Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 324
Such communications made Li Yao overjoyed. He took advantage of the opportunity and responded to each of the reviews and comments. As a result, the total number of the replies below the answer quickly surpassed ten thousand at a growth of thirty to fifty per minute.
In the eyes of the bystanders, it was an intriguing banquet that they wouldn't miss for the world.
"Look, look! 'North Sea' has come to respond! North Sea is a professor of the Flying Sword Department of Flying Star University and also one of the pillars among the sword Cultivators!"
"Wow. Even 'Oblivion' is here! The vice dean of the Flying Department of Heavenly Saints Institute is said to be managing a new project, trying to create the fastest flying sword of the Flying Star Sector!"
"And this one, 'Falling Snow'. She is an elder of Black Summit Sword Sect and a renowned sword Cultivator who has been focusing on real-life combat! Even she couldn't help it any longer and offered her opinions!"
For the fans of flying swords, this was the most exciting day ever!
It was like all the experts in flying swords of the Flying Star Sector had gathered to attack a mysterious man. Under the continuous bombardment of so many experts, despite his inadequacies, the mysterious man was always able to throw out certain previously-unknown theories, rune arrays, or spiritual energy circulation models to prove his point.
This debate quickly rushed into the top five of 'Most Marvelous Questions and Answers of the Day', and therefore became even livelier. Thousands of fans of flying swords joined the debate. But most of them were merely paying respect to the contestants on both sides of the dispute, because amateurs such as themselves had no chance to offer their input in a battle of such a high academic level.
The debate lasted a day and a night. In the end, Fiend Star finally couldn't stand it any longer and admitted that there were still a lot of deficiencies in his theories and that he should learn more from the fellow Cultivators.
The scholars and experts of flying swords all took a long breath in relief. They stopped being at loggerheads with each other and shared a lot of confidential theories, models, and structural designs. It became a real knowledge exchange. The fans of flying swords greatly enjoyed themselves, too, and were more curious about the identity of Fiend Star than ever.
"Who is this Fiend Star exactly?"
In the office of the Flying Sword Department of Flying Star University, several grey-haired professors looked at each other in bewilderment. Their wrinkled faces were full of confusion.
"Who is Fiend Star, and how does he know so much about classical refining theories? Is he one of the academic specialists that Flying Star Sector introduced from other space zones?"
Quite a few old scholars of the Heavenly Saints Institute were pondering similar questions.
In the meantime, countless sword Cultivators who had participated in the debate just now were asking the same thing.
Inside his personal space, Li Yao exclaimed in excitement, "Nice! This is nice!"
His theories were not impeccable after all. It was based on his first-hand experience. Normal people might not be able to notice anything wrong with it, but the real experts could see through the inconsistencies and falsify his statements eventually.
However, Li Yao was not frustrated at all but burning with fighting will.
It was not bad to be proved wrong. One could always locate one's deficiencies when they were pointed out. The real bad thing was that one's opinion was completely ignored after it was proposed, in which case one would not be able to improve oneself at all.
After one day and one night of debating, Li Yao felt that his brain was sharper, and his mind was clearer. His expertise in refining had increased a lot, too.
"I should have more such debate sessions. I bet my Cultivation will soar!"
In the coming seven days, Li Yao answered a few other questions such as 'what does it feel like to refine a classical flying sword in person' and 'what were some of the shocking artifacts in the ancient Cultivation world forty thousand years ago'. He exchanged his opinions with other experts of refining and improved his capability in the fierce arguments. In the meantime, the name of 'Fiend Star' spread afar.
"Fiend Star must be an elder who has been living in the depths of the sea of stars in isolation studying classical refining theories alone all the time. He was a hermit and did not know much about modern refining theories. This time, he only showed up in the Spiritual Nexus and disseminate the ancient arts of refining because of the encouragement of his younger friends."
Many fans speculated as such. They pictured such an image in their mind: linen clothes, grass shoes, long white hair, solemn face, deep eyes, and a vintage bronze long sword hanging from the waist. He walked casually on the street, and when he felt that he was in the mood, he would sit cross-legged in the middle of the crowds and sing a song with his sword as his instrument…
Yes, Master Fiend Star must be exactly like this.
However, from the seventh day, Master Fiend Star appeared much less than before, making many fans scratch their heads, eager to know when he'd next appear.
Li Yao had finished the modification of 'Eight Arm'.
Deep within his bones, Li Yao was still an aggressive and brutal man. Of course, his crystal suit could not just focus on maintenance.
Li Yao performed a major modification on the automating system of Eight Arm's crystal processor and dropped all the units that were used to guide a combat. What replaced them were crystal cameras with higher resolutions and a soundwave perception system, which improved the crystal suit's sensitivity to the outside world by more than three times.
Such a modification would surely triple the information stream crowding into the brain and could prove to be a heavy burden.
However, Li Yao didn't care about it.
Other than that, he had also hidden a lot of aggressive magical equipment inside the six artificial arms of Eight Arm in the most surreptitious ways possible while keeping most of the maintenance magical equipment in their original place.
On the outside, it was still a harmless crystal suit for maintenance work. But when it was engaged in real combat, it would immediately tear off its mask and reveal its brutal true face.
The brand new Eight Arm was decorated with a layer of rock-gray camouflage. Traces of damage were left on it, too. It appeared to a field-tested crystal suit that had never been well maintained. The awesomeness of an advanced crystal suit of Silver Heart School was completely ripped off. It appeared to be nothing but an ordinary civil crystal suit now.
Li Yao was very excited that the job was finally done. What came next should be a test.
The World of Crystal Suits was divided into two parts. Li Yao had always shown himself as a refiner. This time, he was planning to play in the virtual matching platform as an Exo.
To this moment, he hadn't really fought with the expert Exos of the Flying Star Sector yet. Capturing Fengyu Ming on Ghost Jail had solely been based on the unexpected assault and the overwhelming specifications of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit. It had lasted only one second and was not enjoyable at all.
The matching zone and refining zone were two completely different areas. A user could choose to keep the same name or apply for a new one.
Thinking for a moment, Li Yao applied for a new identity.
"My name is… Vulture!"
To enter the matching zone required a capability test, too. However, due to the restrictions of the Great Illusionary Land, it was impossible to simulate every user's precise capability. Therefore, the fuzzy regulation theory was adopted, and all the users whose capability was close to a certain level would be rounded to the level.
Li Yao's test result was that his explosive spiritual energy had surpassed the threshold of the Building Foundation Stage. Therefore, he was allowed to enter the dedicated zone for Building Foundation Stage Cultivators and train in the middle level of the Building Foundation Stage. Of course, his opponents would be in the same level, too.
In such virtual competitions, it was impossible that someone's capability would suddenly soar. Techniques and tactics were the factors that mattered.
There were various modes in the matching zone, too. The simplest mode was a duel between two Exos. If there were more Exos, they could also form into groups and start a team competition. Other than that, there were modes in which all the participants would be in the same team to challenge demon beasts or demonic Cultivators automatically generated by the system.
Although the competitions were virtual, the improvement of techniques and tactics was 100% authentic. Therefore, many experts in reality preferred to train in this place, too. Those on the top of the rank were all renowned super experts in the real world.
Li Yao entered the simplest one on one duel zone.
Hundreds of Exos were waiting to be challenged.
But whomever Li Yao shifted his telepathic thoughts to, he failed to enter a battleground with his opponent. With a careful look, he noticed that they all had requirements about the win rate and refused to accept the challenges of the rookies. His win rate was zero, and so was the number of matches he had participated in. Without exception, he was turned down coldly.
"Pretty demanding!"
After a reminder of the system, Li Yao opted to display his name and selected 'Accept All Challenges'. Then he started wandering around the duel zone.
Most of the competitions there were open to everyone who paid enough crystal coins.
For the competitions between common Exos, one crystal coin might be enough. But the ticket for the competitions of the super experts at the top of the rankings might be dozens of crystal coins.
Li Yao had earned quite a lot of crystal coins by answering questions previously. Therefore, he simply picked one of the competitions and started watching in pleasure.
Just when he was enjoying himself, he suddenly heard the sound of a notification. Somebody had challenged him!
Chapter 477: Fighting in Ice Ocean |
Since Li Yao was still new to it all, he selected 'random' for every setting. The system had automatically picked 'Ice Ocean' as their battlefield.
It was a gray ocean with bitter wind, like the poles of a certain planet. There was nothing but marrow-freezing seawater as far as one's eyes could see, except for some scattering icebergs which were floating on the surface of the ocean, colliding and breaking amid rumbling noises.
Wearing the Eight Arm Suit, Li Yao stood on one tiny piece of floating ice. Hundreds of meters away from him, on another floating ice, an ivory crystal suit was eyeing him. It was elegantly shaped, like a pure white feather.
White Feather Battlesuit, a masterpiece of Red Line School, one of the three main crystal suit centers!
A lot of information immediately popped up in Li Yao's brain.
Of the three main crystal suit centers of the Flying Star Sector, 'Iron School' was best at refining super-heavy suits. Their suits were all sturdy and durable, although sometimes with bizarre appearances.
The crystal suits created by Silver Heart School were more elegant and focused on multiple purposes. This School was adept at combining the crystal suits of different fields and creating a special one. For example, Li Yao's Eight Arm boasted both the abilities of a maintenance suit and those of a battlesuit.
Red Line School, on the other hand, was best known for their light, speed-type crystal suits.
The White Feather Battlesuit was one of the most classic crystal suits invented by Red Line School. With the usage of the light metals and the new framework, the total weight of the crystal suit was only 80% of the weight of similar crystal suits, but the combat ability of White Feather was not diminished at all.
The most impressive presentation of the White Feather Battlesuit was conducted by a Building Foundation Stage Cultivator some time ago. In five seconds, the suit accelerated from stillness to the speed of sound, came to an abrupt halt, and sped up to the sonic speed again three times in a row!
The Ice Ocean Battlefield had a lot of floating ice. Most of the battles would be fought on them, which gave the White Feather Battlesuit a huge advantage.
Li Yao skimmed through his opponent's profile. Lone Walker, a Building Foundation Stage Cultivator, 588 victories, 145 failures, win rate 80.22%, sync rate 81%. He was an experienced top expert!
More than seven hundred duels, with a win rate of more than eighty percent and a sync rate as high as 81%. He must be a real top expert who has slain many people. Then why did he challenge such a rookie like myself?
While Li Yao was confused, his opponent sent a message to him. "My fellow Cultivator, is your sync rate… really 37%?"
Li Yao was dazed for a moment. "Yes. Is there anything wrong about it?"
This time, Lone Walker was truly baffled.
He was quite a somebody in the World of Crystal Suits. Normally, he would never challenge rookies such as Li Yao. But just now, when he had been wandering in the duel zone, he suddenly noticed that the sync rate of 'Vulture' was only 37%, and his interest was aroused.
Sync rate was the most important thing for an Exo. Every Exo always tried their best to improve their sync rate and hoped to reach the 'melded-with-my-suit' level.
This 'Vulture' was apparently a Building Foundation Stage Cultivator. By logic, his capability must be very good. Why did he have such a low sync rate?
Even many excellent middle school students had sync rates higher than 37%!
The test for the sync rate of the Great Illusionary Land could be cheated, of course. But Lone Walker knew that the real number would be within ten percent above or below the test result.
Therefore, even if 'Vulture' had concealed part of his capability, his real sync rate would still be no higher than 50%.
Naturally, Lone Walker was greatly interested in such an eccentric fellow. That was why he went on and challenged him.
But Lone Walker did not expect that his opponent would be wearing an Eight Arm Suit.
Although Eight Arm was an advanced crystal suit produced by Silver Heart School, it was a hybrid maintenance suit and battlesuit after all. In the eyes of an expert such as Lone Walker, it was absolutely no match for a professional battlesuit. He frowned and said, "Do you want to change crystal suit?"
Li Yao scratched his head. "Change crystal suit? Why would I—"
Before he finished his sentence, Li Yao had vanished into thin air. The floating ice below his feet was stomped into a cluster of white powder!
Lone Walker's pupils constricted violently. His crystal processor shrilled at a high pitch. Before his body was able to react, his crystal suit had made the defensive movements. He felt that an enormous strength hit his chest as if he had been fired upon by a giant cannon. The White Feather Battlesuit was blown away by more than a hundred meters and floated in midair, shaking.
Cold sweat immediately appeared on Lone Walker's forehead. He looked down, not entirely recovered from his shock, only to notice that the ugly Eight Arm Suit had appeared in the place where he had been standing. The six artificial arms on its back were waving violently like the claws of a crab, making the crystal suit more hideous than ever.
Interesting!
Lone Walker grinned and roared. The super speed of his White Feather was made the best use of as he turned into a streak of bright light and darted at Li Yao!
Very impressive!
Li Yao instantly felt tremendous pressure.
His enemy seemed to have turned into rushing wind penetrating into his body through every gap on his crystal suit.
Fighting against an expert such as Lone Walker gave Li Yao a deeper understanding of why the Flying Star Sector chose to utilize crystal suits in their way.
By the optimization of the crystal processor, the filtering of tactics, and the automatic responses, the pause and pondering between the attack or defense movements was reduced to minimum. Although the creativity and independence of the Exo was restricted, their attacks were much more seamless. There were barely any gaps between two waves of attacks. It was like the most natural and fluent music without the tiniest flaw.
Swoosh!
Dazzling brilliance burst out from the White Feather Battlesuit. Hundreds of strings of spiritual energy condensed into glittering feathers which swooped at Li Yao, cutting countless wounds on the Eight Arm Suit immediately and even breaking many crucial crystal wires apart!
Skill card!
Li Yao gritted his teeth and backed off. He trod on the surface of the ice ocean lightly and blinked to another floating ice hundreds of meters away.
His opponent had unleashed a deadly skill with the skill card!
Optimization from the crystal processor, automatic implementations of tactics, together with versatile, powerful skill cards. Li Yao had to admit that such a fighting pattern was indeed charming in its own way.
However, there was a different path that he'd been walking on all the time.
Although there were barely any gaps between two waves of attacks, loopholes still existed. Every tactical movement that his opponent carried out was one of the standard movements inputted into the crystal processor previously. Standard meant patterns. As long as he figured out the patterns behind the movements…
Ci… Ci… Ci… Ci…
The six artificial arms on Li Yao's back extended to his front. Various kinds of maintenance magical equipment ejected from the artificial arms and performed an emergency repair on the damages of the crystal suit.
Are you kidding me?
Lone Walker's eyes bulged when he noticed what was happening. He had seen battlefield maintenance before, but he had never seen anyone who could repair themselves within several seconds at such a shocking speed.
Who is this guy, 'Vulture'? I've never heard of such a skilled mechanic among the Exos.
Lone Walker was deep in thought. But he didn't stop; instead, he turned into a streak of light again and lunged at Li Yao.
Outside of the virtual battlefield, many other spectators had noticed the match.
