Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1309
Therefore, Li Yao selected two power combat suits with muscle enhancement functions for them. He then added nine layers of defense rune arrays on their armor, ensuring that the two little fellows could be safe on a fierce battlefield and provide fire support with the guns that were thicker than their thighs.
As for Li Yao himself, he had made other plans.
Now that he had found a piece of 'high-molecular layer-by-layer scanning magical equipment' and a Cosmos Ring to ship it out, his main focus was leaving the planet as soon as possible and rejoining his fleshly body.
If he stayed on the planet, he would be under the surveillance of the sky the whole time. Hiding below the ground forever would not work out.
Therefore, after he was completely melded with his fleshly body and consolidated in the Divinity Transformation Stage, he would be able to find an opportunity to sneak into the City in the Sky from space. That would be the best approach to completely destroy it.
The tracked spiritual puppet was too cumbersome and too obvious a target. It was even possible that the Immortal Cultivators had already locked onto it.
Therefore, Li Yao built a small, delicate spiritual puppet in the form of a spider for himself with the remaining materials in the warehouse. It was somewhat similar to the 'Tarantula' that he crafted years ago when he took the test for the refiner's certificate.
Then, Li Yao installed a crystal processor that could be remotely controlled inside the heavy tracked spiritual puppet, allowing the five pairs of bogie wheels to roll over the enemies as before. But his own soul was actually hiding inside the Tarantula, pretending to be a beast puppet.
In that case, even if the Immortal Cultivators traced back to the Village of Peace according to the video files captured on the battlefield and eventually locked onto the 'tracked spiritual puppet for cleaning and maintenance purposes', they would not be able to find the real Li Yao!
"Are you all ready?"
Li Yao's soul released ripples of excitement and glanced at everybody as they touched their brand-new magical equipment in joy.
"If you are, let's break out of Liberty City right now and give the Immortal Cultivators a big surprise!"
Chapter 2043: Skeleton Lizard |
Everybody looked at each other and nodded at the same time, waving the guns and blades in their hands.
"Wait a moment. Let's take a look at the situation outside first."
Xiahou Wuxin operated on a mainframe crystal processor at one corner of the warehouse quickly. Dozens of 3D light beams immediately popped up. They were all real-time pictures of Liberty City captured from different angles.
"If the Immortal Cultivators can monitor the ground from the sky, I can certainly install some surveillance cameras in the inconspicuous corners of the streets and alleys after running Liberty City for decades so that I can observe everything from underground," Xiahou Wuxin explained with a smile. "This secret warehouse has four exits in total. Let's take a look at the situation outside and escape from where it is most chaotic!"
On the 3D light beams, the chaotic battles in Liberty City were still raging, but the peak of the mayhem had passed.
After a large batch of tough bandits perished with each other, the fire of war gradually died down. Gunshots and explosions became scarce. The only sound that could be heard was the occasionally collapsing plazas, which raised lazy dust.
The night fell at Liberty City like a black waterfall. The mobsters and the unorganized bandits all suffered heavy casualties and ended up as burnt, broken corpses on the ground. The remaining elites of the gangs who were relatively large in scale occupied their own turf and confronted each other in silence and darkness.
Liberty City turned from a chaotic ocean of slaughter into a tiny dark forest.
Whoever popped up would be killed immediately!
"This is tricky now," Xiahou Wuxin mumbled. "Right now, the territory of most of the gangs is fixed. We will be very eye-catching if we walk down the street openly."
"Can't we escape Liberty City below the ground?" asked Li Yao.
Xiahou Wuxin shook his head and said, "No. It's a dead end in every direction. We have to return to the surface somewhere. If we keep lurking below the ground, if the Immortal Cultivators drop a large batch of earth penetrators upon us, it will truly be our doom, and there will be nowhere to run."
"Wait." Li Yao's soul sensed something. "What is it? Something is falling from the sky again?"
It was true. In the dim sky, hundreds of metal tanks were falling. Due to the long distance in between, it was impossible to tell the size of the metal tanks, but the weird auras inside them could clearly be sensed.
Despite the parachutes on them, the metal tanks dropped rather fast and soon raised smoke and dust everywhere in Liberty City.
One of the metal tanks fell near a surveillance camera that Xiahou Wuxin had deployed.
When the dust settled, the hideous shadow that leapt out of the debris was captured and displayed clearly. Han Te, Liu Li, and Xin Xiaoqi were all exclaiming in shock.
It was a mutated beast similar to an enormous lizard. It was about three to four meters tall and covered in small, green scales, with bloody stripes extending from its back to the limbs and the sharp claws.
Its head was as narrow and long as a viper's. The pale armor covering the head made it seem to be wearing a mask of bones. Deep inside the dark eyes, two crimson lights that looked like ghostly fire were rolling nonstop as the creature searched for the prey around.
Brutal, cunning, and intelligent, like a hibernation of vipers, crocodiles, jackals, and slaughter machines. That was the first impression the creature left on everyone.
Very soon, a team of fully-armed, tough-looking bandits were noticed by the 'skeleton lizard'.
Swoosh!
At an unbelievably high speed, it lunged at the prey, turning into a streak of dark red brilliance instantly!
The team of tough bandits had long noticed that something fell from the sky and raised their wariness to the highest. Sensing that a stinky wind was blowing at them, they all raised their hands and opened fire, letting out thousands of snakes of fire.
Bo! Bo! Bo!
But out of their expectations, the skeleton lizard shook its body, and the green scales rubbed against each other at a high speed, condensing a vague spiritual shield around its body, parrying and blocking all the attacks!
"A mutated beast that can automatically activate spiritual shields?"
At this moment, even Li Yao, the Fist King, and Xiahou Wuxin were somewhat stunned. Some high-level beasts indeed boasted a very high self-defense ability and could perform techniques that were similar to the spiritual shield. However, they were all the unusual ones among their peers, and they were mostly heads or kings of their group.
But right now, the Immortal Cultivators had already projected thousands of skeleton lizards from the Heavenly Rails. They were apparently 'minions' produced in bulk. Were all of them capable of activating a spiritual shield?
That was too horrifying!
It all happened too fast. The skeleton lizard's spiritual shield exploded after only resisting one round of attacks from the bandits, but it was enough for the creature to cut into the group of the bandits from a weird angle.
Swoosh!
A streak of bloodiness darted out of its mouth and pierced through the forehead of a bandit like a sharp dagger out of the back of his head, turning out to be a tongue that was as tensile as a whip.
Then, the tongue was waved brutally to throw away the bandit's corpse, which hit several other bandits who were in a hurry to aim.
Before the bandits realized what was going on, the head of the creature split apart into a man-eating flower that was full of thorns and sharp teeth. The 'pistils' deep inside the throat that were emitting fluorescent light darted out abruptly and stuck to a couple of bandits. The powerful electric arcs that were sent over immediately electrified the tough bandits, whose firearms and blades fell to the ground.
Shaking the enormous 'man-eating flowers' on its neck, the skeleton lizard crashed into the bandits like a hungry tiger lunging at lambs.
A bloody feast of slaughter was officially on.
The creature ripped the bandits into pieces with the sharp teeth at the edge of the 'man-eating flower' while uttering rhythmed shrieks from the throat. Very soon, another three skeleton lizards whose faces were pale emerged from the darkness and looked at the running bandits in hideous cackles.
The same bloody and desperate slaughters were happening everywhere in Liberty City at the same time.
Even the most ferocious bandits could only struggle to delay their inevitable death faced with the skeleton lizards that were jumping at them incessantly.
After seeing their companions being swallowed by the exploding man-eating flowers on the heads of the skeleton lizards and spat out after being chewed up, usually fearless thugs could not keep their legs steady and vomited hard.
Screams, moans, and crazy roars from the bandits whose nerves had broken down echoed everywhere in the bloody city!
But what was weird was that, when they encountered some of the trial-takers or the live streamers, the skeleton lizards would simply let them go after sniffing carefully for a moment, as if a certain special command allowed them to distinguish the Immortal Cultivators from the sinners from the Land of Sins.
Li Yao and Xiahou Wuxin both felt that their blood was freezing while they watched.
The Fist King's crystal processor was also running at a high speed in an unusual humming sound. After observing carefully for a long time, he remarked, "This is a perfect biochemical weapon. Not only does it boast a high attack and defense ability, some special control chips must have also been implanted into their heads. They are no longer ignorant animals but have been connected to an enormous war network. They are fighting like wolves. When one skeleton lizard is under attack, it will immediately summon hundreds of companions to help."
"Exactly." Xiahou Wuxin gnashed his teeth. "Isn't the Land of Sins the best laboratory to create such a perfect monster with the sinners and the mutated beasts?"
…
In the control center of the First Laboratory in Manjusaka, the biophysical parameters and the real-time battle videos of three thousand and five hundred nightmare monsters were displayed on the enormous light beams at the same time.
As the data rolled down unstoppably like waterfalls, and the expected goals were overfulfilled, Wuying Lan's mood gradually got better again.
"The biochemical beasts we have built this time are not bad. The efficiency of slaughter is very high. Their manipulability is also stable."
Sitting on a leather bed comfortably, he was like a supreme emperor who was inspecting his own army as he spoke to Luo Tiansheng, the manager of the laboratory.
Luo Tiansheng rubbed his hands in excitement and smiled. "Just as I told you before, my lord, as long as I am given five thousand fresh test subjects, I will certainly return with a miracle! This time, we have spent a lot of time on the combination of brains and crystal chips as well as information reception and relayed transmission. Now, the nightmare monsters can both kill based on their natural instincts and carry out more than a hundred and eighty preinstalled tactics accurately.
"Under the remote control of one command, they will enter the stand-by state and go to the recycling points automatically like the most docile cattle. The accidents where the crystal chips went out of control and a town of several thousand sinners was entirely eaten up in the mess will never happen again!
"The audience in the entire Imperium have given positive feedback for the slaughter feast. Our audience rating and the bounties and antes that we have absorbed have reached a new height, too. A lot of viewers also gave their remarks in extreme excitement. The financial report of the Heavenly Eye Group will be most satisfactory for the external big shots."
The blood and fire on the thousands of light beams created mottled shadows on Wuying Lan's face, making it impossible to read his emotions. It could only be heard that he said in a low voice under the cover of the bloody flames, "It couldn't have been better to open the curtain of our 'epic quest' with such a perfect slaughter."
"Then," Luo Tiansheng said in a low voice, "what about the Fist King and the mysterious expert that Wei Xiaotian mentioned?"
"Continue the investigation."
Wuying Lan's eyes stopped on the comprehensive audience rating and the flow of capital that were rising nonstop. His lips curling into a confident smile, he said, "Whatever it is, as long as it is in the Land of Sins, it will never escape. It is an insignificant chess piece no matter how mighty it is, and I am the only player in the great game!"
Chapter 2044: Violent Delights |
Everything that was happening in Liberty City, captured by the crystal cameras embedded on the 'live streamers' and the nightmare monsters, was transformed into invisible data streams and sent to Manjusaka. Then, through the super-remote launch bases deployed there, they were transmitted to the thousands of planets in the entire Imperium of True Human Beings and became the only food to satisfy the minds of countless 'hominoids'.
When Zhao Xiaofei crawled out of the dark, sunless, underground mines on the noisy lift, he was already as exhausted as could be. Even his eyes were almost clogged up with mud and sweat. His dizziness was trying to drag the young miner who had worked for forty-eight hours in a row into dreamland.
However, his nerves were more excited than ever, and bloody spots burst out deep inside his eyeballs. Perhaps he did not realize it himself, but his lips curled into a cruel smile like a conditional reflex.
He swallowed hard, looking around, only to discover that he was surrounded by workmates who were physically fatigued but mentally excited just like him. The only foreman was half asleep not far away. So, he secretly took out an 'energy pill' from his pocket and swallowed it, pretending to be coughing.
The so-called 'energy pills' were designed to be swallowed when the miners worked for a long time in a row deep inside the mines. Although the pills could refresh the miners' body and head for a moment, they would be drowsy and lackluster for a long time.
Zhao Xiaofei had taken three energy pills last night, which was the only reason he had accomplished more than what he had been tasked with and received a bonus on the spot. At this moment, he should take a proper rest and was no longer suitable to take any more energy pills. Should he be discovered by the foreman or the boss, they would definitely whip him hard.
However… Screw it. He was not the only one taking the pills. The energy pills in the medical rooms in the mines often disappeared by the box. He did not believe that those medicine boxes could have grown feet and run off on their own!
Hot air spurted out of Zhao Xiaofei's nose. He looked at the workmates around him, and they all grimaced and grinned at each other.
The heavy and tedious work was finally over. Right now, the souls of the young miners no larger than twenty years old had long left their humble and weak bodies and flown to the bloody worlds of slaughters thousands of lightyears away.
The moment he returned to his shabby shed, Zhao Xiaofei immediately screamed and lunged at his crystal processor like everybody else. The Imperium of True Human Beings highlighted equality, harmony, development, and progress. The hominoids were qualified to surf on the Spiritual Nexus, but of course, considering that the education level and the identification abilities of the hominoids were low, they were more vulnerable to the demagogism of the Covenant Alliance, the extraterrestrial devils, or other malicious forces. Therefore, only the websites approved by the Ministry of Culture of the Imperium could appear before the netizens who were hominoids, for their own physical and mental health and for the peace and unity of the society.
Zhao Xiaofei was not interested in the few formal websites of the government that had been established for propaganda purposes. He logged into the slaughter stream platforms as quickly as possible.
Unlike what Wei Xiaotian had said to Xiahou Wuxin in Liberty City, the Land of Sins was not the only slaughter stream platform in the Imperium of True Human Beings. Ever since the streams had proven their efficiency in collecting capital, maintaining order, and improving the work efficiency, the big shots of various fields had been flooding into the market like wild beasts. A myriad of stream platforms had been developing exponentially, including both the battles against the Alliance of the Holy Covenant on the frontline and the virtual entertainment for adults within the Imperium. Anything that could be imagined could be shot. Almost every second of the hominoids' off-work life had been occupied.
However, hearing that a very special show was airing on the Land of Sins, Zhao Xiaofei still switched to the stream platform of the Heavenly Eye group without any hesitation.
The skeleton lizards were tearing the guts out of the bandits of the Land of Sins. Blood and flesh were flying everywhere!
Zhao Xiaofei was immediately fascinated by the thrilling pictures. He could not help but moan like an animal, and hot sweat rolled out of his greasy skin. To him, this was even more enjoyable than taking a hot bath.
The other workmates in the same shed roared at the same time. Their bodies, which had been deformed because of years of arduous work, cramped violently, making them look like abnormal beasts.
On Zhao Xiaofei's eyeballs, colorful, exciting pictures were revolving quickly, absorbing his soul like an immeasurable kaleidoscope.
On the picture, one of the live streamers walked up to a sinner in the Land of Sins who was catching his last breath in a hideous smile, with two chainswords in his hands.
"Kill him! Kill him! Cut his head off and kick it like a ball!"
Zhao Xiaofei clenched his fists and roared. His temples and the veins on the back of his hand were bouncing at the same frequency. He felt as if he was holding two chainswords and galloping on a battlefield, too.
In the picture, one of the live streamers was crushed by a heavy iron-armored tank brutally. The tracks with iron thorns rolled over his body without any mercy. The last picture was the bloodstained mud in the middle of the tracks.
