Chapter 319: Rise From Ashes!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Everything had been covered in grey mist in his eyes, except for the Tiger King Battlesuit and the Flying Crystal. But they soon turned into a series of figures, lines and angles in his insane calculations, too.
The real world vanished. A pure computational world assumed its place.
Brain cell activity, 200%!
Brain cell activity, 300%!
Super perceptive state, activated!
"Chi!"
Unimaginable brilliance burst out of the back of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, which seemed to have grown two fiery wings that were dozens of meters long. At its peak speed, the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit sprinted at the Tiger King Battlesuit like a shooting star.
"How can it be?"
Zuo Feijing didn't expect that Li Yao could still accelerate at the end of the game. He also realized that Li Yao was not going for the Flying Crystal, but for him.
The traps that he had been preparing for were in vain. Li Yao crashed into him heavily.
"Crack!"
The Tiger King Battlesuit was knocked more than ten meters away. Its components were flying in the air like the petals of a flower being blown by raging wind.
For Zuo Feijing, the slash in the beginning only worked out because he wasn't paying much attention to it. This was the first time that the Tiger King Battlesuit had been so severely damaged in a face-to-face confrontation.
"Are you crazy?!"
Zuo Feijing gritted his teeth and couldn't figure out why.
In regard of structure hardiness, the Tiger King Battlesuit, which had employed many synthesized Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, should be much better than the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.
Li Yao would definitely suffer much more damage from the clash than he would.
But why was this monster…
Before he was able to finish his thought, Li Yao had dashed up to him once again like a psycho. The burning flames behind Li Yao's back was like a dragon who just jumped out of an abyss.
The intense pressure twisted Zuo Feijing's face. He had to give up thinking. With a surge of spiritual energy, his tiger claws were ten times its previous size with reckless electric arcs dancing nonstop. They took the blow from Li Yao's heavy battle saber.
"BOOM!"
"BOOM!"
"BOOM!"
The earthshaking and heaven-splitting sound seemed to be suggesting that this was not a match between two crystal suits, but an accident where two crystal warships crashed into each other.
The auditorium was quiet. The convention center was quiet. Every spectator watching the live stream was quiet.
The fists of the audience were clenched so hard that sweat on their palms seemed to be being pressed back into the skin.
Their hearts were burning and exploding, unleashing enough heat to boil all their blood.
The performance of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit was beyond the wildest imaginations of the audience.
Anyone with even a little knowledge of magical equipment would know that there was a huge gap between the specifications of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit and those of the Tiger King Battlesuit, since the price of Mystic Skeleton was only one third of that of Tiger King. Theoretically speaking, the result of the match had been predestined even before the match began.
But as it turned out, the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit was the only crystal suit that challenged Tiger King in a face-to-face confrontation and persisted for more than ten seconds on the racetrack.
Despite the most excellent framework design, the hardiness of ordinary materials was still far from that of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, even though the latter had been synthesized.
After every clash, large clusters of sparks and multiple components would burst out from the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, as if it had been blown by a large-scale crystal railgun.
Ten seconds later, there was no Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit anymore. There were only fragments of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.
But Li Yao gritted his teeth and continued on the match wearing what was no better than a pile of garbage.
Every time the audience felt that he was never going to stand up again, more intense spiritual energy than the previous time would burst out inside the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, allowing him to sprint and charge at his opponent once more.
'Just stop. Such combat is evident enough of the performance of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit!'
Many people who were watching the game, even including the students of the Refining Department of Deep Sea University, couldn't bear to watch it anymore and thought to themselves.
'Stop now. The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit has exceeded its limit. Something bad is going to happen if you go on like this!'
Supernova Jiang Sheng's face was not as tranquil as just now. The corner of his mouth twitched violently without him knowing.
"You are out of your mind! You really are!"
Under Li Yao's ferocious and endless attack, Zuo Feijing shouted, "Your exhaust flame is abnormal. There must be something wrong with your crystal reactor. The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit cannot handle such intense collisions at all. You're playing with fire!"
"BOOM!"
To better prove what he just said, a power rune array on the back of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit exploded in a blaze due to overloading.
Affected by the explosion, the crystal reactor of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit stopped functioning briefly. Then, after strange cracking noises, colorful and weird smoke popped up from the inside of it.
Everyone's blood almost froze.
All the Exos knew that it was an ominous sign which indicated that the crystal reactor had entered an extremely unstable state and it had to be stopped immediately!
But, in a frenzy, Li Yao roared, "The name of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit shall be known by the entire world even if I am to be blown into pieces!"
The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit squatted, while its crystal reactor was overloading to the limit of its limit. The surging exhaust flame, together with dense smoke, was spurted almost a hundred meters away.
Li Yao was entirely melted into the flame, as he slashed forward as if he were going to cut the racetrack into two halves.
"BAM!"
Radiance brighter than the glowing sun burst out between the heavy battle saber and the tiger claws.
The two pieces of ultra-solid magical equipment broke into pieces at the same time.
Despite the overwhelming blast, Li Yao lowered his shoulder and dashed forward at the Tiger King Battlesuit again.
After the collision, another three power rune arrays exploded on the back of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit. The right side of plate armor was almost entirely shattered.
But the Tiger King Battlesuit was pushed away for more than ten meters.
Li Yao took the opportunity and snatched the Flying Crystal. He was going to accelerate again, when a colorful swirl appeared behind him which was expanding rapidly.
It was the ultimate omen that massive spiritual energy had been leaked and there was about to be an explosion.
Everyone's eyes bulged as they exclaimed.
"Not good. Something's wrong with the crystal reactor of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit!"
"Doesn't it claim that it has a high-pressure valve system? Now's the time to release the redundant spiritual energy!"
"The match must be stopped! You wouldn't want to see what's to come next!"
"High-pressure valve system?"
Among the students of Deep Sea University, Supernova Jiang Sheng sighed. He shook his head and muttered to himself, "A high-pressure valve is likely to malfunction, or even to be blown into pieces, any time in an intense combat!
"Gambling the safety of a crystal suit entirely on a small valve. Only the grassroots refiners are crazy enough to come with such an insane solution!"
Tiger King, Mournful Mist, and Sword Torrent all noticed the anomaly of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.
The three Exos felt short of breath because of anxiety. They brought their spiritual shield to maximum without any hesitation.
But it was too late to blow the whistle.
Amidst everyone's exclamations, Li Yao accelerated again, again and again while his crystal reactor was overloading.
At first, the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit broke into the supersonic speed and rushed for almost a thousand meters like a laser.
Then, another eight of its power rune arrays exploded at the same time, which bashed it to the ground like a giant hammer.
Before Li Yao was able to stand up, a blazing, man-made sun rose from the middle of the racetrack and consumed him.
The sun quickly turned into a giant orange fireball which was expanding exponentially, before a pale mushroom cloud popped up. There seemed to be a hideously grinning face of a devil in the smoke.
As the fireball was expanding, the blast rippled to the far-away distance slowly like a giant swirl.
The entire convention center was filled with gasps.
No one had foreseen such a tragedy.
The crystal reactor of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit had exploded yet another time!
Both the serene Deep Sea University delegates and the tough military delegates were overwhelmed by whispers.
"It really puzzles me sometimes why those grassroots are trying so hard to prove themselves when they refuse to recant their wrong belief."
Supernova Jiang Sheng mumbled to himself, "Defeat Deep Sea University? That's a lofty ideal. But doesn't an ant who wants to shake a tree and a mantis who tries to stop a shuttle by its forelegs have a lofty ideal, too?"
"In fact, his performance was good enough already."
Guan Chao, captain of 'Red Lightning', was in grief. "His files suggest that he is a Class 1 Federation Disabled Soldier. At first, I didn't understand how a young college student was able to earn such an honor.
"But now I get it.
"The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit might not be the best crystal suit.
"But 'Vulture Li Yao' deserves the title of Class 1 Federation Disabled Soldier. He is one of the best Cultivators!"
"Li Yao!"
"Vulture Li Yao!"
Countless voices were sighing for the same name.
Yuan Manqiu fell back to her chair uncontrollably. The zone of the Grand Desolate War Institution was gravely quiet.
Zuo Feijing, Sha Yucheng, and Feng Kai were astounded by the shocking scene, too, and were not back to themselves for a long time.
Although they were competitors, Li Yao's idiotic insanity still aroused complicated feelings in their heart.
Vulture Li Yao was going to be a name that would not be forgotten easily.
However…
"It's not right."
Zuo Feijing was the first to realize that something was not right. A drop of cold sweat appeared on the tip of his nose. "My spiritual shield remains as intact as before, which means I was not affected by the blast of the explosion!"
"An explosion of a crystal reactor equals to an explosion of at least a hundred Hellfire-Lightnings. Although I'm hundreds of meters away from the center of the explosion, my spiritual shield should've been undermined by at least a quarter. How come it is still intact?"
"Look over there!"
Sha Yucheng shouted, pointing at the giant light beam floating in the sky which had been displaying each player's total time of keeping the Flying Crystal.
The number behind 'Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, Grand Desolate War Institution', in other words, Li Yao, was still bouncing vigorously.
'99 seconds!'
'99.5 seconds!'
'End of the race.'
'Winner: Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, Li Yao, Grand Desolate War Institution.'
"What?!"
Tiger King, Sword Torrent and Mournful Mist seemed to have been cast upon a spell which turned them into frozen statues.
The three Exos inside of them were not even able to lift their finger anymore. They could only shout in bafflement, "Li Yao won? The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit won? What's going on exactly?"
After a short silence, the convention center was in a much more chaotic mess than before.
A large question mark and an even larger exclamation mark was jumping in everyone's eyes.
They looked at each in utmost bewilderment.
"Why? The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit exploded just now and Li Yao was blown to pieces. Why did the pre-input telepathic thought inside the Flying Crystal determine that he was the final winner?"
"Speaking of which, where is the Flying Crystal?"
"The Flying Crystal is refined out of the solidest and firmest Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. The previous explosion should not be powerful enough to damage it. It should've flown out already!"
"Crack, crack."
From the gargantuan fireball, a black figure walked out slowly.
Flames were still flowing through the gaps of the plate armor, as if a hundred red roses that were blossoming at the same time.
Since the match had ended, the abilities of the Flying Crystal were automatically turned off. It was nothing more than an ordinary metal ball now.
"Swoosh! Swoosh swoosh!"
The black figure lifted his index finger. The Flying Crystal was revolving fast on his fingertip meekly.
Dazed, Zuo Feijing, Feng Kai and Sha Yucheng gazed at the guy walking out of the fire who should've been blown to pieces ten seconds ago – Vulture Li Yao!