Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 119
The several dozen array glyphs all around the metal box suddenly flared to sketch the criss-cross structure of a profound and complicated glyph.
The large metal box made a smooth mechanical sound as all sides of the box suddenly unfolded open, revealing countless crystal gears.
The entire structure went through a transformation as the gears operated at high speeds—it actually transformed into a portable weapons rack!
Sabers, spears, swords, halberds, hatchets, axes, hooks, tridents... 18 classes of bladed weapons of every variety were available, all of which were flowing with brilliant light. They were all dauntless close combat magical equipment!
"This is way too excessive!"
Everyone looked at each other in dismay. They never expected that Li Yao would carry this many close combat magical equipment.
He really deserved to be called a refiner!
The Gold Armored Saber Mantis was intimidated by the cold aura of the weapons. It was stunned for a long time before being stimulated by the savage nature of a beast from its pain. It brandished its sickle-like forelimb and suddenly came charging over!
Li Yao was composed as he reached out with his left arm towards the weapons rack and put a black iron ring on his wrist.
Then, he whistled. Five black shields the size of palms flew into the air and revolved slowly around him. Occasionally, they would combine together to form a large shield in front of his left arm. Occasionally, this large shield would disperse back to smaller shields that protected every vital point on his body.
Li Yao shot out with his right hand and grabbed a flaming saber. It was as if he was wielding a raging and burning flame. The corners of his mouth curled up as he charged at the Gold Armored Saber Mantis with a chuckle.
The Gold Armored Saber Mantis greatly displayed its mad nature. It shrieked and it heavily rammed over!
Li Yao didn't hide or dodge. The five shields on his left arm combined to form a single large shield, forcefully blocking the Gold Armored Saber Mantis's ramming attack.
With a boom, Li Yao flew seven, eight meters away.
The Gold Armored Saber Mantis also reeled back by four, five steps. It staggered and was somewhat disoriented.
"This ability to resist blows is far too terrifying! It can actually match the full force of a demon beast!"
Everyone, including the mighty Lu Tieshan, was scared witless at the sight of this scene.
The strength of the Gold Armored Saber Mantis didn't necessarily fall to the level of a low level demon beast even if it was seriously injured. Demon beasts were known for their great strength, and after being injured, the mantis greatly displayed its mad nature.
Li Yao was actually able to meet it head on?
And...
After turning his body mid air and landing on the ground, Li Yao squatted deeply with his legs and let out a long whistle. He sprung up and pounced. The flaming saber's tip was released to be over three meters long. It went to ferociously cleave through the Gold Armored Saber Mantis!
He was actually the first to recover from the Gold Armored Saber Mantis's ramming attack!
"Hiss!"
The Gold Armored Saber Mantis was still dizzy. It never thought that this human would be this dauntless.
Having been caught off guard, it was cleaved by the saber.
Even though its carapace was incomparably hard, this saber penetrated deeply into its body and a giant gush of purple fluid spurted out, which was then evaporated in an instant by the flaming saber, letting out a "Tsss".
"For its temperature to be this high, what kind of saber is this? And it can even split the carapace of a Gold Armored Saber Mantis with a single swing!"
All the freshmen had gradually gotten used to Li Yao's strong and fierce body.
However, they were curious about the model of the peculiar saber.
Most notably were the sword cultivators of the Chaos Edge Hall. Their eyes flared when they saw just how sharp this flaming saber was. They discussed spiritedly, but in the end, they were unable to think of just which sect had refined that masterwork weapon.
With this one strike hitting its target, Li Yao knew to quit when he was ahead. He instantly retreated five meters to avoid another dangerous and explosive attack from the Gold Armored Saber Mantis. He put the flaming saber back to the weapons rack and took out a chainsword.
Not only was the sword blade of this chainsword especially large and wide, the sawteeth looked to be like the fangs of wolves and had a slight curvature to them. It was unknown what kind of forging technique was used to have a faint color of blood be infused in the tips of the sawteeth. Its imposing air was extremely terrifying.
With a shaking of his hand, the wolf sawteeth began to vibrate at high speeds to cut through the air, letting out a terrifying purr.
Li Yao, wielding the chainsword, pounced at the mantis once again!
After the dazzling display of firepower, Li Yao devoted the next ten minutes to demonstrating his wonderful, brilliant, and varied close combat magical equipment!
Aside from the flaming saber and the wolf fang chainsword, he took out battle-axes, great hammers, spears, and etc from the weapons rack one after another. He had taken out a dozen or so close-combat magical equipment.
Every type of weapon was a strange model and was far different from the close combat magical equipment commonly seen on the market.
The astonishment in Zhao Tianchong's and Lu Tieshan's eyes grew more and more intense.
The others were shocked by Li Yao endlessly producing all sorts of magical equipment, but they were shocked by the essence of Li Yao's incomparably strong and fierce body.
The two discovered that it didn't matter what magical equipment Li Yao wielded. Li Yao had only one pattern of attack.
And it was not fancy at all; it was just meeting force with force. First, he would use the shield to ram the Gold Armored Saber Mantis, and then he would take advantage of the Gold Armored Saber Mantis's dizzy state and pounce on top of it at flying speeds to unleash an attack.
And before the Gold Armored Saber Mantis could recover, Li Yao would quickly retreat and switch to a different weapon.
These tactics were utterly simple and crude, but they were absolutely effective.
However, only Li Yao, with his monstrous transformation of being able to resist blows, was able to use this kind of tactic.
If it were anyone else, even if they had a shield for protection, they would only be able to withstand up to three to five collisions before spitting up blood.
"What do you think of Li Yao's combat strength? If he was facing us two versus one instead of a demon beast, who do you think would win?"
Zhao Tianchong whispered to Lu Tieshan.
Lu Tieshan silently muttered to himself before saying:
"Li Yao's strength and ability to resist blows is completely enough to shock me. His instantaneous burst strength is also very powerful. Just look. He's deep in his squat when he suddenly explodes forth. His speed instantly reaches his maximum like a hurricane. Even the Gold Armored Saber Mantis is finding it hard to react to."
"Other than this, he's a complete expert in defense. He must have cultivated in a technique that specializes in defense. A strange protective film formed from his spiritual energy covers his entire body. The deadly offensive displayed several times by the Gold Armored Saber Mantis was all dispersed by this protective film!"
"He has this layer of spiritual energy protective film. Combine this with his steel-like physique, and Li Yao's defensive power might dreadfully be higher than that of the Gold Armored Saber Mantis. Even if I land my Thunder Devil Fist, I don't have the confidence that I would be able to blast apart his defenses."
"However..."
Lu Tieshan made a change in topic. He spoke somewhat befuddled, "Compared to his defenses, his attacks are simply a mess. I can't even stand to directly look at it. It’s completely at the level of an amateur!"
Zhao Tianchong nodded and said:
"I agree with your views, but I feel that Li Yao has chosen wisely."
"Wisely?"
Lu Tieshan scratched his hair and asked, "What do you mean?"
Zhao Tianchong chuckled and explained:
"A person's time and energy are limited. It's impossible to learn everything. For fellow student Li Yao to be able to modify and produce a 1st Generation Tai'e crafting furnace, clearly, he has put in a great amount of time and energy into refining techniques, so how much time would he have left to spend on combat cultivation?"
"Even if he doesn't have the time, he should first learn more practical skills."
"With his great strength, he can carry more magical equipment and items than us and he can display the superiority of being a 'massively equipped man'."
"His ability to resist blows is strong and he has a superior defensive technique. These can all help raise his survival rate on the battlefield."
"As for offensive techniques, it doesn't matter if he learns them or not. In the end, he's a refiner, not the main force of combat."
Lu Tieshan let out a long breath after listening. He spoke with some anxiety in his heart:
"I understand now after your explanation. It looks likes this kid is still a normal human. He doesn't know everything. His greatest weakness is being not good at attacking."
Zhao Tianchong replied:
"You can't really say it’s a weakness. Everyone has chosen a different specialty, so certainly, everyone has different paths of development. If someone knows how to refine, has extraordinary strength, and is a master in close-combat, then that's simply..."
He shook his head and didn't continue speaking.
Then, a sudden change occurred at this time.
The Gold Armored Saber Mantis, with cuts all over its body, was nearly drained of all its purple fluids. It finally was unable to endure the frontal standoff against Li Yao. Letting out a shriek and a "swoosh", two thin transparent cicada-like wings suddenly unfolded from its body
With a light leap, the Gold Armored Saber Mantis flew a dozen or so meters—it fled in a panic!
"Li Yao was able to force a Gold Armored Saber Mantis to retreat all by himself?"
Even now, there were still quite a few freshmen who couldn't believe their eyes.
Li Yao calmly felt out a small remote control from his waist. A smile filled his face. He aimed it at the direction the Gold Armored Saber Mantis was fleeing in and lightly pressed.
B-B-B-B-B-B-B-Boom!
The Gold Armored Saber Mantis suddenly shivered, and then its entire body exploded.
Several dozen balls of fire suddenly expanded, transforming into slow blossoming lotuses of blood one after another!
Chapter 173: Main Competitive Strength |
"What the heck?"
At first, the group of people was deathly silent, but then they exploded with shouts of shock one after another, never stopping.
"Did he cultivate in some exceptional mystical ability to allow his spiritual energy to penetrate into the Gold Armored Saber Mantis and have it hibernate within the mantis's blood only to have it explode during its final moment?"
Lu Tieshan forehead seeped with sweat.
The Devil Fist Sect had several similar mystical abilities, but these were high level techniques that only powerful cultivators at the Building Foundation Stage or higher could use.
How could Li Yao do such a thing by himself?
Zhao Tianchong stared dead-fixed at the remote control in Li Yao's hand and shook his head:
"It's not an ability. There are bombs!"
Lu Tieshan cried out:
"Bombs? When did he have the time to put so many bombs on the Gold Armored Saber Mantis? Not to mention that the Gold Armored Saber Mantis's carapace is incomparably smooth, so how did he get the bombs to stick?"
Zhao Tianchong was a bit crushed as he muttered:
"We're still underestimating fellow student Li Yao far too much. We thought that he decided to meet force with force against the Gold Armored Saber Mantis by relying on his powerful and strong physique and his powerful ability to resist blows... I only realized it just now. This was all a trap to hide his killer move!"
Lu Tieshan gaped and his eyeballs spun. It seemed that he understood something as his expression grew more aghast.
Zhao Tianchong saw Lu Tieshan's ashen face and knew that he had seen through a few things. Zhao Tianchong nodded and said:
"Yes, I'm afraid it’s as you've guessed. For fellow student Li Yao met the Gold Armored Saber Mantis using force against force, it was only to cause the Gold Armored Saber Mantis to have a moment of dizziness so that he could draw in to close range."
"In the instant when the distance between the two closed in to zero, Li Yao took a few miniature bombs and secretly put them onto the Gold Armored Saber Mantis's body."
"As for how he was able to get these bombs to stick onto the Gold Armored Saber Mantis’s smooth carapace, I don't know."
"He was able to place a few miniature bombs with every collision."
"A dozen collisions later, several dozens of miniature bombs were attached to the vital points of the Gold Armored Saber Mantis."
"This demon beast was already seriously injured. It made a frantic getaway without caring for its injuries and was flying at high speeds when the dozen of miniature bombs exploded at that same time, so how else could it have ended beside it dying?"
"It's impossible for fellow student Li Yao to bring this many bombs on him in one go. We believed that each time Li Yao retreated to the weapons rack, it was to swap for a new weapon to use the Gold Armored Saber Mantis as a test subject for testing the might of his magical equipment."
"However, this was just one of his goals. A more important goal was to use the swapping of weapons to cover up grabbing more miniature bombs."
"The Gold Armored Saber Mantis has extremely high intelligence. If it had seen Li Yao grab a whole bunch of bombs, it certainly would have fled early on."
"Only in this way could Li Yao attach several dozen miniature bombs to the carapace of the demon beast. And it didn't even know what hit it—it never discovered it even until death!"
Zhao Tianchong laughed bitterly and continued:
"Fellow student Li Yao understands his weak point of having a lack of attack ability very well. He actually managed to think of such a strange combat tactic that displays his superiority in hand speed to the pinnacle."
"I had to think back in great detail to be able to think of this. He had performed a few seemingly redundant movements."
"I originally thought that his hands were flustered because he wasn't good at attacking, so I didn't think it was important."
"Only now do I know—that was the time he had placed the miniature bombs!"
"If we were his enemy and he places some bombs on our body when we exchange blows, what do you think the aftermath would be like?"
Lu Tieshan pondered for a moment before shaking his head hard:
"That's impossible. We're different from demon beasts."
"The carapace around the Gold Armored Saber Mantis is a layer of exoskeleton. There are no sensory organs, so it can't feel the subtle changes on its carapace, which was how Li Yao was able to attach several dozen bombs without it knowing. We're people who cultivate, and every fine hair is incomparably sensitive. We would find out in the first instance!"
Even so, fear still lingered in these two people's hearts.
This was because they realized that Li Yao wasn't a simple meat-head with overly developed limbs.
Even if he possessed tyrannical and incomparable strength, within the midst of battle, what he loved to use more was...
His brain!
Zhao Tianchong's expression turned incomparably grave in an instant. He clenched his teeth as he said, "People may be given the wrong birth name, but nicknames are never wrong. I've heard that fellow student Li Yao has a nickname back in his hometown called 'The Vulture'. He truly lives up to his name. He's a vulture that's vicious, crazy, and cunning!"
During their conversation, Li Yao returned with a face full of calmness.
Everyone immediately surrounded him to chatter at the same time:
"Fellow student Li Yao, you really broke into the 4th level of the Refinement Stage? That's way too incredible!"
"Fellow student Li Yao, these magical equipment you just used, just which sect refined them? No matter how I look at them, they all look somewhat familiar, but I can't think of any at all!"
"Did you really use bombs to finish off the Gold Armored Saber Mantis, fellow student Li Yao? How were you able to have the bombs stay attached to the smooth carapace of the Gold Armored Saber Mantis for so long? They didn't fall no matter how violently it moved!"
Li Yao split into a grin and spread open his empty pair of hands. His hands subtly swayed and four fine miniature crystal bombs appeared between his fingers.
They were different from normal bombs. This kind of bomb had a sticky light green slime on one side and was carefully wrapped by a layer of film.
"This is my special sticky bomb. One side is applied with the slime of a Bullet Dart Frog. As soon as it’s exposed to the air, it can generate an extremely strong adhesive strength and stick itself to the carapace of a demon beast for a full dozen minutes!"
"This was specially refined to break the hard outer husks of demon beasts!"
The Bullet Dart Frog was a large frog species that was commonly seen in the Heaven Origin Sector.
Its tongue was very long and was even coated with a powerful, adhesive fluid. As soon as its tongue lashed out, the tongue could even cling to small animals atop of branches. The tongue would then retract and the frog would eat the prey. And so, this was how its name came to be.
After people discovered the special characteristic of this frog, the Bullet Dart Frog was raised on a massive scale for the extraction of the slime of its tongue. The slime was regarded as a purely natural glue.
However, this was the first time they saw the glue and a bomb be combined together. Their eyes couldn't be stopped from lighting up.
Li Yao handed the sticky bomb to the student next to him to let everyone take a look at it. Then, he casually raised his flaming saber:
