Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 776
The resources, technology, magical equipment, relics, and experts from the Flying Star Sector, the Blood Demon Sector, and other Sectors in the future would gather on the Grand Desolate Plateau and produce the most dazzling sparks during their collision, providing the most powerful impetus to push the new federation forward!
A Cutting-Edge Magical Equipment Industrial Park, which was meant to develop the latest technology in spiritual energy and biochemistry of the three Sectors, was now under construction.
With the tremendous wealth of the Glorious Sunlight Group, Li Yao had established a personal refining workshop inside the park in advance.
Above the giant, silver egg that was almost a hundred meters in diameter, there was a smiling star that was quite eye-catching. It was the fiend star, a signature of the magical equipment produced by Li Yao!
Only the items with the mark of the fiend star had been approved or produced by him.
It was not hard to imagine that, in the federation today, such items were all priceless. Sometimes, it was impossible to buy one even if someone offered tremendous money.
Li Yao had never intended to produce magical equipment for selling in the first place. In the past month, the magical equipment that he had carefully refined was all gifts that he gave to Ding Lingdang, Guo Chunfeng, Fiend Blade Peng Hail, Ding Yin, Wei Qingqing, and other family and friends.
Li Yao walked to the door of his personal refining workshop and typed in three passwords.
The door of the workshop was opened after a noise. Because the air pressure inside was higher than outside, he was greeted by a gentle breeze.
The personal refining workshop had only been built recently. Containers and buffer foam for the refining facilities were all over the room. There was barely anywhere he could set foot on.
In an airtight booth deep inside the refining workshop, however, a translucent cylinder that looked like a medical cabin was standing.
Inside the cylinder were fluids that stored tremendous spiritual energy. The object was also connected to dozens of crystal processors through the thick crystal cables.
Little Black, the flying sword that had accompanied Li Yao for twenty years, was floating inside the fluids.
Little Black was a very smart flying sword. It even boasted certain self-awareness, which made it look like a lovely puppy occasionally.
Li Yao was very suspicious that it was much more than a simple flying sword.
In the battle against Diwu Jian, a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, Little Black had been hit by Five Disintegrations of Heavens and Human, his ultimate skill. A lot of cracks had appeared on its surface because of the attack.
In the battle against Iron Commander Zhou Hengdao, without caring about its own wounds, Little Black had drawn out the highest speed and the most powerful blast, helping Li Yao to perform the earth-breaking attack and execute Zhou Hengdao.
But Little Black was 'heavily wounded' itself. It was seriously broken and fell into weird dormancy.
Faced with such a situation, Li Yao did not know what to do despite his anxiety.
After returning to the capital city, he had soaked Little Black in the special fluids of spiritual energy so that it could swallow endless spiritual energy every day. In the meantime, he monitored the flying sword's situation through the crystal processors. It was sort of a conservative treatment.
It was rather odd that, although Little Black had fallen asleep and did not answer his call, it would absorb all the spiritual energy inside the crystals and the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures with a powerful attraction force whenever it came into contact with them!
It was also like a boundless world was hidden in the small body of the flying sword, which could not be filled up however many crystals were absorbed!
Li Yao calculated that Little Black, in its dormancy, had consumed resources multiple times more than those a Cultivator at the peak of the Core Formation Stage would during high-intensity training sessions every day!
Li Yao was perhaps the only guy wealthy enough to feed such a fellow who ate, slept, but simply did not talk. If it were any other Cultivator, they would have long gone bankrupt when they were trying to feed the flying sword!
The guy is swallowing the resources faster and faster now!
Li Yao turned on the surveillance light beam and checked Little Black's situation, only to discover that the density of the fluids, which contained the elements of thirty-seven crystals, had dropped by more than a half. Most of the materials that stored spiritual energy had been swallowed by the flying sword.
Expanding the curve of Little Black's food intake to show the current week, Li Yao discovered that it was getting steeper every day.
It meant time Black Wing's 'appetite' was better and better. The daily resources it consumed on average were five times more than it did in an entire month before!
Are you kidding me? If you keep on eating like this, even I will not be able to feed you soon! Or maybe, is this a sign that you will wake up soon?
Li Yao thought of something. He took a piece of the Sun Flame Crystal, a marrow crystal that contained immense spiritual energy of the fire class, from his Cosmos Ring and threw it into the life-support system.
The moment the scarlet Sun Flame Crystal fell into the fluids, bright red colors were triggered. Like a sponge that had been expanded dozens of times, it dropped down slowly.
When it sank to Black Wing, dozens of black spiritual threads dashed out of Black Wing's immeasurable cracks and enveloped the Sun Flame Crystal. In the blink of an eye, both the red colors and the Sun Flame Crystal itself were devoured!
When the black spiritual threads retreated into Black Wing in satisfaction, what appeared in front of Li Yao's eyes was nothing more than a gray stone with holes that looked like a honeycomb. He could not perceive any spiritual energy from the marrow crystal anymore.
"Is that you, Little Black?"
Li Yao was overjoyed. When Black Wing was swallowing the Sun Flame Crystal, he had sensed a familiar wave that was similar to the feeling that Little Black had given him in the past!
But Black Wing, after having a wonderful meal, simply floated in the fluids lazily and showed no response to his calls.
Li Yao frowned. He was certain that he had perceived Little Black a moment ago. Also, judging from the statistics, it was high time that Little Black awakened. Something was definitely not right if the flying sword kept eating and sleeping all day.
Li Yao stuck his hands to the life-sustaining system. He released his telepathic thoughts and penetrated through the strengthened glass and fluids, crawling into the flying sword through the cracks on Little Black.
He meant to reach out to Little Black again in such a way.
Over the past several months, he had tried many times, but he had not gone deeper than this time before.
A black labyrinth seemed to be hidden deep inside the cracks of Black Wing, and the exit of the labyrinth was a mysterious, enormous world. Despite the magnificence of Li Yao's soul power, and even after he split up hundreds of telepathic thoughts, he was not sure that he had explored one thousandth of the world inside Black Wing.
Li Yao's eyes turned deep and dark, as if his soul had left his body and dived into Black Wing. After groping in the darkness for who know how long, he still found nothing.
Sensing that he was running out of soul power, Li Yao sighed and was about to retract his telepathic thoughts when a weird thing happened!
He suddenly discovered that his hundreds of telepathic thoughts seemed to be attracted by something, and he could not retract them at all!
Not just that, the mysterious force was even pulling his telepathic thoughts and his soul into the flying sword, as if it was trying to swallow him!
Li Yao was greatly alarmed. He hurried to free himself from the place. He was even prepared to cut off the hundreds of spiritual threads and abandon the telepathic thoughts if the situation demanded so that he would not be swallowed, even though his soul might be damaged!
Just when he was about to make the tough decision, he suddenly sensed a familiar scent from the depths of the flying sword. It was Little Black!
Little Black seemed to be trapped by something. It was anxiously asking for his help!
Li Yao only considered for half a second before he gritted his teeth and triggered all his soul power. His telepathic thoughts blew at the depths of the flying sword like a raging flood!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Li Yao sensed that his soul had crashed into an extremely solid wall and nearly fell to pieces.
However, with the joint force of him and Little Black, after a momentary stalemate, the wall was still blown up by them!
A great explosion was raised the moment the wall was broken!
The explosion not only blew his soul back into his brain but also blew Black Wing, which was soaking in the fluids, into smithereens!
"Little Black!"
Li Yao was both angry and anxious. His head was a mess, and his cerebral vessels broke apart one after another. He was not able to move at all for the next half a minute.
After he restored the cerebral vessels in fury and regained control of his body, he observed, only to discover that Black Wing had been shattered into hundreds of lackluster pieces and fallen to the bottom of the fluids!
However…
What—what is this?
Before Li Yao had the chance to be devastated, his attention was attracted by the weird thing that was popping up from the fluids.
Yes, Black Wing had broken into pieces, but materials that looked like both smoke and ink were popping up from the broken Black Wing. After they flowed out of the fluids, they gathered in midair into a weird black ball!
The black ball was neither metal nor stone. It did not look like flesh or wood, either. It was elastic and could be kneaded into any form.
If it had to be described, Li Yao felt that it looked like… a super large egg!
Before Li Yao realized what was going on, the super large 'egg' bounced in midair for a moment and then jumped into Li Yao's arms. Like a puppy that had finally found its master after losing its way for a long time, it was rubbing Li Yao in delight!
Moreover, on the side that appeared to be its 'bottom', a small 'tail' was condensed on the surface of the black materials, which was wagging in excitement.
Caught unprepared, Li Yao was truly stunned.
However, the familiar scent from the 'egg' made him overjoyed. He hugged the guy and asked, "Little Black, is it really you? You're awake!"
Chapter 1185: Pop's Last Words! (End of Volume III) |
The egg-like black ball continued rubbing Li Yao's face. It was soft, fat, and warm, like the pink bottom of a baby.
Seeing that Little Back, who had been accompanying him since his childhood, was now reborn in a brand-new form, Li Yao was filled with mixed feelings, almost shedding tears of joy. "Excellent, Little Black. So, your real identity is not a flying sword but an egg!"
Little Black's pointy tail waved in dissatisfaction, as if it were saying, "I am not an egg!"
"Then, what are you exactly? I've never seen such magical equipment before!"
Li Yao could not have felt stranger. He extended one of his fingers and jabbed Little Black.
He had never seen such a weird material before. Even 'liquid metal' was not enough to describe one ten thousandth of Little Black's qualities.
Little Black's 'tail' shook for a long time in confusion, as if it did not know what it was either. Eventually, ripples spread out on its 'head', and two items popped up from its body.
The first item was a three-edged metal stick the width of a finger.
Li Yao could not discern the materials that the stick was made of. He only knew that the hardness and density of the stick were extremely high. At the very least, it was much harder than all the metals and rocks that Li Yao had seen.
Compact spiritual stripes had been carved on the mental stick. They were fluent and in a consistent style.
Li Yao studied for a while. He could tell that those spiritual stripes were from the heyday of the Star Ocean Imperium, but he failed to figure out the specific usage of them.
Perhaps, the stick is a key?
No. Not a key, but half a key.
Some of the rune arrays on the stick were obviously incomplete. Also, there were quite a few mortises on one side of the stick that were perhaps meant to connect another component.
Half a key from the Star Ocean Imperium? What can it open?
The second item that Little Black 'vomited', on the other hand, was quite common. It was just a jade chip—a modern one produced by the Star Glory Federation no earlier than thirty years ago.
Li Yao blinked and inserted the jade chip into his portable crystal processor.
The light beam shook for a moment. As the ripples slowly condensed, a slobby man, who did not seem to fit in the world he was living in at all, showed up. The man grinned at him and said gently, "Ah Yao!"
"Pop!" Li Yao exclaimed in surprise with tears swirling inside his eyes.
The man inside the light beam was exactly his foster father, the man who had raised him for almost ten years in the magical equipment graveyard, taught him the basic ethics of a human being, and laid a solid foundation for his refining skills!
In Li Yao's memory, his foster father had fallen into the magical equipment graveyard from a garbage ship. The old man's body had always been in poor condition. He also liked the lousiest liquor most. After he was drunk, he would vomit, and when he was sober again, he went on drinking. He always crept into the garbage hills when he was half-wasted and got himself hurt. He would not listen to Li Yao even if the latter spoke to him many times about it. It was almost like a self-torture.
After torturing himself for ten years, he had passed away on a stormy night. He had not said much when he was dying.
Li Yao had never expected his foster father to have left a jade chip inside Little Black!
It was obvious that the jade would not be opened until his Cultivation reached a point where he could break Little Black's seal!
Pop, where are you from? Travelling in dozens of Sectors, carrying a piece of mysterious magical equipment like Little Black with you, and leaving your last words for me in such a weird way?
Were you worried about something? Was there anything unfulfilled? I'm listening!
Li Yao bulged his eyes and pricked his ears up.
The slobby middle-aged man on the light bean said in a low voice, "Ah Yan, if you are watching this video, it means that you are at least in the peak of the Core Formation Stage, or maybe in the Nascent Soul Stage. So, you are slightly qualified to travel in the sea of stars now.
"Besides, you should've noticed the anomalies about me and Black Wing and guessed that we are not natives of the Heaven's Origin Sector."
Li Yao nodded. His foster father was not from the Heaven's Origin Sector. It was not an unexpected answer.
Wearing the most complicated expression, the slobby middle-aged man stopped for a long time before he continued slowly. "Ah Yao, after knowing that I will die very soon, I have been debating with myself whether or not I should tell you the truth about the center of the sea of stars. Or maybe, should I wager on the possibility that you will live your life happily in the bliss of ignorance?
"In the end, I decided to set up such a test. If your Cultivation is not high enough to pass my test, it will be unnecessary for you to know what I'm going to say next, because even if you do, there will be nothing you can do except wait for your doom to arrive.
"But now that you've passed my test, I can tell you my background and my suffocating and devastating homeland!"
When he mentioned his homeland, the slobby middle-aged man was clearly shivering. His teeth clattering violently, he managed to go on. "My homeland, the country that I escaped from and would never have the courage to face, is the strongest nation of human beings in the sea of stars. It is also the evilest, most terrible civilization in the history of mankind. No, it is even not qualified to be listed as a civilization of mankind; it is the terminator of all civilizations of mankind!
"You people living in the minor Heaven's Origin Sector at the edge of the universe cannot even begin to fathom its dominance or one millionth of its wickedness!
"Right now, looming at the center of the sea of stars, it is extending tentacles to anywhere that was once illuminated by the fire of humanity. It is invading and expanding unstoppably!
"Maybe, one day, my homeland will reach the Heaven's Origin Sector, the Star Glory Federation, and you, my son, too!"
Li Yao nodded heavily. That explained a lot. He understood everything now!
As he expected, his father was from the Imperium of True Human Beings. Because his foster father was not satisfied about certain policies of the imperium and believed that the Immortal Cultivators were not qualified as a civilization of mankind but a threat to it, his foster father made up his mind to flee from the country to the edge of the cosmos.
However, his foster father was also very clear that, since the imperium was expanding rapidly, chances were that it would invade the Star Glory Federation soon.
His foster father had passed away more than ten years ago. In his eyes, at that time, the insignificant federation was obviously no match for the imperium. It would have been blown to smithereens the moment the expedition army of the imperium arrived.
That was why his foster father had always been so miserable and desperate!
"If… " The slobby middle-aged man gnashed his teeth. "If the army from my homeland finally arrives on your doorstep one day, the only suggestion I can give you is… don't surrender—resist to the end!
"Yes, you are certainly no match for it, but even if you are destroyed, you will die with the pride and dignity of human beings! If you surrender, you will be no longer human beings, not even animals, and, in some cases, no better than germs!"
