Chapter 502: Critical Strike!
Chapter 502: Critical Strike!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Lightning was crackling. Scraps were flying. Every piece of the saber was like a sharp tooth, which was revolving fast and swallowing 'Edgeless' as if a ferocious animal made of electric arcs had opened its bloody mouth!
Edgeless had been improvised and refined in a hurry in the first place. Its internal structure was not stable. Breaking the first form of Blood Dragon Tooth was already the best it could do. Right now, it had tiny damages inside and out, and was unable to bear the ruthless tearing of the electric arcs and the scraps.
Blood Dragon was gloating; Edgeless was screaming before it broke apart a moment later!
That was not the end of it!
Edgeless' thousands of pieces were captured by the raging electric arcs as well and became part of Blood Dragon Tooth!
It appeared that the sword had been devoured from skin to bones!
After absorbing Edgeless' pieces, Blood Dragon Tooth quickly expanded to more than five meters long. Electric arcs were coiled around it. Scraps from the two blades gathered into an iron tide and crashed into the wall of the examination room brutally!
BOOM!
The transparent wall made of super-hard crystals and engraved with multiple defense rune arrays was added with a deep, terrifying trace by the attack. After an earsplitting sound, thousands of cracks spread across the entire wall!
This attack apparently drained Blood Dragon Tooth. One second later, the lightning and the force field both perished. Thousands of pieces fell down to the ground.
The examination room fell into darkness, as if nothing had happened. But the remaining particles of spiritual energy in the air were still glimmering like fireflies, telling of the shocking turn of events just a moment earlier.
The hearts of all the audience almost stopped beating.
They were truly stunned by the final attack.
Inside the VIP room, refiners from the Mo family fell into their seats helplessly.
Refiners from the Huangpu family, when realizing that Huangpu Xiaoya would most likely be faced with the creator of such an unparalleled deadly saber in a few days, narrowed their eyes.
The college students from the two supreme universities in the relaxation room both exclaimed in disbelief. Xie Anan even jumped to her feet excitedly.
"Master Li Yao won!"
Yes, although Li Yao's weapon collapsed only three seconds after Mo Tianshui's weapon did, the time was more than enough for a Cultivator to do many things.
In a real battle, the Cultivator who carried Blood Dragon Tooth would be able to slay their enemy ten times in the three seconds!
Besides, after taking in Edgeless' pieces, the critical strike of Blood Dragon Tooth was too formidable. Ten times was unnecessary. One attack should be enough to obliterate the enemy!
The host completely lost his calmness and started yelling. "What an unexpected outcome! Although something was wrong with Li Yao's handmade chip, he seemed to have foreseen the situation earlier and modified his saber profoundly! The winner of this match is Li Yao, whose Blood Dragon Tooth has consumed Mo Tianshui's Edgeless!"
The sunny smile was frozen on Mo Tianshui's face. There was not a replacement.
He couldn't remember a suitable expression to wear upon meeting failure at all.
His lips were still curled. But there was a plethora of emotions in his eyes—shock, shame, resent, confusion, and frustration—which made his face extremely weird.
"It—"
His lips trembling for a long time, Mo Tianshui finally regained the ability to speak. He gnashed his teeth. "It was within your expectations that your saber would shatter?"
"Correct."
Reviewing and analyzing a competition was an excellent way of communication. Li Yao didn't mind sharing his experience with Mo Tianshui, the talented genius from a noble family. He quickly sorted through his thoughts and explained it carefully to him.
"Although I tried several times in the Great Illusionary Land, this is the first time I've made a chip with my bare hands in reality.
"Iron-Knight-II control chip is too complicated for me. Therefore, what I carved was actually an 'Iron-Knight-I' that is relatively simpler.
"But even so, a manually-made chip definitely cannot compare to the chips made by magical equipment in regards of stability and resistance.
"Faced with such an expert like you, it's almost a sure thing that the competition would last five or even more rounds. When dozens of standard units of spiritual energy were poured into the blade, my manually-made chip was bound to break down.
"But it was impossible for me to abandon the control chip and switch to a whole different design in the beginning, because all the materials I chose were based on my original scheme. I was more dependent on the crucial materials than you were.
"The unexpected change of rules were much less in my favor. No matter how I changed my design, many materials I selected would be wasted.
"Therefore, I made up my mind to carve a chip that would be relatively unstable and adjusted my design by adding another gadget that I've been thinking about for a long time. It was a gamble."
"And you won it."
Mo Tianshui's eyes were crimson. The frustration of failure gradually disappeared from his face, replaced by infinite enthusiasm about magical equipment.
A refiner could lose or die, but they must know the reason of their failure!
He took a long breath and drove away the last bit of his exasperation. The sense of failure just now had been shattered by him. He then asked earnestly, "You were wagering on the second form of Blood Dragon Tooth?"
"Yes."
Li Yao nodded and said, "The Blood Dragon Tooth I refined has two forms—the regular form and the critical strike form, which was automatically triggered when the blade was sabotaged to the point of destruction.
"In the critical strike form, thousands of electric arcs are unleashed from the inside of Blood Dragon Tooth. All the scraps are restricted, and the damage of the blade is three times higher than in the normal form.
"Besides, when Blood Dragon Tooth is in the critical strike form and tears the enemy's weapon apart, it can devour the pieces of the hostile weapon and further increase its damage to over five times its original!
"But as you saw, the critical strike form can only last for three seconds at best.
"It is like the final roars of a deadly animal when it's fully burning its vitality before its death!"
Mo Tianshui closed his eyes and pondered for a while. He mumbled, "An enemy unfamiliar with the weapon would definitely be relaxed briefly when they break your saber apart.
"But they won't know that Blood Dragon Tooth is at its strongest when it is broken. By tearing their weapons, its strength can be even further improved.
"With such an unparalleled saber, you might be able to kill an enemy who is twice as strong as you with its critical strike.
"I admit my failure today. Fellow Cultivator Li's strategies are indeed incredible. You have my admiration.
"However—
"There is something that is still baffling me. What's the mechanism of the critical strike form? Could Fellow Cultivator Li explain it to me roughly, if it is not related to anything confidential?"
Li Yao smiled and said, "I can only say that the core of the electromagnetic force field is… the Twelve-chain Thunder Runes."
Mo Tianshui was dazed for a moment. He was deep in thought. A moment later, his eyes were shining as he asked, "Are you referring to the hypothesis of Fiend Star, the master of classical refining theories who has become quite popular on the Spiritual Nexus recently?"
"Yes."
Li Yao explained, "Master Fiend Star proposed that the Twelve-chain Thunder Runes could be applied to modern magical equipment, which has raised quite an intense debate on the Spiritual Nexus. I've been following the topic.
"Most people despised Master Fiend Star's idea and thought that it was totally impractical.
"Yes. From the viewpoint of today, the Twelve-chain Thunder Runes are quite primitive and obsolete in regard to their spiritual energy model.
"Such ancient runes' transformation of spiritual energy has a very low efficiency. The enhancement they provide is poor. Not to mention that they are also very unstable and can only last several seconds. It is utterly unsuitable to work as a steady, persistent attack unit of magical equipment.
"There are dozens of rune arrays of the thunder class in the modern Cultivation world that can replace the Twelve-chain Thunder Runes perfectly and deal equal damage.
"Therefore, most people thought that Master Fiend Star's theory was unrealistic.
"But they were all wrong!
"The greatest value of the Twelve-chain Thunder Runes is not entailed in its attacks.
"Despite the primitiveness and unstableness of the runes, they have a very special feature.
"When the Twelve-chain Thunder Runes are triggered, a lot of spiritual energy of the thunder class will escape because of the deficiencies of the spiritual energy model. The spiritual energy will then generate an electromagnetic force field whose form can be shaped at will!
"With a few preset telepathic thoughts, the force field can be modified into whatever shape a Cultivator desires.
"For example, I built the force field into the form of a saber!
"The electromagnetic force field in the form of a saber mixed with abundant metal scraps bursting out all the energy within several seconds. That is the critical strike form of Blood Dragon Tooth!
"And that is how the Twelve-chain Thunder Runes should be properly used."
Mo Tianshui's face color changed. "You agree with Fiend Star's theories?"
Li Yao replied in a smile, "Yes. Master Fiend Star's theories have given me a lot of inspiration. I am an admirer of Master Fiend Star and agree with all his theories. I will try my best to put his theories into practice in the future, too!"
Hearing that, everyone present began whispering again.
Many in audience were uttering meaningless 'Ah Ah' sounds to let out of their extreme shock.
Some of the audience, on the other hand, were confused. They asked their friends, "Who is Fiend Star?"
They immediately sensed contempt from nearby spectators.
Although Fiend Star's classical refining theories had been quite a hit on the Spiritual Nexus and attracted the attention of many refiners, most of the discussions had been contained to the theoretical level. Nobody thought that they could be put into practice.
However, Li Yao had applied one of Fiend Star's theories into a real battle in such a professional match and proved it to be brilliant!
Within the next minute, the queries for 'Fiend Star' on the few main search engines on the Spiritual Nexus increased by dozens of times!
It was an outcome that Li Yao had hoped to achieve.
He had put a lot of thought into it and decided to keep using the alias of 'Fiend Star, Specialist in Classical Refining Theories'.
The capability that he'd been demonstrating recently only confirmed that he was a competent practical refiner. Even if he were to join one of the three main crystal suit centers, he would most likely be engaged in the real, hands-on refining work.
He probably wouldn't be invited to the conferences themed with the cutting-edge theories.
After all, his supersonic hands that carved a chip without any aid were not papers that could be read in a pure academic meeting.
But as long as the popularity of 'Fiend Star' grew until it was acknowledged by everyone to be a master in classical refining theories, he would be able to participate in the discussions about the most advanced theories of refining.
Moreover, his methods of refining had obvious traces of the ancient techniques. It was quite possible that somebody would link him to Fiend Star.
It was a better idea to disguise it first before anybody found out the truth. Hearing his declaration, people would think of him as a worshipper of Fiend Star. Then there would be nothing odd about his methods of refining being mixed with ancient techniques.
Skyhill Sword Seminar was the best opportunity to increase the popularity of 'Fiend Star'. Was there any time better than right now to brag about himself?
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