At this moment, in the sky of the crater lake where the Village of Peace was, hundreds of white, flawless flowers were blossoming and falling down with the wind.
A lot of flowers had landed on the lake and were floating like jellyfish.
The flowers drove all the villagers crazy. They were either searching on the lake in boats or flying into the sky to loot the flowers with curved magical equipment that looked like gliders on their backs. Together with the searchlights, the sky was illuminated as if it were daytime. The scene could not have been more lively.
Li Yao focused his soul and vaguely recognized that they were parachutes with metal boxes dangling below them.
"Blessings from the angels!"
Seeing the white flowers falling from the sky from far away, the two little fellows waved their hands in excitement and explained to Li Yao with blushing faces, "Those are the relief assets from the Heavenly Rails. Every year, before the 'Bliss Ceremony', the Heavenly Rails will drop assets more frequently. It's kind of a blessing. We didn't expect that they would see it today."
"There's one over there!"
Seeing that a parachute was blown away from the lake toward them, Han Te exclaimed in joy and changed the direction of the shuttle abruptly, rushing toward the landing spot of the relief assets. As it happened, he discovered a metal box that had been broken at the edge of the lake. It was filled with light, soft bubbles that could cushion the impact.
Under the protection of the bubbles, however, were two weapons that were glittering coldly.
"It's a piece of new magical equipment. There are exactly two of them!"
Han Te and the Coloured Glaze both beamed with interest. They picked up the new weapons in a hurry and played with them in great delight.
Li Yao released feeble telepathic thoughts and attached them to the weapons in the hands of the two little fellows, studying their structure carefully.
Such weapons were very similar to the 'power gloves' in Li Yao's memory. They could completely cover one's fingers, palm, and elbow, but a thick metal ring had been added to the wrist. Twelve deep blue crystals the size of pebbles were embedded on the surface of the metal ring. There was no telling what they were for.
The two little fellows, on the other hand, were very familiar with the process. They stuck their butts out and searched among the bubbles. Soon, they found a jade slip with a projection function.
With a light press, a 3D hologram was released from the front of the jade slip, which introduced the usage of the weapon in the most simple and direct way.
The weapon was named 'Heavenly Fire Lightning Strike Ring'. It was indeed an upgraded version of the 'Power Gloves'. Other than significantly increasing the damage of the user's fists, it also boasted two techniques, namely melee combat and long-distance shooting.
When he switched to melee mode, the metal bracelet attached to his wrist would produce a specific model of electric arc and flame magnetic field, simulating the effects of the Thunder Warblade and the Burning Sky Battle Axe.
When he switched to long-range shooting mode, he could directly throw out a ball of plasma, electrocuting the target a hundred meters away into charcoal.
Judging from the 3D image released by the jade chip, it was indeed quite powerful. When it was fully activated, it could even pierce through a spiritual shield.
"So, so amazing!"
Han Te and Coloured Glaze stared blankly, their mouths open so wide that two duck eggs could be stuffed in.
"It is indeed a piece of rather impressive magical equipment. However, it is too radical!"
Li Yao's soul had scanned the inside and outside of the two 'Heavenly Fire Lightning Strike Rings' dozens of times, scanning the rune arrays of every layer and memorizing them. He could not help but shake his head.
The technology of the Imperium of True Human Beings was naturally more advanced than that of the Federation. However, the structural analysis of such mass-produced equipment was not a problem for Li Yao, either.
He could tell after a quick glance that, in order to achieve the maximum instantaneous output, the 'Heavenly Fire Lightning Strike Ring' adopted more than fifty kinds of highly unstable rune arrays and jumbled them together with the most extreme underlying architecture. Even when the circulation circuits of spiritual energy were designed, the redundancy of the system was not taken into consideration at all. Instead, a very reckless, almost 'reckless' approach had been adopted.
Yes, in the field of magical equipment design, it was acceptable to occasionally adopt one or two relatively extreme rune arrays. As long as the redundancy was in place, the maximum performance of the magical equipment would be exploited, and the failure rate would not necessarily be affected.
Li Yao himself was an expert who was adept at the use of extreme rune arrays. His style of refining had always been 'insane'.
However, even though he was insane, it was impossible for him to jumble dozens of highly dangerous rune arrays without leaving any redundancy and simply add two sets of stabilization systems randomly.
It was almost certain that a serious malfunction would occur due to this method.
Yes, such 'Heavenly Fire Lightning Strike Rings' were certainly multiple times more powerful than the general 'power gloves'. However, should they malfunction, chances were that the user's entire arm would be blown up, and the user would be electrocuted to death.
A piece of high-precision magical equipment was likely to be made of thousands of super-tiny rune arrays and hundreds of thousands of different flow models of spiritual energy. It was almost a chaotic system.
If Li Yao were to observe it himself, it would be impossible for him to know what kind of environment the Heavenly Fire Thunderous Strike Ring would be exposed to, what kind of strikes it would suffer, and how long it would take for the spiritual energy to break down.
It was perhaps what the designer of the Heavenly Fire Lightning Strike Rings intended to figure out in the 'real-life test'.
"By 'blessing from the angels', the high and mighty Immortal Cultivators throw the highly unstable, 100% malfunctioning magical equipment to the sinners and ask the sinners to test it for them at the risk of their lives?
"Is the magical equipment industry and the creation of techniques of the Imperium of True Human Beings based on the bones of countless sinners who fight each other to the death?"
Li Yao did not say anything, but he was burning with fury.
Naturally, the two little fellows did not know the scheme of the Immortal Cultivators. After playing with the magical equipment for a while, they remembered Li Yao, the respected 'Grandpa Yao', and presented the Heavenly Fire Lightning Strike Rings to him respectfully, asking him to evaluate them.
Li Yao had long scanned the magical equipment with his telepathic thoughts. Naturally, he was not interested in the two pieces of highly-dangerous experimental magical equipment at all. Instead, he observed the horizon curiously. A lot of parachutes seemed to be floating in midair far away from the Village of Peace.
"Aren't you going to pick up those assets?" Li Yao asked.
Han Te glanced at them casually and shook his head. "Those are too far away. They have already drifted into the territory of other villages. By the time we arrive, they will have been picked up by other villages. Conflicts will break out easily. Now that the 'Bliss Ceremony' is about to begin, there is no need for us to fight at such a moment. There will be heavy casualties."
"What is the Bliss Ceremony?" Li Yao asked again.
"The Bliss Ceremony is the largest delivery of assets that is held once a year," Han Te said. "The specific date and location will be notified by the Heavenly Rails one month in advance. By then, the assets that will be delivered will be a hundred times more than what we have seen today, and their quality will be much higher, too. It is possible that the most marvelous grandpas or even an entire arsenal will be found. Therefore, it is the grandest day for all the villages. Everybody is trying to get as many things as they can in the Bliss Ceremony!"
"It is exactly because the Bliss Ceremony is of paramount importance that the livelihood of the village in the next year will be guaranteed if the more assets we get," the Coloured Glaze added. "Therefore, not only will all the villages nearby go to fight for the assets, even the experts from the outside will be coveting them. Even the gangs and thugs that usually operate in the Bloody Worlds may show up. Therefore, we have to be extremely vigilant."
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao said, "So to speak, the looting in the Bliss Ceremony will be very bloody. Chances are that somebody will be killed?"
"Not maybe, but somebody will be killed for sure."
Han Te said solemnly, "The Bliss Ceremony concerns the survival of a village. If a village does not get enough assets, not only will it decline, other people will also hit you when you are down, rob you, and destroy you when you are weak!
"On the other hand, if the village gets enough resources in the Bliss Ceremony and demonstrates its magnificent capability, the people who have lost the protection of the village will join the village. A lot of experts will ask to join the village, too. It will be a great opportunity for the village to expand on a large scale!
"Take the Village of Peace for example. At the beginning, it was only a small village with a population of two hundred that was in danger. It was only because my master distinguished himself in the few Bliss Ceremonies in a row and claimed tremendous resources with his absolute capability that the village gradually prospered.
"Since the Heavenly Bestowal Ceremony is so important, everyone would definitely risk their lives for it. That's why every year, they would fight until their heads were battered and blood flowed. They would fight to the death, and many people would die!
Pausing for a moment, Han Te said somewhat embarrassedly, "Although my master is acknowledged to be the strongest expert in the hundreds of square kilometers around, he actually does not like the bloody and cruel battles in the Bliss Ceremony. He often says that we are killing each other like animals that have been raised by someone and are biting each other like dogs that have been raised by someone.
"He once thought about changing the pattern of the Bliss Ceremony and coming up with a way to distribute the relief assets fairly so that all the villages and people would be satisfied. However, even I don't think such a way is going to work at all!
"All in all, the Village of Peace does not want to be too ruthless. It will be enough as long as we get our share in the Bliss Ceremony. However, if somebody else comes to rob us, we naturally cannot wait to be killed. Don't you think so, Grandpa Yao?"
Li Yao gave no comment. Thinking for a moment, he asked again, "Just now, you said that even the gangs and thugs that are active in the Bloody Worlds will come during the Bliss Ceremony. Can you beat them?"
"As long as we work together, we might stand a chance."
Han Te waved his fists confidently and said, "The Bliss Ceremony does not take place in one place but in every part of the Land of Sins at the same time. In other words, when a lot of assets are delivered from the Desolate Worlds, the Bloody Worlds will get a lot of assets, too. Also, they will only be more abundant, of better quality, and of a higher level than ours.
"The real tough gangs and thugs are naturally looting the assets in their worlds. Those who come to the Desolate Worlds such as ours are just the weakest of the gangs and thugs.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
