Chapter 71: The Transformation of the Fiend Star Yao!
Strivon / Ash Editor: Geoffrey / Lancent
Two weeks later in Floating Spear City’s First Hospital.
Li Yao slept deeply like a baby in a medical treatment pod, except the eyeballs beneath his eyelids shook like crazy as before, showing that he was still continuing to cultivate in the Dream of Grandeur.
Xie Tingxian looked at Li Yao with a face of complete loss. In the end, he faced the doctor to confirm. “Doctor Gu, has there still been no signs of Student Li Yao turning around for the better?”
The doctor shook his head. “Professor Xie, you’re quite considerate. However, this type of heavy damage to the neural field where the spirit root has been torn is different from an ordinary illness. The passing of time won’t necessarily cause things to turn for the better! Look. This is the report of his most recent days. His brain waves are undulating in a bizarre motion. His Actualization Quotient has been fluctuating sharply. The highest it reaches is 17% and then 10 minutes later it falls to 4%. This shows that his neural field is becoming more and more unstable. Or in other words, his mind is in the middle of launching a more and more fierce storm. Even if a patient like this awakens, do you feel he will still be a genius that’s needed by your school?”
Xie Tingxian hesitated for a long time. He let out a long long, long long breath. He walked to the corner and turned on his micro crystal processor to contact Deep Sea University.
An utterly short and petite old woman, who wore an utterly old and strange gold threaded robe, appeared on the hologram. She seemed to be blind; her eyes in her deep sockets flashed with a purple flame. From time to time, the flames escaped the eyes, shooting out a terrifying radiance.
Xie Tingxian’s expression turned extremely respectful in front of this old woman. He spoke with great difficulty, “Dean Chu, is it possible to give me a week’s more time?”
“What do you say?”
Within the hologram, the blind old woman spoke dryly. Her throat seemed to have been slashed by a blade; it was incomparably hoarse and ear-piercing. “I admit that this kid you’ve taken a liking to is a genius, but now he has become like this. There’s no need for you to waste further time? We of Deep Sea University are the Federation’s strongest. Our university possesses the greatest of inner resources. Who knows how many young geniuses there are every year who sharpen their minds to want to enter our school. What’s the worst that could happen if we miss one genius? You have quite a few projects still within the school. They’re waiting for your direction upon your return. One of them is a major military collaboration project, pertaining to the newest Individual assault artifact… If all the Federation’s soldiers can use an artifact designed by our university… You should know how much that’s worth.”
“I understand. I’ll return today.”
Xie Tingxian’s eyebrows frowned into a knot. He closed his crystal processor and hesitated for a long time before he finally made a resolution. He faced towards the doctor and said, “Doctor Gu, if Student Li Yao wakes up, make sure the first thing he does is contact me. This is my e-crane number. Many thanks.”
After finishing his words, the refining expert of Deep Sea University, Xie Tingxian, also walked out of the ward.
This time, he didn’t look back.
……
A third week passed.
Ding Lingdang let out a great, bored-to-death yawn. The yawn even caused tears to flow down. She glared like a tiger at the doctor by her side.
Cold sweat seeped from the forehead of Doctor Gu. He spoke stammeringly, “T-t-t-terribly sorry, Miss Ding. Although you’ve accompanied the patient in the hospital for three weeks, although everyone else has already walked off leaving only you here night after night, I can’t agree to your proposed treatment.”
“Why?”
Ding Lingdang crossed her fingers, cracking them to create pops. “Anyway, your conservative treatment methods are damn near useless. You might as well let me rip open this medical treatment pod, drag this kid out of there, and let me beat him up for a change. Who knows? He might be hit wide awake. This is precisely what’s called giving medicine to a dead horse!”
“Nope. No can do. Really it’s impossible. You better not mess around! Someone help!”
……
A fourth week passed.
In the depths of his neural field, Li Yao continued to cultivate madly around the clock. He engulfed Ou Yezi’s memories with incomparable savageness.
Having experienced thousands upon thousands of repetitions, he had already decomposed, swallowed, digested, and assimilated all of Ou Yezi’s memories of when he had sunk to being a low level worker in the Hundred Smelting Guild.
Most noteworthy was the One-Hundred-And-Eight-Hands Chaos-Gale Hammer Technique. He trained again and again, bringing it to perfection, to a point more skillful than the Titan.
Li Yao even changed the direction of Ou Yezi’s memories several times. In the spars against the Titan, he ferociously pounded the Titan to the ground, beating forth a blood nose and face, letting out some anger.
Fortunately, every memory shard was independent from each other. When one memory shard was changed, it wouldn't affect the direction of the next memory shard.
After swallowing the entirety of the memories of being a low level worker, Li Yao was still not satisfied. He continued engulfing Ou Yezi’s memories of when Ou Yezi was a forge worker.
But with the passing of time, his soul grew weaker and weaker. He was completely thin and withered. He had a feeling he could disappear at any time.
“Not good. I’ve been immersed in the depths of my neural field for this long. I don’t know how many days had past in the real world. Can a week have already passed?”
Li Yao’s soul violently trembled with this fear. It was as if a strange fish on the deep sea floor was rushing dimly towards a bright light, suddenly emerging to the surface.
Finally, on the early morning on the thirty-third day, Li Yao faintly opened his eyes on the hospital bed.
He woke up!
The first thing that entered his vision was the yellow paper talisman stuck to his forehead. Li Yao pouted his mouth and blew, lifting the paper talisman up.
He discovered that his body was contained in an enormous glass cover. On the inner chamber of the glass were over a thousand glyph scripts engraved and packed. The creamy white crystals surrounding him drove the glyphs, causing a faint resonance.
A ripple permeated through the void that caused one to feel utter comfort.
The faint scent of disinfectant medicine permeated through the air. He faced towards the windows and discovered that it was the greatest darkness right before the approaching dawn. A few stars were vaguely flickering in the darkness.
Li Yao didn’t know how long he had been lying down. His body was completely empty and lacked strength.
However, his brain was filled with a complete abundance of energy. His soul had solidified to have true substance. It was a type of indestructible feeling.
It was like…
A giant door had been forcefully pushed open. His neural field expanded to a limitless state. A new world had been born in the depths of Li Yao’s neural field. With every pulse, his mind was filled with an incomparably tyrannical strength!
This time, Li Yao’s five senses changed to become utterly sharp. His computational abilities rose to the utmost limits. He could recall trifling past events of memories from a dozen or so years ago. He could calculate out an utterly complicate math sequence problem. And, he could easily hear two nurses whispering outside the ward in the hallway.
“Hey did you know? The fellow who’s sleeping inside is that famous Fiend Star Yao!?”
“You’re saying that misfortunate Li Yao then. I know him. But why does everyone call him Fiend Star Yao?”
“Rumor has it that he was originally the rising star of Floating Spear City who had everyone’s attention. The Nine Elite Universities were scrambling over him. Everyone took him to be the second Fiend Blade Peng Hai. But due to an accident, his spirit root tore and he entered into a coma. His Actualization Quotient fell to the bottom — all that’s left is 7%. He’s practically become crippled. All of a sudden, the university who had all wanted to specially enroll him all retreated. He came from being a rising star to becoming a fleeting meteor. Mhm. An especially jinxed meteor. So they all call him the Fiend Star!”
“So that’s how it is. Now that I know all this, I think he’s quite pitiful. I’ve heard he’s the same as Peng Hai. They both were poor kids who came from the slums. You see. A destitute kid who was able to soar to great heights with a single step, like a fish becoming a dragon, who was looked by the Nine Elite Universities with favor, who looked to be destined to walk the road of cultivators and burst into the upper-class circle… Yet at the most critical point, he was beaten by an accident to his original state! If I were him, I would prefer to keep sleeping and never wake up. If I wake up and discover that I’ve fallen this far, I’ll absolutely commit suicide!”
“Who says that won’t happen. His Actualization Quotient fell to 7%. It’s impossible for him to cultivate… Even I have an Actualization Quotient of 21%!”
The two nurses laughed together.
Li Yao lay motionless on the bed. He listened silently, his eyes filled with doubt and ridicule.
“My Actualization Quotient fell to 7%!? What jokers! I feel that right now I’m great to the point of simply exploding!”
He looked around. There was actually a small balcony connected to this room.
Li Yao pulled off the tubes connected to his body and pushed open the glass cover. He quietly got off the bed and quietly tiptoed to the balcony, closing the door behind him.
Floating Spear City was like a sleeping beast that lay calmly within the darkness.
Occasionally, anti-gravity shuttles would streak through the night sky. Their thrusters created streaks of rainbows and were swallowed by the darkness in the blink of an eye.
The spirit root was the origin for every cultivator. It was closely bound with one’s five senses and thinking ability. Everyone would approximately fill out their own Actualization Quotient and figure out what level they were at.
“My five senses are much sharper than before. My mind has become clearer. I can even easily remember matters from the past. Even if I don’t feel a sprouting sensation on my forehead, my neural field has changed to be much more vast!”
“If my original neural field could be said to be the size of a small pond, my present mind is like a vast giant ocean that stretches as far as the eye can see. My spirit root is stronger than the past by over two-fold! My Actualization Quotient must have increased by at least 17~18 percent. How could it have fallen instead of rising? To the point of 7%?”
Li Yao laughed involuntarily.
A sudden drop in one’s Actualization Quotient would bring about an extremely intense reaction for sure! For example, their heads would hurt to the point of splitting, their thinking would become blurred, their memory faculties would decline, their five senses would drop, and they might even become a retard!
When compared to his crisp and clear mind of the present, in a state of boundless energy, it was completely different!
Li Yao’s first thought was that the hospital’s sensor machine made a bad measurement. But the probability of this happening is small.
Thinking about it, the greatest possibility was that he had used up too much of his mental energy when he was consuming Ou Yezi’s memories. This lead to his Actualization Quotient to drop temporarily.
But it was also because he swallowed Ou Yezi’s memories that he was able to break open his neural field. From today on, cultivation would absolutely be a flat ground where he could gallop straight across, covering a thousand miles in a single day.
Li Yao’s mouth hooked into a smile as he thought back to Ou Yezi’s memories.
His two legs split. A fist pounded forth randomly, and he actually heard three “Bang Bang Bang” explosions. Three air-tearing ripples had appeared on the tip of the fist in front of him.
“I actually succeeded in learning this Heart-Piercer Hammer move!”
“I don’t know how many days I lay in bed for. My body consumed enormous resources; I’m as thin as a skeleton! My body lacks strength!”
“I was able to strike out with three air-tearing ripples with a single punch even under this state. If I properly recover for several days and eat several hundred cans of the Giant Creatures of Starry Skies meat, my body will recover back to its peak state. It’s possible that I might even strike out with ten air-tearing ripples!”
As he looked at the morning star to the horizon, Li Yao’s heart was moving with great undulations. He simply wanted to howl loudly without a single care, to vent his heart’s feelings of pleasure as much as he wanted.
This awakening of deep sleep was completely different from last time with the Dream of Grandeur.
The experiences of the Dream of Grandeur was spotty and blurred, flickering and passing. The memories seemed to have vanished in the blink of an eye and were completely forgotten.
This time, he remembered every detail in the dream!
Ou Yezi’s memories were completed transferred and transformed into his own memories!
Li Yao’s eyes were bright and lively. The bones of his body crackled with explosive ringing. He stood on this small balcony using his fist as a hammer. He fully displayed the One-Hundred-And-Eight-Hands Chaos-Gale Hammer Technique, feeling it to be only flowing and natural. He went through the moves from top to bottom, linking them smoothly. The small balcony become shrouded by the tip of his fists. Circle ripples permeated through the air, causing his body to appear strangely twisted.
“A fleeting Fiend Star? Not bad, not bad. This nickname Fiend Star has quite the nice ring to it. It’s more suitable than the Vulture for the big stage!”
“There will be a day when the name Fiend Star will shake the Federation and spread through the whole Heaven’s Origin Sector!”
Right as Li Yao stretched his muscles to their limits, a shriek suddenly pierced from behind his back.
It was a nurse who had opened the door to come in and was faced with Li Yao standing on the balcony. Who knows what he was up to. Her fright caused even the tray she had held in her hands to fall to the ground.