by <unknown>
“HSS!”
The three-eyed ape let out an ear-piercing hiss. The third eye on its forehead suddenly opened wide, and the eye’s color also turned bright in an instant, like a piece of iron heated until it was red. And Li Yao felt a piercing pain burrow deep inside his mind.
Li Yao knew that this was the mental attack from the three-eyed ape. He let out a blood-curdling shriek on purpose and was trembling all over in an “uncontrollable” manner.
The three-eyed ape let out squeaking shouts, as it thought that its trick was a success. The ape swung on the branch a circle, borrowing the elastic force as it rushed and pounced at Li Yao. Its pair of arms opened up, leaving it wide open.
It hadn’t noticed that early on Li Yao had his right leg thrusted deeply within the spongy rotten growth below, clenching the bone of a dead Fiend Beast.
When the ape approached near, Li Yao’s right leg kicked out like lightning and the bone pierced straight into the ape’s third eye!
This bone was probably the fibula of a certain Demon Beast; it was incomparably hard. The bone delved inside in an instant, without resistance, through the third eye and pierced the brain of the ape.
A giant mass of brain matter shot out suddenly from the hollow bone.
No matter how powerful the three-eyed ape was, it would die on the spot if it took critical damage to its brain. The massive and strong body suddenly trembled, collapsing over. After a fit of unusual twitching, it ceased moving completely.
Similar scenes of slaughter occurred simultaneously all throughout Devil Flood Dragon Island. The portion of cultivation geniuses with resolute willpower awakened from their respective illusions one by one. They unleashed their terminating techniques, proceeding with bloody slaughter.
Quite a few of the youths’ had bad luck though. They were not able to shake the illusion in time and were targeted by Demon Beasts.
The instant the Demon Beasts unleashed what would be fatal attacks, the Puji Critters spouted giant blobs of pink gel like that of jello. The gel safely encased the youths within while the attacks of Demon Beasts were unable to do any damage whatsoever.
At the same time, the sky patrolling cultivators flew over at lightning speed. They took these failed competitors out from Devil Flood Dragon Island.
In the annual Limit Challenge Competition, the first 10 minutes was the hardest. A large portion of competitors were dazed in the illusion and forced to eat defeat.
This year was the same. Within the first 10 minutes, 725 competitors left Devil Flood Dragon Island with broken hearts and returned to the Distant Expanse.
And at the monitor center within the Distant Expanse were scouts of the Nine Elites, teachers of the various high schools, and high ranking military personnel. They were all gathered together here and were staring fixed with great interest at the incessantly flickering holograms.
To the side was also a large flickering list of names that displayed the top 100 ranking competitors in order.
Li Yao killed a three-eyed ape in an instant, receiving quite a few points, and had actually slaughtered his way into the top 100. At the present, he ranked number 98.
“The quality of this year’s batch of new talent is quite decent. Only 720 people left the island within the first 10 minutes. I remember last year that over a thousand people failed within the first 10 minutes!” a high ranking military personnel laughed as he spoke.
“Magnify the top 100 competitors. We need to observe them very closely,” said a scout.
A hundred holograms metamorphasised immediately, transforming larger, clearer, and brighter. And flame decals were now on the perimeter of the holograms’ frame.
“Huh?”
The Artificing Expert from Deep Sea University, Xie Tingxian, went slightly blank. He saw the entire sequence of events of Li Yao slaying the three-eyed ape.
He never thought that this youth who possessed such a high gift for artificing would actually possess such a proficiency for battle.
“I knew it! My eyes weren’t mistaken!”
The scout from the Grand Desolate War Institution, Ding Lingdang, waved her fist in excitement!
“But, what the hell is he up to now?”
On the hologram, Li Yao performed a bizarre action that caused Xie Tingxian and Ding Lingdang to simultaneously have a feeling of bewilderment emerge in their hearts.
As seen on the hologram, Li Yao did not leave after killing the three-eyed ape, but instead he removed the Fiend bone from the ape’s forehead. Using the bone as a blade, he cut the neck artery of the three-eyed ape in a completely skillful fashion and smeared the incomparably noxious Demon Beast blood all over his body.
He smeared the blood completely even all over him, not even missing a single toe for exposure. And in the end, he even soaked all the hair on his head in the blood before he clapped his hands in satisfaction. He grabbed the Fiend bone with his mouth and leapt onto a branch.
Li Yao took a deep breath, and it was as if he had returned to the Artifact Graveyard.
The crisscrossing tree branches formed narrow pathways and were quite similar to the narrow pathways among tottering towers of garbage in the Artifact Graveyard.
Sweeping a glance at lightning speed, Li Yao unleashed his calculating ability to the limit. And emerging into his mind were countless coordinates, wind vectors, and digits. An incomparably clear and transparent pathway appeared and spread before his eyes.
“Small Ji, help me locate the closest supply point!” Li Yao spoke to the Puji Critter on his head.
A moment later, the translucent map of Devil Flood Dragon Island was cast before his eyes, clearly marking his present location and the positions of several dozen supply points.
Chuckling lightly, Li Yao jumped from branch to branch lithely, shooting towards the closest supply point.
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
Li Yao passed unhindered between the branches through what seemed to be dead ends. It was as if Devil Flood Dragon Island was made just for him — a corridor in the air that let him move as fast as lightning!
It wasn’t that there weren’t any Demon Beasts encountered on the way there. It was that every time he felt the existence of a Demon Beast, Li Yao would stop at once. He would enter into a state of deep concealment on the branch.
The Demon Beast blood on his body let out a strong Fiend Aura. And in addition, he was used to concealing himself since young in the garbage heaps of the Artifact Graveyard. He was unable to be discovered and distinguished by all the other Demon Beasts.
Sometimes, Demon Beasts would even attack amongst themselves. But presently, there were several thousand new arrivals of fat, tender, and extra-juicy “small fresh meat” on Devil Flood Dragon Island. So all the Demon Beasts were busy hunting for the smell of humans; they had no intention of eating the bitter and stenchy meat of their own kind.
Li Yao used this sort of method to arrive at the supply point, traumatised but unharmed.
His strange behavior also excited the curiosity of numerous cultivators in the monitoring center on the Distant Expanse. Everyone was making conjectures on his intentions.
“The movement technique of this competitor is quite nimble. It seems that he grew up in the mountains and woods. And his aura concealment skill is on a rather high level. Come look. Two Demon Beasts who were 3-5 meters away from him already went past him, not discovering him in the least.”
“You’re right. This competitor possesses an abundance of actual battle experience, not at all like a newbie entering the battlefield for the first time. And his mental strength is also very strong to be able to let Demon Beasts pass by him without actually moving a single whisker. Even his eyes didn’t even blink. This piece of material, after going through some education, can become an outstanding assassin!”
“However, why doesn’t he lift a finger? There were clearly several opportunities for him to kill a few Demon Beasts with little to no effort and receive a great amount of points. Why did he cock his bo
w, but not release the arrow? What’s he up to?”
Other than killing the first three-eyed ape, Li Yao had not dealt with any beasts for half an hour. His ranking was dropping down, soon entering the end of the 2000s ranking.
It should be known that the competitors that still remained on Devil Flood Dragon Island had killed 3-5 Demon Beasts on average by this time. Some of the experts with tyrannical strength were able to slay over a dozen Demon Beasts in a single breath.
At the moment, the name placed number one in the rankings was… Helian Lie!
“Small fellow, so you want to be the first to reach a supply point to show off the artificing side of your talents? Okay then. I will pay close attention to you. To see in the end what sort of tricks you have up your sleeve!” Xie Tingxian chuckled as his pair of eyes glistened and brightened.
With a light leap, Li Yao jumped into the supply point.
Chapter 54: Three Major Killing Weapons |
The supply point was a piece of flat empty ground amongst the forest. An offensive glyph array was set up encircling the surroundings. As soon as a Denib Beast enters within, the Demon Beast would be assaulted relentlessly by the glyph array. After time passed, Demon Beasts would no longer come here seeking their own deaths.
Piled up in the supply point were some food and water. There were also several dozen camo green weapon crates as well.
Li Yao swept his gaze in a circle. He opened a weapon crate first and took out a set of jungle camo battle clothes.
He did not even consider the battle boots due to the excessively complicated environment of the forest. Wearing boots would get in the way of attacking; it would be better to go barefoot.
He opened the second crate and discovered several dozen alloy blades glittering like snow inside.
As if facing a pile of garbage, Li Yao kicked the crate away in disdain.
He opened the third and the fourth crate in succession. They were packed full to the brim, loaded with artifact parts.
Li Yao examined the crates for a moment and discovered that the rest of the crates were filled with artifact parts, save for a crate containing first aid drugs and etc.
He went ahead and opened all the crates, sending the parts toppling out and forming a small mountain.
“What is he up to?”
Cultivators whispered to each other’s ears in the monitoring center.
The artifact parts in these supply points are for competitors to assemble their own artifacts. It tested the competitor’s degree of familiarity and manual dexterity with these artifacts.
However, most people would open at most one or two weapons crates and extract parts for a set. It was enough to assemble one or two artifacts.
“This little fellow took all the artifact parts and mixed them all together. Can he distinguish them clearly from one another? I mean, they are the most rudimentary of artifacts, but there would be several thousand different components when added all together. To be able to find matching sets of components would be hard. Hard. Way too hard!”
A high ranking military officer disapproved and shook his head.
Artifact Assembling Competitions were quite popular within the military. Soldiers were required to assemble complete artifacts in the shortest amount of time.
Some experts were even able to assemble artifacts to completion with their eyes blindfolded.
But these sorts of competitions used components of the same kind of artifacts. Nobody would take components of several dozen different kinds of artifacts and mix them together. How would one distinguish parts from one another?
Even though Li Yao’s ranking was falling lower and lower, the interest that these cultivators had in regards to him was growing stronger and stronger.
Li Yao didn’t know that numerous cultivators were paying careful attention to his performance from the Distant Expanse.
He was neither tense nor slow, instead moving at his own pace in this match.
He first picked out a crystal cell for the part heap. Then, he picked out some artifact parts and coiled them around the crystal cell, creating an ugly and peculiar small device.
After doing this, he took out approximately 20 more crystal cells and coiled the artifact parts around them following the same pattern. Finally, he connected them in series.
“What is this?”
The cultivators in the monitoring center were puzzled and confused. Everyone’s gazes fell towards the Artificing Expert Xie Tingxian.
Xie Tingxian looked to be deep in thought as he spoke, “Crystal cells are the cores for the most low-level of artifacts. They are responsible for providing essence energy to artifacts as an energy source. But what this competitor has made and created using crystal cells isn’t your standard artifact. At most, one can say that this is a device that carries some artifact capabilities.”
“Professor Xie, what sort of uses does this device have?” a military officer could not help asking.
Xie Tingxian thought to himself for a time. “It’s a kind of explosive device. It can disrupt the Stabilizing Glyph Array within the crystal cells to cause the powerful spiritual energy contained within the crystal cells to rupture in an instant and give rise to a great powerful explosive force.”
“Could it be that he wants to make over a hundred explosive devices and bombs his way as he goes?”
“That can’t be right. He set up 20 of them crystal cells in series. With that big of a mass, it would be impossible to carry around. Don’t even mention about going out to bomb Demon Beasts, it would be impossibly lucky of him to not be caught in such a big explosion.”
The military officer wrinkled his eyebrows having sunk into deep thought.
After making a small and a large crystal cell bomb, Li Yao did something unexpected by changing his style completely.
His dexterity increased abruptly in a flash. His pair of hands transformed into two trailing shadows as he plucked out several hundred components from the pile at lightning speeds.
A crackling exploding sound rang forth as a long sawtooth-edged sword began to form at lightning speed.
“Such fast hand dexterity!”
The monitoring center was in an uproar.
Assembling artifacts was a basic skill of cultivators. Every cultivator had some understanding of it.
But at their level, they long since ceased using their hands and instead used spiritual energy to manipulate the components.
For an ordinary youth whose spirit root had yet to awaken, possessing hand dexterity as demonically fast as these means that he had absolutely gone through long, difficult, and unsurpassed amounts of practice!
“Such solid fundamentals!”
Xie Tingxian nodded his head over and over, faintly feeling that he was about to snatch up a diamond this time.
The other cultivars could only see that Li Yao’s hand dexterity was demonically fast. With the eyes of an expert, only he could tell that Li Yao was maintaining a super high speed while also maintaining a pair of steady hands. Li Yao ensured that every component was assembled firmly and accurately. Even breathing did not cause the slightest hint of disruption.
The only thing was…
Xie Tingxian blinked his eyes. He had discovered that the assembling sequence Li Yao went through differed somewhat from the standard military greatsword assembling procedure.
At first, he thought that Li Yao had made a mistake. But a moment later, he found out that Li Yao was modifying the architecture in the most inconspicuous place. There he added a little “something”.
“Interesting. This really is interesting.”
Xie Tingxian did not expect that Li Yao, a high school student, would actually take these classical artifacts with finalized designs and go on to modify them.
Although he had yet to figure out what the small modification would entail, he was already made to nod his head over and over, firmly increasing his resolve to pay close attention to Li Yao.
Not five minutes had passed when Li Yao com
pleted assembling the first artifact.
This was a military standard chainsword nicknamed the Tiger Shark!
It was a two-handed broadsword exceeding 1.5 meters long. A sawtooth ring crafted from super-alloy steel revolved around the exterior. Powered by crystal cells, the sawtooth ring was able to revolve at super high speeds. As for its killing power, it can easily chop through a giant tree with a girth that one could not wrap his arms around. No matter how hard the shell and bones of low-level Demon Beasts were, they were no use when faced with this sword.
“Four minutes thirty-nine seconds. This speed already exceeds that of several veteran military personnel,” the officer from a moment ago cried out.
Strictly speaking, assembling artifacts in this manner was only taking pre-crafted artifact components and assembling them together. Technically, it wasn’t real “artificing”.
But when adhering to the standards of a typical eighteen year old, Li Yao demonstrated an absolutely praiseworthy virtuoso performance.
What followed was…
Contrary to the expectations of most of the cultivators, Li Yao did not heave the Tiger Shark Chainsword out to go slaying around with it. Instead, he put it aside. He picked out a great amount of components once again and began to assemble his second artifact.
The components he picked out this time were completely different than those from last time. The style increased in crudeness, ferocity, and wildness, giving it the appearance of a war blade.
Soon, a somewhat shorter, but broader and thicker, strangely shaped blade looking like a dog’s leg was born in Li Yao’s hands.
“Thunder Blade?” the military officer shouted involuntarily.
It was also one of the most fundamental and rudimentary of artifacts. But the thunder blade and the chainsword designs were completely different in reasoning. This blade relied on the Jolt Glyph Array engraved on both sides of the back of the blade. The array generates high-frequency vibration ripples, causing the blade to produce over 10,000 oscillations per second. This way, the killing power is increased.
Each time the blade chops down, the internal organs of the Demon Beast will be completely disintegrated by the vibrations. Among the rudimentary artifacts, this was one of the most fierce!
