by <unknown>
These two types of designs had completely different logic behind them, creating completely opposite artifacts. In Li Yao’s hands, they were so easy due to experience, as if he had known these artifacts since birth.
“This little guy is really quite the monster!” muttered the military officer.
And this wasn’t even the end. After completing his second artifact, Li Yao was engrossed once more with the pile of parts. He selected components that were of completely different styles than that of the first two.
Again, he used another five minute interval. It was powerful and heavy. One look at this giant battle-axe caused people’s scalps to go numb as it formed in Li Yao’s palm.
Li Yao grasped the Drive Glyph Array on the handle tightly and slightly brandished the axe.
The numerous engraved glyph arrays on the surface of the battle-axe suddenly shined. The edge of the axe turned orange, like an iron heated red!
This was a heat-axe known as the Burning Sky. Its combat design was different again from the other two artifacts.
The large amounts of spiritual energy bursting from the crystal cells wasn’t transformed into a form of mechanical energy but was directly transformed into a super-high temperature flow of heat through the use of it’s glyph arrays.
When this axe descends, the internal organs of Demon Beasts will be all burnt to ash!
Three completely different styles of rudimentary artifacts with polarizing different designs were assembled in only a short 20 minutes.
There was no trace of sorrow nor happiness on Li Yao’s face. It was as if he had completed something small that wasn’t worth mentioning. He went and took a sip of cool water, splashing some onto his hands, carefully rubbing them to cool them down.
It was only now that everyone discovered his pair of hands were already burning hot, a sheet of crimson red, from the long duration of high-speed movements.
Chapter 55: Trading Artifacts |
Trading Artifacts
“There’s someone with this kind of gift for artificing among today’s high school students? How extremely rare! Deep Sea University must desire this sort of genius, right?”
“Why did he assemble three completely different artifacts? The techniques required to use the Chainsword, the Thunderblade, and the Heat-axe are completely different. Can it be that he’s proficient in all three types of artifacts? He would simply be a monster then!”
“Even if he’s proficient in all of them, there’s no need to make all of them. These three artifacts are all heavy weapons. If he were to carry them all on his body, his speed would greatly reduce. This is of no benefit when fighting in the jungle; instead, it becomes a burden.”
While every cultivator discussed amongst themselves, a second competitor had arrived at the supply point.
This youth was tall and his temperament was completely vicious. Beneath his chin grew stubble all around, giving him a mature appearance.
When he saw Li Yao resting and sitting to the side, he clearly became distracted for a moment.
But as soon as he saw that there were actually three artifacts displayed on the ground, he became immediately overjoyed. He walked up to them in all smiles and grabbed the Burning Sky Battleaxe in his hand. He swung it vigorously a few times and continued to shout with excitement.
“Today is my lucky day. I never thought that there would be preassembled artifacts in the supply points. With this Burning Sky Battleaxe, I can kill a hundred Demon Beasts in a day!”
The vicious youth hefted the battle-axe. But right when he was about to leave, a voice rang out unexpectedly from behind him.
Li Yao called lazily, fixing him in place: “Hey, fellow student. I just assembled this battle-axe a moment ago. I’ll sell it to you for 200 points. Since you’re my first customer, I’ll give you a 5 percent discount for a price of 190 then.”
The vicious youth went blank, following immediately with a laugh. “So it was you who crafted these. Then I truly need to give you my thanks. I’ll treat you to dinner when I have time!”
With absolutely no intentions of trading, he hefted the battle-axe and turned around to leave.
Li Yao had foreseen this happening early on. He shouted after the youth without a change in expression “Fellow student, hold on. Please take a look at this!”
Upon speaking, Li Yao gently unfolded his arm, ferociously tossing the first crystal cell bomb he assembled far into the forest.
“BOOM!”
A large sound suddenly rang out from within the forest. A ball of smoke rose gradually into the air. Flickers of a malevolent flame were mixed within the smoke. A surging wave of heat assaulted their faces.
The vicious youth was frightened by the large sound. The color of his face changed as he turned around to stare fixed at Li Yao. “What do you mean by this?”
Li Yao held a large bomb comprised of over 20 crystal cells connected in series. He giggled while saying, “I don’t mean nothing. It was only the powerful explosion of a crystal cell bomb just now. You saw it~~~ I still have over twenty crystal cells hooked in series in my hands. If you’re not willing to trade and you want to walk away with my Burning Sky Battleaxe for nothing, then you leave me no choice but to activate the glyph array, ignite the crystal cells, and blow the both of us out of the competition then~”
“You…”
The vicious youth was suddenly struck dumb. He never expected that Li Yao would play this hand.
Li Yao chuckled, saying, “If you don't want to buy, that’s okay too. There are quite a few ordinary swords over there. You can take any you please. It doesn’t matter if you take all of them away, but please relinquish my Burning Sky Battleaxe.”
The vicious youth squinted his eyes and saw the ordinary swords scattered all around the ground. A color of disdain was revealed in his irises.
Had he not tried out the Burning Sky Battleaxe, using ordinary swords may have been fine for killing Demon Beasts.
But he already had a taste of the Burning Sky Battleaxe with its truly ecstatic feeling of being of the highest quality. He was somewhat unwilling to return and choose an ordinary sword.
Li Yao continued speaking, “Killing one low-level Demon Beast will net you approximately a dozen points. If you purchase this Sky Burning Battleaxe for 200 points, you can increase your Demon Beast killing efficiency greatly. How many dozens of Demon Beasts can you kill within three days? You can probably make back the points in half a day!”
The color of the vicious youth’s face was dark and unclear. He was in complete hesitation.
After all, the competition had only just begun. None of the competitors had many points; 190 points seemed to be all he had in his possession.
If he went ahead with the trade, his ranking would drop to the very bottom.
But what this fellow said was correct! If he had this Burning Sky Battleaxe, his Demon Beast killing efficiency would greatly increase. The rate of earning points would increase by at least two fold!
Li Yao was smiling from ear to ear. Like a business shark, he spoke with consideration for the customer out from the bottom of his heart, “Fellow student, think clearly. If you don’t buy this Burning Sky Battleaxe, later I will sell it to someone else. That person’s offensive strength will greatly increase over yours. He might rank higher in points than you later on. In this manner, you might suffer from not just a little bit of a loss.”
The vicious youth snorted coldly saying, “I admit what you say is true, but you’re not the only one who can assemble artifacts! I have taken the relevant courses in my school. I can also assemble a Sky Burning Battleaxe by spending a bit more time… What! How could you mix all the artifact components together? What a huge mess! You’re way too shameless, fellow student!”
Li Yao shrugged his shoulders, speaking indifferently: “Make up your mind already. Are you going to make the trade or what? If you’re not, then please relinquish the battleaxe. Thanks.”
“I don't believe you’ll set off the bomb
!” the vicious youth stared dead fixed in Li Yao’s eyes, grinding his teeth as he spoke.
“Sure then. I’ll count down from three and we will all retire from the competition. Anyway, my actual strength differs a lot from yours. I only came here to broaden my world. I never expected to enter the finals. Three… Two…”
Li Yao laughed a devilish laugh unperturbed.
Before he could count down to “one”, the vicious youth collapsed completely and let out a crazed howl, “STOP! STOP! I’ll trade! I’ll buy this Burning Sky Battleaxe!”
The two’s Puji Critters bumped lightly into each other in the air with a “ding” sound. The 190 points that the vicious youth earned from painstakingly killing Demon Beasts were transferred completely all to Li Yao’s name!
A glistening bright name suddenly faded away from the rankings and Li Yao’s name appeared once more in the top 100… He blazed to the 88th spot in a flash!
Depression filled the vicious youth’s face. He glared ferociously at Li Yao, hefted the Burning Sky Battleaxe, and walked away with his head down dejected.
“So from the beginning, he wanted to act mainly as an ‘Artifact Peddler’. To use this sort of method to earn points!”
Numerous cultivators in the monitoring center suddenly came to an understanding. One by one, a feeling of not knowing whether to laugh or cry grew in everyone.
In the past, there were also dozens of competitions who went ahead and traded artifacts. But, they would do this occasionally in between primarily slaying Demon Beasts.
The main reason was because there were too many loopholes within the trading rules. They were quite disadvantageous towards the artifact crafter. If the crafter was even slightly off guard, their artifacts would be easily snatched by other people.
They never thought this evil little fellow would think of a “mutual destruction” method to seal the loopholes in trading!
After completing his first trade, Li Yao threw himself into assembling a new artifact.
He was just like an untiring essence golem; his hands continued to operate at high speeds without showing the slight bit of tremoring for the next few hours.
During this period of time, several hundred competitors had already arrived at the supply point.
The majority of competitors possessing sufficient points walked away with an artifact under the influence of Li Yao’s glib tongue.
In other words, Li Yao just waited comfortably in this incomparably safe supply point and earned the equivalent of killing several hundred Demon Beasts outside, if not a thousand Demon Beasts!
He was soaring up on the ranking board, managing to blitzkrieg into the top 10. There was only a one hundred point different between him and Helian Lie!
Every competitor can check the ranking board through using their Puji Critters.
Obviously, when Helian Lie saw Li Yao’s name, he was shocked, astonished, and stupefied!
“This mishmash was clearly a rotten piece of trash. Piece of Trash. PIECE OF TRASH! How the hell did he blitzkrieg his way into the top 10? To have such a small difference between us? This is completely impossible!”
Helian Lie’s eyes were bloodshot. His anger was exploding incomparably! No matter how he racked his head, he could not find an answer to what Li Yao did to reach here in the end!
Soon, all the artifact parts were consumed bare by Li Yao and all assembled artifacts were traded for points.
Li Yao chuckled and then whistled. He took the big explosive and put it in his military pack. He was setting out towards the next supply point!
Chapter 56: First in the Rankings! |
First in the Rankings!
He did not have as much luck at the second supply point. Quite a few competitors had already arrived and snatched stuff first.
Several weapon crates were already opened. Some artifact components were already used by other competitors; however, most of the weapon crates were still relatively intact.
Afterall, when compared to fighting prowess, there weren’t that many youths who possessed a gift for artificing.
Although the majority of youths had studied the basics of artificing knowledge, the extent of that knowledge only covered a few dozen rudimentary artifact compositions and assembling procedures. They did not have Li Yao’s abundance of hands-on working experience.
Modern artifacts differ from ancient artifacts. Even the most rudimentary of cold weapons would be composed of over a hundred parts.
When assembled by a novice, aside from the slow assembling speed, whenever a part wasn’t carefully installed, there would likely be problems arising during battle. Best case scenario, the artifact would suddenly fail. Worst case scenario, it would explode on the spot, causing the spiritual energy to backfire from the inside, creating an incomparably dangerous situation!
Therefore, the majority of youths who weren’t good at crafting still chose to use ordinary swords to fight.
Li Yao began doing procedures, starting the second round of crazed assembling!
In the beginning, the trading went rather well at this supply point. But after selling his 20th artifact, Li Yao finally hit an iron wall.
“If you want money, I have none. If you want life, I have one. I’m gonna take and walk away with this Burning Sky Battleaxe. Go ahead and set off the explosion. The worst thing would be mutual defeat!”
It was a male youth with dark skin, the height of a cow, and the size of a horse. He looked to be a demon as he spoke fiercely.
Li Yao had somewhat of a toothache.
“Fellow Student, don’t be so stubborn. I already gave you 10% off. You can buy such a great battleaxe for only 270 points! It’s simply a blood-spitting price reserved for family! Or does it mean that you really don’t believe I will set off the bomb?”
“You’re correct. I was stubborn since birth. Other people call me ‘The Stubborn Bull’ at school.
I just don’t believe it. If you have guts, then just set it off!”
The tanned male laughed loudly, hefted the Burning Sky Battleaxe, and turned around to leave without looking back.
Li Yao sneered as he looked at the male’s back. A trace of ferocity exuded from Li Yao’s eyes.
Before the tanned male could walk outside the supply point, a gale of wind blasted suddenly against his back. Without even the time to react, his body turned wet from a blob of pink gel that bound him firmly.
The tanned male was encased in the pink jello with an expression of shock and grief as he sadly left the competition!
“That’s what I’m talking about. This kid is suited to be an assassin. Think about it. He doesn’t need to be supplied with weapons when he hides behind enemy lines. He can craft and maintain any sort of artifacts himself. This kind of fellow is an existence that will cause headaches for the enemy no matter where he’s placed!”
A cultivator could not help speaking out in the monitoring center.
“How ruthless and merciless. It’s true that there’s nothing preventing competitors from attacking each other in the preliminaries, but to use this kind of deathly back-to-the-head sudden attack means that he has a strong mental fortitude. That kind of fortitude isn’t typical of a high school student. He’s good. He’s really good!”
A cultivator with a shriveled, skinny figure and cold eyes also chuckled, nodding his head repeatedly.
The competitors like the Stubborn Bull, with a block-headed behavior/one-track mind of walking towards doom, are few in number. Most of the competitors straightforwardly chose to trade with points after weighing the pros and cons.
As the competition went on, the number of Demon Beasts slain by everyone grew larger and larger. The competitors with stronger strength had over a thousand points each.
Even though Li Yao played things by ear when increasing his prices slowly, his prices were still quite fair. Most of the competitors did not want to get caught in hassles, for it would be much more delightful and easier to kill Demon Beasts with a better weapon.
The second supply point was swept clean in no time. And once again, Li Yao headed out towards his third supply point.
It took a full two days for him to sweep all of the supply points on Devil Flood Dragon Island clean. He had assembled several hundred rudimentary artifacts in succession to trade with other competitors.
Later on, he even sent a message through his Puji Critter on the public channel meant for communication between competitors. He broadcasted an advertisement:
“Great amounts of Chainswords, Thunder Blades, and Burning Sky Battleaxes are available for sale. They are mighty and very powerful. Their quality is solid. The prices are cheap. They are essential treasures for slaying Demon Beasts and earning a great amount of points. If you wish to buy, please come post haste to ‘so and so number’ supply point.”
Li Yao killed a total of four Demon Beasts. One was from the three-eyed ape in the beginning. The others happened when he had accidently revealed some tracks when moving around, so he was forced to kill three Demon Beasts.
But when the competition entered its 49th hour, Li Yao’s name had actually inconceivably appeared in the first place spot on the rankings, even placing above Helian Lie’s name!
This was unprecedented in the history of the Limit Challenge Competition.
But top place ranking lasted briefly; it’s hard to be sustained for long.
This was because all of the supply points on Devil Flood Dragon Island were swept clean by the end of the second day.
At his first supply point, there were a lot of artifact components for him to assemble.
But after all, there were still quite a few people among the competitors who knew how to assemble artifacts. All the artifact components in the last few supply points were already consumed and exhausted.
Additionally, quite a few competitors who dealt with Li Yao earlier suffered from fatal attacks later and were forced to retire. Great amounts of Chainblades, Thunder Blades, and Burning Sky Battle Axes were lost in the forest and found by other competitors… This was something that Li Yao was utterly unable to prevent.