Chapter 473: Glimmers
The guide raised hundreds of questions within a breath. Most of them were comprehensive conundrums focusing on the maintenance and modification of crystal suits, the refinement of saber-type magical equipment, and classical refining theories. They were extremely difficult.
Despite the immensity of Li Yao's soul, he still felt exhausted after answering all of them.
The guide was silent for a long time. The gaps in its crystal suit were glittering, suggesting that it was analyzing Li Yao's answers with a lot of computational ability.
In the end, the guide replied in a commending tone, "Your answers are complete and precise, not to mention that your speed was amazingly high, too. It is evident that you have a deep understanding about the three categories in question. You are now classified into the 'Specialist' level.
"Especially regarding classical refining theories, your answers are indeed impressive!
"However, the Great Illusionary Groups do not have deeper studies about classical refining theories, and we can't run an inclusive assessment on your capability in classical ways of refining.
"All in all, you are now classified as 'Specialist'. It is the third level only secondary to Master and Grand Master. Of all the users of the World of Crystal Suits, Specialists are ranked in the top 10%. You are now free to join the forums for professionals where you can communicate with other experts.
"If you want to advance into the Master level, you can try to earn more crystal coins by answering questions, holding open lectures, and publishing videos on the latest theories of refining. Then, you can trade the crystal coins for new skills and theories which you can study to improve your capability. When you think that your capability has surpassed the threshold of 'Master', you can demand a new assessment at any time.
"The system has marked the three fields that you are best at below your username. When other users come up with questions in these categories, reminders will be sent to your virtual independent space. You can reply to them if you think you know the correct answer.
"Enjoy the World of Crystal Suits, Specialist Fiend Star!"
The guide bowed and cleared the path leading to different zones.
Li Yao smiled. The Specialist level was not half bad. It should be enough for him to make use of most of the zones inside the World of Crystal Suits.
However, Li Yao was confident that, when it came to classical refining, he was far beyond the Specialist level.
It was just that there seemed to be barely any real experts adept at classical refining theories in the World of Crystal Suits, or rather, the entire Flying Star Sector.
In other words, the refiners in this place were not qualified to evaluate him at all.
He was the real Master when it came to classical refining!
Li Yao's consciousness turned into a streak of brightness and darted toward a dazzling nebula.
The World of Crystal Suits was divided into different zones including forums, Q&A, lectures, and debates among a few others.
The moment Li Yao's telepathic thoughts arrived, the latest and the most heated information of all zones rushed at him like billions of stars.
The first things that he perceived were the trending questions in the Q&A zone.
"How does it feel to be engaged in a combat wearing a super-fast crystal suit with more than 160 power rune arrays?"
"What are some accessories below fifty thousand Flying Star dollars that can significantly improve the combat ability of a crystal suit when they are installed?"
"I am a Cultivator in the middle of the Refinement Stage, and I'm already 36 years old. My life so far has been a mess. Right now, I want to change myself and become an excellent Exo. Is there any hope for me?"
"What are some skills that are of great help in combat and can be learned within three days?"
"What are some skills that you regret you didn't know earlier and want to recommend to young people?"
"Which newly-refined crystal suits from the past thirty years can be considered state-of-the-art?"
"Of the three major crystal suit centers, what are the differences in styles of 'Ice School' and 'Silver Heart School'? Which of the two is more suitable for the Cultivators who have advantages in physical strength?"
Trending questions, such as the above, all had more than five hundred answers. The most heated answers all had more than a hundred thousand upvotes.
Wow...
Like a mouse that had wandered into a rice shop, Li Yao was thrilled. He opened the first question 'how does it feel to wear a super-fast crystal suit' and started browsing.
The most upvoted answer was written by 'Long Feihu', a user who went by his real-life name.
His personal information indicated that he was a Core Formation Stage Cultivator with more than seventy years of experience in crystal suits and that he was on a 96-match winning streak in the Heavenly Sword Arena.
Li Yao vaguely remembered that he had seen the name of Long Feihu somewhere else.
The most popular form of entertainment and sport in the Flying Star Sector was crystal suit competitions.
Through crystal suit competitions, not only would the young people be encouraged to improve their skills, the professional crystal suit techniques would be disseminated, too. The top experts might become inspired by each other and invent stronger skills and skill cards so that the combat ability of the civilization as whole could be increased.
Therefore, crystal suit competitions were not just about entertainment or sport, but concerned the survival of the entire civilization.
As a result, all the Exos who participated in crystal suit competitions were all highly respected in the Flying Star Sector. The champions of the five major arenas each had millions of fans. Their influence was even higher than that of the leaders of some major sects.
Long Feihu was the champion of the Heavenly Sword Arena, one of the five major arenas. He had been a professional player for more than forty years, and in that time, his win-rate had been kept above 85%. It was said that he had achieved a breakthrough recently. Therefore, he had made a remarkable achievement by securing 96 victories continuously, and the number was still counting!
No wonder his answer was on top and upvoted by so many people!
Speed is a very important factor in my combat strategies, too. Let me see if I can learn anything from Long Feihu, 'King of Heavenly Sword'!
Li Yao focused his attention and continued reading Long Feihu's answer.
"Thanks for the question. I am Long Feihu. I believe many friends here have watched my combat videos and know that agility, speed, and deadliness are my thing. So, I think I'm qualified to offer my opinions on the question..."
Long Feihu elaborated on topics ranging from aerodynamics to illusions, from the commonly-seen crystal suits that focused on speed to the modifications of their respective power rune arrays, and from the training methods that Exos who wanted to improve their speed should adopt to the treatment of common injuries during the training sessions. The article was detailed and included a lot of 3D structure designs and videos. It was solid and convincing.
This expert of the Flying Star Sector deserves his name. It's hardcore knowledge that he's talking about!
If such experts are willing to provide everything they have learned in their lives for the younger generations, I don't know how many newcomers will benefit from his enlightenment, and how many people will be ignited by the spark and embark on the path of Cultivation, taking him as a role model!
This is the most valuable point of the World of Crystal Suits and the secret to the prosperity of the human civilization in the Flying Star Sector!
Li Yao was deep in thought. Although the people of the Flying Star Sector were lost in the sea of stars and far away from each other, their attitude toward Cultivation was much more open and with much less reserve than the Heaven's Origin Sector.
If one was to think about it more carefully, it had a lot to do with their different living environments.
The major sects of the Flying Star Sector were all scattered in the sea of stars. Li Yao could totally imagine that, thousands of years ago, when the fire of war had just died down and the Spiritual Nexus hadn't been established, a Cultivation sect on a starship would have been wandering in the endless darkness for dozens or even hundreds of years. What a lonely journey it must've been.
Yes, loneliness. Mankind was a gregarious species after all. A few starships and a sect with a few hundred thousand people were not going to pass the civilization on.
When a sect drifted in the sea of stars, resisted demon beasts and demonic Cultivators for hundreds of years, and was decaying due to the loss of manpower, suddenly, it ran into another sect that was fighting side by side with it. The feeling of 'I'm not alone in the universe' could easily be translated into the passion of communication.
After all, the universe was too dark a place. Human beings were too insignificant, like a slight glimmer when they were separated. Only when they gathered together could the glimmers be congregated into blazing fire to drive away the darkness and illuminate the sea of stars!
The Cultivation sects who kept everything to themselves and refused to communicate with other sects must have been devoured by the darkness and disappeared in the river of time.
However, why did the humans of the Flying Star Sector not live on the planets?
Li Yao had studied the files of the Flying Star Sector before and was aware that quite a few planets had breathable air. Although the environments on the surface of such planets were not very favorable, considering that the technology in the Sector was advanced enough to empty and rebuild an asteroid, it shouldn't be a problem to reshape some areas on the planets and establish settlements there.
Many files simply said that the planets were inhabited by barbarians who were extremely hostile to the residents of space.
Then, where did the barbarians come from? How come they were hostile to the space residents even though they were both human beings? Were there Cultivators among the barbarians? How was the center of the civilization moved from the planets to space in the first place?
It appeared that there were a lot of buried secrets in the history of the Flying Star Sector that wouldn't be found out easily.
Li Yao concentrated his attention and left his suspicions behind. Then he upvoted Long Feihu's answer.
In the World of Crystal Suits, users could express their opinions about an answer by upvoting or downvoting it.
However, although the first upvoting or downvoting was free, additional upvoting or downvoting cost one crystal coin each time.
In such a way, the more valuable answers would pop to the top very easily. The jibber-jabbers would sink down automatically when there were many downvotes and stop wasting everybody's time.
Li Yao focused his attention and read another dozens of questions. He exclaimed in joy, like a man who was offered a bucket of clean water after struggling in a desert for an entire week.
After he left the Q&A zone, he found that the other zones were quite interesting in their own way as well.
In the lecture zone, the experts were introducing their latest theories. Since Li Yao was already marked as a specialist, he could hold his own lecture regarding the refinement of the saber-type magical equipment or classical refining theories. Every user joining the lecture would have to pay a crystal coin on entry.
In the debate zone, countless users were accusing and attacking each other. Invisible smoke seemed to be popping up from their battlefield.
The most interesting one was the battle between the debate team of Flying Star University and that of Heavenly Saint Institute on the well-discussed topic of 'is remote magical equipment stronger than melee magical equipment or is it the other way around?'.
Such an impractical question had been argued by countless Cultivators for hundreds of years. It was clear that there was not a right answer. Yet, it was often picked as a topic for the young students in order to build up their critical thinking ability.
Flying Star University and Heavenly Saint Institute were the two best academical establishments of the Flying Star Sector.
Flying Star University mainly recruited the young geniuses from all over the Flying Star Sector and outside of Heavenly Saints City and valued popularization more; Heavenly Saint Institution only recruited the descendants of the Cultivators inside Heavenly Saints City and focused more on meritocracy.
The two colleges had competed against each other for hundreds of years with no obvious winner, but they had left all the other universities hundreds of lightyears behind.
Li Yao glanced at the introduction and noticed that the rules of the debate were quite special. There were two consecutive games.
In the first game, Flying Star University was on the pro side of melee magical equipment.
But after an hour of fierce debating and ten minutes of rest, the same team with the same members would be supporting remote magical equipment in the second game!
The two parties have to expound from both perspectives. Such a rule is indeed tricky, but I like it!
Li Yao was greatly interested and walked in to watch the game.
As a 'Specialist', he was considered sort of an 'inspector' when he came to watch such a debate game among college students, and therefore did not have to pay anything.