A month later, at the edge of the dark and cold wasteland, a piece of glittering ancient magical equipment was spinning and drifting.
Sparkle snuck close from the rear without a sound. Two long ropes made of the flesh of Skeleton Dragon extended from the two sides of the head of the warship, which were almost transparent. Two metal claws extended from the front and snatched at the ancient magical equipment pieces quickly.
Several intact rune arrays had been carved on the scraps of the ancient magical equipment, which contained feeble spiritual energy. Sensing the threat, they immediately condensed two bright gold shields.
Blue and purple electric arcs popped up on the two metal claws, which tore apart the defense of the ancient magical equipment piece and pinched it tightly, before the two claws retrieved the piece back to Sparkle.
"Another ancient magical equipment piece, serial number 14734, has been retrieved. According to preliminary analysis, it is a fragment from an ancient shield. We have collected 79% of the fragments from the same piece of magical equipment. If we combine them into a defense system, the defense ability of Sparkle will be improved by 3.2%!"
Sparkle right now was completely different from one month ago.
Almost all the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and demonic energy that Skeleton Dragon had dropped had been collected by them. They had made a fortune out of a sudden.
The shell of the starship that was too damaged to be repaired was stripped off and reforged into raw materials.
What replaced them were the silver bones, the ancient magical equipment pieces, and the flesh of Skeleton Dragon.
Because of the lack of time, all the maintenance work had been done on the basis of simplicity and practicality, without the slightest consideration of aesthetics and grandeur. The bones and the scraps of magical equipment were piled up in a mess, making Sparkle look more like a starship debris riddled with holes than a pile of garbage that had been floating in the sea of stars for thousands of years.
However, inside the starship, the mainframe crystal processor, the performance parameters had been significantly improved.
Strengthened by the silver bones and the flesh and blood tissues, the overall hardness of many parts of the starship had increased. It was even much better than Sparkle in the past!
Inside the maintenance workshop at the rear of the starship …
"With the seven runes that we have just analyzed and the remaining Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, I will definitely be able to build eight power rune arrays in the most classic Eight Diagrams layout to increase the instantaneous acceleration of Sparkle. It will be improved to 80% or even higher!
"In such a way, I will be able to carry out the full power of the drill of mystic rays. No matter how strong the enemy is, I will be able to pierce through their heart with a 'helical stab'!"
Li Yao's face turned red. He spread his fingers and slammed the table.
"What's the use of instant acceleration? The Eight Diagrams layout was indeed a classic, but the power rune arrays in such a layout could only unleash their greatest power when they pushed forward in a straight line! In case we're in a new world. Walking in a straight line when encountering an extremely powerful enemy? It's as if he's being used as a target! "
"If you ask me, we should make careful calculations and craft twelve power rune arrays with slightly weaker impetus in the layout of twelve interconnected stars!"
"Although this kind of layout doesn't have a strong instantaneous acceleration ability, and the driving force isn't high, it wins in the profoundness of the positioning. It was best suited for dodging in a small area. It can greatly increase our chances of surviving the attacks of unknown enemies! "
Shi Tengfei, the specialist of power rune arrays, also transformed two tiny arms and waved them hard in midair. To express that he was blushing too, a layer of redness appeared on the surface of the liquid metal.
Li Yao smiled casually.
"Of course, the ordinary Eight Diagrams layout has the inconvenience of turning and is only good at accelerating in a straight line."
"However, I've analyzed more than 95 kinds of wind riding rune arrays from the ancient Cultivation era. Inspired by the control rune arrays of 15 kinds of ancient flying swords, I've come up with seven strengthening plans that have comprehensively improved the traditional Eight Diagrams layout. While retaining the powerful linear acceleration ability, the flexibility of turning and dodging has been greatly improved. It's absolutely no worse than the Twelve Interconnected Stars layout! "
Shi Tengfei also sneered.
"What a coincidence! I've also made a lot of improvements to the Twelve Interconnected Stars layout. I've integrated the essence of nine classic power rune arrays, including the Seven Stars Asymmetrical Layout and the Tornado Layout! "
"The Twelve Interconnected Stars layout that I've perfected not only boasts extraordinary dodging and maneuverability, but also does not pale in comparison to the Eight Diagrams layout in terms of instantaneous acceleration!"
Li Yao was suspicious.
"Are you kidding me? Take out your layout and let me take a look! "
Shi Tengfei smiled confidently.
"Of course, I'd like to see how much you can improve the old-fashioned Eight Diagrams layout, too!"
Hundreds of light beams were floating around the two of them. At this moment, they were all glittering and displaying countless complicated structural designs.
Li Yao puffed up his cheeks and widened his eyes as he studied them attentively.
Shi Tengfei was silent, too. His liquid metal body was shivering hard as he analyzed Li Yao's layout.
A moment later, both of them were so shocked that they couldn't speak for a long time.
It was just a common scene that happened every day in the past month.
Professor Mo Xuan, Shi Tengfei, and the other 'Four Kings' of the Refining Department represented the highest level of grassroots refining theories in the first place.
A few years after they became Phantom Entities, they maintained their life form with their computational ability without any distractions.
At the last moment, they even received the inheritance of the computational ability of other Phantom Entities.
It was no exaggeration to say that they were absolutely the representatives of the super level of refining in the Tian Yuan Realm.
Faced with Li Yao, a monster who was adept at ancient refining arts, brilliant sparks immediately burst out of the two parties' collisions.
Every day, they would have a lot of arguments, which were like two roaring meteor showers crashing into each other.
Li Yao was always dumbfounded by their marvelous modern refining arts.
In the meantime, they were so shocked by Li Yao's crazy ideas that their computational ability was completely frozen.
It was like six top experts were training each other every day. They would all receive a lot of inspiration from each other, which was hundreds of times more efficient than when they were training alone.
It was in the midst of the sparks that Sparkle was repaired at an unbelievable speed and turned into a monster-level starship that was a mixture of demon beast bones, flesh of deadly demons, and scraps of ancient magical equipment. Its appearance was hideous, but its performance was unparalleled!
While Li Yao was scratching his head, Professor Mo Xuan's excited voice came over from the loudspeaker rune array on the top left corner of the cabin.
"Li Yao, I've made a new discovery. Come to the bridge now! "
On the bridge, Professor Mo Xuan's body was glittering rapidly. He couldn't have been more excited.
Over the past few days, the maintenance and modification of the shell of the starship had almost been completed. Professor Mo Xuan was mainly repairing the mainframe crystal processor.
"I found a burnt chip deep inside the mainframe crystal processor that was smashed by a meteorite. The chip that was smashed into pieces by the meteor took three days and three nights to repair and reverse-analyze it from the mustard-seed level. Finally, some pieces of information were parsed, including the coordinates of a star beacon!
Professor Mo Xuan's words raised a storm in Li Yao's heart.
The coordinates of a star beacon equaled to the location of a teleportation array. As long as they entered the coordinates into the space jump system, it was very likely that they would jump to the vicinity of the star beacon!
Now that someone had established a star beacon, it was very likely that a world of Cultivators was near the star beacon!
Professor Mo Xuan continued.
"I compared the coordinates of the star beacon with the other pieces of information that I collected from the mainframe crystal processor. The conclusion is that the location of the star beacon is near the coordinates. It is very likely to be an interstellar dock from the Star Ocean Imperium.
"According to Senior Gao Xingce's diary, the last time they stopped by, Sparkle was heavily modified. Even the main gun of Sparkle was modified into a drill of mystic rays.
"Therefore, it is very likely that the interstellar dock was a large fleet base with a lot of maintenance and refining facilities that could be used to maintain and modify starships such as Sparkle.
"Go ahead. What will happen if we find such a base? "
Li Yao was greatly tempted. He thought for a moment and shook his head. "According to Senior Gao Xingce's diary, after they arrived at Boneyard, they lost contact with the base. It is very likely that the 'Armageddon Rebellion' had already broken out and destroyed the base. "
"It doesn't matter."
Professor Mo Xuan said, "Such a base that boasted high maintenance and modification abilities must have been established in a place with abundant spiritual energy and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. Even if the base was destroyed, the Sector where the star beacon was located must be very prosperous. At the very least, it is unlikely to be a wasteland. If we jump there, we should be able to get abundant spiritual energy and materials!"
Li Yao thought for a moment and realized that Professor Mo Xuan did have a point.
On second thought, if they could find a logistics base from the Star Ocean Imperium, it would be a great fortune!
…
Ten days later …
"Chi …"
The door of the training room was opened. Frigid air rushed in.
Inside the room, the gravity was twenty times the standard and the temperature was minus 150 degrees.
Li Yao strode out of the room, naked except for a pair of training shorts. There was not the slightest frost on his skin. It was red, glossy, and bouncy.
"My strength has been fully recovered!"
Clenching his fists, Li Yao sensed the tremendous strength flowing in his flesh and blood. He smiled.
The aftereffects of the battle against Skeleton Dragon were all gone.
After the spiritual seed was activated, his limbs, bones, and veins had all been reborn. He had also experienced the dominating view of the Yuanying experts.
The Flowing Brightness Crystals that he had swallowed hadn't been fully absorbed yet. Some of the residues that contained immense spiritual energy had settled in his flesh and blood, which would be a great help for his future training.
Although he was still in the middle level of the Building Foundation Stage, Li Yao was very confident about his future path of training.
It was because he had seen the road ahead clearly and was no longer running around like a headless fly.
"Let's go!"
Taking a deep breath, Li Yao strode to the cockpit in high spirits.
On the cockpit, the preparations for the space jump had been completed. The five spectral Cultivators were all controlling the liquid metal and melting it into the critical units of Sparkle, monitoring the functioning of all the magical equipment.
On the operation menu, the coordinates of the star beacons had been entered.
There was one more thing that was of paramount importance.
Sitting in the captain's chair, Li Yao tapped on the operation menu softly.
On the shell of Sparkle that was as bright as new, a symbol as red as blood, jumping like fire, and shining like a star replaced the Red Dragon Swallowing the Sun emblem of the Star Ocean Imperium. It slowly appeared and became clearer and brighter.
A gigantic dragon that was baring its fangs and brandishing its claws was coiled around a gigantic bead. Within the bead, there were nine shining stars.
It was the national flag of the Xing Yao Federation and the emblem of the Cultivators of the Heaven's Origin Sector, the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars!
Li Yao stared at the starry sky that was as dark as night. He smiled. He put his hand on a sliding rune on the light beam and pushed it forward heavily!
"Sparkle, move forward!"
The first chapter had come to an end. Starting tomorrow, he would explore a more magnificent world!
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