Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 445
The supermarket shuttle slowly passed by the six extravagant shuttles and staggered off into the sky.
"The guy is quite interesting."
Touching his bristly unshaven chin, Tong Dashu entered the back of one of the extravagant shuttles together with his daughter.
Tong Dashu sank himself in the leather seat and closed his eyes, resting.
However, for some reason, he was ill at ease, as if he had neglected something extremely important.
The driver looked rather familiar. I feel like I have seen him somewhere before.
Wait—
Tong Dashu's suddenly bulged, and he lunged out of his seat. His head bashed the ceiling of the shuttle so hard that it shook a while in midair!
"Dad!"
Tong Dandan, his daughter, was dumbfounded.
"Chairman?"
The driver and his body guards in the front row all turned around and looked their boss in shock, only to discover that their boss was sweating and cramping hard with a pale face as if he was having a seizure.
"No. It's impossible. My eyes must've deceived me. They must have!"
Tong Dashu turned on his crystal processor, his hands trembling. Appearing on the light beam was a financial magazine issued last month.
The cover was a map of the Cross Wind Space Zone, which was a glittering silver sea of stars, and a daunting middle-aged man who opened his hands and held all the stars!
The eyes of the middle-aged man were as sharp as those of an eagle. Although it was merely a cover photo, Tong Dashu still felt tremendous pressure from him.
The photo was captioned "Dominating Cross Wind!"
"Top on the annual rank of businesspersons of the Cross Wind Space Zone, leader of the Wu family, CEO of the Glorious Sunlight Group, Wu Zhengyang!"
Wu Zhengyang, who had all the stars under his control, looked exactly the same as the driver who had picked up Little Sand with a supermarket shuttle, opened the door for him, and moved the suitcases into the trunk respectfully.
Tong Dashu gasped and collapsed on the seat. He felt that ten thousand needles were stinging his bottom.
"Who is this young man exactly?
"Even the CEO of the Glorious Sunlight Group can only be his chauffeur?"
Chapter 663: Almost Mentally Deranged |
Li Yao sat in the old, ragged seat of the supermarket shuttle comfortably. He spared ten percent of his attention to the vastly changing Floating Orchid Domain outside the window, eighty percent on the modification plan of the 'Unparalleled Extension, Sand Scorpion Version', and the last ten percent listening to Wu Zhengyang's report.
Like a human-shaped crystal processor, Wu Zhengyang spoke hundreds of numbers, deals and rules within ten seconds. If an ordinary person were to hear his report, they would only hear hums resembling the sound of the wild bees. But experts like Li Yao could concentrate their spiritual energy on their ears and receive the compound information that he delivered.
Wu Zhengyang was 77 years old and an admin-type Cultivator. He was of the same generation as Wu Mayan's grandpa.
He had no son of his own. When Wu Mayan's father was alive, they were in a quite close relationship. He had almost been the guardian of Wu Mayan's father.
After Wu Mayan's father passed away, there were quite a number of conflicts within the Wu family for his legacy. Wu Zhengyang had tried to protect the interests of Wu Mayan's father, only to be kicked out of the leadership of the family by a few younger members. He was asked to expand the market for the family in one of the most desolate space towns in the remote area of the Cross Wind Space Zone.
When Li Yao arrived in the Cross Wind Space Zone and was involved in the internal conflicts of the Wu family, he immediately invited the old man back and supported him to be the leader of the Wu family and the CEO of the Glorious Sunlight Group after he learned of the existence of such a person.
It was needless to elaborate on Wu Zhengyang's gratitude and reverence for Li Yao. For example, Li Yao asked the old man to pick him up in the space port, preferably not very eye-catchingly. As it turned out, to neatly carry out Li Yao's command, the CEO dressed like a retired teacher and drove the cheapest shuttle. It could not have been easily for him.
Li Yao was keeping a low profile not because he was pretentious, but because he did not want to waste his time.
If the Glorious Sunlight Group were to send a team of shuttles to welcome him, every ant in the city would know of his arrival. With the influence of the Glorious Sunlight Group in the Cross Wind Space Zone, a few welcome parties were unavoidable. He would have to meet the leaders and elders of many sects in person.
Even if one welcome party was as short as two hours, three or five of them would mean a waste of an entire day.
The path of Cultivation was like rowing a boat against the current. One would either move forward or be pushed backwards. Li Yao was not willing to waste his time, not for even for one second.
It was exactly by seizing every 'one second', which other people often neglected, and dedicating them to crazy training that he broke into the superlative height of the Building Foundation Stage and surpassed many Core Formation Stage Cultivators in terms of combat ability before he was even twenty-five!
With Wu Mayan picking up him, he had learned every detail about the latest situation of the Glorious Sunlight Group in the half hour journey. Not even half a second of time was wasted.
"Chairman, we're here," said Wu Zhengyang respectfully.
Li Yao's official title in the Glorious Sunlight Group was 'Chairman of the Board'.
CEO and general manager sounded awesome, but in fact, both of them were still high-level workers doing their job for other people.
In comparison, the Chairman of the Board was the real head of a company. Awesome as the CEO was, the Chairman of the Board could have them changed anytime they wanted.
Li Yao concentrated his attention and looked into the distance.
They had reached the periphery of the Floating Orchid Domain. This area was frequented by deep blue mist that looked like orchids floating in the air all year long, which made it look like a splendid paradise.
As far as his eyes could see, buildings were being constructed everywhere.
In the outermost circle were hundreds of spiritual energy transmission tubes that were being built. They could send abundant spiritual gas to this area and spray it into the air, making the place a perfect destination for training.
On the ground, factories as magnificent as palaces had risen up. Looking like a chess board, they were divided into four zones.
Firstly, the mineral purification center. The raw minerals transported from Iron Plateau would be purified into high-purity crystals in such factories.
Secondly, the logistics center. The resources that were not processable in the Floating Orchid Domain would be gathered here and delivered to various other space zones of the Flying Star Sector.
Thirdly, the magical equipment centers. 32 magical equipment assembly lines would be established in the first stage of the project. Later, many kinds of magical equipment, including the Combat Ability Detector and the Aurora Chain Gun, would be able to be mass-produced in this place. It would be unnecessary to ask other sects to be subcontractors.
In Li Yao's vision, the factories here could be built into super magical equipment factories one day where crystal suits could be produced on a large scale.
Fourthly, the test field. For now, it only met the needs of the Glorious Sunlight Group. But it would be able to bid for the test tasks of large magical equipment produced by other sects in the future, too.
Above the continuous, coruscating buildings were three floating mountains in the sky that had been constructed in a traditional style. They looked like real mountains that had been cut off and launched into the sky. The mountains were elegantly curved with quite a few steep cliffs. The flowers, grass, rivers, and waterfalls on them made a beautiful view.
Li Yao was aware that the three mountains had different functions.
One of them was the Glorious Sunlight Refining Center.
One of them was a large training camp that could accommodate three thousand people at the same time. In the near future, countless qi-trainers of Iron Plateau would be studying the combat skills of the space residents inside the camp and become the special sentinels for the Glorious Sunlight Group.
The last of them was the headquarters of the Glorious Sunlight Group.
The earth and the sky were both teeming with people and vehicles. Hundreds of shuttles were flying up and down like butterflies in a garden.
Taking a deep breath, Li Yao mumbled to himself, "This is… my Glorious Sunlight Group!"
Despite his usual calmness, he found it hard to contain himself when seeing how his enterprise was flourishing.
Although he was very clear that the business was not founded on the capital of his own but the loans provided by the Cross Wind Union Back and other financial institutions in the space zones nearby, which were confident in the future of the Glorious Sunlight Group, although he knew that he had to win the support of the Wu family, the Sha family, and the other sects large and small in the entire Cross Wind Space Zone, even if he was the biggest shareholder of the Glorious Sunlight Group, and although he was fully aware that the rapid expansion of the Glorious Sunlight Group couldn't have happened if it were not the bond between Iron Plateau and space and the backing of Iron Plateau… uncontrollable, boundless ecstasy still popped up deep inside his heart.
Ten years. It has only been ten years!
Ten years ago, I was a scavenger of the Heaven's Origin Sector wondering where my dinner would be while having breakfast. Several muscular ordinary people were enough to beat me away with their iron sticks!
But in ten years, I've already come so far and so high, step by step!
In a trance, Li Yao was suddenly seeing a lot of hallucinations.
He envisioned tens of hundreds of people in a spacious square.
On the left, everybody was dressed in white. They were employees and partners of the Glorious Sunlight Group. Bowing to him, they bellowed at the same time, "Greetings, Chairman!"
Those on the right were wearing black armor and seething with killing intent. They were qi-trainers from Iron Plateau. Bashing their breastplates to the same rhythm, they shouted, "Sand Scorpion! Sand Scorpion! Sand Scorpion!"
He saw that the Glorious Sunlight Group had grown larger and larger still as the communication between Iron Plateau and space extended to a deeper level. Very soon, it swallowed the sects large and small in the Cross Wind Space Zone and became a super sect. The Cross Wind Space Zone was built into the most prosperous, most advanced space zone of the Flying Star Sector!
He saw that, in the future, the rising Glorious Sunlight Group eclipsed Heavenly Saints City like a nascent sun.
He saw that he was standing in the middle of the three floating mountains of the Glorious Sunlight Group one day, which were ten times as large as today.
In front of him, the leaders and elders of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City as well as other organizations from the rest of the space zones all lowered their proud heads and listened to his commands, holding their breath.
Looking down at the heroes of the era, Li Yao was about to open his mouth, full of ambitions, when a streak of darkness suddenly darted at his neck from afar!
He was alarmed and tried to dodge out of natural instincts. But over the past few years, he had dedicated most of his energy to the development of the Glorious Sunlight Group and spent far less time on his personal training. His Cultivation had stagnated for a long time, and he failed to dodge the attack.
Shua!
His head swirled in midair. The lights and shadows blinked and replaced each other, and it was not until a long time later that a man in black whose face was unclear was located.
However, for some reason, he knew that it was an assassin from the Temple of Immortals.
"Ah!" Li Yao exclaimed and suddenly came back to himself. He felt that forehead had been stung, and the hallucinations were still reappearing as if real.
Rubbing his eyebrow and glancing at his watch, Li Yao noticed that only three seconds had passed.
That was close. I was almost mentally deranged!
Li Yao heave a long sigh of relief. He knew that he was excited by the picture of flourishment of the Glorious Sunlight Group and nearly lost his mind because of his thinking.
Cultivators' computational abilities were hundreds of times higher than those of ordinary people.
Faced with such thoughts, the ordinary people's fantasy was usually very brief and blurred.
For example, when an ordinary person saw a beauty on the street and fantasized about sleeping with her, they could dwell in their illusion for several seconds at best. There was no way that they could figure out the details such as the hotel and the room they went to, the decorations of the room, or the brand of the safety measures that they used.
In comparison, Cultivators could summon their immense computational ability and fantasize to infinity instantly. Glancing at a beauty on the street, they could imagine every wrinkle on her skin.
For the less determined Cultivators, it was easy for them to dwell in their own illusions without being able to free themselves.
It was also one of the common reasons for the mental derangement of Cultivators.
Thankfully, I woke up at the end.
If I were spellbound by the magnificence in front of me and shifted part of my attention to the development of the Glorious Sunlight Group, it might really get a chance to thrive faster, but my own capability is definitely going to be affected.
Keep clear. I must keep clear!
I am the source of my own strength! The Glorious Sunlight Group is but a tool that collects resources for me. I cannot put the cart before the horse!
Li Yao closed his eyes and took another long breath.
When he opened them again slowly, his eyes were as tranquil as water. The previous delirium was all gone.
The enormous Glorious Sunlight Group that appeared to be an independent kingdom had the same reflection in his eyes as the sand castle on a beach in a kid's eyes.
"My destination is never here."
Li Yao's sight pierced through the headquarters of the Glorious Sunlight Group up above the clouds deep into the sky.
Behind the sky was the boundless sea of stars.
Chapter 664: Strengthened Mystic Skeleton |
The incident of nearly getting mentally deranged in front of the headquarters of the Glorious Sunlight Group gave Li Yao a deeper understanding about the source of his strength. Therefore, he did not waste a single second in the Glorious Sunlight Group but went to a training chamber that Wu Zhengyang specially prepared for him.
However, there was one place that he had to visit.
Half a day later, outside the Floating Orchid Domain, inside a secret dock in space, there were five seemingly-identical plain carriers.
The leftmost one was rusted and riddled with dents resulting from collisions with meteoroids. It was Sparkle, which had been deeply modified.
Standing before the control panel of Sparkle, Li Yao watched the performance parameters that were rushing down like a waterfall on the display light beam in surprise.
According to the parameters, Sparkle had a far stronger firepower than crystal warships of the same value. After tremendous modifications without caring about the cost, it also boasted an engine system that was more powerful than many main force crystal warships.
A great locomotive dragging a small cart. Sparkle might not have been the strongest crystal warship of the Flying Star Sector, but it definitely ran faster than any other starship.
With complicated feelings, Li Yao observed, "We've made tremendous progress over the past two years!"
Mo Xuan and the other spectral Cultivators were standing behind him.
The five of them had all occupied artificial bodies, but their bodies looked more like octopi than humans.
Their cylindric torsos were surrounded by more than ten extendable artificial arms which were waving crazily, allowing them to manipulate twenty control light beams and make adjustments according to thousands of pieces of data simultaneously.
After a long sigh, Mo Xuan said, "We thought everything would be gone when the crystal reactor exploded. We did not expect that we would be reborn in such a way and even granted with… unbelievable abilities."
Mo Xuan waved his hands softly. The 'Four Kings' gloated and suddenly inserted their artificial arms into the control panel. Then, four clusters of blinking silver liquid metal crawled into the crystal processor along the artificial arms like four silver snakes.
In a moment, the performance parameters on the light beam bounced crazily. It was further increased by a large extent compared to a while ago.
Then, the numbers overlapped and interweaved into four vivid faces that were grimacing at Li Yao.
Mo Xuan explained, "Our life form right now is very different from normal spectral Cultivators. It is safe to say that we are a combination of a ghost and a mainframe crystal processor!
"By accident, we discovered that, other than controlling the mainframe crystal processor of Sparkle, we are even able to manipulate other crystal processors freely at will!
"Our souls can be circuited with tens or even dozens of large crystal processors. Our capability will be significantly increased with the computational ability of the crystal processors!
"It was exactly based on such an amazing ability that the five of us finished the preliminary modification of Sparkle in only one year and made it the most mysterious, fastest assault warship that boasts the most advanced stealth ability in the Flying Star Sector.
"It is also why we could complete the deep modification of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit!
"Come here!"
Mo Xuan smiled at Li Yao. "I know that you can't wait for it anymore!"
