by <unknown>
Sparkle was ready in the deepest part of Heaven's Artillery.
In the preparation room down below the Heaven's Artillery, Li Yao put on the most advance mustard-seed combat suit with Ding Lingdang's help.
The combat suit had adopted the biochemical technology of the Blood Demon Sector. Super tensile synthesized spider threads had been implanted to the critical parts, granting the suit a higher defense ability than the special porcelain plates although it was thin and barely carried any weight. After the suit was broken, the synthesized spider threads would even release a special, sticky material that would block the damage automatically.
Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!
Li Yao punched hundreds of times easily without even breathing any faster. With the force of his fists, the air became twisted and orange, but the extension and tenacity of the mustard-seed combat suit were not lowered at all.
Sensing spiritual energy flowing in and out of the super tiny fiber holes on the combat suit, Li Yao calculated in silence for a moment and then smiled. He was very satisfied with the new material.
As he had been told, the mustard-seed combat suit boasted a unique technique to block and stabilize spiritual energy by adjusting the fiber holes automatically. The Cultivators would be able to find the most optimal way to manipulate their spiritual energy and reduce the necessary cost, thereby extending the duration of their combat ability in a battle.
Li Yao estimated that the combat suit would extend his fighting duration by at least ten percent. Also, the air circulation system and temperature adjustment system in the mustard-seed level were most suitable for outer space where the temperature difference was huge. It truly deserved to be a super combat suit that was even more expensive than a crystal suit!
For the Kunlun mission, the entire world of Cultivators spared no efforts. It was needless to say that the three Cultivators who were the first batch to go to Kunlun brought out their best equipment. Even other Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were all generous enough to provide their own collections. The mustard-seed combat suit was the most common one of them.
Li Yao examined the magical equipment that he was carrying again and could not help but feel that he had been armed to the hair on his legs!
He was the captain of Sparkle and boasted dual talents in fighting and refining, which allowed him to perform maintenance on starships and star beacons in emergencies. Naturally, it was only reasonable that he was in the first echelon.
Other than him, the second member of the team was the Fire Ant King.
The Fire Ant King was a demon emperor himself with remarkable combat ability. But more importantly, he was one of the best specialists in regard of the refinement of demonic plants in the Blood Demon Sector. In his decades of life as the leader of the Blade of Chaos, he had profoundly researched cytology and genetics.
Also, over the past decades, he had developed countless relics of Chaos, which proved him to be a qualified, if not distinguished, archeologist, or rather, a grave robber!
Also, Ba Yanzhi was deeply associated with the Pangu civilization. There was even a corpse of the Pangu Clan inside Ba Yanzhi's Mausoleum of Chaos. The corpse was now in the Fire Ant King's hands, and he had been researching on it for a while.
The Fire Ant King's understanding of Ba Yanzhi and the Pangu civilization was better than most Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators', perhaps even Li Yao's. It was only reasonable that he was the second explorer of the team.
The third member of the team was Professor Mo Xuan.
Compared to Li Yao and the Fire Ant King, Professor Mo Xuan's combat ability was little to none, but his special body of liquid metal endowed him with excellent self-protection abilities. He could always run away if the enemy was too strong for him!
In fact, the biggest reason that he had been selected was not related to the relic of the Pangu civilization itself but the Imperium of True Human Beings.
In the battle to suppress the riot of the Immortal Cultivators, Professor Mo Xuan and the other four star spirits had broken into Xiao Xuance's flagship and devoured tremendous computational ability from the star child. They had a preliminary understanding about the crystal processor system of the Imperium of True Human Beings. In the years that followed, they had also developed several techniques that resembled the viruses on the crystal processors.
Once the team was engaged with the Immortal Cultivators from the Imperium of True Human Beings, Professor Mo Xuan's viruses might prove to have amazing effects!
Besides, Professor Mo Xuan was a special spectral Cultivator with a unique form. He was weightless. Not just him, even the other four star spirits, who were Li Yao's four senior brothers, known as the 'Four Kings' of the Refining Department of the Grand Desolate War Institution in the old days, could be brought to the trip!
The four of them had already been melded with Sparkle back when they were in the Flying Star Sector. After so many years of training, their skills in maneuvering the starship had become even more adept. They did not need any more crew members to exploit the most potential of Sparkle!
In such a case, while the four star spirits collected the astronomical parameters near Kunlun on Sparkle and cleared the sailing routes and the landing point, Li Yao and the other two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators would be able to explore Kunlun simultaneously. A lot of time could be saved.
The three main members of the exploration team all boasted abilities in multiple areas. They had cooperated with each other many times before, too, and their teamwork was flawless. Very soon, all the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators agreed with the arrangement.
"I'm sorry. I'm leaving again after only several months of peace at home!"
While Li Yao was trying to hold back his eagerness, he suddenly thought of his wife. He scratched his head and said to Ding Lingdang, somewhat awkwardly, "You won't blame me, right?"
Ding Lingdang chuckled and bashed his chest hard. "Enough already. Stop being pretentious. I know you better than anybody else. You have been itching for an adventure, haven't you? We are not home people at all. Why would I blame you?"
Li Yao was greatly moved. He held Ding Lingdang's hands and said solemnly, "I'll be back!"
"Of course. If you don't come back, I will drag you back from Kunlun myself!"
Li Yao and the rest of them were just the vanguard to deploy star beacons, clear the sailing routes, and scout for the main force to come.
The real main face would go to Kunlun on Burning Prairie. Ding Lingdang, as an enthusiastic warrior, certainly would not miss out on such an opportunity.
She was rubbing her fists, too, and could not wait to jump to Kunlun. Therefore, she understood Li Yao's feelings quite well.
Both of them were the most passionate Cultivators. Instead of an emotional farewell, they talked and laughed and left the preparation room for the magical equipment maintenance room next door.
The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, which had been fully upgraded—or rather, rebuilt from scratch with the best technologies of the three Sectors—was the most important magical equipment for the mission. It was now undergoing its final tests!
The most distinguished Armadominus of the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Flying Star Sector were gathered around the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit and adjusting every tiny parameter, trying to make it perfect and flawless.
Li Yao triggered the surveillance light beam and read all the parameters. He was quite amazed by the significant improvement of the specifications. The world of refining truly had no end. Before, he had thought that the potential of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit had been fully exploited. It had never occurred to him that the crystal suit could still be improved so much.
The brand-new Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit had maintained the translucent black as the main color, but dark golden streaks were embedded to the black armor like the majestic stripes on a tiger.
Therefore, the crystal suit had been named as Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, Dark Flame Gold!
On the surface, the Mystic Skel
eton Battlesuit, Dark Flame Gold was not very different from the past. Its greatest feature was that a Cosmos Ring had been embedded to the shoulders, chest, back and legs. A lot of components were stored inside the Cosmos Rings.
With a telepathic thought, Li Yao could retrieve tremendous components from the Cosmos Rings at any time and restrain them through the force field, thereby changing the form of the crystal suit.
From the high mobility mode, in which the crystal suit was streamlined and fastest, to the melee mode, in which the crystal suit was covered in daggers and thorns from head to toe, to the heavy firepower mode, which included more than a hundred Six-Barreled Vulcan Machine Cannons… The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, Dark Flame Gold could change between five different modes freely. It was very adaptive to any battlefield and was an out-and-out all-purpose crystal suit!
Li Yao was very satisfied with the crystal suit. The only shortcoming was that, since the flying sword that covered Little Black was broken, there was no place to keep Little Black on the new Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.
He felt a little uncomfortable about that.
Thinking about that, Li Yao summoned Little Black from his Cosmos Ring again.
The little guy that looked like a fat meatball had been eating and sleeping throughout the past months. It had devoured a lot of crystals every day, and after it was full, it would either go back to the Cosmos Ring to sleep or floated in midair in a daze.
In the past, Black Wing could at least rush fast. After the seal was removed, it could not do anything anymore. Even when it was flying, it was so lazy that it seemed to be wriggling.
Having no other choice, Li Yao could only let it do whatever it wanted. After all, he was rich enough to feed the little guy right now.
"Little Black, do you still remember the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit? In the past, you liked to melt into the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit and fight with me best! Take a look. Can you still melt into it?" Li Yao asked expectantly.
Outside his expectations, the black meatball extended a few tentacles and touched the crystal suit before they shook and retreated lazily.
Judging from its uninterested response, the super crystal suit that had adopted the best technology of the federation was not something to be appreciated for Little Black!
Chapter 1217: The World Is Ours! |
"What's the meaning of this? Is the crystal suit not good enough for you?"
Li Yao found it rather curious. The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, Dark Flame Gold was definitely the strongest crystal suit of the three Sectors right now, but Black Wing did not care for it at all. Was it possible that Black Wing had seen better crystal suits before?
Where was the little fat guy from exactly?
Li Yao jabbed on its body here and there in great interest.
Black Wing grunted like a dissatisfied fat puppy before it slithered back into the Cosmos Ring to sleep.
Li Yao scratched his head and looked at the second crystal suit.
The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, Dark Flame Gold was perfect except for one great shortcoming. Since Cosmos Rings had been embedded to the crystal suit, and Cosmos Rings could not be stored within other Cosmos Rings to avoid the conflict of the four-dimensional space, all the Cosmos Rings embedded to the crystal suit had to be removed first and carried by Li Yao personally before the crystal suit was stored.
On a battlefield, after retrieving the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, Dark Flame Gold from the Cosmos Ring, Li Yao would have to implant the rest of the Cosmos Rings on the crystal suit in order to maximize its performance.
As a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, Li Yao boasted immense soul power now, and he was deft at remote manipulation. However, after practicing thousands of times, he found that the whole process would still take him two to three seconds, which was basically the same as the time cost of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, Blood Demon Form, his last main crystal suit.
For a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, in an ever-changing battlefield, a time of two to three seconds to put on a crystal suit was too long. The enemy would definitely be able to launch a critical strike in advance.
Therefore, Li Yao prepared a backup crystal suit, which was a general Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit refined out of the best Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures!
Of course, the specifications of the general version were not as incredible as the Dark Flame Gold, but the advantage was that it could be put on extremely fast. It could be retrieved from the Cosmos Ring in a quarter of a second and be ready to fight in another quarter of a second!
If the battle was expected and he had enough time to put on his crystal suit, he would use the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, Dark Flame Gold, but if it was an unexpected encounter or assault, he would put on the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, General Version and look for an opportunity to perform an air change later!
Li Yao's eyes soon passed the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, General Version and stopped at a third crystal suit in the corner.
The first two crystal suits had been handled by the specialists of crystal suits led by Professor Mo Xuan, but the third crystal suit had been modified by him personally. Almost every detail was carefully considered and carved.
Out of everyone's expectations, the crystal suit that Li Yao had chosen to modify himself was not a powerful combat suit but a low-level engineering crystal suit from the Flying Star Sector known as 'Rockman'.
The Rockman was a general-purpose engineering crystal suit that played an important role in the modification of asteroids or the maintenance of starships. It was simple in structure, reliable in performance, and cheap. Also, it could be combined with a lot of combat units and turned into a half-armed crystal suit. It was one of the most popular crystal suits for the normal citizens of the Flying Star Sector in both work and daily life.
When Li Yao first entered the Flying Star Sector, he had once fought the Storm Prison Pirate Gang with a 'Rockman'.
When the Flying Star Sector reinforced the Heaven's Origin Sector, they had brought a number of 'Rockman' suits over. Later, maintenance factories and assembly lines had been established in the Heaven's Origin Sector, and the Rockman Engineering Crystal Suits had been manufactured on a large scale.
The particular Rockman that Li Yao had modified, however, was not the latest model produced in the federation but an original antique from the Flying Star Sector, an old-fashioned model from more than fifty years ago. It was full of bumps, dents, and patches, and it appeared to be falling apart.
But Li Yao felt that it was not good enough. He attached a layer of vivid rust to the surface of the crystal suit and even sprayed the soil and dust of the Flying Star Sector on the gaps of the crystal suit.
Even the mainframe crystal processor of the Rockman was an old product that had been used for more than thirty years. Tremendous work logs inside the crystal processor proved that the Rockman had been sold almost ten times and that its every master was either a starship technician or the bottom-level soldier in a carrier or a guard in a certain world fragment. All in all, the unimportant Mr. Nobodies.
"Li Yao!"
Guo Chunfeng, his old friend and the new director of the Secret Sword Bureau, was standing next to the Rockman.
"The crystal suit is done. The logs have all been fabricated according to your ideas. We have worked with friends from the Flying Star Sector and collected authentic logs. Every detail has been considered. There can't be any loophole in them."
Guo Chunfeng patted the shoulder of the Rockman carefully, only to find that his hands were covered in rust, and he frowned. "However, just don't fight in the Rockman. This is pure garbage. A high-speed movement of the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator is more than enough to rip it apart in midair!"
While speaking, Guo Chunfeng handed over a Cosmos Ring. "The rest of the things that you wanted, including… the feces of different dates, are all inside. They are quite difficult to find. I do wonder what you are up to this time!"
"What else can he be up to?" Ding Lingdang
said. "Some other shameless tricks that will trap the Immortal Cultivators miserably, for sure!"
Li Yao smiled and took the Cosmos Ring. He thanked Guo Chunfeng and explained, "Nothing really important. I just feel that our greatest advantage right now is intelligence. The enemy is in the daylight while we are in the darkness. We know more than the Immortal Cultivators do.
"For the Immortal Cultivators, the only thing that they know is the incomplete coordinates of the Flying Star Sector that the star child sent. They can only infer that a civilization of human beings is inside the Flying Star Sector at best.
"But this is not the Flying Star Sector but the nearby of the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector. They only sensed that the two Sectors are melting and have therefore come for reconnaissance.
"The Immortal Cultivators do not know that civilizations of human beings that allow the birth of Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators exist, too, in the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector. They do not know that the Heaven's Origin Sector, the Flying Star Sector, and the Blood Demon Sector have joined hands against them, either.
"I feel that it's a point worth taking advantage of. As for exactly how I can take advantage of it, I haven't figured it out yet, but I'll keep everything prepared first in case of a rainy day!"
While talking, Professor Mo Xuan and the Fire Ant King showed up from the preparation rooms nearby.
Li Yao was quite amused by Professor Mo Xuan's new appearance.
Professor Mo Xuan's real body was the liquid metal. He often walked in a human-shaped artificial body. But this time, he had chosen an artificial body that was round with countless extensible metal tentacles, making himself look like both an octopus and a jellyfish. He floated in midair with spiritual energy and could not have looked weirder.
"Professor, you do look like a villain in the movies now!" Li Yao could not help but chuckle.
