Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

”The Seven-Step Rock Snake is a mid-size crystal suit jointly manufactured by the Dipper Society and Star Nebula University. It is 2.07 meters tall and has a total weight of 3.88 ton. It’s an armor with a composite structure of demon beast materials and ultra-high-strength alloy, while scales from seven different serpent-type demon beasts covered its vital areas. The ends of its arms have vibro-blades in the shape of snake fangs, which are forged using the heaven and earth material called ’Howling Rock’. When the Howling Rock is waved, it can produce piercing howls that can turn into a spiritual attack and directly harm the soul of demon beasts!

”This crystal suit pays equal attention to both strength and agility and is a perfect fit for those Exos who have a certain power and pursue speed and agility. It’s an exact match with my latest data.

”The Thunder Training Camp’s reputation is truly well deserved. Even the test-type crystal suit is prepared so thoughtfully!”

Li Yao licked his lips as his eyes radiated with a greedy look. Holding his breath, he lightly caressed the ’Seven-Step Rock Snake’ crystal suit!

As the crystal processor began to boot up, the Seven-Step Rock Snake’s super-compressed crystal cell reactor also began to operate, thereby releasing a tremendous, powerful spiritual energy and awakening the sleeping array glyphs one after another.

A substantive killing intent was gushing out from every groove of this ultimate weapon which gathered into a ghastly reddish aura, just like proliferating ripples, giving it an even more grim and appalling look.

BEEP!

Above the completely enclosed Seven-Step Rock Snake’s helmet, a radiating glyph in the form of a coiling snake was engraved.

The system test was complete!

Li Yao lightly tapped on the activation glyph on the Seven-Step Rock Snake, following which, a slight buzzing of the suit starting up resounded before the ghastly aura lingering around the battle suit was sucked inside. The suit gradually opened up like a blooming Crab Claw Chrysanthemum; revealing a human-shape recess.

Wherein was complex array glyphs outlined by overflowing resplendent lights as well as interlacing crystal fibers; it was incomparably mysterious and wonderful to boot.

A massive telepathic thought uninterruptedly poured into Li Yao neural field from the crystal processor of the Seven-Step Rock Snake.

It was the information relating to the Seven-Step Rock Armor as well as the basic operating tutorial.

Taking a deep breath, Li Yao walked into the suit box and stood close to the Seven-Step Rock Snake.

”Seven-Step Rock Snake, start!”

The petal-like suit components closed one by one; they fit together rather perfectly.

Driven by the array glyphs, the spiritual energy quickly circulated in its entire body as Li Yao and the crystal suit merged into a whole; the crystal fibers and Li Yao’s meridians fused together, forming perfect connections.

BOOM

Li Yao’s soul felt a burst of an inexplicable wave.

As if his consciousness was leaving his body and reached a whole new state!

The feeling of piloting a crystal suit was completely different from wearing a heavy-armor.

There was not even the slightest bit of burden or restraint. It was like possessing a new body, one that had numerous new, powerful organs.

The fully enclosed helmet had six crystal eyes around it, giving him a 360 degree, omnidirectional vision. Two of which, one in the front and one in the back, were long-range crystal eyes; such long-range vision allowed Li Yao to clearly see the texture of a rock two hundred meters away. In the center was a thermographic crystal eye; observing through which gave him a colorful and magnificent view.

This kind of sensation was truly uncomfortable.

A human’s visual nerves and brain had long been accustomed to observing the world in a certain way.

The instant the entire world from multiple angles on multiple screens surged into his brain, the first reaction of Li Yao was that of dizziness; he felt the urge to vomit.

Having closed his eyes, everything went dark, whereas his hearing and other senses were amplified.

He could even hear his breath, the gravel rubbing against each other, his heartbeat, the spiritual energy flowing between the crystal fibers, the rocks getting crushed by the crystal suit, as well as the dust drifting in the wind.

These sounds were intermixed with the buzzing sound made by hundreds of array glyphs operating simultaneously.

Rumor had it that a veteran Exo could distinguish the condition of every array glyphs from these sounds.

But when Li Yao came to hear them, it was like bees dancing in the air; it was a chaotic cacophony.

Meanwhile, his skin became extra sensitive. It was like tens of thousands of feathers were tickling him at the same time; making him quiver continuously.

In such a situation, Li Yao straightened up his neck and stood still for half-a-minute as he slowly adjusted to the extremely sharp five senses.

However, new, complex information flooded his brain.

The information included the operating condition of 655 crucial array glyphs, the spiritual energy output of the reactor, the meticulous details of various magical equipment, as well as, humidity, temperature, pressure, wind speed, wind direction, the distance between the various targets in the surroundings, the subsequent best line of attack...

Li Yao felt as if his brain was going to explode.

Taking two long, deep breaths, Li Yao raised his arm to look carefully, disregarding the information flooding his brain. He slowly moved his fingers with a gasp of praise.

The snakelike palm of Seven-Step Rock Armor moved exactly the same.

Li Yao calmed himself down a bit.

”Apart from the amplified five senses, I also need to deal with a large amount of information. It seems, piloting the crystal suit isn’t particularly difficult. Let’s try taking two steps!”

Just as the thought of ”walking” flashed in his mind, his leg muscles immediately tightened up before Li Yao’s whole body rushed out as if someone had ruthlessly kicked his ass, as if someone had pulled an invisible thread wrapped around his leg hard.

”What the hell!” Li Yao screamed.

The instant he rushed out, further pieces of information flooded his mind; the quantity of information swarming his brain was ten times than before. All the information gathered into an agglomeration and flooded his brain in the blink of an eye!

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

The propulsion array glyphs engraved on the limbs and the back of the Seven-Step Rock Snake sprayed jets of dazzling flares as the reactor burst forth with a powerful spiritual energy, exerting a strong propulsion on him from various angles.

Li Yao was moving like he was dead-drunk, he tumbled left and right, waved his hands and stamped his feet in the most ludicrous ways, arousing bursts of exclamations and ridicule.

After almost brushing against two nearby crystal suits, Li Yao somehow turned himself around. Realizing that he was going to crash into his suit box, he exerted strength in his legs desperately and leaped high into the air as if a super firework had exploded underneath his ass, and heavily slammed down thereafter with a loud slam. Tossing around seven or eight times, he fell backward with his legs and arms stuck up in the air.

”It’s too hard to control!

”This is the basic beginner mode...with sensitivity lowered to 30%...yet it is so difficult!

”If it was the normal mode, just a flash of thought would send the crystal suit flying three hundred to five hundred meters away. Then how would I pilot this thing!”

Li Yao was deeply shocked.

He recalled the theory which he had learned a few days ago.

The relation between the cultivator and his crystal suit was like the relation between a general and his war horse in the ancient times.

In the ancient cold weapon era, a general, no matter how stocky build and imposing manner he had, how great physical strength and courage he had, if fighting on foot, it would be impossible to defeat a hundred to two hundred enemy soldiers.

However, this very same general, once on a horse, would have the speed, power, and momentum of waving over a hundred pound heavy weapon elevated to the extreme by relying on the momentum of the horse.

Not to mention a hundred to two hundred soldiers, even if he were up against a thousand, he could charge at them seven to eight times and finally could withdraw with very few injuries.

A good warhorse could greatly increase the fighting power of a general!

The better the war horse, the more violent nature it had and the better the riding skill a general needed to have to subdue it and ride it!

The same was true for the crystal suit!

A powerful crystal suit was no different than a proud and violent horse; it was extremely difficult to pilot it.

But once you could successfully control it, your battle force would increase exponentially!

Li Yao’s performance was an example of an unsuccessful attempt at taming a savage horse and was subsequently flung by this savage horse.

”It doesn’t make sense!

”This crystal suit’s sensitivity is locked at 30% so that a beginner can control it. And certainly, the increase in battle force will be lowest; it can only elevate my battle force to around 180%.

”Even the basic mode is so hard to control, let alone the high-level mode when the sensitivity is increased to 200% and battle force is increased by 500%!

”This is not alright. I will be unable to pilot Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit with this kind of performance!

”One more time! I can do it!”

Li Yao didn’t believe in hearsay. Clenching his teeth, he once again started to control the crystal suit.

”First, I need to be gentle, slow, and steady, stand up bit by bit...”

When Li Yao was busy learning how to stand and walk, the first ten students were already whirring across the field.

Running, dodging, jumping, flying, attacking, sprinting, storming!

These trainees all had a certain amount of experience in piloting the crystal suit. In addition, it was the basic beginner mode. They didn’t face any obstruction at all, their maneuvers were completely fluid and they didn’t even take half-a-minute to complete the test.

Their magnificent maneuvers and wonderful performances garnered secret praises even from the Chief Instructor Mao Feng and the several instructors watching.

SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH

The huge hologram floating above the testing site displayed the overall test score of the trainees.

Impressively, Yuan Yeshi had topped the ranking with a score of 88 out of 100; it was a pretty good score.

”This Yuan Yeshi is a student of Deep Sea University Exos Department. He wasn’t getting aroused by the university’s curriculum and specifically came to our training camp over summer vacations.”

A bald instructor told Mao Feng, laughing, ”He has a solid foundation and can be trained in accordance with the highest standards. In my opinion, he could very likely become the best among the hundred trainees.”

Mao Feng nodded absently. Suddenly, he jerked his chin towards a direction and asked doubtfully, ”Who is piloting that staggering Seven-Step Rock Snake? It’s already set in beginner mode yet he can’t even walk safely! Even though coming to our training camp with such aptitude isn’t burning much money, it is still wasting our time!”

The bald instructor glanced at the hologram and quickly replied, ”He is Grand Desolate War Institution’s Li Yao.”

Mao Feng’s countenance became extremely weird as he said, frowning, ”What happened to him?

”Although this little guy is not very powerful, he has a splendid record and is quite intelligent as well. At the beginning, I was quite looking forward to his performance, but how can he perform so badly!?”

The bald instructor pursed his lips into a smile as he said, ”It’s quite simple. Some people are inherently unsuitable for piloting crystal suits. No matter how much they train, it’s all futile.

”Some Foundation Building Stage experts and even Golden Core Stage powerhouses can control other magical equipment like an arm directing its fingers, but once they enter the crystal suit, they seemed to have been shackled and under a restrictive spell; all of a sudden, they would become stupid and clumsy.

”What I mean to say is, their talent with crystal suit was not fated.

”Although such people are not many, there are still one or two in one hundred. Maybe Li Yao is one of them. He can only blame his bad luck!”

Mao Feng pursed his lips, ”Forget it, let him be. After watching him drive the crystal suit like that, I really want to wash my eyes!”

”Ah!”

At this time, the bald instructor suddenly exclaimed. He said, dumbfounded, ”93 points!? Someone among the second batch of trainees has actually scored 93 points!? Genius! He is a true genius!”