Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

”The Cultivation level of the Flying Star Sector is indeed impressive! Just some random netizens are enough to find so many loopholes in my answer. It seems that I wasn’t thinking thoroughly enough after all!”

Li Yao was quite surprised. He didn’t have the habit of checking other people’s profiles, but if he did, he would have known that the reviews he was currently reading were written by not the normal netizens, not the young university professors, but the real big shots in major academical institutions.

However, in regard to classical refining methodologies, not only did Li Yao boast abundant knowledge, he also had a lot of first-hand experience. No one in the entire universe would be comparable to him. His beliefs had been formed and firmly believed in for a very long time, and it was not like anyone could easily talk him out of them.

This time, Li Yao concentrated his full attention and thought carefully for more than half an hour before he finally began writing a detailed reply to the few questions that his fellow Cultivators had pointed out. The structural designs of various kinds of flying swords, the spiritual energy flowchart, the detailed analysis of certain rune arrays, and so on were so meticulously explained that they were almost enough for Li Yao to publish a book with them as content.

Hardly had he finished one reply when someone else offered a new review. It gave him the feeling that countless experts were surging in like a tide and challenging him one after another, each of whom was stronger than the last. The questions that they asked were trickier and trickier, too. He found himself often taken unprepared.

Gradually, Li Yao felt that it was too much for him. He reflected on himself while he replied. Then he realized that these people were not wrong about certain shortcomings in his theories, which proved to be in need of further filtering and perfecting.

The new experts were not just questioning him. To prove the advantages of the modern flying swords, they also shared a lot of authentic materials and data with Li Yao. From Li Yao’s knowledge, he could easily tell that they were all very precious first-hand files and that he would benefit a lot from them.

Such communications made Li Yao overjoyed. He took advantage of the opportunity and responded to each of the reviews and comments. As a result, the total number of the replies below the answer quickly surpassed ten thousand at a growth of thirty to fifty per minute.

In the eyes of the bystanders, it was an intriguing banquet that they wouldn’t miss for the world.

”Look, look! ’North Sea’ has come to respond! North Sea is a professor of the Flying Sword Department of Flying Star University and also one of the pillars among the sword Cultivators!”

”Wow. Even ’Oblivion’ is here! The vice dean of the Flying Department of Heavenly Saints Institute is said to be managing a new project, trying to create the fastest flying sword of the Flying Star Sector!”

”And this one, ’Falling Snow’. She is an elder of Black Summit Sword Sect and a renowned sword Cultivator who has been focusing on real-life combat! Even she couldn’t help it any longer and offered her opinions!”

For the fans of flying swords, this was the most exciting day ever!

It was like all the experts in flying swords of the Flying Star Sector had gathered to attack a mysterious man. Under the continuous bombardment of so many experts, despite his inadequacies, the mysterious man was always able to throw out certain previously-unknown theories, rune arrays, or spiritual energy circulation models to prove his point.

This debate quickly rushed into the top five of ’Most Marvelous Questions and Answers of the Day’, and therefore became even livelier. Thousands of fans of flying swords joined the debate. But most of them were merely paying respect to the contestants on both sides of the dispute, because amateurs such as themselves had no chance to offer their input in a battle of such a high academic level.

The debate lasted a day and a night. In the end, Fiend Star finally couldn’t stand it any longer and admitted that there were still a lot of deficiencies in his theories and that he should learn more from the fellow Cultivators.

The scholars and experts of flying swords all took a long breath in relief. They stopped being at loggerheads with each other and shared a lot of confidential theories, models, and structural designs. It became a real knowledge exchange. The fans of flying swords greatly enjoyed themselves, too, and were more curious about the identity of Fiend Star than ever.

”Who is this Fiend Star exactly?”

In the office of the Flying Sword Department of Flying Star University, several grey-haired professors looked at each other in bewilderment. Their wrinkled faces were full of confusion.

”Who is Fiend Star, and how does he know so much about classical refining theories? Is he one of the academic specialists that Flying Star Sector introduced from other space zones?”

Quite a few old scholars of the Heavenly Saints Institute were pondering similar questions.

In the meantime, countless sword Cultivators who had participated in the debate just now were asking the same thing.

Inside his personal space, Li Yao exclaimed in excitement, ”Nice! This is nice!”

His theories were not impeccable after all. It was based on his first-hand experience. Normal people might not be able to notice anything wrong with it, but the real experts could see through the inconsistencies and falsify his statements eventually.

However, Li Yao was not frustrated at all but burning with fighting will.

It was not bad to be proved wrong. One could always locate one’s deficiencies when they were pointed out. The real bad thing was that one’s opinion was completely ignored after it was proposed, in which case one would not be able to improve oneself at all.

After one day and one night of debating, Li Yao felt that his brain was sharper, and his mind was clearer. His expertise in refining had increased a lot, too.

”I should have more such debate sessions. I bet my Cultivation will soar!”

In the coming seven days, Li Yao answered a few other questions such as ’what does it feel like to refine a classical flying sword in person’ and ’what were some of the shocking artifacts in the ancient Cultivation world forty thousand years ago’. He exchanged his opinions with other experts of refining and improved his capability in the fierce arguments. In the meantime, the name of ’Fiend Star’ spread afar.

”Fiend Star must be an elder who has been living in the depths of the sea of stars in isolation studying classical refining theories alone all the time. He was a hermit and did not know much about modern refining theories. This time, he only showed up in the Spiritual Nexus and disseminate the ancient arts of refining because of the encouragement of his younger friends.”

Many fans speculated as such. They pictured such an image in their mind: linen clothes, grass shoes, long white hair, solemn face, deep eyes, and a vintage bronze long sword hanging from the waist. He walked casually on the street, and when he felt that he was in the mood, he would sit cross-legged in the middle of the crowds and sing a song with his sword as his instrument…

Yes, Master Fiend Star must be exactly like this.

However, from the seventh day, Master Fiend Star appeared much less than before, making many fans scratch their heads, eager to know when he’d next appear.

Li Yao had finished the modification of ’Eight Arm’.

Deep within his bones, Li Yao was still an aggressive and brutal man. Of course, his crystal suit could not just focus on maintenance.

Li Yao performed a major modification on the automating system of Eight Arm’s crystal processor and dropped all the units that were used to guide a combat. What replaced them were crystal cameras with higher resolutions and a soundwave perception system, which improved the crystal suit’s sensitivity to the outside world by more than three times.

Such a modification would surely triple the information stream crowding into the brain and could prove to be a heavy burden.

However, Li Yao didn’t care about it.

Other than that, he had also hidden a lot of aggressive magical equipment inside the six artificial arms of Eight Arm in the most surreptitious ways possible while keeping most of the maintenance magical equipment in their original place.

On the outside, it was still a harmless crystal suit for maintenance work. But when it was engaged in real combat, it would immediately tear off its mask and reveal its brutal true face.

The brand new Eight Arm was decorated with a layer of rock-gray camouflage. Traces of damage were left on it, too. It appeared to a field-tested crystal suit that had never been well maintained. The awesomeness of an advanced crystal suit of Silver Heart School was completely ripped off. It appeared to be nothing but an ordinary civil crystal suit now.

Li Yao was very excited that the job was finally done. What came next should be a test.

The World of Crystal Suits was divided into two parts. Li Yao had always shown himself as a refiner. This time, he was planning to play in the virtual matching platform as an Exo.

To this moment, he hadn’t really fought with the expert Exos of the Flying Star Sector yet. Capturing Fengyu Ming on Ghost Jail had solely been based on the unexpected assault and the overwhelming specifications of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit. It had lasted only one second and was not enjoyable at all.

The matching zone and refining zone were two completely different areas. A user could choose to keep the same name or apply for a new one.

Thinking for a moment, Li Yao applied for a new identity.

”My name is… Vulture!”

To enter the matching zone required a capability test, too. However, due to the restrictions of the Great Illusionary Land, it was impossible to simulate every user’s precise capability. Therefore, the fuzzy regulation theory was adopted, and all the users whose capability was close to a certain level would be rounded to the level.

Li Yao’s test result was that his explosive spiritual energy had surpassed the threshold of the Building Foundation Stage. Therefore, he was allowed to enter the dedicated zone for Building Foundation Stage Cultivators and train in the middle level of the Building Foundation Stage. Of course, his opponents would be in the same level, too.

In such virtual competitions, it was impossible that someone’s capability would suddenly soar. Techniques and tactics were the factors that mattered.

There were various modes in the matching zone, too. The simplest mode was a duel between two Exos. If there were more Exos, they could also form into groups and start a team competition. Other than that, there were modes in which all the participants would be in the same team to challenge demon beasts or demonic Cultivators automatically generated by the system.

Although the competitions were virtual, the improvement of techniques and tactics was 100% authentic. Therefore, many experts in reality preferred to train in this place, too. Those on the top of the rank were all renowned super experts in the real world.

Li Yao entered the simplest one on one duel zone.

Hundreds of Exos were waiting to be challenged.

But whomever Li Yao shifted his telepathic thoughts to, he failed to enter a battleground with his opponent. With a careful look, he noticed that they all had requirements about the win rate and refused to accept the challenges of the rookies. His win rate was zero, and so was the number of matches he had participated in. Without exception, he was turned down coldly.

”Pretty demanding!”

After a reminder of the system, Li Yao opted to display his name and selected ’Accept All Challenges’. Then he started wandering around the duel zone.

Most of the competitions there were open to everyone who paid enough crystal coins.

For the competitions between common Exos, one crystal coin might be enough. But the ticket for the competitions of the super experts at the top of the rankings might be dozens of crystal coins.

Li Yao had earned quite a lot of crystal coins by answering questions previously. Therefore, he simply picked one of the competitions and started watching in pleasure.

Just when he was enjoying himself, he suddenly heard the sound of a notification. Somebody had challenged him!