Chapter 255 – Staff Sergeant Tang Yi
Translated by: YX
Edited by: XRCO, Earl, Natsuriayuko and De Andre
“That will be all for now.” Bing was still slightly diffident. After all, he splurged 3 billion on the revival of his Southern Cross Army without blinking. But he knew that Tang Tian was now tight on cash because of this.
“Yes, yes.” Sai Lei also felt diffident. She was expecting to spend only 300 to 400 million at the beginning. The amount of 3 billion had never ever crossed her mind.
It was a tough thing to swallow!
However, after thinking of the large engineering project that they were about to undertake, she felt excited about it. Military Weapons Warehouse was the creation of a machine engineer inside the Southern Cross Army. Though that was 1000 years ago, it felt like it was just yesterday. With that much space, Sai Lei could finally realize some of her fantasy projects that she had always wanted to undertake.
For any machine engineer, it was an honor to be able to take responsibility in managing the establishment of such a grandiose project.
A bronze fort!
She was already excited just by thinking of the prospect of building this large bronze fort. To be able to build it to the standard of the Military Weapons Warehouse, this news would traverse across the universe and still be talked about hundreds of years from now.
Okay then, we still have 2 billion. Tang Tian breathed a sigh of relief.
“You need to procure a pile of rank six Star Rocks for your usual training. Considering that you might be using the rank six star rocks for quite some time, you will need to consider buying a few rank six martial techniques as well. No techniques are comparable to your [Fire Scythe Ghost Claw], which is currently very powerful. It will become your main offensive technique. Besides, you are also holding onto the Crypto-sword Saint’s card. Within it might potentially be the technique Swallowing Light Steel Fist. You do not lack offensive technique, but you will require a defensive type martial technique, Light body related martial technique as well as the Succeeding Loop technique. You can go and buy spirit cards with potential.” Bing said.
“Spirit cards with potential?” Tang Tian asked.
“Yes, spirit cards that have the potential to train a unique martial technique” Bing replied, “Not every martial technique has the potential to reach a unique martial technique level. At the same time, there are those that possess the potential but fail to reach the unique martial technique level too. Just like Little Lady’s Monarch Yearning Strike, it just required one step and it would be a unique martial technique. And of course, even if you possess these martial techniques, you might still not be able to obtain the unique martial technique. This requires destiny.”
“Where do I find these types of card?” Tang Tian asked.
“You will need to go to those large card shops.” Sai Lei replied: “These types of Spirit Cards are expensive. Their prices are a notch higher than Gold Ranked Spirit Card, and are called the Purple Gold Grade Spirit Cards. The card shop has a special method to evaluate the cards to determine the potential of these types of martial techniques.”
“The name Purple Gold Grade Spirit Card sounds expensive.” Tang Tian laughed.
“It is expensive.” Sai Lei was previously in the Spirit Cards business, hence she knew the prices of each type of cards clearly. “Rank six Gold Grade Spirit Cards are priced at 10 to 50 million. The Purple Gold Grade Spirit Card is 10 times more expensive.”
“Ten, ten times….” Tang Tian face grew pale. “That means 100 to 500 million?”
“Yeah. More expensive than the Purple Gold Grade Spirit Card is the Unique Grade Spirit Card. Any of these type of cards cost upwards of 1 billion star coins. However, the Unique Grade Spirit Card cannot be found in normal stores.” Sai Lei replied.
“1 billion…” Tang Tian eyes grew wide: “Can the Fire Scythe Ghost Claw sell for 1 billion?”
“Yes, if you can transform it into a Spirit Card, you can definitely sell it for 1 billion.” Sai Lei nodded in agreement: “However, to create a Unique grade Spirit Card, your martial spirit will need to be gold ranked. Once you have created the Spirit Card, the value of your martial spirit will drop one rank.”
“This is too steep of a price isn’t it!” Tang Tian mouth was gaping wide.
Sai Lei shrugged her shoulder, “Of course it is! You think that it is easy to obtain 1 billion? The requirement to have a Unique Martial Technique passed on to you is very high. For those who comprehend the Unique Martial Technique but their martial spirits do not reach gold rank before their death, the Martial Spirit Card created from the martial spirit will only be a Purple Gold Grade Spirit Card. While its descendants, for those who have received it’s legacy which is incomplete, if they are slightly dumber, the unique martial technique will be lost.”
Tang Tian immediately discarded his thoughts of selling the Fire Scythe Ghost Claw. Don’t even talk about Gold Grade Martial Spirit. He was now not even willing to exchange his Silver Ranked Martial Spirit for the Unique Martial Card. As compared to real physical training, training of the martial spirit was much harder.
After hearing what Sai Lei had to say, Bing also felt that they might not be able to get their hands on the Purple Gold Grade Spirit Card. He said: “You don’t have to worry. Besides the card from Crypto-sword Saint, there is another card.”
“Still have one more card?” Tang Tian asked.
“Yep, before Ghost Claw Nong died, he placed an essence of his martial spirit into the card that was hanging on the same Martial Technique Wall as the Fire Scythe Ghost Claw. This card started to behave weirdly and devoured the other Martial Spirit Cards.” Bing said. “Till now, it has already devoured 18 pieces of Martial Spirit Cards.”
“Ghost Claw!” Tang Tian shuddered after hearing the name. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
“Because this entire process can fail at any time.” Bing explained. “The dead never wish to have the living to suffer from sorrows. That was his final wish before his death. If it succeeds then it was meant to be; if it doesn’t then he would have no regrets as well.”
Tang Tian nodded: “Can the Martial Spirit Card ever become a Spirit General?”
Bing understood what Tang Tian meant, “You wish for it to become a Spirit General? Of course you can. But let me remind you, new Spirit Generals will not have the mark of the Ghost Claw. Ghost Claw’s memories have since faded, since all he left was an essence of his spirit. Even though a new Spirit General is born because of the Ghost Claw, the General will not have any relation to the Ghost Claw.”
Tang Tian looked afar and asked, “I know. The dead do not wish that the living suffer from sorrows. Just that this isn’t sorrow. This is the longing of the living for the relationship. I always had thought that Ghost Claw was now in a faraway land. I don’t feel sorrow, I just long for his presence. A new Spirit General will have his own destiny and will fight alongside us. But to think of the possibility that Ghost Claw will reincarnate, it does make me feel happy. To live is to be concerned and to feel for others.”
Sai Lei was stunned by what Tang Tian had to say. It was deep and insightful, which was not expected from him. Is he possessed by someone?
To live is to be concerned and to feel for others…
Bing had many thoughts racing through his mind. After he had calm himself down and recollected his thoughts, he let out a long sigh, “What you said is very true.”
Bing regained his composure, “This card will be set to be a Spirit General. I will place Crypto-sword Saint’s card into the Martial Spirit Chamber, and discover its origin. The Swallowing Light Steel Fist Sang Ku’s power, still needs to be evaluated. Where can I find a big card shop to assess this card?”
His last sentence was directed at Sai Lei.
Sai Lei thought about it, “If we want to buy the Purple Gold Ranked Spirit Card, we can go to a big city to check it out.”
After planning for the travel arrangement, they swiftly took off to Three Spirits City. Once they reached Sai Lei’s shop, they met up with Bell and Pipa.
After seeing two similar faces, Tang Tian asked in astonishment, “Twins?”
“Boss!” Bell shouted. Pipa, who was standing beside Bell, gave a quick glance at Tang Tian, trying to measure him up.
Sister’s boss was very young.
“My old hideout was discovered by strangers. Now I have to depend on you boss.” Bell told Tang Tian while checking on his expressions.
“Sure.” Tang Tian replied, “It is just nice that we are going to start establishing a base.”
“A base?” Bell was shocked.
“This place will become our permanent stronghold.” Bing explained, “We will build a bronze fort over here.”
“Bronze fort!” Both sisters were stunned by what Bing said.
“This is our machine engineer Sai Lei. This is Bell, an Onyx Soul Horse. If you require any information, you can look for her. This is her sister. Erm.. what is your name?” Tang Tian introduced everyone.
“You can call me Pipa.” Pipa said with a sweet voice.
“How is Pipa’s illness?” Tang Tian could hear it from Pipa’s lack of breath while speaking.
“We did not have enough time. Once we reached home, the gang of strangers had already caught onto us.” Bell replied.
“From now on you all shall live here.” Tang Tian said, “Blind Old Man is returning soon. I will then gather more people. Our defensive prowess should then be strong enough.”
Bell agreed, “That was what I thought too!”
“Sorry to disturb you all.” Pipa told everyone.
Behind the Light Door.
Tang Tian saw a Martial Spirit Card that was emitting bright rays of light from it behind the Light Door. It was magical.
“This card has devoured 18 other Martial Spirit Cards. It has reached the stage where you could try to master it. Are you sure you want to turn it into a Spirit General?” Bing turned to look at Tang Tian.
At this time, Magic Flute arrived onto the new base camp. He was also excited about it.
“Yep!” Tang Tian replied while nodding his head fervently.
“Lift out your hand and place it on the Martial Technique Wall.” Bing directed Tang Tian, “Then use your martial spirit to call out to it.”
Tang Tian, without any hesitation, placed his hand onto the Martial Technique Wall. This time round his hand did not pass through the Light Door. He closed his eyes. Suddenly, his martial spirit shot out a ray of silver flame directed at the Martial Technique Wall which was behind the Light Door.
The Light Door burst into a radiance.
The place shook violently before the Light Door swallowed Tang Tian. Tang Tian felt like he was sucked into an enormous battlefield. The area was plagued with trenches that intertwined across the field. Smoke filled the air and the land was charred black. It was littered with corpses, body parts and the bits of mechanical weapons. Fragments of Southern Cross Constellation flags were part of the carnage.
Suddenly, a badly injured gold colored mechanical weapon jumped out from one of the trenches. It picked up a Southern Cross Constellation flag and started to shout, “Southern Cross Constellation Army!”
“Salute!” The sound came out from every corner of the trenches, converging into a powerful current that swept across the battlefield.
The lifeless land suddenly seem to be awaken by the loud sound. One by one, bronze mechanical weapons started to crawl out from the trenches. Every one of them was littered with scars and was badly injured. The once empty battlefield was now engulfed by bronze mechanical weapons.
Everywhere was filled with enemies.
The gold colored mechanical weapon breathed in deeply while holding firmly onto the Southern cross Constellation flag, “Are you all still able to fight?”
“Fight!” All the mechanical weapons shouted in sync.
The gold mechanical weapon shouted again, but now at a higher volume: “Are you all still able to fight on?”
All the bronze mechanical weapons repeated in sync again: “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
The fervent roars echoed across the battlefield.
“Kill!” The gold mechanical weapon called out while leading the pact.
“Kill!” The bronze mechanical weapons shouted in sync yet again.
Countless bronze mechanical weapons started to charge. Their heavy bronze feet emitted loud bangs with every step they took.
The earth trembled as the sky turned grey.
The war cries grew dim as time went by.
An indifferent voice could be heard in the distance.
“The spirit of soldiers will never die. We will fight till our death!”
“Southern Cross Army Staff Sergeant Tang Yi, reporting for duty.”