by <unknown>
It was not until this moment that everybody saw that it was actually a damaged heavy tank!
However, the tank was surrounded by immense spiritual gas, too. Instead of being flattened by Yan Xibei's enormous hands, it continued rushing at him despite the spluttering sparks.
There was a deafening explosion when they collided. The heavy tank was naturally a total loss now, but Yan Xibei was knocked back almost fifty meters and rolled on the ground, too.
Everybody was bewildered and stared at the heavy tank, which was beyond recognition now.
Dozens of meters away, Yan Xibei had regained his balance. The crash did not hurt him. He gazed at the remains of the heavy tank gloomily and furiously.
Huala!
Above the heavy tank, the door was kicked open. Enshrouded by the surging white steam, a muscular man not very impressive in height, who was wearing the armor of the Furious Bears Tribe and carrying two sabers on his back, crawled out of the cockpit!
"Ah!"
Hundreds of qi-trainers exclaimed in shock.
Xiong Wuji, the best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau, was standing between them and Yan Xibei like a fortress.
"And you said that you didn't have any trump cards!" Shi Meng was practically crying in joy. "You must have made a deal with the chief that he would come to save the day when the truth is revealed!"
"Well—"
Li Yao scratched his head and replied honestly, "That was not in my plan. Coincidence. It's purely a coincidence."
Yan Xibei narrowed his eyes. Blood stripes crawled over his skin and covered his face as if they were living creatures. He was now wearing a hideous, bloody mask.
Waving the six insect limbs, Yan Xibei crept close again and said indifferently, "Xiong Wuji!"
"And me!"
Roaring echoed again in the hazy mist, before a single tank suddenly appeared in midair and landed before the qi-trainers' battle formation with thousands of sparks!
Wu Mayan and Sha Yulan were on the vehicle!
The three space residents living in the Furious Bears Tribe had all arrived.
Li Yao was dazed and said hurriedly, "What are you doing here?"
Wu Mayan waved his saber and replied, "To fight, of course! Wow. How did Yan Xibei become that?"
Li Yao was angry. "You can come if you insist. But what is Doctor Sha doing here? She won't help the battle at all!"
Sha Yulan combed her hair calmly and smiled. "As I said in the dungeon a few days ago, whoever wants to hurt my husband and my son, I can only fight them until one of us survives.
"Besides—
"If the Temple of Immortals' plot succeeds, the entire Iron Plateau will be mired in the flames of war. I can hide myself right now, but where can I hide myself when all my family members are killed in the war?"
After saying that, Sha Yulan leapt off the single tank. She then took two heavy medication cases out of the tank, while she eyed around and asked, "Where are the heavily wounded?"
Many qi-trainers finally came back to themselves at this moment. They realized that they'd wronged Xiong Wuji a few days ago.
Seeing that he had come to their rescue without caring about the past and that Sha Yulan, a strengthless doctor, had come to the battlefield in person, the warriors of the six-tribes all lowered their heads in embarrassment.
Xiong Wuji took a few steps back to Li Yao's side. He gazed at Yan Xibei and asked solemnly, "What is going on? How did Master Yan Xibei end like this?"
"Long story short."
Li Yao took a deep breath and said quickly, "We are the good guys. Yan Xibei is the bad guy. If you take care of him, you take care of everything."
"Understood!"
Xiong Wuji clenched his fists.
"Little Xiong, it's useless. Give up and stand on my side."
Yan Xibei rubbed dust off his body with his insect limbs and said casually, "You were in the 99th level of the Refinement Stage in your best state, which only equals to the peak of the Building Foundation Stage.
"Besides, you were seriously wounded a few days ago, and your right arm was chopped off. Although you have an artificial arm right now, it remains unknown whether or not you can perform the best of your combat skills.
"After I meld with the apocalyptic body, the top of my combat ability far exceeds the Core Formation Stage!
"My strength is not something you can resist. You are only increasing the number of casualties by fighting against me. Just surrender and stand on my side!"
"Master Yan!"
Xiong Wuji stepped forward and opened his arms. His spiritual gas circled him like a translucent dragon and gradually spread out.
His face tranquil, he said determinedly, "Born in Iron Plateau, die in Iron Plateau. I've heard the eight words more times than I can count since childhood. I even heard them many times from your mouth, too.
"Although I was not born in Iron Plateau, I can always die in Iron Plateau!"
The cold wind was blowing hard on the desert. The best warriors of Iron Plateau of two different generations confronted each other in the devastating sound of storm.
Li Yao gritted his teeth and snuck back to Sha Yulan. "Sister Sha, I still have several cores of apocalyptic beasts. But there are too many impurities in them, and they are not suitable to be made into bombs.
"If I swallow all of them, can you dissolve the spiritual energy contained in the cores with your massage skills and transmit most of it to my heart?"
Sha Yulan was dazed and exclaimed in shock, "What are you trying to do? Unrefined cores of apocalyptic beasts are more volatile than gunpowder. Your body is likely to explode after you swallow them!"
Li Yao grinned. "I will die either when my body explodes or when Yan Xibei crushes me. Just tell me if you can guide the spiritual energy into my heart!"
Sha Yulan hesitated. "Maybe—"
When she said 'maybe', a few bizarre-shaped, fragrant cores of apocalyptic beasts appeared in Li Yao's palm.
Then he craned his neck and devoured all of them.
The Art of the Swallowing Whale was activated!
"Hiss!"
Li Yao's eyes bulged instantly. He felt that his stomach had become a monster paradise where thousands of apocalyptic beasts were galloping on a rampage!
Chapter 623: Mysteries Behind the Blood Stripes |
Li Yao was cramping in pain. His eyes seemed to have become rockets that would rush out of his head at any moment. Hot streams were flooding from his internal organs to his limbs.
Such furious spiritual energy was far beyond his soul's control. It was simply impossible to guide the spiritual energy to his heart!
"Hu! Hu!"
Li Yao breathed heavily, only to discover that the air he exhaled was now a weird color!
I've made it big this time!
Back on Boneyard, to make a quick breakthrough, Li Yao had swallowed tremendous Flowing Brightness Crystals.
However, the Flowing Brightness Crystal was one of the most mild and steady Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. It was not harmful to take them orally without refining.
The cores of the apocalyptic beasts, in comparison, contained a lot of impurities whose components were unclear.
The cores with the fewest impurities had been swallowed by Li Yao long ago and helped him improve from the 77th level of the Refinement Stage to above the 80th.
The cores with more impurities had been refined into super explosive bullets and crystal bombs.
What remained were the few cores that had the most impurities. They were so volatile that they were not suitable to be made into bombs because there was no telling when they would suddenly explode.
Despite his sturdy body built up by the Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining technique and his digestive ability based on the Art of the Swallowing Whale, he found the cores unbearable.
In less than a moment, his abdomen had protruded out. Various forces were raging inside, as if many monsters were about to break out of his body!
At the critical moment, Sha Yulan cast spells silently while she drew different shapes with her hands. Her spiritual energy consolidated into more than ten long needles that were almost transparent and pierced into Li Yao's abdomen softly.
When the long needles entered his body, Li Yao felt that a huge amount of ice had been poured on the volcano inside his stomach. The irritating spiritual energy suddenly calmed down.
Sweat was pouring off Sha Yulan's forehead as she was clearly making the best use of her soul power. She changed the shapes of her hands, while the needles of spiritual energy shivered and eased Li Yao's stomach, glowing brilliantly.
Li Yao felt that a pair of warm hands were rubbing his chest gently and dissolving the spiritual energy bit by bit.
However, the furious spiritual energy was too enormous after all. How much time it would take to fully thaw the cores at such a low speed?
Li Yao's eyes were shaking in pain, while he shouted in his mind, Chief Xiong, buy me some time. Try to buy me some more time! Chat with the old monster. Make small talk and discuss what his feelings were when he set off on the unreturnable path…
The two best warriors of Iron Plateau confronted for a long time, before Xiong Wuji asked solemnly, "Master Yan, I don't understand. With your integrity and your love for Iron Plateau, how did you become a dog of the Temple of Immortals? What benefits did the Temple of Immortals offer you that made you betray your compatriots and your homeland?"
Hooray! Li Yao was almost crying with joy. He wanted to jump up and give Xiong Wuji a big hug.
Yan Xibei sniffed. The interconnecting blood stripes on his face somehow faded. He replied casually, "Little Xiong, you should know what kind of person I am better than anybody else. Is the Temple of Immortals even qualified to make me their dog?
"Alright. If I don't explain everything to you today, it seems that you won't choose to stand on my side at all. I might as well tell you the story as it is!
"When you saw my appearance just now, you must've felt that I was no better looking than a monster. You were probably also baffled as to why I could control the egg of apocalypse and turn myself into a 'calamity-level apocalyptic beast', weren't you?
"Let me ask you first. Do you know what the apocalypse actually is?
"I'm afraid that none of you know the answer!"
Xiong Wuji replied coldly, "The apocalypse that happened on Iron Plateau is probably a 'possession' that a civilization implemented on another civilization. The Titan Warriors are trying to reincarnate themselves inside the human beings' bodies!"
At this moment, Yan Xibei was truly stunned. He stared at Xiong Wuji for a long time and nodded in approval. "Excellent. Excellent, Little Xiong. I didn't know that I still underestimated you. I thought through the whole thing because I had the heritage of the blood stripes. It is quite impressive that you made the conclusion just based on the traces you found in the battles of the apocalypse. Really impressive!
"Possession. Reincarnation. The two words are very precise. In fact, there are probably no words that are more fitting than them!
"Since you already know the truth, a lot of my time can be saved."
Xiong Wuji clenched his fists and raised his voice. "Master Yan, I'm more confused now. If you knew the truth of the apocalypse to be a war that another civilization waged against mankind, why were you involved in such a scheme to make human beings attack each other?"
Except for Li Yao and Sha Yulan, everybody else was perplexed, not knowing what riddles the two of them were speaking.
Yan Xibei smiled and didn't answer immediately. "You were wrong about one thing. It is not the Titan Warriors that are trying to possess us, but the 'Blood Stripe Virus'. The so-called Titan Warriors are merely their puppets."
Xiong Wuji's eyes widened in shock. "Blood Stripe Virus? What is that?"
Yan Xibei pointed at the twisting, erratic stripes that looked like veins on his body and said, "In the Titan Illusionary Land, every Titan Warrior has such continuously changing bloody tattoos.
"Red moss has appeared on the wildings in the Dark Continent, too. After thousands of years of evolution, they will turn into blood stripes that are much clearer.
"When we studied the Titan Warriors before, we thought that the blood stripes were just a unique organ that was used to absorb spiritual energy and communicate with each other!
"We were terribly mistaken!
"Such blood stripes, blood speckles, and blood moss are themselves a life form, a parasite, a highly-developed, intelligent, and yet amorphous species that can only live on other living creatures!
"The Titan Warriors are but their puppets. They are the real planners of the apocalyptic strikes!
"I call such parasites the 'Blood Stripe Virus'. But calling them 'Blood Spirit' or 'Blood Demon' is equally appropriate."
His words rendered everyone on the spot dumbfounded as if they'd been hit by a lightning.
Even Li Yao and Xiong Wuji had never heard of the 'Blood Stripe Virus' before. They looked at each other and swallowed hard. The dense blood stripes all over Yan Xibei's body appeared queerer and eviler now.
Touching the blood stripes on his chest that were protruding like vines, Yan Xibei mumbled, "In the battle of the apocalypse thirty years ago, although I managed to reverse the situation on my own, I was seriously wounded and my Cultivation plunged.
"I tried many methods, but the recovery of my Cultivation was still extremely slow. Eventually, I made up my mind and went to the Dark Continent by myself, hoping to challenge my limits in the harshest environment. I would either die in a battle or make a breakthrough in it!
"After travelling for a year in the Dark Continent, I slew countless demon beasts and fought many times against the wildlings. My Cultivation gradually recovered, too.
"However, after one battle, a weird-looking deadly beast, which had blood speckles all over its body, got its eyes on me.
"The capability, intelligence, and cunningness of the demon beast were far beyond my expectation.
"It was indeed the most perilous battle of my life. I only killed the beast after a whole night of fighting!
"However, the moment the deadly beast died, the weird blood speckles on its body suddenly flew to my legs as if they were alive and dyed my lower body crimson!
"I sensed an extremely uncanny strength inside the blood speckles, which were not only taking over my body but also invading my soul!
"With no other options, I had to grit my teeth and chop off my lower half body. Then I burnt it to ash with the fuel that I carried with me.
"It was not until the blood speckles screamed for more than an hour in the flames that they were completely gone!"
Gasps echoed among the qi-trainers.
Many qi-trainers only knew that Yan Xibei had gone to train in the Dark Continent for several years and came back heavily wounded. Although the wounds were healed, his Cultivation had hit rock bottom, and he was barely capable of anything later.
They hadn't known that he had experienced something so shocking!
Yan Xibei's face was utterly tranquil, as if he was telling a story irrelevant to himself. "I lost my legs, and my Cultivation plummeted. After I returned to the Burning Sun Tribe, I was so frustrated that I abandoned the thought of picking up my Cultivation again. I planned to teach my compatriots and disseminate my knowledge for the rest of my life.
"But I didn't know that my previous slash had not eliminated all the eccentric blood. One drop of the blood moved to my upper half body before I chopped off my legs and had been hiding there ever since.
"It lurked in darkness and waited for its opportunity. Finally, one day, two years later, it started attacking my brain and tried to turn me into its puppet!
"Thankfully, most of the blood had been attached to my legs, which had been separated from me. The remaining strength of the blood was less than one percent of what it should've been.
"When I discovered it, naturally, I spared no soul power to fight against
it!
"I don't need to elaborate on the dangers of the battle. Anyways, after struggling on the sickbed for three days and three nights, I finally defeated the drop of blood, or rather, the 'Blood Stripe Virus'!
"Hehe. It planned to invade my brain and turn me into its puppet. But on the contrary, it was swallowed by me, and I received the essence of its life, which was the knowledge of the Blood Stripe Virus!
"Blood Stripe Virus is a very ancient life form that originated from a faraway foreign constellation billions of years ago!
"As parasites, their bodies are thick fluids that look like drops of blood.
"They hide themselves in meteoroids and float purposelessly in the sea of stars as they look for potential hosts that they can live on.
"The Titan Warriors we saw were initially ancient apes. But they contracted the Blood Stripe Virus and became the best puppets. The symbiosis lasted tens of thousands of years."
Chapter 624: Bloody Evolution! |
"The Blood Stripe Virus stimulated the brains of the ancient apes and induced the formation of basic intelligence. Then, after thousands of years guidance, they gradually endowed the apes with the techniques of absorbing and utilizing spiritual energy!
"As a result, the Titan Warriors became the best bodies and arms for the Blood Stripe Virus to build the civilization that they craved for.
"Other than living on animals, the Blood Stripe Virus can also attach themselves to plants and germs. By transforming rocks with special plants and fungi, they can turn the rocks into the 'eggs of apocalypse' that we've seen.
"After the modification of the plants and the germs, eggs of apocalypse will grow roots that can extend to thousands of meters below the ground where they can absorb the resources from the mother lodes. Countless vesicles will be formed inside the rocks, too, where the resources will be dedicated to transforming the ordinary animals into apocalyptic beasts!
"Apocalyptic beasts are livestock for the Blood Stripe Virus!
"When a batch of 'livestock' grows mature, they will all be released as an egg of apocalypse outbreak. Then, the Titan Warriors would be summoned to fight against the apocalyptic beasts!
