by <unknown>
The leader's eyes were as thick as the venom retrieved from the teeth of a viper. He said calmly, "Judging from his reactions during his escape, Bloody Vulture is a prudent, calm man.
"Also, as an explosion expert, he has to deal with crystal bombs that are extremely precise every day. One moment of carelessness, and he will be blown into pieces. Therefore, it is impossible that he is a reckless man.
"Then, why was such a calm man involved in a conflict with Nie Feijun in the Dancing Phoenix Pavilion in the first place?"
"Many people have confirmed that it was Nie Feijun who demanded that his knees be broken and his teeth be plucked first," Yin She explained. "Even the calmest person would burst into fury when they ran into something like that, not to mention a brutal bandit who has zero respect for life."
"No. I was not talking about that." The leader shook his head slowly and said, "I was talking about him harassing the waitress of the Dancing Phoenix Pavilion half-drunk before that.
"It is a basic skill of survival for a space pirate to notice their surroundings. As a lone wolf, it is all the more important for him to observe the environment he is in.
"As you said, he was a very calm space pirate who acted on his own. When he came to a place like the Dancing Phoenix Pavilion, he should have known that it was not a random hotel where he could horse around and that he would be in trouble if he did.
"Then why did he horse around anyway?
"That is why I'm suspicious about him. I think that harassing the waitress does not fit the calmness that he demonstrated later!"
Yin She smiled. He thought for a moment and replied, "Big brother, I never like to use the word 'coincidence', but what happened might really be just a coincidence.
"After the assassination, we found that the nest of Niu Youyi, a black market merchant in the center of Silver Wing City, had been blown up earlier. The traces of explosion were very similar to the methods Bloody Vulture showed later."
The leader of the Split Sun Pirate Gang sneered, "Niu Youyi? The scumbag who liked to rob other space pirates finally had his karma!
"I assume that Bloody Vulture went to Niu Youyi to purchase magical equipment, but the merchant had ill intentions and played dirty tricks again, only to piss off someone he should not have pissed off and be slain mercilessly!
"However, what does it have to do with my suspicion?"
"Your assumption is right. Our preliminary analysis is that Bloody Vulture went to buy magical equipment from Niu Youyi since he was new to the place. In the end, Niu Youyi was killed by Bloody Vulture when he planned to rob him," Yin She explained. "Bloody Vulture must have sacked his shop by the way.
"Bloody Vulture made a fortune after looting Niu Youyi. It was only reasonable for him to enjoy himself in the most luxurious hotel of Silver Wing City."
"Enjoyment was reasonable," the leader observed coldly, "but harassing the waitress was reckless."
Yin She blinked and said, "It would've been reckless if he were sober, but it was nothing odd when he had drunk an entire bottle of 'Drunk Deity'.
"Big Brother, you also know that 'Drunk Deity' is a popular refined wine in the Flying Star Sector. It is made of 'Drunk Deity Vine', a valuable Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure, as well as dozens of other herbs. It is said that the wind can cleanse the veins, refresh the soul, and even improve one's Cultivation!
"Naturally, after having 'Drunk Deity', he lost control of himself when his blood boiled and his nerves were excited. Even an expert in the Core Formation Stage might find it unbearable, not to mention a Building Foundation Stage one.
"The 'Drunk Deity' wine in the outside world is mostly made of the powder of the Drunk Deity Vine, or even counterfeits that are other vine-type herbs. Such wine is absolutely useless!
"In comparison, the Drunk Deity wine that the Dancing Phoenix Pavilion provided is brewed by the hotel itself. It is the unique feature of the hotel and one of the best Drunk Deity wines in the entire Flying Star Sector!
"We estimate that Bloody Vulture must've had a lot of Drunk Deity wine in space and thus did not think too much of it. Therefore, he ordered a bottle with no concern when he reached the Dancing Phoenix Pavilion.
"He must've regarded the Drunk Deity wine here as the lousy wine he drank in space. He didn't know that the Drunk Deity wine would be so potent!
"Also, the biggest feature of the Drunk Deity wine is that it is sweet and tastes as smooth as silk. There will not be the slightest hinderance. The wine will only take effect one to two hours later.
"Captain, look, this is the surveillance video we stole from the Dancing Phoenix Pavilion, and Bloody Vulture's order clearly listed that it was Drunk Deity he demanded.
"This is the picture at the first few hours of his drinking. It is obvious that he is drinking the Drunk Deity wine.
"He was indeed calm and stayed alert in the beginning. He was looked around warily while he was drinking.
"However, as he drank more and more wine and finished the entire bottle, he was no longer the master of himself when the wine took effect!
"His harassment of the waitress and his encounter with Nie Feijun both happened after that.
"Therefore, everything should be a coincidence."
The leader frowned. "I don't like the word 'should'. Can you find the files of the crimes Bloody Vulture committed in space?"
"That will be tricky." Yin Shen opened his hands helplessly. "In the dozens of space zones, thousands of Cultivation sects, and millions of space towns, who knows what case he did in which town? Such desperadoes are the most careful with their tongue. They will never tell other people what they did. Otherwise, other people might threaten them with the information someday.
"The more skilled an expert is, the more secrets they have. We are now in desperate need of hands. If we only employ people after we fully vet their ancestors, they will all join Bai Xinghe's side!
"After all, we are only hiring him for battles. He will never touch our top secrets. I think our investigation is good enough."
"You do have a point. Observe him in secret for another three days. If everything is alright, ask him to take part in the operation in three days' time!"
The leader pondered for a moment and turned on another light beam.
It was the picture of Li Yao at exactly that moment, taken from a very weird angle.
Lying on his bed, with his hands as the pillow, Li Yao was whispering a weird song, as if he had no idea that such an inconspicuous camera was hidden in his room.
Neither the leader nor the advisor knew that Li Yao was whispering a song from a different world named 'Forty Millenniums of Cultivation'.
…
Li Yao lay on his bed comfortably. The terrible wounds on his chest had been treated with an ointment, and he had done some recovery training with the facilities provided by the Split Sun Pirate Gang.
Thus, he could focus his attention on the current situation.
With the information that Niu Youyi provided, he had basically understood the status of the major pirate gangs in Silver Wing City and found a suitable target.
Then, he went to the Dancing Phoenix Pavilion and had a whole bottle of the Drunk Deity Wine, making an excuse for his rashness and the assassination resulting from his recklessness.
Up until now, everything went quite smooth. He had been hired by the Split Sun Pirate Gang as he had planned.
Working as a mercenary instead of joining the Split Sun Pirate Gang was a choice that could not be helped.
Standing in the middle of the competition between Bai Xinghe and Fengyu Zhong, two brutal bandits, was like struggling to survive between two great swirls. One would be smashed into pieces if they were imprudent for one moment.
Even though the leader of the Split Sun Pirate Gang was a moron, Li Yao did not dare to underestimate Fengyu Zhong's wisdom. During the head-on clash with Fengyu Zhong in the periphery of the Iron Plateau Space Zone, the traps that he had set up were seen through by Fengyu Zhon
g multiple times. The old, cunning fox had an intuitional sense of danger.
If Li Yao acted in a hurry to join the Split Sun Pirate Gang and get in touch with the core secrets, even a pig would know that there was something wrong with him, not to mention Fengyu Zhong!
The identity of a mercenary could maintain his independency and help him avoid the most thorough investigations.
The identity of an 'explosions expert', on the other hand, was both a disguise and the best role to reach the center of the competition.
Li Yao believed that, for such a large-scale battle in such a complicated terrain as Spider Den, an explosions expert was definitely an indispensable figure.
As long as he can proved himself to be an out-and-out explosions expert, there would certainly be a vast stage for him to show off. Later, he would be able to influence the outcome of the battle to some degree and make Spider Den an even more chaotic place than right now!
Soon, I will have to prove my 'value'!
Li Yao had knocked open the door of the Split Sun Pirate Gang with Nie Feijun's head. A lot of other space pirates would die at his hands in future, too.
But he did not hesitate at all.
Both the Split Sun and the Wild Tide were among the top twenty pirate gangs on Spider Den.
On the wanted list that the major Cultivation sects provided, the crimes they had committed were recorded in great detail. They were all wicked criminals and deserved death penalties.
Nie Feijun, who had been killed by him earlier, had once hijacked nine carriers in a row in the Flowing Flower Space Zone, and to prevent the news from leaking out, he slew every crew member on board after he looted the carriers!
It was just one of the insignificant crimes that the space pirates committed.
After all, the space pirates—be they part of the Split Sun or the Wild Tide, be they on Fengyu Zhong's side or on Bai Xinghe's side, and whether they followed the rules on the surface or completely disregarded them—were merely demon beasts wearing human skin.
No. Demon beasts fought against human beings due to natural instincts and for their own survival.
The space pirates, in comparison, were mostly strong Cultivators themselves. Yet, they forgot the responsibilities on their shoulders and did things that were even worse than the demon beasts' actions!
This is why I like Spider Den.
In this place, there are no innocent souls under my saber. Every scumbag I kill is revenge for the endless restless ghosts in space!
I can kill anybody blatantly without caring about anything!"
Chapter 722: Li Yao's Methods |
Three days later, in a secondary mining hole hundreds of meters in diameter on the east side of Silver Wing City…
After hundreds of years of construction, this place had been built into a minor maintenance dock for starships.
The vertical wells led to the ground and up into the bright purple sky. The small assault starships no longer than a hundred meters could be maintained and launched into space by the helical ejection rune arrays deployed on the wall of the mining hole. It was safer and more confidential than to have the starship maintained in the orbit of the planet, and such a way often consumed less fuel.
Right now, an assault starship was being maintained inside the dock.
Countless mechanics were crawling up and down under the command of refiners. Sparks were bursting out everywhere. It was quite a lively scene.
Suddenly—
Dozens of ceramic balls that contained flashing rune arrays were tossed into the place from the tunnels in various directions. They exploded in midair consecutively and constituted a dazzling array of brightness, dying the dock pure white.
Everybody could see nothing except whiteness. They could only hear furious roars,
"The Split Sun Pirate Gang is doing our job here. Lie low if you don't want to get killed!"
Hundreds of ferocious space pirates lunged out of the shadows of the mining pits.
They had put on their crystal suits a long time ago, and their crystal cameras were installed with a special protection membrane. Therefore, they were not affected by the flash bangs while they charged at the important locations.
A brutal combat instantly began!
Over the past three days, a lot of space pirates of the Split Sun Pirate Gun had returned from Heavenly Saints City to Spider Den and regrouped. The leader of the gang, with the support of Fengyu Zhong, also summoned a lot of resources and recruited new subordinates on Spider Den. Countless brutal bandits had joined his cause. Therefore, his attack right now was much fiercer than the one three days ago!
In the blink of an eye, the front side of the dock was wreathed in flames.
Outside the main battlefield, where it seemed quiet, Li Yao started his attack, too.
He was wearing a grey, light crystal suit that had ancillary wings made of the skins of demon beasts behind the arms and the legs. When they were opened together, the crystal suit would look like a giant bat.
The mining holes, which could easily be thousands of meters deep, often had chaotic vertical air currents. With such ancillary wings, the air currents could be made best use of to make the crystal suit even more mysterious and unpredictable.
The crystal suit was named 'Drunk Bat'. It was a special crystal suit built for the unique environment of Spider Den. The difficulty in operating it was quite high, too.
Swoosh!
After putting on the Drunk Bat Battlesuit, Li Yao seemed to have really turned into a bat that had drunk too much wine. While everybody's attention was focused on the main battlefield, he slipped into the dock without alarming anyone.
Beep! Beep!
Right then, the crystal processor of the Drunk Bat Battlesuit displayed that it had detected a hostile expert named Gui Feng, the deputy captain of the assault team of the Wild Tide Pirate Gang!
The crystal processor immediately displayed all the information regarding Gui Feng in the database, including several of his battle videos.
It was said that the man was in the middle level of the Building Foundation Stage and adept in wind-class spiritual energy. He also had a piece of air-controlling magical equipment in his possession that could compress the air into invisible 'air blades' and kill people in a breath!
While the files were blinking on Li Yao's light beam, some other bloodstained information popped up in Li Yao's brain, too.
Space pirate Gui Feng was wanted by more than five hundred space towns. His bounty on the wanted list of space pirates published by Heavenly Saints City ranked in the top thousand, too. More than twenty bloody cases in space were associated with him based on solid evidence.
Li Yao sneered. The information streams of the bloody cases seemed to have turned into magma and flooded into his legs. His speed was further accelerated. With the help of the chaotic air currents, he blinked and split off into seven clones, which all lunged at Gui Feng simultaneously!
As a seasoned space pirate, Gui Feng had keen senses. When the dock was breached from the front, he had immediately focused his attention on the rear part.
Hardly had Li Yao's seven clones appeared when he triggered almost twenty air blades quietly and slashed them over. In the meantime, he raised four spiritual shields in front of him!
However, although his spiritual shields could resist Li Yao's physical attack, they could not block Li Yao's telepathic thoughts!
One of Li Yao's telepathic thoughts was condensed to the size of a mustard seed and pierced through Gui Feng's spiritual shields, through his crystal suit, and into his brain without any trouble.
Then, it exploded brutally!
It was a method of mental attack that Li Yao had invented himself. He called it a terror bomb.
Li Yao's expertise in mental attacks was based on Hellsword's 'Hellsword Arts'.
However, the structure of his mental power was totally different from Hellsword's.
His soul was much more solid, but it was not as mysterious and erratic as
Hellsword's.
Li Yao had tried learning all of the methods of mental attack from Hellsword, but the outcome of the training had not been satisfactory.
He had thought hard for a long time. Then one day, it suddenly occurred to him that he could simulate the mechanism of crystal bombs.
At first, he would compress a telepathic thought that stored immense mental power into a tiny bomb with his ultra-solid soul. Then, he blew the telepathic thought into the enemy's brain at a high speed and detonated it brutally there!
Such an approach to mental attacks was much less mysterious and unpredictable, but it was rough and straightforward!
For a moment, the thousands of information streams stored inside the telepathic thought exploded inside Gui Feng's brain like a real bomb!
Gui Feng's eyes blinked. He fell into a world of illusions knitted by Li Yao carefully. He felt that he was placed in the middle of a furnace whose walls were as smooth as a mirror. Endless fire was crowding in and setting him in an eternal furnace of doom!
"Ah!"
Such illusions were even more terrifying than the thousands of ghosts that Hellsword created. Gui Feng was soaked in sweat, even though he was a brutal bandit who had committed countless murders.
Not good. He's an expert in mental attacks!
Stimulated by his cold sweat, Gui Feng came back to himself instantly. The world of illusions collapsed like a sand tower in a blowing wind, but in the world of reality—
His heart had been stabbed through by Li Yao's saber!
Li Yao's spiritual energy surged out. Real flames burst out and burnt Gui Feng's heart into ashes with a breath!
…
"The attack is not going well."
In the shadow of the mining hole, the leader of the Split Sun Pirate Gang and Yin She, his advisor, were monitoring the entire battlefield.
His newly-recruited subordinates were mostly mobs that had been summoned hastily not long ago. They had only trained with each other several times in the virtual world.
The dock used to belong to the Split Sun Pirate Gang, but after the Wild Tide Pirate Gang took it over, a series of modification had been carried out, and countless hidden forts and firing points had been added. Now that their attack was organized according to the old map, naturally, they suffered heavy casualties.
