by <unknown>
It was only one molecule large in diameter, but the hardness and tenacity of the material were unbelievably high. The spiritual energy conductivity of the mica threads was very satisfactory, too, which allowed them to be controlled by the telepathic thoughts. They were the best product in the field of material science in the Star Glory Federation.
When Li Yao poured his spiritual energy into them and made them vibrate at a frequency of tens of thousands of times per second, they were like the tiniest saws, capable of cutting the hardest materials.
It was not a piece of attack magical equipment in the first place but a tool for refining that Li Yao used to perfect the metals.
Back when he was in the Flying Star Sector, Li Yao was already cutting multi-surface components with similar mica threads.
Moreover, since they were able to cut the hardest metals and crystals, it was certainly not a problem for them to cut the flesh and bones of a human being!
Shua!
Dozens of molecular mica threads, with a needle tied to the front as a balance weight and a lead, darted toward Li Zhuilang's critical parts.
The molecular mica threads that Li Yao had secretly tied to the Spiritual Dragon Sea Piercing Spear were even jerking up toward Li Zhuilang's hands like vipers!
If Li Zhuilang did not intend to be cut into thousands of pieces by the molecular mica threads, he would only have one option.
"Release it!" Li Yao bellowed.
Li Zhuilang was obedient enough to let his weapon go immediately and retreated!
But although his hands loosened, two attraction forces were flowing out of his arms as he tried to manipulate the spear with his spiritual energy to attack Li Yao from behind!
The Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators did not necessarily have to use their magical equipment with their hands after all.
It was a pity that while he was retreating fast, Li Yao stomped in midair and stopped his momentum before running backward, too!
While retreating, Li Yao pulled the spear hard with the molecular mica threads!
The magical equipment had been polished by Li Zhuilang for decades and connected to his heart. Now that it was also closely attached to him with spiritual energy, it was certainly not something that Li Yao could snatch away easily!
The spiritual energy and the molecular mica threads from the two of them exerted forces from two different directions. Then, with a crisp snap, part of the lower half of the Spiritual Dragon Sea Piercing Spear was cut off because of the high-speed oscillations of the molecular mica threads!
"Ahhh!"
Seeing that his most beloved magical equipment had been destroyed, Li Zhuilang felt more hurt than he would have after losing arm. He cried and fell to the ground. He looked at Li Yao with bloodshot eyes that were filled with hatred and craziness!
Like a crazy animal, he roared desperately, "A true man should be killed before he is insulted. How dare you insult me like that!"
"You are overthinking it," Li Yao sneered. "Do you think that I was mocking you when I said that the biggest problem with the spear was you?"
Li Zhuilang was dumbfounded. His crazy face froze. Sitting on the ground, he asked, "Were you not?"
"Of course not. I was only speaking the truth," Li Yao said casually. "Even the best magical equipment requires a corresponding user to maximize its power! This spear is made of the icy steel deep inside North Sky Ocean of the Frost Moon State together with dozens of veins of dragon-type animals. In terms of the materials, rune arrays on it, and temperature when it was crafted, every detail was impeccable. Even I can't find any flaws!
"However, I am very certain that you are certainly not the original owner of the spear!
"This spear is 2.279 meters long and weighs 54.835 kilograms. The tail of the spear has been thickened by an additional embossment, partly to make it easier to be wielded and partly to slightly adjust the barycenter!
"Judging from those features, the spear should've been designed for a Cultivator who is 2.19 meters tall with an arm span of 2.03 and a weight between 92.5 kilograms to 93.5 kilograms!
"Only such a height, arm span, and weight could perfectly match the spear in order to use the weapon to the fullest extent!
"It was certainly an expert who crafted the spear. When he forged the spear, he did exactly what I am about to do to renew Yan Liren's fourth sword. He took the body details and the habitual movements of the user into account!
"You are 2.13 meters tall, and your arm span is 1.95 meters. Although these two details are close enough, your weight is the most critical problem. You weigh 117.5 kilograms, with muscle all over your body!
"The spear is devised for agile, erratic attacks!
"You are too strong for the spear!
"When you wave the spear, your height is not right; your weight is not right; your barycenter is not right; everything is not right! Even if you have polished the spear hard for decades and have copied all the moves, arts, and techniques of the previous owner of the spear, how can you expect to wield one tenth of the spear's original power?
"You can't possibly have never sensed the anomalies during your training. So, am I wrong to say that the biggest problem of the spear is you? Tell me!"
Boom!
Li Zhuilang's face seemed to have been bombarded by a crystal bomb. His face reddened to such a point that he seemed to be choked by the blood that he was about to vomit. He did not even know whom he should curse.
"I…"
Looking at Li Yao and the Spiritual Dragon Sea Piercing Spear, which had been shortened, he was lost for words!
All the high-level Cultivators were whispering to each other. The Spiritual Dragon Sea Piercing Spear was a famous piece of magical equipment among the Cultivators. It was Li Zhuilang's family treasure, and the earliest owner of the spear was his father.
When his father was alive, his father had indeed been taller and slimmer than him. It was not a secret. Many Cultivators of the older generation still remembered it!
"I don't know what the relation between you and the original owner of the spear is. Perhaps it is your friend or family," Li Yao said solemnly. "Therefore, after you retrieved the spear, you were determined to revive the spear's former glory no matter the cost!
"However, everybody has their own features and habits. Even the same Cultivation art and the same magical equipment should have minor adjustments when they are utilized by different people according to the users' idiosyncrasies. It is definitely not practical to just follow the traditions!
"Since your height and arm span are shorter than those of the spear's previous owner, and you are heavier with a lower barycenter, by shortening the spear by a little bit, like right now, and adjusting the balancing weights to move the barycenter of the spear forward by 2.5 centimeters, it should be able to match your body figure perfectly!"
Li Zhuilang was dazed for a long time before he asked in disbelief, "You—you did not intentionally break my spear but were helping me revise it?"
"You're in for a treat!" Li Yao smiled. "My service is supposed to be very expensive. However, I'm obliged to show Fellow Cultivator Yan my proficiency in sword forging so that he can hand over his fourth sword to me for renewal without worries!"
Hardly had he concluded his sentence when Li Yao suddenly widened his eyes and bellowed. The molecular mica threads spread out in the airwaves, hooking not only the Spiritual Dragon Sea Piercing Spear but also the Thunderous Polarity Cymbals and the Gold Crow Devil Sweeping Sword that had been split in half!
Shua!
The three pieces of damaged magical equipment were all thrown high into the sky before their owners realized what was going on!
Chapter 1408: This Is What I'm Talking About! |
Hu!
The green flames of spiritual energy around Li Yao surged out. Only, this time, they condensed into an enormous furnace that expanded to almost thirty meters and climbed upward, swallowing all three damaged weapons!
Hiu! Hiu! Hiu! Hiu!
The 'furnace', which was made of pure spiritual energy, revolved rapidly. The immense attraction force that it generated absorbed the broken pieces on the 'Burning Sun Great Armor' on Bu Tiantong that were scattered on the ground and tossed them into the furnace!
"Look!" many high-level Cultivators exclaimed.
The clouds above the 'furnace', pulled by the attraction force, were changing into the magnificent shapes of dragons and tigers as they lunged into the furnace!
The Bronze Censer Peak only looked like a furnace but could not be used for real refining.
However, 'Master Spiritual Vulture', the savant who had received the heritage of the Great Zhou Dynasty, was now demonstrating the most incredible refining arts with the sky and the earth as the furnace and the clouds as the fuel!
"Is he going to repair the three pieces of damaged magical equipment right here without a furnace?"
"How is it possible? The three pieces of magical equipment are all badly damaged. They won't stand a chance of being repaired without tremendous Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and days and nights of polishing in a furnace, will they?"
"How is he going to do that?"
When all the Cultivators and sword forgers were astonished, tiny, broken, crimson powder suddenly spread out of the furnace of spiritual energy before it was suddenly ignited!
For a moment, the hundreds of square meters nearby became a smoking inferno. Even the high-level Cultivators standing hundreds of meters away felt that the fire was licking their eyes and that their skin was breaking apart.
"What kind of eccentric fire is this? The temperature is so high!"
"This temperature is high enough to melt steel into liquid, but is Master Spiritual Vulture safe and sound deep inside the flames?"
"Look. The fire is still changing!"
While everyone was exclaiming, the crimson fire suddenly turned purple before it changed from purple into pure white. It was so beautiful that it looked like a cluster of shining diamonds. Yet, the temperature of the fire was even higher than before. The air was utterly twisted. Viewed from afar, the furnace of spiritual energy was fluctuating like an enormous, beating heart!
All the Cultivators heard the stunning noises echoing from deep inside the furnace.
They also saw that the previous black smoke, gradually nurtured by spiritual energy as the temperature grew higher, had turned colorful and looked as translucent as crystals. The trails of smoke extended toward the sky like colorful jade pillars, turning the entire furnace of spiritual energy into a piece of jewelry!
The splendid view almost made everyone stop breathing.
They had never seen such a magnificent performance of the refining arts before.
It was quite understandable because this was not refining at all but the visual and sound effects that Li Yao intentionally made up.
Only the outermost layer of the furnace was thousands of degrees high in temperature, which was the ever-changing, gorgeous shell.
As for the inside, because of the blockage of barriers, the temperature was still normal.
The shell of thousands of degrees was partly to awe other people and partly to prevent them from spying with their telepathic thoughts so that Li Yao would be able to conduct the unattractive operations inside.
The three pieces of damaged magical equipment were floating right in front of Li Yao's eyes.
The marvelous tool that Li Yao took out of his pocket, however, turned out to be a tube of glue that was designed to temporarily repair magical equipment!
Such glue was similar to the liquid metals that could automatically repair the shell of a starship. It was also a state-of-the-art product in material science from the Star Glory Federation.
Once it was smeared to the broken part of magical equipment, it could generate immense attraction force and cover the damaged parts while keeping consistent characteristics with the surrounding parts.
Such a glue had the best performance in elasticity and hardiness. Its spiritual energy conductivity was very high, too, and it was very steady in nature. It was compatible with almost all metals and super alloys. After being repaired in such a way, the magical equipment would regain at least two thirds of its performance.
The only shortcoming was that the working time of the glue was brief. It would gradually lose effect after it was exposed in the air for several days and end up being dust.
Therefore, it was only for battlefield usage.
Li Yao intentionally mixed a few pure natural Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures into the glue so that he could claim it to be a treasure that he had inherited from the 'Great Zhou Dynasty'.
Sure. He could have fixed the magical equipment with the glue dutifully in front of everyone without the gaudy shell that he was hiding in right now.
However, would he be any different from a shoe repairer on the street if so?
Cool and splendid apparently meant a lot for the Cultivators in such an age!
Alright. I'll clean the lower half of the spear first and remove the embossment which is used as a weight. I'll attach it somewhere higher!
This sword is rather easy to deal with. I only need to align the two parts and fill the gap in between with the glue.
The real tricky one is the hole on the Thunderous Polarity Cymbals. It can't be helped. Let me cut a fixation granule in an identical shape!
Right. I can't impress anyone with such a soundless maintenance job. Let me play some music with my abdomen!
Boom!
When all the Cultivators outside were waiting, an explosion suddenly echoed from the brilliantly shining furnace of spiritual energy, and the entire Bronze Censer Peak began shaking!
While all the heroes were in disarray, not knowing what was happening inside the furnace, the daunting sounds of tides were escaping from the depths of the furnace!
The sounds were higher and higher and gradually turned into the music of a battle, as if thousands of troops were fighting fiercely inside the furnace!
The scene was so shocking that not only were the high-level Cultivators on the Bronze Censer Peak deeply awed, the low-level Cultivators who were waiting for the result anxiously below the Bronze Censer Peak also noticed what was happening in the sky.
"What the heck?"
"Has the Sword Maniac and Master Righteous One's competition taken so long?"
"It doesn't feel like their aura. This aura is rather strange, yet it is extremely dominating!"
"Look. The clouds in the sky are concentrating into an enormous swirl. Something seems to be absorbing them!"
The astonishing process of refining lasted about ten minutes.
Then, the furnace outlined by smoke and fire spread out like ice melting in water, turning into hazy mist floating into the sky.
The sky turned into a turbulence of various colors, which did not disperse after a long time.
Li Yao was sitting cross-legged at the center of the sword test field like a meditating monk or a tree that had grown for tens of thousands of years. He was truly like someone who had travelled through time.
The three pieces of magical equipment were floating above his head quietly. Mystic rays were shooting out and vibrating the air, creating the roars of tigers and dragons!
Suddenly, the three pieces of magical equipment darted to their original owners in three streaks of brilliance!
"This is—"
Li Zhuilang was the first to exclaim.
After he shook the spear, he felt that a dragon moved from the tip of the spear into his body and melted into his flesh and blood. He could not have felt swifter, more comfortable, or more satisfied!
It was like the Spiritual Dragon Sea Piercing Spear had never belonged to him until that day even though he had polished the weapon for decades!
"So—so, it was too long!" Li Zhuilang almost roared into the sky.
For decades, he had been practicing the 'Sea Piercing Sky Burning Arts' that his father had left for him. But however hard he trained
himself, and even when his level far exceeded his father's peak ability, he always felt that there was an intangible gap between him and the best of the spear and the arts!
He had thought that it was because his training was flawed. By referring to his father's training notes, he trained himself even more crazily, trying to be identical to his father in every detail. But as it happened, he was getting farther and farther away from the perfect state in his heart.
It had been bothering him for a long time, and he was about to be mentally deranged because of it.
He did not know until that moment that it was not his problem but the spear's!
Touching the newborn Spiritual Dragon Sea Piercing Spear, Li Zhuilang sighed with a complicated feeling. He eyed Li Yao with indescribable emotions inside his eyes.
Bu Tiantong of the Gold Armor Clan and Ren Changkong of the Thunderstorm Valley, the two Cultivators in the middle level of the Nascent Soul Stage, were the same. They touched their magical equipment carefully, but they failed to sense the tiniest gap in the previously damaged parts.
The two of them looked at each other and noticed the shock in each other's eyes at the same time. They felt that their magical equipment had never really been awakened until Li Yao's repair.
It was almost like…
It was almost like their magical equipment was just a counterfeit previously—it only became the unique, authentic product after Li Yao modified it!
"Don't feel happy so fast."
With his eyes half closed, Li Yao casually said, "Today, we do not have much time, and there are no tools and materials here. So, I merely made a rough example of how to repair them. I didn't cure the 'internal injuries' of the magical equipment completely!
"Right now, the weapons are not as excellent as they appear to be. They cannot weather through a real battle despite the ostensible perfection!
"If you find my work satisfactory, you are free to come to me and tell me what kind of price you are willing to pay to have your magical equipment really repaired.