by <unknown>
“The Holy Land for Refiners!”
A flame ignited and blazed within the depths of Li Yao’s eyes, transforming into a myriad of fiery serpents that danced wildly.
Like with all the other booths, the Deep Sea University’s booth had a bunch of people crowded together. It looked like the vast majority of students were extremely passionate about this university which had more of a focus on practicality. Li Yao could barely squeeze into the crowd.
In the middle of the booth was actually the enormous model of a city. It had mountains and it had rivers. It had skyscrapers and it had mansions. The sky even had flying shuttle passing by occasionally. It was small but was complete in every detail. It was crafted to be a perfect imitation.
Right at this moment, a dozen or so metal-crafted miniature Demon Beasts suddenly flew from one end of the booth, bringing with them an ear-splitting and piercing whistle. They charged into the miniature city.
At nearly the same time, over a hundred pentagonal metal balls rose abruptly from all around the city. The cubes spun rapidly in the air to form a giant net that blanketed the sky. They tangled around and held the invading flying Demon Beasts at bay, immobilizing them.
After a burst of “Ding Ding Dong Dong” sounds of fighting, all the flying Demon Beasts were intercepted by the pentagonal metal balls. The Demon Beasts were sucked and firmly stuck to the surfaces of the metal balls by an indescribable force.
“All students.”
It was a man whose hair was as white as a crane’s and whose complexion was as rosy as a child’s. This purple clothed man was full of hale and hearty vigor. With beaming smiles, he said, “The model you all just saw was the ‘Anti-Demon Beast Defense System’ that our Deep Sea University has researched, developed, and crafted. It has already been purchased by the military for use in every strategic city in the Federation. It can withstand a simultaneous attack of up to 1500 Demon Beasts and can even repel the flying swords of the strong Demonic Cultivators. With this kind of Artifact, it doesn’t matter if it's a powerful Demon Beast or a demonic cultivator. As soon as they enter the airspace of our Federation, they become gifts with their hands tied, waiting to be taken prisoner!”
Chapter 46: The Refiners' Holy Land |
The purple-clothed old man paused for a moment. Then, a dozen dark, dull, and completely ordinary flying swords floated and emerged from behind his back. They spun and circled randomly above the numerous students’ heads. From time to time, the flying swords would perform maneuvers at rapid speeds within a small area. They dove, they turned, and they flipped, causing the observing students to cry out in surprise over and over.
With a laugh, the purple clothed old man spoke, “All students, if the recent demonstration of the Anti-Demon Beast Defense System was not enough to satisfy you, then look at the latest ‘Unmanned Autonomous Flying Swords” crafted by our Deep Sea University. These flying swords come in two models. The Alpha Model can be controlled through a dedicated crystal processor remote control system, allowing for operation of the Flying Sword at a distance over 10,000 miles away from the cultivator controller. And these Beta Models you see here are completely and thoroughly unmanned and autonomous. There are absolutely no cultivators controlling these flying swords!”
“If there’s no one to operate them, how are they able to fly by themselves?” There were students who could not hold back from asking questions.
“In the Master CPU in these types of flying swords, we employ a completely new type of glyph array architecture. We are able to input several hundreds of thousands of telepathic commands in advance to simulate all the possible situations that may arise in battle, and have it run the proper pre-installed combat programs in response. This is our miraculous Unmanned Autonomous technology! Of course, to actually research and develop this technology is not as easy as I described. The Unmanned Autonomous Flying Sword was just recently created; it still contains many problems. All students, if you’re interested then you might as well apply to our Deep Sea University. Together, we can research, develop, and perfect miraculous artifacts such as these!” the purple-clothed old man said beaming with smiles.
Li Yao watched the unmanned autonomous flying swords fly about through the air. He felt his heart stir and automatically thought of Black Wing.
Black Wing also flew about without Li Yao issuing commands to it. It even lies in front of the hologram projector, humming and buzzing, singing and dancing. It simply didn’t seem like an artifact, but rather an actual living being.
When compared with these Unmanned Autonomous Flying Swords, Black Wing’s “Intelligence” was clearly on a much higher level.
Anyways, his old man had once said that Black Wing was a relic found in a historical ruin in another Greater Thousand World. An entire lifetime of research and study was not enough to crack Black Wing’s architecture. He even couldn’t crack open Black Wing’s shell.
His old man had speculated that Black Wing should be the product of a different Cultivator Civilization on a higher level.
It’s already amazing enough that Deep Sea University was able to craft these kinds of flying swords that didn’t need cultivators to control them!
Right at this moment, an unmanned flying sword suddenly flipped around and swept past over Li Yao’s head. Li Yao felt an itch in his mind. He instinctively reached out with his hand, wanting to grasp the flying sword by its hilt.
As soon as his fingers were about to make contact with the hilt, the flying sword vibrated chaotically to create an azure blue glow. Like that of an electric eel, an electric arc flashed and struck Li Yao’s fingers.
“IT HURTS!”
Li Yao pulled back his hand; his fingers had turned black. He looked once more at the flying sword that continued to circle above his head. From time to time, the sword exploded maliciously with azure electricity.
With his tongue stuck out from fear, Li Yao contracted his neck. He no longer dared to be so reckless.
The purpled-clothed old man chuckled as he walked to be in front of Li Yao. He said, “This student, you should now know just how amazing the Unmanned Autonomous Flying Sword is. Fortunately, in time, the flying sword will be able to figure out your identity of being a civilian. If it had recognized you as a Demon Beast or a Demonic Cultivator, then you would have long been beheaded! Come, let me look at your hand. To see if you’re injured.”
As Li Yao obediently reached out with his hand, his mind was actually revolving with interest. He did the utmost to figure out a method to break the Unmanned Autonomous Flying Sword.
“Huh?”
The purple-clothed old man’s faced leaked out a trace of an astonished and happy expression. His smiling expression intensified. “This student, do you often do Artifact maintenance in your free time?”
Li Yao stared, stunned he asked, “How do you know?”
“I can feel that your hands are different from the common person. This kind of pliable and tough feeling should be from the growth of calluses that are later worn away. Then grown again. Then worn away. This must have happened over and over for at least a dozen times to produce your hands. Additionally, the muscles of your palm produce subtle responses. It’s impossible for other people to have these hands, only experienced Artifact technicians have these kinds of hands. How about it? Do you want to apply to our Deep See University?” the purple clothed old man asked being completely cordial.
Li Yao took a look at the Anti-Demon Beast Defense System. Then, he took a look at the Unmanned Autonomous Flying Sword circling over his head. With a forceful nod, he said, “I have a dream that one day I will become a Refiner — to craft the most powerful Artifact of the Federation!”
“Of the top ten Master Refiners in the Federation, seven of them graduated from our Deep Sea University. Deep Sea University is the Holy Land for Refiners! My name is Xie Tingxian. I’m a scout for our Deep Sea University in Arena 571. You’re pretty good. I’ll pay special attention to you during the competition, so be sure to giv
e a good performance!” The purple clothed old man patted Li Yao on the shoulder. In the blink of an eye, he was surrounded by a blob of different students.
“Wow!”
From outside the crowd, Zheng Dongming cried out quite exaggeratedly, “You actually met Deep Sea University’s scout! He’s very influential and probably has some authoritative power for special admittance. As long as he chooses you, you won’t even need to take the entrance exams. You can be admitted directly into Deep Sea University! I should have known to let the flying sword shock me too just then!”
“You still need to be chosen in order to get in!”
Although Li Yao spoke without thinking, his heart was actually beating wildly. He was nervous, excited, happy… various feelings were tangled into a complex knot. It caused his emotions to be stirred to the peak.
Deep Sea University was the ideal university in his mind. He absolutely needed to give a good performance during the Limit Challenge Competition to make this Xie Tingxian sit up and notice him!
Having already determined his number one goal, the other universities no longer appealed as much to him. Li Yao and Zheng Dongming circled around the ship’s hold, completing a circle. They didn’t pay particular attention to the remaining universities and were preparing to leave. At this time, they suddenly discovered that there was still a small exhibition hall in the deepest corner.
The other universities had decorated their areas to be quite lavish; their setup featured state of the art technology. When comparing the exhibition halls that drew in people, this hall was really extremely unpresentable. There wasn’t even a single student taking a look inside. There was only a lonely staff member sitting in the depths of the hall.
Li Yao raised his head to look. On top were the written words “Grand Desolate War Institution!”.
“Is this also one of the Nine Elites? Why is this place so abandoned? No one wants to apply to this school?” Li Yao asked with utter curiosity.
Zheng Dongming glanced at the sign and couldn’t help laughing. “The Grand Desolate War Institution has the worst internal resources. Their overall true strength is the weakest, and they’re located in the nastiest of places, the Demon Beast Wasteland…. But these factors aren’t enough to make this hall this abandoned. The main reason lies in their ‘Combat Department’ that the Grand Desolate War Institution is most famous for. They are experts in educating people who temper their bodies to walk the martial path, the Body Practitioners. It is said that the most extreme Body Practitioners even forego all Artifacts. They believe that the body is the strongest and is the sole and only Artifact. They rely purely on their fists to fight Demon Beasts. They’re simply a group of lunatics!”
Li Yao, upon hearing his words, also agreed considerably with him.
He was born in the Artifact Graveyard. He was an expert at taking any item he can get and use it as a weapon. It was beyond stupid to rely solely on his two fists to fight hand-to-hand against his enemies.
Zheng Dongming continued, “The cultivation philosophy of the Grand Desolate War Institution has a bit of logic behind it. Because of the environment around the Grand Desolate Region is of the worst quality, resources are in short supply. Quite a few powerful artifacts with precise architectures are excessively worn-out due to overuse after using them a few times in such a bad environment, to never be used again. This kind of extreme environment is what fostered those who relied purely on their fleshly bodies, the Body Practitioners! But in the South East Region, all cultivators specialize in using Artifacts. These types of martial art methods are very unpopular here. And in addition, tempering the body is incomparably painful. Traversing the Path of Body Tempering means to endure eighty-one torments for even a slight chance of success… What do you think? Among us South-Easterners, who would rack their brains deciding to walk the Path of Body Tempering?”
Pausing for a bit, Zheng Dongming suddenly thought of something. He tapped his head saying, “I almost forgot. Your Crimson Nimbus Second produced a cultivation genius Fiend Blade Peng Hai. He decided to go with the Grand Desolate War Institution. He’s not an extreme Body Practitioner though, he’s a Sword Cultivator.“
“This is the university that Fiend Blade Peng Hai studied at?” A light flashed in Li Yao’s eyes. A strand of interest towards the Grand Desolate War Institution was born in Li Yao.
Chapter 47: Ding Lingdang |
“Since they were able to rise up into the Nine Elites, they must have something that sets them apart from the norm! Let’s go over and take a look!” Li Yao spontaneously strolled towards Grand Desolate War Institution’s booth.
“The Grand Desolate War Institution is full of barbarians with well-trained bodies, but simple minds. What possibly is there to see? It would be better for you to come with me to go back to Sky Fantasia Academy to see if there’s a chance to find a few female seniors to eat dinner with. Together, we can discuss literature~! Hey. If you’re not coming, I’ll go by myself. Don’t say that I didn’t consider you a swine friend~!”
Zheng Dongming shouted a few times behind Li Yao’s back and was met with no reaction by Li Yao. Zheng Dongming then rubbed his nose, took out his micro crystal processor, and set it to “mirror” mode. He spread open his hand to comb his hair to the side. After letting out a whistle, he headed walking towards Sky Fantasia Academy.
As soon as Li Yao entered Grand Desolate War Institution’s exhibition hall, Li Yao felt his footsteps go heavy all of a sudden. It was as if a 1000 lb boulder was pressing on his shoulder. Even the air turned somewhat more viscous.
“An artificial gravity field?” Li Yao became interested.
This exhibition hall was set up in a rough and wild cultivation gym.
Dumbbells, barbells, sandbags, and other cultivation equipment were placed all around in a chaotic mess.
To the astonishment of Li Yao, most of the cultivation equipment weren’t actually made from metal but rather crafted and created from rock and Demon Beast remains. It gave one a course, barbaric, but blood-heating feeling. It made the muscles of his entire body, from head to toe, itch to give the equipment a try.
As he made his way inside, Li Yao recalled the month when he spent his utmost effort, shedding sweat and youth in the school’s warehouse.
He could not help walking up to a squat rack, hefting a barbell onto his shoulders.
This barbell on the squat rack was made and crafted from the spine of a Demon Beast. When grasped in his hand, he felt the extremely fine knurling. The feeling in his hand felt extremely good. The barbell plates, made from polished obsidian stone, had the perfect weight to them.
Li Yao took a deep breath. His toes dug into the ground. He sent power to his hips, squatting steadily down.
……
Ding Lingdang was restless.
She sat upon a dumbbell bench. Gripped in each hand was a 100 kilogram skeleton dumbbell. As she destroyed, ravaged, and tormented the dumbbells, she sent e-crane messages to the head instructor of Grand Desolate War Institution’s Combat Department thousands of miles away. Complaining loudly, she said, “Teacher Xia. Can we of Grand Desolate War Institution really recruit students from this pussy-ass place? The arms and legs of the people here are delicate and thin. The people are weak to the extreme! I fear even a mere sneeze can topple them! And these pussies even look down upon our Grand Desolate War Institution. It’s already been half a day and only a few little kittens came in to take a look so far. And, each of them had an extremely strange expression as they looked at me from top to bottom, as if they were looking at a combat madman. So unfair! It’s really was mean of them!”
She waved with some effort and creaking noises rang out. The dumbbell had actually been squeezed bent.
Ding Lingdang went “Oh no!”, stuck out her tongue, and tossed the bent dumbbell to the side… Seven to eight dumbbells were piled up in the corner. There were hand marks clearly imprinted on each of the handles of these dumbbells.
On the hologram was a buff dude
who was over 2.2 meters tall, with muscles as hard as a rock, and with scarlet red skin. The buff dude said helplessly, “Small Ding, don’t take things so personally. It’s been three years since our Grand Desolate Institution has recruited any new students from Arena 571. Everyone’s used to it. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have let you, a recent graduate and new faculty member, come and act as a scout here… We just came here to get in on the action and expand our influence. It doesn’t matter whether we recruit people or not. Anyways, in our Grand Desolate Region, there’s been plenty of cultivation geniuses trying to enter our school!”
“From what I’ve seen here, I agree. Everyone here’s a pretty boy; not one is suited to be a Body Practitioner… Hold on, Teacher Xia. I think I’ve found a target!” Ding Lingdang happened to raise her head. She saw Li Yao doing squats, causing her two eyes to glow all of a sudden.
“Really? How’s his potential?” The giant red-skin dude in the hologram was a bit astonished.
The fellows who can be considered “targets” by Ding Lingdang are few even in the Grand Desolate Region.
“He’s fairly decent. Those biceps. Those pectorals. Those lats. Those quads. Those glutes. Tsk tsk tsk tsk. Every muscle in his body is flawless and beautiful. It makes one unable to hold back from giving a few pinches~! What a natural young talent! He’s simply just made to walk the path of body tempering. Enough talk. I’m going to go over now…. to capture him!”
Ding Lingdang rubbed her hands together as her face filled with excitement. With a step, she scurried just behind Li Yao.
“Little brother, you’ve trained your pecs quite well~!”
Li Yao felt only a ferocious and vicious hurricane sweep over from behind his back. A powerful oppressive aura, nearly on the exact same level as Fiend Blade Peng Hai’s, appeared behind him!
The only difference was that… Fiend Blade Peng Hai’s aura was earth-shattering in form of ebbing tides and waves. This aura was as if a tyrannosaurus rex had come crashing from afar, fiercely and viciously. A strong air of terrible beasts was mixed in the aura!
