Chapter 1026 Tras.h.i.+ng
Aiolos smiled and shook his head. "You"re thinking too much. I am now a slave gladiator."
"d.a.m.n, you are so optimistic. In any case, I don"t want to die. We still have a lot of pleasant moments to spend. Is the matter that you asked me to investigate about reliable?"
As compared to the Earthling, his days as a silver t.i.tan were better. As his recent performance had been very good, his family seemed to have changed their point of view and wanted to give him a chance to behave well once again. Thus, Tsari"s days were slightly better. Of course, the difference was very slight.
"That"s my brother. As long as you find him, there will definitely be a way," said Aiolos with a smile. His tone was full of confidence.
Tsarilorhuan rolled his eyes. This was the first time he felt that Aiolos was rather good at boasting. If he had not known, he would have thought that humans were from a level-8 civilization.
w.a.n.g Zhong… This name felt rather unrefined. Only G.o.d knew whether he would starve to death in the divine territory.
...
When they returned to the mushroom houses, emotions were still running strong in Jhonas"s heart. He had wanted to live well for a few years before happily inheriting his family business and become a second-generation member of the Illusion race who enjoyed his life. However, he had chosen the worst roommate. His Boss, who had never seen the world, had a small appet.i.te and was loyal. Everything he did was according to the script.
However, even though the situation seemed a little different from what he had expected, this Earthling who did not attract much attention seemed to have many secrets.
Why was the daughter of the Heavenly Sh.e.l.l Crown Prince so active? Why did the usually exclusive Machinery race invite him?
If it happened once, it was a coincidence. However, if it happened in quick succession, there was a problem.
On the way back, Flying Pig had naturally beat around the bush and wanted to ask about Lao w.a.n.g"s so-called "real background". However, Lao w.a.n.g did not have any "real background" he could mention. Furthermore, what kind of person was Lao w.a.n.g? If one wanted to trick him into telling the truth, one would be considered alert if they were not coaxed out of their secrets.
After kicking Jhonas, who could not stop chattering, onto the bed opposite him, Lao w.a.n.g could not wait to start research on the prescription that Celeste had given him.
The Vitality Supplement Pill was not particularly foreign to w.a.n.g Zhong.
When he had watched Boss Sea refine pills, out of the few prescriptions that Boss Sea knew, his main product was the Vitality Supplement Pill.
w.a.n.g Zhong also had Boss Sea"s prescription. It was rather crude, and his success rate was very low. There were some differences between his version and the prescription that Celeste had given him, but the main ingredients were the same. In reality, according to the special characteristics of each alchemist, there would be some adjustments and adaptations in their prescription based on their experience. Ten alchemists could have ten different versions for the same Vitality Supplement Pill. However, most of these changes were simply slight adjustments in details. The main subject would usually not change.
In the past, he had seen Boss Sea refine this Vitality Supplement Pill. Then, he had been inspired and guided by Elder Yimo"s two Pill Refinery lessons. When he compared these to this version of the prescription, w.a.n.g Zhong very quickly understood the Vitality Supplement Pill clearly. It gave him the feeling that he could do it, and he was 40% to 50% confident that he would succeed. Of course, to someone who had never refined pills before, this confidence could possibly be a misconception. But no matter what, this confidence was enough for him to give it a try.
What they now lacked were ingredients.
Even though it was only a level-9 pill, many ingredients were listed. There were even more ingredients than when he had collected ingredients for the level-7 pill. The main pill only required nine ingredients, but Celeste"s prescription had over 40 supplementary ingredients. They were not particularly valuable items, such as the Loying Fruit that Lao w.a.n.g was rather familiar with. However, there were many diverse and trivial ingredients, and the quant.i.ty required was not low either. All these items could be bought in the Heavenly Gates, but simply going to buy them was obviously something Lao w.a.n.g could not afford.
When he saw Lao w.a.n.g"s anxious expression as he stared at the ingredients needed, Jhonas, who had been holding back for a long time, was eventually unable to keep holding back. He rushed to say, "Boss, it"s not that I"m not voluntarily helping you. However, if you want to collect all these ingredients, it will be slightly expensive. I also spent a lot of money on buying the messenger… Pill refinery is really something ordinary people cannot do. Just like this level-9 pill, only G.o.d knows how many ingredients have to be used up…"
Even though he had managed to collect the ingredients for the level-7 pill, they were inferior products he had obtained from an acquaintance. The Illusion race had many friends in the business world. Friends could throw their unwanted rubbish at you, but if one really wanted good materials used for pill refinery, friends would definitely not give them to you for free.
The motto of the Illusion race was that even blood brothers had to settle accounts. Giving to others for free? That did not exist.
Helping him once or twice was not a problem to Jhonas as he considered this an investment. However, what if this happened eight or 10 times? Jhonas was not planning to nurture a rookie alchemist. Furthermore, he was worried that he would cause w.a.n.g Zhong to form a habit of getting whatever he wanted, as long as he asked.
However, Flying Pig had evidently thought too much. Lao w.a.n.g could not possibly go so far. Furthermore, Elder Yimo was right. If one did not have money, one should not play with pill refinery. No matter how great one"s natural endowments were, the most basic principles of pill refinery were summarized in three words: you need money.
"You seem to have friends in the spiritual medicine market, right? Could you get some spoiled ingredients like last time?" Lao w.a.n.g did not hear him chatter and simply went to the point.
Jhonas was dumbfounded. "That"s no problem… But there"s no point. With those kinds of things, you won"t even be able to refine powder…"
"I"m just practicing. Even if I cannot produce any pills, it doesn"t matter." w.a.n.g Zhong laughed cheerily. "I just want to try it out. However, I am not quite willing. You bought those spoiled ingredients, right? I will pay for them."
"…" When they spoke until this point, Jhonas felt that it would not be interesting if he continued being pa.s.sive. Furthermore, he was only going to buy defective goods for his friend. These goods were very cheap and were not considered much.
"Boss, since you said that, we don"t speak about money between us. I will handle this." Jhonas patted his chest and said, "Give me a few days. I will definitely gather everything for you."
He had to delay this by a few days as there were Weapon Refinery cla.s.ses the next day. Jhonas did not dare to play truant.
Other than continuing to cultivate his Devouring Heaven Technique, w.a.n.g Zhong also continued to study the prescription and deliberated the various pharmacological arrangements involved. He had actually started on pill refinery and taken a long time. The numerous trivial tasks were at the preparation stage. Not only did he have to prepare the ingredients, the clearer the direction of the pill refinery process and his goal, the higher the success rate. After all, time invested in preparations is not lost. The preparations before pill refinery were the most important.
The Combat Cultivation Hall lesson followed closely after a day of rest.
The cla.s.ses in the Combat Cultivation Hall were more frequent. When he looked at the timetable given by the Heavenly Gates messenger, he saw that there were Combat Cultivation Hall cla.s.ses for the next few days. This was his main course. Regardless of whether Lao w.a.n.g was interested, he had to be present. If not, all the 50 points he had obtained would be deducted if he missed several cla.s.ses, and he would be sent back by the Heavenly Gates.
Unlike the basic principles that had been explained during the previous lesson, it was as if h.e.l.l had frozen over. The silver t.i.tan supervisor had started to talk about the Spirit Explosion Technique in a serious tone.
This was an attacking technique that was in between body arts, goblin arts, and thunder techniques. It was rather unique.
When Lao w.a.n.g heard this, he was rather interested. However, when the silver t.i.tan supervisor finished talking… Lao w.a.n.g was speechless.
Simply speaking, the Spirit Explosion Technique was a small trick where one instantly acc.u.mulated one"s spiritual power and spun the spiritual power several times, producing an attack that was several times more powerful than usual. When he looked how many people around him seemed to be intoxicated from listening to the supervisor, Lao w.a.n.g was slightly dumbfounded. What was this?!
This d.a.m.ned thing had been played around excessively by Earthlings since a long time ago. Wasn"t this just a simple operation of spiritual power? This technique was still far from his 3rd Drive in terms of ingenuity, but it had been used as a main point in a Combat Cultivation lesson and explained in detail. Furthermore, many Combat Cultivation pupils furrowed their eyebrows tightly and looked as if it was difficult to understand. d.a.m.n… Were these people all idiots?
His initial shock slowly turned into astonishment. Lao w.a.n.g was only as calm as water when he was sure that no one around him was acting.
He more or less understood. Twenty-six peak civilizations had established the divine territory, but in the thousands of years following the establishment of the divine territory, the high-leveled civilizations had lost the urgency of survival and were undergoing a process of "sinking". This did not mean that they were not advancing upwards, but that there had been a change in their direction.
They did not have opponents and did not have the pressure to survive. They did not even have frequent fights. They simply focused on chasing the path of the Gold Core and pursued ascension. Acc.u.mulating one"s Core was what everyone in the divine territory was yearning for. What about combat? They only needed to use their power to suppress others. The level of the civilizations in other worlds was a far cry from them. Thus, they did not feel any threat at all.
Although the many aristocrats in the divine territory were strong and had a high realm, their advantages were all innate. They did not have any actual combat ability, let alone many cruel experiences from combat.
Thus, once the lower-leveled civilizations overcame the barrier of their lack of affinity with the spiritual influence around them, their might would become completely different. Of course, to the low-leveled civilizations, this was the greatest difficulty. w.a.n.g Zhong had relied on the help from his divine cells and fragment world to quickly rise. This was not common among all the low-leveled civilizations. There was no value in using him as reference either…
Lao w.a.n.g started to become absentminded. This was probably the only lesson where his mind had wandered ever since he joined the Heavenly Gates.
Meanwhile, the other Combat Cultivation pupils around him were intoxicated when they listened to the lesson. Of course, they understood the simple acc.u.mulation of spiritual power. However, they had to go through a process to understand how to form their own killing technique and how to carry out some small tricks using their spiritual power. In particular, they could transform their bodies to practice these kinds of techniques. Once these small tricks became instinctual to their physical bodies, and when they transformed into their actual Void Core form, they would be even more terrifying. This was another realm of operation.
The lesson was not long and was only used to explain a simple theory. However, it continued for about half an hour.
Once Tsargesimon finished his last sentence, he stretched out his hands and stretched his body, as if he had finally completed his mission. Closely after, his deadpan expression while teaching suddenly became enthusiastic.
"Cla.s.ses and the like are too boring." He laughed cheerily and said, "We are Combat Cultivation pupils. No matter how many theories I talk about, they are not more useful than using real weapons to attack. How about this? Let"s get two people to demonstrate how to use the Spirit Explosion Technique. If they perform well, I will award them points, but if they don"t perform well, I will deduct points. Who is willing to volunteer?"
No one offstage said anything. When they saw Tsargesimon, who was full of smiles, they knew that this was definitely not a good thing. Furthermore, was he asking them to demonstrate how to use the Spirit Explosion Technique? He had just finished teaching them but simply wanted someone to demonstrate this technique. Was he joking with them…?
"Is no one volunteering? Then I will start calling names." Obviously, Tsargesimon wanted this result. He waved his large hand and simply pointed at the crowd. "The first is definitely the number one performer during our previous lesson. w.a.n.g Zhong, come up!"
Everyone was dumbfounded. This was closely followed by laughter. How unskilled. This was the price for standing out!
"d.a.m.n, he is giving him no face just after one disagreement…" Outside, Jhonas pulled back his neck. He came for every single Combat Cultivation Hall lesson, not just because he wanted to watch w.a.n.g Zhong. He felt that if he ended up at the bottom of the Weapon Refinery Hall and was pushed to the Combat Cultivation Hall, he would still be in the Heavenly Gates. No matter what he did, he always remembered that his route of retreat had always been a tradition of the Illusion race. However, the information he obtained from the Combat Cultivation Hall made Jhonas feel that it was a pain in the a.s.s. He did not want to face a supervisor like this.
Lao w.a.n.g was also dumbfounded. Trouble was about to break out, but evidently, this suited Tsargesimon"s style very well. If he did not cause any trouble, he would be embarra.s.sed to say that he was the odd supervisor of the Combat Cultivation Hall.
However, w.a.n.g Zhong was only dumbfounded for a moment and did not hesitate. He simply walked up, calm and composed. He was not being flamboyant, but if he wanted to establish a footing in the Combat Cultivation Hall and even compete to enter the Pill Refinery Hall, he definitely had to perform well. The taunting voices and hooting sounds were fine. In any case, they would slowly die out as he fought.
"In the Heavenly Gates, you have to learn from each other with all your might and not be afraid of death. With me around, it is not easy for you to die either." Tsargesimon did not choose a second person and made use of the jealousy-filled atmosphere when this little fellow came up instead. The moment he came up, many pairs of eyes downstairs were bloodshot. Did he still have to choose people? "Who wants to come and try? The victor will be rewarded with one point."
There were buzzing noises all around offstage. There were many people who were not pleased with him and wanted to teach him a lesson. Now, they would even be rewarded with points. Even though they would only obtain one point, it was still something. Several top experts like bone goblin Pavaro, Blood Demon Balor, Ghost Gorst, and others might have to maintain their dignity, but there were many others who were itching to have a go.
"Me, me!"
"See how I get rid of this opportunistic and slick pretty boy!"
"d.a.m.n, this fellow stole the signs from the Blood Demon race two days ago!"
Roars immediately sounded from offstage. However, quick actions were better than quick roars. A figure did not say anything else and simply charged forth from the enthusiastic crowd. A green shadow flashed, and someone was standing on the platform.
This was a transforming goblin. His body was unusually thin, and his face was like a rigid block. His arms were long and thin, and there was a dazzling gleam from the back of his hand, making it seem like the limb of a mantis.
The speed at which he leaped to the stage was extremely fast, and many people had not even been able to catch up with the green shadow that charged on stage. The spiritual power on his body was still surging, and there were obvious signs of Spirit Explosion Technique use. Frankly speaking, the Spirit Explosion Technique was simply a method of using spiritual power. It could be used for both attacking and moving quickly. He was able to immediately understand the secret to using the Spirit Explosion Technique just from t.i.tan supervisor Tsargesimon"s explanation. Furthermore, he had further developed the technique and used it on his speed. Compared to the comprehension of the Combat Cultivation pupils, his level of comprehension was very high.
Even though he was in human form, he still had all four limbs on the ground, and two long claws were also placed on the ground, causing a rustling sound as they slid across the ground, causing sparks to fly.
"Shadowsickle Cook."
"It"s that fellow… Sigh, he seized the first step. We probably have no chance of attacking."
Some of the Combat Cultivation pupils had started calling out his name. He had just advanced to the Void Core Realm, and frankly speaking, his Spiritual Energy Value was not very high. w.a.n.g Zhong estimated that his Spiritual Energy Value was around 200,000 and was comparable to Yin Jiao"s level. However, his speed was very quick. When his blades waved and crossed each other, many people in the crowd could only see a faint shadow. He was definitely a high-speed attacker.
The enthusiastic crowd quietened significantly. Even though the mantis race was a member of the goblin race, it was not considered a large and prosperous race. If he had been able to be part of the Heavenly Gates lineup just after advancing to the Void Core, he naturally had unique skills. Shadowsickle Cook. One could tell his specialty in combat. This kind of speed type was definitely an opponent that a large majority of people did not want to face. Those who were weaker than him had almost no chance. Meanwhile, even if one was stronger than him, if they were not strong enough to suppress him, they would be pa.s.sive in the face of his terrifying speed.
Shadowsickle Cook was not a man of many words. After he stepped up, he did not say anything. He simply waved his claws slightly as a greeting. Closely after, his body swayed slightly and turned into a green ray of light that rapidly shot at w.a.n.g Zhong.
Zeng!
There was a clear sound, and the green figure swept past w.a.n.g Zhong"s body like a thunderbolt. In the blink of an eye, he landed steadily several meters behind w.a.n.g Zhong. Two glittering drops of blood slid off his claws and flowed to the ground.
"Resolved in one shot." Offstage, someone gave a snort of contempt. "This human can only be opportunistic and slick. During face-to-face combat, he didn"t even have the chance to react!"
"Was he cut off? He"s not moving at all."
"My G.o.d, he was dealt with by such a weakling? How embarra.s.sing…"
"One point obtained. Shadowsickle Cook really obtained this point way too easily."
The sounds of discussion were filled with disdain and taunts. However, this buzzing sound stopped right after it started.
More blood droplets started to flow from Shadowsickle"s claws. Closely after, there was a cracking sound that sounded like bones cracking. Then, his two claws broke at the center.
Boom!
This was followed by the sound of someone falling. The mantis goblin, who had seemed extremely natural and unrestrained, did not even have the chance to reveal his goblin form. He simply fell to the ground and fainted.
Lao w.a.n.g slowly turned around and looked at the collapsed Shadowsickle Cook with a cold and calm expression. It was as if nothing had happened at all.
He was slightly disappointed. Only the Combat Cultivation Hall crowd felt the sense of oppression from his quick speed. However, to someone like Lao w.a.n.g who had once licked blood off blades every day, this speed was meaningless. From the first step that Shadowsickle took, Lao w.a.n.g had already predicted all his actions. In reality, Lao w.a.n.g had held back, but this fool had simply come to slash at him.
He felt apathetic. What use was just being fast? What about the content of his technique? Lao w.a.n.g had a headache.
This was not completely because of the difference between the combat techniques in the divine territory and the lower worlds. Even though the so-called geniuses here had high-leveled realms, it was just because their starting point was high. How long had they actually cultivated for?
Lao w.a.n.g felt slightly lonely…