by <unknown>
"I was roaming, struggling, and training in various relics of ancient battlegrounds in the edge of the sea of stars when I was young. It wasn't the most pleasant experience, and I really don't want to talk much about it.
"It was not until I joined the Great Horn Exo Society that I was completely changed and made a real breakthrough.
"The days I spent in the Great Horn Exo Society were the happiest time for me in this world! I will never forget the event of the entire Great Horn Exo Society fighting side by side against the space swirl caused by a True Fusion.
"I believe that few people here have ever observed a True Fusion at a close distance, much less struggling in the surging tides it raises, have you?
"It was like ten thousand suns exploding in front of your eyes simultaneously. The torrent of light and heat completely melted your cells and your soul!
"After enduring that kind of pain, no pain is insufferable.
"We were lucky enough to survive the catastrophe. The silver lining for me was that I was enlightened through the True Fusion and experienced a major breakthrough!"
It was the best explanation that Li Yao could think of for his capability.
Few Cultivators had ever gotten in touch with a True Fusion. It was impossible for the reporters to check what kind of experience it was. Besides, it was quite usual for a Cultivator to have a major breakthrough when they were on the brink of doom.
Smiling, Li Yao left the center of the Skyhill Sword Seminar before the reporters pursued further.
…
Other elimination matches were held in the following couple of days. They were arranged with a long gap between each other for the convenience of better communication. Therefore, Li Yao finally had the time to take a moment of rest.
When he was not training, he sometimes logged in to The World of Crystal Suits under the name of 'Fiend Star'.
Hardly had he entered the Q&A zone when hundreds of invitations bombarded his face.
After he'd adulated 'Fiend Star' in front of thousands of people in the Skyhill Sword Seminar, Fiend Star's popularity had soared. Those who were willing to discuss with him were of a higher level, too. Most of them were professionals in the circle of refiners now.
The question he was mostly invited to was 'what reviews are there on the competition between Li Yao and Mo Tianshui in the Skyhill Sword Seminar?'
Some people were even sending private messages to him, asking him whether or not he knew Li Yao and his background.
Li Yao secretly chuckled. He considered for a while and left a comment as Fiend Star.
"I've never heard of the name 'Li Yao' before. But after studying the match of him versus Mo Tianshui, I was reminded of a certain someone from his methods and style.
"Many years ago, when I was exploring a small ancient battleground at the edge of Silver Frost Space Zone, I came across a strange guy who only had a left hand.
"We got eyes on the same scrap, and we were engaged in a competition in the arts of refining.
"Although the guy was only one-armed, I experienced a brutal failure that was far beyond my expectations.
"At that time, I was already quite confident in my skills of refining. In great shock, I naturally asked who the guy was.
"But the guy said nothing. He took away the scrap and disappeared in the stone belt. I haven't seen him again ever since.
"At that time, he was already wrinkled and grey-haired. I assume that he was quite old at that time. Two to three hundred years old, maybe.
"Today, I seem to have found traces of my old acquaintance in Li Yao, and I can't help but recall the past…"
After writing the intriguing little story, Li Yao logged off delightedly.
Everything he had said was purely imaginary and utterly unfalsifiable. He wouldn't be bothered by whatever people made out of it.
In such a way, his identity and the origin of his skills would be more valid.
Instead of following the riot that Fiend Star's last comment raised on the Spiritual Nexus, Li Yao was devoted to training and preparing himself for the competition of the next round, until he was notified of a message that made his eyes beam with joy.
It was a congratulatory message from the Great Horn Exo Society!
Chapter 504: Spider's Thorn |
"Li Yao, you are a monster!"
"I knew that you were better than what you'd been showing us, but I never thought that you would be that good! Even the true heir of the Mo family was sliced apart by you!"
In the middle of the light beam, Lei Dalu was as messy and insouciant as the old days. He laughed carefreely. "We were cruising through a very dangerous stone belt a few days ago and couldn't receive any signal from the Spiritual Nexus. Everybody was shocked when we watched the video this morning!
"We didn't bring the young boys of the Tiger Killer Camp for this mission. They are locked in a secret training camp in the Thousand Sails Space Zone for concentrated special training! However, seeing that you were so awesome, I still asked the manager of the camp to play the video for them. They all went crazy! Here, just watch their reactions!"
The picture blinked and turned into a montage. A pack of vigorous young man, who had zits all over their faces, were yelling toward the camera inside a somewhat outdated training room.
"Brother Li Yao, you are so incredible!"
"Brother Yao, you are the greatest idol of everyone in the Tiger Killer Camp!"
"Li Yao, from the Li family. That's so cool! Allow me to be your lackey!"
Zhao Nuo, captain of the Tiger Killer Camp, was also dancing and talking excitedly. "Top 16 is not good enough. Now that Mo Tianshui has been defeated, Huangpu Xiaoya will be the next in line. Brother Yao, hurry up and crush her with your passionate charisma and nimble hands! We're all backing you!"
"Yes, we're backing you! You are the legend of the Great Horn Exo Society!" bellowed a hot-blooded young man.
Li Yao was calm when thousands of spectators cheered for him inside the match field, and his face remained unchanged when countless people admired him and called him a genius on the Spiritual Nexus.
But he couldn't help but smile when he watched and listened to the desperately shouting young people who had fought side by side with him against the True Fusion and the space swirl.
"These guys!"
Li Yao chuckled after he watched the video. Then he said, "Captain, please tell the boys of the Tiger Killer Camp that, when everything is done after the Skyhill Sword Seminar, I will give every one of them a piece of melee magical equipment refined by myself! I can't be their 'Brother Yao' without offering them anything in return."
Lei Dalu whistled and replied, clicking his tongue, "You are truly a lavish one. As the new expert on sabers in the circle of refiners, countless saber wielders are hoping to purchase your masterpieces at whatever cost. How wasteful it will be to build weapons for those boys who don't know the first thing about fighting! Why don't you refine a weapon for me if you insist?"
Refiners enjoyed a high social position in the world of Cultivators because the ultimate magical equipment they created could significantly improve the combat ability of the battle-type Cultivators.
Li Yao's saber-refining skills might still be too shabby for Core Formation Stage Cultivators. But for Cultivators at the Refinement Stage and the Building Foundation Stage, he was definitely somebody worth pleasing and making friends with.
In the world of Cultivators, Core Formation Stage Cultivators and Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were much fewer after all, while Refinement and Building Foundation Stage Cultivators were the mainstream, who made up more than 99% of all Cultivators.
Considering the formidableness of the sabers Li Yao crafted, he could be a guest of whatever sect or family wherever he went in the Flying Star Sector.
Li Yao smiled and said, "My techniques are not good enough for Core Formation Stage Cultivators yet. So, I will build weapons for the Tiger Killer Camp first. Wait until I train myself in the three main cry
stal suit centers for a year and a half. By that time, I will certainly refine new magical equipment for every one of you, including Captain!"
Lei Dalu had mixed feelings. "Li Yao, you are truly the bringer of fortune for the Great Horn Exo Society. Did you know that the searches for the Great Horn Exo Society increased by hundreds of times on the Spiritual Nexus the day you mentioned your relationship with the Great Horn Exo Society? We even made it into the weekly 'Trending Topics'! Right now, we are a well-acknowledged group in the circle of Exos. Many sects and star fortresses have expressed their interest in cooperating with us. A lot of strong guys are also handing in their applications, hoping to join us!
"Over the past ten years, I have been trying to make the Great Horn Exo Society larger and stronger so that we can rescue more victims of the space pirates.
"But you also knew how we brawny yet brainless barbarians used to run the Great Horn Exo Society. Without the hard work of Bai Kaixin, I'm afraid we would've starved a long time ago!
"This time, thanks to you, we are literally known by everyone in the world. The day of our rising is coming near!"
Lei Dalu plucked his beard and laughed very in satisfaction.
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao said, "Captain, I've read some news on the Spiritual Nexus and heard word on the street. It is said the Fengyu Zhong has issued tremendous bounties. Undercurrents are surging on Spider Den! Did you know—"
"No worries."
Lei Dalu grinned, somewhat scarily. "It is not simple as it appears to be. This particular mission that Great Horn Exo Society is carrying out was not selected randomly, either. If Fengyu Zhong doesn't come, then it's fine. But if he does, hehehehe…"
Li Yao quickly thought everything through. He remembered that the Great Horn Exo Society had received a lot of donations the moment it arrived in the Thousand Sails Space Zone and that Gold Horn had been given priority when it was sent to a dock for modification and upgrades. He immediately understood what was going on.
It appeared that the Cultivators of the Flying Star Sector were not as inert as he had imagined.
Fengyu Zhong was a brutal bandit who countless organizations couldn't wait to kill. However, his traces had been a secret over the past ten years. Except for Spider Den, the base for all the space pirates, nobody knew where he would show up.
The experts wouldn't know where to chop off his head even if they were summoned together.
But this time, it was a great opportunity to hunt him down while he was hunting somebody else.
Maybe, when Fengyu Zhong marched toward the Great Horn Exo Society ruthlessly, he would find out in bewilderment that he had fallen into a deadly trap!
Lei Dalu said, "The bottom line is, keep it up in your match. Everything is smooth in the Great Horn Exo Society.
"It is you who should be more carefully. Fengyu Zhong declared quite angrily that he wanted each and every member of the Great Horn Exo Society dead.
"You were just a regular member of Great Horn, and you are barely affiliated to it now. Also, you are in the Thousand Sails Space Zone, the camp for all Exos. Therefore, I wasn't worried about you before.
"But right now, you've risen to fame suddenly and highlighted your relationship with Great Horn in front of so many reporters. I'm afraid that even a dog on Spider Den knows your name now.
"On Spider Den, except for common space pirates, there is also a mysterious organization named 'Black Spider Tower', which is in charge of intelligence, espionage, infiltration and assassination.
"The department in charge of assassinations is known as 'Spider's Thorn'. It is a blood-freezing name for all Cultivators!
"In their most violent days, these assassins even dared to sneak into the headquarters of a sect and assassinate the key persons such as elders!
"Even if you are confident in your own capability, I suggest you hire a few bodyguards. With your identity as a master of saber-refining, I'm sure that, if the saber experts who are willing to be your bodyguards line up in Thousand Sails Space Zone, the last of them will end up in Heavenly Saints City!"
Li Yao felt warm. Although he had other plans, he nodded his head quickly. "Alright. Safety always comes first. I will hire a few body guards."
While they were talking, the light beam suddenly turned fuzzy, with waves and flakes surging out, before it went completely blank.
Three seconds later, the communication was cut off.
The Great Horn Exo Society's current mission had brought them to more than ten space zones away. The communication between them and Li Yao had been established via the dense spiritual towers throughout space.
However, the spiritual towers floating in the sea of stars were prone to the scourge of meteoroids, cosmic dust, space storms, and spiritual tides due to the lack of protection from an atmosphere. The Spiritual Nexus they constituted could be very unstable.
It was especially so when a starship was cruising past some stone belts or world fragments. An intermittent Spiritual Nexus was nothing new.
Li Yao turned off the connection and planned to retry in several minutes.
Right then, somebody knocked on his door softly.
From the monitor, Li Yao could see that it was a greasily-haired, middle-aged, fat man in a delicate robe standing on his doorstep.
He was wearing a sunny smile. His small eyes were narrowed together, which gave him an inexplicable charisma that seemed to be able to stop other people from turning down his request.
The biggest feature of this guy's appearance was that it had no features. Despite Li Yao's amazing computational ability, Li Yao found himself forgetting what the man looked like when he moved his eyes away after gazing at him for three seconds.
Li Yao thought of something. He quickly sorted his room for half a minute, before he cleaned his clothes and opened the door.
"Master Li Yao, greetings. My name is Fei Ming. I'm from the Silver Heart School," said the fat middle-aged man courteously.
Li Yao blocked the door and said coldly, "Your men already came yesterday. The three crystal suit centers have all provided contracts. I need to spend a few days weighing up my options."
Seven-colored brilliance was blinking in Fei Ming's eyes, as he lowered his voice, as if a mosquito was flapping its wings. "The offer yesterday was for the public. Does Master Li Yao not want to hear what extra benefits we can provide you with? Why don't we go inside and have a proper talk?"
Li Yao blinked, his pupils somewhat rigid. He mumbled to himself, "Extra benefits? I suppose we can talk about that."
After the two of them sat down, Fei Ming brought out an octagonal metal box from his pocket in the gentlest way. He then pushed the box to Li Yao, as he said in a mild voice as if feathers were kissing the ground, "Master Li Yao, since your hands are so fast and you are so good at micro-carving, you must be very interested in delicate magical equipment. This metal box is our present for you. Consider it a sign of friendship from the Silver Heart School."
"Delicate magical equipment?"
Brilliance of fascination beamed out of Li Yao's eyes. He touched a crimson rune on the top of the box. After a clicking sound, the box unfolded into a weird Eight Trigram that was engraved with black-and-white helical spiritual stripes.
A small gyro rose up slowly from the center of the Eight Trigram and span silently in midair.
The edge of the gyro was carved with the most beautiful spiritual stripes, whose mystical brightness was flashing in Li Yao's eyes.
Li Yao seemed to have fallen asleep. His eyes were absolutely still, and his breath turned slow and stable.
Fei Ming bent forward, his voice so low that it almost couldn't be heard. "Master Li Yao, we have many other kinds of classic magical equipment, some that are so precise, it is simply impossible to dismantle them after they are assembled. For hundreds of years, none have ever cracked them successfully.
"However, this hotel is quite noisy. Why don't we move our conversation to a less disturbed place where we can enjoy and an
alyze them more slowly? What do you think?"
"…Of course." Li Yao swallowed. He stood up, holding the gyro carefully in his hands.
Chapter 505: Eleven Fingers |
The air in the hallway was thick and sticky. Time seemed to have been frozen. A weird face suddenly appeared on the colorful carpet. It gazed at Li Yao and Fei Ming, who were stepping over it in silence.
When the two of them disappeared in the emergence exit, the weird face said softly, "Plan A went smoothly. Clean up the traces and fall back in half a minute, every team."
The weird face softly whistled. After a 'Bo' sound, something seemed to break. The hot and damp hallway resumed its usual wind and coolness immediately.
The weird face smiled. It melted into the carpet and vanished.
Li Yao was sitting inside a fully-sealed limo shuttle whose windows had been blocked by light beams to stop him from seeing the outside.
The shuttle was running very steadily, to the extent that it felt stationary.
Li Yao was studying the gyro wholeheartedly, with a satisfied and spellbound face.
But his computational ability surged quietly like a tide at night as he analyzed the route of the shuttle from every slight sign of slope, turn, acceleration, and deceleration, before he overlapped the route with a 3D map of the Thousand Edges Mountain.
He discovered that, although the shuttle was moving fast, it had been circling around. It seemed to have run for more than an hour, but it had returned to the building next to the hotel where he was staying!
Li Yao recalled the building to be a grey, inconspicuous plaza of seven floors.
The shuttle stopped. Ten minutes later, the door of the shuttle was opened slowly, revealing an enclosed pathway made of soft, silver materials.
At the end of the pathway was a gate in an ancient style.
Li Yao sneered. If it were a pure refiner, they would've thought that they had been brought to ten thousand miles away and would have been baffled about where they were now.
Fei Ming knocked on the gate three times. Then he bowed to Li Yao and said, "Master Li Yao, please."
