Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

when the balls of lightning exploded, everyone’s pupils constricted so hard that there was nothing but blankness and dashing electric arcs on their retinas.

they couldn’t see anything but only hear the cracking noises of electric arcs, the sounds of metals being cut, and the splashing sparks every now and then.

an extremely weird metallic smell found its way into their noses, making them feel that they were in the middle of a noisy, blood-boiling battlefield witnessing the collisions and destructions of countless crystal suits.

at the center of the balls of lightning, there was even a subtle attraction force that absorbed all the small magical equipment that they were carrying.

li yao’s fluffy hair moved automatically although there was no wind. the dancing electric arcs seemed to have cladded him with a special suit of refining. his hands moved nonstop, pressing the modification plans into the rune arrays and sealing them into the balls of lightning. he couldn’t have looked more intimidating.

it was not until ten minutes later that the anomalies gradually dimmed and dispersed.

after the last spark was obliterated into nothingness, everybody was finally able to focus their eyes on the white smoke in the middle of the electric arcs.

under li yao’s control, the unpredictable white smoke was all absorbed, revealing a black, seemingly unattractive iron statue.

“this is—”

although they had been mentally prepared, all the refiners of the deep sea fleet couldn’t help but feel greatly surprised.

they did not expect that li yao’s expertise in remote manipulation was so terrifying that he had concentrated the components of almost ten crystal suits on the skeleton of one crystal suit without even moving a finger.

the many damaged crystal suits, despite the use of abundant generic components, were in vastly different shapes and styles. they had also been so seriously damaged in battles that a lot of the components had been melted together after contortions. but li yao had combined all of them flawlessly by picking the most appropriate components in only half an hour. the product looked smooth, natural, and impeccable, like a statue that had been carved out of an entire block of metal.

what great senses, self-control, and deep understanding of crystal suits it required!

if it were them, even with the guidance of the structure designs and the operation manuals, they might not be able to achieve it after a day and a night’s work on the most advanced maintenance platform!

of course, such a mix was only the simplest combination, like a mannequin that a craftsman built.

the joining components hadn’t been processed by the furnace, and they were not internally integrated perfectly yet. although the crystal suit might look solid and tough, it would not be able to withstand one barrage in a fierce battlefield.

however, as they recalled the unbelievable scenes when li yao tested the furnace just now, nobody had any doubt about the performance of the brand-new crystal suit after being processed in a furnace.

everybody simply looked at li yao, whispering to each other and wondering what was amazing about the new crystal suit that li yao had modified through all the trouble, full of expectations. the brand-new crystal suit had adopted abundant units of the damaged crystal suits, as the “giant crab battlesuit”, as the skeleton, was not any of the super crystal suits with the most distinguished performance. so, he was dazzlingly busy for such a long time just in order to show his expertise in crystal suit modification? or maybe…

huala…

in front of li yao, the crystal suit that was more than two meters tall but had a particularly thick shoulder and back slowly opened in the front.

an excellent crystal suit, even if as solid as steel, would let out beautiful sounds like running water when they were opened. it was the knowledge that many refiners were taught at school.

but this was the first time that many of them had truly heard the sound of a crystal suit that felt like running water!

li yao put on the crystal suit that he had just modified without any hesitation. he slightly activated the power rune arrays and moved his limbs.

this place was not a test room, and the crystal suit was only a simple combination of other crystal suits. without being processed by the furnaces and the cutting machine tools, it meant that it was inappropriate for any extreme movement tests to be done here.

when everybody was wondering what kind of trick li yao would play with such a newly-combined crystal suit, li yao unleashed all his spiritual energy after a bellow!

for a moment, inside the small warehouse of crystal suits on the starship, the world seemed to have been darkened by a dust storm!

the hearts and throats of all the refiners were frozen. their every nerve ending was shrieking loudly!

the many advanced crystal suits nearby were shaking slightly, as if they could not withstand the overwhelming pressure that was flowing out of li yao’s body, and they were about to kneel before li yao and the crystal suit on him!

an amazing thing happened!

after the bellow, li yao’s muscles bulged, his bones cracked, and his body size expanded by 30% at the moment!

every crystal suit boasted a certain degree of extension, which was made possible by gels or soft materials filled inside, in order to adapt to users of different body sizes.

however, crystal suits were made of metals after all. different from the mustard-seed combat suits that could be infinitely extended, it had limited abilities of adaptation.

that was why the crystal suits were classified into light, medium, heavy, and super heavy types.

the slim users could manage to wear the heavy crystal suits with enormous internal space, like a small horse dragging a huge wagon.

but it was barely possible to stuff a tall, brawny man whose muscles were as explosive as crystal bombs into a super small crystal suit that highlighted speed and mobility.

some of the “monsters” that had received genetic modifications or practiced secret techniques could be more than 2.5 meters tall.

but most of the high-speed crystal suits were no taller than 2.2 meters. how could they be stuffed into such crystal suits?

to make things worse, many brawny men who practiced secret techniques had a very bad habit on the battlefield, which was to break their clothes and go berserk. by blowing their cells crazily with spiritual energy, they could expand their body size by 30%, 50%, and even 100%!

they could break their clothes, but how could they break a crystal suit?

crystal suits were not armed shuttles or colossi, which had huge cockpits. they were all worn close to the body. if the user expanded by 50% in excitement in the middle of a fight, wouldn’t the crystal suit be crammed and even blown up?

it was indeed a very tricky problem.

many brawny men who were used to body transformations had to bring two crystal suits with them, one large and the other small, which were to be used before and after their transformation respectively.

the old problem was more or less solved, but a new problem showed up. body transformation and switching of crystal suits took time. not every exo could perform an “air change” in half a second like li yao. if they were barraged by the enemy halfway through their transformation, wouldn’t it be terribly awkward?

it seemed highly impractical to search for a shelter whenever one wanted to transform and go berserk in their battle frenzy, right?

however, those problems did not exist for li yao right now.

the crystal suit that had been modified by him carefully seemed to boast a very high ability of extension and transformation. as his body size expanded abruptly, a lot of brilliance shot out of the crystal suit, as it expanded and bloomed at the same time.

while li yao finished the transformation, the crystal suit also turned from a medium-sized crystal suit around two meters tall into a heavy crystal suit almost three meters tall. the protruding veins on the breastplate truly made it look like a tyrannical giant crab, full of aggression and intimidation.

“a transformative crystal suit!”

ye qingyun couldn’t help but exclaim.

the eyes of the refiners of the deep sea fleet shone brightly. they were surprised to witness a highly rare transformative crystal suit!

as its name suggested, the transformative crystal suits were special crystal suits that were meant to solve the body expansion problems of some of the berserkers.

such crystal suits were often embedded with one or two cosmos rings, in which a lot of changeable components were stored. through special designs, when the user’s body size expanded abruptly, the crystal suit would have a series of changes too, and it would keep up with the body size of the user. even new magical equipment units and weapon systems would show up after the transformation.

in such a way, one crystal suit would display two different features and achieve entirely opposite effects.

theoretically speaking, it was a great idea.

however, to achieve the purpose of “transformation”, the designs of the crystal suit had to be extremely sophisticated, filled with all kinds of unnecessary, redundant components, which would significantly drop the defense ability and the sturdiness. the crystal suit’s survival abilities in the battlefield would be directly affected.

for the logistics department and the daily maintenance, it was even a greater nightmare. if something went wrong during the maintenance, the crystal suit might be stuck in the middle of the transformation, which would be really fatal.

therefore, the transformative crystal suits were not very popular among the berserkers whose body sizes could expand crazily. they were a very niche type of crystal suits.

in the over hundred years, there was not even a mature model that could be manufactured in the magical equipment industry in the imperium. this type of crystal suits had been completely abandoned.

it never occurred to them that the path that had been proved impossible by the mainstream refiners of the imperium was now furthered by li yao!

although they were not aware of the parameters and the performance in a real battle yet, they could tell from the dancing electric arcs around li yao and the glittering crystal suit that—

boom! boom! boom! boom!

while everybody was speculating in secret, the crystal suit on li yao uttered the roars of a waking primeval beast again and further expanded!

“double… double transformations?”

the refiners of the deep sea fleet were so astounded that they were almost screaming aloud.

in the middle of their exclamations, the crystal suit on li yao’s body expanded again to almost four meters tall.

a lot of magical equipment units were attached to the skeleton by the electromagnetic force. the spluttering electric arcs surrounded the crystal suit like strengthened armor, making it almost look like an ares extension. it seemed that a god that could destroy the world had arrived!

“a crystal suit with three phases? what-what kind of complicated designs it must have? i feel that my head is exploding just by thinking about it!”

“does such a crystal suit really boast any survival abilities in a battlefield? it would fall apart on its own because of the conflicts and interferences of the redundant components, wouldn’t it?”

“regardless of its survival abilities, it is already insane enough to complete the designs in half an hour, assemble it preliminarily, and realize the effect of double transformations!”

“wait, wait, wait. isn’t… isn’t he a refiner? what kind of astounding aura is this? he is almost tearing the entire starship apart!”

dozens of eyes that were filled with shock, suspicion, admiration, and fear were cast at li yao, who was floating in midair like a daunting devil!