by <unknown>
"Wang Ji, how dare you!"
The two demon kings were so shocked that their voices had changed.
Wang Ji laughed madly, his gold hair dancing in the air.
"With everything that's happened, what's there to be scared of?
"If I walk back with you and let you tell the truth, I'll lose the opportunity to be the prince forever. When the war of the two sectors breaks out, I'll be the cannon fodder leading the invasion!
"But now, your strength has been greatly undermined. I'm far stronger than either of you now.
"After I kill you and absorb your demon cores, I'll find a place in the Blood Demon Sector to digest them, then I'll tell my father that we come across a hunting team of five Core Formation Stage Cultivators and that you were killed by them despite your valor. Isn't it much better than going home right now?
"What, you want to self-destruct? You can't! You had already fallen to the level of demon general before you were poisoned. There's no way that you can detonate your demon core now!
"Now, behave and let me absorb you, old fellas!"
The two heavily-wounded demons were almost choked. They looked at each other and ran to two opposite directions of the forest.
"Want to run away? Not so fast!"
In a hideous smile, Wang Ji looked back at the half-collapsed cave grimly. Gritting his teeth, Wang Ji swore, "Worm, you can't get away, either. I'll find you and cut you into pieces one day!"
…
Deep underground.
Li Yao was not aware that infighting was taking place a hundred meter above his head, because he was in peril himself.
The explosion of the demon core was so powerful that when it reached Li Yao's shelter after countless turns, it was still rushing at him like a raging tide or a furious demon!
The pond that Li Yao had been hiding in was boiling.
He condensed whatever left of the spiritual energy in the Bloody Blade Battlesuit into a shield above his head, and he covered his face with the forbidden scales of the mutant lion dragon.
Still, it didn't help!
In a moment, his skin dehisced and blood was streaming all over his body.
"If it goes on like this, I'll be dead for sure in half a minute!"
The current situation was within Li Yao's expectation. Only by hiding in this dead-for-sure place could he get away from the search of the infiltration squad.
"Pa!"
Li Yao opened the bottle that contained the blood in the heart of the lion dragon and drank all of it.
The blood in the heart of the demon beasts, despite the intensive spiritual energy, was not readily drinkable, because it contained a lot of impurities as well as demonic energy. One could only drink it carefully after multiple refining procedures.
If low-level Cultivators were to drink it without refining, they would either be blown into pieces because of the overwhelming power, or turn into a bloodthirsty killer because of the mental corruption.
Li Yao had no time to bother about any of that now. The blood of the mutant lion dragon was all he had to defend himself against the bulldozing of the demon core explosion now.
The blood slipped into his mouth. He felt he had drunk six hot coals, which was burning their way from his throat to his stomach where they exploded.
A string of demonic energy full of desire for killing and destruction flowed along his spine towards his brain.
"Art of the Swallowing Whale, activate!"
Li Yao almost grinded his teeth into pieces. With the Art of the Swallowing brought to maximum, his stomach turned into a steel millstone that squashed, disintegrated, and absorbed the blood of the lion dragon.
Inside his brain, the tree of memories left by Ou Yezi was glowing in brilliance and purged all the intrusive demonic energy.
On the surface of his body, his bones, strengthened by the Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining technique, was trying to withhold the magnificent blast.
Stomach!
Brain!
Body!
Li Yao was engaged in three battlefields simultaneously, which were equally dangerous. If he was defeated in any of them, this dark cave would be the place where his life ended.
In dizziness, Li Yao seemed to have returned to the dust storm where he was slashing his way forward among thunder and lightning.
His soul calmed down. With the sharp edge that once slayed a tornado, it roared more astoundingly than any thunders ever did.
After he didn't know how long, everything became peaceful again.
Li Yao came back to himself from a lengthy nightmare and found that the pond had already evaporated. The only thing left was a clump of stinky mud on the bottom of the pond.
His body's state… couldn't have been better!
"The blood from the heart of the mutant lion dragon has been fully absorbed by me.
"To defend myself against the explosion, I have been performing the Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining technique all the time, which had brought my body sturdiness to a whole new level!
"And my Cultivation level…"
Li Yao felt that there was inexhaustible spiritual energy inside his body flowing through his veins and arteries.
He triggered a thought. Spiritual energy popped out from his pores and consolidated into two dark gold wings around his body.
Soaring Into Heaven in One Leap, his Soul Igniting Law, was enlightened by the imposing vibe when the king of eagles flew freely in the vast sky. Therefore, the presence of his spiritual energy was also in the form of wings.
Compared with before, the spiritual wings had added the majesty of the lion dragon. There was even a vague rainbow in the periphery of the wings, too.
Li Yao focused all his attention and started burning his soul. The spiritual wings were brighter and brighter, illuminating the dark cave as if it were in broad daylight.
"Such dominance! Such brightness!
"I advanced four levels to the 11th level of the Refinement Stage while my life was in peril. How could it be?
"I understand now! This is the end of the cave. When the blast of the explosion swallowed me, it pushed the blood of the lion dragon, which had nowhere to run, into my own flesh and blood like a pressure cooker.
"Common Cultivators can't absorb the entire Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure even if they find one. The best they can do will be sixty or seventy percent, which is decided by their body's limit.
"However, I managed to absorb a hundred percent of the blood of the lion dragon. Not only did it help me reach the 11th level of the Refinement Stage, my future training will benefit a lot from it, too!" Li Yao yelled in great satisfaction and happiness.
The 11th level meant that he belonged to the high level of the Refinement Stage now, which was completely different from the levels equal to or below the 10th level.
Many Cultivators had spent their entire lives circling around in the middle level of the Refinement Stage and couldn't break through the barrier to a higher altitude, however thin the barrier seemed to be.
With the capability of the high-level of the Refinement Stage and the enhancement of a well-chosen crystal suit, he could fight several generals face to face without resorting to traps now.
See c.153 for more information about this technique
Chapter 258: Home with Windfalls |
The Bloody Blade Battlesuit was completely ruined. Its crystal processor had lost most of its functions, but the time module was working, which showed that a day and a night had passed.
"The infiltration squad must've left by now."
Li Yao pulled the crystal processor of the Bloody Blade Battlesuit out and packed it up with the three forbidden scales in what was left of his clothes. He picked up his crescent saber and scrambled out.
Very soon, he came across fallen rocks that blocked his way.
After he advanced to the 11th level of the Refinement Stage, Li Yao's senses became much more acute than before. He unleashed hundreds of spiritual threads which found
their way into the crevices of the rocks. The feedback indicated that the blockage was not thick and it was empty outside without any sign of the demons.
Li Yao pressed both of his hands against the rocks. Taking a deep breath, Li Yao jerked and pushed them. It looked like a spiritual eagle with lion paws and dragon tail flew out of his body, which razed everything in its way. An corridor was immediately created.
"This is the strength of the high level of the Refinement Stage? Nice!"
Li Yao jumped out of the dust and reached the center of the cave.
"The power of the explosion is indeed formidable."
Watching the messed-up cave that was beyond all recognition, Li Yao was startled.
There was an intense scent of blood in the air. The demons had all been blown into pieces and melted into rocks. Many of them were deprived of their pretension, revealing their true selves which were ghastly demon beasts.
"So many valuable trophies!"
Li Yao's heart was beating fast. There was greed in his eyes.
Among the remnants of the demon beasts, he didn't sense the existence of the demon kings, neither did he know whether or not the young master, Wang Ji, had been killed.
But why did they leave the bodies of their companions to rot in open air instead of burying them?
They were demon generals from the Blood Demon Sector, elite warriors of the demon civilization. Their bones, essence, and scales were of much higher quality than those of the wild demon beasts. Some of them even carried magical equipment of the Blood Demon Sector, which, although mostly damaged, was still very valuable in Li Yao's eyes.
"Huh?"
Li Yao's eyebrows twisted a bit, because he felt an eccentric scent from under the piles of rocks. He dug down and found a snake-shape dagger with crooked runes that looked like a distorted ghost face, which was blood-freezing at first glance.
"A Soul Stealer!"
Li Yao was dazed for a moment. He knew that something must've happened to the infiltration squad, otherwise there was no way that they would abandon magical equipment as precious as a Soul Stealer.
The Soul Stealer had been covered by a layer of dust due to the explosion. There were several cracks on it from which black smoke was popping up.
However, Li Yao didn't dare to underestimate it. He bit the tip of his tongue and spit the blood out into a mist. Waving his right hand through the mist in a particular posture, he guided the blood mist into the Soul Stealer.
A crimson light dashed from his fingers to the Soul Stealer.
What he had just performed was the unique probe technique of the Hundred Smelting Clan for taking over magical equipment.
For evil magical equipment such as the Soul Stealer, it was possible that its master had set security constraints on it. If one touched it without preparation, they might be devoured by the magical equipment. It would be best to run a test first.
But there was nothing abnormal about the crimson light after it flowed around the Soul Stealer for an entire circle; there was not even the slightest reaction of spiritual energy.
"It means that the former master of the Soul Stealer has died. It is currently unowned.
"Weird. The master of the Soul Stealer can only be either Wang Ji or the demon kings. None of them are likely to have been killed by the blast."
Li Yao put the Soul Stealer into his pocket and decided to study how to refine it after he returned.
Turning back, he found it troublesome to deal with the twenty demon bodies.
"There are so many precious items here. How can I take them all?"
After pondering for a while, he decided to check the situation outside the cave first. Maybe he could knit some ropes with the fiber from the demonic plants and weave a large baggage with beast hide.
His loading capability was amazing anyway. If he couldn't take all of them, he could always pick out the more precious ones.
Li Yao crawled out of the cave carefully.
It was a peaceful night outside with a bright moon and few stars, as if the thunderstorm yesterday were just a nightmare.
The time of rendezvous had long passed. It was possible that Mao Feng and the other instructors had started searching. But since he was deep inside the Thunder Sound Mountain, the spiritual signals were blocked by the mountains.
Li Yao tried a few times. There was nothing but background noise in the communication channel. He still couldn't contact the outside world.
Right then, he smelled a thin scent of demonic energy, which caused goosebumps all over his body.
After searching carefully for 10 minutes, he found a snake tail at the turn of a stream.
"It's just a small tail, and it already contained so much demonic energy. Maybe it belonged to a king-level demon. How on earth did it end up here?"
He weighed it in his hand and felt something wrong. Scrutinizing the tail, Li Yao soon discovered the reason.
After tearing off a layer of scales, Li Yao found a black iron ring gripping the flesh of the tail.
The iron ring seemed plain and was deeply embedded in the snake tail.
"Why would a demon king wear you for decades if you are an ordinary ring?"
Li Yao sneered. He dug the ring out of the tail with his dagger.
Since the flesh of the tail had already shrunk after it was cut off from the body, Li Yao separated the iron ring without much trouble.
Li Yao spit out another blood mist to test the iron ring and found it as irresponsive to spiritual energy as the Soul Stealer. Relieved, he held it in his hands to further investigate.
A moment later, Li Yao's eyes were sparkling in amazement.
He put the ring between two giant stones, pushed the stones into the stream and started rubbing them.
The stream turned dirty with bubbles popping up as if it was boiling.
Three minutes later, he raised the iron ring and aimed it at the moon. In moonlight, the iron ring looked like jade, spreading a mysterious aura, like a frozen ocean or a vast universe.
"Cosmos Ring! It is a Cosmos Ring!"
Li Yao felt he was going to pass out in happiness. There was indeed a silver lining behind each cloud. He'd got a treasure!
Cosmos Rings, together with Mustard Seed Bags, Object Containers, and Space Rings were all common storage magical equipment in the ancient Cultivation world.
But the refining procedures for such magical equipment were extremely complex and involved many rare materials that had been used up after thousands of years of consumption.
Back in the era of the Star Ocean Imperium, the storage magical equipment had been far more precious than ordinary magical equipment.
Right now in the Heaven's Origin Sector, all the storage magical equipment were all smuggled or exported from elsewhere by accident, since the technology for refining it had been lost after generations. Its value was too high for someone like Li Yao to afford.
A piece of storage magical equipment that contained a space of several cubic meters was more expensive than a common crystal suit.
Li Yao had never expected that he would own a Cosmos Ring even in his wildest dream.
"The Cosmos Ring looked dignified. The spiritual energy in it is not aggressive, but the runes carved on it do not lack the scent of killing and blood either. Judging from its style, it should be a piece of magical equipment refined in the era of the Star Ocean Imperium.
"At some point thousands of years later, a snake king grabbed it and wore it on its tail. But his tail was cut off and he was killed, allowing me to take all the benefits."
Li Yao's heart was beating like a drum. He sneaked back to the underground cave and sat cross-legged, with the Cosmos Ring in front of him.
Then, he rubbed his fingers and squeezed ten drops of blood from the tips of his finger.
As the saying goes, fingers are connected to the heart. There was spirituality in the fingertip blood of the Cultivators that was only inferior to the blood in their heart.
The blood from Li Yao's f
ingertip was transformed into ten long and narrow strings which tied the Cosmos Ring and penetrated in.
He was offering sacrifice to the Cosmos Ring by the ancient technique of the Hundred Smelting Clan.
Unlike evil equipment such as the Soul Stealer, the Cosmos Ring was peaceful in nature and utterly devoid of aggressiveness. As a product of the Star Ocean Imperium, its former owners had been mostly human beings. Therefore, it didn't reject Li Yao as its new master.
An hour later, Li Yao had basically gained control over the Cosmos Ring. He could see the operation menu of the ring in his brain right now.
The Cosmos Ring was divided into two zones by its former owner. One of them was sealed by a secret art, making it impossible to detect what was contained inside, let alone retrieving the items inside.
The other zone was empty, with a space of more than ten cubic meters.
"The space is enough for me right now. As for the sealed zone, I'll attack it with the most advanced, large-scale crystal processor after I return to the Grand Desolate War Institution. Such a small seal will be decrypted in no time!"
Li Yao was satisfied. Then he used the processing technique of the Hundred Smelting Clan to make the ring look even duller than previously, before he put the ring on his finger in relief.
Over the next day and night, Li Yao searched the cave carefully and stored the magical equipment and materials that the demons carried into the Cosmos Ring.
He was also surprised to find a lot of bones and paws of the mutant lion dragon, which were tough enough to survive the demon core explosion without being damaged at all. They would be perfect as raw materials to refine attack magical equipment.
Five days later, Li Yao was striding through the Thunderous Sound Mountain.
Since the weather was clear, he could distinguish directions by the location of the sun.
He had the crescent saber in hand, a demon beast detector in his ear, the crystal processor of the crystal suit behind his back and three forbidden scales in front of his chest.
The rest of the stuff had all been placed in the Cosmos Ring.
When he met a small number of demon beasts, he would slay them as training.
