by <unknown>
Floating Spear City was like a sleeping beast that lay calmly within the darkness.
Occasionally, anti-gravity shuttles would streak through the night sky. Their thrusters created streaks of rainbows and were swallowed by the darkness in the blink of an eye.
The spirit root was the origin for every cultivator. It was closely bound with one’s five senses and thinking ability. Everyone would approximately fill out their own Actualization Quotient and figure out what level they were at.
“My five senses are much sharper than before. My mind has become clearer. I can even easily remember matters from the past. Even if I don’t feel a sprouting sensation on my forehead, my neural field has changed to be much more vast!”
“If my original neural field could be said to be the size of a small pond, my present mind is like a vast giant ocean that stretches as far as the eye can see. My spirit root is stronger than the past by over two-fold! My Actualization Quotient must have increased by at least 17~18 percent. How could it have fallen instead of rising? To the point of 7%?”
Li Yao laughed involuntarily.
A sudden drop in one’s Actualization Quotient would bring about an extremely intense reaction for sure! For example, their heads would hurt to the point of splitting, their thinking would become blurred, their memory faculties would decline, their five senses would drop, and they might even become a retard!
When compared to his crisp and clear mind of the present, in a state of boundless energy, it was completely different!
Li Yao’s first thought was that the hospital’s sensor machine made a bad measurement. But the probability of this happening is small.
Thinking about it, the greatest possibility was that he had used up too much of his mental energy when he was consuming Ou Yezi’s memories. This lead to his Actualization Quotient to drop temporarily.
But it was also because he swallowed Ou Yezi’s memories that he was able to break open his neural field. From today on, cultivation would absolutely be a flat ground where he could gallop straight across, covering a thousand miles in a single day.
Li Yao’s mouth hooked into a smile as he thought back to Ou Yezi’s memories.
His two legs split. A fist pounded forth randomly, and he actually heard three “Bang Bang Bang” explosions. Three air-tearing ripples had appeared on the tip of the fist in front of him.
“I actually succeeded in learning this Heart-Piercer Hammer move!”
“I don’t know how many days I lay in bed for. My body consumed enormous resources; I’m as thin as a skeleton! My body lacks strength!”
“I was able to strike out with three air-tearing ripples with a single punch even under this state. If I properly recover for several days and eat several hundred cans of the Giant Creatures of Starry Skies meat, my body will recover back to its peak state. It’s possible that I might even strike out with ten air-tearing ripples!”
As he looked at the morning star to the horizon, Li Yao’s heart was moving with great undulations. He simply wanted to howl loudly without a single care, to vent his heart’s feelings of pleasure as much as he wanted.
This awakening of deep sleep was completely different from last time with the Dream of Grandeur.
The experiences of the Dream of Grandeur was spotty and blurred, flickering and passing. The memories seemed to have vanished in the blink of an eye and were completely forgotten.
This time, he remembered every detail in the dream!
Ou Yezi’s memories were completed transferred and transformed into his own memories!
Li Yao’s eyes were bright and lively. The bones of his body crackled with explosive ringing. He stood on this small balcony using his fist as a hammer. He fully displayed the One-Hundred-And-Eight-Hands Chaos-Gale Hammer Technique, feeling it to be only flowing and natural. He went through the moves from top to bottom, linking them smoothly. The small balcony become shrouded by the tip of his fists. Circle ripples permeated through the air, causing his body to appear strangely twisted.
“A fleeting Fiend Star? Not bad, not bad. This nickname Fiend Star has quite the nice ring to it. It’s more suitable than the Vulture for the big stage!”
“There will be a day when the name Fiend Star will shake the Federation and spread through the whole Heaven’s Origin Sector!”
Right as Li Yao stretched his muscles to their limits, a shriek suddenly pierced from behind his back.
It was a nurse who had opened the door to come in and was faced with Li Yao standing on the balcony. Who knows what he was up to. Her fright caused even the tray she had held in her hands to fall to the ground.
Chapter 72: A Lizard Transforming to a T-Rex |
Li Yao spent the entire day receiving a full-body exam in the hospital.
He didn’t know how many talismans were stuck to his body by the doctor. Then the doctor shoved him into 17~18 strange and bizarre machines. Then there still were four renowned mind-healing-specialist Meditation Healers who tried to hypnotize him in vain, to take a glimpse at his neural field.
Li Yao’s neural field broke through new ground having experienced Ou Yezi’s powerful soul. His mind had changed to be incomparably vast. The four Meditation Healers spent a hair-pulling half a day and were unable to find out why they can’t access his mind. They ended up concluding… Since his spirit root was torn, Li Yao had already lost the brain wave response that most ordinary people should possess.
To summarize, they tried over and over until 3:00 in the afternoon. Floating Spear City’s First Hospital issued a diagnosis report… There’s nothing majorly wrong with Li Yao’s body. Each of his organs was weak only because of his month long coma. Perhaps he needs half a year to a full year of time to recuperate for the functionality of his body to recover to normal.
Li Yao knew the actual cause. It was because consuming Ou Yezi’s memory shards took far too much energy.
As long as he used the Art of the Swallowing Whale to eat several tons of food, he would be able to recover back to normal in 3-5 days.
What do you mean a year to recover? That’s simply a joke.
Soon, a white gowned doctor with a grave expression walked to his bedside. The doctor explained with an expression of being in constipation for several years. The attack from the doped up mutated large-eyed ape caused his Spirit Root to be completely torn. His Actualization Quotient dropped to a state unrecognizable by any father or mother. Only 7% was left. The doctor estimated that he would have to say goodbye to cultivation for life.
Even though things were like this, the doctor still hoped for Li Yao to summon the courage to live life bravely. Though his body was ravaged, he should maintain an unyielding will. Don’t give up hope. And so on and so forth.
Li Yao browsed his diagnosis report meticulously. He compared pages after pages of diagrams and charts of his neural field. Li Yao used his substantially-enforced computational abilities to calculate to the limits. His thoughts coursed with electricity and surmised at lightning speed everything that had happened.
Soon, his pair of eyes flickered and shined. He had thought of a possibility.
“I have an approximate understanding why my Spirit Root had suddenly torn and why my Actualization Quotient has fallen to the bottom!”
“Suppose that a 1.8 meter 50 kg thin person expanded to be 2.5 meter 150 kg in a short day’s time due to strange circumstances. His muscles would explode to the peak and he would become a super buff guy… His skin, muscles, veins, and bones surely won’t be able to support him. They will tear over and over until they catch up with the growth of the body!”
“With every tear, he becomes a degree buffer!”
“And my soul grew at incomparable crazy speeds when it was engulfing great amounts of Ou Yezi’s memory shards. Can it be as simple as being a hundred pound skinny guy turning into a three hundred pound super buff dude?”
“My soul simply was a small lizard transforming into prehistoric Tyrannosaurus Rex!”
“My soul grew stron
ger too quickly. It was impossible for my pineal gland to keep up with the growth of my soul. It could only tear over and over!”
“And when this small lizard had just transformed into a T-Rex, its muscles and skin tore all over its muscles. It looked to be drenched in blood. It would naturally appear incomparably frail before eating large amounts of prey. It would appear to have received a critical injury at first glance! To be dying!”
“But as long as I can find enough prey…”
Li Yao’s eyes flickered with a devilish, stellar light. The corner of his mouth hooked into an arch containing a trace of slight savageness.
“Therefore, everyone else believes that I’ve received a critical injury, that I’m weak to the extreme, that I’ve become trash!”
“But no one knows that I’m actually not weak. I’m actually… Powerful to the point that my body can’t withstand itself!”
Li Yao’s slightly bizarre smile seemed somewhat stupid and dull in the doctor’s eyes.
Doctor Gu was actually under the impression that Li Yao was shocked by the news, that Li Yao was incapable of accepting it in this time period… This was very normal. What sort of cultivation genius can bear to hear the fact that he’s suddenly turned into an invalid?
This was not something that could be comforted with just a few words. He could only hope that time would slowly heal the wound in this fiend star’s heart.
Doctor Gu sighed a breath. He patted Li Yao on the shoulder and left the room.
A moment later, a resolute and unhesitating pair of footsteps sounded from outside. They were like two iron hammers alternately smashing the ground.
“Stomp! Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!”
A military uniformed man wearing black walked with large strides inside.
“What’s a retired military member come here for?” Li Yao was somewhat curious.
This middle aged serviceman wore a well-ironed black military uniform. He lacked an insignia of ranking on his shoulders. It’s a standard attire for retired soldiers.
There were several maimed injuries all over this man’s body. His right hand and left leg were essence prosthetics. Even his left eye was sculpted from jade. Several hundred arcane glyphs were engraved on this eyeball to form a complete Glyph Array, faintly emitting a red light. It was somewhat terrifying to look at.
“Student Li Yao, I have come here as a representative of the Federation’s Disabled Servicemen Association to declare the compensation provided for you by the Federation!”
The disabled servicemen drew his legs together and stood at attention with a “bang”. He gave Li Yao a standard military salute of the Federal Army.
“Compensation?”
Li Yao was stunned. But soon he came to.
Although he knew that he hadn’t received critical injuries and his spirit root wasn’t trash, other people didn’t know.
The Federal Army was the major organizer for the Limit Challenge Competition. The accident at this time had led to the casualties of numerous competitors. Of course, the army would distribute compensation.
And, this accident was caused by a competitor breaking the rules by bringing a doping drug into the competition. The organizers of the competition weren’t able to discover the doping drug ahead of time. It could be said to be negligence on part of the Army.
Therefore, to make up for their negligence, they had to distribute quite a compensation. It might even be an astronomical compensation!
After the serviceman had done his introductions, Li Yao discovered that he was right. Devil Flood Dragon Island’s accident had already entered the military’s highest level of inspection.
Aside from tracking down the main culprit, the important thing was the method in compensating the student casualties.
The accidental student deaths were rather easy to manage. Financial support and compensation were distributed to the families at the standard of a Federal Army soldier sacrificing his life.
But for Li Yao, this victim, the circumstances were somewhat a mess.
This was because his injury can’t be said to be light nor heavy.
Arguing for a light injury, one could say that he didn’t lose a single hair on his body. If he goes through rehabilitation for about a year, he would go back to normal. He would be as healthy and active as before.
But arguing for a heavy injury, one could say that he was originally a cultivation genius who one day was likely to become cultivator with boundless outlooks. But because of this accident, he had completely lost his hope for cultivating.
To the many people obsessed with cultivation, receiving this sort of injury is worse than death.
These two opinions were disputed without end. Rumor has it that in the end, the high ranking military officers observed Li Yao’s battle video on Devil Flood Dragon Island.
Or maybe they were moved by his brilliant performance and decided to give him compensation standard to that of Class 1: Disabled Serviceman of the Federation.
“Class 1: Disabled Serviceman of the Federation!”
Even though Li Yao was prepared, he was still shocked by this exceedingly high status.
The Star Glory Federation faced the invasion of the Demon Beasts year round. The flames of war burnt for 500 years, never completely stifling. The status of servicemen was of the utmost sublimity.
It was precisely due to relying on countless servicemen of the Federation on the front lines casing their heads, bathing in blood, resisting the never ending waves of Demon Beasts that the common citizens behind the front lines could live a peaceful and auspicious life.
So ordinary people had the utmost respect, reverence, and adoration towards servicemen!
And amongst servicemen, needless to say of those who sacrificed their lives, those who received critical injuries and disabilities on the battlefield received the same veneration by society!
Disabled Servicemen were divided into four classes.
“Class 1: Disabled Serviceman of the Federation” was second only to “Special Class Disability”. Those of “Class 1: Disabled Serviceman of the Federation” must be like the serviceman before Li Yao, to be missing a hand and a leg, and even an eye. Only then one would be considered Class 1 Disability.
After retirement, not only will the nation distribute a high pension every month, but all public services like the Underground Crystal Rail Train, the High-Speed Crystal Rail Train, the Public Antigravity Ship, and so on were all free for lifetime!
Aside from this, a large majority of restaurants, dining halls, hotels, and stores will give a different discount specifically for disabled servicemen.
When a restaurant owner discovers a Class 1 Disabled Serviceman dining in his restaurant, he might even give a big wave and refuse to receive a single cent. This was quite a common occurrence.
The Star Glory Federation relied precisely on the officers and soldiers to fight with their lives at stake on the frontline, fearless of death. And the common citizens behind them had warlike, military embracing, and unyielding worshiping spirits. Only in this way could the Federation exist in the Heaven’s Origin Sector where Demon Beasts ran rampant. Only in this way could the Federation grow endlessly stronger and reign supreme!
Chapter 73: Explosive Kill with One Shell |
“Student Li Yao, there’s no need to worry. All medical expenses incurred when you were in a coma and all future rehabilitation costs are completely covered by our nation!”
“And 30,000 credits will be wired into your bank account each month starting this month. This is the Class 1: Disabled Servicemen Pension!”
“If you wish to find work, our Disabled Servicemen Association will give you aid!”
“If you want to go to college, we can also set up arrangements so that you won’t need to take the entrance exams. You can directly go to school at the Federation’s First Military College in the Disabled Servicemen Special Class!”
“In addition, come find us without hesitation if you encounter any sort of troubles in
society… The Federation’s Disabled Servicemen Association is one of the most powerful organizations in the whole Heaven’s Origin Sector. As soon as there’s a problem, you will have the backing of the total 63,000,000 disabled servicemen of the Federation!”
The black uniformed disabled serviceman spoke these words with complete domination.
“Things have turned big now.” Li Yao felt a bit guilty.
The image of a disabled serviceman of the Federation in his head was one with a head full of white hair, a face full of wrinkles, and a body of essence prosthetics — an old veteran that staggers along as he walks.
Crimson Nimbus Second will always have some retired servicemen of the Federation as guest speakers to give speeches of their heroic deeds of glory on the battlefield.
In circumstances without ammunition and supplies, in circumstances when their spiritual energy was completely depleted, they hefted their inoperable chainswords with their three-to-five squad mates and rushed towards the sky-blotting tide of Demon Beasts!
Li Yao’s heart would become all fired up every time he heard these inspiring and tragic heroic tales; his battlelust would gale forth!
The title “Disabled Serviceman of the Federation” was an extremely high honor and was sacred in his mind. To be awarded this title was truly being subjected to shame.
And so with this train of thought, Li Yao decided to speak the truth, “To tell the truth, my injury really isn’t as serious as you believe. I’ll recover as long as I take a good few days to rest. I’m not disabled.”
The disabled serviceman revealed an expression of unconcealed admiration from his eyes. His prosthetic arm patted down heavily onto Li Yao’s shoulder, causing Li Yao to grimace in pain.
“Great kid! I like you! Us men must have an indomitable will just like you. It doesn’t matter what our bodies are, we must be filled with fighting spirit and hope! That’s right! You’re not crippled! The 63,000,000 disabled servicemen of the Federation aren’t crippled! It doesn’t matter how crippled our bodies are, our fighting spirit and battle lust will never be crippled! Whenever our nation demands it, we will suit up and go into battle to explosively kill a Demon Beast with each fist!”
