Forty Millenniums of Cultivation
chapter-573

As the egg of apocalypse ripened, the gargantuan meteorite mountain began to emit large clusters of air currents in various colors that interweaved with each other and grew toward the sky helically. They swallowed one cloud after another and eventually formed a swirl of seven-colored smoke in the sky.

The residents of Iron Plateau called such a phenomenon an 'apocalypse cloud'.

The appearance of an apocalypse cloud suggested that the egg of apocalypse would break out in several days.

The egg of apocalypse that was about to mature was on the northwest side of the Furious Bears Tribe. When it was sunny during the day, one could see that a small apocalypse cloud in the northwest sky, surrounded by colorful radiance but with immeasurable darkness in the center, was staring at the ground like a weird, unblinking eye.

One month earlier, Furious Bears City had been seething with enthusiasm like a giant steel refining factory.

But as the apocalypse drew near, the entire city calmed down. Like a warrior who was whetting his saber in the darkness, all the anxiety, excitement, dread, worry, and hope were turned into the monotonous noise of the honing of their blades against the grindstone.

In the weapon factory, the refiners and workers who had been working hard for months were lying everywhere, snoring.

They had finally finished forging a batch of brand new magical equipment before the egg of apocalypse ripened.

The latest sonic sword model's distribution of tubes for the internal circulation and venting of spiritual gas had been redesigned. When the spiritual gas surged out, it would add slight vibration at a high frequency to the edge of the sword so that the damage of the blade could be improved.

Almost twenty ancillary spurts were added to two sides of the main spurt, which was emitting spiritual gas along the two sides of the sword. The middle of the sword would receive a counterforce that would make it essentially an invisible rail. Therefore, the strike of the sword would be more accurate and stable.

The latest Wolf Fang model had seven brand-new attack rune arrays on the interior side. Not only did they reduce the cost of crystals, they had also increased the firepower of the grenades. The latest Wolf Fangs also boasted a unique delayed detonation system that could be controlled with telepathic thoughts. As long as one thought about it, more than ten Wolf Fangs could be detonated simultaneously.

The elites of the Fierce Storm Assault Team and the Iron Bears Detonation Team absolutely loved the new weapons. They'd been dwelling in the test fields affiliated to the weapon factory to familiarize themselves with the new magical equipment.

Today, the last test was going to be held.

Tomorrow, the warriors of the Furious Bears Tribe would march into the desert and challenge the apocalypse!

In the test field, almost all the members of the Fierce Storm Assault Team and the Iron Bears Detonation Team had gathered.

There were almost a hundred soldiers on both sides. They were all experts above the 40th level of the Refinement Stage. Although they were insignificant in number, the solemn and daunting aura emanated from them almost tore the entire test field in half, as if they were two armies.

The two parties confronted each other silently. But the last competitive test was postponed for a long time. It was not until people were whispering to each other that Xiong Wuji appeared on one side of the test field.

"Warriors of the Furious Bears Tribe!"

Xiong Wuji's voice was not high, but his every word swept into everybody's ears like a hurricane. "Tomorrow, we will be setting off to challenge the apocalypse. Today, we are running our last competitive test.

"The purpose of the competitive test is, on one hand, to let you understand the magical equipment in your hands better, and, on the other hand, to let you know your comrades and brothers who will be fighting side by side with you better!

"Fierce Storm can only entrust the ground to Iron Bears, and Iron Bears can only entrust the sky to Fierce Storm, after you learn each other's formidability in the competitive tests!

"Also, a new warrior will be joining the competitive test today. The competition of two sides will become one of three sides! The rules are the same. Each of the three sides has a home camp. As long as you bring the flag in the center of the test field to your home camp, your side will be deemed the winner!

"Due to the limitation of time, the warrior had no time to practice with everyone else in the desert, and therefore, is not familiar with the battle formations. Therefore, he is not going to be listed in the main troop but will be asked to perform free hunting as a lone wolf in the battlefield.

"But still, I think that it is necessary for you to meet the warrior. After the competitive test today, you will know whether or not you should be worried if he is standing next to you!"

Xiong Wuji's words raised a riot.

In the battle of apocalypse, most warriors would join battle formations and fight as a team.

But there were always some experts who wandered out of the battle formations and to hunt individually.

Sometimes, it was because their capability was too high, and they could not achieve their maximum damage in battle formations; sometimes, it was because of their special technique, say, full-range indiscriminate area attack, which would hurt their teammates if they were in the battle formations.

Although they were free to choose their targets, their goal was almost always the strongest beast in the apocalypse. The experts who were hunting individually would always lunge at wherever it was the most dangerous!

Only the strongest, the most experienced, and the most determined warriors in the tribe were qualified to conduct free hunting.

However, the elites of the two teams had seen all the seasoned warriors of the Furious Bears Tribe and cooperated with them neatly multiple times. Wasn't it redundant to arrange a competitive test to let them get to know each other?

Just when everyone was baffled, a figure not very tall gradually appeared from the darkness.

"It is him!"

In the Iron Bears Detonation Team, Wei Changsheng gasped, his right-hand tremoring slightly beyond his control.

"It is him?"

Xiong Zhenzhen, leader of the Fierce Storm Assault Team, was somewhat confused. She glanced at Xiong Wuji in discontent, frowning.

"You may call him Sand Scorpion."

Xiong Wuji said, "Chances are that you do not know him well at present, but believe me, by the end of the competitive test, he will have left a very deep impression on all of you!"

Four hundred sharp eyes were staring at 'Sand Scorpion' as if they were shooting arrows, only to be entirely blocked by the weirdly-shaped armor on him.

It was bright grey armor with the jet armor of the Fierce Storm Assault Team as the prototype. However, it had undergone unrecognizable and even insane modifications.

The layered plates of the armor were round with barely any sharp thorns. They had copied a lot of the attributes of insects and arthropods in the principle of bionics. At first look, it seemed to be a large scorpion that had stood straight like a human. But folded wings on the back of the armor made of tens of thousands of thin, translucent, interconnecting metal foils made it look like an enormous dragonfly.

Behind the back of the armor, more than twenty True Qi containers were densely placed. Their size was smaller than that of commonly-seen True Qi containers, but there were clusters of glamorous spiritual stripes on them. A two-handed sword more than 2.5 meters long was hanging at the waist of the armor. The body of the sword was riddled with messy spurts, yet they brought a weird feeling of beauty.

It was possible to imagine that, when the messy spurts ejected spiritual gas at the same time, the trajectory of the sword would definitely become mysterious and unpredictable.

Chi… Chi… Chi…

While he walked toward everyone slowly, white steam was dispersing from the joints of his armor, as if the armor was a living dragon that was breathing nonstop.

Occasionally, through a gap in the steam, one could see a pair of unattractive eyes. But if one were to stare at him for more than three seconds, one would be able to discover hunger and thirst in his eyes, like two vipers that had just finished their hibernation and seemed to be ready to go on a killing spree.

Xiong Wuji patted Li Yao's shoulder and asked, "Are you ready?"

Li Yao squinted and nodded his head. The two vipers deep down his pupils were immediately gone.

Since he finished the basic training five days ago, he had been dedicated to the modification of the armor.

For a magical equipment maniac, fighting a battle without armor was as uncomfortable as going shopping naked.

Based on the jet armor of the Fierce Storm Assault Team, with consideration of the characteristics of the iron shield armor, and following certain designing principles of crystal suits, he had created a brand-new set of armor of his own.

The standard jet armor had more than thirty spurts so that the qi-trainers could alter their directions in the midair swiftly.

However, on the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, there were more than fifty main power rune arrays and more than a hundred ancillary power rune arrays.

As a seasoned Exo, Li Yao was much more adept at direction alternation in the air than the qi-trainers.

Therefore, he had installed 61 spurts on the armor that he modified. Together with the sliding wing he had designed, he was totally able to perform unbelievable turns and sprints in the air!

Li Yao was very satisfied with the armor, which had exploited every possibility of the utilization and enhancement of spiritual gas.

Also, a lot of amazing inspiration had popped up in Li Yao's head while he was crafting the armor. He had accumulated valuable experience for his own crystal suit in the future.

He had named the jet armor 'Sky Scorpion'.

Today was also the first field test for the Sky Scorpion Armor.

Xiong Wuji glanced at everyone and said, "The structural design of this Sky Scorpion Armor was also found by me in the exploration of the underground relic a month ago. However, since many components of the armor have to be manually made carefully, the speed of production of such armors is not high. Today, only one set of such armor has been successfully forged. We cannot equip everyone with the armor as of now.

"Besides, it required some special skills to wear the Sky Scorpion Armor. Therefore, they are not available for everyone!"

Xiong Wuji's words infuriated everyone on the spot.

What does he mean by saying that it requires some special skills to wear the Sky Scorpion Armor? Is he insinuating that we are all not capable enough?

They all glared at Li Yao.

In the Fierce Wind Assault Team, the members who had seen Li Yao falling to the ground in fear of a Wolf Fang in person showed despise, too.

On the Iron Bears Detonation Team's side, Wei Changsheng secretly went to his captain Shi Meng and said, "Captain, he is the one I talked about!"

Shi Meng had already put on the entire iron shield armor. He was like a moving war fortress. His eyes were glittering in the gaps of the facial cover and locked onto Li Yao like two cannons extending out of battlements.

CRACK! CRACK!

Shi Meng's bones emitted crisp sounds, which were clearly audible despite his thick armor, as he warmed up his body. He rubbed his hands and smirked. "Very good. I've been meaning to meet the monster who can endure fifty times the standard pressure since the day you mentioned him. However, I haven't been able to see him even though I went there every day over the past few days!

"Let me see how venomous this Sand Scorpion is!"

Five minutes later, the competitive test hosted by Xiong Wuji in person commenced after an earsplitting roar!

"The test now begins!"