactions and result to the subtle feedback of other numbers.
Li Yao had a deeper understanding about battles right now. When he suppressed his strength to the minimum and stopped crushing over his opponents with brute force, the wisdom of fighting was playing a more and more vital role in combat.
He was no longer only focused on his primary target, and he gave up considering the specific moves he should make. Instead, he calculated what consequences the death of the ninth Shooting Star Fiery Salamander to be killed by him would bring to the battle dozens of seconds later.
By perceiving the breathing, heartbeat, and temperature of the enemies, Li Yao even grasped their state of mind. He could vaguely tell which Shooting Star Fiery Salamander was particularly excited and which gladiator was relatively more tired because of overtraining.
All the information was integrated inside his brain within a moment.
When the dozens of Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders charged forward, waving their blades and spurting out flames in roars, Li Yao took three steps to the left.
The bronze-blood demons were well aware of the brutality of ‘Bloody Claw’. His unbelievable performance in the previous games had been watched repeatedly by the bronze-blood demons, too.
Ruthlessness and lust for killing did not equal low intelligence. On the contrary, the fact that they could laugh to the end after hundreds of life-and-death battles proved that the bronze-blood demons were the most cunning, prudent warriors.
They immediately reacted to Li Yao’s horizontal movement. Their battle formation, which was in the shape of a diamond, subtly changed.
After quickly moving fifteen meters to the left, Li Yao came to an abrupt halt and turned, as if he were planning to cut to the Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders’ rear and attack their commander.
The battle formation of the Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders changed yet again. However, before the new battle formation was consolidated, Li Yao changed mysteriously for a third time, appearing to be lunging at the center of the Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders.
In less than three seconds, Li Yao had made dozens of changes. In the end, although his body did not move much, the change of the air around him and the focus of his eyes produced a tiny gap in the battle formation of the Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders.
Before, every Shooting Star Fiery Salamander was neither too far nor too close from each other. The bone hammers on their tails could easily cover each other.
But right now, ten or so Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders were too close to each other, and their tails would collide into each other when being waved, making it possible to maximize their strength. On the other hand, the other ten or so Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders were too far away from each other, and once Mo Tiesheng and the other Red Blood Bronze Bulls accelerated to their maximum speed, it was more likely that they would pierce through the Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders easily!
Mo Tiesheng soon located the tiny gap, too. He immediately led the charge with the Red Blood Bronze Bulls!
The two torrents crashed into each other brutally, performing the song of blood and destruction that were the demons’ favorite.
Li Yao had not launched an attack even after the sixth Shooting Star Fiery Salamander collapsed before him.
He abandoned the idiotic method to manipulating the situation of the battle with pushing or blocking the opponents. His every footstep, every hand-waving, and even every look was enough to subtly influence the situation.
Such movements consumed the least strength and spiritual energy for him.
Li Yao could not help but recall the time when countless Grand Illusionary Soldiers in the Flying Star Sector had surrounded him.
At that time, the only thing he had known was to stride forward with all his strength, which had been quite an exhausting experience. In the end, he had been surrounded by countless Grand Illusionary Soldiers that were no higher than the Building Foundation Stage and nearly failed to get out.
At that time, I had the combat ability close to the Nascent Soul Stage, but I did not know how to make best use of it. How foolish I was!
In the future, I’ll be engaged in battles of even larger scales. I should practice new fighting skills as soon as possible!
The most crucial factor is the ratio of the number of enemies killed to the strength that the process consumes!
I must find the most cost-effective way of fighting in order to be unstoppable in the vast sea of stars!
Shua!
Li Yao dodged the bone hammer that a Shooting Star Fiery Salamander slapped at him brutally. When he lowered his body, another Shooting Star Fiery Salamander was charging at him. The bone hammers of the two Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders hit each other in dazzling sparks.
The two Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders were both paralyzed because of the collision. They did not see it coming when a black shadow blinked past their hearts like a lightning and pecked their breastplate three times within a breath. Their breast plates were broken through with the first peck, their bones shattered from the second, and then a weak current pierced through their hearts after the third peck!
The Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders stopped moving like statues.
When they were finally blown off by the scorching wind, there were few Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders that were still standing on the arena, preparing to meet the charge of the infuriated Red Blood Bronze Bulls.
The winners were obvious.
Li Yao heard prolonged horns outside of the arena and roars hundreds of times louder that reeked of bloodthirst and desire for killing. Almost all the audience, including the silver-blood demons, stood up and bashed their chests, screaming in a twisted voice.
Li Yao managed to distinguish a high-pitched voice that belonged to Yuchi Ba, owner of the Skeleton Island, from the screams.
The newcomers who had only been on the Skeleton Island for two months, because of their amazing performances, were granted the right to challenge the ‘Death Teeth Guards’, the strongest gladiators on the Skeleton Island!
Chapter 877: Foam Like Butterflies ##
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
At night, deep inside the forest, Li Yao leaned against a thick bloody coconut tree, considering the situation quietly.
After winning the fourth game, they had been granted the right to challenge the champion gladiators of the Skeleton Island. Over the next couple of days, their training facilities had been fully upgraded. They had more strengthening drugs, better high-energy food, and all available battle experience for them to learn.
During the high-intensity training, Li Yao finally saw an example of mental derangement and cell collapse with his own eyes.
Before, Li Yao had already known that the death rate of the training camp was very high, and he had barely paid attention to other gladiators as he had been too occupied in his own training.
But that day, a chaotic-blood demon, more than four meters tall and weighing ten tons, boasting the bloodline of ‘Hammer Head Battle Elephant’, suddenly collapsed right in front of his eyes after injecting twenty doses of strengthening drugs and devouring more than two tons of food. He trembled in the beginning before fluids that looked like foam leaked out of the wrinkles of his skin.
The mountain-like demon screamed miserably, wreathed in the foam, while his body features changed constantly.
In one short minute, the features of behemoths, rhinos, and other heavy beasts appeared on his body, only to be replaced by those of lions and leopards a moment later. Eventually, he was even growing colorful feathers and sharp claws and teeth.
For a moment, maybe it was just his imagine, but Li Yao even vaguely sensed that all the features of animals disappeared from the chaotic-blood demon, and he turned into a tall, strong, magnificent-looking man.
However, such a form did not last even 0.1 seconds before endless foam flowed out of his widely opened mouth and melted him completely.
A gentle breeze passed by, blowing the foam up as if it was made of flying butterflies. Illuminated by the torches, they shone in glamorous colors before they vanished into nothingness in the end.
The demon that looked as undefeatable as a mountain was vaporized just like that in only one minute.
Not too many demons were surprised by such a scene. The gladiators all whispered to each other that the demon had been embraced by God Chaos again.
Yes. During Li Yao’s adventure on the Skeleton Island, the ideology of the Blade of Chaos had spread afar among the gladiators, many of whom were praying to Chaos in secret. As far as Li Yao knew, even the most resolute gladiators often could not help but carry a charm of the Blade of Chaos and scratch it before they joined a game, as if it was the hope of their survival.
After their first encounter, Ba Mingsong had visited Li Yao and Mo Tiesheng several times. The two talented, distinguished new gladiators seemed to be important targets of the Blade of Chaos.
Mo Tiesheng’s tongue was rather tight, and he did not reveal his thoughts easily. Li Yao tried to have a chat with Ba Mingsong several times, but there was no telling whether the demon was too clever or truly knew nothing about the details. Except for repeating the benevolence of ‘God Chaos’, he failed to offer anything new.
But today, the collapse of the gladiator was a major blow for Li Yao’s mind, which prompted him to consider the different methodologies of training of mankind and the demon race from a higher level.
According to the mental devil, the method of training to directly stimulate the cells was dangerous and extremely unstable.
On the Skeleton Island, in order to trigger the greatest potential of the gladiators in the shortest amount of time, strengthening drugs far exceeding normal dosages had been injected into them.
Although the strengthening drugs were all first class and contained a lot of balancing and repairing constituents, such a hasty approach to training still resulted in the mess of genes and the collapse of cells in many demons.
In the past, Li Yao had always been confused by something. In terms of physical build and combat ability, the individuals of the demon race were far better than those of mankind. Mo Tiesheng and the chaotic-blood demons that he saw in the Dry Leaf Village were all civilians, but after preliminary training, they were able to deal shocking damage, and ten muscular human beings might not have been a match for one of them.
Then, why did the demon race suffer such a crushing defeat in the great war against human beings ten thousand years ago when they boasted such fine individual soldiers?
Li Yao did not fully understand the question until he dug deeper into the training methods of the demon race.
Firstly, talent played a very important role in the training of the demon race. Demons who boasted the bloodlines of the Red Blood Bronze Bulls such as Mo Tiesheng were in fact not large in number. Most of the demons, such as rooster demons and rabbit demons, did not have much combat ability. They were even weaker than adult men in general.
Secondly, the training method of the demon race was to stimulate the cells, which proved to be very unstable. Their odds of mental derangement were much higher than those of mankind. Besides, they were almost always beyond rescue the moment they were mentally deranged.
A complete collapse with their body turning into foam was naturally the most extreme example. But on many occasions, a certain weird organ inside a demon’s body would be awakened when they were mentally deranged, say, lungs that were suitable for the special air millions of years ago, or gills that replaced their lungs once and for all. If so, they would still die miserably on the spot, and other people would not know what happened to them at all.
Thirdly, the training system of the demon race was too monotonous and focused too much attention on awakening the strength within one’s body. In other words, they were lacking creativity.
Li Yao had always believed that, although there might be regressions in the development of a civilization, the trend of every civilization was getting stronger and stronger.
Therefore, after he received the legacy of Ou Yezi, a master of refining from forty thousand years, he did not count his everything on it. Instead, he learned a huge amount of modern knowledge of refining with the legacy of the past as references.
The legacy of the primeval era might have certain shining parts that were better than the technology of human beings, but Li Yao definitely did not believe that the contemporary civilization of mankind had no advantages.
On the contrary, modern human beings developed at an amazing speed and built a magnificent interstellar information society after only ten thousand years. Such speed and creativity were definitely impressive!
But as for the demon race, they were limited by their bloodlines and talents, and they attached too much importance to the awakening of the strength that was originally inside their body. They never thought to place the strength in the future that was more boundless. For thirty thousand years, they had been going around circles and even established such a bizarre construct as the ‘Four Pillar System’. No wonder they were no match for human beings!
After all, a war in modern times was a collision of two civilizations.
Since Li Yao’s arrival in the Blood Demon Sector, he had seen a lot of experts with marvelous skills. But as for the society and the political system of the Blood Demon Sector, he could not think of a better word to describe it than ‘obsolete’. The Blood Demon Sector was truly facing trouble from both the inside and the outside.
If a large-scale strategical war between the Blood Demon Sector and the Heaven’s Origin Sector really broke out in the end, Li Yao did not think that such a Blood Demon Sector had much chance of winning at all.
But here came to question.
Jin Xinyue was already smart and determined enough, and there was no way that Li Yao would underestimate the wisdom of the twelve demon emperors of the Blood Demon Sector. Did the real leaders of the Blood Demon Sector not understand the current crisis when he had seen through it after only three months?
Then, did the demon emperors persist in the final war against the Heaven’s Origin Sector knowing that the Blood Demon Sector was not as strong as it appeared to be because they were too arrogant or because they were actually up to something else?
Jin Tuyi, the new commander-in-chief of the coalition army of the demon race, means to implement the ‘Red Tide Plan’ and assault the Star Glory Federation from its central area. But is the ‘Red Tide Plan’ the only scheme of the final war for the Blood Demon Sector? I think they’ve underestimated the tenacity of the Star Glory Federation, haven’t they?
Everything was a mess. Even Li Yao could not get his head around the whole thing despite his computational ability.
While he was feeling frustrated, Mo Tiesheng walked over to him.
“Tomorrow is the day when we are going to fight the ‘Death Teeth Guards’.”
Mo Tiesheng sighed and said, “Word on the street is that the master of the Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders was not happy that we killed so many of them in the arena.
“The silver-blood noble not only lost a team of elite subordinates but also suffered a heavy monetary loss because he bet on his subordinates, not to mention that the failure was itself humiliating enough.
“Therefore, the silver-blood noble burst into fury and paid a fortune, demanding that the ‘Death Teeth Guards’ kill us all!
“We have made significant improvements after a month and a half’s training, but I’m afraid that we are not going to be match for the Death Teeth Guards however strong we are right now!”
Li Yao smiled and lay down on the grass with his hands as a pillow. He said, “Don’t be scared. Death… is not necessarily the destination.”
Li Yao was almost certain that everything was the plan of the Blade of Chaos and that they would see the real appearance of the Blade of Chaos tomorrow.
That would be the beginning of the real game.
No matter how perilous the game was, he was never willing to give in as a chess piece; he was going to be a player who made his moves on the board and even the one who manipulated the other player!
Licking his teeth, Li Yao quickly dismissed all the irrelevant thoughts.
Secrets had to be found out one after another. For now, he had better figure out everything about the Blade of Chaos first!
…
Hiu!
A sharp arrow tore apart the air in the forest and passed by Li Yao’s right ear, piercing deep into the giant tree. The trunk immediately emitted burning noises as it was withered with stenchful smoke popping up.
The battle between Li Yao, Mo Tiesheng, and the Death Teeth Guards was held in the open arena named ‘Hell Bone Swamp’.
It was a spacious jungle that seemed plain but was riddled with traps. Inconspicuous swamps that boasted uncanny attraction force were hidden below the bushes everywhere. Any creature that stepped on them would be swallowed whole. Their bones would not pop up to the surface again until a long time later when the swamp had absorbed their flesh and bone marrow. The remains of the victims usually radiated scary phosphorescence in the dark, and that was how the ‘Hell Bone Swamp’ got its name.
‘Hell Bone Swamp’ was one of the most dangerous arenas on the Skeleton Island. It was so dangerous that there was not even room to set up the auditorium. The audience could only watch the ongoing battle through the ‘Flying Spirit Eyes’ that were densely distributed in the jungle. Twelve minutes after the twenty-two gladiators including Li Yao were projected to the Hell Bone Swamp, only three were left.
Li Yao saw two gladiators being swallowed by the swamp with his own eyes, and one gladiator’s skin ulcerated and was burnt after being shot by an arrow, dying miserably on the spot.
But he was not affected at all because—
Chapter 878: Thousand Corpse Abyss ##
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
“What a weird venom!”
The interested voice of the mental devil drifted out from deep inside Li Yao’s brain.
When the sharp arrow brushed past him just now, Li Yao had calculated the most precise distance and position, allowing the skin on his ear to be hurt by the arrow so that he could retrieve a sample of the venom for analysis.
“On the surface, it seems to be the most lethal poison that can melt one’s guts and make them die miserably. It is even very contagious, and whoever comes close might be affected by the venom.
“However, after analyzing carefully, it is not difficult to find that there are a lot of stabilizing cells inside the venom that can help maintain the vital signs of a creature.
“According to my calculations, once a lot of ‘venom’ floods into the body, the skin will certainly fester, and the heartbeat and breathing will become very feeble, too. Every symptom will be no different from death. However, the most critical part of the creature’s vitality will not be cut off, and it will enter a certain ‘false death’ state. With timely treatment, they will awaken shortly after!”
Li Yao smiled. He had made the same judgement, but he needed more proof to support his hypothesis.
His senses spread out in the forest like the tentacles of an octopus. Amid the dense bushes and thorns, every Death Teeth Guard had been precisely locked onto by him. He had even simulated dozens of pictures in his mind where he killed the Death Teeth Guards instantly. It was not until the enemies found the last few ‘preys’ that he gave up such a boring game and started observing carefully.
Mo Tiesheng was among the few gladiators who fought to the end.
He thought that his companions had all been slain by the Death Teeth Guards and could not have been infuriated. With the desperate roars, his body continued expanding, and his spine protruded out, growing spurs that looked like tusks. The broken horn on his head was now repaired and even thicker than when it was intact in the past, soaring up to the sky helically like the horn of a devil.
However, the gap between their capability could not be filled simply by outrage. The Death Teeth Guards were all the winners who laughed to the end in the hundreds of battles on the Skeleton Island. They also had the advantage in numbers right now. Their victory was certain!
The thorny bushes shook slightly. A black shadow darted out like lightning and leapt to Mo Tiesheng’s shoulder. Then, with a strangle technique, the enemy fractured his right arm that was as thick as a bucket. It exploded with clusters of bloody mist bursting out.
Before Mo Tiesheng had the chance to scream in pain, a crocodile in iron armor suddenly dashed out of the mud below his hoofs, brutally piercing his long spear into Mo Tiesheng’s chest!
When the tip of the spear reached Mo Tiesheng’s chest, thousands of electric arcs spurted out abruptly. Every spiral on the spear that looked like a gold ring was revolving rapidly, allowing the weapon to penetrate through his broad chest without the least hinderance and get out from Mo Tiesheng’s back. A giant heart soaked in blood was stuck to the tip of the spear and ripped apart instantly by the electric arcs.
Mo Tiesheng roared crazily and blew away the two Death Teeth Guards. He bulged his eyes, clutched the hole on his chest, and stepped forward heavily. Finally, he could not hold on any longer and kneeled on the ground, lowering his head and cramping crazily.
Very soon, deep purple blood flooded out of his wound and spread out like a plague. His enormous body soon turned into weird black.
Even the most coldhearted demon might not have been willing to look at him any longer.
But Li Yao had been observing carefully and capturing every millimeter of movement of the two Death Teeth Guards precisely.
He discovered that, fierce as the first demon’s attack might have been, the ‘heavy wounds’ such as a shattered arm could easily be recovered with the biochemical treatment of the demon race after several days.
As for the crocodile’s sudden piercing, it missed the critical area slightly at the most important moment.
With Li Yao’s vision right now, he could calculate precise the distribution of his internal organs and the functioning status of the organs by observing Mo Tiesheng’s heartbeat and the different temperatures of his body parts.
To put it simply, when Li Yao glanced at Mo Tiesheng casually, it was not just an entire minotaur that he saw but also different pictures including his bone structure, the distribution of veins and nerves, the precise locations of every internal organ and lymph, and so on.
Li Yao clearly ‘saw’ that, when the lightning-like spear of the crocodile pierced into Mo Tiesheng’s chest, the attack was off by three millimeters to the right and brushed past Mo Tiesheng’s heart at a close distance. The wound seemed to be fatal, but none of the lightning really touched his heart!
Then, what was the enormous heart on the tip of the spear about?
I got it. Maybe a Cosmos Ring that stores such a ‘heart’ has been embedded into the spear in the first place.
No living organs could be stored inside the Cosmos Ring, but the ‘heart’ might not be necessarily made of flesh and meat. One made of foam materials can look equally vivid at the hands of a deft craftsman.
Li Yao was a refiner. He could tell that it was not difficult to produce a false heart with natural materials as long as the appearance was identical to a real one.
The spear could release dazzling electric arcs that would strongly interfere with the sight of the audience. While the lightning was spluttering, the ‘false’ heart was burnt into ashes instantly. Nobody would be able to notice anything wrong!
Inside the long spear, there are also probably special narcotic drugs and false death drugs that can make Mo Tiesheng enter the weird false death state. He will also cramp, vomit blood, and have skin ulcers… Everybody will want to keep distance from him.
The audience is all far away and watching everything through the Flying Spirit Eyes. How can they discover that he is not actually dead so quickly?
Li Yao smiled. By the rattling noises in the bushes and the shaking leaves, he locked onto three Death Teeth Guards that were darting toward him.
Stomping on the branch, Li Yao threw himself to the ground Li Yao a cannonball. The earth was all splashing because of the invasion. Under the cover of the humus, he kicked the leopard demon who was best at melee combat rapidly!
As he expected, the leopard demon came close to him like a harassing fly.
Li Yao’s right leg was immediately folded like a razor blade. He almost fell over because of the sudden change of movement.
Li Yao would never hand over his fate to somebody else. Although he was 99% sure that the opponents were not really trying to kill him, there was still uncertainty after all. If his right foot suffered heavy wounds, it would be a great disadvantage for him when he encountered real experts such as the Fire Ant King.
Li Yao only kicked because he wanted to show a loophole on his back so that a Death Teeth Guard who had been pretending to be a piece of rind behind him would be tempted to attack his back brutally!
Shua!
A narrow and long wound was immediately left on his back. Under Li Yao’s precise control, the blood flowed out in a seemingly miserable way, but it barely diminished his combat ability.
Li Yao seemed to be staggering after he suffered such a strike and could do nothing to stop ten or so bone spears from hitting his critical parts brutally.
However, Li Yao sensed that the bone spears that seemed to be aiming at his critical parts were all going to miss the real locations of the critical parts.
The venom inside the bone spears immediately spread out!
With Li Yao’s sturdy body close to that of the Nascent Soul Stage, which had also been strengthened by the mental devil, barely any poison could work on him right now. The venom of such a level could deal absolutely no damage to him.
But Li Yao simply removed all the defense on the surface of his body and allowed his skin and part of the nerve endings to be corroded.
When he ‘helplessly’ fell to the ground, cramping and foaming at the mouth with deep purple venomous fluids leaking out of his every pore, lengthy horns echoed far away.
The seemingly one-sided slaughter was over.
But the real game had only just begun.
Very soon, guards of the Skeleton Island in full sets of protective garments carried pots made of fine metal and carved with mysterious patterns and sprayed a lot of deep blue foam on his body.
Li Yao knew that the foams could block the venom and the germs. It was a standard procedure to handle the bodies that were killed by the venom.
However, after they were wreathed in the deep blue foams, nobody would be able to find out if they were actually not dead.
Covered in the multiple layers of foam, Li Yao did not dare to expand his senses. He could only vaguely feel that he was lifted and moved to a large cart. Then, after more than half an hour’s intermittent and bumpy travelling, he reached a place where the sea wind was blowing, and the tides were surging.
Li Yao interweaved his telepathic thoughts into a helix and drilled a tiny hole on the deep blue foam through which he observed the surroundings.
It was a cliff at the northwest part of the Skeleton Island with an altitude of almost a hundred meters. Below the cliff were sharp, disorderly reefs.
At the center of the cliff was an enormous pit around fifty meters in diameter. Huge waves slapping the seashore could vaguely be heard, and they were mixed with earsplitting shrieks, each louder than the last. Smelly, scarlet smoke was spurting out from the bottom of the pit, hovering in midair, and forming weird red clouds.
It was the ‘Thousand Corpse Abyss’, the place on the Skeleton Island where the dead bodies of the gladiators were dropped.
All the gladiators hated the place and were scared whenever they spoke about it.
Countless bodies had been piled up beside the Thousand Corpse Abyss. They were pushed into the pit by enormous beasts that were driven by the guards.
Very soon, a mill of flesh and blood seemed to have been opened below the pit. Noises of meat being torn apart and bones being fractured were echoing.
With his telepathic thoughts, Li Yao detected, to his surprise, that it was the bodies of the demon beasts that were pushed into the pit in the first batch.
It was not the ‘dead’ gladiators’ turn until right now.
When he was pushed to the side of the Thousand Corpse Abyss, he discovered that the bottom of the pit was connected to the ocean. At the center of the bottom was a rapid swirl in which countless terrifying sea beasts that looked like hybrids of sea snakes, worms, and octopuses were swimming swiftly. None of the sea beasts had eyes, and the front end of their fat bodies was entire occupied by a bloody mouth, and more than ten circles of dense teeth could be seen.
Even a body made of iron was probably going to be ground and swallowed by the sea beasts.
Li Yao knew that such beasts were known as ‘Blind Teeth Sea Demons’. They were the dominators near the seashore. The Far East Demon Kingdom had tamed the horrifying beasts as weapons and even produced a batch of destructive assault ships based on the Blind Teeth Sea Demons, which proved to be quite a headache for the navy of the Star Glory Federation.
Huala!
Li Yao and Mo Tiesheng were pushed into the Thousand Corpse Abyss!
Chapter 879: Throne of Genes ##
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Inside the Thousand Corpse Abyss, the dark waves crashed powerfully against the walls as if trying to escape. The Blind Teeth Sea Demons were all opening and closing their mouths in the most hideous way. Li Yao could not help but increase his wariness to the maximum. Should there be anything wrong, he could crash into the wall of the pit straightly and hide himself within the rocks.
Mo Tiesheng and the other gladiators were really in the false death state. They were like the puppets whose strings had been cut off and were freefalling into the pit, their hands and feet fluttering randomly.
The gladiators were about to become a delicious meal for the Blind Teeth Sea Demons when one side of the wall of the dark pit glided open quietly and revealed a few pathways. Half of the pathways tossed out glue nets that were as sticky as the spider webs and caught all the gladiators, dragging them into the pathway, while the other half of the pathways spurted out almost a hundred corpses of demon beasts, which replaced the gladiators as food for the Blind Teeth Sea Demons!
The entire process was quick and seamless. Unless one bulged their eyes and observed the bottom of the pit, nobody would be able to notice anything.
Just like that, the gladiators who should have ended up in the stomachs of the Blind Teeth Sea Demons were swapped and dragged underground!
“Hurry up and inject the antidote!”
“There are quite a few talents among the newcomers. They cannot be killed. Send them into the biochemical slots for treatment!”
Sensing the cold tips of syringes being stabbed into his veins softly and injected cool, comforting drugs that slowly flowed around his body, Li Yao smiled and knew that he had successfully faked his way into the Blade of Chaos.
…
One day later, deep inside the Skeleton Island, three hundred meters below the ground, inside the secret base of the Blade of Chaos…
“Where is this young talent from exactly? His body is too strong!”
“You can’t tell it from his appearance at all. He is no taller than three meters, and his weight is less than a thousand kilograms, but he has swallowed more strengthening drugs than the five Red Blood Bronze Bull did!”
“It’s rather strange. We retrieved his blood for analysis and found nothing wrong. He is just one of the most common chaotic-blood demons.”
“Is this what they referred to as ‘naturally-endowed gifts’?”
“The supervisor has commanded that the intensity of the ‘Tiger Devil Body Building Medicines’ be increased by three times. We’ll see how the monster reacts to that. Maybe we have indeed picked up a treasure this time. He might prove to be an invincible warrior!”
Li Yao was floating in an enormous biochemical slot with his eyes half closed. He was soaked in a liquid that looked slightly red. Such a liquid was as thick as gum and stored no end of strengthening constituents that slowly leaked into his pores under slight pressure.
By perceiving the feeble vibrations of the glass of the biochemical slot, he was eavesdropping on the conversation among the members of the Blade of Chaos outside.
It sounded like the Blade of Chaos was truly not malicious and only meant to recruit new, strong members.
It was exactly as he had hoped.
The mental devil was yawning in boredom deep inside his brain. “Such healing drugs are truly as tasteless as water. It took them a day and a half to repair such minor injuries? If it were me, I could have the injuries recovered in a minute by activating your cells’ potential!
“The ‘Tiger Devil Body Building Medicine’ that they’ve developed seems interesting enough, though. But the intensity is too low. Three times? Should be ten times at least. Only that will be exciting enough!
“However, hehe, there is indeed a lot of good stuff in the secret base of the Blade of Chaos. The trip is definitely worthwhile!”
Li Yao agreed with the mental devil’s theory.
The biochemical slot he was placed in was not the only one in the base. He was now in a vast natural cave below the ground. Beside him were almost a hundred biochemical slots that were placed next to each other in a line. Some of other biochemical slots were embedded in the wall of the cave. One expert was lying quietly inside every biochemical slot.
Despite the blockage of the thick drugs, Li Yao could clearly sense the stronger and stronger scent inside every biochemical slot.
Five hundred meters to his left, some of the large biochemical slots were even more than twenty meters tall. The demons being soaked and refined inside were like dinosaurs that had travelled through time to modern day. Even Li Yao secretly clicked his tongue when he saw them.
The Blade of Chaos was indeed not as simple as it appeared to be, and the so-called ‘Riot of Bloody Blade’ was definitely not their real outburst!
Li Yao did not have the patience to wait any longer. His eyes shuddered as he slowly opened them. Cold brilliance that pierced through the strengthening drugs, the hardened glass, and the thick rocks beamed out of his bright red left eye.
“He’s awake!”
“He took more poison than any of the other gladiators did, and he woke up so quickly? What a monster!”
“Hurry and change the constituents of the drugs. Inject pacifiers!”
Very soon, Li Yao saw an old demon who had a pair of pure white wings staring at him with a smile before his biochemical slot.
The old demon was wearing an ivory robe with a crimson emblem of the Blade of Chaos painted on the chest.
Looking at the sharp blade that chopped off the gene strands for a second time, Li Yao suddenly sensed a whole different meaning from it.
“Am I… dead?”
Li Yao pretended that he was weak and drew on the hardened glass with his fingers clumsily.
“No.” The old demon’s voice came over through the warm strengthening drugs, somewhat blurred. “You are reborn.”
…
Li Yao had been ‘reborn’ for eighteen hours.
In the first fifteen hours, the Blade of Chaos had run a series of thorough physical examinations on him.
With the disguise of the mental devil, he naturally passed the tests without any trouble.
After a brief rest, he was led by two members of the Blade of Chaos through a long pathway to a quiet underground temple.
There was nothing inside the temple, but enormous paintings had been decorated on the walls. However, the paintings were not about the glorious, magnificent deities nor the scenes where heroes were fighting blood-boiling battles, but the pictures of the mysterious gene strands, cells in various forms, and the fossils of countless ancient creatures.
Such paintings added to the mystery and solemnness of the temple.
Other than Li Yao, the gladiators who were ‘killed’ in the same game as him showed up one after another, including those swallowed by the swamp.
Li Yao was dazed at first. Then he immediately realized what had happened. There were clearly traps below the so-called ‘Hell Bone Swamp’, too, and the gladiators who stepped on them would be pulled away through the secret tunnels down there. After a few days, a few remnants of bones similar to the size of the victims would be thrown back to the ground, and nobody would be suspicious.
Those gladiators were not as healthy as Li Yao. Although they had woken up, almost everybody was tied up in thick bandages and holding multiple bags of healing drugs. Some of them were even soaked in the portable biochemical slots and pushed over with the help of others.
They were still at a loss now that they had returned from death. Seeing that their companions who should have been killed in the Hell Bone Swamp were also alive, they were even more surprised.
Only several gladiators—including Mo Tiesheng, who had thick plasters bound to his chest and looked like an iron statue—were deep in thought and seemed to have realized what was going on.
“Congratulations on your rebirth!”
After a moment of faint laughter, deafening noises echoed below the ground at the end of the temple. The floor spread out like a blossoming flower, and a throne slowly rose up.
The throne was designed in a very strange shape. It seemed to be made of countless interconnecting gene strands. The gene chains were all crystal clear and emitting glamorous colors from within, filling the enormous temple with the scent of life all of a sudden.
But nobody was sitting on the throne. In front of the throne, three high shadows were standing.
The two standing on the two sides emotionlessly were the Death Teeth Guards who had ‘killed’ them.
But the most magnificent shadow in the middle turned out to be Yuchi Ba, the master of the Skeleton Island!
Li Yao had seen it coming so was not surprised, but the other gladiators were caught unprepared and exclaimed in shock.
Right now, Yuchi Ba had taken off the gorgeous robe that he wore in the arena and put on a plain training armor with an emblem of the Blade of Chaos made of black iron on his chest. Bloody streaks were all over the black emblem. There was no telling whether they were intentionally added when the emblem was carved or it was the blood of his enemies that had leaked onto the emblem after he killed too many of them.
Yuchi Ba carried an intimidating aura with him although he had not said anything. He slowly walked to the crowd one step after another. He glanced over the wounds on everybody and stopped for a long time on Li Yao. In the end, he stared at Mo Tiesheng and said frankly, “I know that you must have a lot of questions, brothers, and I’m going to answer all of them since I’m talking to you under my real identity today!
“Before I answer your questions, allow me to reintroduce myself. I, Yuchi Ba, am the owner of the Skeleton Island, but I am also a believer of Chaos. You may consider me as the highest representative of the Blade of Chaos in Void Turmoil City!”
Many quick-minded gladiators had already guessed his identity through his dress, but hearing him acknowledge it so straightforwardly, they were greatly startled too and whispered to each other.
Many gladiators had accepted the ideas of the Blade of Chaos during their training. Right now, after they were ‘reborn’, they were rather moved as they felt that they had finally found their calling. For a moment, hot tears were flowing inside their eyes, and they did not know what to say.
But Li Yao and Mo Tiesheng remained as untouched as before. Mo Tiesheng even furrowed his brows and said solemnly, “Master Yuchi, so to speak, everything was your scheme the whole time?
“You captured us on purpose and ordered us to receive the harshest training and undergo life-and-death battles just so that you could pick the strongest of us for the Blade of Chaos?”
His hands behind his back, Yuchi Ba replied peacefully, “That is the first question that many brothers ask me when they wake up.
“And my answer has been the same every time. Yes. Everything was my scheme. You may even accuse me of kidnapping you through the most shameless approaches!
“On the Skeleton Island, you have undergone the most rigorous training and taken strengthening drugs dozens, if not hundreds, of times the normal dosage. Many of our brothers were mentally deranged, and their cells collapsed. Still more brothers were killed miserably in the arenas, sometimes even with no bones left!
“Everything was my scheme. I plead guilty to all charges!”
Chapter 880: True Meaning of Chaos ##
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Yuchi Ba talked in such a resolute and righteous way that even Mo Tiesheng was momentarily dazed.
“However—”
Yuchi Ba suddenly changed his tone and demanded, “Brothers here, you might as well recall your past and think about the obstructions that you met when you ran away from your homes to avoid the war. Do you think that you would have survived if I had not brought you to this place?
“You wouldn’t! In the Blood Demon Sector right now, being a black-blood demon or a chaotic-blood demon is your original sin. There is no way you would have survived!
“The Skeleton Island is not the only arena in the Blood Demon Sector. All the demon kings are now desperate to recruit soldiers and slaves. If I had not captured you, it is possible that you would have been captured by other slave-catching teams or even the army!
“On the Skeleton Island, while you received the harshest training, you also had the best strengthening drugs and abundant food. Also, in the seemingly perilous games, I was always doing the best I could to save your life! Only by a ‘fake death’ can you disappear from the world and sever your past!
“You wouldn’t be so lucky in other arenas or in the army! The Riot of the Bloody Blade has not entirely died down yet. I believe that you have all heard a lot of rumors and have a basic idea what roles the black-blood demons and the chaotic-blood demons are playing in the army.
“So, do you really think that I was wrong?
“Yes. On the Skeleton Island, many of our brothers are killed every day, during the harsh training, because of the excessive dosage of strengthening drugs, or in the dangerous the Lightning Dungeon, the Thorny Flame Dungeon, and the Hell Bone Swamp! If possible, I would not want any brothers to die in vain!
“However, this is Void Turmoil City, full of silver-blood demons! Sacrificing some of our brothers can help save the lives of others so that they can become the warriors who shatter our shackles and rise up in resistance! There are no alternatives!”
Yuchi Ba’s words raised a riot among the gladiators, who were all whispering to each other and yet could not make out the situation. In the end, they all looked at Mo Tiesheng and Li Yao.
Mo Tiesheng was deep in thought, too, and did not give a response for a long time.
Yuchi Ba opened his thick arms and said solemnly, “Brothers, the shackles that we are bound with have been imposed on us for forty thousand years. An unprecedented great war between the Blood Demon Sector and the Heaven’s Origin Sector is about to break out, and the master of the new world will soon be decided. However, no matter who the winner of the war is, cannon fodder such as us will be equally doomed!
“If we don’t stand up to fight, we will either be tormented to death in the dark mining pits or have to kill each other in the arenas for nothing other than the chuckles of the nobles. Or, we may end up as worthless cannon fodder as members of the ‘beast tides’ or the ‘insect oceans’, waiting to be blown into smithereens by the crystal cannons and the crystal warships of the Heaven’s Origin Sector!
“If you do not want such a horrible future to become reality for you and your family, then join the Blade of Chaos and fight back. We will break the so-called Four Pillars System and forge our own way of life with our own hands!”
Yuchi Ba’s words ignited the eyes of many gladiators like invisible sparks.
Even Mo Tiesheng, who had been silent the whole time, seemed to be rather moved.
However, after pondering for a while, Li Yao raised a rather sharp question. “Master Yuchi, you… don’t seem to be a black-blood demon or a chaotic-blood one?”
His question made all the gladiators focus their eyes on Yuchi Ba’s body again.
Yuchi Ba smiled and replied unhurriedly, “Yes. According to the classification of the Blood Demon Sector, my bloodline belongs to the purest silver blood. But in fact, such a way of classification is just hilarious! Allow me to show you the truth!”
“The truth?”
Li Yao raised his eyebrow in great interest.
“In the made-up legends and tales, the so-called saint blood, silver blood, bronze blood, and black blood are all natural-born and unchangeable. Whoever tries to even slightly alter their blood will only degenerate into the most humble, lowly, and untouchable chaotic-blood demons!
“However—”
Intense demonic energy suddenly spurted out of Yuchi Ba’s body and circled around his magnificent body, forming complicated patterns.
Creepy noises of flesh being torn apart and reorganized echoed deep inside Yuchi Ba’s throat and his body. A moment later, the intensity of his demonic energy reached a whole new level, and five black blades that looked like the forelegs of a mantis grew out of his fist that was larger than a pot!
“This is—”
All the gladiators were shocked. It was clearly a feature of a certain type of the Insect Clan or the Claw Clan, but Yuchi Ba was clearly an out-and-out member of the Horn Clan!
Yuchi Ba waved the five blade limbs softly, drawing waves that looked like water currents in the air. He stared at everyone through the gaps of the newly-grown organs and said, “Have you seen it, brothers? The features of two different kinds of demon species have appeared in me, a pure silver-blood demon!
“There is only one possible explanation. The classification of saint blood, silver blood, bronze blood, and black blood does not exist at all! The differences of our appearances are our ‘forms’ that are shaped in different environments. A demon should be able to activate different ‘forms’ to adapt themselves to different battlefields or jobs so that they can fulfil the destiny that God Chaos designed for them!”
“Destiny?”
All the gladiators were whispering to each other.
Yuchi Ba slowed down and said in a low voice, “Yes. On the Skeleton Island, you must have heard the tales of God Chaos creating the modern demon race. They are not groundless legends but the real history that happened forty thousand years ago!
“Forty thousand years ago, it was the last years of the era of ancient Cultivators. Human beings were finally swallowed by their own greed and ambition. They waged a prolonged civil war in all the three thousand Sectors. Countless worlds were mired in the swirls of destruction, torn apart into cosmos dust. The planets that were lucky enough to survive the catastrophe found their ecological system completely ruined, and they could barely catch their breath in the fire of war.
“The universe at that time had been seriously polluted by human beings and was not suitable for the survival of most creatures.
“That was the time when God Chaos showed up. He excavated the relics of the Pangu Clan that were left from the primeval era, found the legacy of the thirteen ancient demon clans, and created the modern demon race, hoping that we could repair the damaged worlds like the ancient Pangu Clan did!
“The three thousand Sectors at that time were no longer paradises with singing birds and fragrant flowers. Volcanoes, earthquakes, smog, and venomous gas were everywhere. Many worlds lost their atmosphere, and even more worlds were entirely consumed by oceans.
“Therefore, God Chaos granted us marvelous techniques, allowing us to awaken the primeval force inside our body to resist the harsh environment so that we could modify the worlds like our ancestors in the primeval era!
“Our appearance does not stand for anything except for the task that we were entrusted with at the very beginning.
“If our ancestors were projected to a planet that had been drowned in the ocean, naturally, they would activate their forms as the ‘Sea Clan’.
“If our ancestors were sent to a planet whose ground was desolate with all the resources buried deep beneath the ground, it was only reasonable that they would be in the form of the ‘Insect Clan’!
“If a planet was frequented by blowing wind all year round, to make best use of the wind power, our ancestors would activate the broad wings to fly freely in the sky!
“They were the original demons forty thousand years ago.”
Yuchi Ba sighed and said, “It is a pity that desire for power eroded not only the human beings but some of the demons, too, who were shocked by the brilliant civilization that mankind once established while they were modifying the universe. They worshipped the splendid palaces and amazing magical equipment left by human beings, and from the human beings, they learned of the fun that came with conquering and slaughtering. Gradually, they were no longer contented in the dull, never-to-end repair work. They craved to be the masters of the sea of stars!
“Gradually, those demons betrayed the ideals of God Chaos and evolved with countless naturally-endowed techniques and features specifically for killing through the abilities that God Chaos granted them. They considered themselves to be rulers of the demon race and blatantly conquered and enslaved other demons. They even froze the cells and genes of the conquered demons with weird secret arts so that the conquered demons would always look the same!
“The surviving human beings taught them sleazy schemes. They secretly established enormous armies in the depths of the planets, and when the timing was appropriate, they ambushed God Chaos when he was at his weakest!
“Under their sharp blades and claws, the resistance of God Chaos failed. He was forced to run to a small world in the periphery of the universe and fall into a deep sleep for forty thousand years!
“This is the truth.
“Therefore, I never believe that there is much difference between silver blood and black blood. In the radiance of Chaos, all brothers and sisters are the same!”
Although the gladiators had heard the tales of Chaos many times on the Skeleton Island, they had never learned so many details. They all looked at each other in bewilderment, not knowing what to say.
“Although the privileged saint-blood demons and silver-blood demons tried everything they could to freeze the bloodlines of other demons, they never expected that the offspring of different types of demons were much more likely to break apart the shackles that had been imposed upon them for tens of thousands of years!
“That is why chaotic-blood demons are so despised in our society.
“Not because they are humble, but because they are dreadful. The silver-blood demons are scared that the chaotic-blood demons will chop off their shackles completely, reveal their ultimate form, and overthrown their reign. That is why they have been isolating the chaotic-blood demons!”In Christianity, original sin is the state of sin in which humanity has existed since the fall of man, stemming from Adam and Eve’s rebellion in Eden. To put it simply, it is the sin we are born with.
Chapter 881: Explore the Mausoleum, Wake Up Chaos! ##
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Yuchi Ba’s sharp claws were slowly retracted into his body. There was nothing unusual about his appearance any more. He looked at the gladiators peacefully, his eyes full of expectation.
Furrowing his eyebrow, Mo Tiesheng asked, “Master Yuchi, we are told that the ‘Riot of Bloody Blade’ that is led by the Blade of Chaos has been suppressed. The Blade of Chaos suffered a major blow. Quite a few elders have been captured. The members of the Blade of Chaos that were killed are simply too many to be counted!
“Right now, how capable is the Blade of Chaos? What can we do even if we join you?”
Yuchi Ba grinned, revealing his teeth that looked like spades. “First of all, the ideology of God Chaos has been spreading in the Blood Demon Sector for a thousand years, and the Blade of Chaos has existed for almost a hundred years, too. We have lurked for one century and drafted countless plans. How can we be uprooted so easily?
“Secondly, the Riot of Bloody Blade was far from a fiasco. Instead, it was a successful operation because we’ve achieved all of our purposes!
“You think that the Blade of Chaos wanted to overthrow the order of the Blood Demon Sector with a simple ‘Riot of Bloody Blade’? It’s impossible! Our purpose was simple, which was to take over Bone Sand City, or more specifically, a secret lab that belonged to Elder Nether Spring in Bone Sand City.
“Forty thousand years ago, after God Chaos was betrayed by part of the demons and escaped to the Blood Demon Sector, he never forgot to annihilate the traitors and therefore established an enormous underground palace in the depths of this planet as his laboratory and research center.
“It is a pity that God Chaos was so seriously wounded that he fell into hibernation before he completed his research, and the laboratory ended up being his tomb.
“For thousands of years, rumors about the Mausoleum of Chaos have been spreading in secret. It is said that whoever opens the Mausoleum of Chaos and receives his legacy will be able to change the entire demon race!
“The Insect Clan is best at developing the underground world. According to our intelligence, Elder Nether Spring has been working on the tales of the Mausoleum of Chaos for a long time and is in possession of a batch of very important map pieces that lead to the Mausoleum of Chaos. The lab he established in Bone Sand City was exactly meant to repair and fill up the pieces of the map so that he would be able to locate the precise coordinates of the Mausoleum of Chaos!
“The Mausoleum of Chaos!”
There was another riot among the gladiators.
“As believers of Chaos, the Blade of Chaos has a lot of leads as to the location of the Mausoleum of Chaos. With the pieces of the map, we are now able to calculate the precise location of the Mausoleum of Chaos and even infer the traps inside the tomb for our exploration!
“It was the real reason we initiated the Riot of Bloody Blade without caring about the consequences!
“We are very clear that we are absolutely no match for the Pantheon of Demons in a head-on clash. However, once we open the Mausoleum of Chaos, even if we cannot wake up God Chaos, we will be able to receive the legacy of Chaos inside the mausoleum, explore the origin of the demon race’s evolution, and perceive the primeval techniques!
“Therefore, I’m hoping that we can form an expedition team made of elites in order to explore the Mausoleum of Chaos!”
The gladiators did not expect that Yuchi Ba would be so straightforward as to reveal such a confidential plan, nor did they expect that they would be entrusted with such an important mission. For a moment, they became both excited and lost, not knowing what to say in their confusion.
Li Yao was very calm. “Master Yuchi, this is a very important operation. Why are you handing it over to the ignorant newbies such as us?”
“Three reasons,” Yuchi Ba said frankly. “Firstly, the mission is not to be carried out by newcomers such as you alone. The Mausoleum of Chaos used to be a laboratory of God Chaos that boasted an unbelievable coverage. The part that is buried deep below the ground is even more splendid. It is essentially an immeasurable palace that demands a lot of hands in order to search entirely.
“Therefore, this is an operation of a super large scale, and more than five hundred members of the Blade of Chaos will participate in it. You will only act as support.
“Secondly, the pieces of the map of the Mausoleum of Chaos are the top secret and the ultimate treasure for Elder Nether Spring. In order to retrieve the pieces, we attacked Bone Sand City openly and fought countless bloody battles against Elder Nether Spring’s subordinates. A lot of our experts sacrificed themselves so that the pieces of the map could be escorted back safely.
“Honestly speaking, after such heavy losses, there are not too many experienced experts that can cover the entire Mausoleum of Chaos right now.
“Thirdly, and most importantly, there are of course a lot of experts of a higher level inside our organization. However, such experts all have legal, false identities on the surface, and they need to show up in public every once in a while. For example, my ‘Death Teeth Guards’ are definitely elites among elites. But if they disappear at the same time all a sudden, wouldn’t it be equal to declaring to the public that I am carrying out a secret mission?
“Right now, a lot of investigations are underway. Now that Elder Nether Spring has lost the map pieces of the Mausoleum of Chaos, he must have figured out our goal. The mobilization and concentration of elites on a large scale will very likely be noticed by him! Therefore, we have no choice except to involve more newcomers in the mission!”
The explanations were rather plausible, and even Li Yao did not find any discrepancies after pondering for a while.
“Everyone!”
Yuchi Ba raised his voice and said, “The operation to explore the Mausoleum of Chaos is extremely dangerous. One moment of carelessness, and you may die without a grave. I cannot promise you anything except that I will take part in the operation personally and lead the vanguard! As long as we make it and unearth the legacy of God Chaos, we will have resources to fight against the Pantheon of Demons. That is the only way out for us and our families!”
The gladiators whispered to each other and could not wait to try. Many of them had been convinced by Yuchi Ba.
Explore the Mausoleum of Chaos, find the origin of the demon race, and receive the legacy from forty thousand years ago!
It was something that they would not even dream of one day ago.
But right now, it was likely to become reality!
“Master Yuchi, can we refuse the offer, and what will happen to us if we do?” Li Yao asked as emotionlessly as before.
“Of course you can!” Yuchi Ba declared. “Even if you’ve made up your mind to join the mission, you will have to go through strict screening tests. After all, it is the Mausoleum of Chaos, which is full of peril, that we are going to explore. Any mistake that you make might not only get yourself killed but also drag those near you into the disaster!
“Therefore, we cannot possibly force a bunch of dissatisfied slaves to go on an adventure in such a dangerous place. Won’t we be trying to kill ourselves if so?
“If you say no…”
Yuchi Ba pondered for a moment and said slowly, “I don’t want to lie to you. Since you’ve entered the secret base of the Blade of Chaos, seen my real face, and heard such important secrets, you are not going to get out of the place for the time being.
“If you are willing to join the operation to explore the Mausoleum of Chaos, you will go through a period of special training in the next.
“If you would rather not, you can stay in this place and do the jobs that you can. You can also receive regular training while waiting for the assignment of other missions.
“In the days to come, you will be closely monitored, but after the operation to explore the Mausoleum of Chaos is over, or if my identity is completely exposed, everything will be different.”
The decisions seemed to be rather rigorous, but they were quite understandable. After all, an insurrection was not an invitation to dinner, and rules had to be followed to ensure that nothing went wrong.
Li Yao continued his questioning. “Our family are perhaps still in Void Turmoil City. Can we visit them?”
“No.”
Yuchi Ba shook his head and replied without any hesitation.
“You have been ‘killed’ in public under everybody’s eyes. You are now the reincarnated bodies that should not belong to this world. What will your family think if they run into you without any preparation?
“Your family might not have nerves as tough as yours. If they reveal traces without them knowing, not only will our organization be exposed, your family members will also be sent into the secret prisons of the Pantheon of Demons and interrogated until the last bit of information inside their bones is dug out!
“I guarantee that you cannot begin to fathom the interrogation methods of the Pantheon of Demons, and you will prefer being killed to facing them!
“Therefore, for the sake of your family, it is best to keep your distance.
“However, the organization can help you hand over one or two of your belongings to them and give them a few last words.
“In the meantime, the organization promises that, whether you take part in the operation to explore the Mausoleum of Chaos or not, we will do our best to look after your family and help them live a more comfortable life without being affected by their past!
“When the mission is accomplished, maybe, at an appropriate time, the organization will arrange for you to watch their new life from afar!”
Hearing his words, everybody was whispering to each other. For many chaotic-blood demons, the only motivation to push them through life-and-death battles as gladiators was their family!
Now that they had been told that the Blade of Chaos could improve the lives of their family, all the gladiators were excited!
Joining the Blade of Chaos and exploring the Mausoleum of Chaos would not only give them access to legacy of techniques but also change the fate of their family. With any luck, they might become a hero for all the chaotic-blood demons!
On the Skeleton Island, they were already used to death, and they had personally ‘died’ once. The perilous Mausoleum of Chaos did not sound very scary right now!
A slender chaotic-blood demon whose hands were like claws raised his voice and shouted, “Master Yuchi, I’m in!”
“We are in, too. We are willing to explore the Mausoleum of Chaos together with Master Yuchi!”
The muscular demons with the bloodlines of the Red Blood Bronze Bulls took a step forward under the leadership of Mo Tiesheng. Their hoofs stomped on the ground, raising deafening noises in the temple.
Li Yao narrowed his eyes and made a step forward, too. He nodded. “I’m willing to explore the Mausoleum of Chaos!”
Things were getting more and more interesting.
Yuchi Ba was probably speaking the truth. At the very least, Li Yao did not sense any abnormal changes in his heartbeat, the speed of his blood flow, or the frequency of his eye movements while he was giving his speech.
However, it was one thing to speak the truth and a whole different thing to speak the whole truth.
At the very least, Yuchi Bao did not mention the mysterious drug that had been injected into Jin Xinyue’s body and turned her from a demon into a human being at all.
Li Yao would have to find the answer himself in the Mausoleum of Chaos!
In the legends of mankind, the Pantheon of Demons, and the Blade of Chaos, forty thousand years ago is a critical point alike. I really want to know what the so-called ‘Chaos’ is exactly!
Chapter 882: Necessary Sacrifices ##
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Deep inside the secret base on the Skeleton Island, inside a secret chamber that was piled up with obsidian and had glamorous patterns carved on all the four walls, Yuchi Ba, who had just recruited a batch of new warriors, appeared alone.
The disobedience and intimidating aura around him were hidden. Reverence was written all over his face.
He was by himself inside the secret chamber, but there was a bottomless hole in front of him that seemed to be leading to the heart of the planet.
Around the hole were circles of complicate stripes. Yuchi Ba span the stripes as if they were a password lock. Then, a click echoed somewhere deep down in the ground. A moment later, a stream of slightly red smoke popped up from the hole and hovered in midair, condensing into a fuzzy shadow.
An obscure voice drifted out from the smoke. “Is there still no news on the Divine Blood of Chaos?”
Yuchi Ba shook his head and said, “I’m sorry for my incompetence. I was too busy preparing for the hunting of the subordinates of Elder Nether Spring and did not expect that Jin Xinyue would jump out of nowhere. The three false teams fooled Elder Nether Spring but not her, and she took the Divine Blood of Chaos from Elder Ning by following the real team easily.”
“It is not because of your incompetence, but because I miscalculated.” The voice in the smoke continued. “Jin Xinyue is not to be underestimated. She seems to have recruited a super expert in secret who defeated all the hunters that were chasing after them.
“Then, Elder Nether Spring seemed to reach a deal with Jin Tuyi. They declared to the public that Saintess Jin Xinyue of the Pantheon of Demons had been killed on the battlefield to suppress the Riot of Bloody Blade.
“However, I know for a fact that Elder Nether Spring and Jin Tuyi have not captured Jin Xinyue or taken back the Divine Blood of Chaos.
“Even now, both Jin Xinyue and the Divine Blood of Chaos are missing.”
The shadow formed by the smoke paused for a moment and continued. “But we can’t afford to wait any longer.
“If we keep on waiting, chances are that Elder Nether Spring will locate the Mausoleum of Chaos earlier than we do. Should Elder Nether Spring dig out the secrets of God Chaos, there will never be a comeback for us!”
Yuchi Ba sighed and said, “Without the Divine Blood of Chaos, our safety inside the Mausoleum of Chaos cannot be ensured. Many brothers may die miserably deep below the ground.”
“This is a war,” the shadow of smoke said. “A war comes with sacrifices. That is why I asked you to recruit as many new members as possible without caring about the cost. When the operation begins, let the newcomers explore the way first and try to save the core members of our organization.”
Yuchi Ba nodded and said, “Understood. I have selected three hundred suitable newcomers over the past three months. After a period of special training, they will be ready to go.”
“That’s good.”
The smoke suddenly turned from scarlet into crimson, like a furiously burning torch that was spurted out from the center of the planet. The voice in the flames was both coarse and high-pitched, giving a strong feeling of weirdness and discordance. “Remember, the Mausoleum of Chaos is of the utmost importance for our organization. Whether or not we can cut off the shackles that have been bound to us for tens of thousands of years all depends on the operation!
“Therefore, we must calculate carefully. There cannot be any unexpected factors!”
…
“So many warriors!”
“Such a vast ground!”
“The gravity here must be at least three times that of the Blood Demon Sector. The body movement is rather difficult!”
Two days later, Li Yao, who would prove to be the biggest ‘unexpected factor’, stepped into the real training camp of the Blade of Chaos together with Mo Tiesheng and the other gladiators who had all recovered from their wounds.
Naturally, the underground of the Skeleton Island could not accommodate a training base of such a scale. But the Blade of Chaos had secretly grasped a batch of world fragments. The teleportation arrays leading to the world fragments had been installed under the Skeleton Island, through which the gladiators could reach the training space conveniently.
The greatest features of this particular world fragment, besides the increased gravity, were its vastness and desolation.
As far as one’s eyes could reach, there were gray and brown rocks. Hundreds of camps had been established on the ground, where countless tough warriors were training hard under three times the standard gravity.
On their left side, ruins that looked like a forsaken temple had been set up.
On their right side were iron tanks almost a hundred meters tall with signs of crossed skulls that represented danger painted on them. There was no telling what was stored inside.
The newcomers did not expect that their organization would boast such tremendous resources. They were all excited and could not wait to try.
“Why are you still standing? Get into the training camp!” the tutors responsible for them shouted loudly.
There were three tutors in total—the Death Teeth Guards as well as those who had ‘killed’ them in the Hell Bone Swamp.
The Death Teeth Guard who was adept at stealth techniques and once slashed at Li Yao’s back was named ‘Hidden Blade’.
There was also a plump man named ‘Venomous Liquid’, who looked like a meatball and grimaced all day round. Other than the crimson complex eyes, there were not many features of a demon on him.
The leopard demon who was agile and best at strangling techniques had a rather strange name that was completely unrelated to her features—’Electric Boa’.
The three tutors were not only responsible for the one month of special training but also going to work together with the newcomers during the exploration of the Mausoleum of Chaos.
It meant that they were the ‘subordinates’ that were allocated to the three tutors. Naturally, they were very passionate about the progress of their subordinates.
The three tutors brought the newcomers to the right side of the camps next to the high and majestic iron tanks.
It was not until they were close that the newcomers began to realize how enormous the iron tanks were. They were almost skyscrapers, and even the tallest chaotic-blood demons did not even surpass the shelf at the bottom of the iron tank.
The surface of the iron tanks was silver, carved with words in a foreign language. The eyes of the skull were glittering, and they seemed to be staring at the newcomers wherever they were standing, enveloping the newcomers in fear and stopping them from looking back.
Electric Boa, the leopard demon, had climbed up a giant iron tank, leapt onto its top, and crawled in!
Venomous Liquid, the plump tutor, smiled and said, “You are basically the last batch of teammates that are going to join the operation to explore the Mausoleum of Chaos. There is not much time left for your special training.
“You used to be hunters in the wilderness who must’ve been good at hunting and fighting. After more than a month of strengthening on the Skeleton Island, there is not much room left for you to boost your combat ability.
“Besides, nobody can anticipate what will happen in the next second when you are in the Mausoleum of Chaos. Every choice must be made according to the situation. You might not get a chance to utilize your combat ability at all!
“Therefore, the most focus of our training is your teamwork. When your cooperation with each other is good enough, we will go to the ruins nearby and conduct simulated battles.
“The ruins are an imitation of the Mausoleum of Chaos that we built based on what we know. It is definitely poles apart from the real Mausoleum of Chaos, but it is better than nothing.
“But most importantly of all, you need to learn—”
Venomous Liquid put on a mysterious smile and stopped talking because an iron tank almost a hundred meters tall right before everybody was suddenly emitting dull noises, as if something gargantuan was about to jump out of the container!
Huala!
The upper cover of the iron tank was fully opened. Cold air spurted out in earsplitting noises and froze the water in the air into a cluster of hazy, icy mist.
An enormous black shadow crept out of the iron tank, half covered by the icy mist, like a dragon that had climbed out of an abyss. Blood-freezing sounds were echoing while the body of the beast rubbed against the shell of the iron tank.
“Ahh!”
The faces of many newcomers were pale. Even Li Yao had a vague sense of danger, too, and constricted his eyes.
The hazy mist gradually dispersed, unveiling the full appearance of the black shadow, which was a massive snake-type demon beast that was almost a hundred meters in length and more than three meters in diameter.
The body of the snake was so large, thick, and hard that it could be called a crystal train that had come to life instead of a ‘snake’!
Hexagonal scales were connected to each other and covered the demon beast in multiple layers, like the breastplate of generals in ancient times. Sharp spurs also protruded out from the joints of the shells.
As the muscles twitched, the spurs extended and contracted with spluttering electric arcs dancing around nonstop!
It was not hard to imagine that any enemy tied up by such an enormous beast would be completely torn apart by the spurts and the electric arcs before their bones were shattered!
“Hiss! Hiss!”
Three eyes could be found on the top of its head. Besides the two regular yellow eyes on the two sides of the head, there was a complex eye resembling that of an insect in the center of its forehead.
Electric Boa, the leopard demon who had vanished into the iron tank just now, was sitting right above the head of the snake. There seemed to be a dent on the top of the snake’s head, allowing the lower half of her body to be melded into the head. Strands of translucent nerves connected her to the enormous snake through her spine.
“Most importantly of all, you must learn how to harness a biochemical beast!”
Thunderous noises burst out of Venomous Liquid and the lightning boa, almost deafening all the students on the spot.
“Biochemical beast!”
It was not the first time that Li Yao had seen a biochemical beast. But just like every time he encountered such huge beasts at a close distance, he could not help but feel that his mouth was dry, and his heart was pounding.
As the ultimate products of the biochemical technology of the demon race, biochemical beasts were the only weapons that could compete with the ‘crystal suits’ of human beings.
No. A more accurate way to put it would be that crystal suits were developed by Cultivators with all their wisdom in order to compete with biochemical beasts!
Before the crystal suits were invented, the demons with their strong biochemical beasts were definitely the worst nightmare for human beings. In the past, it would not have been unusual for a large-scale riot to be suppressed by one or two biochemical beasts. For some of the strongest biochemical beasts, as long as one of them was stationed on a remote planet, it was enough to intimidate the residents there and make them lose all courage to make a move in hundreds of years!
Chapter 883: Trap in the Training Beasts ##
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
How magnificent!
Li Yao’s eyes brushed over the lightning boat greedily while he secretly paid a compliment.
Although the high-end crystal suits were as strong as biochemical beasts in terms of combat ability, if not more, the oppression of wilderness and brutality and the magma-like primeval air could never be released by crystal suits.
Different from the crystal suits, which were worn as clothes, the biochemical beasts had a much wider range. They could be classified into small beasts, armor beasts, middle beasts, large beasts, and other levels.
Small biochemical beasts, such as bees and ants, might only be the size of fingers. They came and went in groups and could be manipulated by brainwaves.
Armor beasts were similar to crystal suits. They did not boast combat ability per se but were tailor-made according to the body size of the user and covered their body as a second layer of strengthened flesh tissues. They were armors that were alive!
Li Yao had fought Wang Ji, a prince of the Kingdom of Lion Butchers, on Boneyard. At that time, Wang Ji had retrieved a batch of armor beasts from the Demon Beast Empire and crushed the Cultivators who were fighting against him. In the end, it was with the help of Sparkle and ‘Dragon Scale’, an Ares Extension, that Li Yao managed to secure the victory.
The middle beasts were around ten meters to thirty meters long. They were the most common biochemical beasts. The ‘Mirage Falcons’ that chased after Li Yao and Jin Xinyue in the Hundred Desolation Mountain were the most typical middle beasts.
As for the large beasts, the lightning boa that the leopard demon was reining was a good example. They were often more than a hundred meters long, and they could easily break a mountain with a casual whip of their tail. It was not difficult for such beasts to wipe out an entire army!
To some extent, the devilish warships and the skeleton warships of the demon race were sort of amalgamations of super-large biochemical beasts. They were the most horrifying existences even for the crystal warships of human beings!
“Biochemical beasts are the ultimate weapons of the demon race. If you can use them skillfully, it is possible to increase your combat ability by five times in a very short time!”
Electric Boa sat atop the snake head and said coldly, “However, it is not easy to manipulate the biochemical beasts perfectly. It is very demanding on your soul power and will be a shock to your brain. If you are not cautious enough, you might even be counterattacked, and your brain will collapse, making you mentally retarded!
“Therefore, you must train yourself hard with a hundred percent of your concentration in the next month. Remember, it is not just your own life but also the fate of your companions and your family that are resting on your shoulders right now!”
The leopard demon raised the tail of the biochemical beast. A few muscular demons of the Horn Clan immediately carried forward dozens of iron buckets about one meter in diameter that were also painted with danger symbols. Other than that, they also handed over a bottle of deep purple drugs to every newcomer.
“The training beasts of the lowest level have been stored inside the biochemical slot before you. When you can manipulate them as fluently as you use your own arms and fingers, you will be allowed to pick a real biochemical beast according to your capability and characteristics.
“However, you have never learned how to harness a biochemical beast before, and part of your brain cells are still hibernating. The strengthening drugs offered to you can help you activated your brain power!
“Now, take the drugs and open the biochemical slot!”
Li Yao opened the cover of the bottle of strengthening drugs. A thin sweet and greasily smell came over. Before he poured the drugs into his throat, he extended his small finger into the drugs first and absorbed a tiny proportion for analysis.
The mental devil analyzed for a moment and said with a smile, “The strengthening drugs are rather weird. It truly can activate the brain cells, but on the other hand, it would also relax your nerves and excite your memory cells. You will not be able to stop yourself from recalling everything that happened in your past!”
Li Yao blinked for a moment and immediately realized what was going on. “A truth serum?”
“More or less. I was wondering why the Blade of Chaos, as such a large organization, would tell the newcomers top secret information when they had only just joined and even allow you to enter the critical base so easily.
“If there were a few spies sent by Elder Nether Spring among us, wouldn’t everything be doomed?
“As it turned out, they have already prepared their traps!
“On second thought, although Yuchi Ba rambled on about a lot of things, most of his words were meaningless. Since Elder Nether Spring lost the map pieces of the Mausoleum of Chaos, he must know that the Blade of Chaos is planning to explore the Mausoleum of Chaos in the next operation.
“Even if there are spies of Elder Nether Spring among us, they cannot possibly have discovered any valuable intelligence from Yuchi Ba’s words.
“Meanwhile, since the recruitment plan of the Blade of Chaos is apparently so ‘flawed’, the spies will certainly be less wary after they reach this place. Now, after the secretly-made ‘truth serum’, even if they do not show any reaction on the surface, a lot of things must be rolling over on their mind!”
Li Yao frowned. “However, how is the Blade of Chaos going to dig out what we are thinking in our minds? They do not have such terrifying abilities as mind reading, do they?”
The mental devil chuckled and said, “Don’t forget that our brain will be connected to the brain of the training beasts very soon.”
Li Yao was suddenly alarmed, but he showed no anomaly and simply drank all of the activation drugs.
Even without the help of the mental devil, because of the immensity of his brain cells, the activation drugs barely had any influence on him.
However, Li Yao still allowed part of his brain cells to be activated by the drugs. A lot of flashbacks were being played deep inside his brain.
He opened the cover of the biochemical slot, only to find a hairy biochemical beast crouching inside. It had puffy, yellow long hair and a body that was round like a ball. The facial organs of the beast were pink and pushed together, making it look like the popular ‘puji critters’ in the Heaven’s Origin Sector. Its short and stupid wings were flapping clumsily.
Two translucent antennas that looked like sprouts grew on the forehead of the training beast, trebling nonstop.
In the chamber next to the biochemical slot, there was also an even thicker antenna that was soaked in the nutrition liquids.
According to the introduction of the tutors, Li Yao learned that the biochemical beasts could be manipulated in three ways.
The first way was to crawl into a biochemical beast and connect to its synthesized nerves, like the leopard demon had done a moment earlier. It was the equivalent of human beings entering the cockpit of crystal tanks or crystal warships.
Such a way allowed the instant and large-scale transmission of instructions through nerves, which was mandatory to rein the relatively complicated middle and large biochemical beasts. But the shortcoming was that the user had to remain connected to the synthesized nerves, which could limit the activity of the user.
The second way was to remotely control the biochemical beasts in a certain range through antenna-like brainwave launchers and receptors.
The advantage of such a practice was obvious. The disadvantage was that the wireless transmission could easily be jammed or even cut off. Although the researchers of the demon race had developed the state-of-the-art instant reconnection technology, a 0.1-second latency might lead to unpredictable consequences in an ever-changing battlefield.
The third way was to condense the brainwaves into threads and manipulate the biochemical beasts nearby without resorting to the brainwave receptors.
It was needless to say that only true experts were able to grasp such an approach.
Li Yao thought of something and realized that the biochemical beasts were somewhat similar to the apocalyptic beasts on Iron Plateau. He could not help but ask, “How did Yan Xibei manipulate the apocalyptic beasts?”
“When Yan Xibei manipulated the apocalyptic body,” the mental devil replied, “naturally, it was the first way that he utilized, the nerve connection. When he manipulated the general apocalyptic beasts, he simply commanded all of them through brainwaves in the third way.
“However, there is a great restriction as to the commands sent through brainwaves. Generally speaking, only simple commands such as ‘attack’ or ‘defend’ can be sent. The more detailed instructions cannot be transmitted!
“Otherwise, even if you are capable enough to output tremendous information within a moment, the underdeveloped brain of the biochemical beasts or, for that matter, the apocalyptic beasts, can never accept and digest it.”
Li Yao thought that it did make sense. He then took out the soft antenna from the biochemical slot and stuck it to his forehead as per the instruction of the tutors.
Soon, coolness was spreading out on his forehead. Countless invisible tiny threads seemed to be crawling into his head.
Inside his brain, his thoughts extended out like the interconnecting roots of a tree and established a mind bridge between him and the training beast inside the biochemical slot!
Shua!
It was rather an amazing experience, just like when he put on a crystal suit for the first time years ago. He felt like he had grown countless brand-new organs and that he had a separate body outside of his old one.
After a moment of dizziness, Li Yao felt like he had been split in half—he was standing on the ground and crouching inside the biochemical slot simultaneously.
He had the same feeling when he was steering Neltharion. Therefore, he quickly came back to himself.
Li Yao keenly sensed that some of his memories were sent to the brain of the training beast, pulled by a subtle attraction force through the invisible mental connection.
The pulling was quite delicate and only took a few snapshots of his memory pieces.
Besides, in order to control the biochemical beast, he had been sending information to the brain of the beast incessantly in the first place. The normal demons would not notice that additional information had been mixed into it at all.
Just as I expected, this is training as well as a test!
Li Yao was an expert in mental warfare, and he was adept at building and rendering illusions. Now that he already sensed the ill intentions of the training arrangers, he certainly would not transmit the pictures of his real memories but provided the made-up past that he had faked just now but was equally vivid.
As for his false life experience, he had discussed it many a time with Jin Xinyue on their journey to Void Turmoil City. Jin Xinyue, as a saintess of the Pantheon of Demons, wrote the script of his life in person. Every detail was flawless.
Shua!
While everybody was frowning and rubbing their temples hard, trying to establish a connection with the biochemical beasts through brainwaves, Li Yao had already manipulated the training beast to fly into the sky!
The number of the neurons of the training beast was devastatingly low. The difficulty to manipulate it was incomparable to the difficulty of steering Neltharion. For Li Yao, the trickiest part was not how to harness the training beast but how to make the training beast fly in a ‘clumsier’ way in order to cover his real ability!
Chapter 884: Classified Files of Bloody Claw ##
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
The training beast flew into midair staggeringly and drew circles like a clumsy bee. Every once in a while, it would fall down as if it had forgotten how to flap the wings and did not move upwards again until it almost hit the ground.
Compared to the crystal suits, biochemical beasts are more responsive and offer far timelier feedback. They are more sensitive about the air current and temperature, too.
It is quite understandable. After all, the brain of the biochemical beasts is a simulation of the real brains of living creatures. Their computational ability might not be as good as that of crystal processors, but there is less hinderance when they are connected to the head of the user!
It would be excellent if such an advantage of the biochemical beasts could be applied to crystal suits.
Few people were more frantic about crystal suits than Li Yao both in the Heaven’s Origin Sector and in the Flying Star Sector. Right now, he had reached a bottleneck in the development of crystal suits. It seemed difficult to improve the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit significantly in the technological level. But now that he had gotten in touch with biochemical beasts that were as powerful as crystal suits, he could not help but wonder whether or not he could transplant some of the advantages of biochemical beasts into crystal suits.
While he was deep in thought, he let loose the control over the training beast without him knowing. The training beast was faster and faster, and the circles that it drew turned more and more elegant while it was manipulated by his subconsciousness.
When he came back to himself, the training beast had just completed more than thirty rounds in midair and performed a backflip with an extremely small diameter. The air currents that were spreading out could still be vaguely seen.
The three tutors and all the newcomers looked at him in astonishment.
Li Yao blinked and looked back at them peacefully.
…
After the first day of special training was over, deep inside the training camp, the three tutors were reading the memory pictures stored inside the information bugs one by one.
Yuchi Ba was sitting in the shadows behind them, browsing through a pile of files in deep thought.
“There’s indeed something wrong with these two guys!”
Very soon, a few unusual memory pieces attracted the attention of the tutors. Electric Boa, the leopard demon, was more than infuriated and declared brutally, “I’m going to kill them right now!”
“Wait.” Yuchi Ba gestured at them. “Let’s just wait and watch for now. Don’t alarm them.
“After all, there is no way that they can send any messages from this place. Just leave them aside and keep them on our grid.
“What I’m more interested in is—”
Yuchi Ba snapped the files in his hands softly and asked, “Who is this ‘Bloody Claw’ exactly? He has left quite a deep impression on me.”
“He is indeed the most distinguished one among this batch of newcomers, which can be seen from the previous five games that he participated in,” Electric Boa replied. “He was prudent but never hesitated to take action. He must have been an excellent hunter. Besides, he showed familiarity with biochemical beasts, and his grasp rate of the first session with a biochemical beast was already above 90%!”
Yuchi Ba nodded, deep in thought, while he scratched the enormous horn at the center of his face with his short, thick fingers.
Venomous Liquid, the fat tutor, grinned and said, “Such a guy is either a real genius or a schemer that has been lurking deeply. However, we ran a thorough investigation on him and did not find any traces that are worth mentioning. Just now, the training beast stole a lot of pictures from his memory, too. They were all scenes of hunting in the wilderness. The details correspond with his background.
“Besides, we’ve been observing his sister in secret and found no anomalies, either.”
Shadow Blade, the tutor who had four blade limbs, said, “More importantly, we put him under the strictest scrutiny during the five games he participated in and his daily training. His every second of training and fighting was slowed down and carefully examined.
“The Death Teeth Guards as well as the training experts and the kinematics specialists in our organization all agree that Bloody Claw has never been in touch with the battle techniques of the demon race at all. In the beginning, he did not even know the most rudimental moves and merely fought with his physical strength and the amazing natural instincts, which befit a hunter who made his living in the wilderness.
“If he were a spy sent by Elder Nether Spring or the Pantheon of Demons, he would have received the harshest training before and at least known the most fundamental battle techniques. However hard he pretended, it would have been difficult for him to escape our attention.
“But in fact, Bloody Claw was indeed ignorant in the beginning. It was after the multiple battles and crazy daily training that his capability soared rapidly!
“More importantly, after he took the activation drugs before the practice to manipulate the biochemical beast, there was indeed ‘minimal rejection reaction’ inside his body and his brain that could only be seen on the users who had never reined a biochemical beast before.
“If he had ridden a biochemical beast before, there certainly would not have been such a reaction.
“It is very unlikely that a spy trained by Elder Nether Spring or the Pantheon of Demons has never touched a biochemical beast before!
“Therefore, Bloody Claw’s identity should be fine.”
The three tutors came to the same conclusion.
“That’s good.” Yuchi Ba nodded in great satisfaction. “However, you should still watch him closely and run more tests on him. Let’s see how far this Bloody Claw can go!”
…
Classified files of the Blade of Chaos. ‘Torrent’-level secret.
File ID 93455, Bloody Claw’s Profile Item No.017.
Recorder: Hidden Blade.
“Bloody Claw’s talent with biochemical beasts astonished everybody. After only one afternoon and one night, his proficiency rate on the training beast was already above 99%, which allowed him to perform all kinds of dangerous movements with the training beast.
“We arranged a standard thirteen-movement test for him. He completed the test with the training beast in a shocking 17 seconds. Most of the students cannot achieve the same result after half a month of training.
“According to Bloody Claw’s own words, he seemed to see white lights flashing in front of his eyes and smell the scent of dry leaves being burnt. Then, his self-awareness extended to the body of the biochemical beast as if he were the biochemical beast itself.
“Such a phenomenon has been recorded in the history of the organization before, too. The demons who had similar experiences were mostly genius in the manipulation of biochemical beasts!
“Blood Claw also said that he has occasionally suffered from migraines ever since he was little. The pain was weird and dull and pierced outwards instead inwards, as if a volcano inside his head was going to erupt at some point.
“According to the analysis of the experts in the organization, such a symptom was probably due to the lesions of certain brain tissues inside head. Those brain tissues pressed the nerves and triggered the exceptional mental power. Meanwhile, the expansion of the nidus made the intracranial pressure too huge for him to stand.
“It also explained his abilities in anticipating danger and choosing the most appropriate tactics in the area that seemed as easy as breathing for him.
“The connection to the biochemical beasts was like digging a hole in his skull and helped him release some of the redundant pressure.
“However, the brain is the most mysterious body part of every living creature. It is difficult to prove the point without destructive dissection.
“For now, it is suggested that he move on to the special training of the next phase and learn to ride a real biochemical beast.”
…
Classified files of the Blade of Chaos. ‘Universe’-level secret.
ID 93455, Bloody Claw’s Profile Item No.019.
Recorder: Venomous Liquid.
“Bloody Claw in indeed an unbelievable genius!
“After only a few days of training, he is already able to manipulate Blood Fire Mad Bears!
“Blood Fire Mad Bears are heavy biochemical beasts weighing more than thirty tons. Not only are they extremely difficult to ride, the process is also a major blow for the brain of the user.
“Generally speaking, only the demons with the bloodlines of bears are able to ride the biochemical beasts that share the same origin as themselves.
“However, Bloody Claw has successfully completed the training subject where he was asked to change directions a hundred and three times randomly within one minute. Although the test was not smooth enough, he did not show any sign of discomfort at all!
“In the meantime, he seemed not entirely satisfied with the Blood Fire Furious Bear and meant to challenge the biochemical beasts of a higher level. What a terrible guy.
“It seems necessary now to test the guy on a much deeper level.
“For some reason, whenever I see this guy, especially his eyes that are in different colors, I always feel that my heart palpates violently.
“I have never felt as alarmed even when I was faced with Master Yuchi!”
…
Classified files of the Blade of Chaos. ‘Mystery’-level secret.
ID 93455, Bloody Claw’s Profile Item No.022.
Recorder: Dry Wood.
“Today, I was responsible for a deep hypnotization test on Bloody Claw.
“He showed certain resistance at the beginning of the hypnotization. But very soon, he accepted the hypnotization and opened his entire brain.
“No anomaly has been detected in the queries made while Bloody Claw was hypnotized. All the details corresponded with the pictures of his memory. The examination inside his brain gave no abnormal result, either. It was only discovered that there was a mutation zone where veins were highly concentrated on his left prefrontal cortex.
“The area explained his migraines and the source of his unbelievable mental power.
“Genetic mutations are very common for chaotic-blood demons. The brain is too mysterious a part to undergo any deeper studies right now.
“The conclusion of the hypnotization session is that Bloody Claw is either a chaotic-blood demon who has grasped unusual talents because of genetic and brain mutations or an expert in the demon emperor level who can resist my hypnotization without me knowing!”
…
Classified files of the Blade of Chaos. ‘Mystery’-level secret.
ID 93455, Bloody Claw’s Profile Item No.027.
Recorder: Electric Boa.
“Today is the 27th day since the special training began. Bloody Claw has become an expert in riding biochemical beasts.
“Today, he rode a ‘Great Fire Iron Lion’ and neatly defeated a ‘Purple Electric Flying Rings Serpent’ that was of a higher level and reined by ‘Feng Tianhua’, the strongest student in the training camp. He was a seasoned expert that was dispatched to us from another department!
“It is too wasteful to assign Bloody Claw to simple way-finding or fighting tasks. He might have the ability to play a more important role in the mission to explore the Mausoleum of Chaos!
“I suggest that he be upgraded into the central operation groups!”
Chapter 885: Perfect Weapon ##
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
BOOM! BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
In a training field made of the best steel, a giant beast more than twenty meters long was training alone. It looked like a lion, only multiple times larger, with bright-red, solid scales all over its body. The four claws of the beast had the same feature of a certain kind of eagle and would leave deep traces on the ground after only a casual snatch.
The tail of the beast was as strong as that of a crocodile. Earsplitting rubbing noises could be heard even when it was simply sliding on the ground.
The most eye-catching part about the beast was not the broad and sharp wings on its back but the three heads that craned out of the thick neck, as if three enormous serpents of different colors had been transplanted on the griffin by force.
The three serpent heads were full of thorns and spurs, which made them look like the most intimidating hammers. Six eyes that were glaring brutally would absorb all the rays of light even at noon, giving everybody the helpless feeling that they was in the middle of a dark night.
Because of the high-speed rubbing of the muscles and the scales, powerful currents of different attributes had been generated around the three heads, triggering the effects of fire, frost, and lightning.
Shua!
The object that ended up being the toy of the giant beast was an ‘electricity’-level crystal tank of the Star Glory Federation that the Blade of Chaos had captured at some point.
Although the crystal tanks of such a level was not famous for their weight and the hardness of their plates, it was still a huge object weighing dozens of tons. However, to the three-headed griffin, it was like a match box in the hands of a wicked kid. The beast lowered its head and pecked while snatching the tank with its sharp claws. Then, the plate armor on the surface of the crystal tank exploded after a series of cracks, revealing the cabins that were empty.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The three heads of the griffin, which looked like giant serpents, spurted light balls of different attributes into the ‘wound’ of the crystal ball, which was wreathed in a cluster of furious flames at first. It was frozen into an icy block and eventually ripped apart in thousands of spluttering electric arcs, turning into remains no larger than fists and scattered on the ground.
The entire process took less than ten seconds.
“Hoooo! Hoooo! Hoooo!”
The three-headed griffin was not satisfied yet. Crimson brilliance emanated from the body of the beast while its heads were straightened and shrieked toward the sky.
Centered at the three-headed griffin, invisible ripples were spreading out at a high speed. Even the audience standing a hundred meters away could not help but close their eyes because of the blowing wind.
Then—
After the four claws of the three-headed griffin left twelve deep traces on the ground, it fully opened its wings. The ends of its feathers were as red as blood, as if it had been embedded with a circle of glittering flames.
The beast soared high into the sky in an earsplitting noise and made a series of shocking, random movements before it descended vertically like a shooting star. Flames in the shape of a bowl were formed in front of the beast, and it did not stop rushing down until it was only half a meter from the ground. In the end, the beast dashed forward straightforwardly!
The scales of the three-headed griffin rubbed the air hard because of the high speed, raising dazzling electric arcs and flames, leaving a burning trace on the ground where it passed by!
A few days ago, such an appalling performance had still been astonishing for a lot of audience. Some of them who thought that they were as good even went up as challengers.
But today, all the bystanders were already numb. Judging from their expressions, they would not feel surprised at all even if the three-headed griffin left a hole in the sky.
Hu!
Li Yao slowly stood straight on the natural dent on the back of the three-headed griffin and exhaled somewhat in dissatisfaction.
Biochemical beasts at the level of the three-headed griffin were already the limits for his faked identity.
The biochemical beasts of a higher level, such as the lightning serpent that Electric Boa rode, could not be manipulated easily however talented he was.
The combat ability of the three-headed griffin is reasonably good, but its body is too weak and cannot accommodate all my mental power!
Li Yao inwardly frowned. Through the connection of the synthesized nerves, he could clearly sense every vibration in the internal organs of the three-headed griffin.
The series of movements in the air had made it pant heavily. Every muscle and organ was bordering on over-exhaustion. If he had accelerated to a higher speed, chances were that it would have been killed immediately.
However, Li Yao had only outputted 15% of his mental power!
He felt like he was a muscular warrior with infinite physical strength, and yet he was given a soft branch as his weapon. If he played with the weapon in too demanding a way, the soft branch might break apart all of a sudden.
The lack of gratification could not have made Li Yao more annoyed.
He craved to ride a biochemical beast that was far stronger!
Over the past month, other than the occasional deep sleep, Li Yao had spent almost every day and night in the training field, getting to know various kinds of biochemical beasts. He had a profound understanding of the ultimate weapon of the demon race right now.
Biochemical beasts were not pure living creatures but actually made for tactical purposes with consideration of features of multiple types of demon beasts through the combination of one cell after another.
Generally speaking, a biochemical beast was controlled by a biochemical brain, which was similar to the crystal processor of human beings in that they boasted equally high computational ability but lacked independent self-awareness and intelligence.
Therefore, without a rider, a biochemical beast was nothing more than a piece of special ‘meat’. If they were preserved in special nutrition liquids, they could be stored for thousands of years of times without rotting.
Compared to crystal suits, biochemical beasts had obvious advantages and disadvantages.
Since they were made of flesh and blood, except for the few most advanced biochemical beasts, the hardness of most biochemical beasts was certainly not as good as that of crystal suits, which were usually made of super alloys.
On the other hand, since the biochemical beasts were connected and manipulated through synthesized nerves, it was much easier to control them than crystal suits. As long as the rider gritted through the discomfort at the beginning of their training session, they would be able to sense the biochemical beast as their ‘clone’ very quickly and use the biochemical nimbly as if it were one of their body parts.
Putting Li Yao aside, even Mo Tiesheng and the other gladiators have grasped how to manipulate one to two kinds of biochemical beasts after only one month.
Such a speed was apparently much higher than the warriors of human beings when they learned how to control a crystal suit.
More importantly, the synthesized nerves could send telepathic thoughts and instructions to the nerve endings of the biochemical beast at a much higher speed than the spiritual energy circuits could.
It meant that biochemical beasts could be much larger than crystal suits. Biochemical beasts that were thirty meters tall and weighed dozens of tons were not unusual at all.
It must be noted that, after the Cultivators developed crystal suits that could be worn as clothes, they once had the amazing idea of building crystal suits into a much larger size, say, ten meters, twenty meters, or even a hundred meters tall.
A larger size meant a larger arsenal, a more powerful crystal reactor and corresponding power rune arrays, and a higher control of the battlefield.
For ten thousand years, countless crazy masters of crystal suits dreamed of crafting enormous crystal suits more than ten meters tall.
However, they were all doomed to the abyss of failure like moths darting to a fire.
Besides the restrictions such as the hardness of metal and the complexity of internal designs, the greatest hinderance was that such an enormous crystal suit could only be manipulated in an extremely awkward way.
The crystal suits that were worn close to the body were the equivalent an armor. It was very convenient to make use of them.
However, for the enormous crystal suits that were more than ten meters tall, the wearer could only crouch in a certain cabin, and it was difficult for their hands and feet to manipulate the hands and feet of the enormous crystal suit.
If their instructions were transmitted to the limbs of the crystal suit through the circuits of spiritual energy, the speed of transmission and feedback would be too slow, and there would be a huge amount of loss of information during intense combat.
The final result was that such an enormous crystal suit would be as clumsy as certain dinosaurs in the primeval era—not knowing that their tails had been cut off until a few seconds later when the signal passed through their brain.
Such maladroit crystal suits might be appropriate to serve as giant idols in movies and theaters, but they were not suitable for a real-life combat on the battlefield.
In reality, the biggest crystal suit that Cultivators could make use of was perhaps the Ares Extensions that were no taller than five meters.
However, after he had first-hand experience with the biochemical beasts, an interesting thought suddenly occurred to Li Yao.
The advantages of the crystal suits are that their materials are harder and more tensile, their components are readily replaceable, and it is very convenient to transport and store them.
One advantage of the biochemical beasts is that they are easy to learn. Once the learner gets the hang of it, no complicated instructions are required. All they need to do is fight with their natural instincts and regard the biochemical beast as their ‘clone’. Also, since the information is transmitted through the special nerves, their body size could be dozens of times larger than a crystal suit!
What if I combine the advantages of the two ultimate weapons?
For example, I will build an enormous crystal suit twenty to thirty meters tall. It has bones made of super alloys and a crystal reactor inside. But outside of the bones and the crystal reactor will be super cells that are made with the genetic technology. The cells will then proliferate and eventually condense into strong muscles resembling the flesh of demon beasts!
Outside such monster-like flesh, powerful plate armor and weapons will be installed. Even the main guns of the crystal warships will be able to be installed on the shoulders of such an ultimate weapon!
In the brain and at the end of the spine, a dual processing system that adopts both the crystal processor and the biochemical brain will be installed. As for the transmission of telepathic thoughts, the synthesized neural network will mainly be responsible for the task to minimize the lag!
If such a perfect ultimate weapon can be successfully invented, it will certainly be much stronger than any of the crystal suits or the biochemical beasts right now!
Li Yao was fascinated.
Over the past few days, the mental devil had not stopped tempting him to build an apocalypse body just like Yan Xibei did.
Naturally, Li Yao would not agree easily. However, in the war against the Imperium of True Human Beings, the Star Glory Federation was indeed in need of a groundbreaking weapon.
Such an idea might be worth a try!
Li Yao took a deep breath and calmed himself down because he saw Electric Boa and the other two tutors walking to him.
Two days later, they would set off to explore the Mausoleum of Chaos. Electric Boa had said earlier that a new mission would be assigned to him. What could it be exactly?
Chapter 886: Are You Ready, World? ##
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Led by the three tutors, Li Yao walked into a silver, gas-filled greenhouse deep inside the training camp.
Looking from afar, the greenhouse looked like a giant egg that was embedded in the ground.
The three tutors formed a triangle and surrounded Li Yao in the middle. Venomous Liquid, the fat one, grinned and said, “Your performance over the past month has been too marvelous. It would be wasteful to keep you in the vanguard team. Therefore, a new mission will be assigned to you.”
While talking, the four of them reached the giant silver egg.
A metal gate was slowly opened after the dull sound of air being ejected.
Venomous Liquid was the first to go it, but the other two tutors simply waited behind Li Yao.
Li Yao blinked and went into the silver enormous egg, too, following Venomous Liquid. The chilly air inside the place made his eyelids twitch crazily. Then, something unstoppable came at him rapidly!
“You’ve been seen through!”
With an earsplitting shriek, a venomous sting went directly at Li Yao’s left eye. Venomous Liquid, who was shaking his fat ass in the front just now, suddenly bounced back like a football while the pores all over his body were spurting out a storm of stinky fluids!
In the meantime, behind Li Yao, Electric Boa and Hidden Blade launched their attacks at the same time!
Electric Boa spread to Li Yao’s leg quietly like a pool of mercury.
The four limbs of Hidden Blade, on the other hand, phantomized into more than a hundred streaks of brightness and entirely covered Li Yao’s head!
At the perilous moment, Li Yao roared. The soft armor on his body that looked like his second skin was suddenly taken off, taking the blow of most of the venomous liquids coming at his face, while he followed the soft armor and marched forward, kicking the belly of the fat tutor without worrying about the venomous liquids that were splashing onto his body!
Although the tutor seemed obese, the fat covering the surface of his body boasted a unique hydromantic defense system. He was not hurt by the kick at all.
However, Li Yao’s purpose was not to kill Venomous Liquid but to make use of the counterforce of his fat abdomen. He jerked backwards abruptly, and his body was like dry leaf as it narrowly passed through Electric Boa’s grip and Hidden Blade’s mincing!
The gate of the place had not been closed yet. Li Yao crouched on the ground and exerted his strength, as if he was preparing for a sprint.
All the three tutors were thinking that he was going to find a way out, and they all took action to move to the gate in order to block him. However, Li Yao’s body abruptly turned toward the depths of the silver giant egg, violating the law of physics!
Nobody foresaw such a change. Venomous Liquid’s complex eyes were widely opened as he spat out a mouthful of yellow and brown mucus, which brushed past the back of Li Yao’s head and corroded the frame of the gate to the extent that it was screeching!
Li Yao leapt forward and dashed further into the silver giant egg quickly. He did not stop until he hit a high and magnificent wall.
Yuchi Ba, owner of the Skeleton Island, blocked the entire pathway and observed him in great interest.
Li Yao put his hands on the two sides of his body, neither fighting nor fleeing. He simply stared back at Yuchi Ba.
The three tutors finally caught up with them.
Yuchi Ba smiled. “Why didn’t you attack?”
“It’s just a test,” Li Yao replied calmly. “There’s no need to attack the master of the place. Besides, I’m no match for you at all. Therefore, I might as well save my strength for the possible new changes.”
“Oh?” Yuchi Ba raised his eyebrow. “Why do you say that it is just a test?”
“If it weren’t a test,” Li Yao said, “you wouldn’t have needed to say things such as ‘you’ve been seen through’; you could’ve just killed me when I was not prepared.”
Venomous Liquid and Electric Boa looked at each other in bewilderment, both somewhat embarrassed.
Yuchi Ba continued. “Why did you rush into the building instead of running out? Were you not scared that there were more ambushes inside?”
“It’s a vast training camp outside where hundreds of warriors are training,” Li Yao replied. “With a shout of the tutors, all the warriors would have come and surrounded me. I wouldn’t have been able to get away even if I could fly.
“Although I was not aware whether or not there were other ambushes, the situation inside couldn’t have been worse than outside!”
Yuchi Ba burst into laughter and patted Li Yao’s shoulder heavily. “Excellent. You are indeed a talent that I need.
“Bloody Claw, do you know which part of you has attracted me most over your months of stay on the Skeleton Island?
“Not your crazy training that borders on self-torturing, not your capability that soared like a tide, not the intuitional manipulation over the biochemical beasts, but your ability to comprehend a battlefield!
“You are always smart and calm enough to pick the best choice among thousands of complicated options in a perilous and ever-changing battlefield!
“In terms of capability, you are no match for Venomous Liquid, Hidden Blade, or Electric Boa, but your calmness and your ability to make judgements make you a better fit for the mission to be introduced.
“Come with me!”
Yuchi Ba led the way. The silver greenhouse turned out to be a research center that was dedicated to the study of the Mausoleum of Chaos. At the center of the building was a pool that was filled with black water.
The black water was as thick as oil, but because of the attraction of a mysterious force, tides were surging inside the pool, and terrible swirls were revolving rapidly.
Although the pool was not large, to Li Yao, it was as intimidating as a thunderstorm.
Around the pool was a circle of research rooms. Li Yao observed through the hardened glass and noticed a number of specialists in white robes or silver, fully-enclosed protective suits, who were doing their research wholeheartedly.
“The exploration of the Mausoleum of Chaos requires a lot of fearless of warriors,” Yuchi Ba said. “However, the physically strong yet simple-minded warriors could never have found out the real value of the Mausoleum of Chaos!
“Therefore, in the exploration team to be sent, there will be a core squad made of quite a few specialists, including those who have been focusing on paleobiology and genetics and those who have expertise in architecture, geology, and even oceanology. Should they find anything of value inside the Mausoleum of Chaos, they will even conduct their research on the spot.
“The specialists are naturally among the best in their respective field, but they are mostly weak and unused to high-intensity adventure and fighting.
“Therefore, we have established a team of strong guardians for the core squad.
“I want you to join the squad and protect two of the specialists closely.”
Yuchi Ba led Li Yao to one of the research rooms.
What greeted them was the pungent smell of soil and ink.
Li Yao’s nose slightly trembled. He distinguished the scent of the Gold Colorful Ink and the Candle Heart Grass from the smell of the ink.
The ink that boasted such constituents was mostly ancient ink from forty thousand years ago.
Ragged books and ancient classics were piled up everywhere inside the research room. Large stone plates were placed next to the books, too. Sophisticated ancient spiritual stripes were zigzagging on the stone plates, indicating that they were all made thirty to fifty thousand years ago.
Walking into the room, Li Yao felt as if he had travelled through time.
But for Li Yao, he had a familiar feeling as if he had come home. He almost could not stop himself from grabbing an ancient book and smelling the scent of its pages.
Two figures, one old and the other young, buried themselves in the ancient books. Even after Yuchi Ba coughed several times, the two of them showed absolutely no response and simply continued their work.
Yuchi Ba seemed to be accustomed to their indifference and introduced them to Li Yao without being offended at all.
“Master Chu Zhengqing is the most respected historian and archeologist of the Blood Demon Sector.
“His daughter, Chu Feiyin, is also a scholar in such fields and has made distinguished accomplishments.
“The main study fields of the two great masters are the traps, rune arrays, and spiritual stripes of forty thousand years ago.
“Before they were invited to join the team to explore the Mausoleum of Chaos, the two grand masters were supervising the Chaos Research Center in Bone Sand City at the invitation of Elder Nether Spring.
“This means that the two masters are the best specialists in the knowledge about Chaos!”
Li Yao blinked and soon figured out the reason.
Elder Nether Spring had been interested in the Mausoleum of Chaos for a long time. Therefore, he had gathered a bunch of specialists and established a secret research facility in Bone Sand City, hoping to crack the secrets of Chaos.
The two Chus were the supervisors of Elder Nether Spring’s research center!
The Blade of Chaos had initiated ‘Riot of Bloody Blade’ and taken over Bone Sand City, but their real purpose had actually been Elder Nether Spring’s research center. After the research center was occupied, the two masters had inevitably fallen into the hands of the Blade of Chaos.
In other words, they were actually the captives of the Blade of Chaos. No wonder they were so cold!
Yuchi Ba bowed to them slightly and said, “Master Chu, we will set off in one day. Are you ready?”
‘Master Chu’ finally sat straight and moved his eyes from the books.
The wrinkles all over his body that looked like dry rind made him appear to be more than five hundred years old, and his eyes were so dirty that others might have the illusion that he was blind. However, Li Yao captured the hint of contempt inside the dirty eyes.
“Master Yuchi, I would like to tell a story to you,” Chu Zhengqing said slowly, in a voice that sounded like it had been buried for decades. “Ten years ago, the Pantheon of Demons organization a large-scale exploration to a world fragment.
“The nature of the exploration was almost identical to the one you are planning right now. The target of both operations is an ancient tomb from forty thousand years ago.
“For the operation, the four demon kingdoms all sent out countless elites to form an enormous expedition team. Even the ultra-space launch system, Eye of Blood Demon, which allows the long-distance teleportation, was utilized.
“As it turns out, they were annihilated in the ancient tomb named ‘Boneyard’!
“Moreover, they almost set free Skeleton Dragon, an unparalleled ancient demon forty thousand years old, which would’ve been a world-blighting disaster.
“In the end, it was because of the self-sacrifice of a human named Li Yao that Skeleton Dragon was suppressed in the end. The Blood Demon Sector and the Heaven’s Origin Sector were spared from the swirl of destruction!
“However, if there are not major mistakes in my research, Skeleton Dragon was perhaps a weapon built by ‘Chaos’.
“A catastrophe was nearly caused when the tomb of Skeleton Dragon was opened, and right now, both Elder Nether Spring and the Blade of Chaos are trying to open the place where ‘Chaos’ is sleeping when you know absolutely none of the details?
“Hehe. It doesn’t matter whether I am ready or not.
“The more important question is, are you ready? Is the world ready to embrace the rebirth of Chaos?”
Chapter 887: To the Mausoleum of Chaos!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
When Yuchi Ba was faced with the chilling question, frenzy and determination beamed out of his small eyes. He opened his arms and declared, “Of course. We’ve waited for the day to come for forty thousand years. We are all ready to bathe in the radiance of God Chaos again!”
The interconnecting wrinkles on Chu Zhengqing’s face did not shiver at all, like the crevices on a rock. He said calmly, “There’s no need to decorate your operation with such a glitzy camouflage. In fact, you and Elder Nether Spring are ravens and crows, and the only things that you are interested in are the powerful weapons left by Chaos. As to what Chaos is exactly, and whether or not he will be reborn, you don’t give a damn thing!
“Or rather, if you have access to the strength of Chaos, neither you nor Elder Nether Spring really hope for the so-called ‘Chaos’ to be reborn into this world again, do you?”
Yuchi Ba smiled. “Of course, we are different from Elder Nether Spring.
“If Elder Nether Spring receives the legacy of Chaos, he will only enslave the demons of lower levels in an even more rigorous way and eventually build a world of terror where he is the master!
“However, after we get the legacy of Chaos, we will break the shackles that have locked the low-level demons for tens of thousands of years and create a new world where all demons are equal!
“How on earth are we and Elder Nether Spring the same?”
Chu Zhengqing grunted but stopped talking.
If Chu Zhengqing was still restraining his emotions and ideas, Chu Feiyin had written her disdain all over her face.
She had a pair of enormous eyes that took up more than half of her face, and her eyeballs were covered with thin transparent membranes that were emitting glamorous colors in the light.
“Master Yuchi, the Blade of Chaos worships ‘Chaos’ as a god.” Chu Feiyin’s voice was low and dull, as if it were uttered from her chest. “However, in the eyes of us historians, the gods of human beings and demons have one thing in common. Would you like to know what it is?”
“I’m all ears,” Yuchi Ba replied.
“Temperamental.”
Yuchi Ba was dazed for a moment. He turned around and said to Li Yao, “As you can see, the two masters are the key to our operation, and they have a unique understanding about the study of Chaos. After we arrive at the Mausoleum of Chaos, it will be your mission to protect the two masters closely.
“Of course, such an important mission will not be shouldered by you alone. You will only need to increase your intuitions and senses to your best and react according to your instincts.
“Now, try to familiarize yourself with the two masters here. If they have any requirements, tell the servants outside and see that they are met.”
Yuchi Ba turned around and left, leaving Li Yao and the two specialists in the research room.
Li Yao eyed the collections around him with great interest. He noticed that most of the items could be traced back to between thirty-five thousand years and forty thousand years ago.
This period of history was not involved in Ou Yezi’s memory pieces. It was also a time of violence when humanity declined and the demon race rose.
The demon race, which had only just emerged, were like barbarians who conquered a central civilization by brute force. Although they defeated the central civilization in the battles, they were conquered by the vastness and depths of the central civilization and even accepted all the legacy of the central civilization in the end.
Therefore, in the beginning years of the demon race, their language, culture, regulations, training system, and even the methods to build residences and palaces, were identical to the ancient Cultivators.
In fact, today, after forty thousand years, compared to the civilization of mankind, which had been completely modernized, it was the civilization of demons that kept more traces of the ancient Cultivators.
Compared to modern human beings, the demons were the real vintage ones.
Li Yao was greatly interested by the relics.
He did not dare to browse the mottled ancient books recklessly and turned his attention to the stone plates.
The stone plates appeared to be funerary objects from the tomb of a certain expert at the early years of the Demon Beast Empire. The pictures were concise and yet vivid, depicting the lifelong achievements of the expert.
For other people, the spiritual stripes where words the size of the head of a fly were crammed were nothing more than mumbo-jumbo. But for Li Yao, they were the simple inflections of the language of the ancient Cultivators. He focused his attention and soon analyzed through the whole story.
Judging from the intermittent content on the stone plates, the expert should have been born after mankind was suppressed. The greatest achievement of his life seemed to be fighting against Chaos, or the army of Chaos, and eventually banishing Chaos to the edge of the sea of stars.
On the stone plates, the image of Chaos was a fat, round meatball with tentacles all over the body. Among the tentacles were dense eyes.
Dotted lines had been drawn to represent the rays beaming out of the eyes, indicating that the eyes of Chaos might have boasted incredible magic.
However, what most concerned Li Yao was a pattern that looked like the sun next to the image of Chaos.
Li Yao was very clear about the symbolic meaning of such a pattern in funerary objects.
It was an indicator that the ancient people used to describe the size of an object. The pattern was denoting that Chaos was as enormous as the sun!
It did not necessarily refer to the real body size of Chaos, but it at least meant that Chaos had strength equal to a star!
Li Yao’s deep thought attracted Chu Zhengqing and his daughter’s attention.
They had thought that Yuchi Ba would send a brawny barbarian to protect them. The guy here was brawny enough, but his thoughtful eyes seemed to indicate that he had understood the ancient pictures on the stone plates?
How could that be?
The father and the daughter looked at each other but did not talk. They buried themselves in the ancient books that were as boundless as an ocean, devoting themselves to the secrets of Chaos once more.
…
Two days later, in a secret launch base below the ocean next to the Skeleton Island, Li Yao was looking up at the dome that was carved out of enormous crystals. Billions of tons of seawater was pressing the dome, and countless bizarre-looking fish were swimming around it, giving him the feeling that he was actually inside an undersea palace.
Docked at the center of the launch base was a ‘Seven-Star Dragon’-level sky-hunting warship.
The skeleton warships of such a level was similar to the destroyers of human beings in size and usage. They were built with the skeletons of enormous sea beasts as the framework, which was then covered by solid flesh and blood, made possible through genetic technology. The germs would dissolve the crystals in the four highly-heated chambers, and the warship would spurt out the scorching gas in order to receive impetus.
Other than that, it was also installed with two groups of power rune arrays that were imitations of the products in the Star Glory Federation. Therefore, the warship could be pushed forward in two ways.
Since they were easy to steer and could fly below the ocean, on the surface of the ocean, in the sky, or even out of the atmosphere briefly, the sky-hunting warship of such a model was favored by a lot of forces of the Blood Demon Sector. The relatively more powerful arenas and slave-catching teams would often buy one or two.
Hundreds of members of the Blade of Chaos were moving the assets, especially the enormous biochemical storage slots in which hundreds of biochemical beasts were soaked and hibernating, onto the sky-hunting warship.
Such biochemical beasts could not be stored inside Cosmos Rings. They easily took up more than half of the space on the sky-hunting warship.
Li Yao was wearing a black suit that was so thin that it felt almost nonexistent. It covered his body like a layer of membrane, highlighting the lines of his muscles and making him look spectacular.
Such a combat suit was also the ultimate product of the biochemical technology of the Blood Demon Sector. It was made by integrating the essence of the skin and scales of dozens of types of demon beasts. Thin as it might have seemed, it boasted a defense ability close to that of the crocodile skin, and it could repair itself when it was ripped open.
It was safe to say that such a cell infiltration suit was even better than the mustard-seed suit of human beings in terms of certain specifications.
“All aboard!”
Yuchi Ba was wearing a cell infiltration suit, too. The black membrane was quite extensible and could adapt to the different sizes of demons. It would not be broken even if it was enlarged to more than ten times its original size and could still maintain more than 95% of the performance.
Yuchi Ba could not have been more delighted. His face red in excitement, and he waved his hands so heavily that he seemed to be slashing the ocean apart.
Li Yao observed calmly. The exploration team behind Yuchi Ba was clearly divided into two parts. One of the two parts was made of warriors, who were all the most loyal believers of Chaos. Right now, since they were about to set off to the sanctuary in their mind for exploration, everybody was wearing the standard frantic expression of the fanatics on their face.
The other part consisted of researchers.
Compared to the simple-minded zealots, the researchers were solemn, but most of them were still very confident, with ambition and eagerness beaming out of their eyes.
His eyes glancing over every warrior and researcher, Li Yao thought of something and began to ponder a question that had been bothering him.
According to his observation over the past month, Yuchi Ba was a high-level demon king at best and certainly not a demon emperor.
The warriors of the Blade of Chaos were weaker than him. Including all the Death Teeth Guards, none of them were beyond the demon king level.
Were there no tougher experts in the Blade of Chaos?
Besides—
Before he came to Void Turmoil City, the opponent that Li Yao paid the most attention to was the Fire Ant King, who was master of Void Turmoil City and a blood brother to Elder Nether Spring. However, over the past two months, the master of Void Turmoil City had never visited the Skeleton Island.
Yuchi Ba had been doing so many things right below his nose, and the Fire Ant King did not know anything about it? It did not seem to befit the ability of a demon emperor.
Full of questions, Li Yao boarded on the sky-hunting warship. As a guardian for the core squad, he was allowed to stay in the same room with Yuchi Ba, Chu Zhengqing, and other important individuals.
Even so, in order to bring more assets, the cabin they were in was extremely narrow, too.
Chi—
After all the members got on board, a huge amount of bright yellow, oily liquids suddenly spurted out of the holes on the ceiling of the cabin, which soon drowned their bodies and filled the entire cabin!
It was buffer liquid. Similar to the buffer foam of human beings, it was meant to minimize the blast during high-speed flights.
The first layer of the dome above the sky-hunting warship was opened, and they slowly ascended into the space between the two layers of the dome. Then, the first layer of the dome was closed below them. Seawater was poured in. When the internal pressure and external pressure were the same, the second layer of the dome glided open.
The warship dashed to the depths of the immeasurable ocean toward the Mausoleum of Chaos like a slender whale!
Chapter 888: White Silver Death Desert, the Sea That Swallows Stars! ##
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Endless secrets were buried inside the boundless ocean. Even the ‘Sea Clan’, who claimed to be dominators of the ocean, could only live in the offshore area near the continental shelf where the resources were abundant.
After diving in the deep sea for an entire day, making sure that nobody was following them, the sky-hunting warship finally leapt out of the ocean and flew at a high speed close to the surface of the ocean!
Half a day later, they reached the ‘White Silver Continent’, which was the smallest, the most barren, and the least populated of the three continents of the Blood Demon Sector.
Inside the cabin that was filled with buffer liquids, an extendable synthesized nerve had been planted on the cabin wall behind every passenger. Through the interface at the back of the cell infiltration suit, it was very convenient to connect the passenger’s brain to the entire skeleton warship and form an enormous command and battle network.
On the surface of the skeleton warship, dozens of enormous biochemical observation eyes were growing. Such biochemical eyes, which were made with the eyeballs of the deep-sea squid as prototypes and had received all kinds of genetic optimization and refinement, were among the most precise observation equipment both in the Heaven’s Origin Sector and in the Blood Demon Sector. On every square millimeter of the retina, there were more than a million visual cones that could perceive the light, making the sensitivity of the eye hundreds of times more than that of an ordinary human being and allowing them to clearly see the undersea environment hundreds of meters below the surface despite the darkness.
When the passengers connected to the skeleton warship, they would be able to share the vision of all the biochemical eyes and enjoy the splendid view of nature.
The White Silver Continent deserved its name. If one looked at the horizon, it was indeed a magnificent world built with silver.
After a flight of more than two hours, they did not even see a plant, much less a demon beast. As far as one’s eyes could reach, dull and boring sand was everywhere.
The seemingly spectacular environment was in fact full of perils.
Because of the climate and the magnetic field, the entire White Silver Planet was made of a special type of sand named ‘White Sulphur Sand’. It was a continent of deserts, also known as the ‘White Silver Death Desert’.
The White Sulphur Sand’s surface was extremely smooth. It was even softer and greasier than mercury. The tiniest breeze was enough to blow it into the most terrifying quicksand.
On the continent, the natural environment was changing almost every second and every minute. There was not a stable appearance at all. Any creature that touched the White Sulphur Sand would be deeply mired in it and drowned within several minutes.
On the other hand, the White Sulphur Sand was extremely reflective and could return almost all the sunlight. As a result, not only was it impossible for the White Silver Death Desert to accumulate any energy, it was also radiated by the sun without the slightest shadow every minute during the day. It was truly a death zone.
No creature could survive in the White Silver Death Desert. Even the demons whose bodies were tough and who were adaptive to various kinds of environments considered the White Silver Death Desert a hot and silent graveyard.
After hundreds of years of prospecting, no important resources were discovered on the White Silver Continent. The only thing that could be found in this place was sand and more sand.
Therefore, the Pantheon of Demons would rather risk developing new world fragments than wasting precious resources in the bottomless hole.
On the horizon, a black spot gradually appeared. On the contrary to the White Silver Death Desert, it was like a two-dimensional blackhole that absorbed all the rays of sunlight.
It was a great lake of the Blood Demon Sector—the Star Swallowing Sea!
Since the lake was named a ‘sea’, it was not hard to imagine how vast the inland lake was.
It was weird enough that an enormous lake should exist at the center of the desolate White Silver Death Desert, but there were more uncanny things about the Star Swallowing Sea.
The area around the Star Swallowing Sea, just like Void Turmoil City and the Dark Desolate Domain, boasted an independent small climate. Clouds might appear, raising thunder and lightning that would tear the sky and the earth apart, at any moment.
The lake water of the Sea Swallowing Sea, in the meantime, contained a lot of heavy metal constituents, which made the water as thick as oil and carry lethal poison.
The lake that contained heavy metal triggered the abnormal blast of the magnetic field, forming invisible turbulences above the Star Swallowing Sea that would disturb the brains of living creatures and make them lose their direction should they come close to the Sea Swallowing Sea. They would fall into the Sea Swallowing Sea and drown in the poisonous lake water.
That was how the Sea Swallowing Sea got its name. It was a terrifying lake that could even swallow the stars!
In the past, a number of specialists of the demon race were curious about the environment of the Sea Swallowing Sea and initiated large-scale surveying, but to no avail. During the one mission with the direst consequences, they even lost a dozen skeleton warships and thousands of warriors.
However hard the specialists probed, they did not find any valuable mother lodes, Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, or strong demon beasts around the Star Swallowing Sea. Even if the bottom of the Star Swallowing Sea really stored abundant mother lodes, with the technology of the demon race right now, the cost to develop them would be astronomical, and it was certainly not worthwhile.
Therefore, since decades ago, the White Silver Death Desert and the Star Swallowing Sea had been in the most primitive state without any inhabitants.
But right now, the sky-hunting warship of the Blade of Chaos had barged into the most dangerous water of the Blood Demon Sector.
It was not until he moved deeper into the Star Swallowing Sea that Li Yao began to understand why an inland lake could be called a ‘sea’!
Looking back through the biochemical eye on the surface of the skeleton warship, Li Yao discovered that the White Silver Death Desert was nothing but a shallow white line right now, and the boundless lake in front of him was as impressive as the ocean that they had passed through the day before.
The black lake seemed to have joined hands with the clouds in the sky. A bloody mouth seemed to have been opened slowly and was about to swallow them into a bottomless abyss.
BOOM!
BOOM! CRACK!
Bolts of lightning pierced at the Star Swallowing Sea from the sky like thousands of tusks inside the bloody moth. Every wave was like a mountain that rose high into the sky and could consume the tiny sky-hunting warship easily!
The sky-hunting warship was struggling to make its way forward under the assault of the lightning and the waves, as if it were rushing in a deep valley with the enormous tides as cliffs. Even Li Yao could feel cold sweat running down his back.
A while later, hundreds of scattered islands appeared in front of them.
Every island was no more than a hundred meters in diameter. They were bare and entirely lifeless, like fish that had extended their heads out of the swamp as they struggled to get out.
Chi!
Right then, deafening noises echoed outside. The waves inside the Star Swallowing Sea were more and more furious, and the tides grew higher and higher. Eventually, giant swirls formed on the surface of the lake, giving Li Yao the feeling that the lake water was leaking to the underground through the crevices at the bottom of the lake!
No. It was not his imagination but exactly what was happening!
The Star Swallowing Sea was indeed shrinking at a visible speed. The lake was lower and lower. The evidence would be the islands with only their top revealed just now!
A moment ago, only a few sharp ends were exposed above the surface of the lake. But right now, their real appearance was on display in the hollow of the swirls. They were actually giant mountains standing at the bottom of the lake!
The sky-hunting warship dived down and descended into the swirl below the surface of the lake.
The black water around them was like majestic walls thousands of feet high that could collapse toward them and bury them completely at any moment.
A few enormous cracks appeared on the abdomen part of the sky-hunting warship. Black, fusiform cocoons were tossed into the lake water.
Li Yao knew that they were biochemical beasts specially designed to explore the territory below the lake.
Yuchi Ba’s voice echoed near his ear through the neural network that covered the entire warship. “The most famous characteristic of the Star Swallowing Sea is that the water level changes in a fixed pattern on a daily basis. During the day, the lake will drop down, and at night, it will soar crazily. The lake seems to be… breathing!
“Nobody knew where the lake water was leaking to during the breaths of the lake.
“According to our specialists, who have analyzed the comprehensive files in various regards, it is very likely that the entrance to the Mausoleum of Chaos is somewhere in the mountains below the lake.
“Normally, the mountain is completely drowned by the Star Swallowing Sea and is hundreds of meters away from the surface of the lake. That’s why nobody has discovered it for thousands of years.
“Even when the water level of the Star Swallowing Sea is at the lowest, there will only be one to two hours when the mountain shows up above the surface of the lake!
“Locating the mountain below the lake is the key to locating the Mausoleum of Chaos!”
The sky-hunting warship quickly searched hundreds of meters below the surface of the lake.
Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo!
The biochemical beasts that had dived into the depths of the Star Swallowing Sea sent back information with dull signal sounds. A complicated map of the mountains below the lake was gradually drawn.
As the surface of the lake continued plummeting, many mountains continued to emerge out of the lake. The high mountains cut into each other and extended forward in parallel, like countless dragons that were zigzagging deep inside the Star Swallowing Sea.
Right then, Li Yao heard exclamations around him.
He looked ahead, only to discover that an enormous beast more than ten times larger than the sky-hunting warship had crawled out of the black lake water, which was almost vertical on their left side. The beast looked like a whale that had grown sharp, jagged tusks and iron armor, and it was beyond any doubt that a yawn of the beast was enough to shatter the sky-hunting warship into smithereens!
However, the primeval beast did not have the chance to demonstrate its strength because it was tied up by a bright golden squid. Every tentacle of the super large squid was thousands of meters long. A few of the tentacles grabbed the bone armor of the enormous beast so hard that it was being torn apart, while another few tentacles pierced deep into the body of the enormous beast and devoured the internal organs and meat of the beast like leeches.
The roars of the two animals were almost suppressing the noises of the swirls.
Most of the warriors’ faces were pale as they watched the two animals crashing at the sky-hunting warship.
If there was really a collision, not a scrap of the sky-hunting warship would remain.
Shua!
But the two beasts seemed to be made of air. The sky-hunting warship passed through them without being damaged at all.
When they looked back, the two animals gradually blurred before they turned into streaks of brightness and dispersed in the darkness.
“There’s no need to panic. It is the image recorded by the special magnetic field of the Star Swallowing Sea. The two beasts perished tens of thousands of years ago,” Yuchi Ba said. “But we believe that the two beasts were probably God Chaos’ creatures!”
Chapter 889: The Mausoleum Is Open!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
When the two parties passed by each other, Li Yao indeed discovered stripes that looked like runes on the body of the two enormous beasts. They were not wounds that were torn apart after they were born but scales and speckles grown congenitally.
Although they were just illusions, the two overwhelming beats were still suffocating enough, making Li Yao realize why the Blade of Chaos and Elder Nether Spring were trying to excavate the legacy of Chaos without caring about the cost.
The sky-hunting warship continued rushing deep inside the Star Swallowing Sea.
Because of the different speed of dropping in different areas, surging torrents were everywhere.
They were surrounded by dozens of waterfalls and falling to the bottom of the waterfalls at one moment, and running inside a deep valley whose ‘crags’ were all lake water made of heavy metals the next. Illuminated by the sunlight, the water reflected colorful patterns as if countless dragons and snakes were fighting. The soul-stirring picture made everybody feel as if they were on a journey to doom.
At first, Li Yao did not know what the sky-hunting warship was looking for exactly while it was circling inside the Star Swallowing Sea. It was not until after more than three hours of rushing that he finally discovered a shallow scratch on a mountain on his right side.
The scratch was not naturally-made but apparently caused by a certain prehistorical beast. After tens of thousands of years, it had not been worn down yet.
The sky-hunting warship stayed for a long time near the scratch and did not march forward again until the biochemical eyes had captured every detail of the scratch.
Li Yao thought quickly and immediately understood what the Blade of Chaos was doing.
If the Mausoleum of Chaos was really somewhere deep inside the Star Swallowing Sea, and countless enormous beasts had been produced inside the mausoleum, then it was inevitable that some of them would have hit the mountains under the lake and left traces after they were released.
After the traces were discovered, with thorough analysis, it was possible to track the route of their movement and eventually locate the coordinates where they were released.
The coordinates would be the entrance to the Mausoleum of Chaos.
Very soon, night fell. The swirls deep inside the Star Swallowing Sea were all uttering bubbling noises, and the water level that was dropping fast began to rise again. The mountains below the lake were consumed one after another until they were entirely drowned by the black water.
Although the sky-hunting warship could travel in ordinary seawater, it would not take long before its shell was corroded, crushed, and shattered if it moved in the Star Swallowing Sea.
Besides, the penetration of light was extremely bad inside the Star Swallowing Sea. The sky-hunting warship was no better than a blind fish after it dived in. The few probe biochemical beasts were far from enough to clearly see the entire bottom of the lake.
Therefore, they had to retreat for now and rest for a night in the middle of the raging tides and lightning of the Star Swallowing Sea.
Following that, they lurked at night and worked during the day for three days, continuing their research deep inside the Star Swallowing Ocean, only to find nothing. Not only did they fail to find any traces left by the prehistoric beasts, they did not even have a second chance to see the electromagnetic illusions of the beasts, as if the mirages were merely everybody’s imagination.
But Yuchi Ba was as cold, tough, and unwavering as a slab of iron. He commanded his team patiently to search among the mountains below the lake.
On the fourth day, the illuminance of God Chaos finally fell upon the exploration team.
Although Li Yao did not know the details, he could clearly feel that the sky-hunting warship was flying in a more patterned route. It seemed to be hovering around a certain location at the bottom of the lake.
Looking ahead, he could see that the lake water, which had plunged to the lowest point, was revealing hundreds of crooked wrinkles that looked like the hunched backs of dragons.
Maybe it was his imagination, but Li Yao suddenly felt that the ridges of the mountains seemed to be condensing into a howling face whose mouth was so wide open that it was being split apart.
Hu!
The sky-hunting warship dashed to one of the ridges that seemed unattractive but in fact had hundreds of traces caused by enormous beasts.
The left side of the ridge was even as smooth as a mirror because of the rubbing of the scales. If one were to observe it from the sky from an appropriate angle, it would seem like a glittering gem that had been embedded into the Star Swallowing Sea.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Two small boats were launched from the lower part of the abdomen of the sky-hunting warship and dashed toward the ridge. Before they landed, dozens of shadows lunged out of the boats and rushed to the top on the ridge.
Li Yao was suddenly alarmed. He knew that they were the real core members of the Blade of Chaos, and they perhaps knew dozens of times more information regarding the Mausoleum of Chaos than Li Yao did.
The elites of the Blade of Chaos were all riding armor beasts with multiple limbs that seemed to have combined the advantages of dozens of types of huge insects.
Their claws, teeth, and limbs pierced deeply into the solid rock stratums, allowing them to move on the vertical cliff, which was as smooth as a mirror, agilely as if they were moving on the ground.
Li Yao noticed that they would bash several straight metal rods into the rocks every time they moved forward a certain distance. Following which, they connected the devices with synthesized nerves and eventually joined them with a cluster of enormous biochemical brain.
It should be some form of space detection gear based on the genes of bats. By releasing an oriented vibration wave to the depths of the underground and absorbing the vibration wave that is fed back, the size and structure of the underground space can easily be determined.
The Star Glory Federation had similar magical equipment. Such tools were mandatory in underground prospecting jobs.
Very soon, the entire ridge of the mountain was brimming with metal rods, which made it look like a crocodile that had been stabbed with spears all over its body.
The buffer liquids inside the cabin were quickly extracted, indicating that their journey was coming to an end.
Yuchi Ba was obviously overjoyed. “We have located the Mausoleum of Chaos. All squads, gather and prepare to work!”
In the following hour, the more bizarre-shaped demons were projected to the nearby of the mountain under the lake. They were busy doing their jobs around the ridge.
The only part that Li Yao could understand was that some of the demons were planting powerful time bombs based on the terrain of the ridge.
Judging from the techniques of their installment and the size of their bombs, it was possible that they could blow up rocks almost a hundred meters thick.
“Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! We must finish the work before the lake water flows again, or everything will be in vain!” Yuchi Ba landed on the mountain and roared to issue commands.
Even by Li Yao’s standard as a super bomb expert, the detonation team was definitely well trained. It only took them slightly more than four hours for them to complete the complicated work of hole-digging and bomb-planting. At this moment, the other workers around the ridge finished their jobs, too.
All of them retreated to the sky-hunting warship again.
At this moment, it was already dusk, and the lake water was about to soar up.
In less than an hour, the mountain would be drowned again.
When the sky-hunting warship flew multiple kilometers away in a hurry, seven earsplitting explosions burst out behind Li Yao. Seven streams of mystic rays soared up into the sky and formed a complicated pattern in midair before they hit the mountain heavily like shooting stars!
After a huge boom, a colorful mushroom cloud slowly rose up, mixed with creaking noises, as if countless devils were grinning hideously and escaping from the Mausoleum of Chaos.
The sky-hunting warship managed to turn around in midair by force and aimed at the source of the mushroom cloud. All the warriors, including Li Yao, were ready for battle. Should there be anything wrong, they would be able to connect to their biochemical beasts quickly.
However, the shrieks came to an abrupt halt after three minutes. As it turned out, they were nothing but compressed air currents that had been locked for forty thousand years below the ground. The probe of soundwaves and infrared rays did not report the traces of any living creature, either.
The sky-hunting warship finally emboldened itself to go closer.
The raging mushroom gradually dispersed. Everybody could see that the upper half part of the ridge had almost been blown away entirely, giving birth to an irregular black hole. When the sky-hunting warship approached and scanned, it was determined that a vast space was hidden below the mountain and that the fractures of many parts of the space were in an absolutely precise plane, indicating the work of intelligent creatures.
“Hoooo!”
Everybody inside the cabin roared in excitement.
Then, around the mountain, translucent vesicles that both looked like swimming bladders and bubbles gradually bulged.
The vesicles swallowed each other and gradually expanded in size until it covered the entire mountain like a glass cap.
When the black lake water rose up again, it was blocked from the vesicles. Not a single drop of water was able to leak into it.
The sky-hunting warship flew to the top of the glass cap and extended a translucent soft tube from the abdomen, which connected the cabin to the glass cap like an umbilical cord.
Then, the sky-hunting warship slowly moved upwards at the same speed of the rising lake water and returned to the surface of the lake. Eventually, it was docked thirty meters above the Star Swallowing Sea.
Right now, the entrance to the Mausoleum was hundreds of meters below the Star Swallowing Sea, but it was connected to the sky-hunting warship through an ‘umbilical cord’.
“Inside the Star Swallowing Sea, the super high-intensity waterproof cover can last for three to five days. We must finish the preliminary exploration during this time!”
Yuchi Ba did not go back on his word. After making sure that there was enough fresh air inside the Mausoleum of Chaos, he was the first to enter the place through the long ‘umbilical cord’, leading a large batch of explorers.
Li Yao’s mission, on the other hand, was to stick closely to Chu Zhengqing and Chu Feiyin, two specialists in the studies of Chaos. They suffered in the weird silence for more than two hours before they were permitted to enter the Mausoleum of Chaos!
“Let’s go, Master Chu!”
With a telepathic thought, Li Yao’s brainwaves spread out, and a transparent vesicle slowly rose up around his neck and covered his entire head.
On his back, a small piece of membrane was fluctuating, filtering the air in the outside world multiple times before it was sent into the vesicle.
Although the examination had proved that the air inside the Mausoleum of Chaos was normal, it was a relic from forty thousand years ago. There was no telling whether or not a fatal virus or microorganisms still existed in the air. Therefore, it was best to stay prudent.
Li Yao, Chu Zhengqing, and Chu Feiyin were enveloped by a cluster of bright yellow buffer liquids and fell quickly along the ‘umbilical cord’. After sliding for almost twenty seconds, they landed somewhere near the entrance of the Mausoleum of Chaos.
Chapter 890: ‘God’ Has Appeared ##
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
The fault caused by the detonation was a perfect relay station after simple modifications. The explorers did the final preparations in the place before they slowly descended underground through the temporary lifts.
Around a hundred warriors who were responsible for exploring the way and small demon beasts, of which there were multiple times more, were sent into the tomb first for preliminary surveying. After they ascertained that the environment was safe, the researchers went inside in batches.
Li Yao was given an interactive brainwave receptor that looked like an antenna and two biochemical chips that looked like contact lenses.
When he stuck the antenna to his forehead softly and put the biochemical chips on his eyes, after a beep, a lot of information immediately appeared on his retina, as well as instructions for him and the general map of the Mausoleum of Chaos.
The underground space that was outlined by bright green strokes was dozens of times larger than Li Yao had expected. It had multiple floors as well as countless pathways and independent rooms, which made the tomb look like a splendid underground palace.
The pulley span quickly as the lift slowly descended. Li Yao felt like he was an ant with a thread tied to his waist that had been tossed off a cliff thousands of meters high.
After passing through a narrow, vertical pathway, they found themselves in a space more than five hundred meters both in length and width. The dark walls around seemed to boast an uncanny attraction force that absorbed all light rays and sound.
They seemed to have fallen into an abyss, and it was not until three minutes later that the lift landed on the ground again.
The ground was dry and firm, refined out of a certain unknown rock material. Li Yao breathed deeply in relief when his feet finally stepped on the ground again.
When the mutated fireflies danced randomly in the enormous space and sprayed the cold florescence in every direction, everybody was deeply attracted to the bones of an enormous creature at the center of the space.
There was no telling what the creature used to be. Its thick bones jabbed at the ceiling, forming a dense primitive forest. Illuminated by the florescence, the bones were emitting bright green, metallic colors. Several of the bones were dozens of meters long and thicker than the main guns of many crystal warships.
Li Yao squinted and observed the walls around him.
Dozens of iron rings had been nailed to the walls, bound by huge chains that were connected to every part of the bones. After forty thousand years, all the chains looked as good as new. Even the tiniest stripes on them were still clearly visible.
However, all the chains showed signs that they had been pulled hard. Some of the iron rings had even been yanked out of the wall, leaving holes and cracks on the wall. Some other chains looked like noodles as they had been stretched to their limits.
Claw traces several meters deep were everywhere on the walls. Many thick talons had been broken and embedded into the walls.
On one of the walls, there was even a dent dozens of meters in diameter, as if an enormous battering ram had hit the wall brutally once before.
Li Yao closed his eyes and imagined what had happened forty thousand years ago.
A ferocious animal hundreds of meters long had been locked in this place with chains for some reason.
The ferocious beast must have struggled hard in agony and ripped apart many chains and magical equipment that had been carved with rune arrays.
In the meantime, the animal also left appalling traces on the wall. It was in such excruciating pain that it did not stop even when its claws were broken and embedded into the wall. It simply continued bashing the wall hard with its head.
What was it that put the enormous beast in such pain?
Some sort of experiment?
Several paleontologists and historians discussed with each other near the corpse of the enormous beast.
One of the paleontologists seemed to be assigned the task to study the enormous beast. He immediately began to work with his assistants.
In the meantime, Li Yao, who had a lot of experience in fighting, noticed something weird very quickly, too.
The bones on the torso of the enormous beast had a lot of fractures, but they did not collapse inward but protruded outward.
It appeared that something had crawled into its stomach and gone on a rampage before crawling out the same way.
Li Yao swallowed hard and felt for the first time that he might not necessarily be secure during the exploration of the Mausoleum of Chaos even though his real capability was close to the Nascent Soul Stage.
Taking a deep breath, Li Yao led a few researchers further into the vast space under the guidance of the arrowheads on his retina.
After they passed through a long pathway, the scenes that unraveled in front of Li Yao made him have the illusion that he had stepped into the cosmos.
The boundless space just now had already left them with the impression of the splendor and magnificence of a palace.
However, compared to the temple in front him, it was nothing more than a matchbox placed next to a skyscraper.
They could not see the boundary of the temple at all. Standing above the temple, they discovered that there were stairs that went straight down. Its end was wreathed in vague, gray mist.
The gray mist was fluctuating as if a living creature. It could not have looked more mysterious.
Li Yao finally understood why Yuchi Ba risked recruiting so many newcomers for the operation.
The Mausoleum of Chaos was too vast. However many explorers there were, they would be like salt in the water and would be dissolved instantly, leaving no trace.
Very soon, the virtual image of the entire temple was displayed on his retina through the biochemical chips.
By echolocation, it was estimated that the temple was more than thirty kilometers both in length and width. It was basically an enormous city.
That was just the first floor.
With the guidance of the arrowheads, they groped in the darkness for more than ten minutes before they got down the stairs and reached the bottom level of the temple.
The ground there was not the solid rock plate anymore but moist soil that would make soft sounds when anybody stepped on it.
The edge of the temple was still black rocks. However, a magnificent embossment had been carved after every fixed distance on the rocks.
Most of the embossments were the scenes where bizarre-looking giants were spraying the seeds of life in some weird worlds. Sometimes, the few embossments that were next to each other were telling a complete story.
For example, on one of the embossments, a light gray, giant round plate landed on a scorching planet, and the traces of ancient creatures had been engraved inside the ocean at the bottom part of the embossment.
On the second embossment, many enormous tyrannosaurs were teleported to the planet through cone-shaped rays of light.
However, compared to the fossils excavated nowadays, those tyrannosaurs all boasted extremely strong arms, and they looked more like the Pangu Clan that Li Yao had seen deep inside his genes.
On the third embossment, the tyrannosaurs extended their arms to the ocean. Corroded by a weird force, their arms withered. But a huge amount of bright golden liquid was secreted from the wrinkles of their skin and dropped into the ocean.
That seemed to be the essence of their arms.
On the fourth embossment, the ocean creatures that had absorbed the bright golden liquid had grown primitive limbs and begun to march toward the land.
The four embossments combined seemed to be indicating that the tyrannosaurs paid a price of their arms for the ocean creatures’ ability to move toward the land.
“If that’s true, one of the assumptions about Chaos has been disapproved now,” Chu Zhengqing, the master of the studies of Chaos, said slowly with a solemn face. “Judging from the structure of the temple and its relative position in the entire underground architecture, it should be a temple of sacrifices for the ancient civilization. Since the embossments around the temple recorded so many stories where the Pangu Clan created the world and enlightened the creatures, it is evident enough that Chaos was sort of a ‘worshipper’ of Pangu, too.
“In the history of the demon race over the past ten thousand years, the mainstream opinion has been that Chaos was a mortal enemy for Pangu. These embossments can refute such an opinion.”
Another research said coldly, “Of course, Chaos was not Pangu’s enemy because he was the rightful heir of Pangu! It was because some ambitious, crazy demons betrayed God Chaos that the public opinion about him ended up like this today! What we need to do is excavate everything inside the Mausoleum of Chaos and set the truth to public exactly as it is!”
Chu Zhengqing smiled and walked forward.
A lot of explorers had gathered in the front and established the most basic illumination system.
With the help of the rays, Li Yao was able to see an indescribable object standing at the end of the temple. It looked both like an integrated cockpit and like a weird-shaped, magnificent throne. A bright golden skeleton more than ten meters long had been embedded into the object.
The skeleton must have worn a certain kind of armor, but after such a long time, the armor had already melded with the body.
The upper half part of the body, except for being slightly larger, was no different from that of a human being.
However, starting from the hipbone, the skeleton suddenly shrank and condensed into a thick dragon bone. At the end of the tail, the bone was split apart into more than ten parts, protruding out like the claws of a crab.
Back when the skeleton was alive, it had probably been an existence that was half human and half snake, or half human and half dragon.
Dense spiritual stripes could be found on the bones that were not covered in armor, especially the skull, which was relatively intact. The circles of stripes attracted Li Yao’s eyes and soul like a mysterious swirl.
Quite a few paleontologists and archeologists were already busy working around the skeleton throne. They were cleaning the dust that fell off from the skeleton and scanning every fracture of the skeleton.
“The appearance of the armor and the seat of the skeleton is completely out of place with the style of the building around us and the development level of the civilization forty thousand years ago to our knowledge. It carries an intense air of technology, especially in the zone right in front of the skeleton that looks like a ‘dashboard’. The complexity of the spiritual stripes is extremely hard for us to understand even today.
“It can be assumed for now that the skeleton and the seat it was embedded to were not built inside the Mausoleum of Chaos but moved to this place from somewhere else.
“Its coordinates inside the temple are exactly the center of the golden cut. Based on the architecture rules in the era of ancient Cultivators, it is the most divine position.
“We may assume that the skeleton was the ‘god’ that Chaos believed in!”
Chu Zhengqing circled around the skeleton throne and made his speculation casually.
Chapter 891: The Massacre Forty Thousand Years Ago!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Dozens of specialists of the Blade of Chaos all analyzed the skeleton throne.
Li Yao vaguely sensed that many rays were shot out of the organs of the specialists that resembled eyes as they tried to penetrate the shell of the skeleton throne and pry into the structure of the ‘god’.
Even Li Yao could not help but release part of his telepathic thoughts, hoping to invade the armor through the gaps, but to no avail.
The armor that was worn outside of the ‘god’ looked vintage and intimidating. Li Yao had browsed through all the ancient armors recorded in the Hundred Smelting Clan forty thousand years and still failed to find any structure that was remotely close.
The usage of the throne was even more mysterious. On the dashboard that was against the face of the ‘god’, there were only several buttons. It was safe to infer that the machine was operated not with the hands but through telepathic thoughts directly.
“The Blade of Chaos firmly believes that God Chaos rose when he was needed forty thousand years ago and excavated the legacy of the Pangu Clan from the primeval era, thereby creating the modern demon race,” one of the specialists said solemnly. “The ‘god’ inside the skeleton throne is probably a member of the Pangu Clan!”
His deduction was agreed upon by most of the specialists, but it raised a number of gasps, too.
The warriors standing at the edge almost could not hold themselves from worshipping the skeleton throne.
The vast temple was caught in a weird and yet solemn vibe.
“Such an assumption does have a point,” Chu Zhengqing said. “If we consider the Pangu Clan as a tribe or a civilization that expanded across all the three thousand Sectors billions of years ago, and someone, or some organization, named ‘Chaos’ found the relics of the Pangu Clan in which they retrieved the precious legacy and eventually built an enormous base with the legacy as the foundation, then the skeleton throne was probably the only well-preserved body of the Pangu Clan inside the relics. Chaos treated it like a ‘god’ and enshrined it in this place for sacrifices.”
The specialists all nodded. Such a theory was reasonable enough.
Right then, exclamations echoed in the southeast of the temple.
As it turned out, another squad had detected new corpses.
Very soon, the scraps of dead bodies were discovered everywhere in the great temple.
After being scanned with mystic rays, almost a hundred piles of bodies were displayed on the retina of every specialist.
Li Yao received the information, too.
Most of the dead bodies were demons between 1.5 meters to 3 meters. After forty thousand years of decay, the only things left were dry bones and empty shells.
A lot of the dead bodies were strangling each other and crushing each other’s bones in the most violent methods, as if they were going through a great battle.
Judging from the structure of some of the corpses, one of them was biting the spine of another one hard, as if they had been mauling and gnawing each other.
A lot of flying swords and sabers were scattered around the dead bodies, most of which had been broken in half.
Remarkable combat ability.
Li Yao discovered that almost twenty flying swords had been stabbed into a dead body that was no taller than two meters, but the dead body had still tackled another dead body and even crushed its shoulder bone. The tusks of the first corpse had even pierced through the skull of the second corpse.
Li Yao pictured what happened forty thousand years ago.
The first corpse was pierced through by more than ten flying swords, and its internal organs were entirely wrecked. But he—or ‘it’—maintained a rather shocking combat ability and tackled the opponent before it shattered the scapula of its target and extended its own head to the enemy’s.
It was biting the enemy’s face.
What a nightmarish massacre!
Huh?
After scanning the surface of hundreds of corpses, Li Yao suddenly discovered something weird.
Amid the bizarre-shaped corpses of demons, there were also dead bodies of human beings.
Although the only things left right now were dry bones, Li Yao was pretty sure that they used to be standard human beings, judging from the form and structure of the dry bones!
Some of the dry bones were emitting bronze, bright green, and dark golden colors. It was a sign that the bones had been nurtured by spiritual energy for a long time.
It meant that the owners of the dry bones used to be high-level Cultivators!
In the meantime, the specialists of the Blade of Chaos noticed the corpses of the Cultivators, too.
“What has happened?”
“A batch of Cultivators attacked the Mausoleum of Chaos, which resulted in such a gory massacre?”
“Unlikely. According to our research, when Chaos rose up, the force of the Cultivators was already very weak. It is not possible that they attacked the base of Chaos actively.”
“Besides, such brutal methods are more befitting lunatics who have gone mad. It is definitely not the combat style of the ancient Cultivators.”
A few archeologists moved to the corpses and retrieved the robes, armor, and scraps of magical equipment left around carefully.
Those corpses had all been killed forty thousand years ago. Although their flesh had rotted, the robes, armor, and magical equipment that they carried had not been entirely corroded. There were still scraps that could be studied.
Li Yao stood at the edge of the circle and observed with great interest.
The magical equipment that those corpses utilized had the unique style of the ancient Cultivators, which gave a strong feeling of familiarity.
Odd.
Very soon, the preliminary analysis on the scraps of the robe was out.
The Cultivators and demons lying on the ground were all wearing robes of the same fashion. The magical equipment they used was mostly the same make, too.
Besides, if it had been an invasion of the Cultivators, the dead bodies of the Cultivators and those of the demons should be attacking each other.
But the reality was that the corpses of many Cultivators were mauling other Cultivators, and the dead bodies of the demons had also engaged in fierce battles with other demons.
The scraps of the robes of both the attackers and the victims were very similar. They were made of the same materials in the same style. Even the spiritual stripes on them were identical.
It was safe to say that there had been no intruders; they simply attacked and eventually killed each other until everybody was dead.
“What happened in this place?”
The number of the corpses found inside the temple had already surpassed a thousand, and that was merely the tip of the iceberg.
The gory massacre that took place forty thousand years ago made the weird Mausoleum of Chaos even more mysterious.
All the researchers were baffled and whispering to each other.
Right then, after a hum, sighs seemed to echo in every direction in the darkness, as if a force that had slept for forty thousand years had awoken. The entire temple was trembling slightly.
The next second, mild rays of light sprayed down from the top of the temple like a waterfall, bathing all the researchers in an ivory ocean of brightness.
The warmth of the bright ocean drove away the darkness and made all the explorers less anxious.
Yuchi Ba, leading the majority of the exploration team, strode close.
“We have just activated the power rune array of the Mausoleum of Chaos. It is truly unbelievable. Such an enormous underground palace is actually driven by solar energy!
“The sky of the White Silver Death Desert is cloudless and boasts the most scorching sunlight. The energy of the sunlight is absorbed by the sand and transmitted to the Star Swallowing Sea in a way that we cannot comprehend. Then it is stored in the lake!
“The entire Star Swallowing Sea is in fact an enormous pool of solar energy. By the rising and ebbing tide every day, the energy is incessantly released to the Mausoleum of Chaos, keeping the underground palace functioning normally during the past forty thousand years.
“The strength of God Chaos is too immeasurable and incredible!
“Master Chu, what are your thoughts about our discoveries so far?”
“It’s been too long a time,” Chu Zhengqing replied. “I’m afraid that nobody knows what exactly happened here forty thousand years ago. We can only speculate based on the evidence we have found.
“First of all, the Blade of Chaos regards ‘Chaos’ as a god. But in my eyes, Chaos was perhaps an organization or even a human being. A regular human being.”
Chu Zhengqing paused for a moment. Before the members of the Blade of Chaos burst into fury, he quickly continued. “However, regardless of whether Chaos was a god, an organization, or a person, he must’ve had a lot of subordinates in order to establish such a huge base.
“If Chaos was an organization, the organization certainly had members. If Chaos was a god, he certainly had a lot of believers. Right?”
Yuchi Ba pondered for a moment and nodded. “Yes.”
Chu Zhengqing continued. “We have already found almost a thousand dead bodies that are wearing the robes of the same fashion and carrying magical equipment of the same make. Thus, is it not reasonable that we can assume them to be members of the organization named Chaos or the believers of the god named Chaos?”
“There’s another possibility,” Yuchi Ba said. “They were all intruders, and they were slain by God Chaos when they were invading the Mausoleum of Chaos!”
Chu Zhengqing shook his head and said, “Not very likely. If they were intruders, where were the believers of Chaos? Besides, after the intruders were killed, their bodies were simply left in the sacred place where sacrifices were offered. Isn’t it very strange?”
“But there were a lot bodies of human beings among the corpses,” Yuchi Ba said.
Derision quickly flashed inside Chu Zhengqing’s eyes. “So what? Who says that human beings cannot be believers of Chaos? Or rather, who says that Chaos was a demon? What if Chaos was but a regular human being?”
“You—”
Before Yuchi Ba was outraged, many specialists of the Blade of Chaos rose up and glared at him.
“The facts are very obvious,” Chu Zhengqing said casually. “Before Chaos appeared, there had never been real demons as we know today. The monsters and uncanny creatures recorded in the notes of the ancient Cultivators are simply too vastly different from modern demons.
“You all claim that Chaos created the demon race. Then, if you think about it more carefully, it is impossible that Chaos was a demon. How could he have created himself?
“Hehe. If he was not a demon, is it not obvious what kind of existence the so-called ‘Chaos’ once was?”
Chapter 892: War. War Never Changes
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
After Chu Zhengqing expressed his opinion, yells and curses echoed nonstop. The excited believers of Chaos were even trying to approach Chu Zhengqing and challenge him.
The guardians, including Li Yao, hurried to block the frantic crowd.
Li Yao more or less understood why Yuchi Ba had asked a newcomer such as himself to protect Chu Zhengqing.
Judging from his boldness in making groundbreaking declarations, if an avid believer of Chaos were to work as his guardian, it would certainly have been difficult for the guardian to refrain himself from punching Chu Zhengqing’s face.
“Master Chu,” Yuchi Ba said coldly. “Let’s focus on the issues at hand for now. If the corpses really belonged to the believers of Chaos forty thousand years ago, what is your opinion about the cause of their death?”
“Loss of rationality for some reason and self-harm,” Chu Zhengqing said. “Many poisons, venomous gases, and even soundwave attacks that I know can achieve the result.
“However, as to whether the poisons and the venomous gas were released from the outside world or generated inside the Mausoleum of Chaos, it cannot be decided for now.”
Right then, a researcher in a white robe approached Yuchi Ba and whispered something into his ear. Yuchi Ba nodded in approval, apparently greatly relieved. “We haven’t detected the constituents of any poison or venomous gas in the air, the soil, or the corpses.”
“Not yet.” Chi Zhengqing smiled and said, “Master Yuchi, it seems that our preliminary assumption was right. Judging from the scale of the first floor of the Mausoleum of Chaos, the vastness of the building is unimaginable for us.
“Both in the official history books and in folklore, Chaos never seized the supreme power to rule over all the three thousand Sectors. Then, the purpose of such an underground must’ve been much more than to offer sacrifices or to demonstrate his power.
“In other words, this place was probably a research center or a secret base for Chaos, with both military and experimental purposes.
“Right now, our biggest questions include: what was Chaos exactly? Who were his enemies? What kind of magical equipment, weapons, or soldiers had he been studying in this place to deal with those enemies?
“Right. Perhaps the Blade of Chaos is only interested in the last question.
“However, before we move to a deeper level, I feel obliged to remind you one more time.
“Both the Blade of Chaos and Elder Nether Spring are doing everything you can to crack the secrets of Chaos. But as you can see, such a gory massacre has already been unfolded before us when we have not really gotten close to the secrets yet.
“Are you really ready to get your answer, one that might not be what you really want right now, or even is completely opposed to what you have believed in?”
Yuchi Ba took a deep breath and declared, “Yes, we are ready. Let’s go to the second floor.”
While they were studying the skeleton throne and the dead corpses, the specialists of ancient architecture and rune arrays had basically determined the rough structure of the second floor. As rune arrays were activated one after another, the center of the temple trembled slightly, and running gears could be heard deep below the ground.
Suddenly, enormous black pillars rose up from the ground.
They were the lifts leading to the second floor of the mausoleum of Chaos.
Judging from the overall structure, the Mausoleum of Chaos could be divided into three to four planes. However, the second floor took up even vaster space than the temple. The terrain inside the second floor was extremely complicated and had been split into different zones.
“Master!”
While the specialists were testing the lifts, Li Yao could not help but ask Chu Zhengqing, “You mentioned that ‘Chaos’ might have been a human being, didn’t you? What is that all about?”
Chu Zhengqing and his daughter glanced at him in surprise. Seeing no fascination or frenzy typical of a believer of Chaos, Chu Zhengqing pondered for a moment and asked back, “Have you ever heard the story of mankind regarding the birth of the demon race?”
Li Yao blinked, not sure whether he should give a positive reply or a negative one.
Chu Zhengqing mistook his hesitation for confusion. He explained quickly, “According to the history of human beings, forty thousand years ago, a Cultivator invented a type of gene drug named ‘Demon God’, which could accelerate the evolution of normal animals and transform them into strong demon beasts.
“However, during the refinement of demon beasts, the evolution went out of control. Many demon beasts walked through the journey of evolution that took human beings millions of years in only decades, ending up with intelligence that was on par with that of human beings.
“They were later known as the demon race.”
Li Yao swallowed hard. “Is it true?”
“Of course not. Or rather, not entirely,” Chu Zhengqing said. “After forty thousand years, we have such a profound understanding today about biochemical technology and gene theories that we can even produce biochemical brains that boast unparalleled computational ability. But still, we cannot endow true intelligence to demon beasts. How could the ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago have achieved that in only less than a hundred years?
“But the human beings’ theory has its own merits. Perhaps, if we combine the theories of human beings and the demon race, we will be able to get a glimpse of the real history.”
“Combine the theories?”
Li Yao thought quickly and breathed fast.
“Exactly,” Chu Zhengqing said. “Maybe, forty thousand years ago, there was indeed a human being who developed a powerful biochemical drug that allowed the mutation to a certain degree inside animals.
“However, the drug was not enough to generate intelligence equal to that of mankind inside the mutated animals. Therefore, it could not play a decisive role in the wars.
“Just think about how difficult it is to give an animal the intelligence equal to a human being!
“However, it is much simpler if we change our mindset.
“If we cannot give the wisdom of human beings to animals, how about we give the bodies of the animals to human beings?”
Li Yao was dumbfounded, feeling that his throat was dry.
Yan Zhengqing continued. “You don’t know human beings, especially the ambitious, insane Cultivators among them. If a certain drug can boost the combat ability of an animal by ten times, turning the animal into the toughest of its species, then at least one in every ten thousand Cultivators would not be able to resist the temptation of injecting the drug into themselves.”
“That means—” Chu Feiyin finished her father’s conclusion for him. Young and aggressive, she seemed to be particularly fond of the devastation on the faces of the believers of Chaos. “The demon race is probably the descendants of mankind. They are just a different type of human beings who have cracked part of the gene strands and activated the primeval form because of the Demon God Virus injected into them.”
Li Yao hesitated for half a second, wondering whether or not he should really put on a devastated face.
But the bewilderment on his face right now was already indicative enough of his shock.
He did not close his mouth until three seconds later. He stammered, “How—how do you know?”
“We do not know,” Chu Feiyin said. “That is just a hypothesis. This is how we do our research. When we find a strange phenomenon, we throw out a hypothesis to explain it, until new evidence that we find proves it or disproves it in the end.
“Different types of demons, and even demons and human beings, have no reproductive isolation and are able to have children.
“The elites of the Blade of Chaos can even change between two or even multiple forms freely.
“The newborn demons, whichever clan they belong to and regardless of whether they are silver-blood or black-blood, are alike to the infants of human beings. The features of the demon race will not show up until they gradually grow mature.
“All this evidence supports our hypothesis that human beings and demons share the same origin.
“However, we are still lacking conclusive proof. That’s why we accepted the offers of Elder Nether Spring and the Blade of Chaos, eventually ending up in this place. We are here to look for an answer, to find out… what we are exactly.”
Right then, the lifts leading to the next floor were activated. Bright blue lines popped up everywhere on the black pillars, splitting and interweaving into flower-like rune arrays.
“Master Chu!”
Li Yao gritted his teeth and asked, “Since you worked for Elder Nether Spring before, you must’ve seen him in person, right?”
Chu Zhengqing eyed Li Yao suspiciously.
“Have you told your theories to Elder Nether Spring?” Li Yao asked. “Did he believe you or not?”
Chu Zhengqing nodded and said, “Elder Nether Spring is definitely not the most broad-minded demon, but he is truly very smart and certainly a specialist in the studies of Chaos.
“In fact, I often discussed with Elder Nether Spring. Even the hypothesis that human beings and demons share the same origin was come up with and perfected by us together.
“Without the funds, resources, and support that Elder Nether Spring provided, we wouldn’t have learned as much about the Mausoleum of Chaos at all.”
“Elder Nether Spring was a co-proposer of the same-origin hypothesis?” Li Yao was completely startled. “I don’t understand. If—if your theory is true, and demons are just human beings in a different form, what is the meaning of the war between us and the Heaven’s Origin Sector?”
Chu Zhengqing’s eyes suddenly turned sharp.
Li Yao blinked and lowered his head. “I’m told that a lot of demons have been killed in the war, and more are being forced to leave their homes as refugees. Even me and my sister ended up being slaves because of the goddamn war. I’m also told that the Heaven’s Origin Sector is a vast place, and human beings there boast quite a high capability, too. We might not be able to completely occupy the Heaven’s Origin Sector even if the entire Blood Demon Sector is drained.
“Before, I thought that human beings and demons could never live in peace, and we could not cease fighting even if the last drop of our blood was shed.
“However, if even the big shots such as Elder Nether Spring partly agree to the hypothesis that human beings and demons are the same, what’s the reason for the two parties of the war trying their best to destroy each other?”
Chu Zhengqing laughed. All his wrinkles were pushed together, making his face look like an old tree that had grown for ten thousand years.
He patted Li Yao’s shoulder softly and said, “Your name is Bloody Claw, right?
“Bloody Claw, you are too young. Maybe in your eyes, a war needs a reason. We are demons, and they are human beings. That’s why we have to kill each other.
“No. It’s not like that.
“In the era of ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago, there were no demons, but human beings still fought against each other for tens of thousands of years until they initiated an ultimate war that almost destroyed all three thousand Sectors.
“Later, in the Demon Beast Empire thirty thousand years ago, humanity declined, and the demon race rose to the peak. However, demons were still attacking each other incessantly. The demons killed in the civil wars because of the change of dynasties were much more than those killed by the sabers and swords of human beings.
“This is the truth about wars,” the old demon said casually.
“Wars never change, and wars do not need a reason.”
Chapter 893: Insane Experiments
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
The shell of the black pillars slowly split apart, revealing a room that could accommodate almost ten muscular demons. For safety reasons, the storage slots of biochemical beasts were shifted to the lower space together with the explorers.
The stone pillars operated for almost half a minute in silence, covered in mysterious blue brightness, before they finally arrived at the second floor of the Mausoleum of Chaos.
The environment of this floor was entirely different from the temple above. Except for the vast space in the center that appeared to be a square, dense pathways covered the walls. At first glance, the place was an enormous honeycomb.
A lot of corpses were scattered on the ground just like the floor above. The explorers were no longer surprised to see them. After making sure that there were no constituents of venomous gas or poison in the corpses, they marked the dead bodies with natural fluorescent paints before they began to explore the surroundings.
Li Yao saw Yuchi Ba place meatballs that looked like lumps in the corners of the central square together with a few members of the core squad.
It was said that they were very amazing demonic artifacts that could gather the weak bioelectricity floating in the air and display the image of the bioelectricity after enhancing it.
If the bioelectricity left in the air was powerful enough, it was possible for them to see the views of forty thousand years ago.
Bo! Bo!
All the balls were set and connected to each other via the synthesized nerves. They uttered a soft sound at the same time, and the tops of the balls blossomed like flowers. A few antennas that looked like stamen protruded out and shivered slightly.
Li Yao sensed that mystic rays were being triggered from the ‘stamen’ and spreading out like a tide. Soon, the entire square was filled up, and everything was soaked in a bright green ocean.
Soon, images were flashing, and clusters of shadows really appeared out of nowhere.
However, perhaps because of the vastness of the room, most of the bioelectricity had dispersed. The shadows were all extremely blurred. The explorers could only see that the shadows were running and chasing each other quickly and that they would rush into each other and roll over on the ground. However, no details could be seen clearly.
Very soon, the shadows dispersed into an overwhelming army that occupied the entire square like silent statues.
“It seems that an army of Chaos once gathered in this place. Or rather, this is the place where the army of Chaos was manufactured.”
Chu Zhengqing and other researchers explored the area with the shadows as leads. Soon, they discovered new skeletons.
The surface of many skeletons was still reflecting vague metal colors in weird forms. It was not hard to imagine that the skeletons must have been unbelievably strong when they were still alive.
After collecting a lot of files in the square, the explorers dispersed and explored the pathways on the walls.
The ends of the pathways turned out to be research rooms. Perhaps due to an emergency, the gates of most of the research rooms were not closed, and most of the defense rune arrays remained deactivated or had even been sabotaged. Therefore, it was rather convenient for them to go in.
The coverage of every research room was extremely impressive. They also boasted a fine ventilation and defense system. However, Li Yao could tell with a single look that the spiritual energy of the defense system had been used up.
Somebody fully activated the defense rune arrays of this place in order to resist something, Li Yao thought to himself.
A lot of magical equipment and training facilities were scattered on the ground. Li Yao had not seen many of them even in Ou Yezi’s dreams.
At the center of the research room stood an enormous stone platform on which dense spiritual stripes had been carved into the shape of a human being. There were also iron chains and rings nearby, which seemed sufficient to tightly tie somebody to the stone plate.
Bo!
Another demonic artifact that could enhance the bioelectricity was placed at the center of the stone platform and activated!
Maybe because the bioelectricity stagnated there due to the limited space, or maybe because a lot of unbelievable training sessions had taken place on the platform and led to the accumulation of the bioelectricity, the image that they captured in this place was much clearer than the image in the square.
Six clear shapes of human beings were all wearing fully enclosed robes that were glittering in silver colors. Even their faces were covered by weird bronze masks. Vague brightness was flowing on the surface of the masks, indicating that they could filter the air and kill the germs.
It seems that the ancient people were not as ignorant as we thought them to be. At the very least, in this place, they already had the concept of killing bacteria, Li Yao thought to himself.
The six people were all leaning against the stone platform that looked like both an operation table and an altar. On the stone platform, a naked human being was lying.
There was no telling whether it was because of the effects of drugs or because some sort of soul-suppressing techniques had been performed, but the human being seemed rather tranquil, with even resolution deep inside his eyes.
The bioelectricity was extremely unstable, and the images that Li Yao saw were changing constantly. Very soon, the image dispersed and condensed into something new. The human being lying on the stone platform was now floating in midair. His long hair all stood up and danced crazily like vipers while he trained himself, facing against the floating rune arrays.
The few people wearing silver robes and bronze masks, on the other hand, surrounded him and were busy taking notes.
Li Yao noticed that there were both human beings and demons among the strange researchers in long robes, but they seemed to be so familiar with each other that the disparity of their appearance was completely overlooked. They fully devoted themselves to their study.
The training human floating in midair was rather capable. He surpassed the speed of sound multiple times and blew the floating rune arrays into pieces. Although it was hard to see the facial expressions of the researchers, considering that they were nodding nonstop, they seemed rather satisfied with the result.
However, before long, the trainer screamed miserably and fell from midair. He then writhed on the ground, holding his head.
Li Yao thought of something and glanced around the room. Very soon, he located a desk on one side of the research room.
The items on the desk had almost all decayed, but Li Yao was quite familiar with the structure and usage of one pile of the remains.
It was a wood shelf that the ancient Cultivators used to store jade chips.
Li Yao extended his hand and groped. As he expected, he found a jade chip below the rotten shelf.
Naturally, a randomly placed jade chip in this place was not likely to have stored any invaluable techniques. Besides, since it had been unused for forty thousand years, there was no telling whether or not it was still readable at all.
Li Yao hid the jade chip inside his palm and scratched the spiritual stripes on the jade chip with his thumb carefully in the standard method of the Hundred Smelting Clan to clean rune arrays.
A moment later, Li Yao sensed the hard jade slightly soften, and it seemed to have turned into a half-frozen amber. Li Yao smiled in secret and extended part of his telepathic thoughts into the item. As he expected, he read a lot of information pieces from the jade chip.
Li Yao narrowed his eyes and absorbed himself in the information pieces, only to discover that it was an experiment log.
Judging from the analysis, an unbelievable experiment had been conducted in this place!
Are you kidding me? Transplantation of the spiritual root?
The spiritual root was the foundation of every Cultivator; it enabled them to absorb and release the spiritual energy in the universe once it was awakened. Besides, in the training and fighting after they became a Cultivator, the quality of their spiritual root was of paramount importance, too. For example, the release and reception of telepathic thoughts both required the spiritual root, and manipulating the magical equipment remotely could not be done without the spiritual threads that were triggered from the spiritual root.
Therefore, in the Star Glory Federation, the training of the Spirit Actualization Quotient had been attached great importance starting from childhood.
All the courses that the students took were focused on the improvement of the Spirit Actualization Quotient. A lot of strengthening drugs on the market were prepared for those who were desperate to increase their Spirit Actualization Quotient, too.
Even so, achieving the 100% of the Spirit Actualization Quotient and awakening themselves to be Cultivators was still merely a tantalizing dream for most people.
Most of the ordinary people could not awaken their spiritual root and grasp the strength to command the wind and storms however hard they trained themselves.
It was so in modern times when there were perfect training theories and various kinds of strengthening drugs, and it was even more so in the underdeveloped era of ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago.
The road to divinity was unpredictable. Becoming a Cultivator was more difficult than ascending to the heavens. Without the most coincidental, fortuitous events, most people would not even dream of being a high and might Cultivator!
However, the research that was conducted in this place was trying to break the boundary between ordinary people and Cultivators!
“Cultivators have spiritual roots. When a Cultivator grows old and weary and eventually perishes of natural causes, their spiritual root will wither with them.
“However, most Cultivators are engaged in bloody battles all the time. It is very rare for them to die of old age.
“The majority of the Cultivators are killed in the combat during their prime years, when their spiritual root is in its prime!
“Isn’t it a shame that such a spiritual root is wasted just because the Cultivator has perished?
“If we extract the spiritual roots out of the Cultivators who have unfortunately perished and transplant them into the brains of the strong warriors without spiritual roots, can the strong warriors make a great leap forward into Cultivators?”
After combining all the files inside the experiment log, Li Yao finally figured out what an insane idea the predecessors had in mind.
Yes. Insane. Although he had always considered himself to be an audacious refiner, he could only describe it as ‘insane’!
It must be noted that, same as the Nascent Soul, the spiritual root was not an organ that existed in reality. One would not find a ‘root’ that looked like ginseng after they dissected the brain of a Cultivator.
The spiritual root was a mysterious organ that bordered between the flesh and pure energy.
How could it be extracted and transplanted when one could not even see such an organ?
Besides, even if the spiritual root of a Cultivator could be extracted, was it bearable for the brain of an unprepared ordinary person?
Li Yao recalled his experience when Ou Yezi’s tremendous memory pieces flooded into his brain for the first time.
The most likely outcome of such a crazy experiment was that the brain of the strong warrior would be completely ruined and burnt.
Judging from the results recorded in the experimental log, that was exactly what had happened.
Countless experiments had all failed. None of the ‘manufactured Cultivators’ who received the foreign spiritual roots survived more than three days.
The best outcome was that the spiritual root withered automatically, and the warrior retrograded to what he used to be, and the worst outcome was simply too miserable to be looked at.
Chapter 894: Mass-Produced Perfect Warriors
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
‘Spiritual root transplantation’ was not the only insane plan that Li Yao discovered in the Mausoleum of Chaos. For the entire day that followed, they had been exploring the southeast area of the second floor. They had found tremendous ancient books and jade chips inside the research rooms.
Most of the ancient books were made of natural materials such as unrotting spider threads or silk, which allowed the explorers to learn more and more shocking experiment plans. Li Yao also took the opportunity to hide a few critical jade chips. But he was truly stunned, his heart racing fast, after he read the jade chips in secret.
Right next to the research room of the ‘spiritual root transplantation’, quite a few associated research rooms were about methods to strengthen the spiritual root.
Li Yao was aware that, for ancient Cultivators, the spiritual root could be classified into ‘heavenly spiritual root’, ‘abnormal spiritual root’, and ‘ruderal spiritual root’. Even modern times, it was well acknowledged that the quality of different spiritual roots was different. The Cultivators with better spiritual roots often had a very high training efficiency and advanced faster than their peers.
As for the methods to strengthen the spiritual root inside the research rooms, they were all about stimulating the spiritual root and improving its quality with the veins and blood of demon beasts, thereby granting different attributes to the spiritual root and bestowing the Cultivators with the ‘naturally-endowed techniques’ and ‘bloodline force’ of the demon beasts.
Some of the methods were about cutting off the messy branches around a ‘ruderal spiritual root’, like gardening, so that the main stem of the spiritual root would be thicker and healthier.
In one of the most creative projects, the ancient believers of Chaos even tried to melt two spiritual roots into one!
Should the project have succeeded, a Cultivator would have boasted two spiritual roots!
It was not difficult to estimate what benefits it would bring to the training of the Cultivator.
However, the researches about spiritual roots had all failed.
Even so, a lot of experiment files and data remained.
Most of the data had been locked with spiritual stripes. A lot of jade chips were even installed with barriers and other rune arrays. The members of the Blade of Chaos could not estimate the value of the information stored inside for now and simply piled them up aside.
But for Li Yao, it was more than easy for him to crack the chips and read all the information.
He took the opportunity to transmit all the experiment data into his brain. His understanding about the spiritual root reached a whole new level.
Right next to the research rooms about the spiritual root, another area of research rooms was focused on the studies of ‘man-made cores’.
Yes. Synthesizing an artificial core and transplanting it into the body of a weak Cultivator in the Refinement Stage, turning the subject into a magnificent Core Formation Stage expert instantly!
The believers of Chaos seemed to have combined the marrow crystals, which contained abundant spiritual energy, with a lot of cores of demon beasts before restricting them with special rune arrays in order to simulate the power of the gold core.
Such a procedure was like transplanting a ‘super-compressed crystal reactor’ directly into the body of a Cultivator, which was unfathomable even after forty thousand years.
Li Yao did not know whether he should pity the ignorance of the ancient Cultivators or be awed by their insanity.
Without an exception, the experiments all failed. A Cultivator was a whole. The improvement of a body part would not necessarily bring up the overall combat ability significantly.
Transplanting a gold core into the body of a Cultivator whose flesh was not strong enough to accommodate it was like inserting a military-level power rune array into a civil shuttle, which, if driven at its full speed, would certainly be ripped apart.
Besides, the man-made cores made of marrow crystals and demon cores were anything but steady.
Strong rejection reactions were inevitable between marrow crystals and demon cores, and among demon cores of different attributes. The Cultivators who were transplanted with such man-made cores were more like walking bombs and only suitable for suicidal attacks.
Still, Li Yao gladly accepted all the information. While the specialists were busy studying the structure of the Mausoleum of Chaos and analyzing the usages of different types of spiritual stripes, he absorbed the tremendous experiment data without anybody knowing.
He increasingly felt that the journey was worthwhile.
The data of so many experiments, despite their failure in the end, still provided valuable for his own training. The eye-opening, extraordinary direction of training also pointed out a new possibly of evolution for him!
After witnessing the incredibility of ‘spiritual root transplantation’ and ‘man-made cores’, another research project named ‘weaponized humans’ caught Li Yao’s attention.
In the era when the ancient believers of Chaos lived, because of the thousands of years’ war in which Cultivators and ordinary people alike were involved, a lot of heavily wounded soldiers whose bodies were crippled were made.
The so-called ‘weaponized humans’ project was meant to combine flying swords and other magical equipment with the wounded soldiers and even to replace the bones of the soldiers with Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. Eventually, unparalleled experts who boasted the advantages of magical equipment as well as independent self-awareness, which allowed them to carry out combat missions on their own, would be created!
After browsing through the tremendous data, Li Yao discovered that the research on the ‘weaponized humans’ actually made some progress. Many broken limbs of the soldiers were successfully combined with flying swords. Some of them even completely absorbed the flying swords into their bodies and turned their bones into magical equipment.
When he first entered the Mausoleum of Chaos, Li Yao had seen a lot of skeletons that were emitting bright golden or bronze colors, not rotten even after tens of thousands of years.
Maybe, they were the ‘weaponized humans’.
According to some of the experiment files, such ‘weaponized humans’ had been manufactured on a large scale and appointed as the guardians of the Mausoleum of Chaos.
However, why did they attack each other and eventually all perish in the end?
“It’s too marvelous and incredible. The imagination of the ancient people is indeed as vast as the universe! Compared to such inspiring modification plans, the influences that the Blood Stripe Virus left on the Titan Warriors and the modification plan that Yan Xibei had in mind on Iron Plateau are like child’s play!”
The mental devil mumbled in great fascination deep inside Li Yao’s brain. “Most of the research conducted inside the Mausoleum of Chaos seems to be for the purpose of giving tremendous abilities to an ordinary person quickly so that they could compete with Cultivators!
“Think about it. If those plans really worked out, they would have been able to transplant a spiritual root into the brain of an ordinary person, stuff a man-made core into his stomach, and replace some of his limbs, or maybe all, with magical equipment. A super warrior who had the capability equal to the Core Formation Stage would thus be created instantly!
“How many years will it take to build a Core Formation Stage Cultivator traditionally? Twenty years? Fifty? A hundred? What about the odds of success? 1% 0.5%? 0.01%?
“When all the technology matured, such super warriors might have been produced in only several months!
“Great. This is too great! A manufacturing plan for mass-produced Core Formation Stage experts!”
Li Yao breathed hard and mumbled to himself, “I thought that the Mausoleum of Chaos was simply a research base of the demon race.”
“What’s the difference?” the mental devil said with a smile. “Have you not discovered that the research projects have one thing in common with the training methods of the demon race?”
Li Yao raised his eyebrow. “What is it?”
“If Chu Zhengqing’s same-origin theory is correct,” the mental devil said, “then injecting the Demon God Virus and turning a human into a demon, and the research regarding the ‘mass-produced Cultivators’, have one thing in common, which is that they can endow an ordinary person with tremendous combat ability in a very short amount of time!
“Think about it. How is the civil war of the Cultivators forty thousand years ago interpreted in the formal education that we received?
“In the last years of the war, all the three thousand Sectors were seriously ruined. Cultivators perished incessantly. All the worlds were lacking soldiers. Eventually, they had no alternatives except to transform animals into demon beasts as replacements for the Cultivators in the war.
“However, in the war of the Cultivators of such a scale, every Cultivation sect must’ve had a lot of affiliated cities or even kingdoms that would send armies made of ordinary people to join the war with them!
“Before they tried transforming animals into demon beasts, had it never occurred to the Cultivators, who were running to a dead end, that they could improve the combat ability of the ordinary people quickly and make them stronger?
“Think about it. If the Star Glory Federation is faced with a great war, and there is a method to improve the combat ability of an individual rapidly, will the method be implemented on military dogs instead of soldiers?”
Li Yao felt his heart turning cold.
With the memories of Ou Yezi, who had been a mighty ancient Cultivator forty thousand years earlier, Li Yao knew the ancient Cultivators better than most people.
The ancient Cultivators, who regarded ordinary people as ants, were different creatures compared to modern Cultivators. In the eyes of the high and majestic ancient Cultivators, the life of an ordinary person was perhaps not as valuable as some precious animals.
Since the ancient Cultivators could inject the Demon God Virus into animals and transform the animals into demon beasts, was it unlikely that they ran experiments on ordinary soldiers in order to refine them into more powerful war machines?
Could it be that the Mausoleum of Chaos was actually the base of an ancient Cultivation sect where they secretly refined ordinary soldiers? Were the demon race, the spiritual root transplantation, and the weaponized humans all part of the refinement?
But that did not seem very plausible.
The mental devil continued voicing its thoughts. “If that was the case, the birth of the ‘demon race’ would be easy to understand. Since the body of the ordinary soldiers was too weak, and it was difficult for them to withstand the shock and pain during the transplantation of the spiritual root and the core and the replacement of their body parts, the ancient Cultivators awakened some of the recessive, primeval genes. Perhaps they only did it to strengthen their bodies so that they would be able to shoulder more pain and modification.
“Tsk tsk tsk. Think about it. The magnificent body build of the demon race, with a man-made spiritual root and gold core, equipped with bones and limbs that are made of flying swords… That’s the most perfect ultimate weapon!”
“It’s a shame that things went out of control eventually,” Li Yao said coldly.
The mental devil smiled and said, “Out of control is the regular status of the universe. In the long river of time, nothing is controllable at all.”
Right then, Li Yao suddenly heard a miserable scream in the research room next to him!
Chapter 895: The Sword That Sucks Blood Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
The research room next to Li Yao was also one dedicated to the studies of ‘weaponized humans’. Li Yao recalled that a lot of rusted ancient flying swords had been piled up in that room.
As an expert of refining, he was of a mind to stay and study them for a while, but Chu Zhengqing and his daughter were not specialists in ancient magical equipment and therefore left the room after a quick glance.
As their ‘bodyguard’, Li Yao had no choice but to leave with them.
At that moment, despite the blockage of the thick wall made of green rocks, Li Yao sensed the cold aura of sword and an intense stench of blood.
A flying sword has been activated?
The screams became louder and louder, occasionally interrupted by the sounds of flesh being minced apart. Heavy collisions were echoing on the other side of the stone wall, with the clanging sounds of blades attacking each other!
Li Yao frowned and dashed out of the research room.
Outside of the research room, the long, narrow pathway was already a mess.
Quite a few members of the Blade of Chaos were lying on the ground here and there. Some of them were screaming miserably while holding their broken limbs, and some were silent in pools of blood. There was no telling whether they were dead or alive!
At the end of the pathway, a cluster of dark red brightness was dashing rapidly like lightning around an elite warrior of the Blade of Chaos, uttering hissing sounds as the air was torn apart. It turned out to be a flying sword!
Li Yao recognized that the elite warrior was one of the ‘Death Teeth Guards’ on the Skeleton Island named ‘Green Ape’ who was best known for his agility. However, under the attack of the mysterious flying sword, he was barely able to dodge without revealing more openings.
What a marvelous sword technique! It must be an expert!
Li Yao narrowed his eyes. His telepathic thoughts spread out like a tide, hoping to locate the mysterious expert who was manipulating the flying sword.
To his surprise, he did not find any connection between the flying sword and an expert in the hundred square meters nearby. The flying sword was surrounded by nothing, without the least entanglement of telepathic thoughts or spiritual gas, as if it was attacking automatically!
That was quite uncanny. With Li Yao’s current capability, even experts in the Nascent Soul Stage or the demon emperor level might not have been able to hide within the hundred square meters near him!
After only a moment of hesitation, the bloody flying sword pierced into the shoulder of the Death Teeth Guard ‘Green Ape’!
Chiliu! Chiliu!
The sound of a ferocious beast devouring a meal was echoing from the flying sword!
Li Yao’s pupils constricted violently. It was not until this moment that he finally saw the full appearance of the flying sword. He could not have been more shocked!
The flying sword was apparently an ancient treasure from forty thousand years ago. It was rusted, lackluster, and incomplete. Quite a few dents could be found on the front end of the flying sword, too.
The body of the flying sword was tied up by countless black veins that looked like burnt vines, which intertwined at the end of the sword’s handle in the form of a burl.
The flying sword seemed nothing unusual, but after it pierced into the shoulder of Green Ape, the ‘vines’ that bound the sword wriggled as if they were alive, and thousands of bloody threads penetrated the flesh of the victim like tiny worms.
The flying sword seemed to boast a weird attraction force and was swallowing the flesh and flood of Green Ape one mouthful after another.
The shoulder of Green Ape, along with his chest, withered, collapsed, and dried at a visible speed!
For a Death Teeth Guard whose body was exceptionally strong, a wound on the shoulder should have been a piece of cake. But Green Ape seemed to be confined by a mysterious force. With the most horrified expression on his face, he was dumbfounded as he watched the black hole of decay expanding on his shoulder while he could do nothing about it.
Swoosh!
Li Yao stomped on the ground, kicking one of the broken sabers to his hand. Then his arm slapped like a whip while he threw the broken saber toward the bloody flying sword at a supersonic speed!
Li Yao had thought that the attack would have been enough to knock the bloody flying sword away. But the hundreds of bloody threads on the bloody flying sword suddenly interweaved into a bloody ‘spider web’ in midair, tying the broken saber up and absorbing it!
After only half a second, the Death Teeth Guard Green Ape had been sucked up and turned into a dry corpse!
After sucking enough blood, the dry vines around the flying sword were filled up and expanded one after another, changing into strong, healthy veins.
The black burl at the handle of the sword even exploded after several cracking sounds. It was fluctuating and echoing bam sounds, which seemed to be piercing into everybody’s soul. It looked like both a heart that was exposed to the air and a hideous, mysterious eye!
Li Yao secretly clicked his tongue. He had seen countless marvelous weapons in the Hundred Smelting Clan, but he had never seen such a weird flying sword that seemed to have really combined the magical equipment with flesh and blood before!
The flying sword that has grown a heart must have been one of the research products of the Mausoleum of Chaos. I didn’t expect that some of them would still be functional after a hibernation of forty thousand years!
Li Yao was secretly startled. He was almost sure that the flying sword was solely manipulated by the enormous bloody burl on the handle of the flying sword. Judging from the trajectory of the rapid flight, it was much more advanced than the autopiloting flying swords of the Star Glory Federation!
Hiss!
In the front of the flying sword, a few bloody threads craned up like tiny vipers and shook slightly toward Li Yao’s direction. Sensing the gratifying smell of delicious meat, the flying sword creaked and darted toward Li Yao in a streak of red brightness!
“Ahhh!”
Two shrieks echoed behind Li Yao. Chu Zhengqing and his daughter were writhing on the ground while holding their heads, indicating that the weird flying sword even boasted mental attack abilities.
Li Yao sniffed. With a cold smile on his face, he rolled his eyes quickly and suddenly extended his hand, snatching at the bloody flying sword!
The bloody flying sword seemed to be caught unprepared by his boldness. The bloody threads around its body all expanded and stood up like infuriated snakes while the flying sword pierced at his arm brutally!
Pa!
Li Yao was quick enough to hold the bloody flying sword in his hands.
The entangling bloody threads around the flying sword pierced deeply into Li Yao’s arm, too, trying to suck Li Yao’s blood as they had done a moment ago.
However, this time, the force of the flying sword was like a statue made of mud entering an ocean. Not only did it fail to absorb any blood, an even more immense force was flooding into the body of the flying sword along the bloody threads!
“What a mysterious flying sword! It boasts features of demon beasts and magical equipment. It can automatically secrete corrosive fungi that will melt the flesh of the target, allowing the flying sword to absorb the blood as the source of power!” the mental devil exclaimed both in surprise and in delight deep inside Li Yao’s brain.
Li Yao’s bloody pupil was revolving faster and faster. Tremendous mental power flowed toward the center of the bloody flying sword as he tried to completely suppress the flying sword.
The bloody flying sword did not expect that the target would be so tricky to deal with. After a high-pitched shriek, clusters of bloody mists burst out of the flying sword, and it galloped forward abruptly like a wild horse that had run loose.
At this moment, Li Yao only activated the strength equal to a demon general. Naturally, he was dragged forward by the bloody flying sword.
Li Yao was rather curious about the flying sword that carried the features of demon beasts. He was meaning to find out the maximum performance of it and therefore did not hurry to suppress the flying sword. He simply clutched the bloody flying sword while it rushed at a high speed in the underground world.
The Mausoleum of Chaos had multiple floors and looked like a city. Since the Blade of Chaos had only sent out an exploration team of several hundred members, it was impossible for them to establish defenses in every location.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Dragged by the bloody flying sword, Li Yao rushed inside the labyrinth-like mausoleum. Very soon, he was already out of the explored area of the Blade of Chaos and lost his way.
However hard the bloody flying sword struggled, it was not able to get rid of Li Yao. Like an agitated animal, it crashed straight into the walls in the end!
Heavy collisions echoed nonstop as the flying sword breached through multiple walls. There was no telling whether the walls were corroded or simply crashed through.
In front, however, was a square that was not marked on the map of the Blade of Chaos. Shadows were everywhere, and somebody was punching at Li Yao!
Li Yao’s pupils reflected the shadows in the square and immediately reacted. He pretended to be completely shocked and cried for help at the loudest of his voice.
The punch switched from piercing at him to sweeping, trying blow Li Yao off the bloody flying sword. Li Yao took the chance to let go of it and rolled on the ground.
He panted as if he had been exhausted.
The bloody flying sword, on the other hand, was like a snake that had been tossed into boiling oil and darted toward the origin of the punch in earsplitting shrieks.
However, after a bellow, the bloody flying sword was blown back and nailed into the wall after spinning in midair for a while.
Chi!
Smoke popped up from the charred, bloody flying sword. The previously-bulging veins had all withered, and the enormous blood tumor that looked both like a heart and an eyeball turned black and brown like a rotten eggplant now.
The flying sword seemed to be ‘dead’.
It appears that such a weapon has a high demand for blood. It must keep sucking blood in order to ensure the high-intensity functioning, Li Yao thought to himself. If it has no access to blood, it will fall into hibernation.
Never mind that. Where am I now?
Li Yao glanced around quickly.
After an aimless journey, he seemed to have reached the east side of the Mausoleum of Chaos, which was an unexplored area. On the map that he had received on his retina, this area was pure darkness.
However, wherever Li Yao’s eyes reached, there were lights everywhere. Several enormous airbags had been filled up in the center of the square, indicating that they were trying to cover something inside. Outside of the airbags, dozens of experts were staying alert.
Li Yao vaguely sensed that the capability of those experts was apparently much higher than that of Yuchi Ba’s Death Teeth Guards.
Many of them had exuded their full strength when they saw the incoming bloody flying sword. Judging from the intensity of their demonic energy, they were at least experts in the demon king level!
At least five demon kings!
It seems that I’ve arrived at a place that I shouldn’t have.
All the experts were wearing glittering, fully-enclosed suits with anti-poison helmets made of the skulls of giant demon beasts and transparent crystals. Their eyes were hidden behind the dark helmets. A thick, soft tube was extended out from their neck to their back, and they had an enormous emblem of the Blade of Chaos on their chest and their right arm. They could not have looked weirder.
It seems like this is the real exploration team.
Li Yao had been rather curious. With Yuchi Ba, a demon king, and a bunch of Death Teeth Guards selected from the gladiators, was it enough to explore the entire Mausoleum of Chaos?
That did not seem like a sound plan.
As it turned out, the exploration team that Yuchi Ba led was merely a disguise, and the team made of the mysterious experts was the main force of the Blade of Chaos!
But what were they excavating now?
Chapter 896: The Real Head
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
The elites of the Blade of Chaos that were wearing fully-enclosed, protective suits were looking at each other in bewilderment, too. They did not see it coming that a regular guard would suddenly barge in.
Li Yao could clearly feel the killing intent rising behind the masks made of the bones of demon beasts.
Li Yao’s appearance and his heart were like ice and fire, and he pondered the situation he was in carefully.
He was not scared that he would be killed. Five or so demon kings could not do anything to him at all.
However, if he started fighting them right now, it was unlikely for him to discover what they were searching for exactly.
The words of Ning Zhongze, who was an elder of the Blade of Chaos, were still resounding in his ears. It was said that the secret inside the Mausoleum of Chaos would very likely change the fate of the Blood Demon Sector and the Heaven’s Origin Sector.
It was the only reason why Li Yao was willing to enter the Mausoleum of Chaos.
I wonder, are there stronger experts behind the demon kings?
Li Yao waited patiently.
Right then, in one of the tents at the center of the square, a miserable scream that was a hundred times more devastating than that of the blood-sucking flying sword resounded!
Li Yao clearly sensed that the aura of the dozens of experts suddenly changed. The killing intent that they formed a moment ago all dissipated, and they were even somewhat anxious right now.
“Don’t move!”
A muscular demon three meters tall pointed at Li Yao and roared. Two curled sabers were drawn from the crossed sheaths on his back and danced into two streaks of brightness around him. His cold fighting will soared again, this time not toward Li Yao but the thing inside the tent.
Creak!
Almost at the same time, a bulging shadow charged out of the tent!
Li Yao took the opportunity to observe the inside of the tent through the fracture. A lot of gray, pale corpses were piled inside the tent and sealed in freezing rune arrays. Next to the corpses stood biochemical slots that looked like coffins. The elites of the Blade of Chaos in fully-enclosed suits were carefully stuffing the corpses into the biochemical slots.
Right now, the biochemical slot that was just built had half collapsed. It seemed that the sudden intrusion of the blood-sucking flying sword had caused the elites of the Blade of Chaos to make a mistake.
“Hooo!”
The shadow rushed out of the tent and gave Li Yao quite a surprise.
The ‘demon’ was wearing a fully-enclosed protective suit just like the other elites of the Blade of Chaos, but the silver armor was bulging as if it was not an appropriate size for the demon. Every part of the garment was protruding out.
Some gray and brown granulation tissues crawled out of the gaps of the armor and danced crazily both like a beard and like vines.
Unbelievable screams were echoing below the helmet made of the bones of demon beasts. After two ‘bam’ sounds, the two dark crystals embedded to the eyes of the mask exploded at the same time, and tentacles sprang out of the eyes and bouncing unpredictably like weird flames!
The weird appearance of the object made Li Yao feel that his blood was freezing.
The elites of the Blade of Chaos all jumped away as if it were a great enemy.
The speed of the weirdo was accelerated to the maximum as it lunged at a companion next to it.
Shua!
The elite of the Blade of Chaos who was about to fall prey to it slashed his saber out of natural instincts. The aura of the saber blossomed in front of him like fireworks, while the most brilliant part cut into the arm of the weird thing!
“No!”
A few elites of the Blade of Chaos near them shouted at the same time, but there was no time.
After the aura of saber flashed, the arm of the weird thing was immediately fell away. However, the broken hand dashed on the ground like a lizard supported by the tentacles. A large cluster of hazy, venomous fog also spurted out of the shoulder of the weird thing!
The venomous fog, as if alive, dispersed in midair and charged at everybody on the spot!
“Attack with fire and frost!”
The members of the Blade of Chaos standing at the edge finally came back to themselves. Purple flames darted out of their shoulders and formed high-heat barriers in midair.
The weird hand that was crawling on the ground aimlessly was also frozen tight by a cluster of blue gas.
However, the weird thing was more vigorous than expected. It was not scared of the scourge of frost and flames at all. Even when drowned in flames, the weird thing was not in the least affected and simply raged and roared like spluttering magma!
“Don’t touch him, or you will end up like him!”
The panicked elites of the Blade of Chaos all shouted.
Li Yao was secretly alarmed, too. He could tell that what the elites of the Blade of Chaos spurted out was an eccentric flame named ‘Purple Residence Hell Fire’. Similar to the Three Smell True Fire that the Cultivators utilized, it could melt steel instantly.
However, the weird thing was burnt in the Purple Residence Hell Fire for more than a minute, and yet it was still alive?
No…
Li Yao’s nose flapped, and his bloody pupil flickered. Although the weird thing was still jumping up and down and roaring like thunder, he did not sense any vital signs of a living creature from it at all.
There was not the surging demonic energy, not the flowing spiritual energy found inside Cultivators, not even a heartbeat and breath. Some sort of extremely uncanny force was supporting the weird thing from falling down.
It was… a dead body!
“What kind of force can stimulate such vigor in the cells after the creature is already dead?” Even the mental devil was shocked.
Huala!
The Purple Residence Hell Fire did not burn the weird thing at all. Instead, the armor and helmet of the weird thing both exploded in the furious flames. A gray shadow suddenly leapt out of the remains and stretched out like an octopus!
The fire wall and the icy blockage were not enough to stop the weird thing. At the critical moment, dozens of small black shadows darted from the tent nearby into the body of the weird thing like bullets!
The ‘bullets’ quickly rooted and sprouted like the seeds of a planet, quickly spreading on the surface of the weird thing.
The skin that was healthy a moment ago now turned into dried rind. The movement of the weird thing was significantly limited.
At that moment, the Purple Residence Hell Fire was finally able to leak into the body of the weird thing, burning its flesh and blood into ash at a visible speed.
A streak of scarlet brightness dashed out of the tent and floated above the head of the weird thing.
The immense pressure compressed the ash after the weird thing was burnt into a heap. Not the tiniest speck of dust was leaked out.
Very soon, the ash was frozen into an icy block, reflecting strange colors.
The weird riot was finally suppressed.
However, Li Yao’s wariness was at its peak.
He could keenly tell that the aura of the newcomer far exceeded normal demon kings. The few demon kings that prepared to attack him a moment ago apparently listened to his command, too.
He was a demon emperor!
He must be the real leader of the Blade of Chaos and the commander of the exploration operation!
The eyes that were hidden behind the helmet stopped on Li Yao for a long time.
Li Yao even sensed a fleeting killing intent.
However, after pondering for a moment, the newcomer still slowly landed on the ground and even took off the helmet, revealing a transparent, protective airbag.
Inside the airbag was a face that could almost be called handsome. Above the two eyes that were as brilliant as black diamonds were eyebrows that were furiously burning like flames. Two scarlet antennae were growing on his forehead and shivering slightly in the same pace as his heartbeat.
Li Yao had seen the face countless times in Jin Xinyue’s depiction.
It belonged to the cynical expert in the demon emperor level, the blood brother of Elder Nether Spring, and the master of Void Turmoil City, the Fire Ant King!
Everything makes sense now!
Li Yao suddenly realized what was going on.
Yuchi Ba is simply the master of the Skeleton Island and the manager of several arenas. How could he establish such an enormous organization like the Blade of Chaos in secret?
The Fire Ant King is a demon emperor after all. His wisdom and strategies could be seen from the fact that he created Void Turmoil City on his own. How could he have been fooled by Yuchi Ba for so many years?
If the Fire Ant King has been deliberately turning a blind eye, that will be much more reasonable.
His Void Turmoil City is the slave trading center of the entire Blood Demon Sector. Since so many slaves are coming in and out of the place every year, it is more than simple for him to select a bunch of low-level demons who have talent in training and yet hate the Pantheon of Demons’ guts!
Only the revenue he makes by selling slaves and strengthening drugs is enough to support the daily operations of an enormous organization!
He is the blood brother to Elder Nether Spring and the most notorious slave trader. Nobody would expect that he is actually the real leader of the Blade of Chaos!
The Fire Ant King glanced at Li Yao casually and did not think too much of the unimportant, regular member of the exploration team. He asked in a low voice, “Do you know me?”
Li Yao nodded.
The Fire Ant King was the master of Void Turmoil City. His portrait was everywhere on the Skeleton Island, and the few biggest arenas even had statues of him. It was certainly not a good idea to pretend not to know him.
“There’s no need to fret, my brother.” The Fire Ant King opened his arms and smiled. “As you can see, I am also a member of the Blade of Chaos and a brother who is fighting for a future where all the demons live equally together, just like you.”
His voice was as warm and comforting as jade and made everybody who heard it find it irresistible to trust him.
The Fire Ant King continued. “What you saw just now was the most immaculate weapon that God Chaos bestowed upon us, except that the weapon is still slightly unstable at this moment.
“However, after we completely crack the secrets of the weapon, it will only be a matter of time before the Blade of Chaos rises!”
An immaculate weapon?
Li Yao’s mind was greatly disturbed.
The Fire Ant King had clearly known that there was such an ‘immaculate weapon’ inside the Mausoleum of Chaos all the time. The ostensible operation to excavate the Mausoleum of Chaos had always been a disguise. His goal had been precisely this place!
What kind of terrifying weapon could turn a dead body into a dreadful, relentless warrior?
Besides, judging from the warning of the elites of the Blade of Chaos, the venomous fog that the dead body spurted out was strongly contagious.
Chapter 897: New Intruders!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
While Li Yao was dwelling in the shocking deductions, the antennas on the Fire Ant King’s head shivered slightly, as if he was receiving a lot of information. Weird Brilliance beamed out of his eyes as he observed Li Yao with great interest for a moment. With a smile, he asked, “Your name is Bloody Claw, your performance on the Skeleton Island was quite good, and you have a sister in Void Turmoil City, correct?
“Excellent!
“Everybody thinks that our organization hit rock bottom after the ‘Riot of Bloody Blade’ was suppressed. But they do not know that the ‘Riot of Bloody Blade’ is just a disguise, and the day when our organization soars into the sky will come as soon as we dig out the legacy inside the Mausoleum of Chaos!
“However, the most important task for us is yet to be finished and requires our joint effort!
“We must find the sacred body of God Chaos!”
Li Yao was greatly surprised. He had been thinking that ‘Chaos’ was a name for an organization and that this place was a secret base of the organization. But according to the Fire Ant King, was ‘Chaos’ really an individual buried in this place?
What kind of secrets were concealed in the ‘sacred body’ of Chaos?
The antennae of the Fire Ant King slightly moved. Li Yao immediately sensed that a torrent of information was transmitted to the receptors on his forehead.
Clicking sounds were echoing inside his brain. On the biochemical chips that he was wearing, information, data, and images were raining down like a storm.
They were the maps of the Mausoleum of Chaos, which were at least three times more detailed than those Li Yao had received a moment ago. Countless dense, interconnected roads were leading to the center of the underground.
I didn’t know that the Fire Ant King’s exploration on the Mausoleum of Chaos was so thorough!
Huh. Weird. A minor space is hidden thousands of meters below the research institute of the Mausoleum of Chaos. What is that?
Li Yao was in deep thought, but he put on an astonished and bewildered expression.
Similarly deep in thought, the Fire Ant King casually said, “I came to this place at great risk. Now that you’ve run into me, for the sake of confidentiality, you are not getting out of my sight easily.
“I’ve just read your files, and I can say that you are a rather excellent talent. So, you can follow me and look for the sacred body of God Chaos together with us!”
The Fire Ant King raised his arms high, with devotion and earnestness all over his face. “God Chaos is the ancestor of all demons. He is the creator of the demon race. If we can sort out all the secrets hidden inside the sacred body of God Chaos and receive his legacy, our organization will most certainly—”
Before he concluded his declaration, an abrupt change took place!
The earth was suddenly trembled violently, as if a series of shooting stars had hit the Star Swallowing Sea and raised an intense earthquake.
The trembling did not end until more than half a minute later, succeeded by messy, dull noises.
The antennae on the Fire Ant King’s forehead were cramping crazily, and his face turned extremely hideous, his killing intent soaring like the sharp edges of a saber. Not having time to explain anything to Li Yao, he simply led most of his subordinates into the darkness and rushed to the upper level of the temple while leaving Li Yao and several elites behind!
Intruders!
Li Yao recognized the source of the quakes keenly.
After countless battles against the demon race in the Heaven’s Origin Sector, and through the simulations of head-on clashes with the devilish warships in the Grand Illusionary Land, Li Yao could not have been more familiar with such quakes. They were a result of the bombardment of the acid cannons of the large devilish warships!
Judging from the intensity of the quakes, the caliber of the acid cannons was appallingly huge, and the devilish warships that accommodated them were certainly the main force models.
The Blade of Chaos was an underground organization. It was impossible, and unnecessary, for them to be equipped with such main force warships.
In the Blood Demon Sector, only the four major demon kingdoms had such capabilities!
Li Yao thought quickly as what to do next. The Fire Ant King seemed to have realized the formidability of the intruders and brought away all the demon kings. All that was left were simply a few demon generals.
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao risked scratching his ear and taking off one of his Cosmos Rings before he released Neltharion quietly.
Shua!
Neltharion entered stealth mode instantly, and its spiritual waves were constricted to the minimum. Normal Cultivators and demons would not be able to notice anything wrong.
Driving Neltharion, Li Yao followed the Fire Ant King from a distance.
The Fire Ant King was rushing forward anxiously and did not notice that a haunting shadow was closely tailing him from hundreds of meters away.
The second floor of the underground was already a mess. Nobody expected attacks from the sky. The warriors were in a hurry to wake up their biochemical beasts and ascend to the temple through the lifts.
Steering Neltharion, Li Yao chose a good moment to dash into a lift and hide beside everybody’s legs.
Those crammed in the lift were all demon soldiers and demon generals. Naturally, nobody noticed Neltharion at all.
On the first floor, inside the temple, the shocking view made Li Yao unable to stop himself from clicking his tongue.
The dome of the temple was already on the brink of destruction due to the corrosion of the acid cannons from the shell of the earth.
At this moment, dozens of enormous worms, which were more than ten meters in diameter and emitting metal colors all over their body, drilled through the dome toward the temple!
The enormous worms were similar to the ‘Iron Ore Sandworm’ on Iron Plateau. They had a circle of dense, sharp thorns around their head and rings of sharp teeth inside their mouthpart, which made them look like the ‘tunnel boring machine’ that was used to dig tunnels in the Star Glory Federation!
Li Yao knew that such demon beasts could often secrete super corrosive acids that could melt rocks and metals alike. They were most suitable to dig holes below the ground.
Under the bombardment of the acid cannons and the enormous worms, the dome of the temple was soon riddled with holes.
Demon beasts flooded into the underground world like a tide. They were the Ghost Face Silver Mosquitoes and the Colorful Flying Locusts, Li Yao’s ‘old friends’. Both kinds of demon beasts would sweep across everything they met and leave nothing behind!
Countless fully-armed warriors descended to the underground temple under the cover of the Ghost Face Silver Mosquitoes and the Colorful Flying Locusts!
The warriors were completely different from the demons that Li Yao had seen before. Most of them carried the distinctive features of the Insect Clan, but they were taller and stronger than the clan’s general members.
They were all more than three meters tall. With their bone armor that was as thick as a tortoise shell and the dense thorns and lumps on it, they were essentially heavy tanks that were standing on their feet!
What was weirder was that round, brilliant gems had been embedded to their forehead, chest, abdomen, elbows, and knees.
The gems seemed to be alive and were emitting intense spiritual waves, providing incessant energy for them and allowing them to raise a storm of blood among the members of the Blade of Chaos.
The members of the Blade of Chaos were no match for the intruders at all. They were like dry leaves in a blowing wind—the only outcome was to be shattered into pieces!
Li Yao saw that Electric Boa, the leopard tutor who trained him, rode the lightning serpent almost a hundred meters long and dashed at two intruders. Hundreds of electric arcs were spurting out of the mouth of the serpent and condensed into a hurricane of electricity!
However, one of the intruders formed a spluttering shield of energy on his left side with nothing except the bright yellow gems embedded on his left arm, blocking the hurricane of electricity effortlessly!
A series of smaller gems were embedded to the finger joints on the right hand of the other intruder. They were now activated in midair, releasing hideous threads of energy that were condensed into a sharp blade and pierced through the head of the lightning serpent!
Electric Boa screamed miserably and lost connection to the lightning boa, falling off from midair!
What kind of strength is this?
Li Yao secretly clicked his tongue. The capability of the intruders was certainly high, but it was not high enough for them to conduct a one-sided slaughter. It was the gems embedded in their bodies that had multiplied their combat ability!
Weird brilliance flashed deep inside a gem, giving Li Yao a hint as to what it was.
The demon cores!
The demon core was the most valuable part of a demon beast. Every strong demon beast would naturally generate a demon core inside their body after they swallowed enough Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and absorbed sufficient natural energy.
The energy contained inside the demon cores was even more immense than that inside the marrow crystals. They were the ultimate treasures that many Cultivators dreamed to get.
Before Li Yao entered the Building Foundation Stage, he had once been hunted by Wang Ji, a prince of the Kingdom of Lion Butchers, in the Thunderous Sound Mountain. He had only narrowly escaped the disaster by refining a demon core into a powerful bomb and blowing more than half of his pursuers into smithereens.
The mysterious intruders have gathered so many demon cores and embedded them into their own body through a certain secret technique!
They can borrow the strength of the demon cores every moment. They are essentially enhanced by the strength of dozens of demon beasts!
Li Yao was greatly shocked.
He calculated quickly. Judging from the velocity, strength, and frequency of the activation of the demon cores, most of the intruders were able to wield the capability of a demon king. Some of the intruders, who were embedded with dozens of demon cores and looked like captains, could even trigger the combat ability close to that of a demon emperor for a moment!
This is rather a great show!
In the shadows of the second floor, Li Yao’s eyes were cold and blinking like the indicators of the crystal processors that were functioning at the highest performance. He analyzed the routes and patterns of the attacks of all the enemies and evaluated their overall capability.
A hundred mysterious warriors with demon cores embedded into their bodies, with at least three enormous main-force devilish warships, as well as—
A slender shadow suddenly revealed its full appearance from the overwhelming mist of blood and dust.
He boasted a face that was even more handsome than many movie stars in the Star Glory Federation. It was so impeccable that it seemed to have been carved out of an entire piece of green jade. His body was covered in shells that seemed to be from insects, but they were perfectly melded with his body and did not give the slightest feeling of ugliness. On the contrary, the integration was simply natural and immaculate.
Dark golden brilliance was mixed in the green and black shells, making it look like the most glamorous armor that was built by the best craftsmen of the entire Blood Demon Sector!
After he showed up, the entire battlefield was eclipsed. The gory battles seemed to have been frozen into a dull background for him.
Chapter 898: Hidden Blood and Hidden Stories!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
“Nether Spring!”
Thunderous roars echoed inside the empty temple.
A red shooting star suddenly rose up and circled around several intruders, who were all blown backwards after a series of miserable screams.
The shadow covered in flames came to an abrupt halt right in front of the exceptionally handsome newcomer. The flames gradually faded away, revealing the outraged face of the Fire Ant King.
The antennae on his forehead had both been extended to the maximum and turned deep purple, tied up by veins. His body significantly expanded, and the shells that were stuck to his body closely all stood up like the unfolded flow stabilizers before a supersonic shuttle took off.
However, Li Yao had a feeling that his fury was more of a cover for his fear.
It was because standing in midair across him was Elder Nether Spring, who was one of the twelve demon emperors of the Pantheon of Demons, the ruler of the Nether Spring Kingdom, and one of the four giants of the Blood Demon Sector!
Li Yao had asked Jin Xinyue to draw vivid portraits of all the important figures of the Blood Demon Sector. But however deft Jin Xinyue’s hands were, she was not able to depict the real dominating aura of the unparalleled expert.
Although Li Yao was merely watching him through the image sent back by Neltharion, Li Yao could still sense overwhelming pressure from Elder Nether Spring, as if he was standing right behind and breathing quietly.
As expected of one of the four giants of the Blood Demon Sector!
He is certainly in the high level of the demon emperor stage, if not above it!
Li Yao was greatly alarmed and could not have been more vigilant. It was an enemy of the same level as Xiao Xuance or even stronger than him!
The Fire Ant King and Elder Nether Spring were blood brothers with the same parents. Except for the main colors of their shells, one being red and the other being green, their appearances were very similar to each other.
However, when the two of them stood together, one could not help but have a weird feeling that the Fire Ant King was just a ‘larva’ that was still growing, and Elder Nether Spring was the real ‘matured’ one!
The Fire Ant King and Elder Nether Spring, two demon emperors, confronted each other coldly.
Invisible air crashed, produces screeching gales, like ten thousand pressure cookers that were screaming at the same time.
The air was swirling in the vast temple, making the shadow of the two demon emperors somewhat warped.
“Nether Spring!”
His face twisted, the Fire Ant King gnashed his teeth. “How did you find this place?”
Elder Nether Spring smiled. His voice was much gentler and at ease than the Fire Ant King’s. “I’ve studied the Mausoleum of Chaos for decades. Naturally, I knew its rough location. Although I didn’t know the specific coordinates, I simply monitored your activities in Void Turmoil City and followed you to this place!”
The Fire Ant King’s pupils shrank violently, as if he had just understood everything. Blood seemed to be dropping from the ends of his antennae.
His voice turned extremely coarse. “You’ve long been suspecting me?”
“No. I never suspected you.”
Elder Nether Spring shook his head and said peacefully, “I have been very sure since the very beginning that such an enormous organization like the Blade of Chaos could not be established by a random guy. Also, my beloved brother, the Fire Ant King, was certainly not the type of demons who would abandon the Nether Spring Kingdom just because of familial bonds.
“Since you abandoned control over the Nether Spring Kingdom at your own will, there must’ve been something that attracted you more. In the meantime, the establishment of Void Turmoil City and the sudden rise of the Blade of Chaos were too coincidental. The few leading rebels in the Riot of Bloody Blade were all connected to Void Turmoil City one way or another. All things considered, isn’t the answer obvious?”
The Fire Ant King took a long breath. “Why didn’t you stop me?”
“Why would I?” Elder Nether Spring was amused. “What you were doing was exactly what I was interested in. Explore the origin of the demon race and discover the secrets of Chaos!
“However, as the controller of the Nether Spring Kingdom and one of the twelve demon emperors, it was not convenient for me to do a lot of things. Even if I did, a lot of traces would have been left, which would have raised the suspicion of the other demon emperors, especially the other three giants.
“Since my beloved brother was willing to do everything promptly, why shouldn’t I just sit and watch? As it turned out, you were more distinguished than I expected. Not only did you establish such a huge enterprise in Void Turmoil City, you also managed to find and open the Mausoleum of Chaos based on the incomplete files!”
“So, the files in Bone Sand City were leaked to me intentionally?” the Fire Ant King mumbled.
“You had some files about the Mausoleum of Chaos; I also had some files about the Mausoleum of Chaos,” Elder Nether Spring said casually. “Since I had no access to yours, I gave mine to you. Naturally, you tried your best to see that everything was done properly. I was saved a lot of trouble.
“Although something went wrong during the process, it is a happy ending after all, isn’t it?”
“Happy ending?”
The Fire Ant King glanced through Elder Nether Spring’s subordinates, with a face that was more and more hideous and crazy. He said, one word after another, “Nether Spring, it seems that I’ve been manipulated by you all this time. However, are you not curious as to why I joined the Blade of Chaos and even became its leader after decades?”
“Many silver-blood demons have joined the Blade of Chaos,” Elder Nether Spring replied. “For power, for strength, for revenge, for all kinds of weird reasons. What’s wrong with your decision?”
The Fire Ant King sneered, “If you think that I joined and made use of the Blade of Chaos only because I meant to taste the feeling to supreme power, then you are terribly mistaken!
“I am a real believer of Chaos!
“Why, you ask? The reason is simple!”
The Fire Ant King’s aura suddenly burst out, with glamorous flames surrounding him. After a while of rattling noises, a barrier that locked his body seemed to be detonated, and a long tail suddenly jerked out of his back.
The tail was more than one meter long and very elastic, which was clearly not a feature of the Insect Clan but one of the Horn Clan or the Claw Clan!
The Fire Ant King took a long breath in relief, as if he had freed himself from all the boundaries, and chuckled. “Do you see? A tail! A tail that does not belong to the Insect Clan!
“This is not a change that I achieved with the force of genes. It was awakened when I was fifteen and a half years old!
“The tail meant that I was not a pure silver-blood demon but a chaotic-blood demon that was mixed with the features of the Insect Clan and the Claw Clan!
“Haha. Hahahaha. At that time, I was truly devastated and almost killed myself many times.
“But after I browsed through a lot of ancient books, I learned that such things had happened a lot in history. Many silver-blood demons or even saint-blood demons who claimed that their bloodlines were pure had in fact been corrupted several generations before them. However, the genes that belonged to a different species had been hibernating the whole time.
“If the foreign genes remained hibernating all the time, they would be able to maintain their pretense as high-level demons throughout their life.
“Even so, the foreign genes would still be passed on to their offspring congenially!
“Hehe. If one of their unlucky offspring activated the hibernating foreign genes for reasons they didn’t know, they would turn from the noble saint-blood demons and silver-blood demons into the humblest chaotic-blood demons!
“In the ancient books, such pathetic guys had a most appropriate title—the hidden-blood demons!
“Yes. I am a hidden-blood demon, and my foreign genes were awakened although the odds were merely one billionth, which turned me from a silver-blood demon into a chaotic-blood one!
“That’s the real reason I abandoned the fight for power, established the Void Turmoil City, and eventually became the leader of the Blade of Chaos!”
The Fire Ant King blinked. For the first time, he seemed to be taking the initiative in the situation. With a cruel smile on his face, he said, “And what does that mean?
“Elder Nether Spring, you are my blood brother. Look at our appearances. Nobody can deny that!
“Now that I am not a high and mighty silver-blood demon but one of the most lowly and untouchable chaotic-blood demon according to the nobles, what about you?
“What are you, the controller of the Nether Spring Kingdom and one the four giants of the Blood Demon Sector, exactly?
“Do you see? Maybe the features of other demon species have not been displayed on your body yet, but the same foreign genes as mine are also hidden in your blood! I am the best evidence!
“You and I are the same. We are not silver-blood demons but chaotic-blood demons!”
In the second floor, Li Yao almost let out a cry because of the unbelievably shocking news.
Elder Nether Spring, one of the four giants of the Blood Demon Sector and one of the real decision-makers of the Pantheon of Demons, was actually one of the lowliest chaotic-blood demons?
It was indeed a piece of astounding news!
The Fire Ant King seemed to be confident about his victory. He shouted at the warriors in front of Elder Nether Spring who had been strengthened by the demon cores. “Maybe you are all loyal to Elder Nether Spring, maybe you do not care about whether or not he is a silver-blood demon at all, but please use your brain!
“You have all heard the biggest secret of Elder Nether Spring. Will he allow you to walk out of this place alive and tell everybody his real birth?”
The warriors strengthened by the demon cores and Elder Nether Spring himself, on the other hand, did not even move their antennae but eyed him in the same way that people eyed a moron.
The Fire Ant was dazed. A moment later, he shouted in a high-pitched voice, “You knew it long ago?
“You knew clearly that you were a chaotic-blood demon instead of a silver-blood demon?
“If so, why do you have to fight against me? Why are you so desperate to annihilate the Blade of Chaos? Why do you not work together with me and take back what belongs to the chaotic-blood demons?”
The Fire Ant King was completely at a loss.
“Yes.” Elder Nether Spring replied gloomily. “I discovered my real identity a long time ago. Therefore, I did not bring the army of the Pantheon of Demons, or the troops of the Nether Spring Kingdom, but my personal subordinates who are directly commanded by me. They are known as the ‘Nether World Watch’.
“You can stop wasting your time in encouraging the Nether World Watch to turn against me. You won’t be able to achieve that.
“As for my reason to annihilate the Blade of Chaos—”
Chapter 899: Fire Ant vs. Nether Spring
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Elder Nether Spring’s eyes suddenly turned extremely deep and seemed to be piercing through the Fire Ant King, the underground temple, and beyond. “You will know the reason very soon.”
Along with his words, the aura around him suddenly expanded, filling up every corner of the magnificent and spacious underground temple and turning the building into a narrow matchbox!
Even Li Yao was intimidated by the aura despite merely observing through Neltharion. The hair on his back all stood up, and his spine was emitting cracking noises. His fighting will expanded and flowed inside his veins like fire!
The few elites of the Blade of Chaos naturally did not have such keen senses. But they also felt that an overwhelming, limitless horror was leaking down through the rocks that were almost a hundred meters thick, placing them in an impenetrable coffin and making them have nowhere to run to!
The few members of the Blade of Chaos all shook violently in fear.
In the underground temple, the Fire Ant King’s aura burst out like a surging tide, too. With his roars, the front ends of the two antennae on his forehead suddenly blossomed like flower buds.
From the soil below his feet, eight enormous fire pillars suddenly rose up!
The fire pillars surrounded the Fire Ant King like eight snakes and danced crazily before they entangled and condensed each other above his head!
Some of the fire snakes crawled to the body of the Fire Ant King and knitted a glamorous armor of flames, but more fire snakes formed a majestic giant of flames, which opened its bloody mouth toward Elder Nether Spring!
“Hoooo!”
The roars of the fire giants blasted out intense airwaves, as if a cannon ball had just been detonated.
Even the Nether World Watch, strengthened by the demon cores and brought by Elder Nether Spring, could not do anything but retreat in front of the dominating aura!
The smile of Elder Nether Spring remained unchanged. He said calmly, “So, you’ve been stalling in order to summon the biochemical beasts in secret.”
“Exactly!” The Fire Ant King grinned hideously. “Big brother, they are the ‘Thousand Ghostly Fire Ants’ that I refined at the cost of endless Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and strengthening drugs after ten years. I’m afraid that the Ghost Face Silver Mosquitoes and the Colorful Flying Locusts will be burnt into ashes should they come any closer!”
Li Yao observed carefully and finally discovered that the armor condensed on the Fire Ant King and the fire giant behind him were actually not made of flames but formed by countless crimson ants!
Li Yao risked spreading out his telepathic thoughts and improving the scanning ability of Neltharion to the highest.
He found that the crimson ants were all the side of thumbs with sharp antennae and cold shells. They looked dozens of time more ferocious than the ‘Purple Ring Sword Rings’ that he was most familiar with.
On their shells and their wings, swirl-like natural spiritual stripes were growing, which, according to the pattern and structure, could significantly enhance the force of the flames.
Even one of the Thousand Ghostly Fire Ants should have been more than enough to burn the internal organs of a person into ashes when it crawled into their stomach.
But the Fire Ant King had refined thousands of Thousand Ghostly Fire Ants that were under the control of his telepathic thoughts. It was truly horrifying!
Li Yao was secretly alarmed. He had a better understanding about the mysteriousness of the biochemical beasts right now.
If he were faced with the Fire Ant King, he would not be at much of an advantage even if he made the best use of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, and he was not confident that he could secure the final victory at all!
BOOM!
While Li Yao was thinking quickly, the fierce battle between two demon emperors inside the underground temple had already broken out!
With the biochemical armor made of the Thousand Ghostly Fire Ants on his body, the Fire Ant King’s aura was levels higher than before. He took the initiative to attack Elder Nether Spring!
Since the fire giant behind him was made of the Thousand Ghostly Fire Ants, it was not restricted to a fixed form. The two arms whipped out and immediately turned into almost hundred tentacles, darting at Elder Nether Spring and more than ten soldiers of the Nether World Watch near him!
The front ends of every tentacle were blossoming like a flower, revealing a hideous bloody mouth that looked that the most vicious carnivorous flower!
But Elder Nether Spring simply put his hands behind him while he faced almost ten fiery carnivorous flowers casually. He did not even bother to defend himself.
CRACK!
The fiery carnivorous flowers lunged on Elder Nether Spring and bit him hard.
The Thousand Ghostly Fire Ants flooded into his body like magma and burnt him through from inside to outside!
Li Yao was dumbfounded. You can’t be serious. The giant of the Blood Demon Sector has been defeated so easily?
But there was no ecstasy from slaying an enemy quickly on the Fire Ant King’s face at all—he looked incredibly gloomy.
BAM!
A moment later, Elder Nether Spring who was consumed by the flames suddenly exploded into tiny sparks like roaming fireflies.
Well—
Li Yao gasped hard. The body of Elder Nether Spring was actually made of thousands of ants?
Right at this moment, dull humming sounds echoed inside the holes on the ceiling of the temple. A large cluster of green mist dropped down like the thick tar and condensed into errorless balls.
The green balls were all made of ants that looked like green jade.
A moment later, the green ants wriggled and rippled out into the shapes of green figures.
The green ants were all translucent and looked both like jade and like glass. Rays of lights flowed like water, and they soon all turned into the image of Elder Nether Spring!
Biochemical beasts that can simulate the shape of other creatures!
Li Yao was truly shocked.
The Elder Nether Spring in the beginning had been made of biochemical beasts, but he did not sense anything wrong at all!
Although there was latency and distortion when he was perceiving the opponent via Neltharion, Li Yao was not confident that he could have distinguished the real identity of the ‘Elder Nether Spring’ if he had been standing right before him a moment ago!
Ten clusters of green ants phantomized into ten Elder Nether Springs and stood in front of the Fire Ant King with exactly the same sunny smile.
They narrowed their eyes, as if they had just enjoyed the most delicious meal, and said casually at the same time, “With the ‘Gold Flame Poison Ants’, ‘Demolishing Devil Ants’, ‘Purple Ring Sword Ants’, and another dozen types of brutal ants as the foundation, and feeding them with the Phoenix King Grass, the Red Cloud Crystals, the Soul Separating Ghosts… and other materials, you’ve successfully made your Thousand Ghostly Fire Ants trigger a high temperature of more than two thousand degrees instantly. Huh. They can also detonate themselves?
“Very impressive biochemical beasts!”
Hiu!
Before he concluded his sentence, the ten ‘Elder Nether Springs’ launched attacks toward the Fire Ant King at the same time!
In a moment, more than ten green air currents and streams of flames appeared and crashed into each other brutally.
Most of the ‘Elder Nether Springs’ were broken and shattered by the Thousand Ghostly Fire Ants. However, they were all clones made of the green ants. With the incessant supply of the green ants from the ceiling, it was impossible to annihilate all of them!
In the eyes of most bystanders, the fierce battle was perhaps merely the flashing lights of green and red. But Li Yao felt cold sweat covering all over his forehead while he was observing!
Elder Nether Spring was of the same origin as the Fire Ant King. They were both super experts in manipulating the ant-type biochemical beasts, but their combat styles were vastly different.
The Fire Ant King’s armor and weapons that were made of countless Thousand Ghostly Fire Ants were already dazzling enough for Li Yao.
But the endless clones that Elder Nether Spring created based on the phantom green ants were all connected to himself in a weird way. When a clone suffered an attack, he could even calculate the enormous data regarding the source of the attack and even gasp the essence of the weapon.
Strong. That’s too strong!
Judging from the speed, strength, and reaction of every clone of Elder Nether Spring, Li Yao estimated that all of them boasted a combat ability above the middle level of the demon king state!
But ten Elder Springs combined were far stronger than ten middle-level demon kings!
It was because one’s mind was hard to predict. Even deeply connected twins could not guess every step that their sibling was going to make in the next second—neat as their cooperation might be, there would certainly be tiny loopholes.
However, all the clones there were manipulated by Elder Nether Spring, and they were essentially his ten fingers. Their teamwork was flawless and marvelous!
What was more critical was that Li Yao could not tell whether or not the real Elder Nether Spring was hiding among them!
It was exactly what the Fire Ant King was wary of.
With the immense capability of a demon emperor, he would not have been blocked by the clones. But he seemed to be bound by invisible chains. There were several times when he could have broken out of the siege or implement a destructive strike on one of the clones, but he simply retreated at the most crucial moment every time.
Others might have thought that he was too timid, but Li Yao knew that he was making the most sensible choice.
Elder Nether Spring’s tactics were very similar to Xiao Xuance’s strategy in the end when he chose to hide himself among the Grand Illusionary Soldiers.
How come those super experts are all more cunning than me?
Li Yao felt a splitting headache coming on because he discovered that he would not have too many options if he were in the Fire Ant King’s place faced with such an unreasonable tactic.
The total number of the Fire Ant King’s Thousand Ghostly Fire Ants was finite after all. After multiple bombardments, the armor and the giant of flames were all getting much more lackluster than before.
But Elder Nether Spring’s clones were utterly unhurried, showing no intention to speed up the pace of attack.
In the meantime, the Nether World Watch behind him was lunging at the members of the Blade of Chaos like wolves and tigers!
What should I do?
Li Yao, who was observing the battle in the lower floor, thought quickly and calculated the speed and strength of all the soldiers of the Blade of Chaos and the Nether World Watch in order to compare their overall combat ability!
Almost a hundred different changes of the situation popped up inside his brain at the same time. They were the most likely outcomes when he joined the battle at different timings.
The Nether World Watch is quite strong. After the enhancement of the demon cores, more than ten of them have a combat ability equal to that of a demon king. The members of the Blade of Chaos are no match for them at all!
But they do not seem to be slaying the members of the Blade of Chaos—instead, knocking down and capturing them?
Elder Nether Spring hasn’t revealed his real capability yet. There’s no telling whether or not he can summon more clones or perform an even more irresistible deadly skill.
Right now, I have three options!
Firstly, run away immediately without bothering anything!
Secondly, join the battle and fight against Elder Nether Spring with the Fire Ant King!
Thirdly, flee deep underground and lurk in the darkness while waiting for a better opportunity!
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