Chapter 199 - Warlord, Vortex Cloud!

“Everyone, do you look down on me that much?”

10 people came up to him in one go, and some couldn’t even wait to start the fight. Obviously, they thought he was easy to challenge and might be replaced by others at any time.

Some people didn’t respond to Lin Yao’s words, while others smiled and said, “Little devil, don’t blame us. Among the six of you, you’re the only beginner warlord.”

Beginner warlord—this was Lin Yao’s current cultivation level.

Lin Yao was already considered the strongest among the youths in Ninghai City. However, in Shanghai, this was merely regarded as a breakthrough. When Lin Yao scanned the people who came up to him with his gaze, he discovered that most of them were intermediate warlords, and almost none were beginner warlords. These youths seemed to be as strong as Lin Yao. Lin Yao finally understood why they were that worried.

“You haven’t even reached the standard of a genius, so how are you going to win? How can the Flowery Sect possibly let you continue to be the gatekeeper after your repeated failures?”

This mentality was not wrong, but they had forgotten something. People advanced and became beginner warlords at different stages of the Iron Person. Therefore, one couldn’t speak of two people in the same breath.

After he sensed the strength of the people around him and realized that no one was a threat to him, the vital energy cyclone inside Lin Yao’s body began to spin slightly.

Yes, it was a vital energy cyclone. After advancing from a martial artist to a warlord, aside from breaking the upper limit of life and the body’s shackles to allow the body to continue to improve, the energy in the warlord’s body would also change.

This change might seem effortless, but it gathered the individual vital energy seeds in the lower abdomen and then compressed them into a gaseous vortex-like cloud.

This condensation would converge the vital energy seeds into one. Take Lin Yao for example. In the past, he used to need to blow up the vital energy seeds one by one. However, he no longer needed to do that now. As the condensed, gaseous vital energy cyclone began to spin, a powerful feeling filled Lin Yao’s body and mind.

The vital energy was boosting him and providing him with strength.

Of course, a beginner warlord could only unleash 10% and not 100% of the power of the gaseous vital energy cyclone. If they wanted to become an intermediate warlord, they would have to do their utmost to increase the maneuverability while strengthening the vital energy cyclone.

One would be considered an intermediate warlord only when one was able to manipulate 30% of the power and the vital energy cyclone had also grown to a certain extent.

Right now, Lin Yao could only manipulate 10% of the power, whereas others could manipulate 30%, which was seemingly disadvantageous for Lin Yao.

Nevertheless, Lin Yao had only advanced to a warlord when he’d reached Iron Person 1,000%. Therefore, 10% of his strength was akin to that of 100 vital energy seeds.

As for those who had advanced as elite warlords, the intermediate ones could unleash the power of 90 vital energy seeds. If they were ordinary warriors, they could only unleash the power of 30 vital energy seeds even at the intermediate level.

Lin Yao would be able to crush them with the vital energy seeds alone, not to mention his powerful body and various talents.

Most critically, beginner warlords could indeed control 10% to 29% of the power, but this was not a given. Some of the combat skills which specialized in this aspect could make the warlord temporarily improve their manipulation of the vital energy cyclone. At the same time, the profound meaning of combat skills could also achieve this. A martial artist with powerful profound meaning could mobilize powerful energy instantly and unleash powers far beyond their current cultivation level.

Unfortunately for them, Lin Yao had a profound meaning, and it was one that could coordinate the entire body and control everything.

[Gene Lock—Unlocked]

[Second Level—Thinking Speed Acceleration]

The electric current stored in the Thunderbolt Mark on Lin Yao’s forehead entered his brain, accelerating his thinking speed thrice and sharpening his arithmetic ability.

In this state, the feeling of full-body control filled Lin Yao’s body and mind. It was at this moment that he finally understood why thinking speed acceleration was the second level of the gene lock and also why Professor Li had been so excited upon seeing his mental strength advance to the second level.

It was not just the slowing down of everything before his eyes that used thinking speed acceleration and the improved arithmetic ability. The unique function of complete control of everything was the reason this state was named the second level of the gene lock.

‘Military boxing can unlock only the first level of the gene lock—body control. The second level involves the brain and mental strength, which military boxing can’t unlock. Fortunately, I participated in Project Thunder God.

‘It is a complete waste to control the entire body with the second level of the gene lock—thinking speed acceleration. The true function of this profound meaning is to control everything and its arithmetic ability.’

The powerful arithmetic ability and the second level of the gene lock could control everything. After Lin Yao unlocked the thinking speed acceleration, he immediately mobilized the cyclone at his lower abdomen. His foundation was very strong, but his mental strength was too weak compared to the cyclone. Therefore, he couldn’t completely control that massive vital energy cyclone but only 50% of it. This also meant that Lin Yao could unleash the power of 500 vital energy seeds in one go.

The use of 500 vital energy seeds at one go was akin to the strength of a beginner warlord. This was 50 times the strength of an ordinary warlord. If they had advanced to become a peak warlord, Lin Yao would also be five times stronger than them. Lin Yao could even control twice the vital energy of peak elite warlords.

The competency gap during the advancement became obvious at that moment. The gap between top geniuses and ordinary people was as massive as the vast ocean.

Of course, when they advanced from beginner to peak level warlords, ordinary warlords and elite warlords were not only controlling but also strengthening their vital energy cyclones. Let’s not talk about ordinary warlords. Elite warlords were able to unleash the power of more than 300 vital energy seeds when they reached the peak level. Despite this, Lin Yao was terribly strong, especially when all the people who came on stage at that moment were intermediate elite warlords. There weren’t any advanced or peak warlords.

It was much faster to activate thinking speed acceleration through the Thunderbolt Mark on Lin Yao’s forehead. As soon as Lin Yao used his mind, that feeling of complete control flooded his body and mind, and everything in the world slowed down before his eyes.

Meanwhile, the warlords who had come on stage weren’t aware of the impending danger and were trying to force others to leave with words.

“Buddies, I came first. I should go first.”

“Scoundrel, I’m the one who came first.”

“No, I should be the one.”

“Damn it! Luozi, are you opposing me?”

“Okay, stop arguing. We are now trying to pass the gatekeeper test. We’re making ourselves look bad by fighting amongst ourselves.”

“What do you think we should do then?”

“Let the gatekeeper choose.”

…

As the people in the arena argued, the other spokespersons in the distance were rubbernecking. Jin Cheng, who was among them, almost laughed out loud.

‘I haven’t even done anything, and you’re already losing face.’

While he was struggling to contain his laughter, he suddenly saw someone coming in a car. When he took a closer look, he realized that his few buddies and Sister Qin, their benefactor, had arrived.

His teammates looked helpless. Their leader, Sister Qin, still looked as shrewd as ever, albeit somewhat worried.

“Sister Qin, you are here. Should I get onstage and help that kid… Junior Brother?”

Although he hated Lin Yao, he pretended he was willing to help in front of Qin Ya.

In response, Qin Ya shook her head. “No, he’ll be able to handle it properly.”

“I trust him.”

Jiang Tianyou, who was in the building of the Flowery Sect, was the one who spoke at the same time as Qin Ya. Lin Yao had been treated this way for some time. The spokespersons and those who hated him were yearning for a good show. Nevertheless, Lin Yao was representing the Flowery Sect, which made many disciples of the Flowery Sect feel offended.

Someone wanted to replace Lin Yao on the spot. Of course, there were also some self-interests involved. Jiang Tianyou would be shamed if the person he had recommended made the Flowery Sect lose face. Also, if the others were to replace Lin Yao and achieve victory after going onstage, they would be able to suppress Jiang Tianyou a little.

In the end, Jiang Tianyou turned down their suggestions. The others didn’t press on. Instead, they said indifferently, “We can still remedy the situation by replacing him and claiming that this was a joke. But if he fails, are you going to bear the responsibility?”

“Yes, I will bear the responsibility.”

“That’s good.”

…

Regardless of what the audience and the people in the VIP room thought, the 10-odd warlords had already discussed this and come to a consensus.

“Who do you want to fight against? Tell us.”

As someone said this, several voices were transmitted to Lin Yao’s ears.

“Brother, choose me. I’ll go easy on you later.”

“Let’s do this. I won’t embarrass you that much.”

“…”

These words infuriated Lin Yao, and electric light burst from his eyes.

“You guys… shouldn’t have antagonized me!”

As he said these ice-cold words, a massive aura emanated from his body and swept across the periphery of the arena.

10 meters, 100 meters, 300 meters, 500 meters, 1,000 meters, 1,500 meters, 2,000 meters… 2,400 meters…

The massive aura rushed out to a distance of 2,400 meters, and everyone who was swept by the aura couldn’t help shuddering coldly as if they had been electrocuted.

However, at the moment, no one cared about any of this. The crowd of onlookers who had been mocking Lin Yao earlier was staring at the arena with terrified gazes. Over there, someone was raising his hand high, as if he was about to grasp the sky.

As he raised his hand toward the sky, a horrible scene occurred. Dark clouds gathered from all directions. The thick, dark clouds blocked the sun, making the square in front of them dimmer.

“You guys are a little unlucky. Although it is not a rainy day, the sky is quite cloudy.”

Boom!

As soon as he finished his words, thunder and lightning mounted in the thick, dark clouds, and new thunderbolts spread in the clouds quickly.

Boom!

Within a short time, thunder roared in the sky and the thick, dark clouds had completely transformed into a thundercloud.

Using the energy of 500 vital energy seeds, backed by the Thunderbolt Mark, which contained the power of a trace of law, and fully activating the Heavenly Thunder to LV3 (72%), which was close to LV4, Lin Yao summoned the dark clouds and lightning from the cloudy sky.

The terrifying thundercloud, which was more than 100 meters long, contained the ultimate threat. At present, the players onstage didn’t even know that their ignorance had caused them huge trouble.

However, it was too late to retreat. As Lin Yao had said earlier, they shouldn’t have provoked him.

Boom. As Lin Yao waved down his raised palm slightly, the sky and the earth turned white instantly. Thunderbolts fell from the sky, and the striking lightning scorched everyone’s eyes, stunning their minds.

“Let the thunderbolts annihilate everything!”