At night, in Floating Spear City's Underground Ghost City's Gourmet Street, inside the hot food stalls, the smell of cooking oil, the noise of people, and the collision of pots and spatulas, everyone's face was glossy and full of smiles.
This was the smoke and fire of the human world.
"Clang!"
Two chilled fruit wine glasses collided with each other. Li Yao and his high school buddy Meng Jiang drank the wine in one gulp. They clicked their tongues and looked at each other with a smile.
"I haven't been back for three years, but Old Du's Barbecue's mulberry wine is still as satisfying!"
Li Yao licked the corner of his mouth and sighed with emotion.
During the day, after leaving the Mining Clan High School, he went to find his Senior Brother, Fiend Blade Peng Hai, and the two of them went to visit their first teacher, Old Sun.
When Old Sun was young, he was only a Refinement Stage cultivator with meager strength. However, his wisdom was like a torch. In his later years, he discovered two super newcomers, Fiend Blade Peng Hai and Vulture Li Yao, one after another. His status in the Crimson Nimbus Sect also rose along with the tide.
In order to build a good relationship with Peng Hai and Li Yao, the Crimson Nimbus Guild had taken good care of Old Sun over the years. They had arranged a good villa in the suburbs for Old Sun to enjoy his old age.
However, Old Sun had always hated the fact that he had kicked Li Yao out of the Chixiao No. 2 High School. He didn't care about the Crimson Nimbus Guild and instead liked to stroll around the slums every day, trying to find the next good seedling. It could be considered as a hobby.
Li Yao, Peng Hai, and Old Sun had dinner together. Then, he asked Peng Hai to deal with his shares in the Twin Dragons Union. After dealing with trivial matters, it was already nine o'clock in the evening.
It just so happened that his buddy Meng Jiang had just finished his three-year career in the Vocational Academy. He had obtained an Intermediate Image Designer's license and was about to enter society.
Li Yao and Meng Jiang hadn't seen each other for three years. Taking advantage of this opportunity, they met at their favorite Underground Ghost City's Gourmet Street.
Steaming hot mutton oil fried noodles and all kinds of barbecue skewers that were thicker than an arm. Spicy clams that made people cry and fat chicken legs. These were all delicacies that they had yearned for in high school. They filled the big table.
"I really didn't expect that we would meet again one day. You're really something, becoming a Foundation Establishment cultivator in just three years. Just like Fiend Blade Peng Hai! "
Meng Jiang smiled as he filled Li Yao's glass with wine and sighed, "I'm just an ordinary person. I'm afraid that I won't have any great achievements in my life. The only thing I'm proud of is that I have a good friend like you! I didn't think that after you became a Foundation Establishment cultivator, you would still remember me, your best friend. You were even willing to invite me to this kind of place for a meal. I'm so happy! "
"Meng Jiang, you will always be my best friend. How could I forget you? Back then, when I was hunting Yao Beasts on Devil Flood Dragon Island, I was seriously injured and fell into a coma. Everyone said that I would never wake up, but you did your best to protect me in school. Because of me, he even had conflicts with many people. I will remember all of this in my heart! "
Li Yao held the wine cup tightly and said with some embarrassment, "But you know that becoming a cultivator is like sailing against the current. If I don't advance, I'll fall behind. I have to cultivate like crazy 24 hours a day. Sometimes, I even have to go to the battlefield. I've been fighting for my life for several months. I really don't have the time. I'm having a reunion with my old friends! "
"I understand. The situation is so tense right now. You cultivators must be having a hard time! Since you've embarked on this path, then you should devote yourself 100% to it and keep climbing upwards! I'm still waiting for the day when you become a Yuanying Old Monster so that you can come and drink with me! "
Meng Jiang laughed heartily. "Don't make me wait for too long. If I become a dirty old man and you become a Yuanying Old Monster, I'll be too embarrassed to take a photo with you!"
Li Yao also laughed. "Don't worry. I won't make you wait for too long!"
"Right. What about you?"
"Your dream is to become the best image designer in the entire Federation. I know that you've been working very hard in school and have obtained an intermediate license that many senior image designers couldn't get. What are you going to do next? Are you going to work or start your own business? "
Meng Jiang smiled and said with a bit of pride, "I'm going to join the army."
Li Yao was stunned. "Join the army?"
"That's right."
Meng Jiang nodded. "Of course I want to start my own business and open my own image design club. But you know my family's situation. We don't have much money. My father has never supported me in this line of work, either.
"Now that the Federation has entered a Level 1 state of war, the status of soldiers has been greatly improved. The standards for joining the army have been relaxed, too. If I retire after three years in the army, I'll be able to get a loan and realize my dream!
"Let me tell you a secret. I took the test a few days ago and passed it smoothly. As long as there's no problem with the data review, I'll be a glorious member of the Union Army!
"Ha. Even my father doesn't know about it. If the old man knows, he'll be so angry!"
"So, that's how it is …"
Li Yao thought for a moment and took out a black frosted, luxurious ATM card from his pocket. He placed it on the greasy table and gave it to Meng Jiang.
Meng Jiang was dazed. Hesitation flashed in his eyes. He drank up a glass of iced mulberry wine, took a deep breath, and pushed the card back.
Li Yao frowned and said, "Meng Jiang, we're best friends. Why are you being so courteous with me? This money should be enough for you to open a medium-sized image design club. You don't have to work so hard in the army. It's very dangerous to go to the frontline now! "
Meng Jiang glanced at the ATM card and seemed to regret it. But he gritted his teeth and smiled again.
"Li Yao, I know that you mean well. This money is nothing to you.
"However, I've always regarded the two of us as best friends. The friendship that we formed in high school is the purest thing. I treasure it!
"So, I can't use your money to start my own business. Otherwise, I'll always feel that this kind of friendship is not so pure anymore. There will be flaws and changes.
"Besides, compared to the success that can be achieved easily, I still prefer to use my own hands to build my own world bit by bit!
"Only in this way, when I finally build a great empire of image design, I won't feel the slightest bit guilty when I look back!
"Even if you become a Yuanying monster one day, I'll still be able to straighten my back and eat meat and drink with you confidently!"
Li Yao pondered for a long time. In the end, he scratched his head and smiled.
"Okay. Meng Jiang, I didn't expect that your level would improve so much after three years! "
"Of course!"
Meng Jiang grinned. His eyes were full of pride. "With a super genius like you as my best friend, I'm under a lot of pressure. Of course, I have to try my best to improve my level so that the gap between us won't be too big!
"Although my talent is average and I'm just an ordinary person, and it's impossible for me to awaken my spiritual root in this lifetime, I told you before we parted that ordinary people can also achieve great things. They might not be much worse than Cultivators!
"Maybe I can't become a Cultivator in the eyes of the world and become famous. Shock the Federation.
"But at the very least, I can become my own Cultivator. I can cultivate my own life and control my own destiny!"
Li Yao was moved.
Under the illumination of the bright red furnace, his best friend Meng Jiang's face was shining brightly. He was full of expectation for a beautiful life in the future, as well as confidence that he was willing to work hard and fight against fate to the end.
This kind of light made Li Yao very happy. He raised his wine cup again.
"Well said, Meng Jiang. We are all Cultivators in our own lives. Since we have chosen the path we want to walk, then we have to work hard and walk step by step. No matter how hard it is, no matter how difficult it is. No matter how tired you are, don't give up! "
"Cheers!"
"Cheers!"
…
Three days later, in the northwest of the Xing Yao Federation, in the boundless desert where the Heaven's Artillery was located!
The Union Army had sealed off an area of five hundred square kilometers. At least five Yuanying Stage experts were monitoring the sky and the ground.
Inside the control center, more than ten research-type Cultivators in the Core Formation Stage were working nervously with hundreds of experts and staff in the Building Foundation Stage and hundreds of Refinement Stage.
There were only five minutes left before the Heaven's Artillery was to be fired for the first time.
Li Yao had seen that the millions of runes on the big round plate that had sunk deep into the ground were glittering like a rising red sun.
Although it was a sunny day, the brilliance triggered by the spiritual waves still eclipsed the blue sky and the white clouds.
At the center of the circular crater, in the depths of the silo, a red spot was getting bigger and bigger, vaguely letting out a thunderous roar, as if a magma behemoth that had been lurking in the depths of the underground was about to roar out.
Due to the movement of the earth's crust and the changes of the spirit veins, the earth fire, which had been calm for half a year, was about to erupt with unparalleled energy!
In the control center, the Cultivators were calculating the angles and directions precisely, trying to add fuel to the eruption of the underground fire!
"Three minutes left!"
"108 crystal bombs are to be triggered at the same time!"
"Earth Fire Enhancement Array, start functioning!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
BOOM! BOOM! Slight quakes were echoing from the depths of the earth. Ripples were spreading out in the cups on the table.
Including Yuanying, every Cultivator's face was as unpredictable as the ripples, too.
The underground rocks that could block the underground fire had been blown into smithereens by the crystal bombs. The enhancement array could trigger the enormous energy contained in the underground fire instantly, too.
The firing procedure had begun. Nothing could interrupt it. The only thing they could do now was to wait.
Modern Cultivators were natural-born atheists.
They might believe that there was a certain 'deity' species that was powerful enough to destroy or modify the stars.
But they would never believe that there was an undetectable, unobservable, and unverifiable 'god' that was manipulating everything in the dark!
However, during the three minutes that were almost paused, many of the most determined atheists were murmuring and praying to the gods that did not exist, just like the ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago.
The quakes were getting more and more intense. The redness in the silo was more and more dazzling. Scorching steam was spurting out of the cracks in the hundreds of square kilometers nearby, congregating into a raging mist. The temperature was raised by more than ten degrees.
The Heaven's Artillery, as its name suggested, explained the structure of the super teleportation array. The orbit of the star shuttle spiraled downward inside the silo like a barrel.
Five star shuttles were docked at the bottom of the silo, each one a hundred meters away from the other.
Inside one of the star shuttles, the Orb Patrollers were singing aloud. The national anthem and the military song were echoing in the narrow cabin.
Inside another star shuttle, the Orb Patrollers were making crude and wild jokes to express the nervousness in their hearts.
The other two star shuttles were absolutely silent. Every Orb Patroller was listening to the roaring of the underground fire below their feet with their eyes closed.
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