Archfiend

Chapter 272: The Body as an Artifact (4)

Translator: XTB

After an unknown period of time cultivating, Xu Yangyi finally opened his eyes. Seemingly sensing the opening of his eyes, Gao Muya and Old Man Di in front of him opened their eyes at the same time and looked at Xu Yangyi with terrible complication.

“Seniors?” Xu Yangyi was somewhat confused, unable to make sense of the situation. What? Had the process been finished? Was there something wrong with him?

Could it be that there was a problem with the arm bone?

In his state of alarm, he immediately looked at his left arm yet discovered that it had already transformed into a spectrum of color with a sliver of toughness. Nonetheless, his intuition told him that this arm... had long since transcended the hardness that he’d previously seen!

“Don’t worry... It’s good and done...” Gao Muya’s complicated voice was heard at his side, but the grand artificer used an even more complicated gaze to look at Xu Yangyi. “Do you know how long it’s been now?”

Xu Yangyi shook his head.

“A month.” Gao Muya raised a finger. “Since we’ve entered here, it’s already been a month.”

“Right now, I really want to know. Why can you actually meditate while subjected to the high temperature of the melted Heavenmend Stone?” Old Man Di followed up and said, “Alongside Teacher Gao, I’ve taken part in the transformation of magik prostheses. This isn’t the first. Before that girl Quan, there were three others. On top of that, you’re the fifth.”

“The last three were all Foundation Establishment cultivators, but even they screamed like slaughtered pigs here... yet you can actually meditate?”

Xu Yangyi laughed. The three half-meter-long qi nails had already been removed from his left arm. He tested out the prosthetic; it was flexible and spirited, unconstrained and with ease. But inside his dantian, the palm-sized flame had vanished without a trace.

This was because the meridians brought forth by the Eternal Alchemy Canon had lost a power source once more. Only then did he have no choice but to wake up from his meditation.

“A fortunate coincidence.” Xu Yangyi clasped his hands and laughed.

His dismissal indicated that he wouldn’t provide an explanation. Gao Muya raised a brow and replied, “It’s fine if you don’t say. Everyone has their own secrets... Presently, the hardest step is already done. The rest will all be completed in four months.

Xu Yangyi nodded. Four months... added with this month, that was five months.

Once things were finished here... he was bound to throw himself straight to Tianzi Mountain and Jinshan Temple. In all likelihood, the other major lineages were already in Chengdu, the closest strategic city in the southwest to Longsu Province. Shuangqing City was properly readied, and he had handed it over to Fang Cheng before he had left. Jadesun probably wouldn’t stint in mentioning this issue as well. In addition to Peony and Mao Ba’er’s assistance, that would be the time... as the storm raged, winds rising and clouds surging.

“Many thanks, Senior.”

“There’s no trace of him?” At the same time, in a five-star hotel in Chengdu, a youth surveyed the endless traffic of cars on the street below from several tens of stories above. He furrowed his brows and said, “That’s not to say... that our Danxia hero has left Grandmaster Gao’s Ironforge Stronghold?”

“Yes.” Behind him, a man styled as a steward bowed. “But he hasn’t left since the beginning.”

“He hasn’t come out, or he left from some other place?”

“To answer Young Master, we are uncertain.”

“I know.” The youth sat down on a soft sofa. He was thin and there was a long scar on his cheek. He lit a cigarette and said apathetically, “What about over in Nanzhou?”

“To answer the Young Master.” The man’s voice lowered a little. “You’ve just arrived in Chengdu... turn on the television and look... you’ll understand.”

The youth’s brows formed a slight crease, and the television flashed on. The news just happened to be on.

A gentle and elegant female broadcaster reported solemnly, ‘Due to the developments of Nanzhou’s virus breakout, the Central Committee has decided to distribute all of Nanzhou’s citizens to other city districts. Nanzhou’s three surrounding districts will be split into Chengdu and Shuangqing City as situation control is waited upon...’

“The Chinese government has evacuated Nanzhou’s residents.” Youth’s gaze flashed. “It seems... that they also understand what’s going to happen...”

“This news has only been broadcasted to Gansu Province, Xichuan Province, and Shuangqing City.” The man said lowly, “It is unknown to other media and the internet.”

The youth didn’t speak but instead stood up and walked in front of a window. He pulled open the window drape.

“Do you know what I see...?” His finger gently hooked around the curtain. “A great blood-dyed curtain is on the verge of being pulled into play.”

“Even China has prepared a dueling stage for our decisive, mortal struggle... How can our Shuangqing’s Lou Clan disappoint the cultivation world...”

At this time, the sky darkened.

The youth abruptly raised his head, his gaze like lightning as he stared straight at the sky.

“What’s going on? What’s happening?” A youth who had just been let out of school with his classmate looked at his feet in shock. “Another earthquake?!”

Astonished, a woman, who was picking out groceries in a supermarket, saw that all the bottles and cans were clanging! A sales associate looked at the shelves, dumbfounded. Three seconds later, he suddenly cried out, shouting himself hoarse, and cradled his head as he squatted down!

“Earthquake! Earthquake!”

“Heavens! Another earthquake! It’s so intense!”

“We’re not in the earthquake’s epicenter, right?!”

Following these shrieks, all the pedestrians on the street ran off to secure locations with great speed. Green lights flickered incessantly, and countless bikes and mopeds rolled up into a singular mass in a state of confusion. Every car had almost opened all of their doors, drivers scurrying away with ashen faces. Even the traffic police looked at the ground below them in shock, their lips quivering non-stop.

This earthquake was too fierce! Akin to an earth dragon turning over!

“Emergency notice, emergency notice.” A broadcast rang out with an announcer’s anxious voice. “A rank 5.7 earthquake has suddenly erupted in Chengdu. Everyone, please make preparations... I repeat, a rank 5.7 earthquake has suddenly erupted in Chengdu. Everyone, please make preparations...”

No one heard. The street was a throng of chaos. Like hornets, groups of people ran out from hotels. Some were draped in bathing towels. However, at this moment, there were a few other people who were tens as many times more solemn than the masses as they looked at the sky.

“Second Blackie, run! It’s an earthquake, what are you still gawking at!” At the side of a basketball court, a group of kids forcefully pulled at a tall, strong, dark-skinned youth. And yet, the young man simply didn’t budge. He faintly shivered, and everyone fell to the ground.

“My god...” The young man looked at the sky sluggishly. “What... What is this...”

In a villa, there was an old man with a full head of grizzled hair and two middle-aged men. With an arrow’s stride forward, they ran to a courtyard. The shadows on the ground were getting bigger and bigger, and in the sky, an enormous colossus was slowly rising!

“This really is... a fight to the death, eh...”

In a hotel, a young man’s expression was terribly grave. He gazed straight at the sky, unable to take his eyes away. As far as his gaze reached, there was a mechanical white tiger that was no less than ten kilometers in size at Chengdu’s border. On its back, there was an unbroken chain of palace halls. Over yonder, the behemoth slowly ascended!

Streaks of pure-white spiritual light rushed out from the ground, and streams of water trickled down the white tiger’s body. It was as if the machine had just flown out from a waterfall. It ascended higher and higher and charged straight into the skies. Shrouded in the cloud bank, the white tiger soared over clouds and sailed mists. Its tremendous body left a shadow on the ground that mortals simply couldn’t see and faced the region where Xichuan Province and Longsu Province interlinked. The machine walked forward as it swallowed the world with each step.

At its side, there were over ten palace halls that were several hundred meters in size. Like a constellation of stars cupping the moon, they surrounded the tiger.

Truly a roaming of dragons and marching of tigers, a grand and imperious might!

“This...” Already, a clan steward exhaled sharply from behind the young man. “ The Linghu Clan... The White Tiger Hall... and the Linghu Clan’s second-rate vassal clans... They... They...”

Their stronghold was making an offensive!

This was a magnificent sight that could only be seen in a cultivator war!

“This is their resolve to tell everyone.” The youth gritted his teeth and said quietly, “For the struggle this time over the heavenly paradise, they’ve mobilized all their forces and activated the White Tiger Hall to inform everyone that their Linghu Clan won’t spare any hard-earned capital or asset in this battle. For any who obstruct them... there is only a path to death.”

“Young Master!” the steward cried out in alarm.

“What’s there to panic about!” the young man shouted angrily, “There’s still a couple months... Our Lou Clan’s Sky Universe Palace will also arrive at the border of the two provinces! This time, everyone has to advance; there’s no backing off!”

“Anyone who blocks us... Regardless of whether he’s a Core Formation disciple... as long as the ancestors stay silent, the Lou Clan and our vassal clans will tear him into pieces!”

“Lou Wushuang!”

“Your subordinate is here!”

“Contact father at once. The Sky Universe Palace... is ready to start operations!” he laughed grimly. “We should expose our fangs as well... to all of China’s cultivators.”

“Notify the seven major vassal clans under the Lou Clan that if they don’t come...” His expression chilled. “To just wait for the Lou Clan’s wrath.”

“Yes!”

The third month after the Danxia Temple affair, the Linghu Clan’s White Tiger Hall of Xichuan’s Bottomless Pit stormed the interlinking border of Xichuan and Longsu and garrisoned their forces there!

Several hundred Dao defenders and twelve vassal clans bided their time as they prepared for battle, resting their heads on spears as they waited for the crack of dawn! All together... they were 842 combatants!

In the fourth month, the Sky Universe Palace of Shuangqing’s Lou Clan graced the two provinces’ border with their presence. A white mechanical crane over ten kilometers in size flew in with shining wings. No longer was this only a palace, but instead their clan’s war machine! The strongest logistical supply!

In the white crane’s surroundings, there were seven mechanical birds that were several hundred meters in size. Hawks and swallows followed behind. The crown of each flying bird was seated with a Foundation Establishment cultivator!

The Lou Clan of Shuangqing’s Sky Universe Palace and their Crying Crane Legion were all spurred into action. With their seven major vassal clans... they numbered 789 people!

There were still two months left... so far, the Bluedawn Winding Corridor of the Nalan Clan’s Coilingsilk Cave had yet to be seen. Likewise, the Kindling Mulberry Wall of Jinling’s Zhao Clan hadn’t made an appearance.

Xu Yangyi was ignorant to all of this because at this moment, he’d already reached the final juncture of his operation! In the underground artificing room, Gao Muya and Old Man Di were already absorbed in work. Before their eyes, Xu Yangyi’s left arm had long since become an image of when it was in good condition. One couldn’t even see whatsoever that it was a man-made object.

There existed blood and flesh, to the extent that even Xu Yangyi gasped in surprise! It was actually a carbon copy of his left arm. He could flex and stretch it smoothly and easily. Furthermore, these muscles were as good as real!

He exercised his strength and his muscles tightened and condensed with explosive strength. Besides the lack of pain and blood when he was wounded, one simply couldn’t tell that this was an artificial object.

Gao Muya and Old Man Di weren’t as free and easy as they were before. Instead their eye sockets were deep and recessed with heavy dark circles. Both of them had become thin, dropping down in stature. However, their minds were surging up at an incomparable high!

They were on the verge of project completion... Presently, the duo used all kinds of implements, as if they dissecting like doctors, to pull open Xu Xu Yangyi’s left forearm. Inside, there was a layer of dark-green muscle-like material. This was the usefulness of the three God Tree leaves. They had used these leaves and the veins on the leaves to establish an even more superior flexibility and explosive power than Xu Yangyi’s previous left arm!

Under the green muscle was a groove. This groove was on the arm bone, and it... was in the shape of a sword!

Xu Yangyi took a deep breath. The project was just about to be finished... The final step only required the black short sword that transformed from the Animus Armament on his chest to be inserted. His left arm would be successfully finished!

Consuming a Heavenmend Stone, God Tree Leaves, and the black remnant bone of a 2,000-year-old Greater Demon, this left arm had forced two Foundation Establishment grand masters to consume more than four months of work, while exhausting their thoughts and genius. Praised by Gao Muya to be the most supreme masterpiece of a left arm in artificing history, this endeavor was finally near completion!