by <unknown>
"Chi!"
Raging, colorful steams were popping up from the cooling pool.
After the temperature cooled a bit, Li Yao put the blade on an iron mat which had been crafted out of a meteorite.
Immense spiritual energy burst out of Li Yao's body. A giant, who was more than three meters tall, appeared in his back.
Mimicking his gesture, the giant bashed the iron mat together with him.
Two noises of forging echoed closely one after another.
After forging for a moment, the blade was thrown back to the refining furnace again, before they were polished and furbished by more than ten different cooling liquids.
The process was repeated for nineteen times until dawn arrived, and the upgrading of his battle saber was finally completed!
"Excellent!"
Sweat was all over Li Yao's back. But he was in high spirits. Spiritual energy was burning around him like flowing flames.
He touched the new-born battle saber gently and affectionately.
The battle saber that he was holding right now was 2.15 meters long and weighed 137.4 kilograms. The body of the saber was gracefully curved. The back of the saber was full of vein-like crimson streaks, which were tangled by countless violet lightning patterns, making the saber more than splendid.
Li Yao picked up the saber and waved it. Humming sounds echoed inside his brain, as he began to feel the new abilities of the saber.
The new battle saber, which had been embedded with multiple kinds of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, could not only trigger lightning and tornadoes but was also endowed with a new ability, the activation of blood aura.
Once Li Yao's spiritual energy was fully functioning, a blood aura as long as ten meters could be summoned.
When the enemy was hit by the blood aura, there would be no external injuries. But the hematopoietic system of the enemy's body would be wrecked, to the point that the body would mistake the enemy's own blood for foreign matter and resist it, eventually leading to a continuous loss of blood.
If the enemy was insignificant, second-rate demon beasts or low-level demon soldiers, they would bleed to death when they were swept by the blood aura.
Even if the enemy was an expert demon, they would still have to spare part of their demonic energy to suppress the injuries or simply flee for better treatment when they were hit.
In life-and-death combat, if the opponent continued bleeding, the situation would of course be in Li Yao's favor.
"What a marvelous, rarely-seen weapon. It is perfect even by the standards of the Hundred Smelting Clan 40,000 years ago!
"With your brand-new abilities, it's inappropriate that you don't have a proper name yet.
"I'll call you… Boiled Blood Wind Slashing Saber, then!"
Taking the Boiled Blood Wind Slashing Saber, Li Yao felt that thousands of clouds and lightning were roiling in his chest, making him more confident than ever.
As for the smaller portion of the marrow blood crystals, Li Yao was planning to refine them into the remaining eight marrow crystal bullets.
Marrow crystal bullets were Li Yao's life-saving contingencies.
In the battle against Wang Ji in Red Lotus City, it was with a marrow crystal bullet that Li Yao reversed the situation and secured the final victory.
Marrow crystal bullets were themselves powerful enough. How much further could they go if the marrow blood crystals were added in?
With the new marrow crystal bullets, as well as his Boiled Blood Wind Slashing Saber, even a demon king would have to pay a good price if they wanted to take him down.
"Now that I have a decent saber and new powerful bullets, with the protection of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, it should be enough for me to explore the Occult Orbs, shouldn't it?"
Li Yao played with his battle saber in ecstasy for a while. Then he took a deep breath and calmed himself down, as he picked out the Occult Orbs Card.
Over the past month, other than devouring Ou Yezi's memory pieces inside his brain, Li Yao dedicated the rest of his time into cracking the boundless labyrinth inside the Occult Orbs Card.
He had a feeling that he was close to success.
Touching the surface of the card softly, Li Yao saw those same four words again.
'When Stars Are Shining'.
Li Yao shut his eyes and started meditating. All the body cell activities were suppressed to minimum. But his telepathic thoughts kept expanding.
A huge amount of liquefied spiritual energy flowed out of his spiritual root into the labyrinth inside the Occult Orbs Card like thousands of rivers.
Even the most complicated maze couldn't stop promptly-changing water. Li Yao's telepathic thoughts gradually entered deeper, deeper and deeper inside the labyrinth flowing together with the spiritual liquid.
He seemed to have heard… the calling of stars!
BOOM!
Lightning struck inside his brain. He suddenly saw scenes of bizarre yet magnificent wars.
In prosperous and populated metropolises, below deep and rugged valleys, on ever-surging oceans, billions of soldiers of the human army and the demon army were colliding.
Even the most ordinary soldier in the human army was wearing glamorous crystals suit and wielding weapons whose auras could be dozens of meters long.
In the meantime, the vanguard of the demon army was exclusively made of demon kings!
In the sky, crystal warships of the human beings and devil warships of the demon clan had blocked the sun, making the broad daylight almost look like midnight.
Out of the atmosphere, in the background of the starry sky, a Babel Battle Star, which was known as 'stellar magical equipment' that was even larger than some satellite planets, was enshrouded in thousands of mystic colors, fighting against an endless beast tide in space.
Suddenly, an uncanny wind blew over. Everything that Li Yao saw, both the formidable troops of human beings and those of the demon clan, turned into lackluster rocks and stood still on the desolate battlegrounds like billions of statues.
Then, the entire world collapsed, turning into countless pieces which flew in the dark void before sinking into nothingness in the end.
"Hoooo…"
Li Yao let out a long breath. He blinked and found himself exhausted and covered in sweat, although he was still in the Diminutive Dust Domain.
The starry sky and the words on the Occult Orbs Card were all gone. What replaced them was a picture of a vast orbital system whose one end pierced into the sky and vanished into the cosmos.
It looked like a launch base for some sort of warships.
However, the anti-gravity technology of the Star Glory Federation was quite advanced, with which crystal warships could fly out of the atmosphere directly. What use was there in such an orbital system?
Li Yao was quite confused.
But there was one thing that he was certain about.
He had passed the first test. Occult Orbs Fellowship was now open to him!
Chapter 353: Live Short and Prosper |
Very soon, colorful ripples appeared on the surface of the Occult Orbs Card, which seemed to have been washed by invisible rain. The pattern on the card blurred, until it turned into two lines of runes in the end.
The first line was an address on the Nexus, while the second line was a key written in spiritual tattoo.
Li Yao turned on his crystal processor. He thought of something and didn't enter the address of Occult Orbs Fellowship immediately. Instead, he logged in the Cultivators' network of the Heaven's Origin Sector.
Wars are always the fastest way of communication between civilizations.
In the War of Seven Cities, a lot of members of the regular army of the demon clan were captured alive by the Star Glory Federation, including many silver-blood demons who knew confidential information about the Blood Demon Sector.
Cultivators of the Heaven's Origin Sector naturally had countless methods to make the silver-blood demons open their mouths, or even
retrieve information from their heads directly.
Right now, the federation had a much deeper understanding of its enemy.
The files regarding the social form of the Blood Demon Sector, its technology, demonic skills, names of the elite demons, and so on were hundreds of times more abundant than previously.
Most of the files, after being classified and labelled, were uploaded to the Cultivators' network.
At present, Li Yao was one of the Building Foundation Stage Cultivators who were the nuclei of the Cultivation world. His authorization on the Cultivators' network was significantly upgraded, allowing him to read the files freely.
Triggering the searching ability, Li Yao first pictured 'Wang Ji', the expert demon, in his mind, before he typed in his opponent's name on his mini crystal processor.
A search was conducted based on the two conditions. The system soon located a lot of information for him.
"Wang Ji, prince of the Kingdom of Lion Butchers, disciple of Elder Blood Robe who is one of the strongest demons in the Blood Demon Sector?"
A cruel smile appeared on Li Yao's face, while coldness resembling the brightness of his saber flashed in his eyes.
He had been keeping his enemy's last curse in his mind and dared not to forget it for even a single second.
He hadn't expected for Wang Ji to have such an impressive background.
Li Yao was aware that in the War of Seven Cities, a lot of Cultivators went missing, many of whom must've been seized by the demon clan.
Besides, according to the post-war analysis, the priority target after the demons took down each of the seven cities was always the super crystal processor center.
Dozens of mainframe crystal processors which had remarkable computational ability had been stolen by the demon clan.
It was not hard to guess that they were also trying to learn more about the Heaven's Origin Sector by gathering the data stored in the crystal processors.
Li Yao didn't like to keep a low profile and hardly hid his identity and capability on purpose. His own Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit was conspicuously different from other Mystic Skeleton Battlesuits, too.
Moreover, his deeds in the Thunderous Sound Mountain and in the Magical Equipment Exposition, especially his performance in the Flying Crystal race, had been detailed in quite a few magazines, newspapers and forums.
After collecting and sorting out the information, it would not be difficult to find out who he was.
Since 'Wang Ji' was a prince of a demon kingdom as well as a disciple of a demon emperor, the resources at his disposal must be enormous. It was quite possible that the guy had already found out who Li Yao was and wouldn't let him go easily.
But, so what?
"You want to kill me, but you don't know that I'm also planning to kill you. Let's see whose neck is harder!
"As the saying goes, nothing should be repeated more than three times. In the previous two times fought, no one died. Next time I run into you, I will definitely slay you!"
Li Yao activated the tracing ability of the Cultivators' network.
Any updates about Wang Ji would be sent to the mailbox of his spiritual crane messenger automatically and remind him to read.
Finishing everything, Li Yao finally left the Cultivators' network and entered the address of Occult Orbs Fellowship.
A quickly spinning nebula unfolded in front of his eyes as if it were a dream.
Li Yao immediately reacted. His two hands turned into a cluster of gold as he typed in the key in the gap of the nebula.
After a hum, the spinning nebula slowed down.
Soon, the brightness of the stars consolidated into a gold, translucent figure whose face was as vivid as that of a real person. Li Yao felt that the man was somewhat familiar.
"Mr. Li Yao, greetings!
"I didn't expect you to pass the test of the Occult Orbs Card so quickly. You have the opportunity to become an official member of Occult Orbs Fellowship now.
"I am Gao Tieyi, a Secondary Deacon of Occult Orbs Fellowship. I will answer all your questions about Occult Orbs Fellowship and lead you to us!"
His name immediately reminded Li Yao of something.
Gao Tieyi was a Cultivator at the peak of the Building Foundation Stage, but he was not fifty yet, which made him the youngest Elder of Purple Cloud Temple. He was best at administration and analysis. Last year, he made it to the 'Top 100 Celebrities of the Cultivation World', a list proposed by a weekly magazine named 'Young Cultivators' annually.
A Secondary Deacon who was in charge of such a trivial affair like guiding newcomers was such an influential figure. Occult Orbs Fellowship was indeed powerful.
Gao Tieyi read his face well. He smiled.
"Occult Orbs Fellowship is an organization beyond all the sects and forces in the federation. You may compare it to loose organizations such as the 'Refiners' Association' or 'Demon Hunters' Association'.
"Joining Occult Orbs Fellowship does not mean you have to quit the sect that you are in at present. In fact, most Cultivation sects encourage their disciples to join Occult Orbs Fellowship and explore the endless mysteries of the sea of stars!
"Of course, the Occult Orbs are perilous places. Even those which have been explored many times can still entail fatal dangers. The casualty rate of the explorers is very high!
"Besides, many of their injuries were caused by the ancient magical equipment and secret arts. The Cultivation technology we have right now may not be enough to treat them at all.
"Therefore, whether or not you join Occult Orbs Fellowship, and if you do, whether or not you explore the Occult Orbs in person, will all be decided by you. No one will force you to do anything.
"However, Mr. Li Yao, you are one of the youngest Building Foundation Cultivators of the federation, as well as a rarely-seen hybrid-type Cultivator. Personally, I look forward to your participation very much. At least, you can visit the headquarters of Occult Orbs Fellowship before you make your final decision. How about it?"
"Sounds good!" Li Yao nodded his head unhesitatingly.
…
Three days later, a blue, clear crystal airship which seemed to be carved out of a giant intact crystal was rushing under the blue sky, leaving circular exhaust flames while raising the exclamations of passengers on other crystal airships nearby.
The spacious cabin was designed into a luxury suite. Seven quiet, low-key Cultivators were seated at the corners of the cabin, while they eyed each other in respect, if not with a slight hint of competitiveness.
Sending someone into the Occult Orbs would consume a lot of resources, not to mention that the Occult Orbs themselves were full of dangers.
Those qualified to enter the Occult Orbs were all one-in-ten-thousand geniuses and elites of elites.
The seven of them were all given an opportunity to join Occult Orbs Fellowship, which apparently made them competitors.
However, if they all passed the tests, it was quite possible that they would become companions and explore the Occult Orbs together.
'Zhao Mo from Ten Ultimacies Union, a Cultivator in the middle level of the Building Foundation Stage who slayed more than thirty demon generals in the War of Seven Cities. His spiritual root was a strangely mutated one. The more seriously he is injured, the higher his combat ability becomes. He is a lunatic that gets madder and stronger as the battle proceeds.
'Cao Tongtian from Leopard Valley, a rarely-seen hybrid-type Cultivator in the middle level of the Building Foundation Stage. Other than combat, he is also talented in researching and is best at taming and reining crystal beasts.
'Nie Junxia from Heavenly Essence Village, known as the fastest swordsman of the younger generation. In a sword match hosted by the five major sword-training sects, he defeated twelve disciples from the five sword-training sects in a row as a disciple from a non-sword-training sect!
'Well well well. They're all the best Cultivators of the younger generation who have enormous potential!'
Sitti
ng in a corner, Li Yao was quite amazed.
It was not a lie that Occult Orbs was the top organization for the Cultivators of the Heaven's Origin Sector. The guys who'd been invited were all well-known celebrities, none of whom were easy to deal with.
But of course, the other young experts were also eyeing him with astonishment and appreciation.
As one of the youngest Building Foundation Cultivators of the federation and an important contributor to Project Mystic Skeleton, Li Yao had spread his name to every corner of the Cultivation world.
Without searching on the Nexus, the young experts had all recognized who he was and considered him to be one of the most dangerous competitors.
'Is that Vulture Li Yao? I'm told that he is one of the best refiners of the younger generation. The crystal reactor of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit was designed by him.'
'His combat ability is amazing, too. In the Battle of Red Lotus City, not only did he disrupt the teleportation of a demon prince by brute force, he even managed to seriously wound the enemy later!'
'Occult Orbs Fellowship is indeed a place of geniuses. Even such a remarkable person has been tempted!'
The other six young experts were talking to each other with their expressions.
A bright, grey ball which was full of holes flew to the middle of the cabin and emitted lights. A gold figure was consolidated by the brilliance. Gao Tieyi, the Secondary Deacon of Occult Orbs Fellowship, appeared. He smiled and said, "Please be prepared, everyone. We're almost here."
Li Yao looked through the window. It was a desolate desert outside.
They were still on the Grand Desolate Plateau.
"Deacon Gao, I have a question."
Cao Tongtian from Leopard Valley suddenly asked, "Why is Occult Orbs Fellowship headquartered on the Grand Desolate Plateau? Wouldn't it be under the harassment and scourge of the demon clan?"
"Good question!"
Gao Tieyi nodded his head approvingly. "It has to do with the key technology that enables us to explore the Occult Orbs.
"If possible, we would have preferred to establish the headquarters and launch bases further inland. But the space barrier of the inland is too stable, which blocks the sky like an invisible yet extremely thick wall and makes it very difficult to break the entanglement of our world.
