Chapter 447: Incoming Space Pirates!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Other than that, the most viewed news was that about Heavenly Saints City. There were even some paid Great Illusionary Land programs which could simulate the splendid experience inside Heavenly Saints City.
Li Yao tried a few of them himself. It was indeed quite impressive.
The living quarters of Heavenly Saints City included not only lakes and oceans, but also continuous highlands and canyons that were hundreds of meters deep. Many floating mountains were moving in midair, from which thousands of waterfalls rushed down and turned into fuzzy drizzle half way. Rainbows were forming among them.
The working and studying quarters of Heavenly Saints City were spread across several districts. Numerous skyscrapers were connected to each other by vacuum tubes and teleportation arrays. Packs of people were coming and going on the bridges that were almost transparent as if they were strolling on the sky. Shuttles in all kinds of weird shapes were commuting among the bridges, producing colorful exhaust flames behind them at an amazingly high speed, but they never ran into one another. An invisible hand seemed to be manipulating everything behind the scenes.
Li Yao found it hard to accept that such a grand, prosperous city was built in space instead of on a planet. No wonder all the residents of the Flying Star Sector were captivated by Heavenly Saints City.
However, what interested him more were the training facilities of Heavenly Saints City.
As the training center of the Flying Star Sector, not only were the six largest Cultivation sects headquartered there, they had also established all kinds of institutions such as elementary, middle, and high schools, training camps, crystal suit refining clubs, and so on.
The most renowned crystal suit refining centers of the Flying Star Sector were based in Heavenly Saints City, too.
Li Yao discovered the promotion video of one of the crystal suit refining centers in the database.
What was shown in the promotion video was a super large training laboratory of more than eighty acres, an endless assembly line of magical equipment, and an automatic loading and distribution system utilizing countless mechanical arms driven by spiritual energy.
A common engineering crystal suit or a farming one could be manufactured unceasingly by dozens of low-level Cultivators and hundreds of ordinary workers supervised by only a few real refiners.
This was the true sense of mass-production!
Such advanced production facilities and technology had reduced the cost of a crystal suit to as low as possible, which was why they were so popular in the Flying Star Sector. Just like the shuttles of the Heaven's Origin Sector, crystal suits were affordable to every household here, even if they might not be considered low-priced, either.
As for battlesuits, although Li Yao failed to find their refining process, he did find a commercial of 'Nine Cauldron Arena', a place where crystal suits specialized in combat competed against each other.
Since crystal suits were popular in the Flying Star Sector, it was almost every Cultivator's dream to be a formidable Exo. Therefore, crystal suit competitions were a trendy activity.
The Flying Crystal Racing game in the Heaven's Origin Sector was but a daily routine in this world. There were more thrilling ways of competition in other forms.
All kinds of crystal suit arenas had thus been built everywhere in the Flying Star Sector like mushrooms after a spring rain. Not only did Cultivators like to practice with their peers inside, ordinary people enjoyed entertaining themselves by crashing into each other while wearing engineering and farming crystal suits. The satisfying scent of rust and sweat was the best reward for them.
Crystal suit competitions and championships, open and underground gambling games… An enormous chain of interest had been formed. Together with crystal suit refining, modification, and maintenance as well as the training of Exos, the industry of crystal suits was the unquestionable pillar of the Flying Star Sector.
The Exos who secured victories in the top arenas were seen as celebrities and big heroes to everyone. They often earned an abundance of admiration from young boys and girls and offers from big sects. Plentiful training resources were available for them at any time.
While he was watching the commercial of the arena which was displayed in the form of the Great Illusionary Land, Li Yao felt that he was seated in the vast ball-shaped arena and attracted to his seat by electromagnetic force, spinning.
Two crystal suits, one red and the other white, were floating in the middle of the arena. They turned into two streaks of brightness and bombarded each other with the most eye-catching attacks.
Sometimes, their attacks were only the width of a hair away from the audience, but the defense rune arrays managed to block them all the time. However, the hair of the audience was often tousled by the blowing wind, making them exclaim in satisfaction while their hearts was pounding.
The amateurs were enjoying the visual show, but the specialists were examining the skills. The more Li Yao watched, the more shocked he became.
According to the introduction, the two Exos in the commercial were only in the middle level and high level of the Building Foundation Stage state, but he was impressed by their speed, strength, small-scale movements in combat as Cultivators at the peak of the Building Foundation Stage, if not the Core Formation Stage!
Li Yao observed and remembered their every action. Then, he closed his eyes. Two translucent figures popped up in his brain while he started computing quickly.
A moment later, he came to the conclusion that, without the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit which had been added with the strengthening materials from Skeleton Dragon, it was very likely that he wouldn't be able to defeat the two Exos if he were wearing the same crystal suit they did!
To think that the two Exos were far from the best ones of the 'Nine Cauldron Arena'.
This is incredible. The appearance, structure, and firepower of the battlesuits of the Flying Star Sector are all at least a hundred years more advanced than those of the Heaven's Origin Sector!
Besides, the Exos here have multiple special techniques to drive their crystal suits which allows them to meld themselves with the crystal suits. Their combat ability is improved by more than five times!
I really can't wait any longer. I have to go to Heavenly Saints City and learn the secret arts of crystal suit refining and the techniques to drive them!
Watching the fierce battle of the two Exos in the Great Illusionary Land again, as a maniac of magical equipment, Li Yao was rubbing his fists in exhilaration, his drool almost dribbling down.
The news store also provided a lot of information for young men who wished to visit Heavenly Saints City such as himself.
A travelling agency had proposed a package to Heavenly Saints City. Not only would tourists be able to spend their vacation in the living quarters of Heavenly Saints City, they could also go to the top arenas and watch the competitions of the real expert Exos in person. The package had a duration of one month. Purely for recreation. No shopping detours included. Hand-written autographs of the real expert Exos were available if the tourists were in luck.
However, such a package was extremely costly, too. Even the cheapest package required tens of thousands.
There were also some other obscure messages which were channels through which one could smuggle themselves into Heavenly Saints City.
However, even if the smuggling succeeded, they could only live beyond the sixth ring of Heavenly Saints City secretly because they did not have residential certificates; it was impossible to enter the real training centers.
The messages that were much clearer were the notices of matches.
Different from what Li Yao had expected, the notices were issued not in the name of Heavenly Saints Alliance, but by the different organizations inside Heavenly Saints City.
For example, if Heavenly Saints Alliance gave fifty slots to a certain crystal suit refining center, this refining center would host refining matches publicly. The top fifty winners would be entitled to enter Heavenly Saints City and work as employees of the refining center.
As a result of such a policy, there were all kinds of matches taking place everywhere.
It was a pity that most of the matches were held in the relatively more prosperous zones. Underdeveloped areas such as Star Lord Temple and Black Iron Town, naturally, had none.
It seems that I'd better go to a more developed area before making any further plans.
Li Yao searched for cargo ships that were going to pass by Star Lord Temple soon and found that two cargo ships were coming to the place in three days. After simple maintenance and refilling of supplies, they would set off on a long journey to the Triple Lights Zone that was quite close to Heavenly Saints City.
Triple Lights Zone boasted a space spiritual lode which mostly contained spiritual energy of the fire class. If starships were docked in such a space spiritual lode, it would be a great help for those who majored in Cultivation arts of the fire class. Therefore, several medium-sized sects had headquartered in this area, making it one of the wealthier zones in the Flying Star Sector.
Then, I shall head off to the Triple Lights Zone first!
Cargo ships were the first choice for most of the residents of Star Lord Temple and nearby when they wanted to travel in the outside world. Therefore, the procedures to board a cargo ship were pretty standard now.
Through an agency, Li Yao reserved a seat on one of the ships.
Later, the agency asked a Meditation Healer at the Refinement Stage to hypnotize him and check out his identity.
Li Yao's soul power was too immense for him to be hypnotized for a Cultivator at the Refinement Stage. After the examination, the guy was convinced of his faked identity. He got his ticket without any trouble.
For the next three days, Li Yao stayed in the news store, absorbing information like a sponge sucking water.
…
In the morning, three days later, Li Yao was still huddling in a corner of the news store. His eyes were even more fresh than three days ago, even though he hadn't slept at all during the time. While others were taking a nap with their eyes closed, Li Yao secretly sped up his reading.
There was half a day to go before the cargo ship took off. He was planning to get more knowledge about the Flying Star Sector before he boarded the starship.
Right then, his seat suddenly shivered before it jumped abruptly. Several glasses on the desk nearby fell to the ground and shattered. Many readers were woken from their dreams and mumbled unclearly.
Beep—Beep—Beep
The hasty alarms shattered everyone's drowsiness.
"Space pirates! Space pirates are here!"
Residents of Star Lord Temple immediately recognized the alarms. Their faces turned pale as they cried uncontrollably.
The earth was shaking more and more violently. Many people were helplessly waving their arms and legs as if dancing. Some were so scared that they hid below the desks, but more people swarmed to the street.
Li Yao frowned and cursed in a low voice. He followed the crowds to the street, too.
Today was the second to last day of the kermis. Although most of the visitors had left Star Lord Temple, several thousand of them were still lingering. The street was a mess, congested by people who were running about like headless chickens. The blue sky and white clouds in the sky which were simulated by giant full-coverage light beams died down one after another under the intense impacts, revealing a bleak, cold dome of steel.
Dark red light beams were gradually condensed in midair, displaying a fierce battle in space.
A somewhat coarse voice said solemnly, "Please don't panic, everybody. We are engaged in a battle with intruding space pirates!
"Star Lord Temple boasts an extremely advanced defense system which is impossible for the space pirates to breach through. Lord Sea Stomper is with us!
"I believe every one of us knows the cruelty of space pirates.
"Perhaps, they might've spared our lives after looting everything of value in Star Lord Temple, if we had decided to surrender in the beginning.
"But now, the two parties have both opened fire, and we have slain multiple space pirates. There's no way that they will let go of us!
"If the space pirates break into Star Lord Temple, we will all be dead for sure!
"Therefore, please keep calm, everyone. Those of you who have crystal suits, please put them on; those of you who don't, please go to the shelter according to the guidance of the signal arrows. We will possibly be in a vacuum if the shell of the starship is compromised!
"Exos who have received space combat training before, please gather at the closest deck to you out of No. 1, No. 4, and No. 6. You and the Guardians of Star Lord Temple will work together to defeat the space pirates!"
