Forty millenniums of cul.., p.167
Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 167
Underground, in the preparation room.
Before each match, the participants were given a secret room to warm up and adjust themselves.
They could also watch the brilliant performances of other students through screens.
Li Yao was doing push-ups, not on the ground, but on the ceiling.
Like a giant lizard, he attached himself to the few gaps on the ceiling that were thinner than his air with the strength of his fingers and toes, which allowed him to do the unimaginable 'upside-down push-ups'.
"Tick tack. Tick tack."
Li Yao's sweats flowed in the hollows between his sharply cut muscles and congregated on his spine, before they dropped to the ground where a small lake was formed.
"122, 123…"
Li Yao felt he was not enjoying himself enough. He jumped down and looked around. Several dumbbells that weighed a couple of hundred kilograms caught his attention. He bound them to his waist, leaped back to the ceiling, and continued his upside-down push-ups.
"124, 125… 327… 431…"
This was what Mao Feng saw when he entered the room.
He was stupefied for a second, before he retreated quietly.
Outside the room, he took a deep breath and rubbed his face hard to change the surprise on it into fury.
He re-entered the room and screamed at the top of his voice,
"Li Yao, what are you—"
Li Yao jumped down and walked before Mao Feng. He looked at Mao Feng straight in the eyes and asked carefully, "Chief instructor, may I propose a minor revision?"
Chapter 240: Way Too Presumptuous |
Mao Feng was dazed and his anger burst out.
"A minor revision?
"For a man with zero talent such as yourself, who has hardly made any progress in training over the last month, what makes you think that you're qualified to propose a revision?
"It'll be your turn very soon. Your opponent is a super strong man. I have no doubt that you will be crushed and driven out of Thunder Training Camp in a minute!
"What revision could possibly help you after that?"
Li Yao pretended that he didn't hear anything. He said calmly, "This is exactly what I'm talking about. Chief Instructor, would you please stop talking such garbage? It's really wasting my time."
Mao Feng's eyes went as wide as those of a bull.
"What?!"
Li Yao answered peacefully, "Chief Instructor, if you have studied my profile before, you should be aware that I hadn't touched a crystal suit until a month ago and I knew nothing about this incredible new world.
"I'm not a moron.
"At first, you were pissed off and declared that I had no talent whatsoever in using crystal suits after you saw my heartbreaking performance, and I bought it.
"But later, as I grew more familiar with crystal suits and knew more about properties of the different models, it occurred to me that there should have been something wrong with the Seven-step Rock Snake I'd driven. Your attitude had been weird after the accident, too.
"So, yesterday afternoon, I specially spared 17 minutes and 24 seconds to analyze the whole thing in retrospect.
"My conclusion was that there's a 97% likelihood that, because of the extraordinary gift that I showed in the crystal suit, you were impressed and decided to impose an unusual training methodology upon me.
"You fire me up perversely and, by making advantage of my indomitable spirit, you devised a series of impossible tasks which accelerated my dramatic growth.
"In fact, I'm not half as lousy as you claimed. On the contrary, I'm very awesome, am I not?"
Mao Feng was rendered speechless for a long time.
Li Yao continued, "Goading someone into action by sarcasm is an old strategy. I should've seen it through long time ago.
"However, the world of crystal suits is too tempting for me to let go. I only wish that I could devote every second that I have to the mysteries of crystal suits.
"That's the reason why, although I have long felt something wasn't right, I never took the time to investigate the matter.
"Until yesterday, when I ran some calculations.
"Over the past 30 days, you've spent 12 minutes and 37 seconds on average each day to verbally abuse me, hoping to evoke my ambition through ridicule.
"The 12 minutes and 37 seconds were a complete waste of time in my eyes.
"My ambition had already arrived at peak without any stimulation.
"So, if I were to spend the 12 minutes and 37 seconds on training, I would've been able to cover two more subjects and increase my ability by up to 0.05%.
"That's why I decided to make it clear to you.
"I'm different from other people. Please don't view me as someone ordinary, and please stop wasting our time with that trash talk.
"If you are really of a mind to torture me, please arrange training subjects that are more difficult, crazier, and more insane for me, instead of just trying to intimidate me with your mouth.
"That's all I have to say. Excuse me, I'm about to go on stage now, Chief Instructor."
Li Yao nodded and walked out of the room.
Mao Feng was completely bewildered. He stood alone in the room for a long time. His face turned from red to purple, purple to black, and in the end his face was so gloomy that it seemed as if some ink would spill out at any moment.
"BOOM!"
Mao Feng stamped on his foot and the floor was immediately shattered.
"Boy, that is way too presumptuous!" the chief instructor Mao Feng screamed horribly.
…
In the long and narrow aisle, Li Yao turned on his crystal processor and read the profile of his opponent while he was walking.
Unluckily, he was paired with the No. 9.
Most of the top 10 students had abundant Exo experience. Many of them were even battlesuit majors from famous universities.
No. 9, whose name was Zhou Zhenghao, had an unknown background. But according to his profile, he was an expert in the 10th level of the Refinement Stage.
Crystal suits could only enhance the user's original combat ability, which was more important than the enhancement.
Now that the opponent was three levels higher than Li Yao, he could crush Li Yao as easy as pie, even if the two of them were equally skilled at operating their battlesuits.
There wouldn't even be a slim chance of winning, unless his skills were far better than those of his opponent.
The strength of his opponent filled Li Yao's eyes with joy.
Li Yao walked towards the crystal suit warehouse as he thought, 'Very good.
'This is my first real battle in a crystal suit.
'It's great that I've been blessed with such a strong opponent.'
Since the latter half of the hundred students were less experienced than the former half, to ensure fairness of the elimination match, they were allowed to wait until their opponent had picked a crystal suit before they got to pick their own. It was believed that such arrangements could somewhat reduce the gap between the two contenders.
Very soon, No. 9's choice was displayed on the crystal processor — Thunder Axe Battlesuit.
Thunder Axe Battlesuit was a super-heavy crystal suit, 2.65 meters tall, weighing 13.21 tons. It was the most titanic and cumbersome crystal suit among all the low-level ones provided by the training camp.
Of course, it boasted a large arsenal, too.
The Honeycomb Flying Sword System on its shoulder had 360 tiny flying swords on board. The four Thunder Axes on the outside of its arms and legs could deal incomparable damage, too.
Thunder Axe Battlesuit was muscular men's all-time favorite. As long as the wearer had enough strength, the crystal suit would become a walking guillotine.
"It seems that No. 9 is going to be a husky fellow.
"A husky man in the 10th level of the Refinement Stage now has the Thunder Axe Battlesuit on him. It's really blood-freezing!
"Which suit should I pick to fight him?"
Li Yao's face was wrapped in a mixture of craziness, obsession, enjoyment, and excitement.
Like a young man going on a date with his girlfriend, an assassin who was prepared to avenge his father, a serpent that had locked onto its prey in some dark woods, and a boy who'd just found a new game and was exploring the rules of it.
Soon, his eyes started shining.
The young man was on bed with his girlfriend, the assassin jumped down from the beam of the house, the serpent charged towards its prey with its glaring poison fangs, and the boy found out the trick of the game and moved on to the next level, grinning in great satisfaction.
Li Yao picked a crystal suit without any hesitation. The exhaust flame of the suit lit up the sky, and he flew towards the arena.
…
Many students were paying close attention to this elimination match, especially the winners from previous matches, who wouldn't let go of such a rare opportunity and gathered together in order to watch the live show from the screen.
They were all here for No. 9.
Although the 99 students except Li Yao had been studying under different instructors, now and then there would be group training sessions in which they would be summoned together. Therefore, they all knew a thing or two about the others' progress.
No. 9, or the former Zhou Zhenghao, was one of the toughest men among all the students.
Not only had he been endowed with great talent, he was also crazy about training. People often noticed that he was doing training at midnight.
One time, when he had an accident during training and broke four of his ribs, he took no rest and resumed training after some simple treatment from the med bay.
Instead of reducing the amount of training, he added another 20%, claiming that he needed to make up for the time he lost in the med bay.
Therefore, No. 9 had received the nickname "steel man"!
He was one of the best Exos among the muscular-type Exos. After he put on a super-heavy crystal suit such as the Thunder Axe Battlesuit, even Long Qianyue and Yuan Yeshi would need to pay full attention knowing they couldn't be too careful.
A match such a tough man was participating in was definitely worth watching!
The only regret was that his opponent was too weak.
Many people clearly remembered what happened on Li Yao's debut, and he had vanished into thin air ever since then.
It was told that his talents were so limited that he had to receive specially designed fundamental training.
Such a newbie would probably be blown away by the 'steel man' with a single punch. They wouldn't have the chance to see the full potential of the steel man at all.
But some people disagreed.
Li Yao's ability was truly lousy, but his speed, on the other hand, was quite impressive.
If he had grasped some basic driving skills to stabilize his speed, with the help of a speed-type crystal suit, there was a good chance that he might be able to dodge the steel man for a while.
After all, as a super-heavy crystal suit, Thunder Axe Battlesuit was at a disadvantage to speed-type crystal suits.
If Li Yao just circled around, he could possibly survive for a few minutes.
Then the topic of the conversation changed to how long Li Yao could survive under the bombardment of the steel man.
After a couple of minutes, the match of No. 9 versus No. 100, or the steel man versus the newbie officially began.
There were eight arenas in the Outer camp that simulated different natural environment. The place of the elimination match would be a random one of them after drawing lots.
Unfortunately, Li Yao drew the desert battlefield.
In the vast desert, there were no shelters or complex territories that could be made use of. It would be the most straightforward competition of combat abilities!
When the two crystal suits flew into the battlefield and landed in the desert with a small sandstorm, everybody gasped in surprise.
They all thought that Li Yao had given up already in desperation.
"Thunder Axe Battlesuits! Two of them!"
"The newbie picked a Thunder Axe Battlesuit, too?"
"Is he insane? Knowing that his specialty is swiftness, yet picking a slow and leaden super-heavy crystal suit, he's giving up his only advantage just like that?"
"Has he decided to do arm wrestling with Zhou Zhenghao, the steel man?"
While they watched in bewilderment and incomprehension, the two Thunder Axe Battlesuits had boosted their spiritual energy to their maximum, releasing splendid colors from their back. They ran towards each other, enshrouded by two clouds of smoke.
Thunder Axe Battlesuit against Thunder Axe Battlesuit, super-heavy against super-heavy, the contest between steel and flesh was about to begin!
Chapter 241: Steel V.S. Steel |
"Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!"
As the prelude to the battle, the two Honeycomb Flying Sword Containers on the shoulders of No. 9's Thunder Axe Battlesuit were fully opened, sending out dozens of rays of lights in the color of lavender which dashed towards Li Yao like a neatly-knitted net, screaming.
Flying swords attack!
The 360 tiny flying swords on the Thunder Axe Battlesuit were all carved with strong thunder-class rune arrays made of violent thunder-class crystals.
Since they were designed for one-time usage and there was no need to collect them, their damage was extremely high.
Once they hit their target, thunder storms would be released. If more than one flying sword hit the same target, the lightning they unleashed would build up and increase the damage to an even higher level.
Even an opponent as strong as a demon general might be torn apart instantly!
Since it was just a match, all the aggressive magical equipment had been suppressed to reduce their damage to one tenth of the original.
Besides, a special program named Identification of Friend or Foe System was installed into the crystal processor, too. Once the system foresaw that a fatal attack would be performed, it would immediately withhold the action.
Even so, when dozens of flying swords, with lightning dancing in between, charged towards him as if they would destroy everything in their way, Li Yao still felt his heart skip a beat.
But then, it only started beating faster!
"Excellent!
"This is the battle I wanted; this is everything I desire!"
Instead of dodging or retreating, he was manic enough to speed up and went directly against the flying swords face to face, the power rune arrays behind his back blazing brilliantly.
"Bait Bugs, activate!"
"Pu! Pu! Pu! Pu!"
Two plates on the outside of his shoulder blades split. From inside, hundreds of firefly-like mini puppets stormed out and hovered around him like shining stars.
But when the flying swords came close, the Bait Bugs hummed and dispersed into all directions.
Tips of the flying swords trembled violently.
More than thirty of them were interfered by the spiritual fluctuation released by the Bait Bugs whom they mistook for their target. Then they rectified their trajectory and went after the Bait Bugs.
Like brave soldiers, the Bait Bugs turned their direction and collided with the flying swords, causing a series of lightning flashes. It was like masses of purple lotuses had blossomed in the sky of the desert.
The remaining twenty flying swords that had not been interfered with continued to speed up towards Li Yao. Within a moment, they were already under his nose.
Li Yao could see vividly the waves released when the flying swords tore the air apart.
He was instantly tied by voltaic arcs.
All the attack rune arrays of the flying swords were triggered, causing a sandstorm that was dozens of meters tall to swallow him like a giant yellow beast.
In the stomach of the beast, Li Yao put everything he'd learned over the past month into practice.
He didn't condense a full-scale spiritual shield, which would consume too much spiritual energy and also affect his senses and swiftness.
Instead, he only formed a thin spiritual shield which covered him in crimson. Then he started dodging with amazing agility and speed in the super-heavy crystal suit that weighed more than ten tons.
The tracks of the flying swords were all transparent. Thousands of pieces of data were collected and analyzed by the crystal processor before it produced the most reasonable dodging plan in his brain.
In a moment, the Thunder Axe Battlesuit blurred and disappeared into hundreds of shadows, just like an elephant dancing in a storm.
All the flying swords missed their target, however close they were.
Several flying swords were able to hit the Thunder Axe Battlesuit, but they were repelled due to inappropriate angles, leaving one voltaic arc after another around as if Li Yao had put on a new galvanizing battlesuit.
"BOOM!"
Li Yao rushed out of the sandstorm.
"Really?"
All the spectators exclaimed in great surprise.
Li Yao's battlesuit seemed to be well-worn, indicated by the glaring scars from explosions and electric shocks on its surface.
But, with a careful look, one would discover that they were actually all scratches and none of them were fatal.
"A lucky dog?"
Many were surprised, for they thought that Li Yao had already been put down by the salvo.
However, the Thunder Axe Battlesuit was not best known for flying sword attacks, which was the specialty of the long-range crystal suits.
For the Thunder Axe Battlesuit, flying swords were merely an approach to minimize the range of activity of its opponent, so that its weakness, its speed, could be overcome and the Thunder Axe Battlesuit would have an opportunity to draw close to its opponent.
And once the Thunder Axe Battlesuit was near, its opponent would be screwed.
Naturally, No. 9 was not disappointed at the failure of the first wave of flying sword attack. He continued onto the second and third wave of attack.
Although Li Yao dodged each and every of them perfectly, their distance was getting smaller and smaller.
No. 9 seemed to have dominated the battlefield. With the consecutive flying sword attacks, he pushed Li Yao to the place he desired.
