Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 373
At the front end of the tube was a neatly located crystal bomb. As long as the tube boasted enough airtightness, the pressure, having nowhere to go to, would be transformed into impetus and launch the crystal bombs!
In a moment, dozens of crystal bombs had been launched toward Li Yao.
Crude design, redundant components, and shabby rune arrays. The utilization rate of crystals is too low! Li Yao was not satisfied by the crystal bombs manufactured by the qi-trainers after glancing at them.
However, it did not change the fact that their crystal bombs were much larger in size.
Li Yao's own crystal bombs were usually the size of fists, if not the size of fingers.
But the smallest of the qi-trainers' crystal bombs was as big as his head, with sharp spurs on the shell, which made them look like big caltrops. They were shining coldly and awe-inspiringly!
BOOM! BOOM!
The caltrops exploded one after another in the air. The shell was ripped open, and the pieces with sharp spurs blossomed and occupied the entire area!
Although Li Yao had activated his spiritual shield, he was still penetrated through by almost ten pieces of shrapnel, which stabbed into his body brutally.
Swoosh!
Then, large nets weaved with thorns were launched to the sky. The nets seemed to be influenced by a certain uncanny technique, too. They twisted and opened automatically in the sky even though there was no wind. A few of them even connected each other, ready to swallow Li Yao like a bloody mouth!
"Change the direction! Lower the altitude!" Li Yao shouted.
He hadn't expected the qi-trainers to have such air defense ability. It would be committing suicide to continue flying in the sky right now!
Black Wing shrieked. The tip of the sword was aimed at the ground, and it was not until the sword was half a meter from the ground that it switched its angle and zigzagged forward!
"Go after him! Capture him!"
The iron knights chased after him while launching crystal bombs with the True Qi cannons.
Although Black Wing was faster than the tanks of the Burning Sun Tribe, it had to dodge the crystal bombs.
The bombs were not very powerful, but they would raise intense black smoke after they exploded. The spiritual waves they unleashed caused major interference to Black Wing's normal flight.
One party running and the other chasing, they soon reached the valley that Li Yao had prepared earlier.
The valley seemed to have been slashed by a battle saber. Steep cliffs were on the two sides of the valley, and its bottom was too deep to measure. Occasionally, the rocks on the two sides of the valley collided, thereby forming natural bridges in the sky. From the bottom, they looked like stone gates. The territory of this place was extremely complicated.
Black Wing darted among the bizarre-shaped stones agilely as if it were a black mouse that had grown wings.
The tanks of the qi-trainers, on the other hand, were less swift. Now and then, one of the tanks would hit the rock, infuriating the rider on them.
Yan Chihuo's motor skills were apparently the best among the qi-trainers. He remained close behind the prey. While chasing, he even burst into laughter.
"You want to race with me? I'm a man born for racing! I'm the best racer on Iron Plateau!"
Is that so? Then do excuse me.
After passing through a stone gate, Li Yao mumbled something to himself and triggered an iron chip carved with runes in his pocket.
BOOM!
The rocks on two sides of the valley collapsed like a flood. The stone gate was completely destroyed. The smoke raised by the explosion filled more than half of the valley.
Yan Chihuo's furious curses could be heard inside the smoke.
Li Yao took a long breath in relief. He then dashed out of the valley, accelerating to the highest speed on Black Wing, and ran to the northwest without even looking back.
He did not even stop by the cave where he had been hiding. It was not until dawn the next day that he took a moment of rest.
It turned out to be wise decision.
With the help of Neltharion, Li Yao discovered that more than fifty teams of the Burning Sun Tribe, with almost a thousand soldiers, were searching the desert.
A thousand people!
Li Yao was secretly alarmed. If all one thousand qi-trainers had surpassed the peak of the Refinement Stage and were in the 20th to the 40th level of it, they could prove to be formidable armed forces when they entered the berserk state with the weird technique of resonation with the spiritual gas.
No wonder Iron Plateau became a forbidden area for Cultivators! Even a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator would have a headache if they were faced with a thousand berserk qi-trainers!
Chapter 552: Plan B, Initiated! |
Li Yao combed his messy hair. A large cluster of dust fell off his head. He coughed, but his eyes shined as he thought of something.
I've been trying to find a way to break the shackle of the Black Spider Death Curse and return to the high level of the Building Foundation Stage or an even higher one.
But right now, I won't be able to do that with the capability of one at the peak of the Refinement Stage!
What if I surpass the so-called 'peak' just like those qi-trainers had done and advance into the 25th level, 50th level, and even the 100th level of the Refinement Stage?
I will definitely be able to destroy the Black Spider Death Curse completely when I'm in the 100th level of the Refinement Stage!
The idea was like a morning star in the night sky, which illuminated Li Yao's entire brain.
It seemed to be a crazy plan, but not completely undoable on second thought.
Firstly, from the battle against Yan Chihuo yesterday, Li Yao sensed that, although the guy's spiritual gas was more furious than usual, it was essentially the same as the spiritual gas of Refinement Stage Cultivators, except that it was much larger in quantity.
Secondly, judging from the tiny wrinkles on Yan Chihuo's face, he should be no older than 35 years old despite his rough appearance.
Also, the rest of the knights of the Burning Sun Tribe who were around the twentieth level of the Refinement Stage looked rather young and in their twenties, too. A young boy who might not have reached adulthood yet had already almost reach the twentieth level of the Refinement Stage!
It meant that the training after the 14th level of the Refinement Stage was not too difficult. Or, there were certain secret arts on Iron Plateau that could make somebody advance into higher levels of the Refinement Stage quickly.
Since he had already been in the high level of the Building Foundation Stage before, his understanding about spiritual energy and his construction of spiritual energy models were far more sophisticated than common Refinement Stage Cultivators.
If he grasped the tricks of advancement, he should be able to rush upwards at an unbelievable speed!
Before, Li Yao had been in a hurry to leave Iron Plateau at the earliest chance, but now that he had discovered the qi-trainers' secret, he changed his mind and was not so desperate to get away anymore.
He had a vague feeling that whether or not he could make another major breakthrough in his Cultivation would depend on his experience on Iron Plateau.
However, it was not an easy task when Li Yao pondered it more carefully.
The qi-trainers had a strong bias against space residents, especially Cultivators. Whatever conditions he offered, it was unlikely that they would teach him the mysteries of the further collection of spiritual gas, much less the technique of spiritual gas resonation.
The qi-trainer's body, especially their veins and nerves, must've been strengthened in a unique way. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to bear so much spiritual gas raging inside their body, which would cause mental derangement or even the explosion of their body.
Such strengthening was different from the strengthening of a body fundamentalist.
Even the body fundamentalists had to strictly abide by the law of Cultivation. When they reached the peak of the Refinement Stage, they had to attempt to liquefy their spiritual gas and set off on the path of building foundation.
Li Yao assumed that the qi-trainers had another technique that could broaden their veins and nerves and increase their capacity for spiritual gas.
When such a technique and the method of spiritual gas resonation were combined, the formidable qi-trainers were made!
I must find a way to learn the two techniques!
Plan A has failed. I'm going to initiate Plan B now!
Li Yao smiled. He rubbed his face vigorously for five minutes until he suddenly tore off an extremely thin membrane from his face!
As the membrane was taken off and the muscles on his face wriggled, his appearance changed weirdly, and his true face was revealed!
CRACK! CRACK!
As he resumed his original appearance, a series of cracking noises echoed inside his body. He was much taller than a moment ago, and his shoulders were two fists wider. Cold brightness was radiating from his streamlined muscles, making him look like a leopard whose fur was shining because it had just rolled over in a pond.
This was actually his true appearance!
Before he reached out to the qi-trainers, he had put on an entirely different appearance with the camouflage magical equipment inside Fengyu Ming's Cosmos Ring.
He had made two plans. If the communication with the qi-trainers did not go well, he would still be able to collect more files about them with the close-distance picture captured by Neltharion and carry out Plan B.
"I have no other choice now. It's time to resort to my acting skills again!"
Li Yao commanded Neltharion to enter the stealth mode and observed the surroundings at an altitude of two to three hundred meters as he did not dare fly it too high.
Over the last half month, he had been observing the environment in such a way.
He could clearly see that, other than the east side, large beams of smoke often rose up from the horizons of the other three directions. Some of them were patterned and appeared at a fixed time every day.
The smoke must be man-made, which meant that there was a settlement, or even a town, of qi-trainers below it.
Li Yao did not want to deal with the qi-trainers of the Burning Sun Tribe anymore.
Since those people had just found an 'intruder', they would be on high alert at this moment and wouldn't trust another stranger of unknown backgrounds easily.
But Li Yao estimated that the message of his previous visit might have not spread too far yet because there was no Spiritual Nexus on Iron Plateau. Besides, the message might be misinterpreted during the dissemination.
Therefore, the other tribes of qi-trainers were unlikely to be so alert.
Li Yao took off his mustard-seed battle suit and his underwear, until he was completed naked. He then said sorry to Black Wing and stuffed it as well as the rest of the magical equipment he carried into his Cosmos Ring even though it was struggling hard. In the end, he swallowed the Cosmos Ring into his stomach.
As a half body practitioner, he had a highly precise control over every inch of muscle on his body. The movement of his stomach and his throat was fully under his control. When necessary, he could push his Cosmos Ring out in less than half a second.
From now on, I need to totally forget that I am a Cultivator. I am a native of Iron Plateau, born and raised in this place!
Taking a deep breath, Li Yao remembered the ultimate and mysterious level of a body fundamentalist that Iron God Yan Ba passed on to him.
Think about the ancestors of human beings, the ancient deadly animals that once dominated the sky and the earth, and trigger the genes they left deep in our cells to break the seal and unleash the formidable primordial strength!
"Hoo!"
Li Yao bellowed as if he had become a giant ape. After a series of fulminations from his bones, he was even taller than before, his muscles had expanded like balloons, and his skin was emitting the bronze color of metals!
The Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining technique from forty thousand years ago and the secret arts of the body fundamentalists to explore the primordial strength had built up his new body together!
Li Yao projected a mirror with his mini crystal processor and observed his new appearance.
He had been living an animalistic life for one month after he was forced to land on Iron Plateau. His unshaven hair and beard were longer than ever right now.
Shocking scars were left on his muscular body, which was now bronze-colored. They were all souvenirs of the fierce battles in the last month.
If he were in space, the scars could be treated in the med bay of any hospital.
However, there were no hospitals in this place. At least the scars looked like badges and were not an eyesore to look at.
At first look, his appearance was basically the same as those of Yan Chihuo and his fellows.
Very good.
Li Yao scratched his chin and smiled in satisfaction. I'll spend the next five days studying the way that the qi-trainers talk while moving westwards. I should also make myself wilder and more uncivilized on my way!
At the remotest place on the horizon of the west, almost twenty beams of smoke popped up from morning to night every day, indicating that it was a large town of qi-trainers'.
Li Yao planned to try his luck there.
After making sure with Neltharion that he had really gotten rid of the hunting of the Burning Sun Tribe, Li Yao made his way to the west on foot.
In fact, he was unlikely to be discovered if he were to ride on Black Wing since the desert was unpopulated.
However, Li Yao wanted to eliminate the traces of civilization on him during the following few days.
To achieve that purpose, not only did he keep Black Wing inside his Cosmos Ring, he tried to avoid using other modern magical equipment, too.
When he met a demon beast, he would fight them with the crudest stones and bone blades as well as his fists.
After two days, his body had accumulated countless injuries and bruises, which could be quite ghastly for other people.
But for Li Yao, who had been training with the Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining technique that was designed for the trainer to be savaged, the more seriously he was wounded, the better the results of his training would be.
Since he was already used to the pain resulting from the gnawing of the Purple Ring Sword Ants, his endurance of pain was ten times higher than that of common Cultivators. Therefore, he treated the wounds as if they were nothing.
Two days later, Li Yao was wearing a red-and-green beast hide on his waist, with a giant bone hammer on his shoulder.
The hammer was made from the skull of a tiger-type demon beast. He did not resort to the arts of refining and simply bound the skull of the demon beast to one of its shanks with its veins.
"Hooo!"
"When I break into the 100th level of the Refinement Stage, I will slay the so-called Core Formation Stage Cultivators and Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators from space should they come to our place!"
He looked at the mirror and practiced his acting skills.
This won't do. However I pretend to be hideous and brutal, I am still not half as silly and bigheaded as Yan Chihuo was. I feel that I'm missing something.
Four days later, Li Yao was wearing two bone pads on his shoulders, with a bone hammer in one hand and the front leg of a mantis-type demon beast as his saber in the other hand. He had almost twice as many wounds on his body now.
"The path of the strong is to fight their way forward! When I advance into the 10,000th level of the Refinement Stage, I'm going to blow up the sun! Go to hell!"
He jumped and danced in front of the mirror and bashed his own chest like a giant gorilla.
No. This doesn't work. My acting is too superficial and exaggerated. If I don't open my mouth, I seem like one of them, but if I open my mouth, they will immediately see through me. I'm still unlike Yan Chihuo and his lot!
What do I do? It's not like that I can keep quiet. But wait…
Six days later, Li Yao looked at the mirror in silence. His messy hair dangled down and covered most of his face. From the gap of his hair, a pair of animal-like, coldly-blinking eyes were occasionally revealed!
"Shua!"
Drawing a dangerous curve with the battle saber made of the front leg of a mantis-type demon beast, Li Yao grimaced and roared, his sharp teeth glaring.
Chapter 553: Teenager of Furious Bear |
I seem to have overdone it.
His brand-new appearance had been gradually shaped and altered through meditating upon the spiritual seed of Iron God Yan Ba and speculating on the savageness of the ancient deadly beasts day and night.
But he looked like a human-skinned beast right now!
Residents of Iron Plateau were not primitive barbarians; they had their own highly developed civilization. He seemed to be going too far in his acting career.
But on second thought, it might not be a bad idea.
Pretending to be a wildling who had roamed in the desert for years was apparently much better than pretending to be a qi-trainer as that lie would be seen through with a few questions asked.
There were many dangerous plants in the desert that could destroy the vocal cord of a human being, making them unable to talk.
The venom of many demon beasts could also sabotage the nerves of human beings and rid them of their language ability.
It was reasonable that a homeless guy who had struggled for twenty years in a desert alone could not talk.
Of course, there were still many suspicious points about this faked identity. However, it was still much better than impersonating a qi-trainer. After all, he didn't know the first thing about the qi-trainers' conventions, and everybody would know that there was something wrong with him if they asked him a few questions.
As to exactly what to do next, he actually had no idea.
Li Yao planned to go in the direction where the pillar of smoke were relatively narrow and sparse.
