by <unknown>
Chapter 564: Sonic Sword, Wolf Fang! |
Wu Mayan watched the scenery with Li Yao quietly. A moment later, he remarked, "Beautiful, isn't it? But on Iron Plateau, only six cities boast such splendid views.
"The six cities are established on six extremely vast areas of debris, where many resources and techniques from before the apocalypse were left. They are also protected by high city walls, and the demon beasts cannot break into them.
"However, the towns and villages out of the six major cities are often attacked by demon beasts. When an egg of apocalypse explodes after becoming ripe, the creatures inside can even destroy an entire town!
"Therefore, the development level of the towns and villages vary. Some of them are hundreds of years behind Furious Bears City.
"It can't be helped. Not all people have the privilege of living in Furious Bears City because of the insufficient resources here. Many farms and mines are scattered across the desert and must also be attended to.
"These places are among the luckier ones. Furious Bears City often sends a lot of qi-trainers to these places to protect the ordinary people.
"On the other side of Iron Plateau, there exists a large godforsaken area known as Dark Continent."
Li Yao raised his eyebrow high to show his interest.
Wu Mayan explained, "Dark Continent is the half planet that was the first to take the blow of the asteroids. It is not hard to guess that the place bled most. Chances are that all the shelters were demolished in an instant.
"For thousands of years, the six tribes of Iron Plateau have been struggling, growing, and expanding on this half of the planet. But due to the limitation of resources and technology, we cannot afford to establish towns in the Dark Continent.
"We've sent many an exploration team to the Dark Continent. They reported that it was a desolate world that had been completely destroyed by the apocalypse. There were no cities or towns. Demon beasts were the masters of the place.
"According to the exploration teams, there were human beings in the Dark Continent, too. However, they had absolutely no rules or moral standards. Theirs was a cruel society where the strong feasted upon the weak. Many survivors had even become real barbarians, no different from animals who ate raw meat and drank blood.
"The biggest wish of the qi-trainers is to grow stronger and set foot in the Dark Continent one day to save our compatriots!"
The young man's face was brimming with determination.
While they were talking, the True Qi train slowed down and reached a new stop.
The intense scent of metal that filled the air belied where they were; it was the factory zone.
"We're here. Let's go!"
As the apocalypse was drawing near, all the factories in Furious Bears City were running at the maximum efficiency to manufacture more war machines.
The weapon factory was overloaded. The spiritual gas was threatening to explode, and coolants were splashing all over the floor. Yelling and collisions echoed nonstop. The air was sweltering to the point that it almost felt like one was burning.
Li Yao observed the qi-trainers' magical equipment factory as a professional refiner.
Prototypes of assembly lines could be found in the factory, albeit very primitive and in lack of automation. There were still a lot of workers and blacksmiths doing their hard jobs with sweat dripping off their heads at their posts.
The technology of metal refinement on Iron Plateau was much more underdeveloped than the outside world. Most Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures were barely usable because they were mixed with too many impurities.
Although Li Yao was a brilliant star on the Skyhill Sword Seminar, he was not an omnipotent man. The creation of modern magical equipment included too many details. The enhancement of metals alone involved tens of thousands of techniques. It was impossible for Li Yao to have learned all of them.
With a rough calculation, Li Yao realized that, given the underdevelopment of Iron Plateau, it was impossible to produce the components necessary for the maintenance of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit within several months.
That was leaving the crystal reactor aside. The crystal reactor required dozens of special alloys and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. The facilities were unlikely to produce any of them.
Li Yao sighed and put the maintenance of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit to the back of his mind for a while. He focused his attention on studying the magical equipment in the factory.
As Xiong Wuji's foster son and one of the most distinguished young geniuses in Furious Bears City, Wu Mayan was quite familiar with the manager of the weapon factory.
A fat qi-trainer soon brought the two of them to a warehouse that belonged to the weapon factory.
The manager smiled and said, "Boss Xiong has told us that this brother killed two Emperor Sand Scorpions and rescued you. What a tough man! Boss Xiong said that this brother is free to choose whatever blades and magical equipment he wants and that he will be paying for them later!"
Li Yao was never courteous when it came to magical equipment. He kept his mouth shut, his eyes glittering, while he climbed up and down the big iron shelves inside the warehouse and examined the qi-trainers' magical equipment.
Shua!
He took a black iron sword, which was more than two meters long, from a shelf and touched it, greatly fascinated.
Although it was a sword, it was broad, thick, and weighed more than sixty kilograms. The edge of the sword was not sharp. When it was being wielded, it was like a giant bat and could easily smash the enemy to death if it failed to slash them. Apparently, it was a good weapon to deal with demon beasts that had solid shells.
There were no decorations on the body of the sword, except for the dozens of small holes in rows.
"This is a jet sonic heavy sword. Everybody prefers to call it a 'sonic sword'. It is the favorite weapon for all the qi-trainers of Furious Bears City. Other than that, there are also sonic sabers, sonic bats, and sonic hammers, but they are all designed with the same mechanism."
Wu Mayan explained, "Uncle Sand Scorpion, look, there's a circle of inlet holes on the grip of the sword that lead to the center of the sword. Enhanced by the rune arrays there, the spiritual gas transmitted into the holes will spurt out from one side of the sword and thus accelerate it! As long as you are above the 17th level of the Refinement Stage, it will be more than easy to wield the sword at sonic speed."
Li Yao's eyes suddenly shone. He sensed the sword with his spiritual threads and immediately understood the mechanism of the sword after a few seconds.
He walked to a corner of the warehouse, raised the heavy sword high, and slashed down after pouring his spiritual gas into the body of the sword.
Hiss—
Enhanced by the rune arrays inside the sword, his spiritual gas spurted out in eight streams from the holes on the two sides of the blade, as if a whale spurting water!
The edge of the sword was further accelerated by the enormous force resulting from the spurting spiritual gas. It broke the sonic barrier and surpassed the speed of sound instantly!
Shua!
Two sharp waves spread out from the air in Li Yao's front with an earsplitting sound, as if the air had been wounded by Li Yao's attack and was moaning.
Maximizing the damage by increasing the speed of the blades with a jetting mechanism?
Such True Qi weapons are simple in structure, easy to maintain, and do not require many Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. They are very suitable for the Refinement Stage Cultivators. Indeed, not bad!
Li Yao complimented the inventions secretly.
The Refinement Stage was merely the most basic phase in Cultivation both in the Flying Star Sector and in the Heaven's Origin Sector. It was the starting point of a long journey.
When all Cultivators were devoted to training in the hope of building the foundation or even form the core, they sometimes overlooked the exploration and research of spiritual gas, which was considered
to be the lowest form of spiritual energy and not worth studying at all.
But on Iron Plateau, since the qi-trainers were unable to enter the Building Foundation Stage, they had explored the mysteries of spiritual gas far and wide. After thousands of years of development, a brilliant system based on spiritual gas had been created!
The qi-trainers' expertise on spiritual gas was far more sophisticated than that of other places in many aspects!
Li Yao put aside the sonic sword and picked a crystal bomb.
The crystal bomb looked like a bucket. It was half the length of Li Yao's arm. The warhead was even larger than his fist, with sharp thorns occupying its surface.
Wu Mayan explained, "This is a long-grip grenade, but we prefer to call it 'Wolf Fang'!
"The fighting styles of the six tribes on Iron Plateau are not entirely the same. The Furious Bears Tribe likes close-distance combat best.
"When the qi-trainers of the Furious Bears Tribe are about to be engaged in a battle, it is a common practice that we carry a lot of Wolf Fangs with us. If we run into demon beasts, we bombard them first with dozens of grenades and blow the heck out of them before we charge at them, waving our sonic swords and sabers, and slay them all until their blood congregates into a river. That's the most gratifying thing ever!"
Li Yao was deep in thought. No wonder the magical equipment he saw most on the shelves most consisted of swords, sabers, and grenades, and there were barely any firearms.
Since the two kinds of magical equipment were the fundamental weapons for the qi-trainers of the Furious Bears Tribe, Li Yao planned to start with them and see whether or not he could make any improvements.
Based on the knowledge Li Yao had learned from Huangpu Shiyi, Li Yao was almost certain that the 'Wolf Fang' grenades could be upgraded in various ways.
Li Yao narrowed his eyes and was drawing the structural designs of the new version of the grenades in his brain when Wu Mayan suddenly exclaimed in surprise and ecstasy, "What? The Fierce Storm Assault Team and the Iron Bears Detonation Team are running a competitive test with their new magical equipment? Uncle Ma, please show us the way!"
Wu Mayan snatched Li Yao's arm and said excitedly, "Uncle Scorpion, we've chosen a good day to come. The two most awesome combat squads of the Furious Bears Tribe are having a competitive test with their new magical equipment. Let's hurry and check it out!"
Behind the warehouse was a spacious test field. Two teams, both made up of almost twenty qi-trainers, were preparing for the test to come unhurriedly.
Speaking from the standard of Iron Plateau, the qi-trainers of the team on the left were all short. None of them were over two meters tall. More than half of them were females and were relatively slender.
The qi-trainers on the right, on the other hand, were all muscular giants who were around 2.5 meters tall. Their shoulders were as broad and thick as planks, and each of them weighed well over two hundred kilograms. They were the living embodiment of 'furious bears'.
The test had not begun yet. Neither side had summoned their spiritual gas. Therefore, Li Yao couldn't tell what levels they were in.
However, both the lean qi-trainers on the left and the brawny giants on the right gave Li Yao tremendous pressure.
What a strong smell of blood. They are real experts!
Li Yao was greatly interested.
When several pieces of large magical equipment, which looked really weird, were trolleyed to the qi-trainers, Li Yao became even more interested.
Chapter 565: Clash of Thunder and Lightning! |
The qi-trainers of both teams were putting on their armor; the two teams' armor were designed completely differently.
The armor for the thin qi-trainers on the left was smaller and lighter. All the joints were exposed to the air, and the plates were connected by soft tubes, with a lot of the True Qi containers that Li Yao had seen previously on the train added to them.
Attached to everyone's back were pairs of foldable iron wings, which were full of spiritual gas tubes. At the ends of the wings were small holes from which white steam were popping out.
The qi-trainers jumped and warmed up their bodies. As their spiritual gas surged out, their wings opened and closed, and when their wings stretched to the limits, a lot of spiritual gas spurted out and pushed them up more than ten meters into the sky, where they would hover for around five seconds.
When the qi-trainers stopped in midair, the iron wings continued folding and changing the angle of the spurting spiritual gas, allowing them to perform small-scale movements nonstop. They were altering their postures and dashing in the air, showcasing their incredible agility.
Li Yao's eyes suddenly shone. Such jet armor was no less swift than crystal suits!
Wu Mayan explained very proudly, "This is the Fierce Storm Assault Team, an elite squad made of thin, soft-boned qi-trainers. The armor they are wearing is special jet armor. They have been training in the air nimbly since they were very young. With sufficient spiritual gas, they can fight in midair for an entire hour!"
The members of the Fierce Storm Assault Team were all using relatively narrow double swords that were also installed with a jet acceleration system. As their spiritual energy surged out, the swords glittered and produced deafening sonic explosions, as if supersonic armed shuttles were passing by. Their aura was truly dominating.
The muscular giants on the right, in the meantime, had put on thick, heavy black iron armor.
Their armor seemed to be made of several enormous shields and couldn't have looked more magnificent. They were already taller than other people without the armors. But in the armor, they were all more than three meters tall and were literally moving iron towers!
Dozens of True Qi containers were attached to each black iron armor, too. Facilitated by the spiritual gas, the gears between plates continued spinning, which was the only reason they could turn their joints freely and move forward in a set of armor weighing hundreds of kilograms.
The black iron armor focused more on the arms. Spiritual gas tubes were entangled among the layered plates like thick man-made muscle fibers. When their spiritual gas surged out, their iron fists collided into each other brutally, releasing cacophonous noises.
Countless hooks were placed on the rough surface of the armor, where almost a hundred long-grip grenades were hanging. Through the chains driven by spiritual gas, they could be sent into the qi-trainers' hands very easily.
One of the muscular men picked up a 'Wolf Fang' and weighed it in his hand. He then suddenly extended his arm and threw the grenade forward. Dozens of air currents spurted out of the gaps on the arms. Pushed by them, the grenade was tossed thousands of meters away!
Li Yao's eyes were keen enough to see that a row of targets was placed at the end of the test field, thousands of meters away.
The targets were not large in the first place. Observed from thousands of meters away, they were as insignificant as beans. But the grenade hit the bull's eye precisely!
The shell of the grenade was riddled with sharp thorns, which allowed it to pierce deep into the target. In the blink of an eye, the grenade exploded and blew the target into pieces!
"Hooo!"
The muscular man was very satisfied. He bellowed, waving his arm that was even thicker than Li Yao's waist.
Wu Mayan was in awe as he said, "This is the Iron Bears Detonation Team, another elite squad of the Furious Bears Tribe! They are all giants with infinite strength and experts in throwing grenades. When a battle is caught in a stalemate and we cannot make any progress, or when we are faced with super strong demon beasts, the Iron Bears Detonation Team always leads the charge!
"Equipped with the most powerful iron shield armor of the tribe, with hundreds of Wolf Fangs, they can crush any demon beasts when they rush close and bombard them!
"Fierce Storm and Iron Bears are the strongest combat units of the Furious Bears Tribe!
"Every young man in the tribe dreams of being admitted by one of the two elit
e teams one day!
"I used to dream of becoming a guard on the airships. But when I learned of the existence of such elite squads, I made up my mind that I would join one of them and maybe become a captain one day!
"My foster father Xiong Wuji was once the captain of the Iron Bears Detonation Team. Although he was neither tall nor strong, he was extremely crazy during battles and ran in the front with absolutely no fear of death. He even detonated the grenades right on his armor several times! That was why he was called 'the best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau'.
"But I'm even leaner than him, and I doubt that I will ever be taller than 1.8 meters in my life. It seems more likely that I will join the Fierce Wind Assault Team!"
While talking, the two elite squads had finished preparing their equipment. The competitive test soon began!
The rule of the test was very simple. There was a circle in the middle of the spacious test field. In the center of the circle was a red flag. The two sides would sprint at the circle at the same time. Whichever side snatched the red flag and brought it back to the 'home camp' of their side would be the winner.
Swoosh!
The Fierce Storm Assault Team was best known for their speed and agility. Hardly had the test begun when several qi-trainers jumped to the sky and sprinted forward, flapping the iron wings on their jet armor.
Their remaining teammates, while rushing on the ground, were also accelerating with their jet armor in a zigzag pattern that looked like white lightning.
By the time their opponents had gotten started, many of them had already rushed into the circle.
Members of the Iron Bears Detonation Team were all wearing heavy armor. Their speed was low, but they had their own tricks, too.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Dozens of Wolf Fangs darted at the members of the Fierce Storm Assault Team quickly and brutally as if they had eyes!
Some of the members of the Fierce Storm Assault Team dodged the grenades with their jet armor, while some others waved their sonic swords and unleashed high-pressure spiritual gas to blow up the grenades before they approached.