Forty millenniums of cul.., p.310
Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 310
Therefore, Thousand Sail Space Zone was a favorite for the unaffiliated Cultivators and the free Exos. It was also the biggest logistic base for all Exo Societies.
Many Exo Societies liked to take a vacation and relax in the Thousand Sail Space Zone after they finished an arduous task.
During its busiest season, dense starships from various Exo Societies occupied the main route to and from the Thousand Sail Space Zone as far as one's eyes could reach. They were like thousands of ships cruising on a surging ocean with sunlight reflected by the waves. Hence the name Thousand Sail Space Zone.
Since it was sort of a logistic base for all Exo Societies, naturally, a lot of Cultivation sects had established branches there. Some of them were even headquartered there. They provided various kinds of service for the Exo Societies and helped the Exo Societies communicate with the space towns and exchange information about possible missions. There were also countless starship refining bases, the best maintenance docks, and crystal suit centers.
The Thousand Sail Space Zone was mixed with all kinds of people, some of whom were real experts and some just pretended to be. It was often the first stop for many beginners who had just stepped into the world of Cultivation.
Many vigorous, ambitions young men who had just awakened their spiritual roots and did not have any possessions often travelled in the Thousand Sail Space Zone with nothing but their two fists and their guts. They slew space pirates, demon beasts, and demonic Cultivators, eager to spread their name in the Flying Star Sector and make their own achievements!
In light of the situation, Heavenly Saints City hosted a number of matches in the Thousand Sail Space Zone every year in order to help the six sects of Heavenly Saints Alliance, the major universities, and the renowned crystal suit centers find and recruit new geniuses.
Thousand Sail Space Zone would be a great platform to jump into Heavenly Saints City.
Li Yao planned to stay in the Great Horn Exo Society for a couple of months and train himself with the skills to maintain a starship. In the meantime, he could also secretly learn the crystal suit techniques from the Exos of the Great Horn Exo Society.
After they arrived at the Thousand Sail Space Zone, he would part with the Great Horn Exo Society and try to win a ticket to Heavenly Saints City, the central metropolis of the Flying Star Sector and the ultimate holy land of Cultivation!
After all, Exo Societies valued freedom more than anything else. It was quite convenient to join or quit. Besides, the Great Horn Exo Society had specified when they were recruiting that they were just temporarily in need of some extra hands in order to bring their starship back to the Thousand Sail Space Zone. After they arrived at the Thousand Sail Space Zone, whoever wanted to leave was free to go.
By then, Li Yao's identity would be unfalsifiable with the Great Horn Exo Society endorsing it. Nobody would be suspicious that he was not a native of the Flying Star Sector!
Therefore, Li Yao signed up without any hesitation.
As for his identity, he decided to join the Exo Society as a pure refiner and hide his real capability as a battle-type Cultivator.
It was not because he was fond of laying low. After all, he was in desperate need of resources, and apparently, he would get none if he proved himself to be an incapable man.
The real problem was, if he was to reveal all his strength, somebody would definitely associate him with the uncanny death of Fengyu Ming.
Fengyu Zhong, Fengyu Ming's father, was very likely to be a Cultivator in the high level of the Core Formation Stage and an unparalleled brutal bandit!
Li Yao was not ready to fight a Core Formation Stage Cultivator face-to-face yet.
Moreover, the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit was also his biggest secret.
He had no doubt that, once the space pirates learned of this crystal suit which had been strengthened by the flesh and blood of a deadly demon and the scraps of the ancient magical equipment from forty thousand years ago, they would definitely rush over like shark who had smelled blood. If so, he wouldn't have a day of peace and would have to be prepared for assassinations even when he was on the toilet.
Therefore, Li Yao had positioned himself to be a self-taught expert in refining who had been born in a desolate world fragment in the corner of the Flying Star Sector, raised up by an eccentric expert, living a nomadic life among the relics of ancient battlegrounds, hit by a falling star, and eaten a crimson exotic fruit which eventually lead to the awakening of his spiritual root. Although he was not familiar with any Cultivation arts, he was talented in refining and had enormous physical strength. He was also a crazy fan of magical equipment maintenance.
After getting to know the world better, he had discovered that, perhaps because of the more abundant spiritual energy, the fortuitous incidents of the Flying Star Sector were much more frequent than those of the Heaven's Origin Sector.
Many Cultivators in this sector had experienced various kinds of fortuitous incidents. Being hit by a meteor, meeting an old grandpa living inside a ring, a broken crystal suit that could talk, a super skill card mixed in with common skill cards…
His story was quite queer, but it was pretty plausible compared to what had happened to the real lucky dogs. Nobody would be jealous of him.
Keeping a low profile was never his style. Naturally, he would need to show off his skills in maintenance in order to be noticed by the Great Horn Exo Society so that he could be assigned to the real important maintenance work, thereby accumulating experience and improving his capability.
But things went against his will…
When he thought of the interview three days ago, Li Yao's face was somehow red. He scratched his messy hair with a self-mocking smile.
He had thought the refiners of the Great Horn Exo Society would've definitely been greatly impressed by him after he showed a tiny bit of his skills in maintenance and modification.
But as it turned out, the interviewer simply offered him a piece of strange magical equipment that was round and carved with stripes and lines and asked him to repair it.
Judging from the interviewer's countenance, it should be pretty common in the Flying Star Sector.
However, there was no such a thing in the Heaven's Origin Sector, and Li Yao had never seen it before. He was greatly embarrassed, and he could tell that it was definitely not appreciation in the eyes of the interviewer.
He was going to ask the interviewer to give him a second chance by examining a piece of different magical equipment, but the angry old man whose shoulders were as wide as door planks simply waved his hands and gnashed his teeth saying that he had passed the test.
It was quite a bummer for Li Yao.
He had never expected that the Great Horn Exo Society would be in such desperate need of hands that a Mr. Nobody, or even everybody whose limbs were intact, would be recruited as long as they signed up.
Later, he learned that the bad-tempered old man was the director of magical equipment and the chief refiner of the Great Horn Exo Society.
Many a time, Li Yao was of a mind to explain to him that he was indeed an awesome refiner.
However, over the past few days, there had been quite a lot of maintenance tasks. The old man was either busy doing his job or on his way to do his job. He had no chance to talk to him at all.
Besides, Li Yao was taking an orientation for the newly recruited, too. He didn't have much spare time himself.
Alright. Maybe I'll just leave it behind and sort everything through after we set off.
Li Yao had figured it out himself. There was no way that a newcomer such as himself could get in touch with the real essential maintenance work. After all, it concerned the lives of hundreds of people. He had to start from the ground.
I'm only a mechanic right now. As long as I do my job well, they will realize my capability sooner or later. After all, the journey will take at least one to two months. If we are unlucky, or something goes wrong, we might not even be able to reach the Thousand Sail Space Zone in five months.
Right now, the personnel of the Great Horn Exo Society were badly distributed. Two thirds of the refining posts were empty. It wouldn't be enough even if every refiner on board were split in two.
Li Yao believed that he would definitely have the opportunity to surprise everyone.
At this moment, all the members of the Great Horn Exo Society gathered in the ceremony for the take-off.
It was also a memorial for their sacrificed companions over the two-month hunting game.
During the two months, the Great Horn Exo Society and the space pirates of Storm Prison had collided nineteen times. 146 members of the Great Horn Exo Society had perished. It was no doubt a great loss.
Yet, the ambiance in the memorial ceremony was not very solemn. Everybody was quite relaxed. Some of them were even wearing carefree smiles.
Lei Dalu, their captain, was jumping up and down, his hands waving and his legs kicking like a giant dancing monkey.
Seeing that he brayed and sprayed his saliva everywhere without the least concern of his image, Li Yao was greatly baffled.
Is this sloppy, messy uncle really an expert in the Core Formation Stage?
Chapter 456: Rudimental Work |
Lei Dalu was talking so loudly that the air could be felt vibrating.
"Sixty-seven days ago, when we set off on the hunting trip, who would've thought we could really annihilate that flock of space pirates on Storm Prison?
"Their starship was larger than ours, their turrets had more firepower than ours, and there were more Exos on their side, too!
"Who could've known at that time that we would chase them for over two months through thirteen space zones and twenty-seven world fragments and eventually slay all the human-skinned scumbags, leaving none behind at a distance edge of the sea of stars?
"Right now, we are going to set off on a new journey, one that is going to be more arduous and dangerous than the previous two months.
"Our enemy is no longer the brutal and hideous space pirates, but the sea of stars itself that is hundreds of times more brutal and hideous than those pirates!
"Our starship was almost entirely destroyed. Our crew members are seriously insufficient. We have barely enough fuel and supplies, and even after they are refilled in this small town, the best they can do is sustain us for thirty to fifty days.
"What we are going to be faced with are cosmic storms, stone belts, raging meteoroid showers, and even the reprisal of Storm Prison. The likelihood of us returning to the Thousand Sail Zone successfully is less than ten percent.
"However, we are definitely going to make it, because we are—"
"GREAT HORN!"
"GREAT HORN!"
Countless muscled men were roaring crazily. Their soundwaves interweaved into a blowing wind which rippled out.
Lei Dalu grinned and pressed his hands. Then he continued, "After two months of fierce battles, 146 brothers have left us early and perished.
"But what's the big deal with death? They are just a step ahead of us to drink with the Heavenly Lord of Primordial Beginning and dine with the Ancestor of the Great Balance!
"Now, please cheer up, everyone! Let's see our brothers off and ask them to pave a brilliant way for us!"
Lei Dalu waved his hands. A giant light beam appeared behind him, in which a universe of darkness that was devoid of the slightest trace of stars was displayed.
BOOM!
After an earsplitting sound, a small light spot appeared in the darkness and exploded into a glamorous rainbow that shined brilliantly like an aurora.
Li Yao was aware that space burial was the most common method of funeral in the Flying Star Sector.
Residents of the Flying Star Sector mostly lived in space towns where room was limited. It was difficult for the deceased to be inhumed. Keeping their cremains under the earth was not easy, either.
After thousands of years, the human beings of the Flying Star Sector had got used to refining the ashes into special cannonballs before launching them into the space. The ceremony had been known as 'space burial'.
Cultivators would often leave a telepathic thought in advance, which would be refined into their ashes when they passed away so that they could burst out the most brilliant colors in the vast darkness at the end of their life.
As cannonballs of ashes were launched one after another, the space in front of Gold Horn was illuminated by mingled rainbows, which looked like a road to the heaven built up by thousands of heroic souls, extending into the endless darkness.
"Gold Horn, set off!"
The beggar-like starship which was riddled with holes and patches glided out of the port and stumbled forward.
Hundreds of ropes made of super alloys ejected out of the rear part of Gold Horn. Spiritual energy was circling the ropes, making them look like hundreds of lasers. They dragged the remnant of Storm Prison's starship. The twin starships moved forward slowly and gradually left Star Lord Temple.
Three days was not enough time to fully dismantle Storm Prison's starship. They could only carry it away in such away.
During the long journey to come, Storm Prison's starship would be dismantled step by step and the materials would be used to repair Gold Horn against the surging tides in the sea of stars.
Li Yao found the frenzy of his fellows hard to understand.
In the Heaven's Origin Sector, Cultivators equally despised death. But when their companions perished, they were always grave and wouldn't be half as merry as the guys he was currently with.
Perhaps, this was also a unique tradition of the Flying Star Sector?
"Do you feel that we seem to be indifferent about the sacrifices of our comrades?"
A tall, thin man walked close with his hands in his back and smiled casually.
But unresolvable sorrow seemed to be behind the sunny smile.
Li Yao recognized that it was Bai Kaixin, councilor and deputy captain of the Exo Society who was in charge of daily operations, as well as an admin-type Cultivator at the peak of the Building Foundation Stage.
"Manager Bai," greeted Li Yao hurriedly.
Watching the quickly dimming and dispersing rainbows like thousands of souls that were gone with the wind on the light beam, Bai Kaixin was silent for a long time before he spoke again. "You have just joined the Society. Although you have taken a simple orientation, you are not familiar with the history of the Great Horn Exo Society yet.
"Different from other Exo Societies, the Great Horn Exo Society has hardly ever recruited outsiders. We would not have recruited any if we weren't in such desperate need of hands and did not have a second choice.
"The Great Horn Exo Society used to be a coalition of several Cultivation sects who had been massacred by space pirates.
"Most of the members of the Society loathe the space pirates.
"For some of them, their hometowns were destroyed by space pirates; for some, their families were slain; some others are orphans and survivors of space pirates' slaughters, who were rescued by us in various operations and grew up in the Exo Society, having nowhere else to go to.
"Our tears dried up a long, long time ago.
"Since the moment we joined the Great Horn Exo Society, we lost the ability to cry. We can only laugh, so hard that our heads fall off.
"If anybody is crying, it is going to be our enemies, those human-skinned scumbags.
"Whenever we run into them, we will make those bastards wonder why they were born into this world in the first place. They will cry so hard that their blood and urine will spurt out of their eyes!"
Li Yao raised his eyebrow.
No wonder the Great Horn Exo Society was so persistent about the space pirates and hunted them down for nothing but a bag of rice.
Bai Kaixin patted his shoulder and smiled. "But none of the above matters for you.
"I know the reason why young men such as yourself joined the Great Horn Exo Society at the risk of the reprisals of the space pirates is that you want to learn more stuff so that you can make a living in the central space zone one day.
"You should be clear about the situation of our Society now. In regard of money, we won't be able to offer you much.
"However, since you are willing to help us in the time of difficulties, the Great Horn Exo Society will definitely not wrong you.
"There are many public Cultivation arts in the Society. Most of the training facilities are open to all the members of the Society.
"After you finish your daily work, you are free to come by if you want to learn more. I will try to arrange suitable teachers for you. Those gorillas may look fearsome, but they actually aren't bad. Many other young men are studying then, too. You can join the group.
"It will be your reward for your work in the Exo Society.
"After we work together and make it to the Thousand Sail Zone successfully, it's totally fine if you have other plans. I can introduce you to new jobs if you are interested."
Li Yao thought for a moment and asked, "What's my job here?"
Bai Kaixin hesitated. "Master Xiong was supposed to designate work for you. But you know that we have just set off and a lot of faults are still occurring. Master Xiong has been so occupied over the past few days that he's barely slept. He really did not have the time to talk to you and the other newcomers in person. Therefore, I have arranged some rudimental work for you so that you can familiarize yourself with the starship first. After we enter the cruising state and there are fewer problems, he will come in person and tell you what to do."
Li Yao nodded. It was quite understandable.
He actually quite admired Master Xiong Tao.
Within three days, the man had restored the sailing ability of a dilapidated starship. Although the journey was not smooth, it was already a remarkable achievement.
Li Yao had a vague feeling that this Master Xiong Tao might be the real best expert of the Great Horn Exo Society.
Bai Kaixin coughed and continued, "Your job in the coming few days is to enter Storm Prison's starship and clean up the debris inside.
