Forty millenniums of cul.., p.489
Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 489
"Cough cough. Cough cough cough cough!"
Li Yao tried to hold back his heartbeat that had reached more than three hundred beats per second and managed to sit up straight.
He lowered his head and discovered that the breastplate of the Drunk Bat Battlesuit had been battered and that there was a bruise larger than his fist on his chest. When he observed more carefully, he even found tiny strokes on the bruise.
The bruise rendered Li Yao speechless.
It was because the bruise had not been caused by Bai Xinghe's fist but by the index finger of his right hand!
All the tiny strokes were actually Bai Xinghe's 'fingerprint' that had been left on Li Yao's chest through his crystal suit when Bai Xinghe's spiritual energy burst out!
The Pirate Potentate is indeed terrifying!
After being stabbed in the back by an expert in the peak of the Core Formation Stage who he trusted most and fighting against two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators for a long time under the collective attack of hundreds of brutal bandits, he abandoned the most precious part of his hand like a gecko and created a chance of survival for himself!
Also, during his escape, he blew up my breastplate with nothing but a finger!
Although Li Yao was not wearing his most advanced Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit and he had suppressed his capability to the high level of the Building Foundation Stage on purpose, the terrifying capability that Bai Xinghe demonstrated still surprised him.
Fengyu Zhong, Bai Wulei, and the Black King landed on the ground heavily. Although their faces were unclear, Li Yao could sense the gloom over their heads.
Fengyu Zhong's eyebrow was furrowed.
The crystal bombs that Li Yao detonated a moment ago without caring about anything somehow jammed their vision and telepathic thoughts. They did not really help block Bai Xinghe at all.
However, it was Fengyu Zhong himself who issued the command 'stop him'. Li Yao was the first the answer the call and got beaten up miserably by Bai Xinghe. He should be credited even though he did not contribute at all.
It was a time when every soldier mattered, so Fengyu Zhong found it inappropriate to blame him. He helped Li Yao to his feet and said solemnly, "Fellow Cultivator Bloody Vulture, are you alright?"
"I—I'm fine!'
Li Yao took off his facial cover and vomited a mouthful of blood. Faking a pale face, he replied miserably, "Bai Xinghe is really—really strong!"
Fengyu Zhong narrowed his eyes and looked around. He said seriously in the communication channel, "Fellow Cultivator Bloody Vulture is tough and brave and has made great contributions! As everybody can see, Bai Xinghe's Cosmos Ring is now in our hands. With Bai Wulei leading the way, we are now able to enter the underground fortress at any time to excavate the secret treasures of the Star Ocean Imperium in the depths of Spider Den!
"By then, Fellow Cultivator Bloody Vulture will be the first to select the techniques and the magical equipment that he likes!"
Greedy breaths could be heard in the communication channel.
"Fellow Cultivators, Bai Xinghe is nearing his last breath! Just now, he suffered a critical blow by Bai Wulei and fought a long time with me and Master Hidden Fog. Of his internal organs, his liver, kidney, and spleen have been broken apart. The fractured bones on his body are too many to count!
"Even though he is in the Nascent Soul Stage, it is impossible for him to repair all his broken internal organs within several hours!
"Right now, his capability is in the Building Foundation Stage at best!
"The fight between him and Fellow Cultivator Bloody Vulture further proof!
"Fellow Cultivator Bloody Vulture is in the high level of the Building Foundation Stage, but Bai Xinghe's full-strength attack only battered his crystal suit without killing him instantly!
"We should also bear in mind that it was when his wounds were suppressed by his spiritual energy.
"The longer he delays, the heavier his wounds will be, and the less likely that he will be able to get them under control with his spiritual energy!
"Search immediately! He can't run far away! We must find Bai Xinghe even if we have to turn the city upside down! Whoever discovers Bai Xinghe first will be qualified to be the first to enter the underground fortress!"
Chapter 731: Three Purposes |
The space pirates were greatly relieved when they saw that Li Yao could still stand on his feet after taking an attack from Bai Xinghe, although his crystal suit was broken.
Right now, everything had basically been settled. It was the greatest opportunity to take advantage of the heavily wounded Pirate Potentate. Moreover, they did not even need to attack Bai Xinghe in person. As soon as they found Bai Xinghe's tracks, they could send a message through the network to Fengyu Zhong. The Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators would immediately rush over and finish him.
Now that Bai Xinghe's Cosmos Ring had fallen into Bai Wulei's hands, the space pirates were all envisioning an underground treasury whose gate was opening slowly to reveal the endless secret treasures of the Star Ocean Imperium waiting to be excavated. They all cheered and applauded for the achievement so far.
Bai Wulei raised Bai Xinghe's broken hand high and showed the Cosmos Ring on it to everybody, while he declared, "Bai Xinghe has a lot of secret bases in Capital Nest. He told some of them to me personally but kept the rest a secret. He thought that I did not know them at all!
"Hehe. He did not know that I have been investigating them in secret for a long time. All his secret bases are crystal clear to me!
"Our time is precious. I'm about to send the coordinates of Bai Xinghe's secret bases to your crystal processors. You will start searching for him immediately. Don't give him any time to rest!"
When a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator rushed at full speed, they could run to more than ten kilometers away every minute. Therefore, it was indeed important that they took action instantly.
In the blink of an eye, Fengyu Zhong, Bai Wulei, and the Black King, as well as the experts from Black Spider Tower and the Immortal Army, marched toward Bai Xinghe's secret bases.
The rest of the brutal bandits also rubbed their fists and dispersed, motivated by the prospect of treasures.
The crystal suit center that was exceptionally lively a while ago was now wreathed in dead silence. Nothing could be heard except the collapsing sounds of the furnaces and heavy facilities established at higher locations, which were falling off because the foundations supporting them had broken apart.
Li Yao took off the broken Drunk Bat Battlesuit slowly and vomited the last mouthful of blood that he had faked. While he lowered his head and pretended to cough, he hid the bouncing brilliance inside his eyes deeply.
Through the risky confrontation with Bai Xinghe a moment ago, he had achieved three purposes.
Firstly, the crystal bombs that he detonated had interfered with everybody's vision and telepathic thoughts and slightly increased Bai Xinghe's odds of escape.
Secondly, one of the crystal bombs that he detonated stored a special drug named 'Ice Butterfly Powder'.
Such a drug was retrieved from the bodies of dozens of insects and refined into two genders, male and female.
When the female drug was released, it would be stuck to the human body and could not be washed away easily.
The drug was flavorless and colorless. It gave no painful or itchy feelings when it touched the skin. If the victim was not looking for it, they would never feel anything wrong.
However, as long as the essence of the male drug was dipped into the eyes, one would be able to vaguely see the traces that the Ice Butterfly Powder left in the air.
It was like Li Yao had put a reel of threads on Bai Xinghe's body and was holding one end of the threads in his hands.
Wherever Bai Xinghe was hiding, he would be able to track the guy and find him!
The refining methods of the 'Ice Butterfly Powder' was an ancient prescription that Li Yao had found in the Heavenly Refining Tower in Ou Yezi's memory pieces. Li Yao believed that even Bai Xinghe would not know of such a secret art in the world!
Thirdly, Li Yao was trying to wreck the Drunk Bat Battlesuit with Bai Xinghe's hands!
Before the battle, the Drunk Bat Battlesuit had been connected to the network on Fengyu Zhong's side. Everybody's vision and coordinates were shared.
For commanders such as Fengyu Zhong, they were also aware of the performance parameters of every crystal suit.
While Li Yao could see the picture from the main perspective through other people's crystal cameras, other people naturally could see a lot of things through the crystal cameras of the Drunk Bat Battlesuit.
But in the search that followed, Li Yao did not wish to be monitored by Fengyu Zhong all the time, nor would he want other people to see anything they should not see through his crystal cameras when he found Bai Xinghe.
If he switched to a different crystal suit without a good reason, he would raise a lot of suspicion under whatever pretext.
But right now, since the Drunk Bat Battlesuit was on the brink of destruction, he put on his standby crystal suit and was in too much of a hurry to search for Bai Xinghe to join Fengyu Zhong's network again. It made sense more or less now.
Shua!
Li Yao pointed at his forehead with his index finger and his middle finger of his right hand, retrieving a very commonly-seen crystal suit on Spider Den named 'Dark Crow Battlesuit' from his Cosmos Ring.
The crystal suit had been specially modified by Li Yao, not to strengthen it but to weaken it. All the complicated components were removed. Except for the fundamental rune arrays, it was essentially an empty shell.
Moreover, mini crystal bombs had been installed to all the joints of the crystal suit. It was made sure that the crystal suit would be detonated instantly at his telepathic thought.
The sole purpose of the modification was to reduce the hinderances during his 'air change' and make it even faster. He would be able to summon the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, his real trump card, in the blink of an eye!
To start with, Li Yao was already an expert of 'air change'. His speed in putting on a different crystal suit was already fast enough.
Through such a design, he would not be changing into a different crystal suit; he would be simply putting on one.
Therefore, the speed at which he put on the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit would certainly be higher than what the enemy anticipated!
As long as he was 0.1 seconds faster than the enemy's expectation, it would be much more likely that he secured the final victory of the battle!
Swoosh!
Li Yao turned into a streak of blackness and disappeared into the depths of Capital Nest.
Taking quite a few turns and reaching the corner of a mining hole, Li Yao stopped and dipped two clusters of a translucent, deep blue ointment into his eyes.
When he returned to the sky of the crystal suit center, Li Yao was confident and observed the battlefield from a high stance, trying to find the traces of the target.
A weird thing happened!
On the northeast corner of the crystal suit, a vague blue trace was floating, as if countless blue butterflies were dancing.
It was the trace that the Ice Butterfly Powder left in the air and also the route of Bai Xinghe's escape.
However, the blue trace did not extend to far away and simply vanished into thin air.
Leaning against the wall of the mining hole, Li Yao dashed close silently. He investigated where the trace disappeared, only to find that it was an area of collapsed debris. Countless narrow gaps were among the broken ultra-large furnaces.
Deep inside the furnaces, the blue trace could be clearly seen again.
Could it be—
Li Yao's heart was beating fast as he thought of a possibility.
Bai Xinghe was indeed bold. When everybody thought that he would run far, far away because of his heavy wounds, he had returned to hide in the depths of the crystal suit center right below Fengyu Zhong, Bai Wulei, and the Black King's noses after leaving the impression that he had left!
Li Yao secretly complimented the Pirate Potentate, before he blinked into the debris.
In the middle of utter darkness, the trace of the Ice Butterfly Power was still crystal clear. Li Yao followed Bai Xinghe's route of escape and gradually moved downwards after a few zigzags.
Passing through two ventilation tubes and one forsaken transmission tube of materials, wriggling quietly for almost ten minutes, and jumping off a fracture, Li Yao arrived at a stinky sewage processing pool.
It was not ordinary sewage that was processed here, but the cooling liquids from the refining work and the residues after Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures were purified in the crystal suit center.
Most of the sewage was highly poisonous and corrosive.
Inside the pool, almost a hundred kinds of different sewage in various colors were blended, making it look like a great vat where bubbles where popping up nonstop.
Despite the filtering of his crystal suit, Li Yao still felt that two burning chisels had been stabbed into his nostrils. It was quite unpleasant.
The pool was surrounded by tubes leading in every direction. There were also several dark pathways whose destinations Li Yao did not know.
However, none of the channels had the trace of the Ice Butterfly Powder.
On the other hand, the surface of the colorful sewage was vaguely reflecting the dim light of the powder when Li Yao observed it carefully.
Li Yao sneered and raised his wariness while he jumped into the sewage.
He had been prepared for the possibility that Bai Xinghe was lurking right inside the pool.
However, there was something else inside the pool. A long outlet tube was at the bottom of the pool and led to nobody knew where.
Li Yao frowned. Normal liquids could not wash off the Ice Butterfly Powder, but the sewage here was mixed with the waste of countless Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and had removed most of the Ice Butterfly Powder.
He could only vaguely sense the starry brilliance before him now.
Li Yao swam forward hard. After floating in the dark, dirty water for almost twenty minutes, he suddenly felt a hint of brightness above his head.
He groped and found a hole more than one meter in diameter in the top of the tube. The edge of the hole was quite rough, and it was exactly the size for a man in crystal suit to crawl out.
This is the place!
Li Yao was refreshed. He suddenly raised his hands and tossed out a flare that stored super flashing rune arrays as well as an ordinary crystal bomb.
As he expected, the moment the crystal bomb exploded, a furious wind blew past the above the tube!
Li Yao took the opportunity to jump up. Before the enemy realized what was going on, he threw out yet another two flash bangs and two decoys. A high-pitched shriek burst out in the narrow space which was soon enshrouded in black smoke!
Li Yao was like a giant spider when he dashed out of the tube. He slid on the ground on all fours to the edge of the narrow room.
Everything was covered in smoke. Under the interference of the lights, noise, and telepathic thoughts, Bai Xinghe, who was already heavily wounded, would not be able to locate his precise location, while he could lock onto his enemy with the last traces of the Ice Butterfly Powder.
Bai Xinghe realized that his precious attack had failed and immediately calmed down. Like a wounded tiger, he crouched to the side of Li Yao.
While the flash bangs gradually faded out, Li Yao glanced at the surroundings and discovered that he was in a secret chamber no larger than five square meters. Green moss was growing all over the walls. Cockroaches and rats were fleeing in a hurry to the corners.
Then, he was wreathed by absolute darkness again and faced with the most terrifying man on Spider Den silently.
Chapter 732: Mutual Deterrence |
Hum! Hum! Hum! Hum! Hum! Hum! Hum!
Li Yao's every brain cell was shaking violently, and his computational ability soared as he recalled Bai Xinghe's appearance that he had caught a moment ago.
The man was still wearing the Dragon King Battlesuit, but it had been twisted during the high-intensity combat. The eight previously-magnificent dragon heads were now dangling down. Two of the heads had been entirely chopped off, with only half the artificial limb left, like eels that had been skinned and beheaded.
Besides his broken left hand, which was still bleeding, there was a shocking giant hole on his abdomen. Although he was suppressing the wound with his spiritual energy, Li Yao still vaguely saw the scattered organs through the flesh and blood.
Bai Xinghe could not have looked more lackluster.
But Li Yao was absolutely certain that it was faked.
Right now, Li Yao had two options. Or rather, he had two purposes by chasing after Bai Xinghe at risk.
If Bai Xinghe was still capable of fighting, Li Yao would try everything he could to cooperate with him. He would try to restore the man's strength so that he could gather his remaining troops and drag the Temple of Immortals down like a sticky, smelly candy. The strength of the Immortal Cultivators would be reduced as much as possible this way.
But if Bai Xinghe was too heavily wounded to be saved, Li Yao would kill him in advance, and then—
He would take away the Dragon King Battlesuit, the best crystal suit on Spider Den!
Li Yao had not done much 'murdering before robbing', but since his opponent was the Pirate Potentate and a criminal who had committed countless gory crimes, he would not be bothered at all if he had to do it.
Li Yao had witnessed the invincibility of the Dragon King Battlesuit in person just now. Although he was betrayed by his disciple and two experts in the Nascent Soul Stage were attacking him collectively, Bai Xinghe had still managed to kill at least three Core Formation Stage Cultivators instantly with the Dragon King Battlesuit!
The eight extendable artificial arms of the Dragon King Battlesuit as well as the 'dragon balls' that can devour and pour out spiritual energy are all perfect magical equipment!
