Chapter 109: Taiyi Lightning Railgun!
Translator: Ash Editor: Geoffrey
The Taiyi Lightning Railgun was a very advanced, large-scale military magical equipment. Only 15 years ago was it officially approved to be used by the troops. Li Yao had only seen its common architectural diagrams in a magical equipment magazine, and as for the detailed architectural diagram, it was a military secret, thus it was impossible for civilians to access it.
Even if he got to see the architectural diagram, with his current level, he would simply not be able to understand it.
Li Yao carefully looked at the Taiyi Lightning Railgun.
Sure enough, this magical equipment was colossal; just its wreckage alone had occupied half of the coach. Peering through the damaged exterior, he could see the intricate spirit threads intertwined together to create obtuse and complex 3-dimensional array glyphs inside. Many of the array glyphs were not only stacked together above and below each other, but they were also separated left and right, forming incredibly ingenious arrays of spirit glyphs one after another.
The spiritual energy of various attributes intertwined together and twisted into vortexes of spiritual energy one by one, tearing the air apart as round after round of ripples undulated while making a slight "buzz buzz" noise.
Watching this, Li Yao felt his scalp tingling. There was no way he could repair such a sophisticated magical equipment.
He was just about to shake his head subconsciously.
Ding Yin, noticing his hesitation, shouted:
"You neither need to understand the spiritual energy operating principles of Taiyi Lightning Railgun, nor do you need to repair its core structure. As long as you, in accordance with the architectural diagram that I am going to give you, combine the spare parts and install them at the right location, then it will all be fine. These are all the auxiliary devices of the magical equipment, and their structure is not particularly complicated. It’s just that they are large in quantity. It can only be possible to finish installing them in a short amount of time if one has lightning-like hand speed!"
Raising his hand as over a hundred complex and intricate magical equipment architectural diagrams were projected by the mini-crystal processor, Ding Yin looked straight into Li Yao’s eyes.
Ding Yin roared, "The life of everyone on the train is in our hands! If we can fix the Taiyi Lightning Railgun in time, we will still have a chance. Otherwise, everyone will be engulfed by the beast tide—not even a tiny bit of dregs will remain!"
"Will be swallowed by the beast tide!?"
Li Yao felt his blood turn cold. He swept a glance at the tide of ghost jellyfishes that were endlessly pouring in from the dark clouds in a steady stream. Sparks burst forth in his eyes as he tightly clenched his teeth and studied the Taiyi Lightning Railgun's architectural diagram with all his concentration.
"I will personally handle the core battle components. You are responsible for the auxiliary components as described in diagrams No. 51 to 72. I will give you ten minutes, is that enough?" While wiping off the rain, Ding Yin asked with clenched teeth.
Li Yao's eyelids slightly twitched. His eyes sparkled as they burst forth with star-like brilliance! In the blink of an eye, each of the 21 diagrams was engraved in his brain!
Li Yao closed his eyes and calculated silently. Then, his eyes started rotating at a high speed, and his computational power soared to the extreme. In the depths of his brain, the components depicted in the diagrams, one by one, transformed into translucent images shining in golden light as they collided and quickly combined together.
After seven seconds, Li Yao fiercely opened his eyes. A gleam of strong confidence burst forth from the depths of his eyes.
"There is no need for 10 minutes—I will be done in 8 minutes 53 seconds!"
In the torrential rainstorm! Under the invasion of a beast tide!
Li Yao and Ding Yin launched a magnificent display of magical equipment maintenance.
As one would expect of Ding Yin, the energy flames of a great cultivator were ignited to the extreme in the blink of an eye, revealing the absolute strength of a Master Refiner. Over a hundred invisible and formless spiritual energy tentacles spread out from all the limbs and bones of his body, simultaneously grabbing hundreds of magical components before quickly assembling them together.
In the eyes of an ordinary person, it was as if Ding Yin had suddenly given life to the magical components. The crushed components, one by one, madly started dancing before they fused into one body.
And in the opinion of cultivators whose level was the same as Ding Yin’s, like the red-eyed officer, Ding Yin was more like a mass of burning flames, and each spiritual energy tentacle was akin to a flickering flame.
He was burning his spiritual energy reserves in madness without any regards to the depletion of his spiritual energy.
Although Li Yao didn't have any spiritual energy tentacles, his pair of hands, in the blink of an eye, transformed into tens of phantom shadows. This time, his speed was a notch higher compared to just a moment ago. Even the raging winds and torrential rain were unable to charge into the gray shadows that had been formed by his pair of hands. His entire body was completely enveloped by the gray shadows, making one unable to clearly see his visage.
And in his surroundings appeared a wet ring of water. All the raindrops had been pushed away by the phantom shadows.
This was a true example of "airtight and watertight"!
"Ding ding ding ding!"
From the wreckage of the magical equipment came a faint sound of metal colliding. The Taiyi Lightning Railgun, in a speed visible to the naked eye, was getting a new lease of life.
"Brothers, hold on! Let's let these bastards have a taste of our ferocity immediately!"
Removing the army cap and throwing it onto the ground, the red-eyed officer picked up two Thunderfire Boltguns, loaded them with powerful spiritual energy rounds, and roared again and again as he started firing in madness towards the night sky with both hands simultaneously.
The few ghost jellyfishes that had somehow broken through the defensive arrays were shredded into pieces by him; they were even too late to let out shrieks before they turned into flying ash.
The young soldiers' wills to fight burst forth as their shouts reverberated through the sky:
"Soldiers, load the guns! Take out the blade! Kill… Kill… Kill… Kill… Kill… Kill...!"
After 8 minutes 53 seconds—
"I'm done!"
Li Yao's eyes were completely bloodshot. From head to toe, steam was rising from his entire body. The fingertips of his ten fingers were all completely mutilated. His middle finger especially was so damaged that even the bone was visible and blood constantly dripped down from it.
But as though he didn't feel or know anything, he licked his lips, and like a drunkard admiring rare wine, he moved his gaze up and down on the Taiyi Lightning Railgun as a very satisfying sense of accomplishment was revealed in his bloodshot eyes.
Ding Yin was also finished repairing the core components and entering spiritual energy into the spirit glyphs that would switch on the Taiyi Lightning Railgun.
The Taiyi Lightning Railgun was just like a prehistoric behemoth that was waking from its slumber—blue streaks of lightning constantly sprang up from the gaps between the components and lingered around the magical equipment.
"Buzz!" The eight legs of the Taiyi Lightning Railgun all stood up steadily, slightly lifting the barrel from the base.
Gradually, two lightning rails that were as sharp as swords extended out from the barrel and took aim at the tides of beasts in the dark clouds!
Ding Yin inserted a special, super-compressed crystal cell into the energy compartment of the Taiyi Lightning Railgun. The dark Taiyi Lightning Railgun was immediately covered in a layer of faint blue light.
"Spiritual energy charged, 30%!"
Little by little, the blue light turned brighter, shining upon everyone's incomparably excited face.
"Spiritual energy charged, 60%!"
Bit by bit, amidst the blue light, brilliance like twinkling stars appeared. Like hundreds of fireflies, they slowly flew between the two rails of the Taiyi Lightning Railgun.
"Spiritual energy charged, 90%!"
The "fireflies" between the two rails congealed into crackling streaks of lightning one after another, constantly moving between the rails as they issued ear-piercing peals of thunder. The few soldiers close to it had their hairs stand on its end, and no matter how much they pressed down on them, they would not go down.
"Spiritual energy charged, 100%!"
The Taiyi Lightning Railgun released a dazzling blue light, and the streaks of lightning that were winding around the rail, one by one, disappeared as they were all sucked into the tail of the rails and congealed into a ball of lightning. Upon looking carefully, its core was actually emitting a pure white brilliance that was like—
The color of the sun!
"Let me do it!"
The red-eyed officer burst into a shout as his physique suddenly doubled in size. His uniform was torn into pieces which fell to the floor piece by piece, revealing his magnificent and robust body that seemed as if it had been forged with iron and cast with copper.
And upon his back that was as thick as a mountain, there was an extremely fierce criss-cross lightning bolt tattoo engraved with an unknown type of spirit ink. In the dark night accompanied with lightning and thunder, it was surprisingly emitting bright and resplendent luster, as if they were truly two bolts of lighting that had been tightly pressed onto his back and had transformed into a pair of wings!
The officer quickly sat down on the emplacement and madly started revolving the spiritual energy in his body before firing it into the Taiyi Lightning Railgun without a shred of hesitation.
Under his impetus, the ball of lightning once again doubled in size and turned much brighter, making everyone unable to look straight at it.
Taiyi Lightning Railgun!
The highly compressed lightning spiritual energy would be released through the rails in the blink of an eye, creating an unmatched bolt of lightning which was as powerful as an attack from a peak Core Formation Stage expert!
—
"By choosing to attack us in the Thunderstorm Zone so that we are unable to contact the outside world, did you bastards think you were clever?"
"But you would have never dreamed that we had a masterwork weapon—the Taiyi Lightning Railgun that could unleash 500% of its power in the Thunderstorm Zone!"
"If the ball of lightning explodes in the center of the Thunderstorm Zone, it will draw forth the lightning and create a fearsome thunderstorm. You sons of bi**hes will all be struck by lightning and annihilated instantly!"
The red-eyed officer madly roared as spiritual energy, like torrents of water rushing down the mountain, flooded the Taiyi Lightning Railgun to the limit before a glittering ball of lightning flashed out from the gap between the two rails and directly pierced the center of the beast tide.
"Shua!"
Like a supernova explosion, the ball of lightning, in the blink of an eye, expanded by thousand times of its original size. Tens of thousands of staggering streaks of lightning formed a vortex of destruction, tearing all the ghost jellyfishes present within the radius of couple hundred meters into shreds.
Many of the ghost jellyfishes desperately tried to flee outside area for their lives, yet they were tenaciously pulled back by the suction force created by the lightning, dragging them into the abyss of death.
In a single moment, a terrifying, transparent hole appeared amidst the beast tide. One could even faintly see the dazzling light coming from the stars behind the beast tide.
"Crack crack crack crack!"
Although the few hundred ghost jellyfishes in outer ring weren't torn into pieces, they were still electrocuted to death and fell from the sky like raindrops.
The remaining ghost jellyfishes spread out one by one. Only after a long time did they converge once again, but this time, they did not dare to form such a dense group.
The soldiers of the federation army burst into cheers of jubilation.
However, the red-eyed officer with the naked upper body had a solemn look instead—the Taiyi Lightning Railgun by no means had attracted the lightning. Although a large number of ghost jellyfishes were blasted to pieces, it simply didn't cause much harm to the beast tide.
Furthermore, these bastards seemed to be taking precautions. They no longer formed a tight formation, rendering it impossible to kill thousands upon thousands of ghost jellyfishes again in one shot.
As shocking as the Taiyi Lightning Railgun's might was, the consumption of spiritual energy was similarly an astronomical figure. Each shot was equivalent to burning hundreds of thousands of crystals.
They only had 3 special, super-compressed crystal cells onboard, allowing them to only fire the Taiyi Lightning Railgun nine times.
They only had eight more opportunities left to attract lightning.
Watching the jubilating soldiers around him, the red-eyed officer spat a mouthful of saliva as he charged the spiritual energy with a gloomy complexion. Taking advantage of the instant when a streak of lightning flashed in the sky, he once again fired another ball of lightning!
This time, the ghost jellyfishes had instead become a little wiser and separated from one another by a wide margin. The ball of lightning once again fiercely exploded, tearing hundreds of ghost jellyfishes into pieces before the sky helplessly dimmed down.
The sky was once again covered in a veil of darkness.
The red-eyed officer did not utter a single word. Clenching his teeth, he fired the third ball of lightning without even looking at the result, stood up from the emplacement, kicked open the hatch of the spirit energy compartment, and pulled out the steaming hot crystal cell. Without a care about the series of blisters that had appeared on his palm due to the heat, he ruthlessly pushed in the new crystal cell!
Fourth, fifth, sixth!
Three rounds of balls of lightning zipped out; the first explosion had not yet even been extinguished, yet the third blast had already exploded, creating three shining stars in the sky and clearing a large area in the sky.
Yet, many of the ghost jellyfishes continuously attacked as they collided with the defensive arrays with all their strength. Like a moth drawn to flame, they happily charged forth, never getting tired of it.
"Final crystal cell!" Ding Yin felt his heart tighten. His lips parted but not a single word came out from his mouth.
The red-eyed officer sat for the final time on the emplacement. From the corners of eyes, mouth, and from the ears, earthworm-like streams of blood flowed out. The purlicues[1] of his hand were even more mutilated to the point that they had become somewhat like pulp.
It was the backlash of spiritual energy after firing a powerful magical equipment, which could be said to be the "recoil" of the Taiyi Lightning Railgun and would bring injuries.
Therefore, he had to personally take charge. Only with his robust body of a battle-type cultivator could he barely withstand the recoil of the Taiyi Lightning Railgun. If he was an ordinary martial artist, he would have long been reduced to a pile of meat from the backlash of spiritual energy.
Yet, regardless of his injuries, like a mad devil, the pair of eyes of the red-eyed officer turned as red as a burning piece of coal as he fired another ball of lightning!
This time, it was completely out of order; the ball of lightning shot in the sky where the ghost jellyfishes were sparse. Like a bright firework, it slowly burst into a lonely bloom.
The red-eyed officer's completion turned pale. He was barely hanging by a thread, but just as everyone thought that he could no longer hold on, he suddenly let out a hysterical roar. The lightning tattoo on the two sides of his back suddenly lit up and metamorphosed into two burning wings of light!
At this point, silver snakes were dancing in the sky, bursting with thunderclaps. Again and again, new streaks of lightning were constantly produced!
The red-eyed officer, using his remaining strength, slammed his iron fist on the powering glyphs.
The entire coach was severely shaken by his fist.
"Motherf**ker, quickly burst for me!"
TLN notes:
[1] - Purlicues: Singular from - purlicue, the gap between the forefinger and the thumb.