Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The most critical thing was that the brand-new spiritual puppet was made of the units and components of almost ten different spiritual puppets. The raw materials were designed in different styles under different guidelines from different periods over hundreds of years, and their compatibility was close to zero.

But right now, they had all become as warm as jade and as smooth as silk after polishing, like masterpieces of the spiritual puppet designers who had worked hard on them for a year and a half in a factory. They did not seem to have been ‘jumbled’ together in only several minutes.

The Fist King and Xiahou Wuxin both had a profound understanding of magical equipment. They naturally knew that it was impossible to complete the work through regular maintenance and modification methods. Three minutes was barely enough to process the change of material quality after the high-speed cutting or to soothe the change of inner stress caused by the quick increase of temperature. It was even less possible to devise a whole set of circuits of spiritual energy that was as complicated as the veins and nerval network inside a human body after only a few quick glances!

If they had not seen it with their own eyes, they would never have believed that there was such a monster in the world who could accomplish such a ‘miracle’ in only three minutes!

Xiahou Wuxin looked at Li Yao not only in confusion and admiration now but also in deep fear. He was even more frightened than when he saw the Immortal Cultivator Wei Xiaotian.

The Fist King’s man-made eyes, on the other hand, spurted out scorching sparks. His database was simmering like a tank of burning oil.

“There are no furnaces here. It’s impossible to hone and polish the tiny components in order to completely renew them. Besides, due to the limited time, I cannot study the features of this particular maintenance platform carefully. So, I guess we’ll have to make do with this now. Next time, if I’m available, I’ll build a new body for you,” Li Yao said sincerely.

As a refiner, he would not make an imperfect work unless he was absolutely left with no choice. So, he apologized very genuinely. “However, I have dismantled all the computation chips inside the crystal processors of the spiritual puppets and redesigned a kit inside the chest of the new puppet to enhance computational ability. It should be able to improve the computational ability of your core crystal processor, especially your determination of traces and trajectories. Do you want to transfer your core crystal processor over yourself, or do you want me to do it?”

The Fist King’s man-made eyes glittered. “If it isn’t too much trouble for you, Master Fiend Star.”

The breastplate of the brand-new spiritual puppet glided open to two sides without a sound. The shockproof and heatproof layers inside also dispersed spirally like petals, revealing a metal nest that was in perfect size.

Li Yao was waving cold, lifeless mechanical arms, but his movement was as gentle as the hair of a girl. Taking the Fist King’s core crystal processor that held the database and logical thinking circuits from the old body, he installed it into the metal nest meticulously. It fitted the nest precisely, and there was not even a gap for a single hair.

As the breastplate closed again, in the flowing sounds of spiritual energy, ripples slowly spread out from the spiritual puppet that was sitting in midair. Stepping on invisible stairs, he walked to the ground from midair. Looking at the opening and closing of his metal hands at the ends of his four arms, he moaned in great satisfaction.

Although his body was even smaller than the smallest form that he had demonstrated on the battlefield previously, everybody including Xiahou Wuxin felt that the Fist King seemed more condensed, more energetic, and stronger than half a day ago!

“I observed your combat pattern carefully,” Li Yao said casually. “Although the enormous iron fortress was known as your ‘strongest form’, it was too large a target, its movements were too clumsy, it consumed astronomical crystals every second, and the enemies could easily crawl into your body to sabotage it. It was a ‘suicidal fortress’, not a strong body.

“The third form that you later presented was small and agile, with a minimal consumption of crystals. That is very suitable for our coming battle.

“So, warm up your body and see how this body works. It has been devised according to your combat pattern and your pace, but let me know if there is anything that requires adjustment. I do not want to leave an obviously flawed work to run amok outside.”

In the new body, the Fist King made several movements that were so bizarre that he essentially twisted himself into a knotted earthworm.

Then, his knotted body loosened immediately, and his fist punched out. A series of blurred shadows were triggered in the air. The entire secret warehouse was shaking because of the punch. Centered at the landing point of the punch, dazzling electric arcs dashed out on the wall.

“This is… perfect!”

The Fist King’s voice that was cold and mechanical was mixed with the excitement of a human being.

“Every joint and every bearing inside this body seems to have been crafted for a certain entry of data inside my battle database. It is even stronger than the iron body that I crafted for myself!”

“Of course!” Han Te and Liu Li held their heads proudly. “Our ‘Grandpa Yao’ is always most awesome!”

Li Yao smiled. “Consider it a reward for the many interesting stories that you told me.”

While talking, he moved his dozens of crystal cameras to Xiahou Wuxin. “Leader Xiahou, if you also tell me some interesting stories, or exchange certain interesting goods with me, I can also help you build a few more advanced crystal suits, which I guarantee will be much better than what Wei Xiaotian was equipped with. The truth is, I am not very good at the upgrade and modification of spiritual puppets and artificial bodies. My specialty is actually crystal suits.”

Xiahou Wuxin and Xin Xiaoqi’s jaws both hit the back of their feet.

Such amazing spiritual puppet modification skills were something that he was not good at?

Then, how strong were his modification crystal suit skills, which he called his ‘specialty’?

As if he had just swallowed an iron caltrop, Xiahou Wuxin’s throat rolled hard. Thinking for a moment, he said, “I don’t know what kind of stories you want to hear, Senior Fiend Star. If we are talking about the intelligence of Manjusaka, I will certainly tell everything that I know. Besides that, if you mean the things about refining, please take a look at them.”

He drew a complicated sign on the metal wall on one side of the warehouse. The wall immediately turned from a smooth mirror into a pile of soft gels. Then, the silver gels faded in all directions, revealing another warehouse that was smaller, in which a hill of ragged, rusty debris of magical equipment and incomplete tools was piled.

“These remnants were all discovered by me when I explored the underground world,” Xiahou Wuxin explained. “They were all the relics of the Martial Meritocrats Civilization before ‘Judgment Day’. But they were too complicated in structure and too seriously damaged. I could barely recognize what they were built for, much less using, dismantling, or maintaining them. So, they have all been left in this place. If you’re interested, it’s possible that you may find something useful inside.”

Li Yao’s interest was aroused. His soul darted into the hill of magical equipment remnants through thousands of spiritual threads.

Those remnants were truly magnitudes more precise and complicated than the other magical equipment in the warehouse, exactly as Xiahou Wuxin said.

For the same reason, they had been more damaged because of the wars and the corrosion of time. They were nothing more than garbage right now.

Not just the sinners in the Land of Sins like Xiahou Wuxin, even the experts among the Immortal Cultivators might not be able to repair them.

But for Li Yao…

Wait, what’s this?

Li Yao’s soul released ripples of excitement. His spiritual threads flowed into a piece of magical equipment that was enshrouded in a shell of rust, examining the device from inside to outside carefully.

It was a very advanced flaw detector.

The mechanism of the device was to release a type of special, highly-penetrative ray into metals or other materials to search for the gaps inside them that were invisible for the naked eye.

Because it was rather advanced, the flaw detector boasted the function of ‘high-molecular layer-by-layer scanning’. Even the internal damage of the molecular level could be scanned clearly.

Although there is no ‘high-molecular layer-by-layer scanning magical equipment’ here, this flaw detector boasts similar functions. If I can repair it, together with the magical equipment such as ‘microscopic carver’, won’t I still do the same things?

Of course, such a piece of maintenance magical equipment will be huge after it is assembled. But does it matter? I have already retrieved a Cosmos Ring that is of paramount importance from Wei Xiaotian’s broken arm!

Li Yao immediately got excited.

Sensing Li Yao’s soul waves, Xiahou Wuxin asked, “If I may, senior, do you come from Starlight?”

Li Yao was slightly dazed. He was even more overjoyed and asked, “What did you say? You know Starlight? Why do you think that I am from Starlight?”

Xiahou Wuxin did not expect Li Yao to be so thrilled. He hesitated for a moment and did not know what to say.

Li Yao realized that he was being too excited, too. After calming down for a moment, he said, “I am not from Starlight. However, I am indeed very interested in Starlight. Tell me everything you know about Starlight. It doesn’t matter even if they are just groundless tales.”

“Regarding Starlight, there is nothing but groundless tales,” Xiahou Wuxin said with a bitter smile. “Rumor has it that they were the people who escaped from the Martial Meritocrats Sector before Judgment Day.”

“What?” Han Te and Liu Li both grew excited. “Some people escaped from the Martial Meritocrats Sector?”

“That is what the rumors say.”

After a little hesitation, Xiahou Wuxin said, “The truth of the so-called Judgment Day is not a civil war of the people of the Martial Meritocrats Sector, as we have always believed, but very likely to have been a destructive strike launched by the angels, or the Immortal Cultivators, on the Martial Meritocrats Sector.”

“Huh?”

It was the first time that Xin Xiaoqi had heard such a theory. She could not help but exclaim in shock.

Li Yao, however, glanced at the Fist King and said, “We know that very clearly, as well as the existence of ‘Cultivators’. You don’t need to say much about them. Just get to the point.”