by <unknown>
Moreover…
The toughest members of Team Lingering Wind were merely in the middle level of the Building Foundation Stage, all of whom Li Yao had carefully studied. Suppose he agreed to duel with any of them and the match got too intense, the chance of him winning was not slim at all.
Therefore, Li Yao couldn't care less about the members of Team Lingering Wind who seemed like they might explode out of fury at any moment.
Right then, a hot wave swept over. All the audience found it hard to breathe.
Everyone of Team Lingering Wind narrowed their eyes and looked at the distance in alert.
"Team Blue Bronze! Inferno Witch Ding Lingdang is back!"
Outside of the arena, the five members of Team Lingering Wind were all surprised to see the replay of the match on the giant light beam.
They had thought that they would be able to catch the last part of the match. They didn't anticipate that it would be so short that it was concluded after only one minute and thirteen seconds.
Besides…
Vulture Li Yao's performance was even more brutal than Ding Lingdang's!
"What's the background of this Li Yao? He's pretty impressive! The time it took him to finish Guo Yu was even ten seconds shorter than it took you!"
"His methods were a little bit crazy, weren't they? To think that he waved a crystal tank like a giant hammer! Lingdang, why is the Grand Desolate War Institution full of lunatics like yourself?"
"How did he make Guo Yu lose balance? Why isn't there anything wrong with him? How perplexing!"
"Lingdang…"
Deep in thought, Hong Tong, captain of Team Blue Bronze, scratched his beard and said, "The personal strength of this Vulture Li Yao is indeed impressive. I'm told that he's also a gifted refiner, right? Even better!
"How about his integrity? Are you familiar with him? What do you think of his personality? Is he good enough to join Team Blue Bronze?"
Ding Lingdang grinned while she watched the video of Li Yao's match. Then she strode to Li Yao with a beaming face.
"Inferno Witch Ding Lingdang is back. Dear lord! The air around her is even more intimidating than one month ago. That peculiar 'Nona-colored Fire' of hers must be stronger than before!"
Surrounded by the enthusiastic Orb Patrollers, Li Yao and Ding Lingdang simply stared at each other.
The somewhat weird vibe confused everyone, who immediately started discussing.
"What's going on? It doesn't seem about right. Aren't these two from the same school? Why are they acting all weird?"
"Hard to say. As the saying goes, there can only be one tiger in its territory. The two of them are both distinctive figures that rose to fame in the recent years from the Grand Desolate War Institution. Maybe their competition was fierce when they were in school, which resulted to their bad relationship!"
"Just think about it. Vulture Li Yao is even better known than Ding Lingdang in the outside world. We all know that 'Inferno Witch' is too eager for excellence to stand anyone else suppressing her! Maybe there have been conflicts between them since long ago."
"Makes sense. They—"
Team Blue Bronze, Team Lingering Wind, and dozens of Orb Patrollers from other Star Teams all lost their words and thought their eyes were deceiving them, because Li Yao and Ding Lingdang suddenly moved and hugged each other.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier that you joined Occult Orbs Fellowship?" Li Yao asked in a low voice.
"At first, it was because I didn't want to worry you, but later it was because I wanted to give you a surprise. I was planning to go back to the school sometime in the next month. I didn't know that you would be coming to this place, too!
"But it is pretty reasonable. Right now, the development of Occult Orbs is at a much faster pace. There are more and more Star Teams. Geniuses like you are born for the Occult Orbs!" Ding Lingdang replied in a smile.
The closeness between them rendered every bystander speechless.
The two of them stopped talking, because their lips and tongues were totally occupied.
…
An hour later, in Team Blue Bronze's base inside Empyreal Star City…
They were on the top floor of a luxury hotel. Team Blue Bronze had rented the entire floor for a long time. Not only were there extravagant suites with all kinds of amenities, there was also a complimentary training room which could accommodate ten Building Foundation Stage Cultivators, as well as a combat room with exceptional safety measures.
At this moment, the other four members of Team Blue Bronze were all gazing at Li Yao, in a way that there seemed to be something invisible yet indestructible attaching their eyes to him.
Li Yao scratched his nose and frowned, "Why are you all looking at me like this?"
Hong Tong grinned.
"Nothing. It's just that we find it difficult to accept the fact that a girl like Ding Lingdang has a boyfriend.
"We've all seen her crazy training over the past few months, which almost convinced us that she was an ascetic monk who's not interested in anything other than martial arts.
"But it's quite understandable now that we've seen how you fought. If Ding Lingdang has a boyfriend, it can be no one but you!"
"Let's put the gossip aside for a while, shall we? I'm curious about one thing, Li Yao."
Ding Lingdang waved her hands and interrupted them from staring at Li Yao. Then she asked, with her eyes wide open, "In the fight just now, you were suppressed by Guo Yu the whole time in the beginning. Even your flash bangs failed to work out. However, Guo Yu suddenly lost his balance toward the end of the match, which eventually led to your comeback. How did you do it?"
"It's very simple."
Li Yao explained, "Although Guo Yu is only in the beginning level of the Building Foundation Stage, he has been exploring the Occult Orbs for a long time, which means that he must be a cautious man and he must've studied my past to learn of my fighting style.
"Besides, the arena of Burning Tanks is a fairly small place. He is a weaponry expert, who could see through the simple modifications easily.
"As I expected, while he was pretending that he was picking weapons in the beginning, he was actually observing me all the time trying to find out what moves I would resort to.
"Therefore, I purposefully let him discover that I added flash rune arrays to the battle saber during my modification.
"In fact, my real killing move was the two vibrating edges of the saber which could trigger sound waves in a special frequency. As a result, the vestibulum and the semicircular canal in the ear would resonate violently!
"The vestibulum and the semicircular canal are both key organs inside the ear that manage the balance of the body. Once they're shaking, one will feel dizzy and eventually lose balance.
"Although Building Foundation Stage Cultivators can build up their body hardness to the extent of that of the steel, it is still quite difficult for them to improve the hardness of the soft organs inside their ears.
"Once they start shaking because of the resonance, the dizziness of the body won't go away for at least one minute, which was enough for me to do many things."
"So, that was the case."
Everyone finally understood what had happened.
But Captain Hong Tong, after pondering for a moment, questioned him further. "That's not right. If it were flash rune arrays, you could reduce their effect by closing your eyes or turning away your head in advance, but sound waves are not that easy to defend. When the ears of your enemy were being savaged, wouldn't your ears be under the influence, too? You two should've lost balance at the same time."
"I didn't see you protect your ears with anything. Why were you not affected by the resonance?"
Li Yao smiled.
"Of course I didn't. Otherwise, Guo Yu would've known that there was going to be a sound attack.
"My ears were savaged, too. And since I was closer to the source of the sound than Guo Yu was, I'm afraid my ears suffered even more damage than
his.
"However, I've received a special training session before. During the one week, the balance system of my body was entirely wrecked. I became quite used to training and fighting in a swirling world a long time ago."
Everyone was quiet, failing to come up with any comment.
The four members other than Ding Lingdang were all astonished.
They were well aware what it felt like when the organs in the ears malfunctioned. The guy could actually fight like normal when the balance system was completely in a mess?
He truly deserved to be the Queen of Fire's man!
Speechless for a while, Hong Tong took a deep breath and said solemnly, "Mr. Li Yao, allow us to formally introduce ourselves. My name is Hong Tong, and I'm the second captain of Team Blue Bronze. I'm a battle-type Cultivator that just stepped into the high level of the Building Foundation Stage. I'm best at the spiritual energy of the metal class and of the earth class. I have some basic understanding on the manipulation of gravity, too. In our team, I'm mainly in charge of defense."
"My name is Yan Yangtian, but everyone prefers to call me Yan Zi. I'm the scout in the team, and I'm in the middle level of the Building Foundation Stage. My senses are extraordinarily sharp. My sight, hearing, and sense of danger are ten times keener than those of common Cultivators. Li Yao, your performance was indeed remarkable!" the short girl with emerald hair said with a bright smile.
A tall, thin, male teammate, who had a black birthmark in the middle of his forehead, said confidently, "I am Leng Ziming from First Military Academy of the Federation. I'm the sniper and the gun expert of the team. I'm in the middle level of the Building Foundation Stage and I'm adept at gun-fighting. People call me 'Shell', because in my hand, a bullet shell can be as destructive as a flying sword!"
Beside 'Shell' Leng Ziming, a stout young man grinned.
"My name is Ba Weiqi. People call me 'Dummy', because they've been complaining that I talk too much and would rather I be muted. Hahahaha. But it's impossible to stop me from talking! I'm sort of a jack of all trades in the team. I know something about medical skills, something about fighting, and something about the identification of traps and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. I'm also aware of a few skills about mental attack and defense.
"You should know that many demon experts love mental attacks. The ancient cemeteries and battlegrounds left over the past thousands of years are full of mental traps, too. So, an expert in mental attacks is necessary in a team!"
"These are our respective jobs in Team Blue Bronze. In regard to scouting, assassination, defense and mental attacks, the team is fully prepared. Now that Ding Lingdang has joined us as the center of attacking, our personnel are almost perfect now, except that we're lacking a professional refiner. Mr. Li Yao, are you interested in joining Team Blue Bronze?"
Captain Hong Tong extended his invitation solemnly.
Chapter 365: Monsters |
Li Yao hesitated.
He had been planning to join a first-rate team, preferably with a rank among the top 30. The rank of Team Blue Bronze, on the other hand, was much lower than he expected.
But Ding Lingdang was in Team Blue Bronze. He craved to fight side by side with her, too.
Seeing through his concerns, Ding Lingdang walked forward and said, "Just because Team Blue Bronze ranks in the seventies right now doesn't mean we are a mediocre team.
"If you have studied the files of Team Blue Bronze, you should know that Team Blue Bronze was a super team ranking in the top five, just three months ago. It was because of the loss of Yin Qingfeng, the former captain as well as soul of the team, and Gao Peng, another expert of the team, that the comprehensive capability of the team plunged.
"However, the remaining four teammates all boast exceptional personal abilities. Their knowledge about the Occult Orbs is abundant after years of training there.
"If we work with them together, Team Blue Bronze will definitely return to the top 10 of the Rank of Stars!"
Ding Lingdang's words made Li Yao's heart race. Returning to the top 10 of the Rank of Stars? It did sound like something particularly fit for his appetite.
Hong Tong smiled and said, "Mr. Li Yao, you don't have to make a decision right now. Selection of a team often involves the arrangement of fate. But more importantly, you need to check whether or not the style of the team works for you.
"If you think ours doesn't, you don't need to force yourself to join us. Although Ding Lingdang is part of Team Blue Bronze, it's perfectly normal for husband and wife, older brother and younger brother, or father and son to be in two different teams.
"There are advantages and disadvantages when you have a family member in the team. The advantages are that you know each other well and your cooperation can be flawless; the disadvantages are that you may care too much about each other, and when a crisis takes place, your personal feelings will hinder you from making sensible choices.
"Therefore, don't let anything bother you. Just take your time and think about it carefully.
"Even if you decide to join Team Blue Bronze, we'll need to ask you to take several tests, not because we don't believe in your ability, but because we need to make sure that your ability is what Team Blue Bronze needs right now.
"However, while you are considering, you can see a presentation of Team Blue first."
As he was talking, Hong Tong took a small step forward.
The distance between them barely changed. But Li Yao felt that a mountain had been put on his head and that his body was ten times heavier than before, as if he was being absorbed by hardening cement.
"The ability that I'm best at is manipulation of gravity. If I burn my soul to maximum, I can put the enemy in thirty times gravity at most; they will be suppressed by an invisible mountain, unable to move at all.
"Therefore, in Occult Orbs Fellowship, many people call me 'Mountain Monster'!"
Hong Tong burst out into laughter. He suddenly sped up and ran almost a hundred laps around Li Yao at an astonishing speed which was disproportional to his height and weight.
"Not only can I increase the gravity of the ground where the enemy is standing, I can also decrease the gravity of the ground near myself instantly to one tenth of the standard gravity. Naturally, I can run much faster than most people.
"Besides, since most of the hostile attacks are under the influence of gravity, as long as I control the gravity around me neatly, I can interfere with the trajectories of the attacks and disable the flying swords, venomous liquids, sharp spikes, narcotic mist, and even powerful blasts, if not stopping their attacks from being launched in the first place.
"Therefore, I'm mainly in charge of defense of the team."
Barely had he finished his sentence when Yan Yangtian jumped to Li Yao and smiled.
"I'm the scout of the team; I'm adept at swiftness and stealth skills."
While she was talking, she winked mysteriously. Her body suddenly turned transparent, before it vanished into thin air like an ice tube which was thrown into boiling water.
Li Yao's telepathic thoughts rippled out but failed to detect Yan Yangtian's existence at all.
What a remarkable stealth ability!
Then, someone suddenly giggled behind him.
He turned around, only to find two identical Ding Lingdangs smiling at him at the same time.
The Ding Lingdang on the left grimaced. In a blur, it turned into Li Yao and then Hong Tong. It even put on the appearance of a purple-haired demon with two horns on the forehead, before it returned to Yan Yangtian, who retreated behind Hong Tong with a smile.
"My ability is not so fancy. It's just shooting guns."
'Shell' Leng Ziming smiled casually. Then his hands turned into two blurred shadows, picked up two gold glittering pistols, and shot more than twenty brilliantly shining bullets of spiritual energy in a breath.
What was weird was that after the bullets spurted out and dispersed in the air like blossoming, they took a sharp turn at the sa
me time and congregated in midair where they formed an impenetrable cage.
"Zi! Zi!"
After a noise, the rune arrays carved on the bullets were activated at the same time. Gold electric arcs rushed crazily between them, interweaving to create a three-dimensional net about one meter in diameter.
"This is an aggressive array of my own invention named 'Gold Cage' which is formed by my bullets. According to the reaction of the enemy, there are 36 different follow-up plans!"
Leng Ziming whistled. His bullets immediately pierced inwards simultaneously. More than a hundred gold electric arcs exploded at the same time after a boom. But the damage was entirely restricted to a small zone no more than one foot in diameter. Li Yao didn't feel any spiritual waves even though he was only several meters away, which was indicative enough of a precise and professional control over spiritual energy.
The demonstrations of Hong Tong, Yan Yangtian, and Leng Ziming were big eye-openers for Li Yao.
"The three of you have done such marvelous performances. What do I do?"
Grinning, 'Dummy' Ba Weiyi patted Li Yao's shoulder and said, "Should I show you my medical skills?"
Li Yao showed neither approval nor disapproval. He was going to nod his head, when he suddenly felt a weird wind blowing.
He blinked his eyes, only to find himself somehow placed on an enormous, desolate planet which was surrounded by the boundless sea of stars and a deep, dark universe, dwarfing him and making him feel more isolated than ever.
Then, he noticed that the planet he was on was charging at a giant star.
Very soon, Li Yao's eyes were entirely occupied by the star. The scorching storm of fire ripped off his flesh from his bones like a burning butcher's knife.
"Hooo!"
From the overwhelming star, a furiously burning paw which was thousands of times than Li Yao extended all its fingers and slapped at Li Yao.
Li Yao gritted his teeth, roared, unsheathed his saber, and leaped forward!
The planet burst into pieces under his feet, while he waved his Boiled Blood Wind Slashing Saber and slashed at the star brutally in a streak of gold.