Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1128
Li Yao roared desperately at the top of his voice, only to be greeted by silence from the lights above him. Soon, the sounds of crystal suits moving about echoed. In the end, a voice that sounded like an old lion came over. "I am Colonel Luo Qisheng, commander of the 414 troop. Who am I speaking to?"
Li Yao was about to reply when he sensed Long Yangjun pat his shoulder with feeble spiritual energy. He immediately realized that somebody might be eavesdropping on the conversation.
He was unaware how deeply Professor Mo Xuan had infiltrated the army, and he certainly could not reveal his most precious trump card before the critical moment. Pondering for a moment, he said, "We are not spies from the Imperium of True Human Beings. If you have abundant battle experience, Colonel Luo, you must've seen many anomalies in the entire arrest operation!
"What is more abnormal should be everything in this hospital that you have seen. The guards whose combat ability is unbelievably high, the wards that are completely empty without a single nurse or doctor. Also, almost all the unconscious battle-type Cultivators are gone. A lot of the medical cabins have obviously been broken from inside, which means that the patients woke up by themselves and then broke the containers!
"There's also the cerebral laboratory outside and this place. Look at the new crystal processors stored in the shrines on the wall, Colonel Luo. Do you think that this is a normal hospital? Do you feel that the whole arrest operation is logical?"
After a brief silence, the same calm voice unhurriedly replied, "We've seen a lot of doctors and nurses in the administration building nearby. They were all unconscious, presumably caused by an overdose of anesthetics. We managed to wake up some of them, but they can't say exactly what happened either. According to them, they passed out for no good reason while they were working.
"So, what do you know about all the anomalies?"
Li Yao sniffed and said, "What about your superior? How did your superior respond after the image that you shot in Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital was sent to them? I don't think that spies of the Imperium of True Human Beings are capable enough of stealing thousands of vegetative patients without alarming anyone, are they?"
"There is no response from our superior," Luo Qisheng replied, "because the transportation and communication of District 109 have been cut off from the outside world. The channels leading to the six space towns nearby have been closed. The network has been shut down, too. We haven't received any explanation, nor do we need one. We only need to carry out our orders!
"The last order we have received is that District 109 must be fully closed in order to capture the spies of the Imperium of True Human Beings and to prevent them from sending the classified intelligence out. Not a fly, a telepathic thought, and a single world will leave this area!
"Our mission is to surround Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital and stop anybody in the hospital from escaping. We must persist for six hours!"
Information blackout…
Li Yao widened his eyes. Gritting his teeth so hard that they were cracking, Li Yao bellowed, "It's a lie! You have found part of the truth, and they do not want you to disseminate it. That's why they have fully closed the whole of District 109 and cut off the connection of this place to the outside world!"
"Truth? What kind of truth?" Luo Qisheng said coldly.
Li Yao took a deep, deep breath and quickly sorted out the messy thoughts in his head. Then, he selected the most important information and shouted out without any stop.
"The federation will be faced with the attack of the Black Wind Fleet within twenty-four hours. It may be our trap to bait the enemy into moving forward, but it is also possible that the enemy is pretending that they do not know about it. However, the extraterrestrial devils may be behind everything. They are trying to watch the two tigers fight and take all the advantages later!"
Luo Qisheng's voice was mixed with intense suspicion. "The extraterrestrial devils are lurking inside Professor Mo Xuan's body for the purpose of controlling the entire grand-unified Spiritual Nexus, and they can control the entire federation as well as the Black Wind Fleet after the network is under control?"
"Exactly!" Li Yao could see his own saliva spurting out in the pillars of light. "One thing, though. Twenty-four hours was our prediction at the beginning. Right now, there's less than twelve hours left, or maybe just a handful! It can be seen from the order to fully close District 109 that the enemy has possibly gained high control permissions of the entire Hundred Flowers City. Chances are that they have already occupied the Grand-Unified Spiritual Nexus Information Processing Center and are finishing the last step of their scheme!"
He was greeted by silence again. The discussion of the federal army in the darkness was conducted in an independent tactical communication channel. Naturally, Li Yao could hear none of it.
However, he did hear that a lot of crystal suits were softly colliding into each other. The noises were louder and louder, just like the soldiers' hearts that were more and more uneasy.
"Listen, colonel!" Li Yao took the opportunity to continue his persuasion. "The Black Wind Fleet is certainly a target that we must destroy, but we cannot allow the extraterrestrial devils to control the network of the entire federation! Right now, only we know the truth, and only we can stop everything! Take your troop and summon more troops of the federation army so that they will know the truth. Then, we will go to the Grand-Unified Spiritual Nexus Information Processing Center together to stop the extraterrestrial devils!"
"Don't move!" There was more graveness in Luo Qisheng's voice now. "That is not my mission. I am not authorized to move my troop away without order. I have to defend District 109. That's the order I received!"
"The order you received was false. It was very likely to be simulated by the extraterrestrial devils!" Li Yao roared desperately. Triggering part of his spiritual energy that unfolded behind him like two feeble wings, he gritted his teeth to fly upward slowly toward Colonel Luo Qisheng as well as the highly-vigilant soldiers of the federal army!
"Don't move! No matter what, it is a soldier's responsibility to obey orders!"
"It is indeed a soldier's responsibility to obey orders, but one has to act when necessary, too! The order you received was to surround Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital. They did not ask you to break into the hospital for investigation, did they? You have already violated the order, Colonel Luo! So, you must be suspicious of the whole arrangement, too, mustn't you? Then, why can't you believe everything that you've seen with your own eyes and make a judgment that a real soldier should make?"
"Stay where you are! Stay where you are! Stay where you are! Don't get any closer! Once you enter the ten-meter alert area, we will open fire without any mercy!"
"I will not stop moving, Colonel Luo, because the future of the entire federation and billions of people is at stake!
"Right now, you have two options. You can either trust me and everything you have seen and do what a real soldier of the federation should do in order to save the entire federation!
"Or, you can carry out the fake order issued by the extraterrestrial devils and idle by in front of the greatest crisis of the federation. You will sit here with your brothers like idiots for six hours. Then, you will spend the next sixty years suffering in regret. You will repent on the dead body of the federation for being so stupid and cowardly years ago for the rest of your life!
"I'm coming, Colonel Luo. If you want to open fire, you damn as well might! I do not want to hurt any soldiers of the federal army, but I will not stop moving forward, either. In any case, even though I'm all by myself, I will still go to the Grand-Unified Spiritual Nexus Information Processing Center and blow the sh*t out of the extraterrestrial devils!"
Li Yao's voice was as loud as a tolling bell. His every word echoed like rumbling thunder, exploding in the middle of the soldiers of the federation army above. Even the searchlights in their hands seemed to be shaking and eclipsed.
The wings of spiritual energy behind Li Yao, on the other hand, grew more and more bright, scorching, and violent!
Fifteen meters… Fourteen meters… Thirteen meters…
There was nothing but silence. All the magical equipment whose safety had been turned off seemed to be frozen, unable to release any spiritual energy.
Twelve meters… Eleven meters…
Li Yao was about to enter their last alert range.
Ten meters!
Li Yao made up his mind and dashed upward.
Nobody opened fire. Some of them raised the barrels to the sky, and some of them stopped the chainswords in their hands. A lot of the soldiers took off the facial covers of their crystal suits under Luo Qisheng's hint, revealing faces that were wearing complicated expressions.
They eyed Li Yao with curiosity and admiration but with even more indescribable surprise and astonishment.
They found it hard to imagine what kind of person was bold enough to make such a move and say such things when he was locked onto by almost a hundred crystal cannons!
Luo Qisheng had a weather-beaten face that seemed to have been dyed with smoke and fire. One could tell after a first look that he must have been promoted from a soldier at the bottom level who served on harsh planets in all the seven Sectors. But even the seasoned officer was somewhat stunned after he saw Li Yao, not having the vaguest clue how to deal with the tricky situation.
"Thank you," Li Yao said sincerely. "Thank you for trusting me, Colonel Luo."
"I can trust you…" After pondering for a long time, Luo Qisheng finally made up his mind. He stared at Li Yao and said solemnly, "However, I need to know exactly whom we are going to fight side by side with, don't I?"
Chapter 1746: We Don't Have Much Time Left! |
Li Yao was about to open his mouth when Luo Qisheng's eyes suddenly turned sharp. The colonel solemnly said, "Don't claim that you are the delegates from Firefly or the warriors of Team Red Lotus. It doesn't make sense at all! To deal with the zombie-like monsters outside, I lost almost a hundred of my men! Yet, you broke into this place through all the monsters with only the two of you?
"Your capabilities must be far above the Nascent Soul Stage, right? Two powerful Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators could've annihilated us, or at least run away after paving a bloody path. But you didn't do that. That's why I'm willing to believe you!
"However, such capabilities do not match our understanding of Team Red Lotus. Were you hiding your capabilities before, or do you have deeper secrets that were never revealed?"
Li Yao felt that his heart was burning. He was about to unveil his real identity when Long Yangjun floated behind him and pressed his shoulder softly. "That's right. It's true that we are not as simple as members of Team Red Lotus from Firefly. There are definitely no experts in the middle or high level of the Nascent Soul Stage on Firefly, or they would've been released when the starship encountered the claw fleet ten years ago. Colonel Luo, that's why you think that it doesn't make sense, isn't it?"
Luo Qisheng sniffed and said, "Yes. If you insisted that you were from Firefly, I would never believe what you said just now! It was the most perilous moment for Firefly when it encountered the claw fleet of the Black Wind Fleet ten years ago. If there were really top-tier experts at the high level and even the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage, they did not have any reason to keep hibernating at that time!"
Li Yao secretly complimented him. Although the guy Luo Qisheng looked like a common colonel, his mind was indeed quick enough for him to find such a huge loophole.
Gritting her teeth, Long Yangjun quickly said, "With everything coming to this point, there is no need to lie to you now. We are indeed not from the rightful government of the Star Ocean Republic, but we are not the spies from the Imperium of True Human Beings, either. We—we are actually from the Ancient Sages Sector!"
"Ancient…" Luo Qisheng and all the soldiers nearby were at a loss. "What is that?"
"It's a long story. I'll try to leave out the unimportant details. Although it may sound unbelievable and even ridiculous, I can swear that everything I'm about to say is true!" Long Yangjun coughed. With a face of frankness, she quickly said, "It all started with the battle when Firefly encountered a claw fleet of the Imperium only to be caught by Ding Lingdang of the federation. In the battle, the claw fleet of the Imperium was crushed. Most of the soldiers were either killed or captured. But one of the most critical members managed to escape…"
Long Yangjun went on and roughly explained everything in a couple of minutes, including how Heiye Lan escaped to the Ancient Sages Sector, the basic information about the Ancient Sages Sector, and how the experts of the Ancient Sages Sector were unwilling to be someone else's cannon fodder and decided to go out in search for a better buyer.
Finally, she concluded, "The natives of the Ancient Sages Sector have been training in ignorance for years. We fight and compete for resources and territory like animals, no different from the ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago. To be honest, we only meant to observe your military preparations and national power before we came to the federation in order to check which between you and the Imperium of True Human Beings was the more reliable one. We were only hoping to sell ourselves at a good price!
"However, after reaching the Star Glory Federation, the new training ideologies of this place, the friendly and complementary relationship between the Cultivators and ordinary people, and the courage to march to the center of the cosmos as a flickering light at the corner of the universe… Everything in the modern Cultivation civilization has deeply attracted us. We couldn't admire you more!
"It is only natural that the underdeveloped civilizations look up to the developed civilizations. We made up my mind after we saw the treatment of the Forest Ocean Sector, the Nether World Sector, and the Water Crystal Sector after they joined the federation. We couldn't help but think of our home, the Ancient Sages Sector. If the Ancient Sages Sector can join such a federation, won't it be a great deal for both parties?
"Sneaking onto Firefly as Team Red Lotus was only something we were forced to do. After all, we had the future of the entire Ancient Sages Sector on our shoulders. We were not familiar with the federation, either. Naturally, we did not dare make any rash decisions.
"However, after we observed many fields of the federation, including military, politics, culture, techniques, law, etc., on our way to the Heaven's Origin Sector, we have agreed unanimously that the federation will be the best home for us! If we have the chance to meet your supreme leader, we will tell him the truth and try to make the Ancient Sages Sector a member of the federation as quickly as possible!
"But as it happened, when we were visiting Professor Mo Xuan's Tinder Plan in this place by chance, he noticed something and even made up his mind to kill us, perhaps because the brainwaves and mental power of the people of the Ancient Sages Sector are different from the outside world. After a series of lucky incidents, we were finally able to see through his great scheme!
"We have had enough treacheries and bloody fights in the Ancient Sages Sector. However magnificent the Imperium of True Human Beings is, it is nothing more than a strengthened, upgraded Ancient Sages Sector, which is not attractive to us. The ideologies of the extraterrestrial devils that highlight absolute peace in the virtual world sound quite tempting at the beginning, but they are full of loopholes if you think about it more carefully! The Cultivators of the Ancient Sages Sector would rather die before we abandon our bodies and swim in the world of the Spiritual Nexus as unsubstantial souls!
"Therefore, the Star Glory Federation is our only choice right now.
"We all know that new members of a gang must do something to prove their sincerity. We have come to the federation emptyhanded without a gift. Perhaps, our contribution in the operation later will be the greatest sincerity of the Ancient Sages Sector!"
Long Yangjun's words rendered Luo Qisheng and all the soldiers of the federation dumbfounded. They did not come back to themselves until a long time later.
"Well…"
Never in their wildest dreams had they ever imagined such bizarre and unbelievable stories!
Long Yangjun smiled bitterly. "Colonel Luo, brothers of the federal army, please think about it carefully. If we were really spies of the Imperium trying to deceive you, we wouldn't make up such a messy, absurd story, would we? Any identity that we fabricated would be more convincing than such stories!
"It's a pity that this is exactly the truth, and the truth is often disordered!
"Right. If you still don't believe me—"
Long Yangjun put her hands in a certain gesture and retrieved countless pills, blades, Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, and even some of her personal belongings, such as the stamp of Ghost Character, which all came from the Ancient Sages Sector, from her Cosmos Rings.
"Take a close look at them. None of the items are in the style of the Star Glory Federation. The spies of the Imperium of True Human Beings do not need to carry so many things just to sell a lie, right?"
Pondering for a moment, Luo Qisheng summoned a few technical soldiers, medics, and refiners that had come with the troop and asked them to examine the objects that Long Yangjun had presented. They were unable to tell what the objects were, but it was true that they had never been found in the federation before, and they were not the Imperium's style. The soldiers all looked at each other in bewilderment, lost for words.
Right then, a soft voice was calling from the darkness below them. "Help me… Help me…"
It was Liu Wenshan, the unfortunate guy who had been sent to this place by his family after he was mentally deranged and ended up as a vegetative patient.
Li Yao was overjoyed!
At first, he had thought that Liu Wenshan's broken soul had already been demolished by Lei Yuqin' final outburst. After all, the mental attacks were so intense that even he and Long Yangjun, two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, had almost failed to resist it.
