Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

by <unknown>

  "If I am to use this furnace, I will have conflicts with the personal features of the master first and be affected by his soul stamp.

  "On the other hand, if I am to test the furnace without caring about anything and completely erase the master's features, wouldn't I be ruining his multiple years of hard work? What can he use for refining next time?

  "A gentleman does not take away what other people love. Since this is a furnace that a master has been using, I might as well choose a different one. So, I have conceded and picked the second best-maintained furnace of the nine furnaces here.

  "Of course, I will erase all the personal features lingering on the furnace during my refining. I will even use some extreme techniques to fully unleash the potentials of the furnace. When other refiners use it in the future, they will inevitably find it difficult to control. Fellow Cultivator Ye and other fellow Cultivators of the Deep Sea Fleet, you wouldn't mind it, would you?"

  Everybody was more or less stunned.

  Ye Qingyun stammered, "Not-Not at all."

  "Thank you very much."

  With a smile, Li Yao said, "Then, I would trouble Fellow Cultivator Ye to fetch the crystals of the water class, the fire class, the wind class, and the thunder class for me. The higher purity, the better. Five kilograms for every type, please. I am going to test the furnace."

  Furnace test was the test where a refiner performed some simplest refining work when they got in touch with a furnace that they had never used before in order to find out the performance of the furnace.

  Of course, for the regular refiners, they could learn the performance parameters from the user manuals. Only the meticulous masters who pursued the best in the tiniest detail would find it necessary to test the furnace.

  Chapter 2174: The Furnace Is... Singing! |

  When Ye Qingyun brought back a batch of crystals of the highest purity on Dragon Abyss, he discovered that Li Yao had turned on the operation interface of the "Scorching Sun VII" furnace and was conducting the initialization settings.

  The room was utterly quiet. All the refiners were watching Li Yao's performance with the utmost bewilderment.

  When Ye Qingyun saw the initialization parameters that Li Yao had set, he couldn't help but gasp and feel astounded too.

  He finally knew what "exploit the extreme potentials of this furnace" meant.

  This "Vulture Li Yao" had set the parameters of the furnace simply too crazily!

  In the performance of the furnace, "power" and "stability" were often a pair of contradictory values. The furnaces that focused too much on stability would not reach the highest power, and it would be impossible to trigger the extreme high or low temperatures. As a result, some special materials wouldn't be able to be refined.

  However, if the furnace pursued nothing but extreme temperatures, it would not be hard to guess that the furnace would be highly unstable. Not only would the faulty rate be greatly improved, but the spiritual energy would possibly overflow and swallow the refiner. In worse cases, even the furnaces would explode!

  Having been using this "Scorching Sun VII" frequently, Ye Qingyun naturally knew its most appropriate parameter settings and had reached the perfect balance between "power" and "stability" since a long time ago.

  But right now, this "Vulture Li Yao", through a series of dazzling, complicated settings, had increased the power to the highest, which put the furnace in a highly-unstable, highly-sensitive state where the refiner might receive a backlash at any moment.

  "Is this a furnace at all?"

  Ye Qingyun frowned hard. Looking at the initialization data that he had set carefully before turning into an utter mess, he couldn't help but feel enraged. He blurted out, "This is a crystal bomb!"

  "Not exactly. I'm quite familiar with crystal bombs."

  After finishing the most unbelievable settings smoothly, Li Yao turned back with a smile and said, "Can I take a look at the crystals first?"

  His eyelids twitching, Ye Qingyun commanded a few low-level refiners to push over the crystals that were stored in boxes on carts without saying anything.

  The crystals for the use of furnaces were naturally not the raw minerals in bizarre shapes with all kinds of impurities. They had been preprocessed and consolidated by the factories and transformed into clear, colorful bricks. The crystals of the wind, fire, water, and thunder classes seemed to have truly sealed four different powers inside. If one were to knock them with their finger, they would hear the sounds of raging flames, pouring storm, and rumbling thunder inside.

  Li Yao squatted and picked up the crystal bricks one after another. Tapping and sniffing their surface, he transmitted his spiritual energy into them now and then and observed the ripples on the surface of the bricks caused by his spiritual energy.

  It was not until a long time later that he finally chose a brick and put it aside solemnly. He then began to pick the second one.

  Ye Qingyun couldn't help but ask, "Those crystal bricks have been refined through dozens of procedures to ensure a purity of more than 99%. They are the fuel of the highest level that has more than enough to power crystal suits or even Colossi. I wonder, what are you choosing exactly, Fellow Cultivator Li?"

  "Even if their purity is 99%, the 'idiosyncrasies' of the crystal bricks are still different."

  Touching the bricks and appreciating the splendid colors with his eyes half narrowed, Li Yao said, "In the eyes of the ancient Cultivators, crystals are the essence of natural spiritual energy, consolidated by the souls of the living creatures after they die. According to modern theory, crystals are the regular minerals or the fossils of enormous creatures in the primeval era after they are condensed by high temperatures and pressure and soaked by all kinds of cosmic radiations, high-energy particles, and spiritual energy for a long time.

  "Also, we have classified the crystals into different categories such as 'water, fire, wind, and thunder' according to their general features, but such a classification is simply too simple and rough.

  "Due to the different environments, different histories, and different relative locations to the stars of every planet, even the crystals of the same quality will have subtle differences.

  "For example, the crystals of the fire class that are excavated from a highly-unstable planet, which is very close to a star and fraught with volcano eruptions, and the crystals of the fire class that are collected from a very moist planet whose surface is almost entirely covered by ocean—can they be the same?

  "The former certainly carry the features of violence, fury, and instability, and are more suitable to be crafted into crystal bombs, whereas the latter contains the features of both water and fire. They have both the toughness of fire and the gentleness of water, and they are the best fuel for refining.

  "Take a look at the two crystal bricks of the fire class here. They are both of 99% purity, and they look identical. However, when I input a stream of feeble spiritual energy into it, the ripples spreading on their surfaces are entirely different.

  "The ripples of the first one are radial, in that they look like both the halo of a star and magma that are splashing out into a mess quickly. But the ripples of the second brick are very even rings that do not disperse until they reach the edge of the brick. They are also vaguely emitting bluish colors. That is exactly the combination of toughness and gentleness.

  "In order to activate the extreme potentials of the furnace, I have adopted relatively extreme approaches in initialization settings. Then, I have to be milder when it comes to the fuel and the catalysts. The second crystal brick can't be better."

  While talking, Li Yao examined and filtered the crystal bricks, dividing them into two piles.

  Ye Qingyun couldn't have looked more awful.

  Although he was not convinced by Li Yao's fancy, groundless explanation, he did know that the crystals on board were from two different suppliers. They were a combination of two different batches of goods.

  In terms of the production of the standard crysta
ls, namely the "crystal bricks", the Imperium of True Human Beings had a set of mature and rigorous standards. Whichever world they came from, and however varied the features of the raw minerals were, the crystal bricks that were produced in the end were exactly the same and universally applicable to any starship, crystal suit, and even Colossus.

  But even the most rigorous standard of production would not involve the environment of the planet from which the raw minerals were excavated. What was that all about?

  Pointing at the different types of crystals, Li Yao explained in great detail again. He claimed that the best crystals of the water class were from the waterfalls in the mountainous areas because such crystals were relatively "unbent". Also, the crystals of the wind class and those of the thunder class were best to be from the same mine on the same planet to achieve the effect of resonation. He chattered on for more than ten minutes before he finally selected a few crystal bricks from the large pile.

  Even Queen Li Linghai was more or less intimidated by what he said. She asked suspiciously, "Master Jin, is there really so much more to the standard crystal bricks?"

  "Well…"

  Master Jin Tianzong's expression became more and more attentive, and the brilliance in his eyes was more and more dazzling. "There is already a mature system in the standard production of crystals in modern civilization. In fact, such concerns are unnecessary. However, I know that a lot of refining sects of the ancient civilization attached great significance to the sources of crystals. There are quite a few famous classics. For example, the 'Hundred Smelting Clan', a famous sect of refining in the age of ancient Cultivators, presented a book named 'On Stone Tasting', which was specifically about the selection of crystals. But it was lost a long time ago."

  "Lost?"

  Li Linghai said, "So, the major schools of refining in the Imperium do not adopt such theories?"

  "No."

  Jin Tianzong said with a smile of confusion. "This 'Vulture Li Yao' is truly unpredictable. Even I have never heard of some of the things he said before. Impressive. He is truly impressive.

  "Let's just see how this Fellow Cultivator Li tests the furnace!"

  His eyes glittering, Master Jin Tianzong stared at Li Yao's every movement.

  Inside the laboratory, all the refiners of the Deep Sea Fleet including Ye Qingyun held their breath and bulged their eyes, not leaving out any detail.

  However, Li Yao's series of movements, including turning on the furnace, igniting the fire, boosting the combustion, filling in the materials, and testing the furnace, were more or less disappointing.

  It was not because Li Yao had done anything outrageous but because his operations were too normal, plain, and unattractive, which was a major contrast to his sophisticated words just now.

  His look as if he were treading on thin ice even made people suspect that he was worried the furnace would explode because he had set the parameters too "sensitively" just now!

  While everybody was whispering to each other with confusion and doubt on their faces, Li Yao took a deep breath and raised his arm at the operating furnace. His fingers were spread open, and feeble brilliance emitted from the center of his palm.

  BOOM!

  As the brilliance at the center of his palm exploded, a blast burst out at the center of the furnace that had reached beyond a thousand degrees, as if a bell weighing ten thousand kilograms had just been tolled.

  "What is this?"

  Everyone's pupils were constricted to limits, and their ears couldn't help but shiver hard too.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  With his left hand behind his back and his right hand unleashing spiritual waves at the furnace straightly, Li Yao triggered the resonations inside the furnace, letting out noises each higher than the last!

  "He is blowing the furnace with spiritual energy to generate soundwaves and to sense the conditions of the furnace through the changes of the soundwaves so that he can further adjust the furnace accordingly and make the furnace completely adapt to him?"

  Master Jin Tianzong exclaimed in disbelief, "Such a marvelous approach. How is it possible?"

  "Tolling a furnace like a bell? Are you serious?"

  Many refiners of the Deep Sea Fleet were almost driven crazy.

  "Even if you can toll the furnace like a bell, so what? However crazy you are, can you make the furnace sing?"

  Ye Qingyun gnashed his teeth with a gloomy face.

  Hardly had he finished his remark when Li Yao changed his gesture, and the monotonous noises of the furnace immediately changed. They were now full of nuances and rhythms and truly sounded like a soul-stirring and blood-boiling marching song!

  Chapter 2175: Not a Showoff |

  "Ahhhhhhh!"

  All the refiners of the Deep Sea Fleet went mad.

  The music blown out by the furnace was certainly not as pleasant as an orchestra of the real instruments, but it was indeed filled with passion and penetration. There was even the vibe of splashing and running melted steel in the middle of the smoke. To put it shortly, it was "heavy metal"!

  Enshrouded in the heavy metal music, the refiners felt that their stomachs were being churned, as if they were in the middle of a tsunami of magma or dancing above ten thousand volcanoes. Even their own veins and nerves seemed to have turned into metals!

  They were about to exhale smoke, cough sparks, and vomit orange, melted steel!

  With his eyes half narrowed, Li Yao shook his head and dwelled in the resonation of his heart and the heart of the furnace. The music was getting more and more rhythmic and powerful, making the entire Dragon Abyss shake in the heavy metal together with Li Yao!

  On the bridge, Li Linghai had been observing Li Yao through the surveillance light beam, but the unexpected metallic noises occupied the entire bridge too.

  All the crew members and the leadership of the warship on the bridge couldn't help but tap the beat with their feet, their fingertips seething beyond their control.

  "What… What kind of technique of refining is this?"

  Li Linghai asked in disbelief. "Another secret technique from the ancient times?"

  "Well—"

  Master Jin Tianzong was more or less shocked. "I don't think so."

  "Look!"

  Some refiners shrieked and pointed at the light beam that was displaying the internal status of the furnace.

  It was the picture directly captured near the center of the furnace by the crystal cameras made of highly heatproof materials.

  In the picture, the metal materials that were just delivered into the furnace had already been melted into clusters of fluids under the boost of the fuel and the catalysts that Li Yao had carefully selected. They looked like glittering orange pearls and even stars that nobody could look at directly.

  As the exciting music went on, the most glamorous and gorgeous ripples spread out on the surface of the clusters of melted metals.

  After the ripples spread to the limits, the melted metals blossomed like buds that had savored enough dews layer after layer, revealing the most sophisticated and accurate internal structure!

  When every cluster of melted metals the size of a finger bloomed, almost a thousand patterned wrinkles were exposed from inside. Like the integration of countless runes, they emanated colorful brilliance.

  Nine clusters of melted metals blossomed slowly, but the flowers that they produced were in different forms.

  The blossom of the flowers and their final consolidation were naturally under the control of Li Yao's spiritual energy and telepathic thoughts.

  The flowers were in such marvelous forms, and there were nine of them at the same time. The nine metal flowers slowly revolved in the flames at the center of the furnace, each containing a thousand runes that resonated with each other without any mutual interference. It was indicative enough of Li Yao's profound abilities in shaping.

  It must be noted that this was just a random test on the performance of the furnace!

  As the nine metal flow
ers blossomed to the maximum, the soul-stirring and mind-boggling heavy metal music reached the climax too.

  The entire "Dragon Abyss" was almost dancing.

  "Ho!"

  Bulging his eyes, Li Yao stuck his right hand to the wall of the furnace for the first time and pressed it slowly, as if he were sealing his entire life and soul into the furnace!

  "Hum!"

  Inside the brain of every refiner, a huge bell was bashed heavily, resulting in ever-lasting noises in their head.

  Their retinas were also affected by the reverberation between Li Yao and the furnace. The moment Li Yao pressed his hand, the previously dark furnace seemed to turn transparent, and all the internal structures were clearly visible. All the magical equipment units and tiny components were dissected, as if the furnace also turned into a giant metal flower that was blossoming slowly.

  But in the next second, all the components that had split and blossomed were compressed back. As if entirely reborn, they were even more compact and flawless than before.

  The heavy metal music came to an abrupt halt.

  Li Yao took a breath in relief and looked at the furnace that had been tested by him in great satisfaction.

  After being washed by the cooling liquids, the nine metal flowers were sent out from the discharge hole.

  Because of the high integration of metals and crystals, the "flowers" were so full of exuberance that they did not look like single components but were themselves flawless magical equipment. Under the control of Li Yao's telepathic thoughts, they all flew to midair and swirled slowly, emitting dazzling brilliance like a kaleidoscope, and the light poured to the ground like a waterfall.

  Including Ye Qingyun, all the refiners of the Deep Sea Fleet were enchanted. They looked at the nine metal flowers hovering around Li Yao and then at the furnace, all bewildered.

  There was no telling if it was their illusion, but they felt that the furnace had been through fundamental changes compared to a moment ago.