by <unknown>
He didn't know whether it was from the soldiers of the federation army or the ghost jellyfishes.
However, Jiang Tao could finally no longer endure; his psychological barrier had completely collapsed. He threw the spiritual energy boltgun and completely emptied the contents of his stomach.
"You—"
The red-eyed officer was stunned. He didn't expect Jiang Tao to be so useless.
When several soldiers who were busy fighting turned around to take a look, they spat before turning their head and continued operating the crystal railguns as they let out roars.
"M-my area of expertise lies in manufacturing and repairing civilian magical equipment. In regards to military magical equipment, I'm not particularly proficient. Moreover, I am not a battle-type cultivator and have rarely, rarely experienced such situations..."
With a pale complexion as he held his stomach, Jiang Tao weakly offered an explanation.
"F*ck!"
The red-eyed man cursed. He didn't know whether to curse Jiang Tao or the damn ghost jellyfish in the sky.
From a pale color, Jiang Tao's face suddenly turned very red. He was definitely not someone with a good temperament, as he had grown up in a wealthy family and had been doted upon by many since childhood. Needless to say getting cursed at, not many people had even spoken to him in loud voice. Where would he have received such an insult?
However, facing such a beast tide that blotted out the sky and the earth, not even the slightest flames of anger came out. Like a rooster who had lost its feathers, he shrunk into a corner, completely spiritless.
The red-eyed man did not even give him a glance; instead, he turned his gaze towards Li Yao with eyes full of expectation.
Taking half a step forward, Li Yao bent down to pick up the spiritual energy boltgun. With a sweep of his gaze, he quickly said:
"Thunderfire Boltgun, the next-generation, long-range magical equipment jointly developed by the army and the Thunder Cry Sect, which utilizes a special spirit magnetic track architecture. Through the activation of the array glyphs, the extremely compressed spiritual energy in the crystal cells would instantly turn to gas and expand into 'Spirit Vapor'. With the volume having been expanded by thousands of times, the bullet in the barrel would be pushed and thus break out at the speed of sound in an instant!"
"Even if standard rounds are used, one shot is equivalent to an attack from an intermediate level Refinement Stage cultivator!"
Li Yao very familiarly removed the crystal cell, opened the magazine to examine, and praised, "If spiritual energy rounds engraved with offensive array glyphs are used, the maximum strength unleashed can be close to an attack from a peak Refinement Stage cultivator. Moreover, you can continuously fire 30 rounds of spiritual energy bullets. Its firepower is quite good. In the hands of an ordinary soldier, even with little training, he would be able to unleash a battle force equivalent to a low-level cultivator!"
Finding his words to be reliable, the red-eyed officer revealed a happy look. "Can you repair it?"
"It is not possible. These firearms are seriously damaged, and without proper tools, no one can repair them."
Li Yao shook his head. Then, his right hand flashed, turning into a group of phantom images. All of a sudden, the Thunderfire Boltgun was dismantled into numerous parts, and with a "flop flop flop flop", fell to the ground.
Only a small number of the components were tightly grasped in Li Yao's palm.
"Disassembling the gun with one hand!?"
Two sparks burst forth in the eyes of the red-eyed officer. Several wounded soldiers leaning on the side, even more so, stared at him with wide-opened eyes as all of them exclaimed at the same time.
Disassembling a gun was something which every soldier had to learn. In the army, for those who were proficient in this art, even if both of their eyes had been covered, disassembling and assembling a gun was not difficult for these experienced veterans.
However, using just one hand to reduce a twisted Thunderfire Boltgun into the most basic magical equipment components was quite remarkable!
Upon seeing this, Jiang Tao’s pupils contracted. He didn't expect for such an ordinary-looking guy from the countryside to turn out to be an experienced magical equipment technician. It goes without saying that even if one were to ignore his refining skills, someone with a pair of hands that moved at lightning-like speeds like his did not number many.
At this moment, everyone's gazes were completely fixed on Li Yao.
While Li Yao’s right hand was disassembling the gun, his left hand wasn't remaining idle; from the ground, he picked up another twisted Thunderfire Boltgun, and his left hand similarly turned into a group of gray silhouettes.
From time to time, magical equipment components would fall from the gaps between his fingers, creating “ding ding dang dang” sounds as they fell onto the ground.
"Disassembling Thunderfire Boltguns simultaneously with each hand?"
The red-eyed officer and several soldiers were all struck dumb by his performance.
They had been playing with guns for all their lives; however, they had never imagined that someone could simultaneously disassemble two firearms!
After a short while, a pile of distorted components filled the ground, while completely intact magical equipment components remained in Li Yao’s hands.
Next, both his hands moved together as the speed of his hands soared to their limit. His ten fingers were like ten highly skilled dancers as they dazzlingly started to move up and down.
At this time, everyone felt like they had just woken up from a dream. So it turns out Li Yao’s hand speed a moment ago was simply some slow movement—only now had he unleashed his full capacity!
After a moment, with a "kacha" sound, a brand new Thunderfire Boltgun appeared in Li Yao's hands.
Although it was missing auxiliary components like the telescopic sight[1], it was, for the most part, completely intact.
Proficiently, Li Yao inserted the crystal cell. "Zoom!" The array glyphs at the rear of the Thunderfire Boltgun flared with a red brilliance, emanating a cold murderous aura; it was as if a saber had been unsheathed from its scabbard, releasing a roar akin to one by an extremely hungry dragon as it waited for the moment to spill the blood!
Li Yao threw the Thunderfire Boltgun to a soldier and explained, "Although it is impossible to repair, but as I see it, there are lots of damaged firearms here. Since not all of the components are completely unusable, I have removed the completely intact components and reassembled them into new guns that can be used. Ten broken guns can be used to assemble three or four new guns, is that fine?"
The red-eyed officer had happiness written all over his face. Continuously patting Li Yao's shoulder, he loudly said, "Good, good! Truly worthy of a disabled veteran! At the most crucial moment, we can only rely on our own people!"
"So you were a disabled veteran!"
Several soldiers looked at each other. All of them revealed an expression that said “So it was like this” in their eyes.
They all regarded Li Yao as a battle-hardened veteran.
If it were ordinary civilians, like the guy who had curled up beside them for example, witnessing the beast tide outbreak and such a frightening heaven and moving earth-like scene, then they would have long been scared to the point of becoming completely at a loss.
Yet, someone like him was calm to the extreme, not even batting an eye in the slightest.
If he was not a veteran, then what was he?!
Ding Yin was completely buried in the magical equipment wreckage. Although he was completely preoccupied with repairing the Taiyi Lightning Railgun, he still heard the exclaiming and shocked voices continuously released by the red-eyed officer and the soldiers.
In astonishment, he raised his head to look and just so happened to see the speed of Li Yao's hands soaring to their limit and the two Thunderfire Boltguns that had been disassembled into pieces within ten seconds.
"Li Yao, come over here!"
Ding Yin shouted in excitement.
Li Yao was surprised for a moment, and the red-eyed officer also could not understand what it was all about. "Old Ding, there are still several Thunderfire Boltgun which haven't been repaired!"
Ding Yin loudly said:
"One extra gun or one less isn't going to affect the overall situation. Whether we can escape today or not is completely up to the Taiyi Lightning Railgun! If it is just me alone, then it would take me at least 20 minutes to completely repair it. By then, maybe the beast tide would have already broken through the defensive arrays, completely submerging the crystal train!"
Ding Yin paused. Giving a look filled with hope at Li Yao, he quickly said, "Save your breath. Li Yao, quickly come and repair the Taiyi Lightning Railgun with me. Whether we live or die is completely up to it!"
[1]: Also commonly known as “scope”.
Chapter 109: Taiyi Lightning Railgun! |
The Taiyi Lightning Railgun was a very advanced, large-scale military magical equipment. Only 15 years ago was it officially approved to be used by the troops. Li Yao had only seen its common architectural diagrams in a magical equipment magazine, and as for the detailed architectural diagram, it was a military secret, thus it was impossible for civilians to access it.
Even if he got to see the architectural diagram, with his current level, he would simply not be able to understand it.
Li Yao carefully looked at the Taiyi Lightning Railgun.
Sure enough, this magical equipment was colossal; just its wreckage alone had occupied half of the coach. Peering through the damaged exterior, he could see the intricate spirit threads intertwined together to create obtuse and complex 3-dimensional array glyphs inside. Many of the array glyphs were not only stacked together above and below each other, but they were also separated left and right, forming incredibly ingenious arrays of spirit glyphs one after another.
The spiritual energy of various attributes intertwined together and twisted into vortexes of spiritual energy one by one, tearing the air apart as round after round of ripples undulated while making a slight "buzz buzz" noise.
Watching this, Li Yao felt his scalp tingling. There was no way he could repair such a sophisticated magical equipment.
He was just about to shake his head subconsciously.
Ding Yin, noticing his hesitation, shouted:
"You neither need to understand the spiritual energy operating principles of Taiyi Lightning Railgun, nor do you need to repair its core structure. As long as you, in accordance with the architectural diagram that I am going to give you, combine the spare parts and install them at the right location, then it will all be fine. These are all the auxiliary devices of the magical equipment, and their structure is not particularly complicated. It’s just that they are large in quantity. It can only be possible to finish installing them in a short amount of time if one has lightning-like hand speed!"
Raising his hand as over a hundred complex and intricate magical equipment architectural diagrams were projected by the mini-crystal processor, Ding Yin looked straight into Li Yao’s eyes.
Ding Yin roared, "The life of everyone on the train is in our hands! If we can fix the Taiyi Lightning Railgun in time, we will still have a chance. Otherwise, everyone will be engulfed by the beast tide—not even a tiny bit of dregs will remain!"
"Will be swallowed by the beast tide!?"
Li Yao felt his blood turn cold. He swept a glance at the tide of ghost jellyfishes that were endlessly pouring in from the dark clouds in a steady stream. Sparks burst forth in his eyes as he tightly clenched his teeth and studied the Taiyi Lightning Railgun's architectural diagram with all his concentration.
"I will personally handle the core battle components. You are responsible for the auxiliary components as described in diagrams No. 51 to 72. I will give you ten minutes, is that enough?" While wiping off the rain, Ding Yin asked with clenched teeth.
Li Yao's eyelids slightly twitched. His eyes sparkled as they burst forth with star-like brilliance! In the blink of an eye, each of the 21 diagrams was engraved in his brain!
Li Yao closed his eyes and calculated silently. Then, his eyes started rotating at a high speed, and his computational power soared to the extreme. In the depths of his brain, the components depicted in the diagrams, one by one, transformed into translucent images shining in golden light as they collided and quickly combined together.
After seven seconds, Li Yao fiercely opened his eyes. A gleam of strong confidence burst forth from the depths of his eyes.
"There is no need for 10 minutes—I will be done in 8 minutes 53 seconds!"
In the torrential rainstorm! Under the invasion of a beast tide!
Li Yao and Ding Yin launched a magnificent display of magical equipment maintenance.
As one would expect of Ding Yin, the energy flames of a great cultivator were ignited to the extreme in the blink of an eye, revealing the absolute strength of a Master Refiner. Over a hundred invisible and formless spiritual energy tentacles spread out from all the limbs and bones of his body, simultaneously grabbing hundreds of magical components before quickly assembling them together.
In the eyes of an ordinary person, it was as if Ding Yin had suddenly given life to the magical components. The crushed components, one by one, madly started dancing before they fused into one body.
And in the opinion of cultivators whose level was the same as Ding Yin’s, like the red-eyed officer, Ding Yin was more like a mass of burning flames, and each spiritual energy tentacle was akin to a flickering flame.
He was burning his spiritual energy reserves in madness without any regards to the depletion of his spiritual energy.
Although Li Yao didn't have any spiritual energy tentacles, his pair of hands, in the blink of an eye, transformed into tens of phantom shadows. This time, his speed was a notch higher compared to just a moment ago. Even the raging winds and torrential rain were unable to charge into the gray shadows that had been formed by his pair of hands. His entire body was completely enveloped by the gray shadows, making one unable to clearly see his visage.
And in his surroundings appeared a wet ring of water. All the raindrops had been pushed away by the phantom shadows.
This was a true example of "airtight and watertight"!
"Ding ding ding ding!"
From the wreckage of the magical equipment came a faint sound of metal colliding. The Taiyi Lightning Railgun, in a speed visible to the naked eye, was getting a new lease of life.
"Brothers, hold on! Let's let these bastards have a taste of our ferocity immediately!"
Removing the army cap and throwing it onto the ground, the red-eyed officer picked up two Thunderfire Boltguns, loaded them with powerful spiritual energy rounds, and roared again and again as he started firing in madness towards the night sky with both hands simultaneously.
The few ghost jellyfishes that had somehow broken through the defensive arrays were shredded into pieces by him; they were even too late to let out shrieks before they turned into flying ash.
The young soldiers' wills to fight burst forth as their shouts reverberated through the sky:
"Soldiers, load the guns! Take out the blade! Kill… Kill… Kill… Kill… Kill… Kill...!"
After 8 minutes 53 seconds—
"I'm done!"
Li Yao's eyes were completely bloodshot. From head to toe, steam was rising from his entire body. The fingertips of his ten fingers were all completely mutilated. His middle finger especially was so damaged that even the bone was visible and blood constantly dripped down from it.
But as though he didn't feel or know anything, he licked his lips, and like a drunkard admiring rare wine, he moved his gaze up and down on the Taiyi Lightning Railgun as a very satisfying sense of accomplishment was revealed in his bloodshot eyes.
Ding Yin was also finished repairing the core components and entering spiritual energy into the spirit glyphs that would switch on the Taiyi Lightning Railgun.
The Tai
yi Lightning Railgun was just like a prehistoric behemoth that was waking from its slumber—blue streaks of lightning constantly sprang up from the gaps between the components and lingered around the magical equipment.
"Buzz!" The eight legs of the Taiyi Lightning Railgun all stood up steadily, slightly lifting the barrel from the base.
Gradually, two lightning rails that were as sharp as swords extended out from the barrel and took aim at the tides of beasts in the dark clouds!
Ding Yin inserted a special, super-compressed crystal cell into the energy compartment of the Taiyi Lightning Railgun. The dark Taiyi Lightning Railgun was immediately covered in a layer of faint blue light.
"Spiritual energy charged, 30%!"
Little by little, the blue light turned brighter, shining upon everyone's incomparably excited face.
"Spiritual energy charged, 60%!"
Bit by bit, amidst the blue light, brilliance like twinkling stars appeared. Like hundreds of fireflies, they slowly flew between the two rails of the Taiyi Lightning Railgun.
"Spiritual energy charged, 90%!"
The "fireflies" between the two rails congealed into crackling streaks of lightning one after another, constantly moving between the rails as they issued ear-piercing peals of thunder. The few soldiers close to it had their hairs stand on its end, and no matter how much they pressed down on them, they would not go down.
"Spiritual energy charged, 100%!"
The Taiyi Lightning Railgun released a dazzling blue light, and the streaks of lightning that were winding around the rail, one by one, disappeared as they were all sucked into the tail of the rails and congealed into a ball of lightning. Upon looking carefully, its core was actually emitting a pure white brilliance that was like—
The color of the sun!
"Let me do it!"
The red-eyed officer burst into a shout as his physique suddenly doubled in size. His uniform was torn into pieces which fell to the floor piece by piece, revealing his magnificent and robust body that seemed as if it had been forged with iron and cast with copper.
