Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 624
The real critical problem was that he would need the fingerprint of a soldier of the Nether World Watch.
However, it was not really a problem for him.
In the 'Stormy Sword', the tutorial of burglary composed by Fengyu Zhong, a renowned space pirate in the Blood Demon Sector, a lot of methods about how to scan a fingerprint and how to fake one had been recorded.
Li Yao had searched carefully in the warehouse of biochemical beasts. Eventually, he had retrieved a fingerprint that was of similar size to his and relatively intact. He had then duplicated the fingerprint on a biochemical slip made of the membrane of a demon beast with his incredible hand speed and micro-carving skills before sticking the slip to his palm in the end. Finally, he had successfully fooled the verification rune arrays!
Chapter 941: Remote Confrontation! |
Outside of the interrogation chamber where the Fire Ant King was being held, Li Yao was moving forward blatantly.
Meanwhile, Neltharion was flying right ahead of him, and whenever soldiers of the Nether World who seemed vigilant showed up, he would change a route very naturally.
Thankfully, the riot of the captives distracted most of the soldiers of the Nether World Watch as he had expected. The floor that he was on was empty, with barely any guards.
The door of the interrogation chamber was locked.
Li Yao's face remained unchanged. He took out a cluster of liquid metal that looked like sticky plasticine and inserted it into the lock.
He pressed hard, and the liquid metal immediately melted in and became as tough as iron under the vibration of spiritual energy in different frequency.
He turned the metal. After a clicking sound, the door of the interrogation chamber was opened.
Li Yao put the liquid metal away and stuck his left hand to his ear while he nodded and said, "Yes. Yes. I understand. This place is no longer safe. The asset must be transferred immediately!"
While talking, he walked into the room.
As it turned out, four tall and mighty soldiers of the Nether World Watch were standing in the corners of the room. Judging from the demon cores embedded in their bodies, they were all experts no weaker than the high-level demon generals.
The four of them had been asked by Lu Wuxin to watch over the Fire Ant King and immediately reacted when the door was opened. But Li Yao's words confused them and made them look at each other in astonishment and hesitate for a moment.
A moment of hesitation was enough to get them killed!
Pu!
Li Yao shot a streak of blueness out of his mouth, which turned out to be a hollowed metal ball that was spinning rapidly.
The blue brightness enshrouded the entire interrogation chamber instantly like water!
The moment when the ball shining, Neltharion darted toward the soldier of the Nether World Watch that was furthest from Li Yao, trigging the drill of mystic rays to the maximum, and burst out of the back of his head through the center of the eyebrows!
Cold brilliance flashed inside Li Yao's hands and circled around two soldiers' necks like two invisible feathers.
Before they had the time to react, a long, red line appeared on their necks, extending and immediately joining its own tail at the back.
The two of them slowly collapsed against the wall while covering their necks. But not a single drop of blood flowed out before their eyes stopped rolling.
The last soldier of the Nether World Watch managed to unsheathe his saber, the only guard able to draw a weapon.
It was not until brooks of blood were flowing weirding in front of him that one would notice that his brain, vocal cords, and heart had been sabotaged by dozens of mica threads!
Everything was finished within half a second.
It was not until this moment that the door behind Li Yao was closed slowly.
Shua!
Li Yao retracted the mica threads and shook off the blood. The soldier of the Nether World Watch collapsed to the ground, with dense spots of blood appearing on his face and his body.
"It was you."
The Fire Ant King, who was still bound to the operation table by the Venomous Scorpion Bone Biting Shackle, suddenly constricted his eyes and mumbled, "I did not expect that you would be such a young Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator!
"Who are you exactly? I've studied all the experts of the Heaven's Origin Sector in the Nascent Soul Stage before, and I don't recall reading your files.
"A human being, and a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, has successfully pretended to be a low-level demon and snuck into the Blade of Chaos. This is too dreadful. What do you want exactly?"
Li Yao's eyes stopped on the Venomous Scorpion Bone Biting Shackle, unable to move away. He smiled and said, "Right now, I only want to crack this magical equipment!"
The Fire Ant King was dazed. "Here? There are security cameras everywhere!"
"That's why I spurted out the blue pearl into the midair the moment I got in," Li Yao explained. "The name of the magical equipment is 'Image Freezing Pearl'. It has two functions. Firstly, after scanning the environment, it will interfere with all the surveillance devices, including both crystal cameras and biochemical eyes, so that all the monitors will only display the picture that the pearl captured."
The Fire Ant King frowned and said, "So, the enemy will see a frozen picture where the four guards kept standing in the same place?"
"Yes. Although the enemy may notice something wrong if we dawdle, it should be fine for several minutes."
"Several minutes?"
The Fire Ant King was rather shocked. The guy was meaning to crack a piece of magical equipment made by Jiang Shaoyang, one of the best experts in refining within the Star Glory Federation, in only several minutes?
Judging from the aggressive magical equipment and the agile attacks just now, he must be a battle-type Cultivator. Does he really know how to crack a piece of magical equipment?
A lot of questions were popping up in the Fire Ant King's head.
Li Yao's fingers shook fast and put on one Cosmos Ring after another. From the Cosmos Rings flew out hundreds of items and components like a storm. They floated around him, like an enormous fleet in the deep, dark universe.
"The second function of the pearl is that it will block all the waves that are sent to this place. Telepathic thoughts, spiritual waves, electromagnetic waves, demonic vibrations. Everything will be blocked!
"The Venomous Scorpion Bone Biting Shackle's controller is in Lu Wuxin's hands. But no matter what the mechanism is, he will have to send a wave to the reception rune array of the magical equipment in order to detonate it, right?
"It means that, as long as we block all the waves, he will not be able to detonate the Venomous Scorpion Bone Biting Shackle directly!"
The Fire Ant King was overjoyed, but he grew suspicious again. "So simple?"
"Of course it is not so simple!"
All the tools and components that Li Yao would need were ready. His eyes were growing hotter and hotter. The streamline form of the Venomous Scorpion Bone Biting Shackle seemed more appealing to him than the graceful curves of a young girl.
The item that he retrieved from his Cosmos Rings lastly was a warm, smooth jade. He rubbed the jade quickly inside his palm quickly as if he was washing his hands with soap.
An amazing thing happened. Because of the super high-frequency vibrations of his hands, the soap was indeed diminishing in size like a bar of soap until it completely vanished in the end. In the meantime, Li Yao's hands were shining in brilliance as if they were made of diamond. Spiritual energy was flowing out of every pore, and flowers seemed to be blossoming among his fingers at any moment.
Without resorting to any tools, Li Yao scratched the Venomous Scorpion Bone Biting Shackle for a long time. The Fire Ant King almost felt creeped out, observing his fascinated expression.
"Hey. This is an ultimate treasure of your Star Glory Federation. Are you really able to do it?"
Li Yao licked his lips. Then, his hands suddenly clutched the shells on the two sides of the Venomous Scorpion Bone Biting Shackle like two tongs and separated them brutally. "I would like to know the answer, too!"
After a crack, the shell was opened. The movement was so violent that the Fire Ant King almost shouted.
After the shell of the 'Venomous Scorpion' was plucked, the components and ultra-tiny groups of rune arrays that were a hundred times more precise than clocks and the crystal chips that were smaller than millet were all revealed.
The magical equipment is only the size of a small beast puppet, but more than 125 thousand components, which are controlled by more than five hundred chips, have been integrated into it. There are approximately a hundred defense rune arrays on the surface, but in fact, the magical equipment has more than seven hundred overlapping defense rune arrays!
Jiang Shaoyang's masterpiece has indeed exploited all the possibilities for confining magical equipment!
Li Yao put a rather unattractive mini crystal processor on his wrist. On a slot above the crystal processor was a long, narrow antenna. He aimed the antenna at the core part of the 'Venomous Scorpion' and scanned cautiously for a moment. Very soon, glittering numbers were jumping out on the light beam of the crystal processor.
"4 minutes and 36 seconds!
"4 minutes and 35 seconds!
"4 minutes and 34 seconds!"
Li Yao nodded in approval. There was great satisfaction in his eyes as he said, "As I expected!"
The Fire Ant King suddenly had an ominous feeling. "What is as you expected?"
"The Venomous Scorpion Bone Biting Shackle has adopted a dual control system, as I expected," Li Yao explained. "Under normal circumstances, it will be remotely controlled by the controller. However, remote control through telepathic thoughts is prone to interference, especially on a battlefield where spiritual energy is surging everywhere. The connection between the magical equipment and the controller might be cut off at any moment.
"If the magical equipment loses its effect the moment it is jammed, will it really deserve to be called an 'ultimate treasure'?
"Therefore, 'Solar Eclipse' Jiang Shaoyang has prepared two different control systems for the 'Venomous Scorpion Bone Biting Shackle'. Under normal circumstances, it will be remotely controlled. But whenever the spiritual waves are jammed and the magical equipment loses connection with the controller, it will automatically be switched to the 'countdown' mode.
"If the connection between the controller and the Venomous Scorpion Bone Biting Shackle is not restored in a certain amount of time, the magical equipment will be detonated automatically and blow up the prisoner being locked inside!
"The countdown can be set by the user at their will. Elder Nether Spring has set it to be five minutes!
"Right. There are only four minutes and one second left now!"
"…You really didn't have to waste your time explaining so much to me," complained the Fire Ant King. "I'm not interested in magical equipment. Now, please focus your attention and figure out how to crack it."
"It's fine. I can sort through the plan in my head while talking. It does not affect me. Right. Didn't you ask me about the origins of the demon race before? We are both free at the moment. How about I tell you the whole story in great detail?"
"No. Thanks, but no. We will have plenty of time in the future!"
"Fine."
Li Yao took a deep breath. His right eye seemed to have turned into a bottomless swirl, and his left eye was so red that blood might have dripped out at any moment. Dozens of mica threads that were thinner than a hair crawled into the interior of the Venomous Scorpion Bone Biting Shackle like little snakes.
His actions were extremely gentle. None of the mica threads touched any component of the 'Venomous Scorpion'. He was merely studying the structure of the 'Venomous Scorpion' deeply and how the key rune arrays were carved.
Behind him, thousands of components were congregating into towers as if they were sand, only to collapse in half a second, which indicated that one of the cracking plans had failed.
"3 minutes and 32 seconds. 3 minutes and 31 seconds."
The countdown went on. The Venomous Scorpion Bone Biting Shackle would explode in three and a half minutes.
Shua!
Deep inside the 'Venomous Scorpion', dazzling mystic rays were suddenly shining on one of the rune arrays.
Li Yao cursed and moved fast. His hands turned into two clusters of gray mist, and all the mica threads were twitching crazily!
Chapter 942: Uncrackable |
For the Fire Ant King, the next half a minute was truly the longest thirty seconds of his life. After witnessing the guard being slain by the mica threads ruthlessly, he could not help but feel strange when the fatal weapons were cutting rapidly right next to his body at a speed more than five times the speed of sound. All the while, scorching metal scraps were spluttering out.
The Fire Ant King had never thought that his life would be in the hands of a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator one day, and such a young one!
What was more terrifying was the countenance of the young Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator. Although he was cursing loudly and sweating hard, there was ecstasy deep inside his eyes that were in different colors. His lips curled up beyond his control. Excitement was leaking out of his every pore. Occasionally, he was even licking the corner of his mouth softly, as if he was not dismantling the most dreadful magical equipment but enjoying the most delicious meal in the world.
As the dismantling work went deeper and deeper, his facial expressions were more and more abundant. He went from frowning to depressed, from beaming with exhilaration to bursting into fury.
The Fire Ant King was not scared of death, but being pulled back and forth over the line of death was too much!
Half a minute later, Li Yao took a long breath in relief. All the mica threads gradually slowed down.
"Did you make it?"
The Fire Ant King kept his voice normal, trying not to make himself sound too anxious.
"I didn't," Li Yao said admiringly. "Jiang Shaoyang is indeed one of the best masters of refining in the federation right now. He has hidden the 'Winter Thunder Runes' below the Triple Gold Ring Runes and thereby created a minor trap. He even increased the sensitivity of the 'Winter Thunder Runes' by more than ten times. The slight vibration when I was manipulating the mica threads was detected by them, and the rune array was triggered. The entire magical equipment could have been detonated in half a second!
"Thankfully, I established a new circuit for the Winter Thunder Runes temporarily and gave a false feedback that the triggering signal had already been sent in the mainframe chips. Otherwise, the magical equipment would have exploded.
"Marvelous. It's indeed marvelous. Jiang Shaoyang's design and micro-carving techniques are the best I've seen. I assume that a lot of masters of refining in the Star Glory Federation were actually 'killed' by the trap when they tried to crack the Venomous Scorpion Bone Biting Shackle. Hahahaha!"
"…If I may remind you, Fellow Cultivator, there are only 2 minutes and 42 seconds left now!"
Li Yao nodded and scratched his chin, deep in thought. "It is quite tricky now. Jiang Shaoyang did not just plant one array of the 'Winter Thunder Runes' in the depths of the Venomous Scorpion Bone Biting Shackle; he was insane enough to deploy more than twenty of those arrays. Besides, nine of them were connected to each other in a synchronic way, like twenty alarms that are hanged on the same rope. If the robe is slightly touched, the alarms will ring at the same time!
"With my maximum hand speed, I can crack three arrays of the Winter Thunder Runes simultaneously at best. Twenty of them is beyond the limits for any refiner!"
Staring at the glittering magical equipment, Li Yao seemed to be absent-minded.
The thousands of components behind him were still like giants of living sand. They were condensing, collapsing, condensing again, and collapsing again.
Time went by one second after another. Li Yao was still at a loss after an entire minute and did not do any further cracking work.
The Fire Ant King observed the bouncing number on the light beam so hard that his eyeballs were nearly crawling into it!
Li Yao finally extended his hands and placed them on the top of the Venomous Scorpion Bone Biting Shackle. He closed his eyes while his spiritual energy leaked into the magical equipment like water.
The Fire Ant King held his breath, worrying that his breath might be an interference for Li Yao.
But out of his expectation, Li Yao remained in the same posture and seemed to have no intention of cracking the magical equipment at all.
Behind him, countless components were being gathered and growing stubbornly again. This time, they persisted for more than half a minute. Like towers made of sand, they were more and more complicated and precise in structure until they turned into a piece of bizarre piece of magical equipment in the end.
However, right when the Fire Ant King was hopeful again, the magical equipment collapsed abruptly after a cracking sound!
At this moment, there was only half a minute to go before the Venomous Scorpion Bone Biting Shackle was detonated!
"I can't do it."
Li Yao finally opened his eyes, with an expression that was beyond the description of any words on face. He said, half in frustration and half in excitement, "Jiang Shaoyang's design is impeccable. This is truly a piece of magical equipment that cannot be cracked by brute force!
"I did not know that he had improved so much after only ten years. How I hope that I can have a face-to-face competition with him again using the same materials, the same requirements, and the same magical equipment!"
The Fire Ant King did not know what to say.
Behind Li Yao, most of the components had already been tossed away. Only several hundred of the simplest ones were stilling floating in midair sparsely. They were moving close to each other and biting each other, assembling a piece of magical equipment that was simple in structure and extremely hideous in appearance, to the point that it looked like garbage.
