Chapter 514: Malicious Li Yao
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Su Jiuzhen cast his eyes to a light beam nearby, which displayed the picture of a shallow cabin.
Inside the picture, Hu Guohao, who had been 'rescuing' Li Yao a moment ago, was standing beside another two Exos wearing crystal suits of the same model. Several other workers were next to them.
"Duan Hu, Duan Xiong, Duan Bao, take off your crystal suits and send them for examination. The standard crystal suits of the Furious Bears Union are not easy to find. We won't get replacements if they are damaged. Take a rest after that. You've completed your mission. Job well done.
"Duan Hu, don't let what happened just now bother you. It was because of an ill-considered plan. If something happens to Li Yao, I will take full responsibility for that. Your performance of the task was flawless."
His words moved Duan Hu, who had pretended to be 'Hu Guohao' a moment ago. The guy shook in excitement and bowed. "Understood, Master Su!"
"Shua!"
The other two Immortal Cultivators had already taken off their crystal suits and handed them over to the workers nearby.
Right then, Duan Hu triggered his telepathic thoughts, too. Gold lines surged out of the crystal suit and gradually dissected it.
At present, none of the six workers and three Exos inside the cabin were protected by crystal suits. Their alarm was at the lowest point…
Duan Hu's crystal suit was about to be taken off, when a piece of magical equipment no larger than a finger suddenly blinked in weird greenness on an inconspicuous spot below two tubes of the crystal reactor!
Huangpu Shiyi was suddenly greatly alarmed, as if thousands of needles were pricking his heart. He quivered and jumped up, while he screamed desperately, "Put on your crystal suit! Now!"
"What?"
Inside the picture, the workers were somewhat slow in reacting. But the faces of the three well-trained Exos all blanched, knowing that there must be a good reason for Huangpu Shiyi's anxiety. They summoned their crystal suits immediately!
However, it would still take the fastest of them 1.1 seconds to finish the implementation of the whole crystal suit.
After the greenness blinked for 0.3 seconds, a narrow line of flames burst out of the magical equipment and penetrated through the crystal reactor of Duan Hu's crystal suit!
The magical equipment was not powerful per se, but it was irritating and unsteady. It unleashed all the spiritual energy inside the crystal reactor and triggered a serial explosion!
BOOM! BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
In the Heaven's Origin Sector, the explosion of a super-compressed crystal reactor had once ruined the entire Refining Department of the Grand Desolate War Institution.
Although the biggest reason for the accident was that the warehouse full of crystals was ignited by the explosion, the power of a crystal reactor's explosion was definitely not something to underestimate.
Inside a starship, the explosion of a crystal reactor was more than enough to destroy several cabins!
For a moment, the starship seemed to have hit an invisible iceberg in the sea of stars. The ground was shaking, black smoke was popping up, and flames were dancing everywhere. In the center of the fire, countless Immortal Cultivators were screaming and crying!
The light beam immediately fell into darkness.
Huangpu Shiyi and Su Jiuzhen were both dumbfounded. They looked at each other in bewilderment for more than one minute. Their faces were even paler than those of a zombie, and they didn't know what to say at all.
…
Half an hour later, standing outside the med bay, Huangpu Shiyi and Su Jiuzhen stared at Li Yao gloomily.
They could see that Li Yao was soaked in bright green medication drugs comfortably as if he were taking a hot bath. The guy couldn't be more contented.
"The damage is very serious. Four were killed, including all the Duan triplets. Seven were too badly injured to fight again in the future. Five were crippled, with severe shock to their internal organs and brain. Their capability will be greatly compromised even if they recover from the wounds. Six of them were relatively better, but it will still take them at least two weeks before their combat ability is fully recovered.
"As for the damage to the starship, you should know it better than me as a refiner. I won't waste my time talking about that.
"This… This is truly—"
Su Jiuzhen seemed hoarier than usual. His white hair was all standing up, revealing his bare skin on the top of his head.
Huangpu Shiyi's face was grave, too.
However, he was the refiner on the starship. Most of the people killed or injured were under the command of Su Jiuzhen and not directly affiliated to him. Therefore, he was not as irked as him.
Thinking for a moment, he asked, "How are Li Yao's wounds?"
Holding back his anger, Su Jiuzhen replied, "The guy is indeed unbelievably lucky. The wound he suffered from the sword seemed to be shocking enough, but it actually never reached any of his internal organs. His flesh was torn open, and one of his ribs was broken. That's all. He will be fully recovered after staying inside the med bay for half a day!"
Huangpu Shiyi was surprised. He asked, "Is there any possibility that he feigned his wound to win our trust?"
Su Jiuzhen shook his head. "I've considered such a possibility. But based on what has happened, I would say that it's very unlikely.
"Although his wounds are not serious, they are indeed close to his main organs. If he hit the sword on purpose, he would have to boast precise control over his every muscle, his every artery, and even the small-scale movements of his internal organs.
"Otherwise, the flying sword would have penetrated into his heart if he had been unlucky. He might've survived if the med team got there in time, but an artificial heart would cause a great loss to his capability. The price would've been too great to pay!
"Besides, although his critical parts were not hurt, he has still shed a lot of blood, and the outer injury was bad, too. His combat ability must've hit rock bottom at that time. How would someone place themselves in such a dangerous situation if they had other plans?
"By my analysis, there is only one type of person who could fake such wounds on purpose and maintain more than 90% of their combat ability after the accident."
Huangpu Shiyi asked, "What kind of person is that?"
Su Jiuzhen replied, "Those who reject magical equipment and weapons and build up their bodies to strike the genetic chain in order to unleash the primordial force—the body practitioners!"
Huangpu Shiyi was dazed for a moment. He took a long breath in relief.
Li Yao was a crazy refiner, a lunatic bomber, and a specialist of saber refining. There was no way that he was a body practitioner who hated magical equipment most.
It was obvious and self-explanatory.
Pondering for a moment, he said, "I'm going to ask what that was all about. But the bottom line is, he didn't know that Duan Hu was one of us. Everything is a misunderstanding."
"I, of course, know that it is a misunderstanding, and that he has proved himself determined enough to join us. Otherwise, I would've stabbed the guy's heart long ago!" Su Jiuzhen was seething with anger, yet he couldn't find anybody to vent it on.
He had pinched himself multiple times, because he couldn't figure out how a thoroughly-planned test ended up like this.
Even if the starships of Furious Bears Union had really caught up with them and had a big fight them with them, the damage couldn't have been more than this.
Huangpu Shiyi took a deep breath and walked into the med bay with a smile.
When Li Yao saw him come in, his pale face that was apparently a result of the massive loss of blood was beaming with agitation. He struggled and sneered, "Isn't the Temple of Immortals an awesome organization? You seemed to have everything under your control, but how did all the Cultivators sneak in? Is that how you usually protect people? The guy said, before he left, that he wouldn't let go of me because I was a 'traitor'! What am I going to do in the future? I don't want to live in darkness and hide on Spider Den for the rest of my life!"
"Calm down. The accident was partly on you, too. Why did you leave a piece of alarm magical equipment in your room?" Huangpu Shiyi frowned.
Li Yao sniffed heavily, but he was less elaborate and murmured, "At that time, I didn't know what was coming for me at all. Isn't it normal to leave a piece of alarm magical equipment in case anything goes wrong?
"Right."
Li Yao's eyeballs rolled fast, while he asked earnestly, "After I reached the med bay, I seemed to have heard an earsplitting explosion. The entire starship seemed like it was falling apart. What happened? Were the Cultivators defeated? How about Huangpu Xiaoya?"
"Ke, Ke Ke Ke Ke!"
Huangpu Shiyi coughed uncontrollably. He managed to reply, "Huangpu Xiaoya is still under our control. The Cultivators have been driven away. But before they left, the main gun of their starship bombarded us for one last time. Our starship was somewhat affected by the attack. But it's… not a problem. Yes. Not a problem.
"In another few days, we will meet with Fengyu Zhong. By then, everything will be back on track. There won't be any accidents again!"
Now that Li Yao had proved himself loyal to the Temple of Immortals, Huangpu Shiyi did not mind sharing some confidential information with his 'future disciple' in order to leave a good impression on him. That way, he might be able to squeeze more secret arts of refining out of him.
Li Yao was apparently relieved and cursed, "These bastards ran fast enough!"
While he was talking, he touched the wound on his abdomen, which was healing quickly. He narrowed his eyes and grinned hideously. "The scumbags were indeed brutal enough. I almost kicked the bucket because of them!
"However, they won't be any better than myself right now. Before the Cultivator retreated, I gave him a little something. Hahahaha. I'm pretty sure that they are going to love it!"
Huangpu Shiyi couldn't help but quiver. He asked, "What—what did you give him?"
Li Yao laughed evilly and replied, "Over the past few days, based on the techniques that you taught me and my own experience in crystal bomb refining, I have finally devised a new model of anti-crystal-suit bomb that I have named 'Crystal Suit Killer'!
"Crystal Suit Killer has three distinguished characteristics.
"Firstly, it is extremely small, light, and unobtrusive!
"I developed a deeper understanding about the engravement of tiny rune arrays through my experience of carving a chip with my bare hands in the Skyhill Sword Seminar. The size of many attack and explosion rune arrays can be reduced to one third of their usual size now. Based on that, the crystal bombs that I refine are one third the size of bombs of the same type or even smaller!
"Secondly, since the bombs are small, there is bound to be less gunpowder. But it doesn't matter. I'll simply install Crystal Suit Killer to the back of the enemy's crystal suit where the crystal reactor is located!
"Once triggered, all the power of Crystal Suit Killer will be condensed into a line of spiritual energy and pierce through the enemy's crystal reactor!
"More exactly, Crystal Suit Killer is in fact just a 'catalyst', whose sole effect is to transform the crystal reactor on the enemy's crystal suit into a real bomb! I believe you understand the nastiness of the explosion of a crystal reactor as clearly as I do."
Li Yao was smiling scarily. "Thirdly, and also the point that I'm most proud of, the trigger system!
"Crystal Suit Killer is not triggered by a countdown, nor by remote telepathic thoughts, but by a condition.
"The triggering condition for Crystal Suit Killer is when around 50% of the crystal suit has been taken off.
"You see, if the enemy is in a crystal suit, most of the explosion will be resisted by the crystal suit. There will be little real damage.
"But if they are not in their crystal suits, they will naturally be much more fragile.
"The billion-dollar question is, when will an Exo take off their crystal suit?
"They will only take off their crystal suit when they feel secure and most relaxed!
"It is possible that many of their companions, refiners, and mechanics will be with them in such scenarios, and they will be equally unalert themselves!
"If an explosion takes place right then, hahahaha, how many of them do you think can put on their crystal suit or summon their spiritual shield in time?"
Li Yao suddenly rose up from the medication drugs. Clutching the edge of the capsule he was in, he craned his head and sent his wet face right in front of Huangpu Shiyi's head. His eyes were as sharp as knives, penetrating deep into Huangpu Shiyi's head, as he said, one word after another, "Revenge is a dish best served cold, and I, Li Yao, happen to be a man with an excellent memory!
"Whoever, or whatever, decides to be my enemy must be ready to pay a good price!
"I wonder, is the guy named Hu Guohao going to take off his crystal suit when he is back on Furious Bears Union's starship surrounded by his senior brothers and junior brothers?
"I get really excited whenever I think about what will become of them! Haha, hahahaha!"