Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Xie Anan brought everybody to the mysterious tree.

It looked like both an ancient tree that had grown for millions of years and an animal that was deeply rooted underground. Translucent burrs were everywhere on the rough trunk, beating like hearts.

The branches that were flapping in the wind looked somewhat like thousands of tentacles, too. Sensing the vague spiritual energy spreading out of Long Yunxin and the rest of them, they were even sweeping toward the newcomers.

The tree leaves were opened layer after layer, as if a ferocious animal had bared its sharp tusks.

Thankfully, three circles of defense rune arrays had been deployed around the weird tree. When the clattering twigs were still almost twenty meters from everybody, they were suddenly struck by a few electric arcs that appeared out of nowhere and retreated unwillingly.

“It looks rather dangerous. Is it a carnivorous plant?” Long Yunxin clicked her tongue.

No wonder no tourists were allowed to approach the giant tree. Some Cultivators were even safeguarding nearby.

“Yes. Most of the demonic planets feed on meat. This one’s appetite is even larger. It is a very violent existence!” Xie Anan smiled. “However, it can be very useful, too. Look!”

Xie Anan pointed at a few fully-armed Cultivators.

They were all fully-armed, with the most advanced superstring shield unfolded around themselves, while they drew close the trunk of the giant tree, carrying their chainswords.

The giant tree waved the branches and whipped them hard, only to be blocked by the superstring shields time and time again. They took the opportunity to cut into the trunk and left a few shallow wounds on it with their chainswords.

Colorful sap that looked like liquid metal immediately flowed out of the wounds.

Injured, the giant tree was waving the branches at an even faster speed amid spluttering noises.

It was not until the staff nearby tossed a few goats and cows that had been butchered toward the tree that the branches enshrouded all the food and chewed in great satisfaction.

The Cultivators took the opportunity to collect the liquid metal that was being secreted by its body.

The whole process was somewhat similar to the harvest of natural rubber. The Cultivators also seemed to be ‘herding’ the weird tree!

“This tree has been specially refined and boasts an extremely deep root. In a natural environment, it can grow to thousands of meters below the ground. Also, with the unique sucking ability, it can absorb the essence of the underground mother lodes into the roots, purify the resources, and transmit them into the trunk incessantly.

“One might say that it is a piece of purely natural ‘mining magical equipment’, but it is much more advanced than the mining facilities we are using right now!

“The liquid metal secreted from the trunk is itself a kind of Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure with a high purity. It can be directly used to produce magical equipment without any further processing or be sent into the 3D printers to be built into other products.

“Of the one hundred and eighty common metals and crystals that we are aware of and five hundred or so rare metals and crystals, ninety percent can be collected and purified by such trees.

“In some of mining areas whose environment is harsh and whose tectonic structure is complicated, the traditional ways of mining may pose severe safety threats. It will be best to collect the resources with such trees!”

Naturally, Xie Anan knew everything about her master’s work.

In fact, such a weird plant was not of Li Yao’s own invention.

Li Yao was not a botanist in the first place, and he did not know the first thing about the refinement of demonic plants. It was impossible for him to study such things, which were in a completely different category from what he was familiar with.

But back when he was on Iron Plateau, the apocalyptic beasts produced by the eggs of apocalypse had been major problems for Li Yao.

The eggs of apocalypse were weird beings between creatures and non-creatures that were driven by a mysterious microorganism.

The eggs of apocalypse looked like hills on the surface. However, the parts revealed above the ground were just the tip of the iceberg. Most of them were hidden deep underground. They were also able to extend their ‘roots’ deep down to absorb the mother lodes, metal minerals, and other nutrients, which would be used to produce ‘apocalyptic beasts’ with various metal structures in their body.

Despite the trouble that they had caused Li Yao, the eggs of apocalypse were indeed highly efficient in collecting and utilizing resources. They were particularly suitable for the areas where the resources on the shallow surface had been exhausted and those deep underground were extremely difficult and costly to collect.

After Li Yao advanced into the Nascent Soul Stage, and especially after he experienced many unbelievable ideologies, civilizations, and worlds on the trip to Kunlun, he had changed his previous mindset more or less.

All the techniques and technologies were double-edged swords. Whether they were righteous or evil depended on how they were applied.

Before, he had been too scared by the techniques of the Blood Stripe Virus and kept all the evil arts deep inside his brain, unwilling to take them out for his own use.

Right now, he was willing to experiment on a small scale to see whether or not the seemingly ‘evil’ techniques could benefit people.

Li Yao did not dare produce an ‘egg of apocalypse’ recklessly, but he invited the Fire Ant King to a project where the techniques to build the eggs of apocalypse and the technologies to refine demonic plants were combined. After a few years of testing, such a weird plant that could suck resources from the ground was finally invented!

Naturally, Long Yunxin was unaware of the backstory. She simply felt that Li Yao was truly a monster. Not only was he a great warrior and an expert in the arts of refining, he was even able to work on demonic plants. He was truly omnipotent!

When she thought of Li Yao, Long Yunxin felt that her mind was disturbed again. She sniffed and asked, “Right. Where’s your master?”

Xie Anan blinked and said, “He’s in the Colossi Demonstration Area.”

As the ultimate magical equipment that could literally kill a god should it run into one on its way, the Colossi were definitely the greatest focus of attention in the entire Magical Equipment Exposition.

When the competition of two Colossi began, which was always the show of the day, the million or so tourists throughout park were attracted!

Below the blue sky and the white clouds, a spherical arena almost a thousand meters in diameter, which was made of defense rune arrays and arc-shaped electric nets, was floating in midair.

Two Colossi, one red and the other black, were confronting each other.

Before they took action, the burning flames around the two Colossi already raised tides of exclamations.

The burning flames around the red Colossus made it look like a crimson falcon, entwined with a few hideous, raging dragons, that was about to soar into the sky ferociously.

The black Colossus was relatively smaller and only about fifteen meters tall, but the fire of spiritual energy from it rose to hundreds of meters high, too, forming calligraphic spells and sophisticated primeval stripes!

Swoosh!

In two streaks of brightness, the two Colossi crashed into each other brutally!

Despite the buffer rune arrays installed around the arena, which could weaken the spiritual waves and the noises, the deafening collisions and the hurricane-like spiritual waves still made a lot of the audience close their eyes with their facial muscles twisting. They could not help but cover their ears and open their mouths to the maximum, exclaiming in sheer shock.

The two Colossi were both extremely fast. With her bare eyes, Long Yunxin could only see the redness and the blackness splitting, proliferating, and expanding, until they entangled each other and turned into a red and black cluster of light!

Only through the picture captured by the high-speed crystal cameras that had been slowed to almost one twentieth the normal speed could they manage to see that two fuzzy shadows were having a soul-stirring competition!

Although the Colossi were both almost five floors tall and were out-and-out iron giants, their movements were even quicker and more agile than the high-speed scouting crystal suits.

The plate armor of the two Colossi had many keen sensors installed, recording the damage of their every attack and displaying the parameters on the light beam in midair.

The outsiders were merely having fun, but the insiders were reading the details. Seeing that the parameters of damage surpassed the limits unbelievably time and time again, Long Yunxin could not help but gasp.

“Such terrifying damage!

“With such an enormous size, they can perform eighty-seven random dodging movements in a limited space in only one second? How can their joints and transmission shafts survive the friction?

“For a Cultivator in such a Colossus, even ten Cultivators of the same level wearing the latest crystal suits may be no match for him, right?”

Standing nearby, Xie Anan introduced the Colossi. “The red Colossus is Draconic Phoenix, the first Colossus that we discovered on Kunlun! Although it was broken into smithereens in the very first battle, the most critical control unit, or rather the spiritual residence, was not damaged. After a year of maintenance, it was ready to be put back to use!

“Later, our relic development team explored Kunlun on a large scale and found hundreds of units that were more or less usable. We have assembled a few new Colossi with them!

“The black Colossus is the one that we assembled most recently. It is named ‘Fancy Phantom’!”

Before Xie Anan finished her sentence, the battle between the two Colossi in the sky was concluded.

The hundreds of spells that were floating around the black Colossus, Fancy Phantom, suddenly surged toward Draconic Phoenix like tentacles. When they touched Draconic Phoenix’s fire of spiritual energy, they immediately expanded into clusters of black smoke!

Dark clouds seemed to be swallowing Draconic Phoenix!

Based on the changes of parameters on the light beam, it could be seen that the black smoke seemed to be highly corrosive and narcotic. It was breaking into Draconic Phoenix and attacking the user’s brain directly!

However, Draconic Phoenix was only rigid for one second before the black smoke was ripped apart by the erupting spiritual energy!

On Draconic Phoenix’s back, six furiously burning dragons seemed to be raising their heads and charging toward Fancy Phantom, piercing the Colossus’ chest instantly!

Cracking sounds were echoing from all over Fancy Phantom. Its every joint was tied up by the fiery dragons tightly while it fell down from the sky. It floated in midair with the support of the anti-gravity rune arrays, unable to move anymore.

Draconic Phoenix slowly landed on the ground and raised the arms, accepting the cheers from the colossal audience.

The fiery dragons returned to the arms of the Colossus again and hovered around it slowly, making the iron giant, which was only twenty meters tall, as magnificent as a pillar piercing into the sky!

After a long silence, Long Yunxin said, with a complicated expression, “Your master… is truly a super monster!

“Not only is he so adept at refining and fighting in a crystal suit, even the legendary Colossus is but a toy in his hands.”

“Yes. Master is indeed an out-and-out monster,” Xie Anan said, somewhat embarrassed. “However, you seem to be mistaken about something, Sister Long. The guy in Fancy Phantom who is lying on the ground right now is my master. It is my masteress who is piloting Draconic Phoenix!”