Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1491
"What—"
Long Yangjun was slightly surprised, not expecting Li Yao to be still so vigorous after being terribly beaten up just now. When she sensed the astonishing energy leaking out of the rocks below the mud, she was even more shocked. Then, in delight, she said, "I knew that you had other moves!
"Vulture Li Yao, what monster are you, Vulture Li Yao?"
At the same time, Blackstar the Great also sensed the spiritual ripples that came from below his feet like a volcano eruption, as if a ferocious beast that had slept for a thousand years at the center of the planet had woken up. He did not expect Li Yao's soul to be so sturdy. The guy had clearly been pierced through by his most intense mental attack. Normal warriors would've been mired in nightmares for days, if their souls were still in one piece at all. But Li Yao seemed to have not been hurt at all, and he was launching an aggressive counterattack so quickly!
"Hellstar" rolled quickly while Wuying Qi intended to dodge the attack, but there was no time.
Long Yangjun's domain of crystals expanded several times within a moment, establishing walls of crystals around "Hellstar".
From the depths of the rocks at the bottom of the ocean, hundreds of Li Yao's telepathic thoughts dashed out and crawled into the gaps of "Hellstar" relentlessly, as if he were determined to drag Wuying Qi's soul to the ground and make Wuying Qi die with him.
At the Gold Vulture's chest, in the middle of the thirty-six rails, the "galaxy" made of the glowing spots was completely seething.
"Even the entire galaxy cannot extinguish the fire in my heart!"
Li Yao's eyes were sunken, but they were even more dazzling than a supernova outbreak. As if he had filled his own soul into the railgun, ready to launch it out, his roars almost tore his mouth apart. "Old fart Blackstar, get a taste of this—Ultra-Galactic Cannon!"
Chapter 2338: Collision of Souls! |
Together with his roars that were boiling the ocean and breaking the clouds, Li Yao's blood and every cell were burning furiously at the moment. Mixed with his soul that had been boosted to the maximum, they pierced through the silver, glowing energy at the center of the "Ultra-Galactic Cannon", enlivening the pure energy and pushing out the silver brilliance that could destroy everything!
BOOM!
The thirty-six crystal rails were all melted externally. The Gold Vulture that had been on the verge of destruction in the first place could not take such an intense counterforce at all. The one-time strengthening components broke apart into thousands of gold and silver butterflies, splashing to all directions. Then, the torso and the framework of the Colossus had fatal contortions and fractures too. It was completely wasted from the front to the back, broken and blown away!
However, the cluster of energy that was as overwhelming as an infuriated galaxy, mixed with Li Yao's soaring fighting will, charged at "Hellstar" at an unbelievable speed!
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
Both Long Yangjun's "Heavenly Crystal" and Wuying Qi's "Hellstar" were pierced through by the unexpected high-energy reactions. Earsplitting alarms were ringing.
"This is impossible!"
Long Yangjun was dumbfounded and was not back to herself until the silver pillar of light had passed her. She was covered in a cold sweat. "It's been only several years, and this monster's ultimate strength has been increased to such a terrifying level. This is too unbelievable!"
"THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!"
Wuying Qi, on the other hand, let out the roars of disbelief too. His vitality field turned from the excessive expansion in the beginning to excessive constriction, condensing all the black fog around him into an indestructible black shield. The six giant faces in the black swirls overlapped and opened their bloody mouths at the same time, spitting out a black pillar of light at Li Yao's attack!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The collision of the two pillars raised tides a thousand meters high in the seawater. The waves even pierced through the ocean thousands of meters deep, leaving hundreds of waterspouts on the surface of the ocean that looked like dragons.
However, since the black pillar of light was condensed in a hurry, it did not resist long before it was split apart by the silver pillar that was mixed with bloody waves. Even the six giant faces were ripped apart and pierced through directly!
The silver pillar hit the center of "Hellstar" precisely, heating the shell of the Colossus to almost ten thousand degrees immediately. The previously dark and black metals turned orange and almost transparent, twisted and about to be melted!
It was only the first step.
The Ultra-Galactic Cannon was not as simple as a cannon to concentrate the energy inside marrow crystals and launch it out.
After the mystic rays pierced through the target's spiritual shield and heated the target's external armor to the maximum, depriving it of its original hardness and rigidity, abundant broken pieces of the Gold Vulture were all turned into tiny metal pieces and accelerated into high-energy particles, which darted close like a storm and penetrated through the shell of "Hellstar"!
Eventually, it was Li Yao's mental power that he had condensed by almost draining his brain.
Now that Blackstar the Great was unwilling to possess him, he would check how good the soul of the old fart was on his own!
If he were faced with any "normal" expert in the Divinity Branching Stage, the Divinity Transformation Stage, or even the Nascent Soul Stage, Li Yao would never be so reckless and insane as to devote all his mental power to his brain knowing that there might be dangerous consequences after his soul left the body.
It was because the connections of the souls and the bodies of the normal experts were extremely accurate and seamless. He would barely be able to find any flaw to invade through.
His soul leaving his body to be engaged in a fight in the enemy's brain would mean that he had to fight in an unfamiliar environment, which couldn't have been in his favor.
However, the case of Blackstar the Great was different. No matter how high his level was in the past, what remained after a thousand years was just part of the highly-mutated and highly-abnormal soul. Also, the remaining soul couldn't have integrated well with Li Linghai's body. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been in such a hurry to change a better shell.
It was exactly the greatest weakness of the founding emperor of the Imperium of True Human Beings.
It was also Li Yao's only opportunity to win, and his ultimate reason to launch the "Ultra-Galactic Cannon" without caring about anything.
He was going to take the chance to knock Blackstar the Great's remaining soul out of Li Linghai's body!
BOOM!
On the mysterious level that was unrecognizable for the naked eye, a streak of burning brilliance seemed to have leaped out of the remains of the Gold Vulture and turned into a raging falcon, whose wings shook abruptly and then covered its body, before it crashed into the shell of "Hellstar" that was wide open like a rapidly-revolving drill.
"Ahhhh!"
Blackstar the Great shrieked in both shock and fury. The metal tentacles of "Hellstar" immediately waved crazily, and all the black fog nearby was squeaking. The six giant faces that had been blown apart but not dispersed yet were all in agony.
Li Yao's soul felt unprecedented quakes too. The thousands of flames of his soul seemed to be dying out at the same time. But at the same time, countless dark forces were injected into his soul, allowing him to see infinite illusions in a trance.
He seemed to see the Martial Meritocrats Sector, the civilization of the Cultivators that was highly-developed but getting bloated and corrupted, walking to the doom with the morbid body.
He seemed to see that in the Sand Primitive Sector, which abutted the Martial Meritocrats Sector, the berserkers who believed in the "Chiyou Cult" were fighting each other in the harsh environments of sandstorms and gloomy winds and paying tributes to the ultimate god in their hearts with blood and guts that were filled in the wine cups made of skulls.
He seemed to see the decline of the Martial Meritocrats Sector, the rise of the Sand Primitive Sector, the war between the Cultivators and the Chiyou Cult, and Wuying Qi's struggle and screams in the magma.
The picture flashed. What was unfolded deep inside Li Yao's soul was a boundless universe where Wuying Qi, lying inside a tiny starship that looked like an iron coffin, drifted toward the darkest abyss in the sea of stars…
Right when Li Yao tried to focus his attention and figure out the truth of the dark abyss, a pair of glittering eyes was suddenly opened in the abyss and threw bolts of lightning that could break a planet at him.
BOOM!
Li Yao's soul shook hard. He was blown out of "Hellstar" back to his own shell.
"Hellstar" was enshrouded in the black fog again, and it fled away under the cover of the black fog.
"Vulture Li Yao!"
Blackstar the Great couldn't have sounded more furious and atrocious. "I will come back for you. Whichever corner in the three thousand Sectors you are hiding in, I will come back for you, and then—"
With a sniff, Long Yangjun chased after Wuying Qi in the "Heavenly Crystal", forcing Wuying Qi to swallow everything that he had yet to say.
Li Yao's soul was back to the original place, but he seemed to have just died once. Even blinking was terribly difficult for him, and he would feel the most excruciating pain even when he only moved his little finger.
A collision of souls was never a joke, let alone one with such an unparalleled expert like Blackstar the Great.
Even though Li Yao's soul originated from the mysterious Earth, it was still almost completely blown apart and obliterated.
It was not until Long Yangjun returned from the deep ocean and dug him out from the remains of the Gold Vulture that Li Yao finally regained the ability to transmit telepathic thoughts.
"You… You killed him?"
Vaguely, Li Yao saw that a giant iron ball that had been pierced through was floating behind "Heavenly Crystal". What else could it be if not "Hellstar"? Overjoyed, Li Yao almost found it hard to believe his eyes.
"No. This Colossus is empty. How can Blackstar the Great be killed so easily?"
Shaking her head, Long Yangjun paused and changed her attitude as she said, "However, to think that you have forced Blackstar the Great to escape in a panic without even having the time to retreat his Colossus… I really don't know how I should comment on you."
"There is no need to comment. Cough, cough, cough. I'm not in my best state today. Cough, cough, cough, cough. My performance was not very satisfactory, and I failed to kill him in one blow. That was—cough, cough—my bad."
While coughing hard and vomiting blood, Li Yao said intermittently, "His Colossus has been blown up. This is a rare opportunity. Why did you give up chasing?"
"You wouldn't think that the almighty Blackstar the Great travels in the universe with only one Colossus, would you? As far as I know, his symbolic Colossus is known as 'Blackhole's Heart'. Although I don't know how strong it is exactly, it can't be the one just now. Are you sure that he would not fight a battle that would kill both me and himself in his desperation if I were to chase him?"
Long Yangjun scorned, "I do not want to be a hero that saves the world. Why would I do such a costly but unrewarding thing? Besides, I vaguely felt several people at the peak of the Divinity Transformation Stage on the surface of the ocean who were searching for our traces. Who do you think they are, our reinforcements or Wuying Qi's?
"Or maybe when the experts at the peak of the Divinity Transformation Stage come at us with their Colossi, you will be as macho as a moment ago and blow them up one after another?"
"Then… let's just drop the idea."
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao said, "Never chase a desperate enemy. Cough, cough, cough. Let's just let them go today and allow their heads to stay on their necks for a few more days. We will come back—cough, cough, cough—a few days later!"
Long Yangjun: "If you keep on talking like that, I'm thinking if I should just abandon you in this place."
Li Yao immediately grew anxious. "Don't! For the sake of the federation and the Ancient Sages Sector, hurry up and give me a hand!"
Struggling and waving his limbs in the water, he finally crawled to the leg of Long Yangjun's Colossus and clung to a protruding component there. "This will do. Truth be told, I don't even have the strength to make use of the power system of the crystal suit right now. Please give me a ride. I'll need to take a… a…"
Li Yao's voice was lower and lower. His soul seemed to have sunken into the gap deep inside his brain, embracing the boundless darkness.
Chapter 2339: Foreigners and Friends |
Li Yao's soul floated in the darkness, and he had a lot of bizarre, absurd dreams.
Now, he dreamed that Blackstar the Great's scheme worked out, and the man became the supreme sovereign of the Imperium of True Human Beings again. Uniting the entire universe with iron and blood again, he transformed all human beings into "iron cockroaches" that would do anything for their survival.
Eventually, millions of iron cockroaches flooded at the Star Glory Federation, waving their tentacles and claws. It was absolutely helpless even though Li Yao stretched out his limbs and blocked the way. He was soon swallowed by the tides of iron cockroaches, both his skin and his bones.
In the end, he even became a gigantic, hideous cockroach himself, swallowing one planet after another in ignorance driven by the primitive instincts.
Now, he dreamed that he finally stopped Blackstar the Great's scheme after arduous battles. The brutal man from a thousand years ago was sealed and obliterated, and all the catastrophes he caused were ended.
But good days didn't last. Without the leadership of the evil Blackstar the Great, the Imperium of True Human Beings was still loose sand. The four Kurfürst families and the hundreds of warlords of the peripheral worlds were still plotting and fighting against each other every day. They could not abandon their feud and conflicts of interests even when the Alliance of the Holy Covenant was attacking on a large scale but simply hamstrung each other for personal benefits.
Eventually, the Imperium's flags were replaced by the Covenant Alliance's emotionless seals. Human beings did not become "iron cockroaches", but they turned into puppets without feelings and desires.
Thousands of expressionless puppets surrounded Li Yao. Their eyes were like dry wells without any ripple or change. Such a form seemed even more dreadful than the "iron cockroaches" a moment ago.
The ghost of Blackstar the Great was even sneering behind him and mumbling, "Do you see, Vulture Li Yao? This is the consequence of you stopping me! The path of the Cultivators will not work out! Your self-righteousness will only lead to greater disasters. Only my true path of immortality is the way out for mankind!
"What's wrong about being iron cockroaches? At the very least, the strongest of us will survive. Where there is life, there is hope. Thousands of years later, on the putrid corpses of the iron cockroaches, the most beautiful flower of civilization can still blossom!"
Deeply trapped in the nightmare, Li Yao felt that his brain had been swamped, and his mind was slower than ever. He was thinking how to defend himself, when the illusions of cockroaches, puppets, and Blackstar the Great were all gone, replaced by the eternal and magnificent wars of the godly species in the primeval age.
Pangu and Nuwa, order and chaos, absolute rationality and absolute desire… On the battleground that was the sea of stars, the most shocking collisions were happening!
His soul seemed to be both floating high above the universe and entering every part of the battlefield, allowing him to observe and perceive the ideas and philosophies of the two parties from the sparks splashing from the blades. Time and space lost their meaning. He did not know how long he had wandered on the battlefield, but he was suddenly back to himself after sensing a gentle breeze.
According to the time displayed on the interface of his crystal suit, it had only been slightly more than two hours since he launched the Ultra-Galactic Cannon.
He was still clinging to the calf of Long Yangjun's Colossus and being carried forward by her. They had almost swum to the center of the Silver Moon Ocean and were already very far away from the battlefield just now.
Thankfully, there was no sign that other troops were chasing them. They were safe for now.
But nobody could tell what would happen next. Now that Blackstar the Great decided to reveal his real appearance, it was obvious that he must've activated his final plans. After decades of careful planning with Li Linghai, even if he could not control the entire Imperium just yet, it wouldn't be a problem for him to at least control the capital.
The capital was a fairly large place, but it was teeming with Immortal Cultivators everywhere. Once it fell to the hands of Blackstar the Great, where could he possibly hide as a Cultivator?
"You've woken up?"
Long Yangjun's cold voice came over. "How do you feel?"
Li Yao slightly summoned his spiritual energy and immediately felt that a hundred canyons had been ripped all over his body and inside his brain. Not only was he in excruciating pain, but his strength was also pouring out along the "canyons", and he could not concentrate at all.
Li Yao whined in pain and said, "I feel that I just died once and will die again very soon."
"So, you know your conditions very well!"
Long Yangjun snapped, "I was quite puzzled how you could become so majestic as to scare Blackstar the Great off with one blow. As it turned out, you wagered all your soul power and vitality on the attack without caring about your own life. Your status right now is even worse than your Colossus that is on the verge of falling apart. You won't be able to fight anyone in the next half month, and it remains to be seen how much you can recover half a month later!"
Li Yao grimaced, feeling that he was quite lucky.
Blackstar the Great was a great expert who was at least one major level higher than Li Yao. Having escaped from his thunderous fury in one piece, Li Yao was certainly the winner no matter what gory prices he had paid.
