Chapter 263: Fiend Star Refining Workshop
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
"Works fine for me!"
Li Yao smiled. "But you haven't answered the last question I asked you yesterday."
"I haven't?"
Ding Lingdang's big eyes were blinking in confusion, "I forget it. What was the question again?"
"Your future plans. Like, what you will do in the future, what kind of boyfriend you're looking for, etc."
Li Yao's eyes were unsteady.
"We talked about that last night? I don't remember any of it."
With puffy cheeks, Ding Lingdang thought for a while. Then she said, "About the future, I probably won't be a college teacher forever.
"The reason I stayed at school after graduation was partly because of my mother, and partly because I wanted to learn some more stuff in the Grand Desolate War Institution so that I could be stronger and avenge my parents one day.
"However, after I truly became a teacher, I found the job completely unsuitable for me. The weak-ass freshmen really dispirit me. I don't even have the passion to abuse them anymore.
"Maybe the free-hunting-in-wilderness lifestyle is more my cup of tea.
"One day, when I'm strong enough, I might become a demon beast hunter. It will be awesome, won't it?"
"Well—"
Li Yao was actually more interested in the latter half of the question.
"As for boyfriend, I haven't given it much thought. It doesn't matter what I think anyway. You know my personality best. However hard I try to pretend to be an elegant lady, I'll end up betraying myself within half a day. Any normal guy who sees me burping after eating five grilled gigots for a single meal will surely be scared off, won't they?"
"I think so, yes. However, there are many guys that are not so normal in this world. Let's just say there is an abnormal guy who can tolerate your quirks. What would you expect him to be like?"
Li Yao swallowed nervously.
"What kind of question is this?"
Ding Lingdang glanced at him in suspicion. She thought for a moment and replied, "First, he must be handsome. I love polite, gentle, handsome, scholarly-looking guys best!
"Second, he must be weak. Definitely not a battle-type Cultivator. Culture-type Cultivator and research-type Cultivator will be best.
"Third, he must listen to whatever I say, because I'm going to be the master of my family. Hahahaha!"
"Polite, gentle, handsome, scholarly-looking?"
Li Yao was dazed for a long time, "I thought you'd prefer tougher guys and your criteria would include things like 'higher combat ability' and 'slaying a certain number of demon beasts'. Your requirements sounds a little sissy, don't you think? Haven't you always hated sissies?"
"I hate sissies to be my bros. Only tough men such as the 'Vulture' deserve to be my bros. I despise soft, weak crybabies most."
Ding Lingdang punched Li Yao in his chest and laughed. "But it's different when it comes to husband or boyfriend.
"My husband or boyfriend only needs to look after our baby at home. I will protect him if anything happens. Why do I want a tough guy for that?"
Li Yao was speechless for quite a long time. His face was trebling hard, his expressions altering nonstop. In the end, dogged determination appeared in his eyes.
The moment Ding Lingdang was going to stand up, Li Yao rolled over and pushed himself above Ding Lingdang, locking her between his arms.
"What are you doing?"
Ding Lingdang was surprised. She felt Li Yao was not himself.
"I—"
Taking a deep breath, Li Yao said with all his courage, "I would very much like to refine a piece of magical equipment for you, one that is going to be more exquisite than your Seven Star Silver-Ringed Horned Snake and Seven-colored Parrot!"
Ding Lingdang's eyes looked like a lake that was just unfrozen in spring with ripples floating one after another.
Pushed by Li Yao's yearning look, she was breathing heavily. A drop of sweat was flowing down the tip of her nose.
Right then, her mini crystal processors buzzed.
With an exclamation, Ding Lingdang jumped up and, failing to control her strength, hit Li Yao's chin with her head. Li Yao was knocked over, and his tongue was bitten by his teeth, making him unable to say anything because of pain.
"I—I have a class this morning. I'm running late!"
Ding Lingdang stuttered as she tried to comb her hair again. She jumped off the roof without going through the skylight.
After a moment, she leaped out while her toothbrush was still in her mouth.
It was not until she was out of the bamboo woods that she finally shouted,
"There are many delicious foods in my home. They're all in their old places. You must've been starved after the long journey to the Dark Desolate Domain. Cook them and try to get some nourishment!"
Li Yao rolled his tongue for a long time before he regained the ability to talk.
At a long distance, Ding Lingdang looked like a bolting rabbit that was being chased by a wolf. She was nearly tripped over several times.
"She ran away—just like that?"
Li Yao couldn't believe his eyes.
This was the first time that he had ever seen Ding Lingdang running away from anything.
…
In the training room on the floating mountain of the Combat Department.
The freshmen were whispering to each other and eyeing Ding Lingdang strangely. The room had an odd vibe.
"Why are you guys acting so weird today? Do you want me to increase the difficulty of your training because you didn't enjoy yourself enough yesterday? Class monitor, come here and talk!" Ding Lingdang screamed and shouted like a devil.
Trembling in fear, the class monitor stood up. He summoned whatever left of his guts and said, "No. Not like that, Ms. Ding. We just feel that you might be distracted; we were simply expressing our concerns."
"I am distracted?"
Raising her eyebrows in anger, Ding Lingdang snarled, "How did you come to that conclusion? Do tell me!"
The class monitor was almost in tears. He was shaking as he said, "Because of your clothes, Ms. Ding…"
Ding Lingdang looked down and realized that she was wearing her blue pajamas with teddy bears on it.
She had left home in such a hurry that she even forgot to change her clothes.
Ding Lingdang's cheeks was flushed. For a moment, the 'feminine' countenance that had once stupefied all of the freshmen was back.
But soon, the human-shaped tyrannosaurus restored control over her body. She raised her voice and shouted, "I'm relieved to find that you've recovered well from yesterday's training, since you are all energetic enough to care about what clothes I'm wearing today. Excellent. Everyone's training amount today shall be increased by thirty percent!"
…
Li Yao returned to the Refining Department in a good mood.
Despite the major transformation of the Refining Department and the ongoing infrastructural construction, the second laboratory was reserved for him, which was also his dormitory.
The moment he unsealed the barriers and walked into the laboratory, the Black Wing already dashed out from a corner and circled round him.
It hummed while it was flying, like a dog that was wagging its tail because it had seen its master again after a long time of departure.
"Little Black, I'm back!"
Seeing the Black Wing, Li Yao finally felt he'd truly returned home.
He had worried that there would be too many eyes and mouths in the training camp. Therefore, he didn't take the Black Wing during the three months of training, which was a decision that he couldn't regret more.
If Little Black had been with him in the Thunderous Sound Mountain, he would've got out of the place much more easily.
Li Yao decided that he would try to bring the Black Wing with him next time wherever he was going to.
"Haha. Stop whining like that. I've brought you some good stuff!"
Li Yao extended his spiritual threads into the Cosmos Ring and tossed out a scattered bone of the mutant lion dragon.
The Black Wing screamed. Hundreds of black spiritual threads crowded out and tied the bone up like a hungry tiger plunging onto a goat. The spiritual energy contained in the bone was absorbed at a crazy speed.
"It's amazing that you've improved so much only after three months! The crystals that I traded with my credits have all been absorbed by you! Wow! Good job!"
Li Yao took out a leg bone of the mutant lion dragon, which was long enough for Little Black to chew for a while.
Then he sat before the large-scale crystal processor and started pondering about his future plan.
Of course, the Project Mystic Skeleton would be his main focus for the next year.
After a hundred days in the Thunder Training Camp, Li Yao had developed his own ideas about crystal suit refinement and modification, which, together with the refinement methodologies of the Hundred Smelting Clan, would surely shed new lights to the experienced refiners that had been working on the project.
However, the Project Mystic Skeleton was a collaborative work.
Li Yao had ambitions for himself.
The stronger he became, the more memory pieces of Ou Yezi he could absorb. The ancient books that he'd been learning were getting arcane, too.
Many of the secret arts were not meant to be set to public.
Therefore, Li Yao needed a personal workshop where he could refine magical equipment at his will without worrying about others' snooping.
To build such a workshop, the best way would be to buy a world fragment and add barriers to the teleportation array so that no one else would be able to break in.
It was a common practice among the refiners.
Many master refiners had their own world fragments as their personal refining rooms.
However, it would cost a huge amount money to buy a world fragment.
A world fragment used for refining didn't need to be as large as the Billowing Star Sea. But since it was necessary to buy the freehold of the world fragment, the price could still be as high as one billion.
Together with the cost to build a refining workshop inside the world fragment, Li Yao estimated that he needed at least 1.5 billion to finish everything.
Li Yao had made a great fortune in the Thunderous Sound Mountain. There were abundant Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures in his Cosmos Ring. The forbidden scales of the mutant lion dragon alone were valuable enough, let alone the exotic magical equipment left by the demon infiltration squad.
Li Yao kept some of the magical equipment and the precious materials for further studies, and he needed to sell off the rest of the stuff so that he could fulfil his dream of building the 'Fiend Star Refining Workshop'.
However, the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures were all shady. If he were to sell them through the official channel, there would be a good chance that his secret was discovered.
"It seems that I'll need to ask for several days' leave and make a trip to the Serpent Mountain Village."
The Serpent Mountain Village was the biggest congregation of outlaws in the south of the federation. It was also where the biggest black market of the federation was located.
Many Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures of unknown backgrounds could only be sold off in the Serpent Mountain Village.
Naturally, the price was often lower than they should be. But the good thing was that no one would look into where they came from, or who the seller was.