Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Zi! Zi! Zi!

After the insane modification was complete, Li Yao painted a giant red mark on his body. It was a star with a grinning face at the center, the symbol of Fiend Star!

“Wow!” Han Te and Liu Li both exclaimed after seeing Li Yao’s brand-new appearance. “This is beautiful!”

Li Yao smiled. Then, an electric arc spurted out and pierced Han Te’s body brutally, making the little guy grimace and jump up and down. “Isn’t it obvious? Who says you can stop? Keep on training!”

Regarding Han Te’s Lightning Strangle, Li Yao had studied it in depth and made some modifications. He mainly changed the output pattern of the spiritual energy of the thunder class.

Thanks to the enlightenment that he gained from the ‘Heavenly Fire Thunder Strike Ring’, he crafted a new ring-shaped arm armor for Han Te, which could control Han Te’s field of electric arcs very well in the form of a spiral. Like the acceleration rail of crystal railguns, it could launch metal bullets at a super high speed.

“The ‘Lightning Strangle’ that you practiced in the past only dealt damage with electric arcs, but electric arcs perish very fast, and they will be greatly weakened when exposed to the impure air. It is a very low-efficiency way of fighting,” Li Yao explained to Han Te. “Now, I have added seven metal rings to your right arm to collect and restrain your electric arcs. They will generate a very powerful acceleration field in front of your arm to shoot metal bullets the size of rice.

“Velocity is the only invincible technique in the world. As long as you can accelerate the bullets to three to five times the speed of sound, they will destroy everything even if they are nothing more than random pebbles instead of metal bullets!”

By Li Yao’s estimation, the brand-new combat pattern would increase Han Te’s battle efficiency by at least three hundred percent

Of course, it was rather cruel to change the inherent flow of spiritual energy inside Han Te’s body into a brand-new battle form in only half a month.

No wonder Han Te screamed like a pig being butchered and was almost breathless under the torture every day.

“I can’t help but wonder if you are a pervert,” the mental devil said. “Do you have to inflict the same extreme pain you suffered during your training on this innocent kid?”

“This is all for his own good,” Li Yao said. “After all, he still wants to explore the so-called Manjusaka together with us. How can he do that if he is not strong enough? Hehehe…”

As for Liu Li, Li Yao had crafted a new set of magical equipment with the metal scraps that had been sealed in the warehouse for a long time targeting the arts that she had been training. They were nine thin, sharp-edged daggers that looked like swallows flapping their wings. Every dagger had been embedded with a highly-sensitive brainwave receptor at the center. They could also be connected to each other to form an enormous wheel.

The most marvelous design was that the tail and the body of the dagger were separable. Once the tail was stretched out, it would be a super-tiny metal thread as narrow as hair that was almost transparent in the air. But it was actually unbelievably sharp and could cut a human body as easily as it cut a piece of tofu.

“The technique that you’ve been practicing makes the intensity and sensitivity of your brainwaves a hundred times higher than normal, which is most suitable to control agile magical equipment like this,” Li Yao said. “The mental ring that I built earlier for you will not only help you stabilize the field of your brain that was collapsing but also connect it to the control chips inside the set of daggers.

“Now, imagine your brainwaves are tentacles that are extending out and controlling the daggers. Yes. Just like that. Shoot them out!”

Shua!

Three daggers were thrown in Han Te’s direction brutally in three streaks of brilliance. Han Te shrieked and raised his right hand, sending out three metal bullets that crashed into the daggers in midair.

The daggers were not blown away but merely parried and stabbed into the cabin wall, brushing past his head. They seemed to have entered rotten wood instead of a metal wall because there was not the slightest sound!

Han Te and Liu Li were both dazed at their new magical equipment. When they turned around and looked at Li Yao again, they were full of admiration, reverence, and even a bit of fright.

“G—Grandpa Yao, who were you in the past? We have never seen an old grandpa as strong as you.”

Cold brilliance beamed out of Li Yao’s soul as he said, “I would like to find out the answer very much, too. Who am I exactly in this Land of Sins, to the sinners living here, and to the angels living in the City in the Sky?

“Don’t be hasty. We will find out the answer very soon!”

…

Half a month later…

Wu—Wu—Wu—Wu!

Alarms were ringing in the sky of the Village of Peace. It was the day the elites of the village would be fully deployed for the Bliss Ceremony.

Even the iron-shelled boats that were connected and docked at the center of the lake in case of the enemy’s attack had thrown away their chains and hooks, sailing toward the shore at a high speed. Some of the iron-shelled boats even marched into the shore unstoppably, raising a cluster of mud and spindrift highly.

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

The heads of the boats opened like mouths. Hundreds of rusty shuttles that had been installed with iron plates and burets rushed out like iron beasts, leaving black smoke behind them.

Hooo!

Every shuttle extended many components that were like tree branches. Countless brawny men in leather armor that was covered in nails were grabbing the branches and screaming while waving their blades and firearms to display their strength.

A lot of the shuttles had been modified to increase traction with tires and tracks. Some of them even had enormous trunks behind them.

It was needless to mention that the trunks would be used to transport the trophies. But right now, they were filled with the old, the weak, the women, and the children. When the muscular men confronted the warriors of other villagers, the women and the children were responsible for collecting the assets from the sky as quickly as possible.

No useless person was fed in the Land of Sins. Everybody had to make their own contributions.

There was even a caterpillar tractor with fancy decorations that was pulling an iron tower. On the tower, dozens of old, weary villagers were dancing and enchanting a weird tune with masks and helmets that were a hundred times more hideous than respirators, with colorful smoke was breathed in and out.

Han Te and Liu Li crawled over to Li Yao, one from the left and the other from the right. They told Li Yao in a low voice that those people were the priests in the village, and they were praying to the angels for more luck so that the village would get more assets in the Bliss Ceremony.

At the frontmost part of the overwhelming team, a shabby platform had been established on three thick masts. Gu Zhengyang, Zhao Lie, and the other leaders of the Village of Peace were observing the battle and giving their commands from up there.

Before, Gu Zhengyang had always been at the center as the commander, but it was Zhao Lie, the captain of the exploration team with gloomy eyes, who was talking and giving orders at the center this year, and Gu Zhengyang was merely coughing next to him.

“Hahaha. Is this the garbage that you have modified with the scrap puppet? You call it ‘Fiend Star’?” Zhao Chong caught up to them from the rear at a high speed on a single shuttle that was fully embedded with sharp thorns. There was no telling if it was intentional or not, but a large cluster of dust was thrown toward Han Te and Liu Li. “It does look like a decent war puppet, but I wonder if it will become scrap garbage again three seconds into a real battle!”

Han Te and Liu Li glared at Zhao Chong.

“However, you can just rest assured. This year, my father is the supervisor. Nothing can possibly go wrong.” Zhao Chong laughed gloatingly. “We will also claim ten times more trophies than when Leader Gu commanded us. You and the garbage can sit back and watch as my dad and my Iron Blood Youths show you how the job should be done. Hahaha!”

Zhao Chong whistled and rushed forward with another ten or so brawny young people who were also on single shuttles.

“Why the rush?”

Sensing the young man’s fury, Li Yao said, not thinking that it was a big deal, “With your capability right now, after you earn abundant assets in the Bliss Ceremony, it will be enough for you to travel in the Bloody Worlds, won’t it? There’s no need to be pissed by such nobodies.”

The team rolled forward and reached the city ruins, formerly Broken Stone City, in only half a day.

The specific date and location of the Bliss Ceremony every year would be sent from the Heavenly Rails by the angels a month before the event. Broken Stone City was the destination where the assets would be sent this year.

According to Han Te and Liu Li, it was also the most complicated and dangerous environment.

That was because the city ruins were full of skyscrapers that were riddled with holes and on the verge of collapse. One cough might cause a final collapse. If the assets fell into such skyscrapers and someone went to pick them recklessly, it was very likely that they would be buried by thousands of tons of rocks as the skyscrapers collapsed.

Besides, in the labyrinth-like city, the odds of different forces getting into conflicts were significantly increased. It was also possible that some tough bandits and criminals who were driven out of the Bloody Worlds would be hiding behind the rundown buildings, waiting to rob someone and run off quickly.

“It would be much better if the environment was a plateau or even hills, where we can see everything around us.” Han Te spat at the sawtooth-shaped grass next to the road and cursed angrily. “It’s a shame that at least four out of ten Bliss Ceremonies are held in such dangerous city environments, and another four of them take place in the areas of high radiation that are frequented by tremendous mutated beasts.

“Before the assets fall, we have to fight a bloody battle with the beasts! I truly don’t understand. If the angels live on the Heavenly Rails, they can certainly see the terrain down here. If they truly mean to assist us out of good will, why do they have to make it so difficult for us instead of tossing the aid to places where we can find it easily?”

“Perhaps this is a way of penance for the ‘sinners’,” Liu Li said.

“I don’t believe it.” Staring at the sky, Han Te said, “Perhaps just as master said, the angels like watching us bite and kill each other like ravenous wild dogs!

“One day… I will go to Manjusaka, the City in the Sky, and demand an answer from the angels!”