Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 842
Li Yao was dumbfounded, as if somebody had poured a bucket of cold water on his head. "What's happening now?"
With a string of ear-splitting buzzes, another series of runes was snapped to him, but they did not seem like a spell to summon the ultimate skill but… some sort of direction entailed in the control menu of the Colossus.
Li Yao looked at the calligraphic primeval handwriting in a daze for a long time before he finally asked, "Little Black, can you help me translate? Tell me what has happened exactly, in the most simple, straightforward, and understandable way possible!"
The black space suddenly shivered. Very soon, a line of simple modern characters popped up below the primeval text.
"System fault 401.
"The attack mode you designated cannot be applied to the current machine. No response from the corresponding technique. The retrieval command has been refused.
"Check your machine and make sure that the left arm and the left knee are successfully connected. Please retry after they are reconnected."
Chapter 1289: Terrible Metamorphosis! |
As Black Wing and Draconic Phoenix became better melded, more and more runes were shivering.
It appeared that Little Black's long-sealed memories were gradually awakened, too. It had found the right control method and was helping him read the list of all the techniques of Draconic Phoenix.
However, when the primeval runes shone and were combined into a spell, they would crumble very soon, followed by system directions that implied different faults!
The Colossus, which had slept for hundreds of thousands of years in the open air without any protection, was too fragile. If the techniques were performed by force, chances were that it would be dismembered before it dealt any actual damage to the member of the Pangu Clan!
Gritting his teeth, Li Yao boosted his computational ability to the maximum while he tried his best to look for more combinations of primeval runes, hoping to find a technique that was still more or less applicable!
However, he suddenly had a palpitation when he sensed unparalleled pressure.
When he raised his head, he was so shocked that his snot was almost bubbling!
The member of the Pangu Clan, who was floating in front of Draconic Phoenix, quietly stretched out all four limbs with his veins bulging on his face!
He seemed to be still, like a seriously deformed statue, but the fire of spiritual energy dancing around him was giving birth to colorful, surging turbulence!
The gray giant was gritted his teeth hard. His face suggested that he was more miserable than… a hemorrhoids patient who had suffered from constipation for seven days and seven nights. His skin slowly turned from gray to bright blue. Lumps were bursting out on his skin that was exposed to the air as it grew rougher. He looked like some sort of reptile!
Is this… a Soul Igniting Law? Li Yao was utterly dumbfounded.
To increase their longevity, Cultivators often concealed their level through the Soul Converging Technique, where they were no different from ordinary people. Only when they were in a fierce fight would they made full use of their Cultivation with the Soul Igniting Law!
A princess when quiet, and a rabbit when on the move. That was the way of life for many Cultivators.
Before and after they summoned all their Cultivation, they would undergo tremendous changes. Therefore, many people called the process 'metamorphosis'!
Judging from the violent aura around the member of the Pangu Clan, he was in the middle of a certain weird metamorphosis, too!
Are you kidding me? He is already so big, and he is still undergoing a metamorphosis? This is absolutely ridiculous! Li Yao cried in his heart like a pig being butchered.
However, on second thought, it was perfectly understandable.
The civilization of human beings and the Pangu civilization were deeply associated in the first place. The gene strands, cellar forms, and body structures of the two parties were almost identical. Their Cultivation arts were of the same lineage, too.
Since the Cultivators among human beings could undergo a metamorphosis, of course, the members of the Pangu Clan could, too!
I'm going to be screwed after his metamorphosis succeeds!
Having no time to retrieve the techniques anymore, Li Yao waved the fist and lunged at the member of the Pangu Clan who was shaking crazily!
It was too late!
Boom!
Centered around the member of the Pangu Clan, a volcano seemed to be erupting. An invincible aura was flooding out crazily like blast, forming solid 'air walls' in between!
Draconic Phoenix was pressed against the walls. However hard Li Yao pushed, it was not able to move forward any longer. Instead, screeching noises of metal fatigue were echoing, as if it was going to collapse in the next second!
Chiliu! Chiliu! Chiliu! Chiliu!
From the member of the Pangu Clan, in the meantime, came the blood-freezing sounds of bones being twisted and flesh being torn apart.
His skull suddenly bulged high, and his frontal bone protruded forward incessantly. Three rows of silver, shining tusks ejected out from his mouth!
His skin that was exposed to the air completely turned uneven and into the color of black and blue. Long, slender bone spurs burst out from his arms, knees, and spine. On the bone spurs, natural stripes that appeared to be some sort of spell were growing!
His body size did not expand; instead, it had even shrunk. However, the fire of spiritual energy and the frightening aura that surrounded him sank and consolidated, making him an almighty dominator again!
Shua!
A thick tail covered in scales was waving unpredictably behind him. At the end of the tail was a hollow bone sting, and a cluster of cold, purple fire was vaguely bouncing at the sharp end of the bone sting!
At this moment, the member of the Pangu Clan looked like a hybrid of a human being and a tyrannosaur.
Perhaps, this was the real appearance of a species of the Pangu civilization that had evolved from dinosaurs!
What was weirdest was that, despite the enormous changes in the body, the armor that had tightly covered the member of the Pangu Clan did not break apart or fall off.
There was no telling what the armor was made of. Perhaps, a lot of space folding, liquid metal, and even atom collapse technologies had been involved to increase its extension and elasticity to the maximum. As lights flashed, the shape of the armor continued changing until it was perfectly adapted to the brand-new appearance after the member of the Pangu Clan's metamorphosis. Even the bone spurs that protruded out of the body surface was now enshrouded in a layer of glittering shell!
Li Yao gulped hard.
He felt that he was like a rabbit whose legs were broken, faced with a tyrannosaur that was entirely made of metal.
"Hehehehe…"
A tiny spot appeared at the center of the member of the Pangu Clan's pure black eyes. He opened the six rows of tusks in the mouth with low, dull laughter.
Li Yao's eyes were twitching nonstop. He vaguely felt that, as the 'metamorphosis' was complete, it was not just the member of the Pangu Clan's body that had changed but also his soul.
The barrier that tied up his soul seemed to have been loosened slightly, allowing him to release some emotion!
Li Yao suddenly felt that it would not be bad at all if the member of the Pangu Clan could remain as tranquil as before…
Swoosh!
The member of the Pangu Clan suddenly vanished into thin air!
With the most dazzling flexibility, the enormous body dashed into dozens of streaks of brightness and attacked Li Yao from dozens of different angles!
Li Yao was having such a headache that his brains were almost burning, when he determined twenty-two trajectories of attack to be false in 0.2 seconds, before his back suffered a heavy blow!
Crack!
Li Yao heard the sound of his broken bone clearly.
The member of the Pangu Clan, after metamorphosis, was performing attacks with an unstoppable gale.
The gale had to have been made of a smaller particle than spiritual energy since it could pierce through Li Yao's spiritual shield, the Colossus' metal plate, and even Little Black's protection to attack Li Yao's spine directly!
Li Yao was a beginner who had not grasped the usage of the Colossus yet. He could not help but fall forward.
The member of the Pangu Clan, however, appeared in front of him instantly. The blue gale smashed him continuously like mountains and suppressed him brutally.
Li Yao felt that he was about to be suffocated.
His Nascent Soul managed to resist the attacks with the ragged Colossus, but he wondered how he could escape from the nightmare of the member of the Pangu Clan.
For some reason, he felt that the pressure was reduced for a moment, as if a gap as tiny as the width of a hair appeared between two mountains.
Gritting his teeth, Li Yao straightened his left leg and stabbed it toward the member of the Pangu Clan's lower abdomen through the gap!
At this moment, his only hope was that the genitals of the Pangu Clan were in the same location with and of a similar structure to human beings'.
But then again, even if the member of the Pangu Clan was a tyrannosaur, his genitals should still be somewhere around there, right?
The member of the Pangu Clan was indeed fooled. He snatched Li Yao's left ankle and twisted it hard.
But the left knee of Draconic Phoenix had long been broken. The parts below the knee were now nothing more than adornment.
Li Yao took the opportunity to twist toward the opposite direction. The left shin of Draconic Phoenix was twisted off easily. The scattered magical equipment components, mixed in suspicious liquids, spurted out like broken bones!
Holding back the pain of losing a leg, Li Yao finally separated himself from the member of the Pangu Clan!
When he turned around, he found that Su Changfa was manipulating the remaining a hundred or so spiritual puppets to attack the member of the Pangu Clan's back while Li Yao was engaged in head-on combat with the enemy!
Now that the number of the spiritual puppets was greatly reduced, Su Changfa was able to allocate many more spiritual threads to each puppet, allowing the puppets to be much defter than before.
The old Immortal Cultivator knew the tricks of harassment quite well. He was not counting on the puppets to deal a fatal damage to the member of the Pangu Clan but hoping them to buy a few more seconds!
It was like countless velociraptors had lunged to the back of a tyrannosaur to launch fearless attacks.
Su Changfa took the opportunity to retreat and ran to the teleportation array quickly.
Li Yao followed him and fled in panic, too!
"Who are you exactly?" Su Changfa demanded as the two of them ran alongside each other.
With everything coming so far, how could the old and cunning Immortal Cultivator not notice Li Yao's changes?
"Judging from your skeleton age, you can't be more than forty years old, yet you are in the Nascent Soul Stage! Even in the Imperium, it is a miracle among miracles!
"Such a top-tier expert such as yourself is definitely not a Mr. Nobody in the Flying Star Sector. How could you have been hunted by space pirates and caught in a cosmic storm?
"And you—you know how to drive a Colossus, too?
"Something is definitely wrong with your identity! Who are you exactly? How did you end up in this primeval battlefield? Are you a Cultivator or an Immortal Cultivator?"
Li Yao suddenly lowered his head before a few clusters of burning spiritual puppets were thrown past him above his head. He shouted, "Don't worry about whether I'm a Cultivator or an Immortal Cultivator! Even if I am nothing more than a bicycle mechanic, we should still work together for now!"
"Huh?" Su Changfa was dazed for a moment. It did make some sense, except that there was one question. "What's a bicycle?"
"That's not important!" Li Yao roared. Noticing that the member of the Pangu Clan was catching up to them, he dived into the teleportation array without any hesitation.
For safety reasons, the teleportation array had been kept at the half-activated state. As long as anybody stepped into it, it would be immediately awakened.
Li Yao and Su Changfa were immediately enveloped in a cluster of ivory light before they were teleported to a corner in the black cube!
Hardly had Li Yao recovered from the shock to his soul due to the short-distance jump when he rose up and stomped on the ground with his remaining right foot, lunging toward the dashboard of the teleportation array.
Right when he was lunging at the dashboard, the member of the Pangu Clan's enormous and hideous body was gradually emerging from the light ball, too!
Chapter 1290: Pestering! |
"Now is the time!"
Li Yao crushed himself into a cluster before he suddenly exploded like a spring. Draconic Phoenix was like a long-prepared cannonball when it hit the dashboard of the teleportation array brutally!
The force of almost a thousand tons and the spiritual energy from Draconic Phoenix instantly blew the dashboard into smithereens!
The teleportation array ran out of control!
It was Li Yao's final gamble. He was wagering on the possibility that the member of the Pangu Clan would catch up with him in fury. The best opportunity was seized. When the teleportation array began to collapse, the member of the Pangu Clan had only just extended his head!
As a result, half of the member of the Pangu Clan's body was teleported to the human being manufacture center while the other half was left in the escape center!
The member of the Pangu Clan was roaring deafeningly. The entire human being manufacture center seemed to be roaring with him.
Many vesicles where human beings were once manufactured fell to the ground!
In his overwhelming wrath, the fire of spiritual energy rotating around the member of the Pangu Clan was suddenly moving faster and supported the teleportation array that was perishing.
He suddenly jerked, plucking most of his body parts from the turbulence of the high-dimensional space!
His right leg was the only thing left in the teleportation array that was continuously collapsing.
The teleportation array completely halted.
An invisible blade of space seemed to have cut off his entire right leg as well as the armor.
The fracture was as smooth as a mirror, with veins, nerves, and bones distributed evenly. It was so clear that it was like a picture. No blood leaked out for a long time!
Shua!
It was obvious that the member of the Pangu Clan was constricting the muscles and pressing the wound, trying to stop the blood from spurting out.
A large cluster of deep-blue fog of light also surged out of the fracture of the armor and covered the wound. Very soon, it turned into a layer of bright gel.
Although the missing leg did not result in massive blood loss, indescribable pain was still revealed on the member of the Pangu Clan's face that was as hideous as that of a dinosaur.
One of his legs has been taken care of! Li Yao was both regretful and excited.
What he regretted was, of course, that he failed to rip the member of the Pangu Clan in half with such a great opportunity.
However, the member of the Pangu Clan's left eye had been blinded, and now his entire right leg, which should be of paramount importance, had been cut off. His movement would definitely be greatly affected!
We must believe in the laws of nature!
The more life-blighting the situation was, the calmer and clearer Li Yao's head got.
The universe was not a place where the larger one's body size was, the better!
A larger body size, naturally, meant a more awesome appearance and a bigger storage of spiritual energy and materials. But at the same time, the body would be bound by greater gravity force, which could be a heavy burden on the bones, flesh, and internal organs!
It was especially so on a planetary warship such as 'Kunlun', whose gravity was ten times the standard gravity because of the tremendous unique metals on it!
By the law of the evolution of creatures, the higher a planet's gravity was, the smaller the creatures produced by nature should be.
Otherwise, they would have to grow tougher bones and more tensile skin to resist the gravity, which would consume too much energy. Chances were that the large creatures would not be able to accumulate enough nutrition for such a body size even if they were taking in food twenty-four hours a day.
Therefore, intelligent creatures with a super large body size on a planet with strong gravity was a phenomenon in violation of natural laws.
Li Yao estimated that the member of the Pangu Clan, or most of the members of the Pangu Clan, should have been living on planets with weaker gravity at first.
Only with a lower gravity, or huge buoyancy, could such a large body be supported.
After they evolved to the point where they boasted the ability to cruise through the universe, the body size was no longer an important issue, partly because they were not restrained by gravity in the universe, and partly because they had certainly grasped the technology to build different gravity fields.
In order to grow more veins, thicker spiritual roots, and bigger second brains inside their bodies, they would likely aim to be even larger.
However, on some of the planets with high gravity, such as the main planet of the Heaven's Origin Sector and that of the Blood Demon Sector, such a behemothic body was definitely not the most suitable size!
The 'escape center' was a space of zero gravity. Therefore, no difference could be felt. However, after they were teleported to the human being manufacture center, the strong gravity immediately pressed on both parties like an invisible mountain!
Hardly had the member of the Pangu Clan woken up when one of his eyes was blown apart and one of his legs got cut off. Now, he was also shouldering ten times the standard gravity, which far exceeded the limitations of the body. Creaking noises were immediately echoing from the armor, and spluttering explosions were taking place on various joints. He was immediately slowed down.
