Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1562
"How dare you!"
The invisible mystic rays from the Lotus Buddha penetrated through the iron stars like a tide quickly but did not detect any intense spiritual waves.
Knowing that the target was not a Colossus, Li Wuji couldn't help but sneer. "This is just a cluster of garbage, yet you are bold enough to stand in my Colossus' way? How can you stop me with this thing? Ten seconds? Twenty? Or half a minute?"
While he was talking, the iron stars had dashed to Li Wuji's front and were slowly stretched out in space, growing into an iron giant hundreds of meters tall!
Although it was hundreds of meters tall, it was exactly like what Li Wuji said. All the cables, gears, and tubes were exposed to the vacuum, suggesting that it might've been jumbled up by wasted metals. It was essentially a human-shaped mountain of rubbish and did not seem to hold any combat ability.
"Are you 'Fist King' Lei Zonglie?"
Li Wuji sneered. Ripples of spiritual energy in the shape of lotus flowers spread out of the arms of his Colossus while he punched at the chest of the iron giant that was hundreds of meters tall. "Big but worthless!"
BOOM!
The tides of spiritual energy raised by the Lotus Buddha left waves in the shape of lotus flowers on the chest of the iron giant, piercing through the stomach unstoppably. Even the limbs that were loosely connected seemed about to break apart.
It seemed truly as "worthless" as Li Wuji declared.
However, before Li Wuji let out a smile of mockery, the iron giant hundreds of meters tall had exploded on its own!
Tremendous crystal bombs that were deeply buried in the chest were detonated, blowing out a highly-unstable magnetic field that swallowed Li Wuji's Lotus Buddha like a bloody mouth. The Colossus' scanning and Li Wuji's senses were greatly disturbed, making him blind and deaf for one second.
One second later, the vipers made of the remnants of the iron giant tied up the limbs of the Lotus Buddha.
There were also dozens of small spiritual puppets, which had been lurking inside the iron giant sordidly and now spread after the explosion, crawling on the Colossus and searching for the tiniest gap while the Lotus Buddha was overwhelmed.
Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi!
The fingers of those tiny spiritual puppets could turn into any random delicate tools. The moment they located a gap on the Colossus, they would immediately start cutting and digging, trying to break into the Colossus and block the tubes of spiritual energy and fuel, or even to enter the spiritual residence and catch Li Wuji directly.
Li Wuji had planned to perform the decapitation strategy on the Cultivators. Little did he expect that "Fist King" Lei Zonglie, who had an incredible life form, was also trying to crawl into his spiritual residence and perform the decapitation strategy on him!
Hardly had he come back to himself from the serial explosions when he found dozens of annoying bugs on his Colossus. Li Wuji was both exasperated and scared, realizing that he had been tricked by "Fist King" Lei Zonglie. The iron giant hundreds of meters tall was not the Fist King's real body at all but just an exaggerated disguise. One of those small spiritual puppets was his actual self!
"Damn it! It's truly as expected of the shameless Cultivators!"
Li Wuji bellowed while tides of spiritual energy were unleashed from the Lotus Buddha, trying to blow away or burn up the spiritual puppets that had crawled on his body.
He was partly successful. A couple of spiritual puppets were indeed burnt up into garbage and blown far away.
However, there were some other spiritual puppets that were made of unknown materials. Even the temperature of thousands of degrees was not enough to dysfunction them. After tearing apart the tiny cracks on the Colossus, they even extended sharp thorns from their "mouths" and stabbed in.
Astronomical information immediately flooded into the Lotus Buddha's mainframe crystal processor, which attacked the firewall and fought with Li Wuji over the control of the Colossus.
It was almost like the Fist King intended to occupy Li Wuji's Colossus for himself!
Caught unprepared by the enemy's weirdest tactics, Li Wuji was at a loss about what to do.
However, it took him only half a second before he realized what was going on. After a shriek, he controlled the crystal processor crazily and established new, temporary, and dynamic firewalls to block the Fist King's "self-awareness" or "soul" or "aggressive program".
Li Wuji's resistance was successful—for now.
The main crystal processor of a Colossus was of too high a level for the Fist King to hack so quickly.
But such resistance also drained all of the Colossus' computational ability, to the point that Li Wuji did not notice… another Colossus that had appeared behind him without a sound.
It was a bright gray, inconspicuous, and even somewhat weaselly Colossus, like a super-large iron mouse more than twenty meters tall.
No. The Colossus that had arc-shaped blades on the elbows and the toes was more ferocious and aggressive than a mouse. It was more like a velociraptor that was agile, swift, and highly belligerent in the primeval age.
The Colossus was exactly Boss Bai's mount, the Kleptomaniac!
Chapter 2456: All Is Settled |
The Kleptomaniac was a Colossus that highlighted agility, swiftness, stealth, assassination, and other features and could almost be called the sleaziest Colossus in the entire universe.
The sleaziness was even vastly different from Li Yao's battle style.
No matter how Li Yao behaved in his daily life, or whether he could be somewhat…"cautious" when it came to strategic choices, his style was always open and straightforward in the head-on clashes.
The Kleptomaniac, on the other hand, looked like an invisible whirl of air. But whenever the wind passed by, it would steal something from the target.
The first time it passed the Lotus Buddha, the Kleptomaniac stole one piece of the breastplate.
The second time, it stole a power unit on the left rear of the enemy's torso.
The third time, it even stole the entire left shank of the Lotus Buddha!
In terms of combat ability, Boss Bai—Bai Xingjian, who had broken into the Divinity Transformation Stage decades ago in the Star Glory Federation and who had the battle experiences of two lives after the soul of "Pirate Potentate Bai Xinghe" was melted with the soul of "Supreme Pirate Yan Xinjian"—was far stronger than Li Wuji in the first place.
Even if the two of them were in a duel, Li Wuji wouldn't have been a match for him.
But of course, in a battle between two experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage, Li Wuji could've always fled even if he couldn't defeat Boss Bai.
However, there was still a Fist King here.
The Fist King was not a human being. Fundamentally, he was a "permanent battle puppet with auto-thinking and auto-fighting abilities". Although he was not entirely the same as the "information lives" such as Xiaoming and Wenwen, they were still quite similar.
The Fist King's real self was not any of the spiritual puppets that were clinging to the Lotus Buddha right now. Instead, he was the collection of all the spiritual puppets. He had even crammed into the Lotus Buddha's database and operation system through the invasion of the spiritual puppets, significantly disturbing the Lotus Buddha's battle.
It was some sort of…"possession" of a machine on another machine!
When the terrifying Boss Bai and the weird Fist King attacked Li Wuji together, the marquess of the Imperium truly had nowhere to run to at all!
For a moment, he was blown by tides of spiritual energy back and forth while the world was swirling around him. All the pores on his body were spurting out blood, staining the dustless spiritual residence into a mess.
The operation menu on the virtual light beam inside the Colossus, however, spread out fuzzy ripples that minced all the data and instructions. His Colossus was quickly getting out of his control, as if a sharp blade had stabbed into his nerves that were connected to the Colossus, separating his soul from the Colossus brutally.
Huala!
Under the relentless attacks of the two experts, Li Wuji's defense completely collapsed. The limbs of the Lotus Buddha were wide open while it cramped crazily.
The Kleptomaniac took the opportunity to crouch into a giant iron ball and crashed into its chest heavily, both breaking into the bridge of Eternal Spring with a trail of sparks and lightning.
The blast caused by the collision of two Colossi was like a thousand crystal bombs exploding at the same time. The bridge of Eternal Spring seemed to have just suffered a tornado and was completely paralyzed.
Shua! Shua!
The blades on the elbows of the Kleptomaniac crossed and pierced into the Lotus Buddha's spiritual residence, narrowly passing Li Wuji's body.
The sharp edge stimulated every nerve inside Li Wuji's body like a gloomy wind from hell.
Part of the super-alloy spiritual puppets that made up the Fist King's body also crawled into the spiritual residence through the wide-open breastplate of the Lotus Buddha. All kinds of blades and guns were rolled out of their bodies and aimed at Li Wuji's temples and chest, making a silent threat.
Li Wuji had been dizzy under the blast. When he realized what was going on, he had lost all chances to fight back.
He was angry, anxious, and ashamed. His head was blank for a long time, and he vomited aloud in the end!
…
On the ground of the Blue Sky Market, the resistance of Li Wuji's half fleet was still going on.
The Big Bai Pirate Gang merely controlled the firing points around to prevent them from fleeing, but they did not show any intention of attacking the place.
Now that the Big Bai Pirate Gang did not intend to attack, the remaining troop inside, which had just been bombarded by heavy cannons and lost touch with their leader Li Yuanzhen, would certainly not leave their base recklessly either.
They were still under the illusion that Li Wuji would notice something wrong and reinforce them with the intact fleet if they could persist for a while longer.
However, their beautiful wish was shattered by the cruel reality.
While they were in an impasse against the Big Bai Pirate Gang in the hidden fortresses and the firing points, a twisted, broken Colossus flew in from the manmade atmosphere and stopped above them.
It was exactly Li Wuji's Colossus, the Lotus Buddha.
The soldiers naturally recognized their master's Colossus. Thinking that Li Wuji had returned to help them, they were about to cheer and counterattack when they noticed that something was not right. The Colossus was blackened and ragged, as if it had just been savaged. Was it nearly as clean and unstained as Li Wuji usually kept it?
"What happened? How did our lord's Colossus fall into such a miserable state?"
The soldiers of the troop looked at each other in bewilderment, all feeling creepy.
"Surrender now!"
The remaining half breastplate was kicked away from inside, and Boss Bai and the Fist King leaped out of the spiritual residence and stood above everyone magnificently.
Between the two of them was the swollen, tied, and bleeding Li Wuji who couldn't have looked more terrible.
In a trance, Li Wuji was too devastated to face his soldiers, but the blades in Boss Bai and the Fist King's hands were crossed on his neck, forcing him to raise his head so that the soldiers could see his face clearly.
"Surrender now!"
Boss Bai shouted again, "Your master has been caught by us alive. This man does not have the determination of the Immortal Cultivators at all. He did not dare to kill himself when he was offered an opportunity to. Are you going to serve and even die for such a man?
"I am unwilling to kill you because you are all the best specialists to maneuver starships. If I want, I can surround this place and summon all the starships here to bombard you for a good five hours. Who among you can survive or even keep your body intact?
"Surrender now. This is the third warning, and I will not repeat it for a fourth time. You will either surrender or die!"
Hardly had he finished his sentence when swirls spread out on the manmade atmosphere and daunting starships barged in, further adding to the weight of Boss Bai's announcement.
What was pulled by a few small starships was exactly "Eternal Spring", which had been crippled and lost basic mobility.
The flagship was disabled, the commander was captured alive, the direct superior went missing, and the enemy had surrounded them. With the battle coming to this point, it was not disgraceful for any troop to choose to surrender.
Even if it were a troop of the Cultivators, it would have to surrender now.
The regular army of the four Kurfürst families, especially the young officers, the ordinary soldiers, and the hominoid slaves in it, was unsteady in the first place because of the turmoil of the reformists. The only reason they resisted hard without retreating was that the enemies were humble and lowly space pirates. They were merely supported by the sense of honor.
But right now, when they looked at the most humiliating appearance of Li Wuji, what were they dying for exactly?
Clang! Clang!
With complicated sighs, the soldiers dropped the weapons that were stained by sweat and blood in their hands, surrendering to Boss Bai and the Fist King.
It was not until this moment that the regular space pirates in the other twenty-eight pirate gangs, who had the greatest advantage in number, vaguely realized that something was not right.
"This… This can't be right. Didn't they say that Boss Bai had joined hands with Marquess Yongchun to regroup us? Why is Boss Bai fighting Marquess Yongchun's troop?"
The space pirates looked at each other in confusion, having no idea what was going on.
It was one thing to be swallowed by Marquess Yongchun who represented the four Kurfürst families, but it would be too absurd if they were only swallowed by Boss Bai and even forced to face the dual fury of the reformists and the four families together with him!
"Boss Bai! The treacherous, shameless, and insane Boss Bai!"
Many space pirates had finally realized what was going on. They wanted to pick up their weapons again, but it was too late.
Their magical equipment and their crystal suits had long been taken away by the soldiers of the Big Bai Pirate Gang. They had also been asked to move to the lower places that did not have any cover. Their enemies were watching them coldly from the commanding heights and the firing points with obvious contempt.
Besides, more and more starships were tearing apart the manmade atmosphere and breaking the gravity sphere of the Blue Sky Market from the sky. They were parked above them like iron beasts.
Many space pirates whose eyes were keen had recognized the emblem of the crowned fist on those starships. Realizing that it was the fleet of Cultivators who had been unpredictably active in the peripheral worlds of the Imperium in the recent year, they couldn't help but feel greatly shocked.
"Boss Bai is joining hands with the Cultivators and the terrible 'Fist King' Lei Zonglie!"
Such an understanding smashed the last backbone of the space pirates, who intended to resist, like a thousand-kilogram hammer.
The starships of the Cultivators' fleet were all stolen from the Imperium's army or even the space pirates. Some were even modified from armed mining starships or merchant starships. They were ragged, and their tonnage and firepower were below average.
But starships were starships after all. They were more than enough to deal with the "ants" that were scattered on the ground.
One wrong move, and they'd lose the entire game!
Realizing that they had stepped into the most vicious trap since the very beginning, those space pirates could only sigh and accept the ruling of Boss Bai and the Fist King with their eyes closed.
Just like that, in less than twenty-four hours, the Blue Sky Market, the comprehensive business and trade center with the most abundant resources, and the most advanced maintenance facilities with the best upgrade and supply abilities changed three masters in a row.
At first, it belonged to the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors. Then, it was the space pirates and the nobles' armies. Eventually, it fell to the hands of the federal space pirates and the Cultivators!
Chapter 2457: Boss Bai's Play |
"Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!"
When the Big Bai Pirate Gang and the fleet of the Cultivators successfully joined, and when the flag of white mouse twisting its bottom, the flag of Starlight, and the flag of the crowned fist fluttered in the burning sky of the Blue Sky Market together, all the space pirates from the Star Glory Federation and the Cultivators of Starlight began to cheer from the bottom of their hearts.
It was needless to say the central members of the Big Bai Pirate Gang.
Although they had almost been invincible in the hundreds of fierce battles after they jumped to the Imperium from the federation under the leadership of Boss Bai, and they had returned with loads of trophies every time, they had never conquered such a resourceful and sturdy city as the Blue Sky Market before, nor had they ever crushed a whole fleet of the regular army!
Such an unprecedented triumph was not only the glory of the space pirates but also the glory of the federation from the edge of the cosmos.
Even though they were humble space pirates who might have been in jail for decades in the federation, the federation was their homeland after all, where their family and friends still stayed. The connection between them and the federation could never be excised.
The "bumpkins" from the edge of the cosmos, after barging into the splendid worlds at the center of the cosmos, were still having a great time and even turning the worlds upside down.
Hehe. In terms of technologies and advancement of civilization, the wealthy places at the center of the cosmos were naturally better, but when it came to brutality and toughness, it was certainly the vicious folks from the rough lands that were more fearsome!
