Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

by <unknown>

  Therefore, this Master Xue Yuanxin was on the top of the list of experts that he wanted to communicate with.

  It was a pity that Master Xue was in the middle of an important experiment today, and his laboratory was closed.

  Li Yao sighed, not without regret. He was about to leave, when he suddenly sensed very weak shaking.

  He sniffed and smelled a vague uncanny scent.

  Advanced laboratories were mostly soundproof and fully-enclosed. If he could feel weak quakes in the hallway, an enormous shaking must have taken place inside the Ares Laboratory. Together with the uncanny scent and the violent spiritual energy of the fire class, Li Yao inferred that a small explosion had occurred inside the laboratory.

  As he expected, a moment later, the red light on the top of the Ares Laboratory started blinking, and the door glided to the sideways. A cluster of white smoke mixed with flames flooded out of the room.

  Many refiners who had dust all over their faces ran out while coughing. Some of them were spraying foam and water with antifire magical equipment. The flames were quickly put out, but the vaporized water made the spot even foggier.

  The practice of refining could be really dangerous; explosions were nothing but normal. The refiners were anxious but not disordered. They extinguished the fire in a neat fashion according to the standard procedure.

  Li Yao did not want to interject. Every laboratory had its own regulations and exigency plans in case of explosions. Who should run away, who should hide themselves, and who was responsible for putting out the fire were all listed clearly in the plans.

  If an outsider barged in recklessly, not only would they be of no help, they would also disrupt the pace of the team.

  However, while he was watching them doing their job, he suddenly felt weird waves from inside the laboratory. A sense of danger pierced through his soul like an invisible venomous sting!

  "Not good!"

  Li Yao's pupils suddenly constricted. He stomped on the ground so hard that his boots turned into powder and left two shallow traces on the floor, before he turned into a streak of darkness and darted into the laboratory!

  The laboratory was almost a thousand square meters, with a hollow in the middle that was more than twenty meters deep. It occupied quite a few floors of the refining center.

  A ball-like furnace was revolving slowly under the influence of the magnetic field in the hollow at the center of the laboratory, supported by anti-gravity rune arrays.

  It was 'Gold Ball XII', an advanced floating furnace and one of the top-tier furnaces in the Flying Star Sector. It was most suitable for refining solo magical equipment such as blades, crystal suits, or strengthening components.

  But at that moment, a crack more than two meters long had appeared on the left side of 'Gold Ball', from which colorful steam was jetting out. Li Yao couldn't help but feel pitiful, seeing the miserable appearance.

  In the middle of the smoke, many refiners wearing heatproof suits were spraying foam with cylinder-shaped antifire magical equipment. The purple foam contained abundant spiritual energy of the water class and could neutralize the high temperature. They were very mild and wouldn't affect most Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures.

  One of them glared at Li Yao. "It is dangerous here. Get out!"

  "Of course, it is dangerous!"

  Having no time to explain anything, Li Yao summoned his spiritual energy to form a cluster of high-pressure gas around him to avoid the invasion of heat, before he condensed a thin layer of spiritual energy around his body as if he had put on a silver shining armor.

  While everybody's exclaimed, Li Yao dashed into the gold ball in a streak of brightness.

  "Ah!"

  Everybody exclaimed once more in shock.

  Right now, the temperature inside the furnace was still more than 1,000 degrees. Even iron would be melted. But the man had rushed into it even without a crystal suit. He was merely committing suicide!

  However, how could they have stopped him even if they wanted to with their capability?

  Before they came back to themselves, Li Yao had already crawled out of the gold ball, with two objects about to be melted in his hands that were enveloped in his spiritual gas. He kept them far away from each other while he shouted at everyone, "Spray the cooling liquids!"

  Li Yao's voice contained unstoppable strength like a sharp axe. Everybody shuddered and sprayed cooling liquids on the objects.

  It was not until the two objects were enshrouded by purple icy fog and the irritating spiritual energy inside of them gradually calmed down that Li Yao took a long breath in relief. His clothes had been soaked in sweat, and he found it hard to stand on his feet.

  It was too dangerous. That one second just now had been even more dangerous than the moment when he confronted Yan Xibei!

  Chapter 648: Tortoise and Snake Locking the Mountain |

  Although Li Yao was not aware of the specific composition of the two clusters of materials, he did sense the subtle reaction between them. Once they were melted and mixed, an even more intense explosion was definitely going to be triggered, even releasing fatal gas!

  The moment Li Yao rushed into the furnace, the two clusters of materials were about to be melted!

  The dumbfounded refiners nearby had no idea that they'd been on the doorstep of hell a while ago.

  Hardly had Li Yao taken a breath in relief when he heard a coarse, high-pitched scream from the depths of the smoke, as if a hen had been grabbed by the neck. "Hurry to run. The combination of venomous dragon bone marrow and Heavenly Fire Crystals is very likely to cause an explosion. Run away, now!"

  A short, grey-haired old man rushed out of the smoke. His clothes had been singed black by the flames, and his messy white hair was stuck to his big forehead. He was short and slender. His limbs were like four rods, but his head was exceptionally big, taking up almost half of his body.

  Veins were bulging from the old man's forehead. His pupils seemed to be squeezing blood to put out the fire. He was about to crawl into the furnace without caring about anything, when Li Yao was quick enough to stop him.

  "Master Xue, I've separated the Heavenly Fire Crystals and the bone marrows of venomous dragons and cooled them down to below 500 degrees."

  Li Yao had seen Xue Yuanxin's photo on the Spiritual Nexus and watched a few lecture videos made by him. He knew that the unattractive little old man in front of him was one of the best crystal suit designers in the Flying Star Sector.

  He also realized what the materials that he had just separated were.

  He did not know much about the so-called venomous dragon bone marrow, because there were many kinds of dragon-type demon beasts, hundreds of which carried deadly poison and could be called 'venomous dragons'. Since Li Yao did not know exactly which type of dragon Xue Yuanxin was experimenting with, he naturally had no idea what attributes the marrows had.

  However, Li Yao was very familiar with the material 'Heavenly Fire Crystals', which was a type of marrow crystal of the fire class with special characteristics.

  Although it belonged to the fire class, it boasted tremendous heatproof abilities. The higher the temperature it was in, the more stable it would become. It wouldn't explode even if the environment was in a temperature of more than 2,000 degrees.

  However, Heavenly Fire Crystals would undergo uncanny changes if they were heated to a temperature between 1,350 degrees and 1,450 degrees for more than ten seconds, giving birth to a new material named 'Fire Destroyer Crystals'. During the process, ninety percent of the spiritual energy contained inside the marrow crystals would be released instantly and lead to very serious explosions!

  Although Li Yao did not know what the venomous dragon bone marrow was exactly, it must have been carrying deadly poison based on its name. The explosions of the Heavenly Fire Crystals could've vaporized the venomous dragon bone marrow and turned it into fatal gas!

  Li Yao estimated that the furnace was supposed to improve the temperature from severa
l hundred degrees to more than 1,800 degrees instantly, and there would be no time for the Heavenly Fire Crystals to initiate any chemical reactions. It would remain steady until the refining process was done.

  But the experiment had gone wrong. A minor explosion had taken place inside the furnace in the beginning, resulting in a crack on the surface of the furnace that could not maintain the high temperature anymore.

  As the steam jetted out, the temperature inside the furnace dropped to around 1,400 degrees. The Heavenly Fire Crystals reached the threshold of mutation, and a great disaster was almost caused.

  "Separated? That's good. It's great that they are separated!"

  Two lines of blood spilled out of Xue Yuanxin's ears. He seemed to have been injured in the previous accident. His eyes glanced at Li Yao in confusion but did not stop there for long. He staggered to a corner of the laboratory and sat on the ground. Holding his head in his hands, he mumbled, "What's happening? I've tested all the formulas time and time again. There's no way that they can possibly go wrong. Why was so much gas generated that the furnace was overwhelmed? Where did the gas come from?"

  Li Yao's interest was aroused. He drew close to the old man and looked. A giant light beam was floating in front of Xue Yuanxin. The light beam was packed with formulas and equations in the minimum font size as well as several structural designs and flowcharts.

  It appeared that he was trying to refine a new material.

  Material science was not Li Yao's specialty. The formulas and equations that Xue Yuanxin had written were extremely sophisticated, too. Li Yao's head went dizzy as he read them. Eventually, he managed to distinguish the six main materials and the thirty-seven subsidiary materials that Xue Yuanxin employed to build the new material.

  However, although Li Yao was not good at theories in the science of materials, he had witnessed the combination of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures countless times in Ou Yezi's memory pieces, and he was quite familiar with the scent and color of the flames when they were refined.

  Li Yao recalled the view inside the furnace and commented uncertainly, "Master Xue, when I was in the furnace just now, I seemed to smell the ash of leaves of the eucalypt trees. By logic, the forty materials that you selected wouldn't produce such an odor no matter what.

  "As far as I know, the materials that tend to trigger such a smell in high temperature include the Heavenly Flourishment Wood, the Sea Tiger Tusk, the Blue Cloud Vine, the Green Spirit Stone, among a few others.

  "If I may point out, the Green Spirit Stone always accompanies the Green Hellish Ancient Bronze, and they are sometimes mixed together.

  "Normal purification procedures can hardly remove all the Green Spirit Stones from the Green Hellish Ancient Bronze.

  "The way I see it, you've employed a lot of Green Hellish Ancient Bronze as the base material in your experiment. Is it possible that some Green Spirit Stone was mixed in and was released in the high temperature? The enormous gas the stone releases instantly could surpass the pressure limit of the furnace very quickly."

  Xue Yuanxin was dazed for a moment. "You understand my formulas?"

  Then, his eyes bulged wide, and he slapped his thighs in ecstasy, while he said, "Yes. It's possible. Very possible! The Green Spirit Stones will have reactions with Fire Phoenix Glass when they are heated to more than 2,000 degrees! The Green Fire Glass Gas will be produced, and its volume will be expanded by thousands of times instantly!

  "My calculations are correct. It was the purification of the Green Hellish Ancient Bronze that went wrong. Otherwise, I would've successfully refined the 'Super Bendable Steel'! Cough-cough-cough."

  "Super Bendable Steel?"

  Li Yao was greatly interested. It sounded like a whole new material.

  Considering that Master Xue Yuanxin was supervising the experiment in person and the forty or so kinds of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures employed in the experiment were all invaluable, the new material seemed very interesting.

  Xue Yuanxin finally eyed Li Yao up and down, before he blurted, "Who are you? Are you one of my students?"

  Li Yao coughed. He had read the guy's introduction on the Spiritual Nexus and knew the top-tier master of refining in the Flying Star Sector was adept at his specialty but quite jumbled in daily life. It was said that he could not remember his students' names even if they had been studying under him for years. Or rather, he did not bother to remember their names at all.

  Li Yao scratched his nose and said, "I was merely passing by when I sensed the anomaly in your refining furnace. I took the chance to crawl in and separate the two materials. That's all."

  "Your senses are keen enough for you to discover the anomaly of the two materials? And you can locate the source of the problem by the scent of the materials?" Xue Yuanxin was quite interested. He observed Li Yao carefully for a while, before he pointed at the light beam like a kid who was showing off his toy. "I'm refining a new material named 'Super Bendable Steel'. As its name suggests, it is a very flexible material, but it is also as tough as steel!

  "The greatest feature of the material is that it can absorb and store energy!

  "If my calculations are correct, the material can absorb seventy percent of the energy resulting from the enemy's attack and store it. When enough energy is accumulated, the user can unleash all of it with a telepathic thought and return the enemy's attack to them!

  "If such a material is successfully refined and employed to the 'Unparalleled Extension' that I developed recently, it will become the most awesome Ares Extension in the history of the Flying Star Sector!"

  "Absorbing and storing seventy percent of the attack in the material to make use of for the counterattack?" Li Yao gasped. If such a material was really successfully refined, it would definitely be the most precious treasure even if it could only be used once.

  The Ares Extension based on such materials deserved to be called 'Unparalleled'!

  Xue Yuanxin chuckled in satisfaction. He tapped the light beam and displayed several drafts. "This is the Unparalleled Extension!"

  Li Yao was deeply attracted by it after one glance. Although they were the simplest drafts, and perhaps graffiti in the eyes of outsiders, Li Yao sensed the essence of the design as an expert!

  "The Tortoise and Snake Locking the Mountain framework!" Li Yao blurted out. "I haven't seen such an ancient framework on crystal suits and strengthening plugins for a long time. Such a framework boasts extraordinary speed and agility, but its biggest shortcoming is the weak defense.

  "But if the 'Super Bendable Steel' is successfully developed and covers the Tortoise and Snake Locking the Mountain framework like flesh and blood, the shortcoming of the weak defense could be resolved once and for all!

  "As expected of Master Xue. This is very impressive. You've thought of a framework that can make the best of the Super Bendable Steel when you are refining it!"

  This time, it was Xue Yuanxin who was surprised.

  'Tortoise and Snake Locking the Mountain' was based on 'Tortoise and Snake Blocking the River', an ancient array forty thousand years ago. It had grown mature in the Star Ocean Imperium and was adopted by many crystal suits.

  However, because of its weak defense, it had never been the mainstream framework of crystal suits or strengthening plugins.

  Today, few people knew the existence of such a framework.

  Even several experienced refiners that Xue Yuanxin taught himself had never heard of the framework before. When Xue Yuanxin was planning to devise the new Ares Extension based on the framework, everybody had been baffled and failed to appreciate the beauty of it until he explained carefully.

  He did not expect that the young man would see through it in such a short time!

  "Who are you exactly?" Xue Yuanxin squinted and looked at Li Yao's face carefully for a while, only to discover that he was still a stranger. The master of refining scratched his white hair in embarrassment and said, "Are you a new teacher at the Refining Department? A researcher?
Whose laboratory are you working in?"

  Li Yao grinned and replied, "Master Xue, my name is Sand Scorpion. I'm a visiting scholar, and I've just arrived. I haven't picked a laboratory yet."

  "Sand Scorpion?" Xue Yuanxin frowned. He scratched his scarce white hair and thought hard for a while. Finally, his eyes shone, and he exclaimed, "The idiotic magnate from Iron Plateau who knows nothing?"

  Chapter 649: Edge Sharpeners' Meeting |

  An hour later, in a special ward of the No. 1 hospital of Flying Star University, Xie Anan watched the summit confrontation of two refiners, one old and the other young, in complete bewilderment.

  Li Yao and Xue Yuanxin each had a light beam floating in front of them. They were elaborating on their theories while they drew structural designs and equations on the light beams without halting to contemplate at all, as if the models and formulas had been stored on their fingertips, waiting to spurt out, since a long time ago!

  Xie Anan blinked hard and tried to follow their conversation, but however hard she listened to them, the only thing that she could be sure of was that they were talking about issues regarding refining.

  As for what the issues were exactly, she did not have the slightest idea.

  What are they talking about?

  Xie Anan was confused. She felt that she was five years old again, when she had listened to the seniors of her family discussing the arts of refining at dinner table.

  Tilting her head and biting her fingers, she failed to figure out why things ended up like this after she went to the bathroom.

  "I failed."

  Li Yao took a long breath in relief and said sincerely, "Master Xue Yuanxin, you truly deserve your fame. You have a profound understanding about the minimalization of power rune arrays at ten times sonic speed. The plans you proposed are more mature, reliable, and… elegant. Yes. That's the word. The distribution of your power rune arrays is very elegant!

  "Taking this round into consideration, I lost eight of the ten questions. Master Xue, you have my admiration!"