Metal Life "?"

On the First Island, inside the living quarters.

Li Dui opened his eyes. He used his Origin Force to evaporate the tears covering his face.

The illusion on the Seventh Island was already beyond Li Dui's limits. Since he had no desire to resist that illusion, he sank into it the moment he disconnected from the "Ring."

The time spent submerged was not long. Once the Illusion Sea determined that a trial-taker had no possibility of waking up on their own, it would kick them out.

After calming his emotions, Li Dui began to ponder the situation.

It was now certain that the Hula Hoop could help him resist illusions. Its capability was quite formidable.

That extremely distinct sense of clarity was even sharper than when he had cleared the First Island. Therefore, to put it mildly, it would at least guarantee he could pass another four or five islands without any issues. It might even be stronger than that.

Thus, he needed to continue strengthening the stability of his connection with the Hula Hoop in the future.

It would be best to reach a point where he could connect at will, and it would never break unless he initiated it himself.

This should also be helpful in combat. Connecting without attempting to comprehend during a fight shouldn't consume much mental energy. Compared to the benefit of being immune to illusion attacks, spending a bit of focus—which might slightly lower his combat power—was not a significant flaw.

He checked his emails. Passing six illusion islands also came with points.

Six emails notified Li Dui that he had received 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, and 3200 points respectively, totaling 6300 points. Added to the 6200 he originally had left, Li Dui now possessed a total of 12500 points.

Looking at these points, he recalled the email previously sent by the Giant Axe Martial Arena.

Li Dui felt a stir of restlessness in his heart.

Yes, he was different from other geniuses. He could completely hide in this safe secret realm right now and cultivate honestly.

However, doing so was wrong. Should he keep cultivating until he reached King Rank Immortal, or even Venerable, before stepping out?

Setting aside whether he could even reach that level.

Even if he could, he shouldn't do it. Otherwise, a greenhorn with nothing but raw strength would be played to death in minutes by a bunch of old foxes who had lived, fought, and struggled for countless years.

On the contrary, going out to adventure and grow at this stage offered higher safety. The risks were controllable.

For instance, taking on Universe Rank trial missions. Many missions had extremely high mortality rates and appeared incredibly dangerous. In reality, many were just people courting death or having bad luck.

"Besides, purely in terms of Universe Rank, my hard power is quite impressive. At the very least, I'm much stronger than Luo Feng was when he first started doing missions," Li Dui thought confidently.

Of course, Luo Feng had his own advantages. This brother here has clones, so he isn't afraid of death.

Once the idea took root, he couldn't hold back. Li Dui entered the Virtual Universe and used his tablet to open the treasure vault.

He selected the technological weapons category and clicked on the spaceship classification.

To go on missions, having a good spaceship was important. If he encountered an enemy he couldn't resist, bringing out the spaceship might block a few hits, and if he was lucky, he could escape in it.

In his memory, that Machine Race spaceship of Luo Feng's had played a huge role.

In the list, there were no F-Grade spaceships. Fine, they weren't worthy.

Ordinary E-Grade spaceships could be obtained for free.

E9-Grade, an excellent spaceship produced by the Virtual Universe Company. Depending on speed and equipped weaponry, the value ranged from 100 to 500 points.

A top-tier spaceship produced by the Virtual Universe Company. Equipped with one E9-Grade Laser Cannon and etched with simple acceleration and defensive secret patterns. Combined with an energy shield, it could withstand several attacks from an ordinary Immortal God. 1200 points. Note: This spaceship is only sold to core members of the Five Great Powers. It cannot be gifted or resold. It can only be repurchased by the Virtual Universe Company.

A Machine Race E9-Grade spaceship, equipped with a Planet-Destroying Cannon, 1800 points.

Li Dui chose the top-tier E9-Grade spaceship produced by the Virtual Universe Company. 1200 points were deducted.

"Can withstand several attacks from an ordinary Immortal God." He really liked this feature. As for the restriction against reselling, it was probably because of the E9-Grade Laser Cannon. This thing killed ordinary World Lords like slaughtering chickens. In the hands of an ordinary powerhouse, it was indeed too fierce.

It didn't matter; Li Dui wasn't going to sell it anyway.

As for the Planet-Destroying Cannon, its power couldn't be concentrated. While it was said to be equivalent to an Immortal-level attack, it couldn't actually kill an Immortal. It was a bit flashy but impractical. There was no need to buy a Machine Race spaceship for it.

With the spaceship acquired, Li Dui returned to the upper level and clicked on the biological category. He searched for defensive auxiliary life forms.

Hundreds of results popped up. Among them was a name Li Dui was very familiar with: "Mo Yun Vine." The Mo Yun Vine was indeed a great choice. But Li Dui wasn't in a rush; he clicked on each one to take a look.

A metal life form called "Xi" caught Li Dui's attention. This was a life form known for having "the strongest defense and weakest attack among its peers." The description stated that its defensive strength was over 30% higher than other well-known defensive life forms. The drawback was that it had almost no ability to entangle or restrain opponents.

This was just a lump of iron that took hits passively. Li Dui liked it very much. This was exactly what he needed to help him soak up damage. He didn't have clones, so protecting his own safety was the top priority.

Attack power? He wasn't lacking in attack power. In this world, there simply didn't exist an auxiliary life form that he could afford to cultivate while also having an attack power approaching his own.

The Xi looked like a twelve-sided metal pillar. Each side naturally possessed a hexagonal shield-like plate.

Using different materials to cultivate it would grant it different numbers of shield plates. The weakest had 12 shields, and the strongest had 120.

The description stated that an Immortal-level Xi with 120 shields could resist attacks from a high-level King Rank.

Of course, the cost to cultivate a Xi to that level was staggering.

Li Dui didn't consider things so far off. These auxiliary life forms consumed more resources the higher their level. Before reaching World Lord, everything was still manageable.

Redeeming the Xi cost 5 points. That was expensive; the Mo Yun Vine could be bought with outside currency.

He bundled the redemption for the resources needed for the Xi to grow to a 90-shield Universe Rank 9 within ten years. The total came to 5970 points.

This was truly ridiculously expensive. Li Dui even specifically checked the cultivation resources for the Mo Yun Vine. To get a Mo Yun Vine to about 216 vines and reach Universe Rank, you just needed a few Life Fruits, a few dozen sets of Lanke Fruit, and that was about it. That didn't cost many points at all.

A Life Fruit was 50 points each. A set of Lanke Fruit was 2 points. It just took a bit longer to grow. If you wanted to accelerate it, you added about a hundred points worth of special materials. All in all, a few hundred points would get it done.

Both were Universe Rank 9. The defense was indeed worse than the Xi, but the Mo Yun Vine could help fight. The cost-effectiveness was just different.

No wonder Xi didn't seem very popular. Aside from Li Dui, who else would spend 6,000 points on something like this? Points were so precious; wouldn't it be better to exchange them for secret techniques or treasures that could accelerate one's comprehension of laws to become a powerhouse as quickly as possible?

Complaints aside, Li Dui still clicked to exchange. It was just points, right? If he spent them, he could just earn them back.

As a Tier 9 Shield Domain Lord, Xi could withstand an E5-Grade Laser Gun with almost no damage. Even if struck by an E7-Grade Laser Gun, it wouldn't be easily severely injured.

With this, he could stand there and let an average World Lord hit him.

He took a look around the treasure vault. There were so many good things, but he just couldn't afford them.