by <unknown>
Let alone 3-5 years, if he was out of luck, it could take up to 10-20 years. If he was truly unlucky, it was quite possible that he should forget about ever cultivating back to the same level for the rest of his life.
Even after suffering such a heavy blow, Guan Xiong's complexion still did not show anything; he was talking lively and jovial. He was truly worthy of being called a powerful expert of the Wasteland!
Having realized this, Li Yao nodded his head and said with a laugh, "Alright, the scene of Brother Xiong indomitably clashing with the beast tide is still being played in my mind. Brother Xiong is so awesome that let alone just falling by one level, even if Brother Xiong had fallen to the 1st level of the Refinement Stage, you would still be able to cultivate back to the previous level just like before!"
"Kid, well said! This father likes you!"
God knows from where Guan Xiong took out a bottle of alcohol before chugging down half the bottle with a “glug glug glug glug” sound.
As the drops of alcohol trickled down his beard and fell into the medical treatment solution, a "Chi Chi" sizzling noise was accompanied with rising bubbles, but he did not care and continued chugging down the alcohol.
Li Yao crawled his way out of the medical treatment pod. Once he stood on the ground, he started moving hands and feet, testing his new body after he had become a cultivator.
Then, he realized there was something not quite right. Why was his entire body aching? Why was his right eye swollen?
A small mirror so happened to be placed next to the bed. Taking a look, he discovered that he was black and blue all over, and his head was swollen like a pig’s.
Furthermore, bandages were wrapped around his body, and there were also faint traces of blood seeping through.
"Is this a side effect of awakening the spiritual root?"
Li Yao was quite puzzled. He had never heard that your head would become like a pig's after the spiritual root had awakened.
Guan Xiong let out a burp: "Don't you remember? You were beaten by someone called Jiang Tao."
"What?"
Li Yao clenched his teeth. "This is simply bullying others too much. Does being a descendant of some Jiang Family give you the right to casually hit anyone in public?"
Guan Xiong was rendered speechless. Blinking his eyes in astonishment, he stared at Li Yao with an extremely strange look in his eyes.
Li Yao felt jittery from his gaze as he touched his forehead; he felt that he seemed to have missed a crucial detail. He perturbedly asked, "Brother Xiong, am I mistaken?"
Guan Xiong mischievously grinned as he started the mini-crystal process, projecting a 3D photo.
In the photo impressively appeared a strange, badly mutilated beast, as though a monkey who had been skinned was lying on the ground. It was already more dead than alive, defecating and urinating; hanging by a breath.
Li Yao jumped in scare: "What kind of demon beast is this? It is too ugly! Just one glance is enough to make people sick for a long time. Brother Xiong, what are you trying to tell me?"
Guan Xiong replied, "This is not any demon beast. This is Jiang Tao."
Li Yao was stunned, "Jiang Tao? How could it be him..."
"How can you say that? He was beaten by none other than you!"
"Me?"
Li Yao was rendered speechless. After being stunned for a while, he vaguely seemed to remember that he had acted first and the Jiang Family's young master was just acting in self-defense. Furthermore, just after two rounds of defense, he was unable to fight back and was trampled like a three-year-old child.
Guan Xiong clucked his tongue:
"Kid, you are truly fierce. You have just advanced to the 1st level of the Refinement Stage, yet you can already beat a 3rd level Refinement Stage cultivator so much that he had peed his pants. There isn’t even a sliver of a shadow of the former human figure. He is still lying in the ICU! Look at yourself, you could be considered better off. I had not expected that you would start off so crazily, so violently!"
Li Yao's pursed his lips as he lightly gripped his fists.
He finally came to remember that his first punch fiercely had landed on Jiang Tao's face, smashing his nose completely into his face.
The refreshing feeling of breaking bones and splattering blood was truly wonderful.
Guan Xiong laughed and said:
"Kid, you were too impulsive! You should not have beaten a descendant of the Jiang Family like this. It is too late to regret now."
"Regret?"
Bit by bit, Li Yao slowly recalled the whole thing as well as the words spoken by Jiang Tao.
The hesitation and confusion on his face slowly disappeared, and what replaced it was an indomitable look.
"Brother Xiong, you are wrong. The matter of beating Jiang Tao... I didn't act on impulse, and I am also not regretting it."
"Oh?" Guan Xiong raised his eyebrows like drawing two sabers.
Li Yao clenched his fists and stretched it out before him. Feeling the spiritual energy surging through his meridians, the swelling of muscles, and the pleasant burning feeling on his fists, he said word by word:
"Whether it is Ding Yin and the others, those seven cultivators, or Brother Xiong, even after you clearly knew that you would die, you, in order to save a train full of passengers, still continued to charge forwards, fighting till the bloody end. You are all heroes, and even more so, you are also my, Li Yao's, saviors!"
"Now, when someone is cursing my saviors as 'idiots' in front of me, how could I swallow my anger and dare to say nothing? Isn't that no different than a turtle retracting its head in fear?"
"If I don't smash his nose, if I don't make him pee his pants from a beating, how could I call myself a man? How could I call myself a cultivator!?"
"If Jiang Tao wants to take revenge, then he is welcome to try anytime. I grew up in the magical equipment graveyard, so there are not just one or two people who want me dead. When I was seven years old, I was surrounded by a dozen or so robust men with blades, but I am still alive and kicking!"
Li Yao's eyes flickered with a sliver of ferociousness as he laughed and said:
"Originally, I was thinking of using the moniker ‘Fiend Star’ to roam the Wasteland, but if Jiang Tao truly wants to have this little life of mine, I do not mind letting the cruelty and the ferociousness of the 'Vulture' resound throughout the Wasteland!"
Guan Xiong was moved. He gave a smack to the medical treatment pod, which left a distinct imprint of his palm behind on its metal shell, as he yelled, "Alright kid, you are truly a man! From now on, you, my friend, are definitely a friend of this old man!"
He paused a bit, then once again laughed and said, "However, kid, you don't need to worry. You are one lucky bastard. When you were fighting with Jiang Tao, there was a surveillance camera behind you. Although its mic was broken, it could still record images. From the movement of Jiang Tao's mouth in the video, experts have identified everything he had said. That is to say, everything he had spoken has been recorded. This brat has touched the bottom line of cultivators, so he is definitely going to die and Jiang Family could do nothing to protect him."
"The bottom line of cultivators?" Li Yao was surprised for a moment.
Guan Xiong nodded his head and explained:
"Right, although the rules 'protecting the ordinary citizens is the sworn duty of cultivators' and 'the blood of the strong must flow for the weak' have been spreading in the cultivators community, but in the end, not every cultivator is willing to magnanimously die for others."
"If a cultivator, when faced with imminent disaster, flees instead of fighting, and even if the others came to know, it would just be a topic that’s ugly to hear. Besides morally condemning him, no one is going to say anything. After all, life is precious. No one is born with the obligation to sacrifice himself for the others."
"However, not only did Jiang Tao flee from the battle, but afterwards, he had even wantonly insulted the cultivators who had laid down their live
s for others and had even threatened you. This kind of behavior completely goes against the bottom line of cultivators!"
Guan Xiong took a deep breath, sighed, and said:
"In this endless sea of stars in the vast universe, apart from our human race, there are many other powerful races—demon clans, devil cultivators, extraterrestrial devils, and needless to say of the various strange alien lifeforms in space."
"We humans are able to conquer these evil lifeforms and stand at the pinnacle of the vast cosmos all because of the united efforts of cultivators and the ordinary people. They have shared life and death as they fought side by side with each other!"
"Although cultivators are strong, although they have long lives, their numbers are scarce, and furthermore, there are all kinds of restrictions to utilize spiritual energy."
"Even though the battle force of the ordinary people is weak, their population is vast and their reproductive abilities are strong, enough to sustain a sector and become a massive interstellar civilization."
"Much less to say, a vast majority of the cultivators are born from ordinary people, as are a majority of the descendants of the cultivators."
"If cultivators are fish, then ordinary people would be water. If cultivators are trees, then ordinary people would be the firm land upon which they grew in. In short, a large number of ordinary people are supporting the foundation of the cultivation world. If there are no ordinary people, the cultivation world would also completely collapse!"
"Let's take the crystal battleship floating above our head as an example. Although it was designed and manufactured by cultivators, its manufacturing process still needed thousands upon thousands of ordinary workers to assist. Needless to say, the entire large scale industrial system is established by ordinary people!"
"If it weren’t for the collective effort of hundreds of millions of ordinary people, there wouldn’t be any foundation of a powerful, interstellar civilization. We, the cultivators, can refine many ordinary flying swords, but how could we refine huge magical equipment? How could we create such a glorious and splendid cultivators civilization?"
"If the words of Jiang Tao were to spread and be heard by hundreds of millions of ordinary people of the federation, putting it mildly, it would lead to the dissatisfaction of ordinary people and would increase the hostility towards the cultivators. In short, it would cause a rift between the cultivators and the ordinary people and would shake the foundations of the federation. If the federation does not have a foundation, then how are we going to contend with the demon clan, devil cultivators, and alien lifeforms?"
"Even if it's the ugly truth, if all of us cultivators act like bandits and crooks, then what's the difference between the devil cultivators and us? If this father was an ordinary person, I would directly seek refuge under the devil cultivators. Why would we still need cultivators?"
"The elders of the Jiang Family must have spoken of these notions with Jiang Tao. However, he is still a descendant of a noble family. He grew up in a protected environment where he had never faced the wind and rain and had acted all arrogant and domineering. Why would he place such thoughts in his heart?"
"This time, he has caused a huge problem. For sure, trouble will be waiting for him, so you don't need to worry about him."
Having heard this, Li Yao was relieved. He concluded:
"I understand what Brother Xiang means to say. You can choose to become a coward, but after becoming a coward, you can not perfectly justify your timidity and cowardice, nor can you turn back and insult heroes—this is the bottom line of cultivators, am I right?"
Guan Xiong raised his thumb: "Yes, that's just about right."
Li Yao was just an ignorant rookie in the cultivation world. Just as Li Yao was planning to discuss some rules and topics behind the scenes of the cultivation world…
The tent was suddenly opened by a cold-tempered, female officer with the rank of major. She swept a glance around, and finally, her gloomy gaze came to a halt at Guan Xiong's hand.
Guan Xiong's complexion changed as the bottle in his hand suddenly disappeared.
He acted as if nothing had happened and directly looked at the major with an innocent look.
The major lightly snorted and coldly said, "Wait a while. I will come back to deal with you!"
While speaking, she threw a badgeless battle suit at Li Yao. "Put it on and come with me. He wants to see you."
"Who?"
Li Yao blinked his eyes but didn't get a reply. He obediently put on the battle suit and followed the major out.
Just as he arrived at the entrance of the tent, Li Yao stopped and asked Guan Xiong one last question:
"Brother Xiong, when you alone charged towards the overwhelming beast tide… did you truly not think that you might die?"
Guan Xiong pursed his lips as a smile appeared on his face. God knows from where he took out the bottle again and took a sip before winking and said, "Kid, I didn't become a cultivator for something boring like 'live forever and never die'."
"If not for living forever, then why?" Li Yao asked back.
"Of course, it was to become a mighty knight who has the strength to match a thousand knights. I want to happily fight wherever I go!"
Guang Xiong burst into laughter before finishing the alcohol in one gulp. "Crack crack!" He even chewed and swallowed the bottle as the glass shards were struck in his stiff and sturdy beard.
Chapter 117: Lingering Souls of Heroes |
The female major took Li Yao deep into the army camp.
Along the way, they met many soldiers, all of whom looked at Li Yao with an extremely frightened look, as if he was some kind of monster.
Everyone's gaze had made Li Yao feel jittery. He could not help but ask the female major, "Why are they looking at me like that?"
The female major was silent for a moment before replying, "It's because of the crazy stuff you did on the platform. You had beaten a 3rd level Refinement Stage Cultivator so much that one could not bear to look at him, and even a dozen soldiers were unable to pull you away. At that time, we truly thought that your body was possessed by a demon clan member and were about to behead you. However, after a thorough examination, we discovered that you were 100% human and that it was just your spiritual root awakening. To tell you the truth, I have seen spirit root awakening of many cultivators, but one as exaggerated as yours is still a first."
Li Yao was rendered speechless and could only smile in embarrassment.
The female major swept him a glance and continued, "However, after they came to know the reason, a lot of people in the army believed you are pretty gutsy, that you are a man!"
While speaking, the female major stopped in front a heavily guarded tent and said while pointing inside, "Go in, he is inside."
Li Yao looked around.
The black tent was located at the centermost location of the provisional army camp. There were over a hundred guards nearby while next to the tent stood a few men dressed in ordinary clothes, each with an extraordinary bearing.
Although he dared not to release the spirit threads to probe, Li Yao could still feel their remarkability. They all should be cultivators with superb cultivation.
Furthermore, a defensive array was secretly laid out around the tent. It was quite exquisite to the point that Li Yao was simply unable to gauge its depth.
Who was the “he” inside that was guarded so heavily?
Li Yao’s interest was piqued. Parting the curtains, he lowered himself and walked inside the tent.
A translucent white mist permeated inside the tent, amidst which were 7-8 men who were wearing white surgical gowns and surgical masks as they stood around an operating table. They were seriously performing an operation.
There were also four robotic arms in front of the operating table that were moving very quickly.
Just as Li Yao entered, the white mist made a rush towards him, disinfecting and sterilizing him.
Li Yao carefully glanced towards the o
perating table and saw something that was not human lying on the operating table. It was a rather small spirit mechanical body whose entire body was cast from metal and the most crucial parts were inlaid with hundreds of crystals. Whereas intricate spirit and crystal fibers that were glistening in a strange brilliance were spread between all the limbs and bones of its body.
A small hologram was embedded inside the head of the spirit mechanical body. While the crown of the head, which was refined from tungsten steel, was open, the four robotic arms were quickly installing several dozen crystal chips inside the “brain”. After they were finished, they cautiously closed the crown of the head and tightened the screws.
"Spiritual energy, 100% charged! We are ready to go!"
A doctor pulled down his white surgical mask before an emotionless sound that that did not contain even an iota of human emotion came.
"Beep Beep! Diagnostic system check complete!"
"Beep Beep! Cognizant crystal circuit complete. Soul and crystal chip synchronization 37%... 58%... 81%. Achieved the minimum requirement for revival!"
"Beep beep! Spirit mechanical body loop is normal. Starting the body control authorization process... Authorization process complete!"
Next, the crystals all over the body suddenly started shining. The spirit mechanical body lying on the operating table gradually sat up and shook its metal head in confusion.
Snowflakes started to float in the hologram that was embedded inside the face and soon gathered to create an ordinary human face.
It was none other than Ding Yin!
"Hello, Student Li Yao, we meet again."
Ding Yin slightly smiled. His voice, on the other hand, was completely calm and emotionless like the water in a dry well, containing not even an iota of human emotions.
He frowned slightly and said, "Starting human emotions simulation system. Test, test. Student Li Yao, is my voice normal now?"
Li Yao was completely dumbfounded. He stammered, "I-it's normal, Professor Ding—you are alive?"