Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1568
"You are such a chatterbox."
Boss Bai extended his little finger and picked his ear. "Fist King, if you truly want to be a human, let me tell you one thing—for a human, survival is never the most important thing. Never!"
Hardly had he concluded his sentence when Boss Bai laughed crazily and waved his hands, throwing the debris of starships weighing dozens of tons in the midair at the Fist King overwhelmingly.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The garbage hit where the Fist King was standing like burning shooting stars, but the Fist King was quick enough to jump to the sky by stepping on the remnants before he landed on Boss Bai's back.
"Boss Bai, you're out of your mind!"
The Fist King's logic judgments could not capture or infer what Boss Bai was thinking at all.
"Wow!"
Boss Bai's eyes almost popped out. "It's such an obvious fact that Zuo Tianying and Li Wuji discovered a long time ago. You didn't know it just now, did you?"
He slashed his hand out. As the spiritual energy surged out, countless tiny pieces were attached to Boss Bai's arm into an extensible sharp blade more than ten meters long. It then split apart while it was spinning, covering the critical parts all over the Fist King's body.
The Fist King moved in the storm of blades as agilely as a swallow that was hiding every raindrop. He was even able to activate his Cosmos Rings unhurriedly in the shadow of the blades and retrieved almost thirty spiritual puppets from there!
When the storm of blades died down, what stood before Boss Bai were thirty identical spiritual puppets. There was no telling which one of them was the real Fist King. Or maybe all of them were the Fist King!
"Such a meaningless battle will only have a lose-lose result. I do not want to fight at all."
Surrounding Boss Bai, the thirty spiritual puppets let out the same indifferent and rational voice, but the rationality in the voice was fading. "But if you insist on a life-and-death battle, I have no choice but to satisfy you. At the very least, I will only lose, but you will die, Boss Bai!"
Chapter 2466: I Want to Be Your Bro |
Hardly had he concluded his sentence when thirty spiritual puppets attacked Boss Bai at the same time. Some of the spiritual puppets had sharp blades ejecting out of their arms, some condensed solid shields in front of their companions, and the spiritual puppets that were thoroughly protected opened their shoulders, breastplates, and abdomens, revealing the densest launch systems that were glowing!
The waves of attacks in the perfect rhythm were like the scourge of infinite tides. The tornado of destruction was boosted to the maximum since the second it was born, consuming Boss Bai completely.
Boss Bai's wild laughter, however, was louder and louder in the metal torrents. "Yes, yes, that's it! It's been such a long time since I last enjoyed the ecstasy on the brink of death!"
BOOM!
A couple of spiritual puppets that were close to Boss Bai were blown away by his violent spiritual energy. One of the spiritual puppets was even grabbed by Boss Bai by the head. As the most powerful electric arcs penetrated its iron skull from the gaps, it was cramping hard before all the chips and rune arrays inside its body were overloaded and burnt up, turning it into a twisted shell with black smoke and white flames popping up.
"Is this the best you can do?"
Boss Bai tossed the burning, forsaken puppet away and walked toward the other twenty-nine spiritual puppets, his baggy eyes and his rising lips almost kissing. "You are insulting me and raising my fury, Fist King!"
The Fist King was silent for a moment. Then, the twenty-nine spiritual puppets were suddenly hastened into twenty-nine metal hurricanes. The blurred shadows they left behind condensed such immense spiritual waves that they were almost surrounding Boss Bai like an army of hundreds of spiritual puppets.
"This is more like it."
Boss Bai closed his fingers and unleashed thousands of electric arcs, cutting the gap of the army of puppets randomly. Weirdly, although he did not aim at the Fist King's bodies and only slashed at the air between the spiritual puppets, countless puppets were squeaking and slowing down.
"Ha, this is your weakness."
Boss Bai smiled. "I don't know what life form you are exactly, but beings like you seem to attach more importance to the transmission of information than to the cold shells.
"Attacking one of the shells in your gigantic army is meaningless, but as long as your network is disrupted and the information transmission among your different 'units' is cut off, your vigor and combat ability will be greatly reduced, and you may even be… destroyed!"
The moment he said "destroyed", four powerful waves that were invisible to the naked eye suddenly spread out in the forsaken port. One piece of giant magical equipment was activated in every corner of the port. It was a huge magnet powered by crystals, which was supposed to attract and ship massive metal containers but had turned into traps that looked like swamps for metals after Boss Bai's modification!
The twenty-nine spiritual puppets that made up the Fist King's body were more than 90% metal. Although they had all been demagnetized, the special magnets for port were still too powerful and had too high an attraction force, and the Fist King was greatly affected.
For a moment, a lot of spiritual puppets were cramping as if drunk because of the interferences of the magnetic fields. The other spiritual puppets were still acting normally, but at the same time, they were also slowing down. Boss Bai took the opportunity to attack and destroy more than ten spiritual puppets in a row.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The Fist King finally determined the coordinates of the four giant magnetic units. The four crystal cannons opened fire nonstop, wrecking all of them in one second.
But the moment the magnetic fields disappeared, Boss Bai retrieved a set of new magical equipment and armor from his Cosmos Ring. It was not a crystal suit controlled by a crystal processor, but the ancient magical equipment and armor from the Ancient Sages Sector that were crude and solely controlled by the human brain.
"Fist King, do you know why I insist on fighting you?"
After putting on the ancient armor, and when dozens of vintage flying swords hovered around him, Boss Bao looked like a reincarnation of an ancient god of war. He stabbed the spiritual puppets on his opposite side, leaving thousands of holes on them like a storm. "I've been in the Imperium for a long time, and yet what I encountered at the peripheral worlds were all guys like 'Zuo Tianying' or 'Li Wuji'. Damn it. They were utterly unqualified to be my opponents!
"It's been a long time since I last found an opponent that is worth fighting with all my strength. I am very 'hungry'. Insanely hungry! Do you know the feeling? Have you ever tasted the feeling? If you do, stop reserving anything and feed the real you to my mouth!"
While roaring, Boss Bai chopped all the other spiritual puppets into parts as if they were harmless vegetables with the ancient sabers and swords unstoppably.
Since he went on a rampage, the Fist King had been quiet. He did not say anything even when the last spiritual puppet was twisted and torn into pieces by Boss Bai, almost like…
He had vanished.
However, while Boss Bai ravaged the spiritual puppets that could not fight back at all, a hundred invisible ripples spread out in the sky.
When the last spiritual puppet on the ground collapsed, the ripples in the sky lost their camouflage and turned out to be a hundred heavy battle puppets that looked even more advanced and aggressive. Scorching crystal cannons were on their shoulders, and their two hundred iron hands that were straightly aimed at Boss Bai had dazzling balls of light that were being condensed.
"Your brain has been overloaded."
The Fist King's cold voice came out from the broadcast rune arrays of the hundred heavy battle puppets at the same time. "You probably need a reboot."
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The hundred battle puppets unleashed a firepower that was almost equal to a heavy arsenal warship. Hundreds of tiny pillars of light congregated into a waterfall of destruction and fell from the sky, drowning, swallowing, and pressing Boss Bai on the ground. The pillars of light dug into the ground for more than ten meters, almost pushing Boss Bai all the way through the entire port.
What was even more incredible was the Fist King's delicate control over the dispersion of spiritual energy. The shocking destruction inside the forsaken port could barely be felt hundreds of meters away from the place. Even if part of the sound and visual effects spread out, it would only be like a regular "practice" between two experts.
The glowing pillars of light lasted a whole minute.
The ground in the spaceport was melted with a giant hole that was about five meters in diameter and immeasurably deep, a result when the Fist King tried to control his damage. The edge and the inside of the hole were both scorching dark red, and the melted iron was dripping like mud.
Boss Bai's spiritual waves and life information couldn't be detected anymore.
The Fist King, however, daren't be easy. He still powered all the heavy battle puppets to lock onto the hole on the ground tightly once they descended inch by inch.
Very soon, chuckles echoed below the hole. A colorful, ragged silky shirt, stuck to a cable tube, was raised out of the hole and waved as a white flag.
"I surrender. So incredible and awesome! I surrender!"
Boss Bai laughed crazily inside the cave. "I've finally warmed up my old bones and enjoyed myself today. Let's stop fighting. If we fight on, our subordinates will notice what is going on here, and it will truly be 'lose-lose'!"
The Fist King was stunned. The hundred spiritual puppets hummed at the same time, "Boss Bai, what are you up to exactly?
"You are concealing your traces so neatly that even I can barely lock onto you.
"In the high-temperature attack just now, you were even capable enough of protecting your clothes from being burnt into ashes. Your clothes are made of the most regular silk that is easiest to burn, aren't they? But they were not burnt up, which suggested that you did not suffer any fatal injury at all.
"You started the battle, and you are the one surrendering right now. What do you want exactly?"
"Don't be angry, and don't be rash. Speaking of which, beings like you should be incapable of being angry or rash, and you can keep absolute rationality all the time, right?"
Like a blackened mouse, Boss Bai crawled out of the hole that had a temperature of tens of thousands of degrees. He lay on the ground and stretched out all his limbs. Watching the slowly descending heavy puppets in the sky, he spurted out a mouthful of smoke and grinned. "Like I said just now, it's been a long time since I last found an opponent who was worth fighting with all my strength. People like 'Zuo Tianying' or 'Li Wuji' are not nearly gratifying. I was almost crazy after holding myself back for such a long time, and I thought that you were the only person that I could practice with!
"Besides, I think you are a good man. Really. Fist King, you are truly a good man. I'm sincerely hoping to get along with you, not just to be friends but also to be bros. Since we are to be bros, we naturally need to know each other better. For people like you and me, is there a better way to increase our knowledge of each other than a gratifying battle?"
Controlling the hundred spiritual puppets to thud on the ground heavily, the Fist King said coldly, "So, you did not want to kill me but only meant to practice with me?"
"I'm a space pirate. A space pirate never does anything that promises no returns. Like you said, it would be 'lose-lose' if we fought a life-and-death battle. Why would I kill you?"
Lying on the ground comfortably, Boss Bai looked at the guy with a smile. "Besides, am I capable of killing you? Are those hundred heavy battle puppets your real body? Can I kill you by destroying them?
"Or maybe, is your real self hiding inside a certain starship in the fleet of the Cultivators, not necessarily the flagship but perhaps an unattractive rapid warship? If I truly reveal the maliciousness that you cannot resist, you can turn into a starship in the blink of an eye and broke out of the siege, running away immediately. Am I right?"
The Fist King pondered for a moment, and the heavy puppets bowed at Boss Bai at the same time. He then controlled one of the puppets to support Boss Bai to get back on his feet.
There was a hint of admiration in the Fist King's cold voice. "I thought that someone like Li Yao already deserved to be called a monster. I didn't know until today that Boss Bai is the real monster. When Li Yao is compared to you—well, although he saved my life before, I can't lie—it's like the difference between an earthworm and a boa."
Chapter 2467: What's Space Pirate? What's Craziness? |
Boss Bai chuckled and simply said without being modest, "Are you indirectly complimenting yourself? Even a monster like me is not confident to completely destroy you and has to 'surrender' to you and regard you as a bro!"
The Fist King hesitated and said, "Are you not scared of me, Boss Bai?"
Boss Bai sniffed. "Do I need to be scared of you?"
"Not that 'scared', but 'highly vigilant'."
Thinking for a moment, the Fist King said, "According to my calculation, if my real identity is exposed, a lot of people will be highly wary and scared of me and try their best to eliminate me. It's difficult for normal people to accept the unknown beings like me, but Boss Bai doesn't care about it at all and is still talking to me lightheartedly. Why?"
"Only the weak are scared of the unknown; the strong will only open their arms to the unknown, either embracing it or conquering it."
Staring at the Fist King, Boss Bai said, "There are bound to be all kinds of weird life forms in the vast universe, and the cooperation, competition, symbiosis and destruction among the life forms are natural, too. Faced with such a cruel and dangerous universe, the most sensible choice is to build up oneself through all possibilities, instead of eliminating the signs of threats in fear every day—there are simply too many signs of threats. How can you eliminate all of them?
"All in all, the real cause of destruction can only be your weakness, not the formidability of your enemy. That's what I've believed in since I embarked on the journey of a space pirate.
"Besides, it is possible that a terrible 'flood' on the other side of the universe has destroyed countless civilizations including the wizardly civilization. Who knows whether or not the torrent of destruction will attack the world of Cultivation one day?
"In that case, it will be the doom of our world. When the doom comes, we will all be animals fleeing from the dark forest in panic. Isn't it hilarious if we are still hostile and scared of each other?"
The Fist King was in deep thought. "That does make sense…"
Sparks of hope shined in Boss Bai's eyes as he extended his hand to the Fist King. "Then, would you like to cooperate with me?"
The Fist King said, "We have been cooperating, to resist the Imperium."
"The Imperium? Hahahaha, the Imperium!"
Boss Bai's laughter was even crazier. "Do you think that a tiny Imperium, or the tiny three thousand Sectors, can trap Boss Bai and be my ultimate prey?"
The Fist King was stunned. "The three thousand Sectors are the maximum of the known universe. Even the vast universe is not enough to be Boss Bai's battlefield?"
"No, no, far from enough!"
The sparks in Boss Bai's eyes gradually burnt into the most glamorous fire. Opening his thin arms at the artificial sky that seemed to be bleeding because of the starships hovering there, he moaned hungrily, "Did you know, Fist King, that I was rather disappointed when I just came to the center of the cosmos even though I was faced with the terrifying enemies such as the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance?
"At that time, I thought that I had seen through the entire cosmos, and there was nothing worth plundering and conquering apart from the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance. The best I could do was to explore the mysteries of the primeval age afterward.
"There was a while when I was confused and lethargic about everything. My ambition was to be the greatest space pirate in history, but even the greatest space pirate couldn't have done any greater job than stealing a country, which had been done by countless men of the time such as Blackstar the Great. If I were to do the same, it would be like biting the bones that had been bitten a hundred times by the predecessors. Would there be any fun in it at all? And would I be remembered by this civilization or this universe billions of years later?
"Hehe, looting the royal palace of the Imperium of True Human Beings, robbing the Covenant Alliance of their ultimate treasures, and exploring the mausoleums of the Supreme Emperor and even Pangu and Nuwa. They did sound awesome, but getting to the bottom of it, were the items in the royal palace and the mausoleums the wealth of the creatures in our world in the first place? The wealth was here all the time. Even if it fell to my hands, it would merely be changing a place, and nothing would be added at all.
"Showing off in one's own world and looting everything, would that be any different from a wastrel who stole and lost all the savings of his parents? Would that be expected of the 'greatest space pirate' at all?"
The Fist King sounded more or less surprised. "Then, what is 'the greatest space pirate' in Boss Bai's mind?"
"Only the worthless wastrels would boss around in their own home and steal the savings of their ancestors. The real capable guys should naturally march outside and steal other family's things!"
Boss Bai smiled. "The existence of the wizardly civilization was like the most brilliant axe that chopped my head, opening my eyes and allowing me to see a new world!
"Wandering around the three thousand Sectors and looting the Cultivators and the Immortal Cultivators is just a child's play. The real great space pirates should pilot thousands of warships, break the barrier of void and desolation, and attack the worlds where the wizardly civilization and other alien civilizations are at!
