Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1416
Li Yao gritted his teeth and ran like a mouse, performing his movement skills in the storm of bullets without reserve. He had truly turned into a narrow, long, and agilely-turning ray of light, and the hundreds of attacks all missed their target. He even interfered with the bullets that were still flying with his spiritual threads, to slightly change their direction into the course of other bullets so that they would deviate from the designated trajectory or explode directly.
Even so, he did not get half a minute's rest.
The automatic war puppets of the Godly Might Prison seemed to boast a unique algorithm. If one target was not conquered after a long time, the threat and the importance of the target would be increased, and more war puppets would be automatically mobilized to deal with it.
It meant that if two war puppets could not take care of Li Yao, four would come. Then, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four… Under such an exponential increase, even Li Yao found it exhausting to deal with the enemy.
Finally, before thousands of war puppets aimed their machine guns at him at the same time, Li Yao finally escaped from the first district, somewhat in embarrassment, and dashed into a ventilation tube above his head that was allegedly broad enough for a horse to gallop on.
God knew how he missed the traditional, narrow, zigzagging ventilation tubes that were defended by the cutting-edge defense systems!
Thankfully, because of the turmoil in the Godly Might Prison, and since the ventilation tubes were a focus of the enemy's attack and tremendous venomous fog and smoke had been filled in, the ventilation tubes were utterly empty at this moment. The jailors that were supposed to guard the area had either died with awful expressions on their faces after breathing too much corrosive gas or left the area to reinforce the districts that were in riots.
But it did not mean that Li Yao's journey in the ventilation tubes would be easy and pleasant.
Vague, fluorescent air was floating before his eyes, and a sweet smell found its way into his nostrils too. It felt that countless little claws were crawling all the way into his brain from his nose.
Li Yao felt alarms ringing in his head. The fatal venomous gas and corrosive air were even possible to damage the central nerves of an expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage!
"The Covenant Alliance's biochemical technologies are so advanced!"
Li Yao was greatly shocked.
"Of course. Don't forget that the Covenant Alliance originates from the Pangu Civilization, and the Pangu Civilization was on par with the Nuwa Civilization that created the 'demon race'. How can their biochemical technologies not be advanced?"
The mental devil said quickly, "Think about the Pangu Laboratory deep inside the Land of Eternal Night in the Ancient Sages Sector. Weren't there a kind of weird giant crabs that were lurking in the place, which could inject a certain mysterious liquid into the human body and turn human beings into the Pangu Clan? Was it not an appalling biotechnology?"
Li Yao was silent and realized that it did make sense.
Compared to the Imperium of True Human Beings, which had occupied the most prosperous worlds at the center of the cosmos with a plethora of soldiers, resources, and population, the Alliance of the Holy Covenant was fighting the splendid, magnificent millennium war with the barren land at the corner of the universe.
The reason why it was vaguely on the winning side after a thousand years of fierce battles was partly the zealous and determined believers and partly the magical equipment, heritages, and legacies excavated from the primeval relics.
Therefore, in terms of technologies, the Covenant Alliance should be the highest of the Covenant Alliance, the Imperium, and the federation.
In an enormous battlefield in space, a technological gap of one to two hundred years might be neglectable.
However, in an assault battle like this one, the party with the cutting-edge technologies would certainly have a great advantage.
Hum! Hum! Hum! Hum! Hum! Hum!
As Li Yao held his breath, locked his pores, and even covered his retina with feeble spiritual energy as protection, crawling forward in the middle of the venomous fog and the corrosive gas, he heard noises coming over from the darkness up ahead. A large swarm of "metal bees" had arrived.
Those little creatures had obviously replaced the guards of the Godly Might Prison and became new masters of the ventilation tubes.
Hiu! Hiu! Hiu! Hiu!
Sensing the feeble heat from Li Yao's body, the "metal bees" immediately ejected sharp stings and darted at Li Yao spirally!
Li Yao sniffed. His telepathic thoughts raged forward like a flood, trying to break the internal structure of the "metal bees".
But out of his expectation, the materials that the metal bees were made of were a certain special alloy that Li Yao had never seen before. It boasted a high reflection of spiritual energy, and more than 90% of Li Yao's attacks were parried when they hit the shell of the metal bees.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Before Li Yao had the opportunity to switch to a different attack mode, the metal bees had exploded next to him one after another. Although they caused no damage to him at all, they did blow a giant hole on the ventilation tube he was at.
The screams and explosions down below immediately crashed into his ears.
All the captives of the Covenant Alliance, in deep red prisoner's uniform, had been released and were running in a hurry.
It was the first time that Li Yao had ever seen the warriors of the Covenant Alliance on such a large scale, who were the most authentic people of the Covenant Alliance that were not installed with emotion-simulation systems.
His first feeling was that he was faced with thousands of zombies. It couldn't have been more creepy.
Although the captives of the Covenant Alliance were pressing the attack to the pathways in all directions like floods and ferocious beasts, all of them were indifferent and utterly tranquil. There was not any resentment for the jailors, yearning for freedom, or any feeling that had mutated after a long time of repression—not in the slightest!
Li Yao did not hear any roar or scream from them in such a massive riot. Even the heavily wounded people simply sat aside and waited for their death while covering their wounds. Occasionally, a pained expression could be found on the faces of some people, but it was soon stifled by force, as if "pained expression" was something even more horrible than "pain" itself.
Just now, Li Yao felt that the ferocious felons in the first district were already the craziest monsters in hell.
However, the people of the Covenant Alliance who looked like machines made of flesh and blood made Li Yao understand better than ever what was "a hundred times more evil than the Imperium of True Human Beings"!
Judging from their hollow eyes, their numb limbs, their cold faces, and the intense air of tombs around them, it was not hard to tell that they were not fighting for their own survival and liberty at all, and being locked deep inside the Godly Might Prison for a hundred or a thousand years meant nothing to them. They were just fully-wound tools that had been reactivated and were carrying out an order given to them!
Chapter 2218: The Terrifying Computational Ability of the Divinity Transformation Stage! |
When Li Yao observed the thousands of people of the Covenant Alliance carefully through the hole, they raised their heads and stared at Li Yao at the same time, as if they had received a certain signal.
It was an even more creepy feeling.
When a group of regular persons heard an explosion above their heads and saw a giant hole on the ceiling, their movements would certainly be irregular even if they raised their heads to check what was going on.
The looks on their faces should be complicated after they raised their heads. Some would be surprised, some scared, some confused, and some would be alarmed that a new enemy was above their heads.
But they were not the reactions of the Covenant Alliance's people at all.
As if they had received a certain signal, they raised their heads in unity in only half a second and stared at Li Yao carefully at the same time.
Thousands of eyes that were immeasurably deep but did not have any ripple, like frozen ink, stared at him at the same time. Although Li Yao was in the Divinity Transformation Stage and always considered himself to be audacious, he couldn't help but feel chilly.
Then, Li Yao heard the voice.
It sounded like a prehistoric spell, a whisper of devils, or the mumbles right next to one's ears that one heard in the middle of a night, only to discover that they were the cries of a baby outside of the window after one was woken up from the dream.
The weird voice loomed above the head of every person from the Covenant Alliance like an invisible swirl.
Li Yao fully activated his senses. His every brain cell was stretched out to the maximum like blooming epiphyllum. Using not his eyes and ears, but his mind and soul, he "saw", "heard", and deeply sensed the horrifying voice.
He "saw" that the brain of every person from the Covenant Alliance was erupting brainwaves like a sulfur spring. All their brainwaves soared to midair like black gas and congregated into a slowly-revolving swirl. Thousands of ripples and waves spread out from the swirl. Billions of items of information were exchanged, analyzed, and deployed in such a way.
Thinking quickly, Li Yao immediately realized everything.
He understood why the prisoners of the Covenant Alliance could form a battle formation so quickly and attack like a well-trained army so quickly.
They were not communicating with each other with voices and movements like regular people did, but by boosting their brainwaves to establish a temporary local area network.
One or two spies of the Covenant Alliance who secretly snuck in were all that was required to deploy the entire battle plan to the brains of every person from the Covenant Alliance through the battle network. It was even possible for the prisoners to upload their body data, combat ability, and best techniques so that they would be assigned to the most suitable tasks after calculation.
The efficiency in such battles was naturally much higher than the mobsters in the first district who were simply howling on a rampage without organization.
It was a common way of fighting battle puppets.
Li Yao never thought that it was applicable to human beings too.
That did make sense. In the eyes of the Pangu Civilization, wasn't mankind just a relatively special "battle puppet"?
This was the first time Li Yao had sensed the meaning of "Covenant Alliance" for real. He truly felt that his heart had been squeezed hard.
The thousands of prisoners of the Covenant Alliance stared at the dome of the district at the same time, thinking that a new enemy would show up from up above.
But as it turned out, Li Yao was by himself and wearing the orange prisoner's uniform of the felons from the first district. So, he was immediately determined to be harmless.
The people of the Covenant Alliance focused their attention on the jailors before them.
The jailors and battle puppets that had crowded into the third district like tides from all directions were indeed several more times than what the first district had.
After all, the first district was filled with felons and unorganized mobsters. Even if they did escape out of the Godly Might Prison with unbelievable luck, there would be absolutely no chance of survival on the surface of the harsh, ice planet. If they did not want to be frozen into ice, they could only return to the prison and be arrested.
But the captives of the Covenant Alliance were different.
Their companions had already caused great trouble. Who knew if there were more of them behind?
For a moment, all the tough soldiers of the entire Godly Might Prison were gathered in the third district.
The people of the Covenant Alliance, under the organization of the weird "brainwave network", put up a rather impressive fight against the jailors. Of course, that was partly because the prison was not determined to completely annihilate them and simply used the non-lethal magical equipment at the beginning since they were all very valuable, important captives. When things went out of control, there was little the prison could do to save the day.
Li Yao, however, had no time to bother the hot mess down there.
What he was concerned about was the fleeting time.
Twenty minutes had passed from when he perceived the explosion below his feet at the beginning until the present.
Li Yao was almost certain that the assassins of the Covenant Alliance must have rushed at the spot of General Lei Chenghu's custody under the cover of the riots.
The experts of the Godly Might Prison, in the meantime, could have reached General Lei Chenghu and forced him to move to somewhere else.
He had been stalled by the jailors and prisoners for too long. If he were to push forward according to the previous route, he would very likely be left behind by the assassins of the Covenant Alliance and the experts of the Godly Might Prison!
It can't be helped. Recalculate the route. Now, now, now!
Li Yao blinked his eyes. Deep inside his pupils that were as dark as ink, two drops of pigment that seemed to be condensed by rainbows were dripped in, and ripples in thousands of different colors immediately spread out.
His brain cells were burning and shrieking, raising a tsunami inside his entire brain, pushing Li Yao's computational ability to the limits of the Divinity Transformation Stage together!
Li Yao felt that the world was turning upside down, as if the planet were revolving ten thousand times faster. He almost couldn't hold back his nausea.
It was a symptom of severe brain concussion.
In order to activate the highest computational ability, he forced his brain to function at a high speed, which made his brain crash the hard skull brutally at a frequency of a hundred times a second.
If it were a regular person, they would have passed out in three seconds at most, turning vegetative or even having brain death.
It couldn't be helped. The biophysical structure that a human being was born with was not for the monsters in the Divinity Transformation Stage.
From a certain point of view, those who advanced into the Divinity Transformation Stage had stolen the strength that did not belong to them or any human being from the enigmatic universe!
With the price of severe brain concussion, under the boost of such a high computational ability, Li Yao naturally got what he wanted.
Beep, beep, beep, b—e—e—p…
The whole world slowed down before Li Yao's eyes, as if it had been drowned by a certain extremely thick fluid.
The flying bullets, the raging mystic rays, the blasts raised by the explosions, and the shrapnel enshrouded in the blasts, as well as the emotionless people of the Covenant Alliance, the screaming felons, and the scared prisoners turned into statues that were almost absolutely still were like a group of actors playing a humorous mime.
One gave birth to two, two gave birth to three, and three gave birth to everything. Li Yao's telepathic thoughts turned into thousands of lightning that entangled every person of the Covenant Alliance and every jailor, while he observed their postures, eyes, muscles, and even every micro-expressions, and thereby calculated their combat abilities, battle determination, and current purposes so that he could calculate the route through which he could pass the battlefield in the fastest and easiest way.
The lightning-like telepathic thoughts were Li Yao's virtual nerves. As the virtual nerves spread out and joined each other, the entire battlefield was swallowed into Li Yao's brain, turning him into the absolute dominator on the battlefield!
All the information was fed back to Li Yao's soul instantly, almost as fast as if it were transmitted by his nerves.
As tremendous data were analyzed and outputted, the whole world before him turned clear.
At first, the crystal suits on the jailors gradually turned transparent. In the next second, the muscles of the jailors and the prisoners were removed piece by piece. The details of the veins and the nervous system were manifested too. The wriggling and constrictions of their internal organs were also under Li Yao's control. Even the pressure that their hearts imposed on the veins and the speed of the flow of blood inside were within Li Yao's perception.
No matter how weird the brains of the Covenant Alliance's people were, they had to rely on the bodies of human beings as the carriers after all.
No human being could not be killed.
Within a breath, Li Yao had grasped the fatal weakness of everybody on the battlefield.
But that was far from the end of it.
The walls of the district, as well as the seemingly solid floor, revealed their most fundamental constituents under the crash of Li Yao's telepathic thoughts, allowing Li Yao to analyze the most vulnerable point in the structure. All the walls and pathways turned clear too, and dozens of walls and channels overlapped. The place looked like a complicated maze of glass.
In the end, all the branches and dead ends in the glass maze vanished. The only thing left was a channel that was almost a straight line.
At the end of the channel, Li Yao sensed more than ten clusters of highly-vigorous life energy unleashing and colliding.
Not good. The experts of the Godly Might Prison must be fighting the assassins of the Covenant Alliance!
The level of the life energy was dozens of times stronger than the jailors and captives here. They must be the experts of the two parties.
However, the experts on the Godly Might Prison's side were publicly known. Since Li Yao had done detailed research on them before his infiltration, there was no reason why the Covenant Alliance hadn't done the same.
In comparison, the assassins from the Covenant Alliance were lurking in the darkness. If so much as one of them escaped, it would be a disaster!
I don't have any choice now. I have to reach the destination in half a minute even if I get exposed!
Li Yao took such a deep breath that the air in the entire ventilation tube was almost absorbed, despite the venomous and corrosive elements in it.
