by <unknown>
"Stop looking at me like that. I've spent too many years on Iron Plateau and even experienced a battle of the apocalypse. There's a good chance that I've seen more dead people than you. You think I don't know how to play with guns and blades?
"I don't know what kind of scheme is behind everything or who has been concocting all this in secret.
"But I do know that the scheme is going to hurt the two men that I love most!
"Whoever wants to hurt my son and my… husband, I have no alternatives but to fight them until they are dead!"
Click!
The bullets were loaded, and killing intent was written all over Sha Yulan's face.
…
An hour later, Li Yao returned to the surface.
The six tribes had all sent guards to the temple of techniques. They searched and scrutinized those going in and out of the makeshift prison.
However, Li Yao had stored all the assets in his Cosmos Rings and gone out empty-handed.
Although the representatives of the Burning Sun Tribe were somewhat suspicious, they could only watch Li Yao leave proudly. After all, this place was within the Furious Bears Tribe's territory, and there was no solid evidence to prove that Xiong Wuji was the murderer.
As for Sha Yulan and Wu Mayan, they stayed and accompanied Xiong Wuji in the cage of the manic warriors. When the time of their deal with Li Yao come, they would act.
In the eyes of outsiders, since the Iron Plateau natives on the ground hated them very much, it was perfectly normal that the three space residents chose to hide in the underground together.
When Li Yao was walking on the street, it was already cold, late night. However, all lights in Furious Bears City were on; it was as bright as day. Chaotic crowds were everywhere.
Last night, the street had been the same, the people had been the same, but it was the liveliness of joy and harmony.
Right now, everyone was vigilant and anxious. Now and then, True Qi tanks carrying fully-armed qi-trainers would rush by. The intense atmosphere could be detonated with a single spark.
Li Yao calculated in silence. The Oasis Tribe was in the depths of the Dark Continent. Now that the report had come, the qi-trainers would definitely march out the moment all preparations were completed.
However, due to the battle of apocalypse a few days ago, all the tanks and war machines were more or less damaged. Even if the six tribes only decided to deploy the elite squads, they would still have to bring abundant True Qi containers and have their vehicles examined and strengthened. Also, since the journey was very long, it was necessary that they took rests and refilled their supplies on the way. All things considered, it would take them at least five days before they reached the Oasis Tribe.
But if Li Yao were to go there by himself riding on Black Wing, he could cross the entire continent within one day as long as he had sufficient crystals!
However, he needed to spend a lot of time in refining magical equipment and other useful tools.
After considering for a long time and settling all the details, Li Yao went to Xiong Zhenzhen and Shi Meng.
The two leaders of the best teams of the Furious Bears Tribe had indeed received the command to march toward the depths of the Dark Continent. They were preparing and training the warriors.
The three of them met in the test field of the weapon factory where they were performing emergency maintenance on the armor broken during the battle of the apocalypse.
Li Yao said nothing and simply handed over Xiong Wuji's letters to them.
They read the letters carefully. The more they read, the more they frowned, and the more thoughtful they became.
Seeing that they had finally finished reading the letters, Li Yao said coarsely, "I want the specific location of the Oasis Tribe."
Xiong Zhenzhen exchanged a look with Shi Meng and gave no reply. She suddenly changed the topic and asked solemnly, "Sand Scorpion, are you a space resident?"
Li Yao's pupils constricted, but he replied calmly, "No."
Shi Meng clenched the letter hard and gnashed, "Sand Scorpion, everybody has seen your bravery in the battle of the apocalypse. We've been through life and death together, and I consider you a real brother!
"The two of us could never have achieved what we've achieved today without the tutelage of Chief Xiong, either. I don't believe that Chief Xiong is a traitor even now!
"However, what's the point if we are the only two who believe the letters? We cannot even convince everyone in the Furious Bears Tribe, let alone those in the other five tribes!
"The most critical question right now is you, Sand Scorpion. Are you a space resident or not?
"Don't blame us for not trusting you. Your appearance was quite queer, and your talents too uncanny! Not only did you advance into the 80th level of the Refinement Stage within one short month, you could even craft such delicate armor!
"Besides the Furious Bears Tribe, there are no reports of missing warriors in the other five tries whose descriptions were even close to you. The Burning Sun Tribe encountered a space resident two months ago. I can't find a second explanation except that you are a space resident!"
Li Yao was as calm as ever. "I am not a space resident."
Xiong Zhenzhen raised her voice in anger. "Sand Scorpion, you delivered the two letters to us because you trust us, and you want us to help you and Chief Xiong, but you must be honest with us!
"I'm willing to trust you. Just because you are a space resident doesn't mean you are our enemy, but we'll have to make thorough plans if you are one!
"Blame yourself for your brilliant performance in the battle of apocalypse. Every tribe has got their eyes on you. Everything that has happened, do you think other people are all idiots and won't suspect you?
"Tell us the truth now. There's still time to make up for it. We'll figure something out together!
"If you don't tell the truth now, you will risk being revealed in front of everyone's eyes. By then, nobody will believe you anymore even if everything else you say is true!"
Li Yao smiled bitterly. He replied, "I am truly not a space resident. What can I do to make you believe me?"
Xiong Zhenzhen and Shi Meng gazed at him and said simultaneously, "You swear?"
Li Yao declared solemnly, "I swear that I'm not a space resident!"
The two of them looked at each other and both fell silent. Shi Meng heaved a long sigh of relief and said, "Alright. Now that you are willing to swear, I will believe you for now. But if I ever discover that you were lying and are a space resident, I will be the first to kill you!"
Xiong Zhenzhen said, "Sand Scorpion, you are a smart guy, and you should know that lying to us right now will do you no good. If you are really a space resident, there is no way that you can pass the test of the Truth Cabinet! I will believe your words for now. This is the map that the Burning Sun Tribe gave us. The specific location of the Oasis Tribe has been marked on it."
"I am not a space resident."
Li Yao looked them in the eye without any fear. "I will say exactly the same words if I have to step into the Truth Cabinet."
…
The unrest lasted all night. Furious Bears City seemed to be on fire everywhere. The furious flames were almost burning holes in the dark night sky. Before dawn, when the qi-trainers of the six tribes, who had been busy all night, just stopped and took a rest, a piece of shocking news came from the northwest of the city.
Xiong Wuji escaped!
He vanished together with Sha Yulan and Wu Mayan, two space residents, from the underground cage and suddenly appeared in a river dozens of kilometers away. Then, he hijacked a heavy tank and went southwards toward the desert!
As a result, Furious Bears City was even more anxious. The elite qi-trainers of the six tribes were all summoned to go after him.
The qi-trainers of the Furious Bears Tribe were unwilling to let their 'former chief' fall into the hands of outsiders. Therefore, even more people from their tribe were deployed to go south.
On the other hand, Furious Bears City, which had been excited all night, was somewhat cooled down because of this incident, like a drunk person who was fast asleep after a night of craziness.
At 6:30 in the morning, half an hour after the elites of the tribes went to chase after Xiong Wuji, a ghost-like figure slid into the warehouse of trophies.
Precious as the trophies were, they were all unrefined raw materials. Since it was a mess outside and everywhere was short-handed, there were not many guards in the warehouse.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Something rushed close in the air. Two guards fell to the ground without even having the opportunity to grunt.
The third guard realized what was going on, but he saw that a black shadow passed by him. He then felt that the back of his head was cold before he lost consciousness in the end.
The last guard was about to cry out when his voice was blocked in his throat; a stream of spiritual gas had surged out along his throat into his brain and cast him into coma.
The gate of the warehouse was installed with an extremely complicated gear password lock that could only be opened by adjusting the angles of the six gears on it. If so much as one of the gears was in the wrong angle, the siren inside the gate would shriek such an earsplitting sound that half of Furious Bears City would hear it.
Thankfully, it was also very complicated to change the password of such gear locks. Since Xiong Wuji had been very 'frank' yesterday, the three elders of the tribe did not hurry to change the password but dedicated themselves to the affairs of their tribe instead.
Click!
With a satisfying sound, the gate of the warehouse was slowly opened.
The most solid shells of apocalyptic beasts and their sharpest teeth and claws, as well as their cores that were extremely volatile but contained profound spiritual energy… All the trophies from the battle of the apocalypse were stored in the warehouse.
Was there any better place in the world than here for a refiner?
…
Three hours later, a number of the experts who had gone to pursue Xiong Wuji finally returned.
Yan Xibei, the chief of the Giant Axe Tribe, and the chief of the Feathered Snakes Tribe stood in the middle of the warehouse with gloomy expressions, as if somebody had smashed them right in their faces and left deep holes there.
The qi-trainers of the six tribes were checking the losses.
"Electric Spider teeth, Heavenly Star Insect shells, cores of the Red Horned Beetles… All the most valuable Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures with the most spiritual energy have been stolen? All?" asked Yan Xibei, his voice shaking. There was rarely-seen resentment on his face, as he gnashed his teeth.
"None were left, especially the cores of the apocalyptic beasts," replied a qi-trainer, who was in charge of the assessment, nervously.
Even the chief of the Giant Axe Tribe, who had been calm all the while, was roaring. "Asshole! The cores contain extremely violent spiritual energy. They'd been condensed by the egg of apocalypse over more than ten years with the resources it collected from underground. They would have been enough for the six tribes to start a great war!"
Chapter 603: Apocalyptic Extension! |
Three days later, in the northwest edge of the Furious Bears Tribe's territory, beside a zigzagging valley…
Hundreds of years ago, there used to a running river in this place, but it had dried long ago due to climate change.
The riverbed, infiltrated by the underground mother lodes, was as red as blood. Looking from afar, a crimson river seemed to be still flowing slowly.
The hundreds of square kilometers nearby were uninhabited, but weird sounds were echoing in a forsaken mine.
The dense sounds seemed to suggest that a tornado was savaging the cave, or that two primordial beasts were fighting each other in the depths of the mine. Occasionally, deafening explosions would burst out from hundreds of meters below the ground, blowing smog mixed with stone powder of various colors out of the cave.
Finally, everything went peaceful again that afternoon. An exhausted man, dragging quite a number of fully-loaded carts, crawled out of the cave.
Colorful stone powder was all over Li Yao's body. Even his face had become fuzzy. His hands were shivering, and his sweat that dropped to the ground vaporized immediately due to the high temperature.
He hurried to pour half a bottle of clean water into his mouth. In great satisfaction, Li Yao licked his dry lips and suddenly kicked over the few carts, allowing all the items inside them to roll out. He then examined the works that he had refined crazily in the previous three days.
The first cart was packed with bullets.
The True Qi guns on Iron Plateau launched bullets by spiritual gas that the qi-trainers blew in from the back of the weapon.
Theoretically speaking, even an iron ball could deal unparalleled damage when it was granted with enough momentum.
However, the impetus of spiritual gas was limited anyway. To increase the damage of the guns, he'd had to revise the bullets.
Those bullets were crafted from the corpses of the apocalyptic beasts and high-purity crystals.
Most of the bullets were armor-piercing projectiles. The most solid bones of the dragon-level beasts were utilized as cores, and the crystals stored inside the bullets would explode furiously after they pierced the target's body.
For those in the low level of the Refinement Stage, such bullets could wipe them out instantly!
The second cart carried several guns and melee weapons. They had all been renewed after he'd added the bones of the apocalyptic beasts and special alloys to them.
Since nobody was around, Li Yao was able to perform the best of the ancient arts of refining that he knew. He utilized all the materials perfectly and improved the strength and sharpness of the weapons to their maximum.
In the third cart was 'Thunder Roar', the deadly weapon that could spray Wolf Fangs out like they were bullets!
Li Yao had redesigned 'Thunder Roar' so that it could launch the oval-shaped crystal bombs that he had specially made.
The crystal bombs looked as unattractive as eggs, but they were made of the cores of the dragon-level beasts. One of them was enough to blow up half of a mine or clear the small fries within a hundred square meters.
Even the experts in the Building Foundation Stage or the Core Formation Stage might not be bold enough to confront such explosive bullets!
What was most shocking was that he had crafted two hundred such explosive bullets at the cost of almost all the precious trophies from the battle of the apocalypse!
Refining such Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures into bullets and crystal bombs was the most wasteful way to make use of them. Even Li Yao felt slightly regretful.
But there were no other options. His time was too limited for him to create the exquisite and elegant magical equipment. He could only choose the simplest, the roughest, and the wildest style!
I'm truly sorry, six tribes of Iron Plateau. I've wasted so many of your resources for my own usage! But if we cannot make it through this war, there will be no future for Iron Plateau at all!
If we can grit our teeth through the disaster and unveil the scheme of the Temple of Immortals, the Immortal Cultivators will become our common foe. Interspace trade will be as certain as anything can ever be. However many resources I've wasted, they can be traded back later!
While thinking, Li Yao kicked over the fourth cart.
Rolling on the ground were the components of a set of armor that looked like the shell of a beetle.
"Sky Scorpion Armor, suit up!"
Li Yao took a deep breath. Spiritual gas surged out of his body and spread out like ripples, raising a strong attraction force.
The components on the ground were absorbed to him one by one. They were combined and assembled into an awe-inspiring armor!
The brand-new Sky Scorpion Armor had been upgraded with the materials of the apocalyptic beasts!
> Although the structure was basically the same, unlike the previous Sky Scorpion Armor, which only simulated the appearance of the Emperor Sand Scorpion and was made of common metals, the new Sky Scorpion Armor had employed a large quantity of shells and bones of apocalyptic beasts and even part of the body materials of the two calamity-level beasts!
One of the two calamity-level beasts was a sturdy being that could resist the collective attack of more than ten experts around the 80th level of the Refinement Stage. The defensive ability of its shell was almost equal to that of a Core Formation Stage Cultivator!
As for the giant sandworm, the other calamity-level beast, although its skin was soft, the defense ability of the beast was equally impressive. The circular blade-like teeth inside its mouthpart were perfect to be embedded on the surface of the armor as thorns, too!
Putting on the brand-new Sky Scorpion Armor, Li Yao seemed to have turned into a human-shaped apocalyptic beast. He couldn't have been more horrifying!
But it was not the end yet.
After putting on the armor, Li Yao showed no signs of stopping. He moved forward and kicked over the fifth cart. It was still armor components that were rolling on the ground, except that they were larger in size and much more primitive and crazier!
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Attracted by Li Yao's spiritual gas, the giant armor components all flew in the air and circled around him.
Li Yao's feet left the ground, and he floated at an altitude of three meters high. He stretched out his arms to let the new components be attached to the Sky Scorpion Armor.
In the Sky Scorpion Armor, he was almost 2.2 meters tall. But after the new components were plugged into it, he turned into a giant almost four meters tall!
The upper body of the dual armor was like a monolithic scorpion that had stood straight. Distinctive features of spiders could be found on it, too. On the back of the shoulders, two claws resembling the forelegs of mantis protruded. A long horn that looked like a spear extended high into the sky on the helmet!
The whole armor was mostly black with gold stripes all over the body, which made it look like a tiger crossed with an insect!
