Forty Millenniums of Cultivation
chapter-550

Li Yao opened his hands and showed that he meant no harm to them, before he said calmly, "It's true that I came from space, but I did not come here on purpose; I was forced to land on Iron Plateau due to an accident. I want to leave Iron Plateau as soon as possible, too. Therefore, I would like to make a deal with you.

"I need a maintenance workshop with furnaces. It doesn't matter whether the furnaces are advanced or not, as I will modify them myself.

"Other than that, I need some Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and super alloys. If you don't have alloys, common metals will do. I can purify and merge them myself.

"If you have starships that can sail across space zones, I'm hoping that I can borrow one, too.

"Stop glaring at me so much. Since this is a deal, I will not use your stuff without offering anything in return.

"Truth be told, I'm a refiner with reasonably good skills. If you can provide the resources and facilities that I need, I can help you repair and refine magical equipment in return!

"The weapons and tanks that you are using right now are still at a very low phase in regard to the utilization of spiritual energy. I can help you craft a batch of stronger, more advanced magical equipment.

"As for the category and number of the magical equipment, we can always sit down and negotiate.

"I know that you dislike visitors from space. Honestly speaking, I'm not very used to the environment of Iron Plateau, either. You want me to get my ass out of here, and I want to get my ass out of here, too. Therefore, we all share the same purpose here. Why don't we help each other and work this thing through? How does that sound?"

Li Yao mixed a stream of spiritual energy in his voice. It was not very loudly, but all the qi-trainers heard him clearly.

Whispers immediately spread among the qi-trainers.

The muscular man in the lead, whose chin was embedded with two rivets, eyed Li Yao suspiciously and asked all of a sudden, "You know how to refine magical equipment? So, you must be a Cultivator!"

Li Yao thought for a moment and nodded his head. "Yes, I am."

His reply made the qi-trainers burst into fury as if they were cats whose tails had been stomped on.

"Cultivator! A Cultivator!"

"The traitors are shameless enough to return to Iron Plateau!"

The muscular man waved his saber and shouted, "Did you cowards not run fast as if there's oil beneath your feet? Why are you bold enough to come back to Iron Plateau? We don't buy your spiel. Deal? Damn it! The Burning Sun Tribe will not make any deals with traitors!"

"Slay him! Slay the traitor!"

"We will not negotiate with traitors. Never!"

Li Yao was dumbfounded.

He knew that the relationship between qi-trainers and Cultivators was not good from Huangpu Xiaoya's story, but he had never expected that qi-trainers would hate Cultivators so much.

What did they mean by 'traitors' and 'cowards'?

The muscular man slapped the iron horse under his bottom with his saber, raising a large cluster of sparks, while he bellowed, "Let's go and capture the Cultivator, everyone! Everyone in our tribe will see clearly how evil and ugly the cowards who defected in the old days are!"

The qi-trainers all yelled and roared. Intense black smoke was popping up from the back of their tanks, mixed with vague crimson exhaust flames. The battle was about to begin at any moment.

"Who dares to make a move?"

Li Yao was angry. He bulged his eyes and yelled as his killing intent swept across everyone on the spot.

Although his combat ability was confined to the peak of the Refinement Stage, his battle awareness and killing intent were still in the high level of the Building Foundation Stage. The qi-trainers were all intimidated by his shout.

Li Yao frowned. Unless it was absolutely necessary, he was not willing to fight the qi-trainers.

After all, he would need the maintenance workshop of the qi-trainers and had to ask for their help to gather certain rarely-seen metals and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures.

It was not difficult to beat them, but it would be troublesome to make a deal with them after a huge fight.

"I am not a man who likes to play weak. It's not my style to conceal my capability, either!"

Daunting aura surrounded Li Yao, as he continued speaking. "I don't want to see meaningless blood shed on this land. I have reached the peak of the Refinement Stage. You are definitely no match for me!

"Let me repeat myself. I'm more desperate to get the hell off the planet than you!

"I have no other purpose; I merely want to make a deal with you.

"However many resources I get from you guys, I will craft magical equipment twice as valuable for you!

"If you are not open to negotiations, then let's just go our separate ways. There's no need to quarrel."

Li Yao was aware that those under the banner of the Burning Sun Alliance were not the only qi-trainers on Iron Plateau.

He had observed qi-trainers at a close distance and collected enough information for his next step. It was completely doable to find another tribe that was friendlier to foreigners.

"Peak of the Refinement Stage?"

Li Yao's proud declaration somehow awed the qi-trainers, who were all asking each other, "What is the peak of the Refinement Stage exactly?"

"How strong must he be to have reached the peak of the Refinement Stage?"

"He must be lying!"

"How can anyone advance into the peak of the Refinement Stage? How formidable must the peak of the Refinement Stage be! Such people must be powerful enough to blow up a planet or a divinity with one punch!"

Li Yao took a long breath and tried to hold back his amusement.

It appeared that he had overestimated the qi-trainers. The Cultivation level of this Burning Sun Tribe should not be very high because they had never heard of the peak of the Refinement Stage before!

The muscular man in the lead was surprised, too. A moment later, he suddenly burst into fury and waved his saber. "Nonsense! Peak of the Refinement Stage? Never heard it. Never saw it. He must be lying! Let's go and capture him!"

"What a bunch of short-sighted frogs!"

Li Yao sniffed and activated 'Soaring into Heaven in One Leap', his Soul Igniting Law, to the maximum. Spiritual gas suddenly surged out of his body. In the middle of the bright gold waves, a giant yellow falcon dashed out of his body and flew to the sky with a heaven-splitting shriek!

He had entered the peak of the Refinement Stage!

"Like I said, I don't like to keep a low profile. This is the legendary level of the peak of the Refinement Stage. If you are only willing to talk after a good fight, just bring it on!"

Soaked in bright golden flames, Li Yao warmed up his fingers.

He had seen that manners and politeness meant little to the qi-trainers who lived in the desolate land.

Maybe, he should teach them a lesson by crushing over them with overwhelming capability before he talked about negotiations.

The image of the yellow falcon gradually spread out over Li Yao's head. The unparalleled aura of the peak of the Refinement Stage rendered everyone speechless. Even the noises of the tanks seemed to have been suppressed!

Looking at the light flames dancing around Li Yao, the qi-trainers were stunned, with weird expressions on their faces.

After a moment, the muscular man stammered, "Is—is this the peak of the Refinement Stage?"

Li Yao smiled casually. "Indeed, it is. Now, can we talk nicely?"

The muscular man blinked and looked at his companions in bewilderment, as if he could not believe his eyes. A moment later—

All the qi-trainers burst into the loudest laughter.

They laughed so hard that their faces were all red, and they found it hard to sit straight. One of the qi-trainers almost fell off from his iron horse, with tears dripping off his cheeks.

Li Yao was lost. He felt that a cold wind had just blown past him.

The muscular man looked at Li Yao in the same way one would look at a retard, as he scorned, "The Refinement Stage is boundless and endless! I, Yan Chihuo, have reached the 57th level of the Refinement Stage, and I'm not sure that I've seen the peak of the Refinement Stage yet!

"You're a shrimp, only at the 14th level of the Refinement Stage, and you are boasting that you are at the peak of the Refinement Stage? This is the biggest joke of the year!

"If by peak of the Refinement Stage you meant the 14th level of the Refinement Stage, I have too many people of such a level in my team!"

"Yes. We are all at the peak of the Refinement Stage!"

Behind Yan Chihuo, the muscular man, several qi-trainers of the Burning Sun Tribe screamed. Crazy airwaves spread out instantly, showing that they had reached the peak of the Refinement Stage in such a short amount of time.

Moreover, the airwaves they triggered were much more unsteady and disobedient than what Li Yao knew to be the peak of the Refinement Stage!

"Level 19 of the Refinement Stage!"

"Level 21 of the Refinement Stage!"

The two qi-trainers laughed confidently.

Li Yao was so shocked that his jaw nearly dropped.

What—what the heck?

It was commonly known that the Refinement Stage was classified into fourteen levels, namely thirteen preliminary levels and the ultimate level, which was better known to be the peak of the Refinement Stage.

This was the common sense passed on by the ancient Cultivators. Common sense!

The reason for the classification was that Cultivators in the Refinement Stage were still new to the absorption and utilization of spiritual energy. They could only master the spiritual energy in the gaseous form, which was 'spiritual gas'.

When a Cultivator arrived at the peak of the Refinement Stage, the spiritual gas that they could make use of would reach the limit. It would be useless to absorb more spiritual gas even if they tried. If anything, the excessive spiritual gas might cause harm to their body and mind!

When the volume of spiritual gas reached its limit, the purpose of training would be shifted from absorbing more spiritual gas to the compression of the existent spiritual gas so that it could be transformed into the liquid form, or 'spiritual liquid'.

In the same volume, the damage contained inside the spiritual liquid was more than ten times higher than that contained in the spiritual gas!

A shallow example would be to compare training to the establishment of an army. The Refinement Stage Cultivators were like generals who continued transforming peasants into privates.

But the more the better did not apply to soldiers in an army. When the number of them reached the ceiling, new soldiers would not improve the combat ability of the army, but only make it more difficult for the general to command. They would consume too many supplies, not to mention that there might not be enough military camps to accommodate the unnecessary soldiers!

If faced with tough enemy, loads of untrained green hands would definitely be the greatest disaster on a battlefield!

Therefore, when the number of soldiers passed a certain threshold, the combat ability of the army could only be improved through the harshest training and competitions so that the soldiers would become seasoned warriors.

The experienced generals all knew that ten thousand untrained soldiers were definitely no match for a thousand, or even five hundred, warriors who were obedient and well-trained.

This was also the essential difference between the Refinement Stage and the Building Foundation Stage.

These qi-trainers, on the other hand, apparently had been absorbing spiritual gas without any restriction. They seemed to have stored endless spiritual gas inside their bodies and embarked on a whole different path of Cultivation.

No wonder you are called qi-trainers! Li Yao shouted loudly in his mind.

Have you never considered advancing to 'building foundation' at all and simply run down the path of collecting qi (spiritual gas) without even seeing what is around you?