On First Island, inside his room.
Li Dui opened his eyes. He dried the tears covering his face with Origin Force.
The illusion on the Seventh Island had already exceeded Li Dui's limits. And he hadn't wanted to resist it. The instant he severed his connection to the Hula Hoop, he'd been pulled under.
He hadn't been trapped for long. Once the Illusion Sea determined that a trial-taker had no chance of regaining his senses, it would kick them out.
After calming down, Li Dui began to think it over.
He could now confirm that the Hula Hoop could help him resist illusions, and that its ability was exceptionally powerful.
That unmistakable feeling of clarity had been even stronger than when he'd conquered the First Island. So, without making any promises beyond that, he was sure it could carry him through at least four or five more islands. It might even manage more.
So he needed to keep strengthening the stability of his connection to the Hula Hoop.
Ideally, he'd be able to connect whenever he wanted, and the connection would never break unless he chose to sever it.
That should help in battle, too. He'd only need to connect, not comprehend anything, so it shouldn't take much concentration. Compared with the benefit of being immune to illusion attacks, using up some focus and perhaps slightly reducing his combat strength wouldn't be much of a drawback.
He checked his mail. Passing through six illusion islands had earned him points.
Six messages informed Li Dui that he'd earned 100, 200, 400, 800, 1,600, and 3,200 points, for a total of 6,300. Adding the 6,200 he had left, he now had 12,500 points.
Looking at his points, he thought back to the message the Giant Axe Martial Arena had sent him earlier.
Li Dui felt an itch to take the plunge.
Sure, he was different from the other geniuses. He could stay in this safe secret realm and focus on cultivating.
But that wasn't the right thing to do. Was he supposed to keep cultivating until he became a King-level Immortal, or even a Venerable, before venturing outside?
That was assuming he could even reach that level.
Even if he could, he shouldn't do that. A rookie with nothing but strength, facing a crowd of old hands who'd lived, fought, and schemed for countless years? They'd kill him in no time.
Going out to explore and grow now would actually be safer. The risks were manageable.
Take Universe Rank trial missions, for example. Many had sky-high death rates and seemed incredibly dangerous. But most deaths came from people asking for trouble or having bad luck.
"Besides, when it comes to the Universe Rank, my raw strength is pretty damn good. I'm much stronger than Luo Feng was when he first started taking missions." Li Dui thought confidently.
Of course, Luo Feng had his own advantages. The guy had clones and didn't have to worry about dying.
Once the idea took hold, Li Dui could barely contain himself. He entered the Virtual Universe, opened the armory on his tablet, and went to the technology weapons section.
Then he clicked on spaceships.
Having a good spaceship was important for missions. If he ran into an enemy he couldn't handle, his ship might be able to take a few hits, giving him a chance to escape if he was lucky.
As he recalled, Luo Feng's Machine Race spaceship had played a major role.
There were no F-class spaceships in the list. Fine. He wasn't worthy.
Ordinary E-class spaceships were available for free.
E9-class ships made by the Virtual Universe Company were excellent. Depending on their speed and weapons, they cost between 100 and 500 points.
The Virtual Universe Company's top-of-the-line spaceship. Equipped with an E9-Grade Laser Cannon and etched with basic acceleration and defense runes. Together with its energy shield, it can withstand several attacks from an Ordinary Immortal. 1,200 points. Note: This spaceship is sold only to Core Members of the Five Great Powers. It cannot be gifted or resold and can only be bought back by the Virtual Universe Company.
An E9-class spaceship from the Machine Race, equipped with a Star Annihilator Cannon, cost 1,800 points.
Li Dui chose the Virtual Universe Company's top-of-the-line E9-class spaceship. The 1,200 points were deducted.
"Can withstand several attacks from an Ordinary Immortal." He liked that feature. As for the restrictions on reselling it, that was probably because of the E9-Grade Laser Cannon. The thing could kill an ordinary World Lord as easily as a chicken. In the hands of an ordinary powerhouse, it really was too powerful.
Whatever. Li Dui had no intention of selling it.
As for the Star Annihilator Cannon, its power couldn't be concentrated. It was supposedly equivalent to an Immortal-level attack, but it couldn't actually kill an Immortal. A bit more show than substance. There was no need to buy a Machine Race spaceship just for that.
With the spaceship taken care of, Li Dui returned to the upper-level menu and clicked on biological lifeforms. He searched for defensive auxiliary lifeforms.
Hundreds of results appeared. Among them was a familiar name: Mo Yun Vine. It was certainly a good choice, but Li Dui wasn't in a hurry. He opened the entries one by one to take a look.
One called Xi, a Metal Lifeform, caught his attention. It was touted as "the strongest defense and weakest attack among lifeforms of the same rank." The description said that its defensive strength was more than 30 percent higher than that of other well-known defensive lifeforms. Its drawback was that it had almost no ability to entangle or restrain opponents.
It was a lump of iron that could only take a beating. Li Dui liked it. This was exactly the kind of thing he wanted to absorb damage for him. He had no clones, so keeping himself safe came first.
Attack power? He didn't lack that. And there wasn't an auxiliary lifeform in the world that he could afford to raise and that could come close to his own attack power.
Xi looked like a twelve-sided metal pillar. Each side naturally bore a six-sided plate of armor, somewhat like a shield.
Raising it with different materials would give it a different number of armor plates, from a minimum of 12 to a maximum of 120.
The description said that an Immortal-level Xi with 120 plates could withstand attacks from a High King.
Of course, raising Xi to that level came at a staggering cost.
Li Dui wasn't thinking that far ahead. Auxiliary lifeforms consumed more and more resources as they advanced. Before reaching World Lord, the costs were still manageable.
Xi cost 5 points to redeem. Ridiculously expensive. Mo Yun Vine could be bought with ordinary currency.
The resources to raise Xi to Domain Lord Ninth Stage with 90 plates within ten years cost a total of 5,970 points.
That was just absurdly expensive. Li Dui even went to check the resources needed to raise Mo Yun Vine. To get it to around 216 vines and reach Domain Lord, he'd only need a few Life Fruits and a few dozen sets of Lanke Fruits. How much could that cost?
A Life Fruit cost 50 points, and a set of Lanke Fruits cost 2 points. It just took longer to grow. If he wanted to speed things up, he could add around 100 points' worth of special materials. All together, it would only cost a few hundred points.
They'd both reach Domain Lord Ninth Stage. Xi's defense would be better, but the other one could help fight, too. Now that was value for money.
No wonder Xi didn't seem very popular. Who else besides Li Dui would spend 6,000 points on one of these? Points were precious. Wouldn't it be better to trade them for secret techniques or treasures that could speed up Law Comprehension and help him become powerful sooner?
He could grumble all he wanted, but Li Dui still clicked to redeem it. They were just points. He could earn more after spending them.
A Xi at Domain Lord Ninth Stage with 90 plates could withstand an E5-Grade Laser Gun with almost no damage. Even if it was hit by an E7-Grade Laser Gun, it wouldn't be seriously injured easily.
Against an ordinary World Lord, it could just stand there and let him hit it.
He browsed the armory for a while. There were so many good things. Too bad he couldn't afford them.
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