by <unknown>
The female teammate who had emerald hair sniffed.
Her name was Yan Yangtian. She was the scout in Team Blue Bronze.
"According to the two workers, the newcomer dueling with Guo Yu is a famous guy in the Grand Desolate War Institution in the recent years who is known as Vulture Li Yao. Lingdang, you must know this guy from school. What do you think of him?" Captain Hong Tong asked.
Ding Lingdang's faced was immediately brimming with bewilderment.
Her reaction was almost identical to that of Li Yao when he first heard of 'Inferno Witch Ding Lingdang'.
Then, she beamed with great pleasure, which spread out from the corner of her mouth like the ripple of a lake that had just unfrozen in the spring.
All her four teammates were greatly shocked.
The staff and doctors nearby were completely dumbfounded, too.
Ding Lingdang, Queen of Fire, had always been a human-shaped tyrannosaur in their minds, a maniac in martial arts and a psycho in training.
But why was she smiling so charmingly? She wasn't possessed by anything, was she?
…
In the No. 17 arena…
Burning Tank was less than three hundred meters in both length and width. Considering the sight, speed, and damage of Cultivators, it was one of the smallest rings of all. Within a breath, they would be able to run a lap inside of it.
Li Yao and Guo Yu stood at two ends of the battleground which had been enclosed by electromagnetic rails and defense rune arrays.
For the audience, they could watch the 3D live stream of the match through the head-worn light beam projector.
In the battleground of Burning Tank, a great war seemed to have just taken place. The air was filled with the stink of blood and the scent of metals being burnt. Damaged magical equipment and weapons were scattered all over the ground. There were even quite a lot of broken limbs of the demon beasts, which were scattered and in bizarre shapes.
Nine crystal tanks were burning fiercely, like nine bombs which were likely to detonate at any moment.
As the three Judge Balls floating in the air turned from green to yellow, the match official began!
The initial ten minutes were preparation time. They were not allowed to attack each other and had to assemble their own weapons with the debris of magical equipment on the battleground.
Li Yao glanced around and noticed something. He immediately rushed at a battle saber that was basically intact, while picking up a lot of fragments of magical equipment and wrecked weapons along the way.
Then, he found a place far away from the burning crystal tanks, before he started maintaining and modifying the battle saber at an astonishing speed.
He glanced at Guo Yu in the middle of his work.
Guo Yu's hands were moving like flying butterflies, too. Several pieces of magical equipment had been repaired and put beside him.
All the weapons on the battleground of Burning Tank were MP magical equipment. Their structures were relatively simple.
As an experienced Orb Patroller and a weapon expert, Guo Yu was of course familiar with the basic maintenance and assembling skills.
In regard to the maintenance of such simple magical equipment, he was not much slower than Li Yao.
Li Yao focused his attention back on his own weapon.
His plan was different from Guo Yu's.
Guo Yu had tried his best to repair as many weapons as possible, and he'd got almost twenty weapons. In the meantime, Li Yao had embedded all the magical equipment components he found useful into the one saber, transforming it into a giant, grotesque saber.
The new saber was 2.37 meters long and weighed 425 kilograms. Its two edges were juxtaposed and looked like the tusks of demon beasts. As the crystals and rune arrays on the body of the saber were triggered, electric arcs started dancing and colliding between the two edges with cracking noises, while the saber was vibrating and turning the tip of the saber into blurred shadows.
Chapter 363: Burning Tank |
This two-edged vibrating battle saber had reached the limit of damage for all MP battle sabers.
His natural and fluent modification skills impressed many spectators who were watching from the outside.
Most of them were experts of the trade. Despite their different positions, their eyes were keen enough to tell that aside from Vulture Li Yao's personal strength, his modification skills alone would be excellent enough to earn him a place in the teams whose ranks were not very high.
Right then, Guo Yu finished his preparation too.
Compared to Li Yao, he was armed to the teeth. Two translucent daggers beside the waist, one storm bolter in his hands which had been attached with a giant Thunder-Palm launcher, a chainsword and a battle saber crossed on his back, and a few sharp broken blades hidden in his boots.
"Beep!"
The indicator lights on the three Judge Balls turned dangerously red at the same time.
Safe time had passed. The real combat had begun!
"BOOM!"
Before the two of them were able to do anything, a crystal tank on the verge of being melted in the center of the arena exploded without a sign.
The twisted turret soared to the sky. Scorching pieces were flying everywhere in a rain of fire, covering an area of almost a hundred square meters. The blast reached every corner in the arena, which made the pupils of the two participants shrink simultaneously.
"Swoosh! Swoosh!"
Guo Yu had dueled in the arena of Burning Tank several times. He was quite familiar with the unexpected explosions, which was also one of the reasons why he had chosen the No. 17 arena.
At the same time as the crystal tank's explosion, he launched his attacks in advance. Bullets filled with spiritual energy darted at Li Yao furiously!
The understanding of weapons of ordinary soldiers was completely different from that of Building Foundation Stage Cultivators, who could attach their telepathic thoughts to every bullet that they triggered, allowing them to control the bullets at a short distance fully at their will.
Guo Yu had triggered 72 bullets instantly, and he had split 72 telepathic thoughts to adjust the speed, direction and angle of each bullet. Covering the hundreds of meters of distance in between, all the bullets together formed an impregnable net which blocked every route of Li Yao's retreat at the same time, stopping him from going anywhere.
'This is a good one. No wonder he dared to challenge Ding Lingdang!'
This was the first time that Li Yao had ever been engaged with a gun expert at the Building Foundation Stage.
His opponent's precise manipulation of bullets was a big eye-opener for him.
His spiritual energy rippled out, and he sensed that the spiritual energy contained in every bullet was different.
It appeared that every bullet had its unique ability.
In such a limited time, Li Yao failed to find a perfect dodging plan even though he had maximized his computational ability.
Even in the plan bordering on perfection, he would still have to take the blow of two bullets the hard way.
'Despite the fact that he is merely in the beginning level of the Building Foundation Stage, Guo Yu has grasped formidable combat skills because of the long-time training in the Occult Orbs. His real personal strength, if fully exerted, might be even more enormous than many outside-world Cultivators in the middle level of the Building Foundation Stage!
'How much can I grow if I can have the opportunity to train in the Occult Orbs for one or two years?'
Gritting his teeth, Li Yao sprinted and slashed his saber.
His target was not the heads of the bullets, but the bodies of them on which he imposed force by brushing past the heads and hitting the cases with the vibration of the saber.
The trajectories of seventeen bullets were affected as a result. He ripped open a crack in the storm of bullets.
"BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!"
Guo Yu was a decisive man. Seeing that all his bullets were going to
miss the target, he immediately triggered the attack rune arrays in all the bullets with his telepathic thought in order to interfere with Li Yao's rhythm.
At the same time, he launched three Thunder-Palms nearby Li Yao, before he tossed away his storm bolter and picked the saber and sword from his back. Then he rushed forward in an astonishing speed at his opponent!
"BOOM!"
Another crystal tank exploded near him. Guo Yu didn't dodge at all. Instead, he condensed a spiritual shield between the crystal tank and himself, thereby boosting himself to a supersonic speed by the power of the blast.
"Ding!"
"Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!"
Hardly had Li Yao freed himself from the maze of fire caused by the bullets when he was caught in a hurricane of metal made by a saber and a sword!
He was completely enveloped in Guo Yu's overwhelming attacks, which burdened him with so much pressure that he found it hard to breathe.
An experienced, field-tested Orb Patroller could be so intimidating!
The audience in the outside, with the help of the head-worn 3D light beam projector, appeared in the arena like ghosts, while they observed the combat at the closest distance possible.
All of them could tell that Guo Yu had maintained a dominating advantage since the beginning, and the rhythm of the combat was completely under his control.
In comparison, Li Yao was only striving to survive with no way to fight back at all.
"Guo Yu's strength has significantly improved compared with one month ago. The speed of his sword attacks is at least 9% higher. The interchange of his saber and his sword is amazing, too. The man has brought out the best a Cultivator in the beginning level of the Building Foundation Stage can do!"
"It seems that the brutal failure against Ding Lingdang has prompted him to reflect on himself. If he were in such a state when he was faced with Ding Lingdang, he wouldn't have failed so miserably!"
"Vulture Li Yao is just a beginner who has just entered the Building Foundation Stage. Once he is suppressed and falls into the opponent's pace, it's hardly likely that he could make a comeback!"
"Not so fast. Li Yao is best known for his tricks and cunningness. That's why he is nicknamed 'Vulture' in the outside world. I don't believe that he isn't concocting something in his mind."
"CRACK!"
In the middle of the heated discussion, an unexpected change suddenly broke out!
Both of the two Orb Patrollers had carried out the best of the beginning level of the Building Foundation Stage. But the weapons in their hands belonged to the shabbiest MP magical equipment, which had only undergone a simple, ten-minute maintenance and modification before the combat. How good could they be?
Within the past half a minute, their weapons had collided profoundly more than a thousand times, which far exceeded the limits of the metals. Crushed and savaged by the powerful spiritual energy, they finally couldn't bear it any longer and, after the last furious crash, exploded into thousands of pieces!
Almost at the same time—
Everyone's eyes were filled with blankness for half a second, as if a small sun had burst out in the battleground without any sign!
"Flash rune arrays!"
"Vulture Li Yao indeed had plans! I noticed just now that he picked up two flash bangs when he was preparing to repair his magical equipment. It turns out that he had dismantled the flash bangs and embedded their key components into his battle saber!"
"Once the battler saber is broken, the flash rune arrays will be automatically triggered!"
"He knew that the hardness of the magical equipment was not good enough and that it tended to break up in the fierce combat. That's why he prepared such a deadly move!"
Holding their breath, all the audience watched the game anxiously.
But the members of Team Lingering Wind were as calm as before, if not with additional contempt.
Guo Yu had studied enough video clips of his enemy's performances to know that he was an insidious man who was particularly fond of deceptions and disguises.
'You wanted an experienced Orb Patroller to fall for a few flash bangs? Hilarious!'
As it turned out, before everyone's visual was restored, they had heard Guo Yu's hideous laughter.
When they were able to see what was going in the battleground, they found that Guo Yu was lunging at Li Yao unhesitatingly with two daggers in each hand. He seemed to be not in the least affected by the flash bangs!
It was Li Yao who was dazed for a moment, who must've failed to foresee that Guo Yu would see through his traps and close his eyes at the critical moment.
"CRACK!"
When he came back to himself, Li Yao tried to stretch out his broken saber and blocked the incoming daggers.
But Guo Yu's elbow had hit Li Yao's chest brutally like an enormous cannonball.
Even the audience outside of the arena could hear the cracking of bones loud and clear.
In a grunt, Li Yao was blown backwards like a broken baggage.
Guo Yu's face was filled with cruelness. He seemed to have completely forgotten the 'nothing would cross the line' promise. Instead, he dashed forward like a hungry tiger chasing a goat.
But the moment before he caught up to Li Yao, his face suddenly turned extremely weird, as he missed a step like a drunk cripple.
Life and death could be determined within one second during the competition of the Building Foundation Stage Cultivators. Such a loss of balance was an unforgivable and deadly mistake.
Li Yao, whose ribs should've been shattered, suddenly widened his eyes. The brutality beaming out of his eyes made everyone understand that—
Firstly, the flash bangs were just a pretension. The inexplicable trick that made his opponent lose balance was his real deadly move.
Secondly, he was definitely not a common refiner. His remarkable ability of resistance was even better than that of many middle-level Building Foundation Stage Cultivators. He suffered a full-strength strike in his chest from Guo Yu and he was totally fine!
Thirdly, and most importantly, Li Yao had been well aware that this was not going to be a match of friendship where 'nothing would cross the line' at all!
He had prepared to beat Guo Yu to a pulp since the very beginning!
When Guo Yu was knocked away by dozens of meters and lay on the ground like a cluster of mud, members of Team Lingering Wind finally lost their tranquility.
"What the hell? Why did Guo Yu lose balance all of a sudden? And what kept him from standing up for such a long time?"
As members of Team Lingering Wind were looking for an answer in anxiety and desperation, Li Yao did another thing that was completely insane, which pressed their curses back to their throats.
Li Yao's battle saber was broken. He was bare-handed right now.
Instead of picking up a new weapon, he clenched the turret of a burning crystal tank, lifted it up and threw it away.
"You've got to be kidding me!"
Everyone was completely dumbfounded.
His head dizzy, Guo Yu was still struggling to his feet on one of his knees, when he suddenly sensed that a burning shadow of fire was falling upon him. He was stunned when he raised his head.
"No…"
Before the astounded Guo Yu was able to finish his sentence, he was already blown away by the crystal tank for almost a hundred meters and crashed into a second crystal tank.
"BOOM!"
The crystal tank that Li Yao threw away didn't explode. But the second crystal tank turned into a giant fireball to Li Yao's satisfaction.
The only thing that Guo Yu could do was open up his spiritual shield to the maximum when the flames burst out, before he was completely devoured by the swirl of furious fire and intense spiritual energy.
When the three Judge Balls pulled him out with electromagnetic beams, many scraps of metal had already melted into his flesh and blood.
Judging from his injuries, it would take at least fifty days before he could le
ave the ICU again.
"Hiss…"
All the audience outside of the arena gasped.
They had thought that Inferno Witch Ding Lingdang was brutal enough. Never did they anticipate that Vulture Li Yao was ten times more ruthless than her!
Monsters from the Grand Desolate War Institution were indeed unbelievable!
Chapter 364: Team Blue Bronze's Invitation |
When Li Yao walked out of the arena calmly, he saw the Orb Patrollers in the outside wearing different and complicated expressions.
Some of them were still bewildered.
Some of them were blinking their eyes, apparently thinking of hiring Li Yao.
Some of them were deeply confused, wondering how Li Yao managed to make Guo Yu lose balance.
Of course, there were also many Orb Patrollers who were glaring at him, especially those from Team Lingering Wind. Their eyes had pierced him hundreds of times like lightning.
Li Yao was bothered by none of it. He continued walking easily and comfortably.
Street fighting was not allowed in Empyreal Star City. All the grudges had to be resolved by formal duels.
If his opponent was sending Cultivators in the beginning level of the Building Foundation Stage to challenge him, then they could just bring it on. He was not scared of anyone that was at the same level with him.
What about middle-level and high-level Building Foundation Stage Cultivators?
Normally speaking, they would not disgrace themselves by challenging a Cultivator in the beginning level of the Building Foundation Stage.
Cultivators valued forward-looking and advancement most. It was a highly inappropriate behavior to bully the weak. Therefore, the weak could always challenge the strong at their will. But if the strong decided to challenge the weak, they would be a laughing stock even if they won the game.
So, when Cultivators beyond his level challenged him, he could always turn them down, which would do no harm to his reputation. After all, it wouldn't be a fair game if the two parties weren't of the same level. Other people might even consider him to be a sensible man and think more highly of him.
