Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Everyone was more or less a bit discontent with Li Yao’s decision.

When a team was first formed, bringing along one or two support members who possess no combat ability, like a doctor, a spirit tattoo artist, or a refiner... was very normal.

These support members could display necessary functions in key moments, and everyone did their best to protect them with all their strength.

But as a support member, Li Yao needed to get his own status clear. No one expected him to display much combat strength, so it was best not to cause trouble.

If Li Yao were to wield a thunderfire boltgun or a similar ordinary firearm to occasionally suppress a demon beast at long range for a moment, no one would say anything even if he missed.

But he just had to carry such a huge Six Barrel Rotary Cannon. Let alone its excessive weight, it had ferocious recoil. If he really did open fire with it, he would hurt himself before even chasing off the demon beast. Wouldn’t that be asking for trouble?

So, a student with a more impatient temperament hid to the back of the group after letting out a cry. He wanted to see how Li Yao would handle this tough problem.

Li Yao had no idea what the intentions of the others were. He rolled up his sleeves to the side; he was long from being at the state of being able to hold himself back. He wielded the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon with both hands and advanced forward a few steps with great excitement. He followed the operational procedure recorded within the jade chips and laid open its support structure.

The red crystals that coiled in a circle behind the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon suddenly flared with light, letting out an ice-cold killing aura that caused one’s scalp to go numb. A humming sound came from within, making it seem like a giant metal beast was awakening from hibernation.

”Hiss!”

The Gold Armored Saber Mantis was able to sense that there was something odd with this group of humans.

However, Ding Lingdang had used the Soul Converging Technique to hide the entirety of her aura. In the eyes of the mantis, she was just a Refinement Stage cultivator.

From the perspective of this intermediate level demon soldier, even if it couldn’t slaughter all of them, if it could slaughter at least a few of them, it would walk off without a second thought.

So, with eyes revealing a savage intent, it strutted forward with imposing pressure.

It had discovered the gun wielding human within the team, but the Gold Armored Saber Mantis was known for having powerful defensive strength. It would be very hard for ordinary firearms to harm it, not to mention the distance was so close. All it needed was a few seconds to charge into the crowd and let blood and flesh fly everywhere through slaughter!

A wisp of ice-cold malevolence appeared within the scarlet compound eyes of the Gold Armored Saber Mantis. Withdrawing its limbs, just as it was about to curl up into a ball and roll into the crowd...

Li Yao took a deep breath. His slightly squinting pair of eyes suddenly bulged wide as his skin-tight black combat garments suddenly expanded while endless aura came shooting out from his pores!

Igniting the soul!

Exploding with energy!

Transforming the body!

Li Yao’s figure suddenly expanded by a factor as a faint gold luster appeared on his skin. He exerted force with both his legs, instantly splitting the earth. His feet entered three centimeters into the ground like two firm poles of a support frame, steadily holding the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon in place!

Everyone was shocked besides Ding Lingdang.

”Third level of the Refinement Stage!”

”What a powerful aura. He’s at least at the 3rd level of the Refinement Stage!”

Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan glanced at each other with incomparably complex gazes.

The two of them had crazily engaged in bitter cultivation day night and day in the Hidden Dragon Hall for half a year to barely break through to the 4th level of the Refinement Stage.

Of the rest of the hundred or so ”Hidden Dragons”, there were only a few that were able to break through to the 3rd level of the Refinement Stage.

They would never have expected that Li Yao had reached the 3rd level of the Refinement Stage.

They could tell that he had very powerful combat strength from his explosive state and that he absolutely wasn’t as simple as a typical creation-type cultivator.

He was a hybrid-type cultivator to the letter, possessing talent for both creation and combat!

”I never thought that he was actually a hybrid-type!”

Lu Tieshan laughed wryly.

A wisp of envy was revealed within the eyes of this cultivation genius.

This sort of gaze had only been exposed to him by others, and this was the first time for Lu Tieshan to be jealous of the talent of a peer.

Li Yao didn’t hear the cries of shock from the others.

From igniting his life force and exploding his spiritual energy, he entered an extremely stimulated and profound state.

It was as if there were only three things left in the entire world.

Him, the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon, and the Gold Armored Saber Mantis.

The cannon had already fused with his flesh and blood and trembled along with his breathing.

He could clearly feel the pulsations of every array glyph on the cannon’s body and of the spiritual energy of every explosive and restless bullet.

When the restlessness of this spiritual energy reached its peak, it converged into an unstoppable current of spiritual energy. His heart beat faster and faster, as if his chest would explode open in the next second...

Li Yao pulled the trigger with ferocity!

”B-B-B-B-B-B-B-Boom!”

The sight bloomed in front of everyone’s eyes. They saw dazzling glowing spheres suddenly blossom in front of Li Yao.

A streak of scarlet fire of incomparable might directly assaulted the Gold Armored Saber Mantis along with an ear-deafening roar—it instantly lifted smoke and dust to fill the skies, enveloping the Gold Armored Saber Mantis completely within!

”He...”

The Gold Armored Saber Mantis was obscured by the smoke and dust. They could only cast their gazes onto Li Yao.

Everyone’s pupils were slightly dilated.

Appearing within the depths of their eyes was a scene of incomparable horror.

Li Yao’s crazy display was simply like another terrifying demon beast!

The recoil was extremely strong. Ordinary people would find it impossible to control. The Six Barrel Rotary Cannon, which was only found mounted on crystal tanks for fixed firepower, only slightly quivered within the control of Li Yao’s powerful arms, maintaining a torrent of firepower.

Li Yao adjusted the fire rate to its maximum. Over a thousand rounds of spiritual energy explosive rounds engraved with assault-type array glyphs could be fired every minute.

This meant that he had to withstand the bombarding recoil equivalent to several dozen heavy fists from a 3rd level Refinement Stage cultivator every second!

Not only did Li Yao not shake at all, he even held up the spraying Six Barrel Rotary Cannon, withstood the heavy recoil, and forcefully advanced forward.

One step!

Two steps!

Three steps!

Every step he took embedded his feet deeply into the earth, rumbling out spiderweb-like cracks within.

Zhao Tianchong’s scalp was tingling just from watching. He whispered to Lu Tieshan:

”Think you can do it?”

Lu Tieshan watched as if he was drunk. He was stupefied for a long time before shaking his head:

”If you give me enough gas, I should be able to stand there and bombard away for half the day. But to forcefully withstand the recoil while also advancing forward and have my two arms not move even an iota, this is far too shocking! This kid’s strength and blow resistance ability are simply inhuman!”

Within half a minute, a full 900 rounds of spiritual energy explosive rounds were sprayed clean. The deafening roar spontaneously ended, yet the barrel still spun at high speeds, letting out a rising azure smoke. Li Yao roared:

”AWESOME!”

He never felt so awesome firing a gun before. All the fury that filled his heart had simply condensed within the spiritual energy explosive rounds to be completely exploded out. He could even bombard a Buddha!

”What Gold Armored Saber Mantis? You’ve just been smashed to pieces by my bombardment!”

Li Yao loaded the second ammunition belt and looked, filled with confidence, towards the depths of the smoke and dust.

The smoke cleared. The Gold Armored Saber Mantis was curled up in a shivering mass. It was frightened and unsteady, but... it was completely unharmed!

”The heck?”

Li Yao was dumbfounded, and his face immediately flushed red.

In the end, he wasn’t a cultivator who specialized in guns and neither had he cultivated in the mysterious and profound arts that were gun combat techniques.

And the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon wasn’t designed to be wielded by a single soldier, so it didn’t have a super accurate targeting system.

Even though Li Yao’s ability to resist blows was extremely strong, so much so that the recoil couldn’t hurt him, the recoil was still enough to cause the barrel to waver slightly.

Coupled this with a little bad luck, most of the bullets just grazed past the Gold Armored Saber Mantis, riddling a two hundred meter high three-floor building with countless holes. It was scattered, smashed, and on the verge of collapse.

Only 1% of the rounds had hit their target. However, the Gold Armored Saber Mantis’s carapace was circular shaped and extremely strong. Most of the rounds had bounced off, and even if one or two of the rounds could penetrate through the cracks of the carapace and explode, the rounds wouldn’t cause too much damage.

He was faced with this result, but there was no one who continued to make cynical remarks towards him.

The Six Barrel Rotary Cannon wasn’t known to be an accurate firearm, as its main purpose was to suppress the advancement of demon beasts through its violent firepower.

Looking at the Gold Armored Saber Mantis all curled up, hugging its head and scampering, being completely suppressed in place, Li Yao had completed his task of being the heavy firepower member perfectly.

”Hiss!”

The Gold Armored Saber Mantis’s compound eyes were simply about to ignite into burning embers. It never thought that its grand self of being an intermediate level demon soldier would be suppressed dead-fixed by this group of low level Refinement Stage cultivators.

It also knew that the advantage of heavy firepower laid in distance. The further the distance, the more formidable its might.

This group of humans was toast as long as it could draw close!

And it would absolutely tear that human wielding the gun at the front most of the group into countless pieces!

The Gold Armored Saber Mantis withdrew into its hard gold carapace ball in an instant and mixed together with the stench of a strong gale as it ferociously charged over to the group.

Li Yao yelled with an explosive shout. An incorporeal barrier around his body was shattered into pieces and his aura expanded by another factor.

”4th level of the Refinement Stage?”

No one even had the strength to feel shocked at this moment. They stared stupidly at Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan.

These two both reached the 4th level of the Refinement Stage. Before, everyone recognized them as two rarely seen big experts of the freshmen class.

But now appeared a third freshman at the 4th level Refinement Stage. He was able to go head to head with them.

Zhao Tianchong and Lu Tieshan gritted their teeth. It seemed that if they were to relax just a bit, a berserk howl would come shouting out of their mouths!

Li Yao’s strength had increased substantially after exploding into the realm of the 4th level of the Refinement Stage. He was able to barely suppress the muzzle of the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon into slight wavers.

Even though he could still increase by another level, he didn’t prepare to do so. Instead, he crazily calculated various cryptic and abstruse problems in his brain, madly increasing his brain cell activity.

Li Yao entered the Super Perceptive State in a second!

In an instant, a series of dazzling data about the distance, bearing, and wind direction between himself and the Gold Armored Saber Mantis manifested within his field of vision.

The most optimal shooting trajectory completed calculations a moment later!

”B-B-B-B-B-B-B-Boom!”

The Six Barrel Rotary Cannon displayed its might once more.

The accuracy of this volley increased greatly. The first series of spiritual energy explosive rounds collided against the carapace of the Gold Armored Saber Mantis, causing sparks to scatter all around. It caused this demon beast equal to the intermediate level Refinement Stage to stagger.

At least 30% of the following thousand spiritual energy explosive rounds hit their target. They bombarded the Gold Armored Saber Mantis’s carapace, causing it to split and burst. Blood and flesh flew everywhere and the hissing never stopped. It was forced to flee, but no matter where it rolled, Li Yao was able to calculate a new firing trajectory in an instant. The rounds seemed to converge into a flaming whip that ferociously whipped against its body, and the whip specifically penetrated inside.

The carapace of the Gold Armored Saber Mantis was chiseled apart ten seconds later. It retreated little by little as even a limb was severed to be sent flying.

”Don’t tell me that he could actually use the Six Barrel Rotary Cannon to forcefully slay an intermediate level demon soldier?”

Everyone had their eyes bulging and their mouths gaping. They watched Li Yao advance step by step, forcing the Gold Armored Saber Mantis into a corner, making it completely defenseless under the bombardment.

This was completely a display of firepower—a super shocking display of firepower!