CHAPTER 2: HOLOGRAM GENERATOR

Five hours had past and nightfall had descended.

“Morning Sun Village,” located next to Special Waste Treatment Plant No. 23.

Although its name was pleasant sounding, Morning Sun Village was actually Floating Spear City’s most dilapidated cheap residential rental area.

The effect of being close proximity to the grave of magical devices caused the climate to be absolutely vile. Year round an acrid odor permeates through the air. Even when the main city had blue skies and white clouds, there would be a sheet of gray overcast over here. Of Floating Spear City’s nineteen residential rental areas, this had the lowest quality of living. Naturally, the rent was the lowest.

Again, the rent was cheapest here. There were not many people willing to live next to a waste treatment plant. Several residential floors were empty, contributing to years of wear and tear without any maintenance. Both the exterior and interior were covered with cracks. Corridors were covered in cobwebs. It was practically a ghost town.

Li Yao was precisely one of the long term residents of this “Ghost Town.”

He liked the quietness here. Nobody would be disturbed when he maintained and modified his magical devices. It was close to the Grave of Magical Devices. The rent was cheap. It simply had a multitude of benefits.

His home was a fifty or so square meter room. There were two rooms, an outer and an inner one. The outer room was for eating, drinking, and enjoyment. The inner bedroom was remodeled into a magical device workshop.

When one immediately enters the house, the first eye-catching image one would see are hundreds of crystal brains hanging down by rope, looking like hundreds of skeletal skulls.

These crystal brains were mostly relics of several hundreds year past, already losing their calculation abilities. They were picked up by Li Yao becoming a part of his collection— He was a crazy crystal brain fan. In regards to this subject he could imitate a genius cultivator, calculating a myriad of theories about magical devices, being absolutely obsessed.

In this tiny living room were piles of paper books, a sight rarely seen in this era. From “A General Guide to Maintaining Magical Devices”, “A Beginner’s Textbook on Refining Flying Swords”, and “Of Being a Master Refiner”, to “Black Mountain Elder Devil Grade Crystal Devil Ship Maintenance Manual” and “99 Ways to Detonate a Star”, many were ancient texts from hundreds of years ago. They were grey and yellow, as well as flakey and mushey.

Being surrounded by the books and crystal skulls was a used and somewhat-old straw mattress. To be precise, this served as Li Yao’s table, chair and bed.

And within the magical device workshop inner room, precious treasures that Li Yao collected from the waste treatment plant were piled up.

Absentmindedly piled up in the corner were even more magical devices were dismantled by him into the most elementary components, becoming miniature garbage mountains.

At this moment, Li Yao held up a silvery white cube-shaped magical device. His eyes shined and glistened, just like a big bad wolf eyeing a small bunny. A drool of saliva practically trickled down the edge of his mouth.

A long black wing of a flying sword was extending out his back and looked as if it were taking a look around, resembling a rather curious plump snake.

“Surprisingly it’s the Thousand Magics Sect’s newest generation’s “3D Hologram Generator” with a market price of over 20,000 bucks! If I can repair this, I may be able to get up to 10,000 bucks for it! Small Black, we’ve struck it big this time!” Li Yao was unable to resist letting out a long whistle.

The black flying sword made squeaking noise. It’s two sheets of wings flew up and down as if dancing in merriment, unexpectedly displaying the same hint of “greed” as its owner.

Li Yao’s hands flared and seven to eight fantastic contraption tools used for maintenance appeared where he pointed. Some resembled screwdrivers, some resembled tiny pliers. There were also long and thin silver needles, as well as curved and hooked unnamable tools.

“Small Black, guess how many seconds?”

The Black Flying Sword make two sneering squeaking sounds, flying in the air, using its pointed  end to draw out a “50.”

“50 seconds? You’re looking down on me!”

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, becoming tranquil for three seconds. After opening his eyes, the greed and excitement within his eyes disappeared without a trace. Like an unmoving ancient well, all that was left was cold and clear overflowing confidence.

Li Yao’s pair of hands suddenly mobilized. 10 fingers turned into 10 paths of flowing light, completely enveloping the silvery white magic device. In the start, one could vaguely make out the courses and movements of the tips of his fingers. Afterwards, only a cloud of dazzling fluorescence could be seen. Within the fluorescence came the sound of rustling.

Half a minute later, the fluorescence shook and a rustling sound faded away. Hundreds of shadows retreated back to their origin. Li Yao’s pair of eyes were still set on their original position, not making the tiniest of movements.

As for the silver white magical device, the “3D Hologram Generator” was already dismantled by Li Yao into 425 elementary parts.

“39 seconds, it’s settled!”

Li Yao let out a victory cry, colliding against the black flying sword, winking his eye in pride for concentrating on his comprehension successfully.

“Tsk tsk, this definitely deserves to be the Thousand Magic Sect’s newest model hologram generator. An elaborate composition, the balance of spirit energy is like a work of nature. The most amazing part is this master crystal chip. It’s about the size of a fingernail, but somehow engraved on this crystal chip are over three-hundred spirit runes, all working in tandem with each over to form over twenty rune formations. It’s simply a work of art!”

Li Yao’s hand was holding a magnifying glass, carefully observing the extracted master crystal chip. His face was filled with an intoxication like that of a pilgrim. The more he observed, the more profound his expression become.

“That’s not right… There aren’t just three-hundred spirit runes. This master crystal chip appears to utilize crystal folding technology, taking three crystal chips and layering them atop of each other, altogether containing over a thousand dao spirit runes, and comprising of over a hundred three-dimensional dao rune formations. This is inconceivable!”

The more he studied, the more profound and deep he felt. Li Yao entered a state of complete engrossment, forgetting the passage of time, and studied meticulously for a complete three or so hours. He failed to completely comprehend a single rune formation. Instead his observations caused him to become dizzy and lightheaded, his vision becoming black.

Right now at most he had the level of a “Junior Magical Device Technician.” The distance to a “Thousand Magics Sect” Grand Master Refiner’s standards were really too big, way too big.

If this “master crystal chip” has a problem, then he would have no choice but to take this 3D Hologram Generator and sell it as a reject.

Fortunately, after using a “spirit storage tool” to inject spirit energy, Li Yao discovered that the spirit energy flowed smoothly in the master crystal chip. The spirit circuits were clear, the rune formation was stable, and there were no anomalies.

After a careful inspection, he discovered that the problem originated from a crystal fiber circuit. A spirit energy fluctuation anomaly had caused this crystal fiber circuit to burn out.

This crystal fiber circuit is a standard component and is really easy to replace. Li Yao quickly found a replacement from the inventory in his house.

Closing his eyes, he recalled in silence the process of his recent dismantling. An image of a complete structural diagram surfaced in his mind. His hands mobilized automatically, a gust of wind swept, and the 3D Hologram Generator was assembled once more.

He used the spirit storage tool to inject a river of spirit energy. The pure white exterior faintly emitted a blue fluorescence as if it were a lustrous transparent sapphire, giving the appearance of being possessed by a living fairy.

When the blue glow swept over his forehead, from the depths of Li Yao’s mind, dozens of several control rune characters automatically came into view.

“Hologram Generator, power on!” Li Yao thought to himself and the control rune characters in his mind flared.

The blue fluorescence of the hologram generator converged into a single rune character in the shape of “回”. The two rings spun rapidly looking like a vortex. From the middle of the vortex a blue beam of light was emitted into the air and solidified into a massive hologram.

What appeared was the image of a middle aged cultivator wearing an 8 Trigrams Dao Robe, rendered down to the finest hair, looking true to life.

Behind this esteemed cultivator’s back was an even larger hologram. On the hologram were interweaving red and green rune characters, numbers, and arrows, all constantly pulsing and fluctuating.

The middle aged cultivator’s face was expressionless, with a voice like that of an unmoving ancient well he said: “Next is a continuation of the financial broadcast for you; the following is the stock market summary — Today’s biggest news is undoubtedly the “Traceless Sword Faction’s” announcement for the release of their newest flying sword propulsion rune formation, “Violet Lightning”. Reports say after implementing “Violet Lightning,” the maximum velocity can be increased by 9 percent, the instantaneous destructive power can be increased by 11 percent, and the spirit energy consumption can be decreased by 5 percent. Towards flying swords, the composite increase in performance is obvious.”

“Receiving favorable reviews, the share price of the Traceless Sword Faction is on the rise. Starting before 10 AM the share was approaching the market limit and held there until market closure.

“And now for the Sword Cultivation Industry in its entirety. This includes the Giant Sword Gate, Polar North Sword Sect, and the 22 families of schools within the Southern Sea Sword Faction. The stocks are hot and on the rise up until market closure. The Sword Cultivation Industry as a whole rose by 5.42 percentage points.”

“On the other hand, the defense focused “Gold Armour Sect’s” share price fell. Experts believe that with the announcement of the rune formation “Violet Lightning”, flying swords have made a revolutionary leap in technology. Modern mainstream battle armour is fundamentally unable to guard against the newest models of offensive flying swords. By market closure, the Golden Armour Sect’s share price tumbled by 8%.”

“After market closure the Golden Armour Sect called for a last minute news conference. The Golden Armour Sect’s spokesman Elder Hei Yan announced the release of the newest generation of “Star Strike Shields” due to an eminent breakthrough in battle armour research and development. A prototype will be available within the year and will absolutely be able to guard and nullify all flying sword attacks.

“As for the Grasslands Region in the northern part of the federation, the calamity known as the black roundworm epidemic continues to spread, already proliferating into the cultivation bases of many Beast Taming Sects’ spirit beasts. The afflicted spirit beasts number over 500,000. This rarely seen disaster drove the stock prices of the beast industry continuously down. Several Beast Taming Sects’ share prices tumbled to a three year low.”

“Ok, next is our famous market analyst star here to comment for everyone about stocks.”

“…”

Li Yao watched for half a day. He confirmed that the image was stable, that the sound was clear, and that there weren’t any static or streaks. The 3D was exceptional, being extremely distinct and caused one to feel immersed. The device should be completely repaired.

After pondering a bit, he thought deeply within his mind: “Switch to the entertainment channel.”

The blue glow flashed. The middle aged cultivator and the red-green hologram flashed and faded away. In their place was a stadium buzzing with activity.

This full-house stadium was filled with a hundred-thousand people, with sounds of clamouring people rumbling through the air. Under the shining rainbow rays of light, a hundred thousand fired-up teenagers raised their hands up high.  Together they were cheering a name:

“Lu Yinxi!”

“Lu Yinxi!”

“Lu Yinxi!”

Atop the three story main stage towered a dozen or so jutted crystals like entwining canine teeth. When the cheers of the teenagers converged to their peak, the thickest of crystals suddenly burst. With an appearance like that of clear cold snow, yet possessing an expression heated like lava, a young lady wearing white jumped out from the crystal. Slanted on her waist was a zither that seemed to be formed out of a stack of crystals. Her slender white hand swept across the strings, and the magical clashing sound of metal like that of a powerful army roared out.

“Within my heart I have the dream to fly arrogantly, the opposing shore of the celestial river is our direction! This belongs to us. Cultivate! A! New! Era!”

Just like with all the teenagers, Li Yao’s blood also began to boil.

The girl “Lu Yinxi” radiated energy all throughout the stage. She was a singer of an idol school that recently rose abruptly in the last two years. Immediately debuting with an ice-cold figure and with an explosive performance style, she attracted a great number of adolescents. She composed the song “Forty Millenniums of Cultivation” that became popular in the whole nation within a short half a year. Countless teenagers were motivated by this song to walk the path of cultivation.

Li Yao was also one of her fans, but for a reason different than other people’s. The reason why he liked Lu Yinxi was because their pasts were the same.

They were both orphans.

Li Yao was born in Special Waste Treatment Plant No. 23. Since he could ever remember, the skies were always ashy and yellow.

He ate rotting meat from the garbage heaps. He drank contaminated putrid water. He relied on primal instinct as well as a little “secret” hidden deep in his memories, struggling to survive. Since the beginning, he suffered and endured for these ten or so years, transforming into the Grave of Magical Devices’s most dangerous existence, the “Vulture”.

If the “Old Man” had never appeared, Li Yao probably would have become part of the garbage plant, turning into a “Fatty Long” or “Old Lang”.

But on a day six years ago, a garbage ship had mixed the Old Man into dozens of tons of garbage, disposing both the Old Man and the garbage together. Li Yao felt compassionate and dragged the scar riddled Old Man back home.

From then on, destiny had completely changed for him.

The Old Man never talked about his past. Li Yao only knew for certain that he was a tremendously skilled Magical Device Modifier Expert. In a short five years, Old Man taught Li Yao all sorts of fantastic and bizarre skills for modifying magical devices. He taught Li Yao knowledge of all kinds of fundamental academic subjects. He also spent money for Li Yao to attend a private high school in the city, allowing Li Yao to blend into normal society.

A year ago, one of the Old Man’s old injuries flared up again and he passed away. He left behind Li Yao a mysterious flying sword named “Black Wing”

(TL note: In the previous chapter I translated the sword’s name as “Black Point.” Actually, the text in the previous chapter should have been translated as “a black glow/light/fluorescence”. “Black Wing” is the real name.)

“Small Yao, I, this Old Man, have been to dozens of worlds in this life. I have seen and met thousands upon thousands of Magical Device Modifier Experts and Grand Master Refiners. But your natural talent is the highest I have seen!”

“With only the hands of an insignificant mortal, you are able to maintain low level magical devices. You really are talented.”

“But relying only on one’s natural talent is not enough! By only relying on one’s talent, you will always only be capable of maintaining low level magical devices, commercial magical devices!”

“Promise this Old Man that you will properly study, fight and get accepted into university, and become a cultivator! Only by becoming a cultivator, will you then have the chance to move further along in magical device maintenance. Such that one day in the future you….”

“Become a Grand Master Refiner!”

When the old man had spoken these words, his pair of eyes were wide open. His eyes blossomed with radiance, and were filled with boundless energy. This memory was fresh in Li Yao’s mind.

A Grand Master Refiner… A part of the circle of cultivators, the most prestigious profession by far.

He did not know whether he would end up disappointing the Old Man.

The sword Black Wing silently accompanied his side, listening to the young lady and her volcanic performance. Its two protective wings twisted fervently, dancing along to the energetic song.

After quite some time, the youth’s expression became clear. The corner of his mouth once again hooked into an unperturbed smile.

“What am I thinking so much for? Regardless of the consequences, I just have to stake it all!”

“Lu Yinxi was a small orphan and she transformed into the federation’s most popular female singer. Why can’t I, from a small garbage worm, become a master refiner?”

The youth thought back to a time long long ago, in a place far far away. He remembered hearing this sentence:

“One must always have dreams, for what if they are achieved?”

Translator: Strivon