Chapter 62: The Scheming Team-Up Phase (21)

He Yu’s eyes brightened slightly.

His voice was hoarse and low, yet it carried an indescribable force.

“I think... I may have thought of a way.”

Hearing this, the others immediately looked at him, their eyes burning.

“What way?” Wanrenzhan asked impatiently, eyes wide.

He was shocked. Faced with such a difficult situation, faced with a sea of fire they could barely resist, He Yu could still think of a solution?

He Yu reached out and took the fan from Ling Buchen’s hand. His lips curved slightly.

“Do you remember Flaming Mountain? What do you think of... the Palm Leaf Fan?”

Wanrenzhan: “?”

Duan Yuchen: “??”

—What was he talking about?

Before the two of them could ask, Ling Buchen understood. His face lit up with sudden realization, but then confusion appeared on his gentle features.

“However, this is only a low-level equipment fan. It has almost no combat power. It doesn’t have the power of the Palm Leaf Fan.”

“Hey, what exactly are you two talking about? What Palm Leaf Fan? What Flaming Mountain?” Wanrenzhan disliked this atmosphere of being excluded from He Yu and Ling Buchen’s conversation, and cut in again.

He Yu glanced at him.

“A Blue Star battle legend. You wouldn’t understand.”

After speaking, he looked back at Ling Buchen, his fingers turning the fan.

“This is a piece of low-level equipment, but don’t we have a forging master here? We can make a Palm Leaf Fan ourselves.”

Ling Buchen: “!!!”

Duan Yuchen did not understand what the two were talking about either, but he more or less understood the latter half.

He Yu wanted him to forge this low-level equipment into high-level equipment?

To put out the fire?

Duan Yuchen frowned.

“Leaving aside whether a fan can even be used here, without ore and materials, I have no way to forge this fan into high-level equipment. This method of yours...”

Bang—

The magma exploded again.

The surging sea of fire lunged toward them. After it fell, the flames it rolled up almost brushed their feet. The torturous heat rose once more, tormenting everyone like a steamer.

He Yu’s breathing became labored.

Scalding air entered his respiratory tract. Following the path of his breath, it seemed to set all his internal organs ablaze.

Everywhere in his body hurt.

Even Wanrenzhan and Duan Yuchen, who were blocking the front, were burned red from the heat, let alone the weak He Yu and Ling Buchen.

The two of them were on the verge of fainting, holding on entirely by willpower.

The island shrank again.

“No! If this keeps going, we won’t survive. Every wave of magma is fiercer than the last. Three more times at most, and the island will be gone.” Wanrenzhan’s face was grim. The injury on his hand had worsened.

This place truly lived up to the name hell.

Every second they stayed here, the pain grew worse.

Enduring the agony, He Yu’s voice grew even hoarser.

“There’s no other way. Duan Yuchen, I’ll help you while you forge it.”

He swallowed with difficulty. His dry, hoarse throat struggled to make a sound.

“I obtained <Complete Guide to Equipment Forging> in the last stage. Although I only skimmed through it, based on what I’ve understood and inferred, equipment forging doesn’t use ore itself. It uses the combat power energy inside the ore. Equipment is only the middleman.”

He stared fixedly at Duan Yuchen.

Even though he was weak, even though he was dizzy, his eyes remained focused and firm.

“Thirty percent chance. Do you want to bet?”

Thirty percent?

He Yu had always been the type of person who would not speak unless he had at least an eighty percent chance.

Now, the situation had already become so critical that they could only gamble on a thirty percent possibility.

Duan Yuchen’s breathing grew somewhat heavy.

Even now, he still did not quite understand what He Yu meant.

Without ore or raw materials, how was he supposed to forge equipment?

How was he supposed to increase the equipment’s level?

He Yu would help him?

How would he help him?

If this were any ordinary time, Duan Yuchen definitely would not have paid attention to this madman who was speaking nonsense.

Hadn’t he merely obtained one <Complete Guide to Equipment Forging>?

What gave him the right to think he understood forging?

—Forging was a skill.

Learning forging was absolutely not something that could be done overnight.

He Yu had only skimmed a book, and he already dared to interfere in forging?

Normally, Duan Yuchen would absolutely curse back at him.

He might even feel that He Yu had insulted forging itself.

But now, they were in a desperate situation.

He had almost already prepared to use his voting support.

Since there was already no path to survival...

Then should he try it?

He did not know why, but looking into He Yu’s serious eyes, he found himself wanting to listen to him.

Wanting to try once.

Duan Yuchen took a deep breath and took out his forging support equipment. His voice was hoarse.

“My brain must be broken. I’m actually listening to you direct forging...”

Although he said that, he still threw out his support equipment and took the fan, tossing it out as well.

Duan Yuchen’s forging support equipment had been handmade during the preliminaries. Later, he had obtained equipment during the preliminaries and the first elimination round, upgrading this support equipment.

His support equipment consisted of four fishhooks. Two hung above, and two hung upside down below, clamping the fan in the middle.

Since there was fire here already, Duan Yuchen did not take out any flame of his own. He directly used the churning inferno to scorch the fan.

His hands moved continuously, as if following some unique pattern.

The fishhooks and his movements consumed combat power.

That fan was very weak. Without the fishhooks and Duan Yuchen’s movements, it would probably have already turned to ash.

But because of the fishhooks and Duan Yuchen’s movements, the fan remained in its original state.

Only, upon closer inspection, one would discover—

The patterns on the fan were flowing.

He Yu’s body was weak and powerless.

But at this moment, even though he could barely stand and had to support himself against Wanrenzhan, his eyes remained fixed on Duan Yuchen, watching his movements closely.

The livestream comments had already filled the screen.

“Damn, Master Duan really has gone crazy. He’s actually listening to He Yu’s random commands.”

“There’s no questioning Duan Yuchen’s forging skill, but He Yu, a garbage-star contestant who doesn’t know shit, is actually ordering Master Duan around?”

“I only learned a little bit of forging, but even I know that without ore and raw materials, there’s no way to upgrade equipment. What is he going to use for the upgrade? What can He Yu even do?”

“He doesn’t understand forging at all! Stop wasting time and leave already, or something’s going to happen!”

“He Yu calculated everything, an undercover player who eliminated everyone else and made it this far. Who would’ve thought he’d still lose to the competition itself? It’s kind of sad.”

“Do you think he’s trying to drag Master Duan and Wanrenzhan down with him?”

“Am I the only one who thinks He Yu might really have a way? When he proposed the combat power martial arts system before, you all mocked him like this too, and then you got slapped in the face...”

...

The audience was not optimistic about He Yu.

Anything that surpassed one’s own understanding was always difficult to accept.

It made people instinctively deny it, reject it.

Because once they accepted it, their entire understanding would be overturned.

And inside Inferno Hell, He Yu was still staring intently at Duan Yuchen.

No wonder he had the capital to be arrogant.

Forging this skill truly was extremely difficult to learn and extremely difficult to improve.

<Complete Guide to Equipment Forging> was just like <Basic Principles of Combat Power Development>. They were both foundational books.

But He Yu valued foundations greatly.

Unfortunately, he had spent many days studying the latter, while for the former, the second round had begun right after he obtained it.

He had not had time to study it carefully at all!

Otherwise, this process would not require Duan Yuchen at all.

It was precisely because he had not yet studied it, and still had some doubts about forging, that this task could only be handed to Duan Yuchen.

Duan Yuchen gritted his teeth.

“He Yu, what exactly are you trying to do? At this stage of forging, it’s time to merge in the ore and materials for upgrading. Right now, we don’t have anything!”

Whether it was combat power ore or other ores like defensive ones, they had to be added at this moment.

The more he operated, the more he felt that he had gone insane.

He was actually listening to He Yu direct forging!

—He even faintly suspected that He Yu wanted to leave them here to be buried with him.

He Yu watched his operation.

Forging required many complicated steps. Outsiders could only watch the show.

But He Yu could see it—

When Duan Yuchen’s hands changed movements frantically, they were driving energy.

Those were not complicated forging hand signs.

They were drawing energy.

The Universe Federation had actually already come into contact with energy, but they only regarded it as gestures and patterns, not energy.

—So this was forging.

He Yu’s lips curved slightly.

The original thirty percent chance had now become sixty percent.

The magma continued churning.

He Yu’s left hand touched the bead at his neck.

The more dangerous it was, the luckier he became.

Then, now, let them gamble on this sixty percent chance together.

His right hand lifted.

He frantically drew in the surrounding energy.

The scorching energy seemed to burn him completely, but he endured it, immediately guiding that energy into the fan.

Whoosh—

The fan began spinning madly.

Duan Yuchen froze, and the movement of his hands faltered.

He Yu said, “Don’t stop.”

Duan Yuchen subconsciously continued operating.

He was using the gestures for merging ore.

He had not added ore or raw materials, yet the fan was spinning at high speed, increasing its combat power at a terrifying pace!

—As a forging master, Duan Yuchen could clearly sense it.

His pupils contracted.

His hands did not stop moving, but his face was filled with shock and horror.

It actually worked?!

Equipment combat power could be improved without ore or raw materials?

Just like He Yu’s “formation” and “Star Absorbing Great Art,” this was something that completely overturned his understanding.

His hands mechanically continued to operate, but his thoughts had already drifted outside his movements.

His entire body was stunned senseless.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

The fan spun faster and faster, so fast it became an afterimage.

Then it slowly grew larger, transforming into a gigantic fan, taking on the appearance of the “Palm Leaf Fan” in He Yu’s memory.

Duan Yuchen, Wanrenzhan, Ling Buchen, and the audience had all been stunned by the fan’s transformation.

They stared blankly at the fan, as if unable to believe their own eyes.

At that moment—

Boom!

This sound did not come from the fan.

It came from the magma!

While they were distracted, the erupting magma reached its most frenzied state yet.

Blazing-red flames rose high into the air. Like ocean waves, they swept toward them.

The terrifying, stormy magma surged and slammed ashore.

The final clean patch of the island was about to be swallowed and drowned.

Their pupils contracted.

They jolted back from their shock over the fan and stared in terror at the magma crashing toward them.

The trembling fear that came from the depths of their souls made their hearts feel as if they had been squeezed tight in an instant.

In the scorching temperature, they felt a bone-chilling coldness from the bottom of their hearts.

Fiery red reflected in their pupils.

It was as if the entire world had turned into flame.

He Yu shouted:

“Wanrenzhan, use the fan!”

Wanrenzhan was still caught in terror. Hearing He Yu’s voice, he subconsciously leapt up, stepped on the broom, grabbed the fan, and at the moment the magma fell, faced the magma and swung with all his strength.

There was only one thought in his mind—

He was finished.

He could not even escape.

He had actually followed He Yu’s command and charged toward this terrifying magma.

He really was going to be buried with that weakling from a garbage star.

Clearly...

He had 200,000 votes!

Wanrenzhan was in the middle of collapse.

However, a scene that made everyone’s eyes widen occurred.

After Wanrenzhan swung with all his might, that strangely shaped emerald-green fan actually brought forth an earth-shattering hurricane and met the magma head-on.

The invisible, terrifying hurricane slammed fiercely into the magma.

Whoosh—

Splat!

The former was the sound of wind.

The latter was the sound of magma being smashed back.

Yes.

Smashed back.

The magma that had almost been about to cover their faces was waved back by the fan...

Waved back...

Back...

Wanrenzhan lowered his head blankly and looked at the Palm Leaf Fan in his hand.

Then he blankly looked at the magma.

—It was just waved back?

Silence.

Utter silence.

The livestream comments were completely blank as well.

He Yu let out a long breath.

Feeling the weakness and powerlessness throughout his entire body, he could only lean against Ling Buchen, the two “weaklings” supporting each other by sheer willpower.

After all, Wanrenzhan, the person he had been leaning on earlier, had already gone to fan the wind.

“It works,” He Yu said faintly.

His voice woke the shocked others, especially Duan Yuchen.

As a forging master, he was persistent in pursuing forging techniques, and he also recognized his own forging skill.

But now, his understanding had been overturned.

He raised his voice in disbelief.

“Why? What did you do?!”

Originally, that was only an ordinary fan.

After his processing, its combat power could at most be raised to twenty.

But now, the wind brought by this fan had an immeasurable power.

Moreover, it happened to be “the right cure for the right illness,” perfectly restraining the magma that had driven them to despair.

He Yu spread his hands, weak and powerless.

“I only sent a little energy into the fan. Same principle as the Star Absorbing Great Art.”

Combat power was energy.

The method of increasing equipment’s combat power was—

Merging ores that possessed combat power-increasing properties into it.

He skipped the intermediate steps and directly injected energy into it.

Wasn’t that the same?

Sure enough, it was very feasible.

He Yu’s verification succeeded.

He was perfectly satisfied.

Energy again!

They had heard this word from He Yu many times.

From disbelief and suspicion at the beginning, to curiosity, and now to shock.

But the problem was, none of them understood what this “energy” He Yu spoke of actually was, nor how it should be obtained.

And clearly, He Yu had no intention of continuing to explain.

Duan Yuchen’s breathing became heavy.

His eyes stared fixedly at He Yu.

Before this, he had thought that He Yu should be killed.

If there was a chance, he should be eliminated immediately.

After all, He Yu was too terrifying.

Especially after becoming someone else’s support.

But now, he wanted even more to know what He Yu had mastered.

This kind of forging ability.

This kind of forging method.

This so-called energy...

Duan Yuchen wanted to know all of it!

Wanrenzhan closed his gaping mouth and swallowed.

“This fan... what was it called again?”

“Palm Leaf Fan. Made specifically to counter Flaming Mountain,” He Yu said.

Wanrenzhan asked, “Is this also your Blue Star’s technology?”

He had not forgotten that He Yu had previously said “a Blue Star battle legend.”

Since there was a legend, then it must have existed.

He Yu only smiled without speaking.

After the blankness, the livestream comments instantly exploded.

“Aaaaah! Fuck, this fan is way too awesome!”

“It’s He Yu who’s awesome. How exactly did he do it?”

“I rewound it several times. He really only raised his hand. He didn’t throw any ore in!”

“He doesn’t have any ore to throw in anyway.”

“What kind of forging technology is this? Can you forge without ore? If this gets promoted and applied, won’t the combat power of the whole population probably increase in the future?”

“My face hurts from getting slapped. He Yu really keeps refreshing everyone’s understanding!”

“Mom asked me why I’m kneeling to watch the livestream!”

“Vote for He Yu. I’m getting more and more curious about him now. He can’t die. He has to stay alive.”

“...I’m different. I simply like He Yu. He’s too awesome!”

...

--

Royal Palace.

The King withdrew his gaze from the screen.

“How are the investigation results on Blue Star?”

The Secretary-General respectfully replied:

“They’re still investigating. Blue Star looks very peaceful, but what’s hidden beneath that peace and weakness may be just like He Yu—extraordinary.”

The King said, “Be more specific.”

The Secretary-General replied:

“Blue Star’s technology is very backward, and its combat power is also very poor. But according to the information we’ve gathered, there is Taiji, Star Absorbing Great Art, Nine Yin Scripture, and so on.”

“As for the Palm Leaf Fan, we haven’t heard of that yet, but our people personally saw someone spray fire from their mouth, someone use collarbone shrinking skill, and even people who can change faces and swallow knives...”

The King’s pupils contracted.

His voice was hoarse.

“As expected, Blue Star is not a simple planet. Tell the people investigating to be even more careful. They must not act rashly. They must confirm whether there are hidden masters.”

The Federation, which revered martial force, placed strength above all else.

Combat power could change many things.

They were the typical sort who spoke with their fists.

Some planets were very weak, but once a super expert appeared among them, no one dared provoke that planet anymore.

After all, if a super expert wanted to destroy a planet, it would be exceedingly easy.

Although Blue Star had no combat power, if it possessed other, even more terrifying abilities, they had to be cautious.

He Yu had already displayed some of those...

Terrifying abilities.

They could not afford to be careless.

“Yes!”

Blue Star.

Wei Jiaguo murmured:

“Blue Star’s battle legends. Flaming Mountain, the Palm Leaf Fan... As expected, He Yu is making things half-real and half-fake, preventing the Federation from figuring us out.”

He took a deep breath and looked at the screen.

“Clip this segment and hand it to the research institute.”

“Although we don’t have a combat power system, compared to the Universe Federation, we understand what He Yu is trying to express better. Perhaps we can research energy one step ahead.”

Ye Kaijun said:

“Right. The research must be done as soon as possible. I’m afraid we won’t be able to hide things from the Federation for long.”

Wei Jiaguo turned his head toward his secretary and said:

“Continue having people secretly perform acrobatics and tricks. Spread some indistinguishable true-and-false rumors.”

Because of He Yu’s operation, let alone the Universe Federation, even many people on Blue Star had begun suspecting whether martial arts truly existed on Blue Star...

The secretary nodded heavily.

Wei Jiaguo’s gaze remained grave.

They could stall for a while, but they could not stall forever.

What should they do in the future?

Thus, after “Flaming Mountain, Palm Leaf Fan” trended, while Blue Star’s people were laughing and joking about it, many scholars suddenly emerged to state—

Many of Blue Star’s ancient legends had origins.

Perhaps they were all adaptations of things that had once truly happened.

Including Blue Star’s classical mythological legends, which were also very likely real.

Immediately, Blue Star began heated discussions.

Boasting mixed with casual nonsense.

Truth and falsehood tangled together.

Reality and illusion blurred.

The people investigating Blue Star were completely unable to make sense of it.

--

Inferno Hell.

Wanrenzhan held the Palm Leaf Fan and looked at He Yu.

“So what do we do now? Use this fan to extinguish all the fire in Inferno Hell?”

He Yu nodded.

“Yes.”

Wanrenzhan scratched his head.

“But if there’s a boss, it shouldn’t be possible to extinguish it, right?”

He Yu looked at him.

On his face, red from the heat, he pulled out a smile.

“Wanrenzhan, is it because I’m too smart?”

Wanrenzhan froze, his eyes blank.

He Yu said:

“So much so that you rely entirely on my brain and have stopped using that head of yours that can still move.”

Wanrenzhan: “...”

He heard it.

He Yu was going in circles to scold him for not using his brain!

Wanrenzhan was about to start cursing, when beside them, Ling Buchen said weakly:

“What He Yu means is, you only need to put out the fire. If you can put it out, that’s good. If you can’t and you draw out the boss, that’s even better. After all, this stage probably still requires finding the boss to clear it.”

Wanrenzhan said coldly:

“I know that. Did I need trash like you to say it?”

Ling Buchen touched his nose and shrank behind He Yu, pressing close to him.

The two supported each other.

Duan Yuchen said:

“So how exactly did you do it?”

He was still fixated on forging.

He Yu naturally would not tell him.

He did not answer.

He only looked at Wanrenzhan.

“Continue. Fan out the surrounding flames and see if you can draw out this stage’s boss.”

Hearing this, Wanrenzhan nodded and jumped onto the flying broom.

“He Yu, support me.”

He Yu said, “Mm.”

He answered and barely steadied himself.

Beside him, Ling Buchen supported him.

Their eyes briefly met, then moved away.

He Yu injected energy into Wanrenzhan’s body.

Wanrenzhan gripped the Palm Leaf Fan and stepped on the broom.

Looking savagely at the magma below, he gnashed his teeth.

“You tormented me earlier. Now it’s my turn to take revenge!”

After speaking, he leapt up and swung downward with all his strength.

Frenzied combat power.

A fan of boundless might.

The two stacked together and charged toward the magma with even more terrifying force.

Everywhere the wind passed, the flames were extinguished.

“Roar!”

Wanrenzhan bellowed, carrying the fan as he swung with all his might.

One swing to the left.

One swing to the right.

Very quickly, he extinguished all the nearby flames.

His energy was abundant, and he had no need to stop.

He charged directly deeper in.

He swung the fan with fierce, roaring momentum, fanning out a broad road beneath his feet.

Ling Buchen said:

“Wanrenzhan... is quite useful.”

He Yu nodded in agreement.

Drenched in sweat, Wanrenzhan did not stop.

The area where he extinguished the flames grew wider and wider.

Even when magma sprayed toward him, he immediately jumped up and swung the fan, ruthlessly putting it out.

Rumble—

The ground shook and the mountains swayed.

Wanrenzhan’s expression sharpened.

He Yu also straightened and looked into the distance.

A large stretch of the sea of fire had already been extinguished by the fan, but quite a lot still remained.

Suddenly, a colossal creature rose from within the sea of fire.

Its massive body was terrifying.

The surrounding sea of fire flowed toward that giant monster like a flood, piling outside its body and making its size even more enormous.

As the gathered flames gradually calmed, that colossal creature looked toward them.

It was—

A blazing fire bull.

Flames sprayed from its nostrils, as if it had been completely enraged by them.

After looking at them for only a moment, it stomped its gigantic flaming hooves and charged.

Moreover, its target was not Wanrenzhan, who held the Palm Leaf Fan.

It was—

He Yu.

Capture the king first.

It seemed to know intelligently who had threatened it.

As the enraged blazing fire bull ran, it seemed as if the sky were collapsing and the earth were splitting.

The ground trembled along with it.

Its nostrils sprayed fire.

Towering flames surged over its body as well.

It charged straight at He Yu!