by <unknown>
Li Yao held his saber tightly and put on a dangerous look. He yelled, "Do you want to die?"
The thorns shook for a moment. There was no telling whether they understood what Li Yao said or they perceived the killing intent from him, but they did not dare get closer to him anymore.
Li Yao raised his hand and tossed a slice of worm meat to the thorns. It was immediately bound up by dozens of thorns and melted by their corrosive sap. Very soon, it became a delicious meal for the thorns.
Li Yao took the opportunity to dash past the thorns into the crevice behind them.
There was quite a spacious cave behind the crevice.
Li Yao had paved the ground with ash and sand. Therefore, the cave was quite clean and dry.
The cave was not the largest one on this meteorite mountain, nor did it boast the most abundant spiritual energy. There were several other caves with better conditions.
But Li Yao had chosen this cave because of the thorns growing outside the cave.
They were greedy carnivores that would not let any intruder past. Also, whenever they were alarmed, they would always make rattling noises, which made them the best watch dogs at present.
Deep inside the cave, where the thorns could not reach, Li Yao took off his Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit and lay down, stretching out in relief.
Then, he suddenly jerked up and, unwilling to admit his failure, tried to break his limits with the 'Soul Igniting Law'!
BOOM!
A glittering rune array seemed to have been formed inside the cave. Mysterious rays of light were flowing around Li Yao's body!
"Refinement Stage Level One! Level Four! Level Seven!
"Refinement Stage Level Nine! Level Eleven! Level Thirteen!
"Peak of the Refinement Stage!"
When he reached the peak of the Refinement Stage, the spiritual gas surrounding Li Yao had reached the maximum. The whole cave was soaked in an ocean of gold brightness. Even the most ordinary rock was glittering like the most precious diamond.
However, just when the spiritual gas was about to be compressed and liquefied as he approached the Building Foundation Stage, nine black streaks suddenly popped around Li Yao heart. They bit each other's tails and locked up his heart like a vicious shackle!
Li Yao grunted in pain. Cold sweat was pouring off his forehead, but he could not condense his spiritual gas anyhow.
A moment later, Li Yao let go of his spiritual gas helplessly and maintained his spiritual energy in the third level of the Refinement Stage with the Soul Converging Technique.
"Black Spider Death Curse, what a creepy one!"
Li Yao tore open his mustard-seed battle suit and observed his stomach. Nine black stripes that interweaved into a weird chain of nine snakes were looming on his left chest. It was deep into his skin and flesh and tied up his heart.
Scratching the 'tattoo' softly, Li Yao felt that it was directly connected to his heart. A gentle touch was enough to make his heart race. It was not hard to guess what would happen if it was removed by force.
Li Yao had complicated feelings as he looked at the tattoo, wondering whether or not he should regret joining the battle a month ago.
It was true that, when he had learned that Storm Prison was ambushing the Great Horn Exo Society, an untamable, crazy notion had occurred to him, which was to take down the Core Formation Stage Cultivator Fengyu Zhong!
The reason was simple. Li Yao had never believed that any secret was safe forever.
Although few clues had been left to link him to Fengyu Ming's death, there were still too many coincidences.
Before, he had not been known for his capabilities yet, and other people might not have associated him with the event.
But as he appeared out of nowhere in the Skyhill Sword Seminar, and when he rose to fame in Heavenly Saints City in the future, his capabilities would become known by the world sooner or later.
By then, with Fengyu Zhong's wisdom and Black Spider Tower's intelligence network, some traces would definitely be found.
Li Yao had never been a passive man.
Neither was he willing to bear the thought that a Core Formation Stage Cultivator would be making plans against him in secret someday in the future.
It was to kill or to be killed. It seemed to be a better option to slay the father before he found out the truth about his son's death than to wait for Fengyu Zhong to figure everything out.
Li Yao had not been aware of the existence of the planetary ring before; he only knew that the Iron Plateau Space Zone was full of stone belts.
Therefore, his plan had been to hide inside the stone belts while planting all the crystal bombs he carried during his escape. Then, the environment inside the stone belts would be completely disrupted, and Fengyu Zhong would be stalled.
He was wagering on the hope that the reinforcements of Cultivators would arrive in time and surround Fengyu Zhong. If so, Fengyu Zhong would certainly have died!
The chance was slim. But how could a Building Foundation Stage Cultivator kill a Core Formation Stage Cultivator without taking his chances?
When he'd discovered that the planetary ring around Iron Plateau was a piece of powerful defensive magical equipment, he had changed his plan and decided to activate the defensive magical equipment with the crystal bombs as triggers!
In order to fully convince Fengyu Zhong, he had even fought Fengyu Zhong the hard way once and suffered heavy wounds because of it.
He had taken every detail into consideration.
It had never occurred to him that Fengyu Zhong's nose would be so sharp. There were no loopholes at all, but he had still sensed danger and run away beforehand.
Li Yao had also failed to anticipate that the blast released by the planetary ring when it was triggered to be as strong!
His original plan was to hide in the interior side of the planetary ring while he waited for the reinforcements.
As it turned out, the blast was like a surging tide and easily blew him into the gravitational pull of Iron Plateau. The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit had been seriously damaged, too, and lost most of its impetus. He was not able to alter his route and could only perform an emergency landing on Iron Plateau.
After he fell onto the planet that was even harsher than the Grand Desolate Plateau, the trickiest issue Li Yao was faced with was not the brutal demon beasts, but the Black Spider Death Curse, which Su Jiuzhen had cast upon him on his death with the power of his soul.
If the weird curse targeted his brain and tried to kill him, Li Yao could resist it by relying on Ou Yezi's soul power and eliminate it directly.
Yet, the Black Spider Death Curse seemed to be alive and was very adaptive to the environment. It was even able to select the most suitable method of attack.
After the previous outbreak when it was almost banished by him, the curse seemed to know that it was not strong enough to kill him and had been lurking near his heart where it had stabilized into a weird shackle.
The shackle was intangible in peacetime, and it did not affect him during a battle. But every time when he was about to rise into the Building Foundation Stage by liquefying his spiritual gas with the Soul Igniting Law, the vicious power of the curse would be triggered at the critical moment and pierce into his heart!
He was locked in the Refinement Stage by nine invisible chains. Over the past month, however hard he tried and burnt his soul, he had not been able to break this limit.
Li Yao was not depressed at yet another failure. He smacked his lips and leaned against the wall of the cave, meditating.
The stubbornness inside his eyes was as bright as before, not in the least diminished.
It might not be a bad thing now that I'm confined in the Refinement Stage by the Black Spider Death Curse!
From the time when his spiritual root awakened, a mark that he became a Cultivator, to the time when he advanced into the high level of the Building Foundation Stage and boasted combat ability at the peak of the Building Foundation Stage occa
sionally, it had taken less than five years.
Five years, from an ordinary person to a Cultivator in the high level of the Building Foundation Stage. Such a speed of advancement was appalling in the Heaven's Origin Sector, the Flying Star Sector, the Star Ocean Imperium, and even the ancient Cultivation world!
Advancing too fast was not necessarily a good thing. Breaking into the next level hastily without consolidating one's current knowledge might prove to be a hinderance in the future training.
Since he had stepped into the high level of the Building Foundation Stage, Li Yao had always been a bit lost as to how to further proceed in his path of Cultivation.
The training of his hands with Purple Ring Sword Ants and the building of his body with the Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining technique were just improvements in specific areas.
As to his overall Cultivation, he hadn't made any progress recently and felt like that he was trapped in a maze.
The advancement from the beginning level of the Building Foundation Stage to the middle level was based on the spiritual seed of Iron God Yan Ba, a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator.
The breakthrough from the middle level of the Building Foundation Stage to the high level was because of the adventure inside the True Fusion and the space swirl.
How was he going to progress further?
The Black Spider Death Curse and the shackle it imposed on him might prove to be of great help.
Li Yao's Soul Igniting Law was known as 'Soaring into Heaven in One Leap'. The main trick of the method was to imagine oneself as a proud king of eagles that had been caged inside a valley from a young age and never tasted the feeling of flying freely. It could only watch countless ordinary birds swooping past itself.
Just like that. Anger, patience, struggle, concealment. Then, one day, the shackle was broken, and the king of sky ascended to its throne!
It was the core of 'Soaring into Heaven in One Leap'.
Wasn't Li Yao an eagle king who was locked up in a deep valley? It was exactly the scenario inside his Soul Igniting Law.
Maybe, this is going to be my turning point.
It took me only four years to advance into the high level of the Building Foundation Stage from an ordinary person. The speed was too high for me to lay a solid foundation.
If I train myself with the regular methods according to traditions, I might have to spend another four years building myself up and consolidating my knowledge. Then, it would take me twenty years to solidify my spiritual energy in order to enter the Core Formation Stage!
To be honest, it was already incredible to form the core in one's forties. For other Cultivators, they can only make such an achievement if they are extremely lucky and everything goes their way.
But I cannot wait that long!
Five years! In five years, I'm going to succeed in forming the core so that I will be qualified to fight for the planetary-level magical equipment, which will be the biggest guarantee for the final war when I return to the Heaven's Origin Sector!
The fight against Fengyu Zhong had taught Li Yao a good lesson about his weakness. Plots, calculations, and schemes were absolutely useless when faced with overwhelming strength.
If one wants to get rich quick, one must take risks. It is not an easy task to form the core in five years!
The Black Spider Death Curse may have shackled me to the Refinement Stage for now, but isn't it a great opportunity for me to form the core?
As long as I attack the Black Spider Death Curse with 'Soaring into Heaven in One Leap' continuously and shatter it one day, I will definitely be able to experience the ultimate feeling of the eagle who soars in the sky. Even if I cannot form the core, I will at least be able to stand firmly at the peak of the Building Foundation Stage and see clearly how I am going to break into the Core Formation Stage!
Chapter 548: Appearance of Qi-trainers! |
Now that his belief was firm again and he knew what he was aiming for, Li Yao felt that he was no longer lost, although he was wandering on a perilous, unknown planet all by himself. He retrieved the objects inside his Cosmos Rings and accessed them while he pondered what he was going to do next.
Firstly, the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.
During the fierce battle with Fengyu Zhong, the breastplate of the crystal suit had been pierced by Fengyu Zhong's spear, which left a terrifying hole there. The two pieces of plate armor had completely lost all functionality.
Then, he was blown brutally by the blast from the outbreak of the planetary ring. Thankfully, Li Yao had not been facing the planetary ring, or the blast might have charged into his body through the hole on his chest and minced him into pieces!
Although his life had been saved, the power rune arrays and the crystal reactor on the back of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit had all been seriously damaged and were on the brink of destruction. It would not resume its combat ability without major maintenance.
The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit was no longer as awesome as it had been in the planetary ring. Shocking traces of claw marks could be found on the surface of the lackluster armor, as if the crystal suit had been savaged brutally by a deadly beast.
Li Yao felt his heart pounding the moment he saw the traces.
They were the result of horrifying demon beasts lurking inside the atmosphere of Iron Plateau when he was falling through it.
The atmosphere of Iron Plateau was like a layer of thin, grey mist. Such demon beasts had been hiding inside the grey mist and blending themselves in with it. Their speed was also too high for Li Yao to see what they looked like clearly. Moreover, more than ten of them had appeared at the same time and hunted the prey collaboratively. They were quite difficult to deal with.
To escape from the demon beasts, Li Yao had exploited the last bit of potential of his Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit at the risk of breaking down in the sky. He was lucky enough to have gotten rid of the predators.
The crystal reactor has to be replaced. More than half of the crystal processor has been blown up, too. I have to find a place to fully maintain the crystal suit and give it a rebirth!
Li Yao scratched his head. Where could he repair his crystal suit on such a desolate, uninhabited planet?
There were no Spiritual Towers in space near Iron Plateau Space Zone, which meant that the area had no network.
The atmosphere of Iron Plateau seemed a bit odd, too. It was extremely difficult to receive the messages of the outside world, not to mention sending signals out.
This planet was like a lone island in the boundless sea of stars that was completely isolated from the rest of the universe.
Li Yao could only rely to himself to repair the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit so that he could rush out of Iron Plateau with no fear of the flying demon beasts living inside the atmosphere.
But even if he rushed out of Iron Plateau, he might not be able to find a starship to board on because there were very few sailing routes in the Iron Plateau Space Zone, which had always known to be a forbidden area for Cultivators.
Crystal suits were perfect for short-distance battles in space, but a long journey from one space zone to another one? That would be a joke!
It meant that he would also need a starship that could at least cruise across space zones. He couldn't help but wonder whether or not there had ever been such a thing on Iron Plateau.
Li Yao sighed and focused his attention on examining the other items.
The good news was that he was not short of food and clean water.
The large quality of supplies he had looted from Fengyu Ming had never been used however hard his life was, even if he had to buy leek pies in a vegetable market. Now, his frugalness had given him a great return. The food was sufficient for him to survive for quite a few years.
A moment ago, he had gone out to hunt the giant worm not because he lacked food, but because he needed the super alloys that the giant worm condensed inside its body.
The giant worms were like natural furnaces. They could swallow
all kinds of minerals and transform them into hard super alloys, which looked like pearls, after a series of complicated chemical reactions inside their bodies. When they were attacking, the super alloys would be spurted as bullets.
When Li Yao discovered the habit, he had risked hunting several such giant worms and gathered a lot of alloys, hoping that the materials would be of use to his maintenance work later.
Although he had excessive food and clean water, the tremendous crystals that Fengyu Ming had kept inside his Cosmos Ring had run out a long time ago. Half of them were used for his personal training, and the other half were refined into crystal bombs. There weren't any left.
After the previous consumptions, especially the spendthrift uses in the planetary ring at the end of the battle, his storage of crystal bombs was running low, too. There were only a few of them left now.
As for his weapons, the Boiled Blood Wind Slashing Saber had suffered the most damage because of the head-on clash with Fengyu Zhong's Devil's cry. Both the surface and the interior of the blade were riddled with small cracks. If it was not examined and repaired in time, the saber would crumble after another few clashes.
There was a tiny dent on his Purple Electric Blue Fire Claw, too. The light flames right now were much feebler when it was condensed into a drill of mystic rays.
"This must be what is called 'no ammo and no food'," muttered Li Yao with a self-mocking smile.
Two streaks of brightness, one black and the other red, flew out of his Cosmos Ring and circled him.
The black one wagged its tail while it was flying in a cocky manner, as if it were saying, "Hey, do you know who the most reliable one is now?"
"Little Black, stop horsing around!"
Li Yao's mood finally got better when he saw Black Wing.
The mysterious flying sword that his foster father had passed on to him had not been of much use after he left the Heaven's Origin Sector. He had merely installed it to the back of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit. When necessary, it could provide additional momentum to improve the speed and agility of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.