The blade-wielding warrior moved very quickly, so Li Hai didn't have to wait too long before he had three new subordinates.
The first one held an urn-gold hammer, and his entire body was covered in holes and wounds, with no good skin anywhere; the next one held a bow and arrows, and while his body was more slender, it was relatively more complete; the last one held a long ge, had a female appearance, and was smaller in stature, only about one meter eighty-five, but her body's integrity was the highest.
In short, among the many Demon-Slaying Warriors on this vast wasteland, only these four warriors were successfully activated; all the others were scrapped.
As for these four warriors, Li Hai felt that their numbers were not smooth to call out, so he gave them new names one by one.
The first one, who wielded a door-panel-sized blade, Li Hai named him Brother Blade; the second one, who wielded urn-gold twin hammers, he named Ah Hammer; the third one, who held a bow and arrow and looked cold and sinister, Li Hai named him Arrow Boy; and finally, the female-looking warrior with a long ge and a fierce expression, he named her Fierce Girl.
“By the way, do you eat oil or electricity?”
Li Hai curiously asked Brother Blade, “You can't possibly survive on noodles and rice, can you?”
“Reporting to Master,” Brother Blade replied, “We draw our power from Yang Qi.”
“Oh~” Li Hai nodded in understanding, “By basking in the sun.”
“Reporting to Master,” Brother Blade answered again, “We can use all forms of Yang Qi.”
“Alright.”
Li Hai looked around, “Then, do you want to repair yourselves?”
As he spoke, he pointed to the vast number of scrapped Demon-Slaying Warriors all around.
“Master is wise.”
Brother Blade nodded in agreement, “Although these warriors are now scrapped, they are not entirely broken. If we piece them together, it will be enough to replace all the damaged parts on our bodies.”
“Then go and change them,” Li Hai commanded, “Once you are done, I will release you from the Grotto-heaven.”
Upon hearing this, the warriors immediately knelt on one knee and responded, “We respectfully obey Master's command.”
With that, the four of them stood up and sped off in various directions, beginning to search for suitable parts from the surrounding scrapped warriors.
Meanwhile, Li Hai dispelled this illusory body with a thought, transferring nearly half of his Spiritual Focus back to the real world.
He opened his eyes, looking at the dim and dilapidated training ground around him, but his thoughts shifted to the newly acquired fragment of a strong one:
“So, which Cultivation Technique should I upgrade?”
If he chose Beast Intent Demon Claw or Iron Bucket Clockwork Manual, Li Hai would most likely directly Breakthrough the shackles of the Steel Tendons Iron Bones Realm, reaching a new martial Dao level.
If he chose High-level Yuan Breath Refining Yang Method, he might be able to advance to a higher level of mystical arts than Spiritual Focus.
If he chose Evil Spirit Earth Drawing Yin Method or Mortal World Gathering Yin Method, these two ghost Dao methods, Li Hai might transform into a powerful ghost entity surpassing the Fierce Soul-level.
In short, no matter which path he took, Li Hai would gain a significant increase in combat power, but there was only one fragment.
“I'll choose the martial Dao path.”
After thinking for a few seconds, Li Hai made the same decision as last time—to upgrade a martial Dao Cultivation Technique.
Compared to incantations and sinister ghost arts, he still preferred direct, fist-to-flesh combat; it was more exhilarating.
“So, should I choose Beast Intent Demon Claw or Iron Bucket Clockwork Manual?”
Li Hai once again fell into a dilemma of choice.
The former would directly enhance frontal combat power, while the latter primarily focused on defense, improving both physical and mental defenses, thereby indirectly enhancing strength.
“Currently, I am not afraid of strong enemies, only of encirclement and sneak attacks, so…”
After a moment of contemplation, he made his decision, “I'll still improve my defensive capabilities; that's more stable.”
Having made his decision, Li Hai shifted his attention to his personal interface, preparing to upgrade the Iron Bucket Clockwork Manual Cultivation Technique.
But just as he was about to consume the fragment and prepare for the upgrade, that peculiar tremor once again surfaced in his sea of consciousness.
“This is the premonition ability generated after the intersection of Level 2 Wildness and Level 2 Inspiration, activated again…”
This tremor ‘told’ Li Hai not to choose Cultivation Technique upgrade, but to choose Cultivation Technique Fusion.
The targets for Fusion were Iron Bucket Clockwork Manual and Beast Intent Demon Claw.
“But if the Fusion fails and I end up with junk…”
Li Hai's sparse eyebrows furrowed tightly, “Wouldn't I lose everything?”
At this moment, the mysterious tremor once again emerged from his sea of consciousness, spreading out in circles of vague fluctuations.
Through these ripples of fluctuations, Li Hai suddenly understood as if enlightened:
“Eh? This precognitive ability can actually predict roughly at what moment performing Cultivation Technique Fusion will yield the highest probability of a good outcome. This is truly miraculous!”
After exclaiming, he stood still with Spiritual Focus, beginning to wait for the moment when the success rate of Fusion would be maximized.
Li Hai did not know how long he would have to wait.
Was it half an hour or two hours, or even one or two days?
He didn't care about that.
However, after waiting blankly for two hours, Li Hai felt he needed to find something to do, otherwise… it was indeed a bit boring.
Thus, Li Hai began to study the pair of steel whips he had collected from the outpost's warehouse.
This pair of bamboo-jointed steel whips was not particularly heavy to handle, weighing roughly two thousand jin, not even half the weight of Zhu Bajie's nine-toothed rake.
Their overall shape was thicker at the back and sharper at the front, inlaid with thirteen bamboo joints. Their length was three chi nine cun, with a six-cun handle and a three-chi three-cun whip body.
When Li Hai first got them, he tried to swing them forcefully a couple of times.
The result was that they didn't budge an inch.
One must know that with Li Hai's current strength of seventy to eighty thousand jin, ordinary iron or steel objects could not withstand his abuse at all.
Yet, this pair of steel whips showed no deformation whatsoever when faced with tens of thousands of jin of force; instead, Li Hai's own hands vibrated painfully.
From this, it could be seen that this pair of steel whips was definitely a weapon that could be called a divine weapon, and perhaps they were indeed a pair of divine weapons.
Being divine weapons, they must possess extraordinary abilities.
What Li Hai wanted now was to figure out what other mysterious abilities this pair of steel whips had, besides being incredibly hard.
This research took more than half an hour.
And just as Li Hai had thoroughly understood and mastered the intricacies of this pair of steel whips, and was about to practice with them on this training ground, that mysterious tremor once again appeared in his sea of consciousness.
Li Hai immediately understood:
“It's the best time for a good outcome!”
He put down the steel whips, instantly shifted his attention to his personal interface, and then unhesitatingly consumed that fragment of a strong one, beginning the Cultivation Technique Fusion.
“Hmm?! So Cultivation Technique Fusion isn't limited to just two; you can fuse many!”
After learning this news from the System, Li Hai exclaimed in surprise, “Good, then I'll fuse all the martial Dao Cultivation Techniques.”