Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

In the scorching Thorny Flame Dungeon, Li Yao peacefully watched at the highest place of the auditorium through the air that was even hotter than the burning ground.

Yuchi Ba, the owner of the Skeleton Island, was still seated at the highest place. The young females of the Feather Clan blocked the sunlight with their broad wings and flapped them occasionally to give him a cool breeze. Eight loyal guards were standing around him like spears. They were all the dominators of the arena in the past, but right now, they all boasted a new name, which was the ‘Death Teeth Guards of the Skeleton Island’!

Although Yuchi Ba’s small eyes were blocked by the wings of the young females of the Feather Clan, Li Yao could still sense that a pair of interested eyes were scanning him up and down.

Li Yao was very clear that Yuchi Ba and his Death Teeth Guards were paying close attention to him, both in the previous games and in every minute of his daily training.

It was exactly what Li Yao needed. He had to convince Yuchi Ba and the Death Teeth Guards that he was really a gifted hunter and someone that they were in need of.

“Are you ready?” Li Yao asked without looking back.

A cold grunt echoed behind him in acknowledgement, which was the affirmative response of Mo Tiesheng.

Li Yao smiled.

The death games on the Skeleton Island were rarely held as duels except for those between super experts who had a winning record of dozens of games because the larger the number of participants in a game, the more changes there would be, and the more unexpected the outcome of the game would be.

In the previous games, Li Yao and been fighting side by side with Mo Tiesheng. The two of them had always practiced with each other during their personal training, too.

For Li Yao, fighting against Mo Tiesheng the ‘Mad Bull’ while suppressing his strength to 8% was an excellent approach of training, just like when his senior brother Fiend Blade Peng Hai went to practice with him while suppressing his strength to 5%.

After a month of getting to know each other, Li Yao had to admit that Mo Tiesheng was a natural-born commander in a battlefield. He seemed to boast a special aura that made everybody, including those stronger than himself, listen to his commands willingly.

Even when openings were revealed in his commands that were not mature enough, he would block all the openings with his furious strength, unstoppable air, and fearless determination.

Li Yao knew that he was not someone who enjoyed standing in the spotlight commanding everybody. He preferred to lurk in the shadows and manipulate everything in secret, securing the victory of a game without anybody knowing.

In the arena, one of them worked in the daylight while the other walked in the darkness. On the surface, Mo Tiesheng was the commander of the battle while Li Yao was an assaulter who wandered away from the main battle formation.

But in secret, Li Yao had been testing how to impose more ‘interference’ on the situation of the battle with his own strength.

BOOM!

At the center of the arena, a fireball soared into the sky, exploding into an ugly mushroom cloud in midair, which then dispersed into an abnormal skull, before everything spread out and dispersed in the end.

Hardly had a gap appeared in the bronze gate in the front when countless giants shrouded in flames forced it open. Almost forty demons strode out with their heads held high.

They were around three meters tall, like giant lizards that were standing on their feet. Their long and thick tails were packed with spurs, and the tips of their tails were huge bone hammers that looked like a heavy bomb.

This time, Li Yao’s opponents were not demon beasts but bronze-blood demons.

The Skeleton Island not only arranged games between gladiators and demon beasts but also welcomed demons from Void Turmoil City to join the matches personally. The bronze-blood demons, as the warrior class, were particularly fond of such entertainment, and their masters, the silver-blood nobles, were often very proud of the bloody glory that their subordinates won in an arena, too.

After Li Yao, Mo Tiesheng, and the other gladiators rose to fame on the Skeleton Island, many demons had fixed their sights on the newcomers. A silver-blood demon who came to Void Turmoil City to purchase strengthening drugs paid a high price so that his guards would have the right to tear apart the gladiators.

Those brutal demons known as ‘Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders’ were among the most infamous ones in the group of bronze-blood demons, too. They had natural glands that could absorb and spurt out high-temperature flames. When the bone hammer on their tail bashed the ground, the spiritual energy of the fire class would shake violently on a large scale, like the explosion of a crystal bomb.

The games between the bronze-blood demons and the gladiators were not fair. Not only was the battlefield chosen according to the advantages of the Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders, they were also wearing the strongest armor and the sharpest gloves carved out of crystals. The sabers and swords that they were carrying were also the most marvelous weapons made by the top craftsmen of the Blood Demon Sector.

However…

In Li Yao’s eyes, the Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders, although armed to the teeth, were nothing but hens that were wearing fancy clothing.

“Yuchi Ba, open your eyes and watch my performance closely!”

The slaughter began!

In Li Yao’s eyes, the arena stopped being a simply three-dimensional space, and his opponents were no longer living creatures made of flesh and blood. The vast battlefield, the Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders in the front, and the gladiators behind him all turned into the most fundamental streams of data that were connected with each other through the complicated, inexplicable formulas and theorems. The smallest change of a number would trigger a series of chain reactions and result to the subtle feedback of other numbers.

Li Yao had a deeper understanding about battles right now. When he suppressed his strength to the minimum and stopped crushing over his opponents with brute force, the wisdom of fighting was playing a more and more vital role in combat.

He was no longer only focused on his primary target, and he gave up considering the specific moves he should make. Instead, he calculated what consequences the death of the ninth Shooting Star Fiery Salamander to be killed by him would bring to the battle dozens of seconds later.

By perceiving the breathing, heartbeat, and temperature of the enemies, Li Yao even grasped their state of mind. He could vaguely tell which Shooting Star Fiery Salamander was particularly excited and which gladiator was relatively more tired because of overtraining.

All the information was integrated inside his brain within a moment.

When the dozens of Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders charged forward, waving their blades and spurting out flames in roars, Li Yao took three steps to the left.

The bronze-blood demons were well aware of the brutality of ‘Bloody Claw’. His unbelievable performance in the previous games had been watched repeatedly by the bronze-blood demons, too.

Ruthlessness and lust for killing did not equal low intelligence. On the contrary, the fact that they could laugh to the end after hundreds of life-and-death battles proved that the bronze-blood demons were the most cunning, prudent warriors.

They immediately reacted to Li Yao’s horizontal movement. Their battle formation, which was in the shape of a diamond, subtly changed.

After quickly moving fifteen meters to the left, Li Yao came to an abrupt halt and turned, as if he were planning to cut to the Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders’ rear and attack their commander.

The battle formation of the Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders changed yet again. However, before the new battle formation was consolidated, Li Yao changed mysteriously for a third time, appearing to be lunging at the center of the Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders.

In less than three seconds, Li Yao had made dozens of changes. In the end, although his body did not move much, the change of the air around him and the focus of his eyes produced a tiny gap in the battle formation of the Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders.

Before, every Shooting Star Fiery Salamander was neither too far nor too close from each other. The bone hammers on their tails could easily cover each other.

But right now, ten or so Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders were too close to each other, and their tails would collide into each other when being waved, making it possible to maximize their strength. On the other hand, the other ten or so Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders were too far away from each other, and once Mo Tiesheng and the other Red Blood Bronze Bulls accelerated to their maximum speed, it was more likely that they would pierce through the Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders easily!

Mo Tiesheng soon located the tiny gap, too. He immediately led the charge with the Red Blood Bronze Bulls!

The two torrents crashed into each other brutally, performing the song of blood and destruction that were the demons’ favorite.

Li Yao had not launched an attack even after the sixth Shooting Star Fiery Salamander collapsed before him.

He abandoned the idiotic method to manipulating the situation of the battle with pushing or blocking the opponents. His every footstep, every hand-waving, and even every look was enough to subtly influence the situation.

Such movements consumed the least strength and spiritual energy for him.

Li Yao could not help but recall the time when countless Grand Illusionary Soldiers in the Flying Star Sector had surrounded him.

At that time, the only thing he had known was to stride forward with all his strength, which had been quite an exhausting experience. In the end, he had been surrounded by countless Grand Illusionary Soldiers that were no higher than the Building Foundation Stage and nearly failed to get out.

At that time, I had the combat ability close to the Nascent Soul Stage, but I did not know how to make best use of it. How foolish I was!

In the future, I’ll be engaged in battles of even larger scales. I should practice new fighting skills as soon as possible!

The most crucial factor is the ratio of the number of enemies killed to the strength that the process consumes!

I must find the most cost-effective way of fighting in order to be unstoppable in the vast sea of stars!

Shua!

Li Yao dodged the bone hammer that a Shooting Star Fiery Salamander slapped at him brutally. When he lowered his body, another Shooting Star Fiery Salamander was charging at him. The bone hammers of the two Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders hit each other in dazzling sparks.

The two Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders were both paralyzed because of the collision. They did not see it coming when a black shadow blinked past their hearts like a lightning and pecked their breastplate three times within a breath. Their breast plates were broken through with the first peck, their bones shattered from the second, and then a weak current pierced through their hearts after the third peck!

The Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders stopped moving like statues.

When they were finally blown off by the scorching wind, there were few Shooting Star Fiery Salamanders that were still standing on the arena, preparing to meet the charge of the infuriated Red Blood Bronze Bulls.

The winners were obvious.

Li Yao heard prolonged horns outside of the arena and roars hundreds of times louder that reeked of bloodthirst and desire for killing. Almost all the audience, including the silver-blood demons, stood up and bashed their chests, screaming in a twisted voice.

Li Yao managed to distinguish a high-pitched voice that belonged to Yuchi Ba, owner of the Skeleton Island, from the screams.

The newcomers who had only been on the Skeleton Island for two months, because of their amazing performances, were granted the right to challenge the ‘Death Teeth Guards’, the strongest gladiators on the Skeleton Island!