Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

”I’m afraid I was too outspoken towards the end and ridiculed ’Magical Equipment World’ to their bones. Will they write something bad about us if they feel insulted?”

Li Yao was a little ill at ease.

”If we didn’t ridicule them, would they write something good for us?”

Yuan Manqiu patted his shoulder. ”Rest assured. I picked you as our spokesman today because you are a student and it is not a big deal what you say. We’ll be able to clean up the mess however you castigate them.

”Also, you didn’t overstep any line just now. You just said that you would decline interviews and reviews of ’Magical Equipment World’ personally. Young men are always rash. Everyone understands that. Besides, there are still ’Refiners’ Home’ and ’Flying Sword and Battle Armor’.

”Even if the three magical equipment magazines are all against us, it is still unimportant. The Grand Desolate War Institution has its own media channels, too!”

The Grand Desolate War Institution was relatively weaker in regard to refining. However, as one of the Nine Elite Universities, it boasted great comprehensive capability and had a lot of connections both in the military and in the news industry. It was also in a good relationship with the Demon Hunters’ Association, whose magazine ’Predator’ had crystal suit sections, too.

Besides, now that Li Yao had pointed out the conflict between ’Magical Equipment World’ and himself to the public, it would be questionable whether the three magical equipment magazines were bold enough to continue posting negative reviews about the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.

Chances were that they might have to return to a relatively neutral position due to the pressure.

As it turned out, the news of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit had appeared on the live stream of dozens of media outlets within the next hour, informing the entire federation of its arrival.

The mysterious promotional audio, the intimidating stage setting, the amazing stability and durability of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, the startling strength control of Li Yao, who had been engaged in a violent quarrel with a reporter from ’Magical Equipment World’…

All of these made the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit and Li Yao a focus of public attention.

”The decorations of the Grand Desolate War Institution’s booth are so unique! Their battle-scarred crystal suit is very interesting, too. They seem to be very confident about the quality of their crystal suit.”

”The Cultivator who was wearing the crystal suit was awesome! His subtle control over his fists is unbelievable! We’ve never heard that the Grand Desolate War Institution has such an ace Exo before, have we?”

”Wow! Publicly snubbing ’Magical Equipment World’? That’s so impressive!”

Such discussions were all over the Nexus.

Grand Desolate War Institution, Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, Vulture Li Yao… became trending words of the day on many major forums.

Back in the Magical Equipment Exposition, the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit attracted more and more eyes, too.

Visitors crowded to the Grand Desolate War Institution’s booth. Every staff member was cornered by enthusiastic reporters. Li Yao didn’t avoid his fate of being besieged, either. All those who came touched the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit in person to examine whether or not the damages were real.

The competitors of the Grand Desolate War Institution felt great pressure.

After watching Li Yao’s astounding performance, the visitors had questioned the stability and the durability of other MP crystal suit models.

This time, many sects were dripping cold sweat.

Even the Mournful Mist Battlesuit of the Star Nebula University and the Sword Torrent Battlesuit of the three major sword-training sects were not good enough for a performance of precision like Li Yao’s due to different designing purposes, let alone the rest of the MP crystal suit models which were basically pieces of previous models patched up together.

…

Below Deep Sea University’s booth, deep inside the Kingdom of Magical Equipment, in an enclosed testing room.

”Pa! Pa Pa Pa Pa!”

Zuo Feijing was punching a dynamometer wearing the Tiger King Battlesuit one time after another. The dynamometer was shaking violently.

The light beam beside showed the reading of his strength,

”999.99 kg!”

”888.88 kg!”

”999.99 kg!”

”888.87 kg!”

Zuo Feijing stopped.

The helmet split, revealing a gloomy face, whose owner was deep in thought looking at the glittering reading in front of him.

Behind him, Jiang Sheng, the Supernova, remarked calmly, ”Feijing, don’t let it bother you too much.

”In order to be an instant hit, the Grand Desolate War Institution must’ve put a lot of thought into it before they finally figured out a test that could best demonstrate the characteristics of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.

”The test pilot must’ve practiced it many times, too. It’s even possible that he did nothing but practice precisely punching over the past month.

”Besides, the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit on the stage must’ve been adjusted to strengthen its stability and precision.

”This is your first try. It’s perfectly normal that you didn’t achieve the result you wanted, and it doesn’t mean that Tiger King is worse than Mystic Skeleton, or that you are worse than the test pilot.

”You’ve read the specifications of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, which are poles apart from ours. This is just a gimmick. In a real battle, stability and precision are indeed important. But how will a ten-minute punching with a constant velocity help a soldier? God knows!

”So, we don’t need to be distracted by the Grand Desolate War Institution and dance to their rhythm.

”There are a thousand tests that the Tiger King Battlesuit can do and the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit can’t. Why do you cling on this particular test which is utterly absurd?”

Zuo Feijing was quiet for a while. Then he said, ”Professor, I heard that the name of the Grand Desolate War Institution’s test pilot was Li Yao. Is he the same Li Yao who defeated Jiang Shaoyang before?”

Jiang Sheng nodded his head and sighed.

”Correct. That’s him. I’m not optimistic about the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit. However, this ’Vulture Li Yao’ is indeed a good disciple of my beloved Senior Sister Yuan’s. An exemplary young man of his age.”

Zuo Feijing continued, ”Is it true that he never touched crystal suits until last year in the Thunder Training Camp?”

Jiang Sheng paused for a moment. Then he replied, ”I have arranged someone to check it out. But I don’t think they would lie about that. Besides, Li Yao was born in a magical equipment graveyard, which is not a decent place for anyone to grow up in. It’s not unusual that he never touched crystal suits before.”

”I got it.”

Zuo Feijing nodded. His furrowed brows suddenly loosened as he put on a sunny smile, ”I was regretting that Mournful Mist and Sword Torrent were not enough to fulfil my hungry stomach.

”But with Vulture Li Yao joining the game, I think I might be able to enjoy a nice meal with Mystic Skeleton, Mournful Mist, and Sword Torrent on my tray.”

”Shua!”

The helmet wrapped up again.

A hurricane suddenly appeared in front of Zuo Feijing, who was punching at a much faster speed than Li Yao did. Hundreds of punches were completed within ten seconds.

”999.99 kg!”

”888.88 kg!”

”999.99 kg!”

”888.88 kg!”

This time, the readings were identical without the slightest flaw.

…

Luo Jingang, leader of Thunderbolt Hall, was a high-level Cultivator at the Building Foundation Stage and a tough man who had gained his expertise through mountains of dead bodies and seas of blood.

His soul was extremely solid. He didn’t even wince when he fell into a trap made by more than ten high-level demon generals.

But as he went into the booth of Red Serpent Sect, he felt so dizzy that he was falling to the ground at any moment, partly because the advanced and splendid crystal suits inside dazzled him, and partly because he was shocked by the price tag below them.

”Dammit, why are crystal suits so expensive nowadays?”

Cold sweat was appearing on the forehead of Luo Jingang, who had never raised his eyebrow even when surging beast tide was coming at him. He was starting to realize that this shopping trip was not going to be as smooth as he had thought.

Luo Jingang used to be an unaffiliated Cultivator who often went to the depths of the Grand Desolate Plateau with his brothers to hunt down demon beasts. Slashing the sharpest saber, drinking the strongest liquor, slaughtering the brutalist demon beasts… It had been quite an enjoyable life back then.

However, as they grew older, they all started their own families and recruited many disciples. More and more mouths were counting on them to feed.

Hunting demon beasts was a dangerous job. After decades in the wilderness, many of his friends had been seriously wounded. Some even perished, leaving broken families behind them.

Wounds of the living had to be treated. Families of the deceased had to be attended to. As the team grew larger and larger, money became a top priority. It seemed irresponsible to be a free unaffiliated Cultivator anymore.

It happened that Luo Jingang discovered a mother lode of rare crystals while he was hunting demon beasts. According to the federal law, the exploitation right fell into their hands after they paid a huge amount of tax.

After discussing with his brothers, Luo Jingang registered his own sect, Thunderbolt Hall, based on the mother lode.

He had thought that with such a precious mother lode, they would be able to live a comfortable life for several years.

However, development of the mother lode was not as easy as it sounded. What Luo Jingang discovered was a deep mother lode. The valuable resources were buried thousands of meters down in the ground, which required special mining magical equipment to dig out. The initial costs would be very high. But the yield when the resources were retrieved was promising, too.

Luo Jingang’s ambition was burning brighter than ever. He gritted his teeth and borrowed a large sum of money from the bank with the mother lode as the collateral. With the loan, he purchased the latest mining magical equipment and hired a research-type Cultivator who was adept at earth-class and metal-class spiritual energy as the technical director of Thunderbolt Hall.

His brothers and he had invested all their savings into the new sect. According to the estimation of the technical director, as long as the mother lode was mined normally, their initial input would be redeemed within five years. The mother lode had enough resources for the use of a hundred years, which was long enough for the Thunderbolt Hall to develop into a middle-size sect with around a hundred Cultivators.

The promising project plan had elated both Luo Jingang and his brothers.

However, fortune is always fickle. Since last year, the demon beasts on the Grand Desolate Plateau grew more and more irritated. The mother lode of the Thunderbolt Hall had been frequented by them.

The demon beasts murdered the miners and destroyed the mining magical equipment, resulting to a tremendous loss for the Thunderbolt Hall. The miners were panicked and refused to go down the wells anymore.

Luo Jingang’s life savings had been poured into the enterprise. Every day when he opened his eyes, the first thing that occurred to him was always the astronomical interest that he need to pay to the bank. He was counting on the mother lode to get rich someday.

The miners’ strike nearly choked his friends and him.

As an old Demon Hunter, Luo Jingang bothered little about the demon beasts before which had been jeopardizing his endeavor because they were not strong at all.

However, the demon beasts were locals of the underground world. They were good at stealth and sneaking, as well as employing guerilla warfare tactics. Luo Jingang cleared the mother lode up twice, and even found two nests of the demon beasts deep in the underground which he demolished. However, it didn’t help at all. The demon beasts crept back again, angrier and crazier than before.

The only solution was to set up a patrol team in the mother lode 24 hours a day for the protection of the labors.

However, Thunderbolt Hall was a newly established sect. Only Luo Jingang and several of his old friends were at the Building Foundation Stage. Their disciples and children were mostly beginners who’d just arrived at the Refinement Stage. In the underground world which was dominated by darkness, their chances of winning were slim.

After careful consideration, Leader Luo had decided to bulk purchase a batch of magical equipment for his subordinates to better defend his sect.