Forty millenniums of cul.., p.304
Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 304
Firstly, he bought an old wrist crystal processor in a second-hand crystal processor store.
The Flying Star Sector was much more advanced than the Heaven's Origin Sector in miniaturizing the crystal processor. The wrist crystal processor was very light and thin, just like a watch.
Then, Li Yao visited a store named 'Know-All', a special shop that did not sell concrete goods but the latest news.
Since the area of Star Lord Temple was too far away from the central zone of the Flying Star Sector, it often lost connection to the Spiritual Nexus. Therefore, such news stores were opened in many remote villages and towns which were often short of information.
The residents in such places could go to a news store and browse the latest news in the outside world at the cost of a tiny bit of money.
The news would usually be fully updated on a monthly or bimonthly basis. Considering the vastness of the Flying Star Sector, it could almost be called timely.
Sitting in a corner of the news store, Li Yao turned on four light beams in front him and skimmed the news at a speed that wouldn't shock the fellow readers around him.
The news from the central zone of the constellation gave him a much deeper understanding of the Flying Star Sector.
Most of the news contained briefs about cosmic storms or meteorite cascades in certain coordinates or about the newly found space swirls in certain other coordinates.
It appeared that the anomalies in space were of paramount importance for the human civilization of the Flying Star Sector which lived on sailing through the sea of stars.
Li Yao also saw a lot of news about the assaults of space pirates, the latest rank of pirate gangs, and the most wanted list with their respective bounties.
The most wanted list was brimming with names, each of which represented loads of appalling murders. The perils of cruising through the sea of stars couldn't be clearer.
There wasn't much news about the scourge of demon beasts and the demonic Cultivators, suggesting that these two hazards only appeared sporadically and that they were less threatening than space pirates.
But what Li Yao was most concerned about was the general capability of the Cultivators in the Flying Star Sector and that of the top ones.
If this was a world where there were too many Core Formation Stage Cultivators and Nascent Soul Cultivators, he would have to tuck his tail between his legs and behave nicely however ambitious he was.
Thankfully, after browsing through all the news, he didn't find enough evidence to support the hypothesis. Several names of the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were brought up in the news, but in a very respectful tone. The leaders and elders of many famous sects seemed to be only at the Core Formation Stage, too.
As for the Divine Transformation Stage Cultivators that were even stronger than the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, Li Yao read about none of them in the recent news.
This is rather odd. The spiritual energy of the Flying Star Sector is clearly much more abundant than that of the Heaven's Origin Sector. Why are the number and capability of the top Cultivators of the two worlds so similar?
Li Yao pondered the question while he continued reading the news.
Half an hour later, he came to an uncertain conclusion.
It was true that the spiritual energy of the Flying Star Sector was more abundant. But since this place was an ancient battleground where a large number of relics of starships and magical equipment had been left, the Cultivators of this sector attached more importance to the creation and utilization of magical equipment.
After dedicating most of its manpower, resources, and time to the refinement of magical equipment, the Flying Star Sector was blessed with an extraordinarily advanced and popularized crystal suit system. This was a world where crystal suits mattered most. Most of their training and combat theories featured crystal suits as the core.
In comparison, the Heaven's Origin Sector did not have enough resources nor were there enough ancient relics to excavate. Therefore, crystal suits were never promoted on a large scale. Most Cultivators still highlighted the training of themselves and considered crystal suits to be auxiliary tools.
As a result, although the resources of the two Sectors were not even, the top experts of them were of similar level.
However, it was also possible that the stronger experts of the Flying Star Sector had been training in seclusion recently and therefore did not appear in the news that Li Yao read.
Chapter 447: Incoming Space Pirates! |
Other than that, the most viewed news was that about Heavenly Saints City. There were even some paid Great Illusionary Land programs which could simulate the splendid experience inside Heavenly Saints City.
Li Yao tried a few of them himself. It was indeed quite impressive.
The living quarters of Heavenly Saints City included not only lakes and oceans, but also continuous highlands and canyons that were hundreds of meters deep. Many floating mountains were moving in midair, from which thousands of waterfalls rushed down and turned into fuzzy drizzle half way. Rainbows were forming among them.
The working and studying quarters of Heavenly Saints City were spread across several districts. Numerous skyscrapers were connected to each other by vacuum tubes and teleportation arrays. Packs of people were coming and going on the bridges that were almost transparent as if they were strolling on the sky. Shuttles in all kinds of weird shapes were commuting among the bridges, producing colorful exhaust flames behind them at an amazingly high speed, but they never ran into one another. An invisible hand seemed to be manipulating everything behind the scenes.
Li Yao found it hard to accept that such a grand, prosperous city was built in space instead of on a planet. No wonder all the residents of the Flying Star Sector were captivated by Heavenly Saints City.
However, what interested him more were the training facilities of Heavenly Saints City.
As the training center of the Flying Star Sector, not only were the six largest Cultivation sects headquartered there, they had also established all kinds of institutions such as elementary, middle, and high schools, training camps, crystal suit refining clubs, and so on.
The most renowned crystal suit refining centers of the Flying Star Sector were based in Heavenly Saints City, too.
Li Yao discovered the promotion video of one of the crystal suit refining centers in the database.
What was shown in the promotion video was a super large training laboratory of more than eighty acres, an endless assembly line of magical equipment, and an automatic loading and distribution system utilizing countless mechanical arms driven by spiritual energy.
A common engineering crystal suit or a farming one could be manufactured unceasingly by dozens of low-level Cultivators and hundreds of ordinary workers supervised by only a few real refiners.
This was the true sense of mass-production!
Such advanced production facilities and technology had reduced the cost of a crystal suit to as low as possible, which was why they were so popular in the Flying Star Sector. Just like the shuttles of the Heaven's Origin Sector, crystal suits were affordable to every household here, even if they might not be considered low-priced, either.
As for battlesuits, although Li Yao failed to find their refining process, he did find a commercial of 'Nine Cauldron Arena', a place where crystal suits specialized in combat competed against each other.
Since crystal suits were popular in the Flying Star Sector, it was almost every Cultivator's dream to be a formidable Exo. Therefore, crystal suit competitions were a trendy activity.
The Flying Crystal Racing game in the Heaven's Origin Sector was but a daily routine in this world. There were more thrilling ways of competition in other forms.
All kinds of crystal suit arenas had thus been built everywhere in the Flying Star Sector like mushrooms after a spring rain. Not only did Cultivators like to practice with their peers inside, ordinary people enjoyed entertaining themselves by crashing into each other while wearing engineering and farming crystal suits. The satisfying scent of rust and sweat was the best reward for them.
Crystal suit competitions and championships, open and underground gambling games… An enormous chain of interest had been formed. Together with crystal suit refining, modification, and maintenance as well as the training of Exos, the industry of crystal suits was the unquestionable pillar of the Flying Star Sector.
The Exos who secured victories in the top arenas were seen as celebrities and big heroes to everyone. They often earned an abundance of admiration from young boys and girls and offers from big sects. Plentiful training resources were available for them at any time.
While he was watching the commercial of the arena which was displayed in the form of the Great Illusionary Land, Li Yao felt that he was seated in the vast ball-shaped arena and attracted to his seat by electromagnetic force, spinning.
Two crystal suits, one red and the other white, were floating in the middle of the arena. They turned into two streaks of brightness and bombarded each other with the most eye-catching attacks.
Sometimes, their attacks were only the width of a hair away from the audience, but the defense rune arrays managed to block them all the time. However, the hair of the audience was often tousled by the blowing wind, making them exclaim in satisfaction while their hearts was pounding.
The amateurs were enjoying the visual show, but the specialists were examining the skills. The more Li Yao watched, the more shocked he became.
According to the introduction, the two Exos in the commercial were only in the middle level and high level of the Building Foundation Stage state, but he was impressed by their speed, strength, small-scale movements in combat as Cultivators at the peak of the Building Foundation Stage, if not the Core Formation Stage!
Li Yao observed and remembered their every action. Then, he closed his eyes. Two translucent figures popped up in his brain while he started computing quickly.
A moment later, he came to the conclusion that, without the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit which had been added with the strengthening materials from Skeleton Dragon, it was very likely that he wouldn't be able to defeat the two Exos if he were wearing the same crystal suit they did!
To think that the two Exos were far from the best ones of the 'Nine Cauldron Arena'.
This is incredible. The appearance, structure, and firepower of the battlesuits of the Flying Star Sector are all at least a hundred years more advanced than those of the Heaven's Origin Sector!
Besides, the Exos here have multiple special techniques to drive their crystal suits which allows them to meld themselves with the crystal suits. Their combat ability is improved by more than five times!
I really can't wait any longer. I have to go to Heavenly Saints City and learn the secret arts of crystal suit refining and the techniques to drive them!
Watching the fierce battle of the two Exos in the Great Illusionary Land again, as a maniac of magical equipment, Li Yao was rubbing his fists in exhilaration, his drool almost dribbling down.
The news store also provided a lot of information for young men who wished to visit Heavenly Saints City such as himself.
A travelling agency had proposed a package to Heavenly Saints City. Not only would tourists be able to spend their vacation in the living quarters of Heavenly Saints City, they could also go to the top arenas and watch the competitions of the real expert Exos in person. The package had a duration of one month. Purely for recreation. No shopping detours included. Hand-written autographs of the real expert Exos were available if the tourists were in luck.
However, such a package was extremely costly, too. Even the cheapest package required tens of thousands.
There were also some other obscure messages which were channels through which one could smuggle themselves into Heavenly Saints City.
However, even if the smuggling succeeded, they could only live beyond the sixth ring of Heavenly Saints City secretly because they did not have residential certificates; it was impossible to enter the real training centers.
The messages that were much clearer were the notices of matches.
Different from what Li Yao had expected, the notices were issued not in the name of Heavenly Saints Alliance, but by the different organizations inside Heavenly Saints City.
For example, if Heavenly Saints Alliance gave fifty slots to a certain crystal suit refining center, this refining center would host refining matches publicly. The top fifty winners would be entitled to enter Heavenly Saints City and work as employees of the refining center.
As a result of such a policy, there were all kinds of matches taking place everywhere.
It was a pity that most of the matches were held in the relatively more prosperous zones. Underdeveloped areas such as Star Lord Temple and Black Iron Town, naturally, had none.
It seems that I'd better go to a more developed area before making any further plans.
Li Yao searched for cargo ships that were going to pass by Star Lord Temple soon and found that two cargo ships were coming to the place in three days. After simple maintenance and refilling of supplies, they would set off on a long journey to the Triple Lights Zone that was quite close to Heavenly Saints City.
Triple Lights Zone boasted a space spiritual lode which mostly contained spiritual energy of the fire class. If starships were docked in such a space spiritual lode, it would be a great help for those who majored in Cultivation arts of the fire class. Therefore, several medium-sized sects had headquartered in this area, making it one of the wealthier zones in the Flying Star Sector.
Then, I shall head off to the Triple Lights Zone first!
Cargo ships were the first choice for most of the residents of Star Lord Temple and nearby when they wanted to travel in the outside world. Therefore, the procedures to board a cargo ship were pretty standard now.
Through an agency, Li Yao reserved a seat on one of the ships.
Later, the agency asked a Meditation Healer at the Refinement Stage to hypnotize him and check out his identity.
Li Yao's soul power was too immense for him to be hypnotized by a Cultivator at the Refinement Stage. After the examination, the guy was convinced of his faked identity. He got his ticket without any trouble.
For the next three days, Li Yao stayed in the news store, absorbing information like a sponge sucking water.
…
In the morning, three days later, Li Yao was still huddling in a corner of the news store. His eyes were even more fresh than three days ago, even though he hadn't slept at all during the time. While others were taking a nap with their eyes closed, Li Yao secretly sped up his reading.
There was half a day to go before the cargo ship took off. He was planning to get more knowledge about the Flying Star Sector before he boarded the starship.
Right then, his seat suddenly shivered before it jumped abruptly. Several glasses on the desk nearby fell to the ground and shattered. Many readers were woken from their dreams and mumbled unclearly.
Beep—Beep—Beep
The hasty alarms shattered everyone's drowsiness.
"Space pirates! Space pirates are here!"
Residents of Star Lord Temple immediately recognized the alarms. Their faces turned pale as they cried uncontrollably.
The earth was shaking more and more violently. Many people were helplessly waving their arms and legs as if dancing. Some were so scared that they hid below the desks, but more people swarmed to the street.
Li Yao frowned and cursed in a low voice. He followed the crowds to the street, too.
Today was the second to last day of the kermis. Although most of the visitors had left Star Lord Temple, several thousand of them were still lingering. The street was a mess, congested by people who were running about like headless chickens. The blue sky and white clouds in the sky which were simulated by giant full-coverage light beams died down one after another under the intense impacts, revealing a bleak, cold dome of steel.
Dark red light beams were gradually condensed in midair, displaying a fierce battle in space.
A somewhat coarse voice said solemnly, "Please don't panic, everybody. We are engaged in a battle with intruding space pirates!
"Star Lord Temple boasts an extremely advanced defense system which is impossible for the space pirates to breach through. Lord Sea Stomper is with us!
"I believe every one of us knows the cruelty of space pirates.
"Perhaps, they might've spared our lives after looting everything of value in Star Lord Temple, if we had decided to surrender in the beginning.
"But now, the two parties have both opened fire, and we have slain multiple space pirates. There's no way that they will let go of us!
"If the space pirates break into Star Lord Temple, we will all be dead for sure!
"Therefore, please keep calm, everyone. Those of you who have crystal suits, please put them on; those of you who don't, please go to the shelter according to the guidance of the signal arrows. We will possibly be in a vacuum if the shell of the starship is compromised!
"Exos who have received space combat training before, please gather at the closest deck to you out of No. 1, No. 4, and No. 6. You and the Guardians of Star Lord Temple will work together to defeat the space pirates!"
Chapter 448: Storm Prison |
BOOM!
As the speech was concluded, another earthquake took place in Star Lord Temple. The steel dome screeched while its metal constituents fractured one after another. Some ten iron tubes couldn't bear the pressure any longer and smashed down.
Li Yao's pupils shrank to the size of two needles. The muscles all over his body tensed, making him, for a moment, appear smaller than his actual size. But his clothes puffed up as if they had been filled with air, with noises indicating that they were going to torn open at any moment.
Li Yao stomped on the ground. The workers' shoes he was wearing had no obvious changes on the surface, but the bottom of the shoes made of strengthened rubber had been pressed into powder. The ends of his trousers suffered collateral damage and were torn into ragged cloth, too. Then, Li Yao turned into a streak of brightness, darting toward where the iron tubes were falling.
