Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

”Black Chess Player, Building Foundation Stage, 89 victories, 34 failures, sync rate: 79%!”

It seemed to be just another random top expert, but his match with Vulture was quite weird.

Their battlefield was ’Burning Desert’. The temperature of the map was more than five hundred degrees. The quicksand was fluid like a river, dotted all around the field. If anyone stepped into the quicksand, half of their body would immediately by buried in the sand. Power rune arrays were prone to clogging up with dust in midair if one were to fly for too long in a crystal suit.

It seemed peaceful, but it was, in fact, a perilous map.

Black Chess Player and Vulture were both clumsy. They were circling like two cautious roosters. Very occasionally, one of them would make a few steps toward the opponent, but then he would often retreat before his opponent took any countermeasures and continued staying in the safety area.

Only after they’d circled several times, when all the spectators were yawning in boredom, did the two crystal suits suddenly glitter and collide in dazzling brilliance.

But just as everyone held their breath and stared intently, the two of them parted and started drawing circles again insipidly.

The monotonous competition frustrated most of the spectators.

But for a real expert such as Long Walker, this was a duel where one could hear a roaring thunder from the ostensible quietness.

Black Chess Player was just as his name suggested. Like the most brilliant chess player, he played a lethal chess game emotionlessly and expressionlessly. Countless deadly traps had been set up while he was circling around, only to be resolved by Vulture time and time again.

Sometimes, Vulture would pretend that he had fallen for one of the traps that his opponent had laid out, but he was actually setting up his own traps inside his opponent’s. Black Chess Player was nearly fooled several times, and only narrowly escaped from the disasters by his sharp senses in the last half second.

Such soul-stirring competition was too thrilling to miss for even one second. An unseen fierce battle was being fought in the tranquility!

Twenty-one minutes later, a terrible hole was broken on the chest of Eight Arm. Vulture had failed for the first time!

But Long Walker only admired Vulture more.

He had been in touch with ’Black Chess Player’ before, and from special sources, he had learned that ’Black Chess Player’ was actually a secondary account of a player who was one of the champions of the Death Ray Arena, one of the five major arenas of the Flying Star Sector!

It has taken the top Exo from one of the five major arenas more than twenty minutes to put Vulture down?

Lone Walker was greatly astonished. He sighed in disbelief.

…

Li Yao was exuberant.

Fighting at will with experts of various origins and to be killed by their ultimate skills was the greatest entertainment for a crystal suit maniac such as himself.

”This ’Black Chess Player’ is really impressive. His scheming ability is as good as mine, and his computational ability might even be higher. He truly makes a great enemy!

”Too bad that this body is too weak. Many special tactical movements could not be supported by it. Somebody just tapped my chest and I was already dead. So unsatisfying!”

Li Yao sniffed.

The virtualized bodies in the World of Crystal Suits were similar to each other. They were simulations of the average body hardness of the Cultivators in the middle level of the Building Foundation Stage.

However, Li Yao’s body had been strengthened by the Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining technique. He had also activated the primordial force of the prehistoric beasts concealed inside his body’s cells through the heritage of Iron God Yan Ba, a body fundamentalist. To sum up, his body was hundreds of times harder than that of a regular Cultivator!

It was not exaggerating to say that he was a prehistoric beast wearing human skin!

If it were in reality, his speed and strength would’ve been at least 60% higher than those in the virtual world. The blow that he suffered earlier couldn’t have deprived him of his combat ability even if his chest was stabbed through. He had a dozen backup plans that could easily slay ’Black Chess Player’!

However, it was not victory that he sought. He had merely been trying to familiarize himself with the fighting styles of the Flying Star Sector and see what he could learned from them.

Li Yao was not bothered by the failure. He smiled and went on to the next match.

From that day on, Li Yao went on a rampage on the virtual matching platform.

Since he had a winning rate of more than 90% in the first day and defeated Lone Walker, who was a minor celebrity, his challenge requests were much less frequently refused than previously.

However, Li Yao didn’t cling to the Eight Arm Suit. He also tried some twenty classic battlesuits of the Flying Star Sector so that he could know the shortcomings of his opponents better.

He had employed the same tactic. At first, he resisted the stormy attacks of the experts of the Flying Star Sector with his amazing defense ability, while he observed their seemingly immaculate movements until he found the brief opening. Then, he made the best use of the environment and lured his opponent to carelessly enlarge their opening. Eventually, he finished his opponent with a regular move in just one attack!

Very soon, the name of ’Vulture’ spread out in the virtual matching platform just like ’Fiend Star’ did a few days prior.

In the comment section, many people were discussing the mysterious Vulture and speculating about his real identity.

Some other people were wondering why he never resorted to any skill cards but simply secured his victory with the most rudimental moves.

There were even people who considered his attacks as models to study.

The attention that he attracted surprised Li Yao. In the coming few days, he adjusted his capability on purpose. During the matches, he intentionally ignored many deadly openings that he discovered and simply kept them in mind.

Sometimes, he slowed down and was struck by many attacks that he could’ve avoided in order to build up his resistance ability.

His winning rate was maintained at around 65%. Among the Building Foundation Stage Cultivators, he was among the better ones but definitely not the best. It was enough for him to challenge most of the top experts without causing too much suspicion.

In the meantime, he was still exchanging ideas with his fellow Cultivators in the Q&A zone under the name of ’Fiend Star’ with the title of ’Specialist in classical refining theories’.

Over the one month, Li Yao had a great time. His capability in theory and in practical combat both soared exponentially.

Then, the Thousand Sails Space Zone was within their reach.

”We are arriving in the Thousand Sails Space Zone!”

Starting from executing the space pirates of Storm Prison, it had taken them more than three months to cruise through the Dim Flame Belt on the battered Gold Horn all the way to the Thousand Sails Space Zone, the camp for all the free Exos.

Counting from the time when Great Horn Exo Society signed the contract with a bag of rice as payment, it had almost been half a year.

Travelling in the sea of stars could prove to be a long and tedious journey. Now that their destination was drawing near, everyone on board was ecstatic. Even Li Yao felt excited, too.

Before he had the chance to bellow in exhilaration, Zhao Nuo and the other young warriors of the Tiger Killer Camp jumped on him. He was bearhugged by almost ten muscular men!

”Brother Yao, we finally made it!”

”We’ve reached the Thousand Sails Space Zone!”

”Hahahaha. Hot spring, hard liquor, beautiful girls, I’m coming for you all!”

The room they were in was surrounded by a circular light beam. As if the shell of the starship had melted all of a sudden, everyone was placed in the middle of the sea of stars.

Unfolding in front of everyone’s eyes was a space zone that was extremely lively. Starships, star fortresses, and asteroids were everywhere. Silver metal membranes extended from all the man-made celestial bodies. Their coverage was hundreds of times larger than the area of the object they were attached to. Reflecting colorful brilliances, they were like sails made of rainbows.

They were also how the Thousand Sails Space Zone got its name.

Sails were unnecessary during a voyage in the sea of stars. Even if one wanted to make use of the energy stored in the cosmic storms, they usually wouldn’t resort to sails because meteoroid showers were often mixed inside the cosmic storms which could wreck the sails of the starship easily.

However, inside the Thousand Sails Space Zone, there were dozens of belts where spiritual energy was extremely dense. They were like rivers of spiritual energy. The magical equipment that opened up like sails was meant to gather spiritual gas from them.

Spiritual gas was not visible to the human eye, but it could be detected by special crystal cameras. The light beam around the room blinked. A few translucent bright belts appeared and floated in the dark space. They were various colors and flowed slowly like brooks in the universe.

Gold Horn had been installed with a set of ’sails’ that could gather spiritual energy in the previous supply point. Right now, the device was slowly opened up, too.

Eight silver-white metal membranes that were dozens of kilometers long and carved with complicated rune arrays protruded out of the starship and shivered in a fixed frequency, while the starship dashed into a bluish river of spiritual energy!

Hum! Hum!

The metal membranes fluctuated and started collecting spiritual energy.

The spiritual energy drifting in space was captured by the rune arrays on the metal membranes, transmitted into their veins, transformed in a series of complicated reactions, and drawn into the room through various tubes.

Chi—

The sprinklers on the ceiling of the room was turned on. The purest spiritual energy was condensed and formed into countless beads which sprayed out and bathed everyone in the luminosity of spiritual energy!

”Nice! Nice! Nice!”

Li Yao trembled violently. After the battle against Skeleton Dragon, the leap between two worlds, and the virtual yet fierce competitions that he participated in within the Flying Star Sector, his every cell was exclaiming in joy, and he couldn’t feel better with the refreshing shower of spiritual energy.

Everyone nearby was yelling, shouting, and dancing, their fatigue all gone.

”No wonder the Thousand Sails Space Zone has become the camp for all the free Exos. A vacation in such a natural paradise after bloody battles is indeed the most enjoyable thing in the world!

”I’m told that, in the hotels of certain places of interest within the Thousand Sails Space Zone, there are two faucets in each room. One of them gives water, while the other spurts spiritual gas continuously when it is turned on! What a spectacular view it must be!”

A brand-new light beam gradually unfolded in front of everyone, displaying beautiful scenic spots, natural paradises, fully-equipped maintenance workshops, refining rooms, magical equipment stores, and arenas and matching places of various kinds one after another.

All the information eventually gathered into a line of shining gold words:

”Welcome to the Thousand Sails Space Zone, where dreams come true!”