Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1575
"Don't the scumbags like you call yourselves the elites of the Imperium and the experts of mankind? Can't you scramble for power and wealth on your own instead of conducting them in such cruel and detestable ways?
"You say that the resources are limited, you say humanity is full of darkness, but why can't you summon your courage and wisdom to explore the infinite worlds beyond the three thousand Sectors and search for new resources when the universe is such a vast place? Even if you can't find any, even if it's impossible to cross the almost boundless black wall, the civilization of mankind will at least end splendidly!
"You do not have the courage to be pioneers and can only hide in your home and bully the people who are weaker than you. What 'experts' are you? Cowards! You are the most sordid, shameless, and hideous cowards!
"Hehe. You cowards are not qualified to enjoy everything at the center of the cosmos at all. Let me send you vile maggots to hell!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Faced with the overwhelming barrages and light, the Arsonist instantly turned into an unpredictable phantom that penetrated through the Flying Rainbow Fleet's battle formation and appeared right before the flagship.
Above the right arm that had been raised high, gold daggers as thin as paper were spurting out of the Cosmos Rings. When the sharp blades emerged at the vortex of spiritual energy, they were like a gold fountain—no, a gold volcano!
The gold volcano unleashed infinite feathers that formed a saber a hundred meters long, and the saber's burning flames were further boosted to thousands of meters away, clearly visible in the entire battlefield.
The Arsonist raised the saber high and charged at the flagship of the Flying Rainbow Fleet, with light that was even more brilliant than a full-speed starship jetting out of its back. In the most fearless and magnificent gesture, it became the sole focus of everyone on the battlefield.
The two parties were both rushing at the highest speed. Nothing could possibly stop their collision.
"What-What the—"
Both the common warriors who did not know what was going on, such as Han Te and Liu Li, and the leaderships who knew part of the truth and Li Yao's intention, like Boss Bai and the Fist King, were greatly surprised. The regular way for a Colossus to fight a starship was to dig into it and sabotage the bridge, the arsenal, and the power units. But judging from Li Yao's gesture, he did not intend to dig in at all. He was trying to destroy the starship from the outside in a head-on clash!
"How is it possible!"
Devastating screams burst out on the bridge of the flagship of the Flying Rainbow Fleet. "What kind of weirdo is this? Have you really lost your mind?"
In the Immortal Cultivators' cries of disbelief, the thousand meters of spiritual energy simmering between the Arsonist's hands had been condensed into half-solid gold by Li Yao's fury. Not bothering to look for any weakness or flaw, he simply slashed it at the head of the Flying Rainbow Fleet's flagship, where the spiritual shield and the armor were thickest.
Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!
The spiritual energy almost a thousand meters long was a destructive, unstoppable torrent, which tore apart the spiritual shield of the Flying Rainbow Fleet's flagship after only half a second's impasse, before leaving the deepest gorge on the super-alloy armor. It was partly because of Li Yao's own sharpness, but more important, it was because the two parties' momentums had both been transformed into the most destructive damage. It was almost like Li Yao raised the saber and kept still while the Flying Rainbow Fleet's flagship crashed it at the highest speed on its own. The only result was that—
Shua!
The furious auras of the saber that had been extended to thousands of meters long directly pierced through the flagship, making a shocking, melted damage appear in the middle part of the flagship, which completely separated the flagship into two parts.
Under the watch of countless people who had been stunned, Li Yao had chopped off the head of the Flying Rainbow Fleet's flagship!
Chapter 2478: Unstoppable and Invincible! |
The vast sea of stars was reduced to a small pond at the moment because the dominating vibe of the Arsonist that was as violent as a fiend was utterly unbearable.
The astounding attack did not only slash the flagship of the Flying Rainbow Fleet but also the hearts of all the onlookers, whose pupils and pores were constricting at the same time. The people of lower levels who were not firm enough were even covering their chests and exclaiming uncontrollably.
Even the stars seemed to be shaking and dimming because of Li Yao's slash!
The Flying Rainbow Fleet's flagship was like an executed criminal who had been cut into two pieces from the right shoulder blade. The front part and the rear part had been separated, revealing an astonishing transversal surface that was almost one kilometer in diameter. The cutting part made of the cabins, which had been exposed to the vacuum, was like a complicated maze whose cover had been opened. The scene was even more dazzling and intimidating than a direct explosion of the warship.
"After only one attack… such a gigantic warship was beheaded?"
"How is it possible? Even if it is a Colossus, it can't be so unbelievable!"
"What kind of Colossus is this? Who's using this… godlike Colossus? How did he do it? That's unreasonable! Didn't he slash from the front? Why has the warship been 'beheaded' instead of being cut into two parts from the middle?"
Confusion, shock, and fear were surging in everyone's heart, even completely swallowing their thinking and depriving them of their normal reaction.
Only the super experts such as Boss Bai and the Fist King, when replaying Li Yao's flabbergasting attack just now that had been captured from various perspectives at a much lower speed, could figure out what exactly Li Yao had done.
The attack seemed simple, untechnical, and purely about violence and brutality, but it actually involved very sophisticated knowledge of spiritual energy, structure studies, material science, and even magnetic fields.
The attack of the Arsonist from the front did not just damage the spiritual shield of the Flying Rainbow Fleet's flagship, but it also released special waves by the quakes of the spiritual energy of a rather high frequency, thereby raising the "resonation" of the spiritual shield on the Flying Rainbow Fleet's flagship.
Such "resonation" significantly reduced the hardness of the spiritual shield, intensified the inner stress of the starship's armor, and more importantly, greatly reduced the speed of the starship's head. It was like a gigantic hand pressing the head of the starship and lowering its speed to one-tenth of the original instantly.
The problem was that the enormous starship had very powerful inertia. When the head of the starship was stopped, the body and the rear were still keeping the highest speed to rush forward.
As a result, the latter half of the Flying Rainbow Fleet's flagship turned into a ten-thousand-ton hammer that crashed into and squeezed the front, leading to countless tiny fractures and cracks on the overall structure of the starship.
The area where the fractures and cracks were most focused was exactly one third to the front of the starship, the place that was equaled to the "neck".
It was not until this moment that the saber auras of the "Arsonist" finally burst out and slashed with a slant downward on the place where the fractures and cracks were densest and where the structure hardness was completely gone, chopping off the head of the gigantic iron beast.
If the replay was viewed from different perspectives, it could be seen that Li Yao's almost perfect slash had a very large arc, which resulted in the obvious deviation when the Flying Rainbow Fleet's flagship brushed past him. The helical force raised in the process boosted the damage of the attack to the maximum.
One attack in the head could've pierced through the bridge and also destroyed the starship, but it was certainly impossible to cut a flagship almost ten kilometers long into two halves.
In terms of the visual blast and the heart-exploding shock, it would've been far worse than "beheading"!
"Li Yao, you…"
After witnessing and analyzing the scene that almost looked like a "miracle", Boss Bai heaved a long sigh and thought for a long time before he mumbled, "I don't know how I should comment on you now!"
"Where exactly do you people come from?"
The Fist King also raised doubts coldly in the communication channel. "Why can you always ignore 'probability', 'common sense', and 'extremity'?"
The whole battlefield seemed to have been frozen after the shocking and unstoppable saber beheaded the Flying Rainbow Fleet's flagship. The two parts of the flagship, under the protection of the spiritual shield that had not entirely vanished, were actually still intact. It could even be seen that many dumbfounded Immortal Cultivators were observing the tangible universe as if they were in a dream.
But the ice lasted only half a second before it was broken by destructive explosions.
The contradictory inertia of the Flying Rainbow Fleet's flagship still existed. The rear part from which the power units were still spurting at full speed crashed into the front part that was pressed by Li Yao heavily. This time, the two halves of the starship whose framework had entirely collapsed were squeezed together. In the next second, fireballs that absorbed everything burst out, and the whole starship exploded in no more than three seconds. Not a single Immortal Cultivator or an escape capsule managed to get out.
The fire caused by the explosions condensed into a magnificent palace, of which Li Yao slowly walked out with the Arsonist, stepping on the void and covered in the wings of light. The remaining souls of countless Immortal Cultivators were hovering around him, screaming miserably and struggling hard, only to be burnt up by him with spiritual energy mercilessly. The scene stunned the warriors of the Big Bai Pirate Gang and the Cultivators' fleet and frightened the Immortal Cultivators of the Flying Rainbow Fleet.
Huchi… Huchi… Huchi… Huchi… Huchi…
Li Yao's own spiritual energy and soul power had been exploited to the maximum in order to perform the glamorous attack of beheading the starship in one move. It was barely even possible to keep his lungs steady. He breathed heavily.
Everybody had his limits. Neither a Divinity Transformation Stage expert nor a Colossus was absolutely invincible. Even such a monster as Li Yao could only perform one of those attacks at a time. Then, he would need to rest for at least half an hour and refill abundant spiritual energy and fuel before he performed another such attack.
But for Li Yao today, one attack was enough.
"Kids…"
Spectacular brilliance surged out of Li Yao's eyes, and he put on a brilliant smile. He waved the light saber that was glowing unpredictably and pointed at the shuddering Flying Rainbow Fleet. "Help your father sweep across the Flying Rainbow Fleet!"
Xiaoming and Wenwen took action.
The infiltration and hacking in the past few days allowed them to master the features and weaknesses of the battle network of the Flying Rainbow Fleet.
When the flagship was still out there, the battle network was heavily defended and probably unassailable for their young brains.
However, after Li Yao "beheaded" the flagship, a shocking, irrecoverable hole appeared at the center of the battle network of the Flying Rainbow Fleet.
Even if another starship, which had carried enough super crystal processors, was going to make up for the hole and replace the flagship as the "second flagship", it would take them at least half to one minute to reset the whole command system and reconnect all the starships.
It was exactly during the crucial half-minute that Xiaoming and Wenwen crawled into the battle network of the Flying Rainbow Fleet. They disrupted the enemy during the generation of the "second starship". At the same time, they tossed "information bombs" that contained all kinds of garbage data and viruses to the battle network crazily. They even simulated the information features of the "second flagship", pretending that they were the new flagship of the Flying Rainbow Fleet.
For a moment, all the remaining starships of the Flying Rainbow Fleet were mired in the swirl of wrong data and commands. They were completely lost and had no idea what to do.
"Huh?"
On "Iron Fist", the flagship of the Cultivators' fleet, the Fist King keenly sensed the anomaly in the data stream and information waves. All the crystal cameras over his body were glittering. "My new… own kind? The universe is a vast place, and I'm indeed not unique!
"Then, welcome to be here, and allow me to join you!"
Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!
From the special launch cabins of Iron Fist, countless unmanned space shuttles that looked like wild bees flew out. Those space shuttles did not carry too much firepower but boasted remarkable abilities in cyberwarfare. They were the Fist King's trump cards and most powerful weapons!
On "Alloy Virus", however, Boss Bai's attention was focused on the other side of the battlefield, where another Colossus had shown up, lunged to the area where the starships of the Flying Rainbow Fleet were densest, and were on an unstoppable killing spree. While it was not as dazzling as Li Yao's Colossus, the efficiency of its slaughter was not any lower.
That was Long Yangjun's "Heavenly Crystal".
"An expert who is new to the Divinity Transformation Stage but has reached the limits of the Divinity Transformation Stage, if not beyond?"
Boss Bai rubbed his chin hard. "Li Yao, how many cards do you have exactly, and where did you find such tough helpers? A*shole, the two Colossi of yours would have collapsed the Flying Rainbow Fleet on your own, couldn't you? You were truly shameless to transfer the trouble to me. That's really…"
He cursed for a while and rose abruptly, looking at Xiao Lishui, his chief of staff who had been stunned by what happened.
Still in a trance, Xiao Lishui said, "Boss…"
Boss Bai grinned. "What are you waiting for, Old Xiao? The Flying Rainbow Fleet has lost their commander, and their fighting will have been completely shattered. They are now no better than lambs waiting to be butchered.
"In the next second, you will command the fleet and shrink the circle of siege. Send a message to them openly and ask them to surrender. Let's try to finish the battle in one hour!"
While talking, Boss Bai turned around and walked out of the bridge.
"What about you?"
Xiao Lishui blurted out, "Boss, where are you going?"
"I—"
Boss Bai looked back at Li Yao's and Long Yangjun's Colossi on the light beam before he sniffed and said, "The Blue Sky Space Zone is our territory. Can we let that jerk Li Yao show off on our territory without doing anything? I have to go outside and warm up myself a little bit no matter what!
"I hope that the Flying Rainbow Fleet won't surrender too soon. Huh. However much he has grown, Li Yao must be out of strength after that attack, right? Scumbags of the Flying Rainbow Fleet, hurry up and attack him. Even I can barely refrain from hitting him after seeing his cocky appearance.
"Li Yao, just wait for it. I'm coming!"
Chapter 2479: Successful Reunion |
Boss Bai's wish did not come true after all.
The Immortal Cultivators of the Flying Rainbow Fleet were too terrified by Li Yao's attack to even escape. They were all rigidified where they were, barely able to stand on their feet. How could they have the courage to attack the godlike "Arsonist"?
Also, the corrosion of Xiaoming, Wenwen, and the Fist King had completely minced their whole command and coordination system, turning every starship into a lone and isolated island in the boundless sea of stars. They were no different from coffins floating in the vacuum.
Boss Bai's and Long Yangjun's Colossi, the "Kleptomaniac" and the "Heavenly Crystal", were the last two straws that broke the back of the camel.
If there were only one Colossus, it might've been possible for them to beat it back with dense barrages, but faced with three Colossi, the Flying Rainbow Fleet, which had been reduced into chaos after losing the commander, couldn't resist at all.
Now that neither fight nor flight was an option, all the remaining starships of the Flying Rainbow Fleet let out pale brilliance that was gradually condensed into a circle, like a bubble released by a dead fish. It was the general semaphore for surrender in the Imperium.
Eventually, in only half an hour, the brief skirmish was already over. One might even say that it was ended by Li Yao's one attack!
The Big Bai Pirate Gang and the Cultivators' fleet suffered far fewer losses than anticipated, and they gained unexpected trophies. Besides the tremendous starships of the Flying Rainbow Fleet, the most refreshing news was that Li Yao was here!
Everything Li Yao did in the Land of Sins, particularly the astounding performance during the destruction of "Manjusaka, the City in the Sky", had been spread throughout the Imperium via the ubiquitous Spiritual Nexus.
Although many people were unaware of his name, even the people in the darkest mines on the most remote resource planets were singing over the super Cultivator. Some even worshipped him, regarding him as the legendary Cultivator who had resisted the Imperium for a thousand years.
The central members of the Cultivators' fleet were all rescued by Li Yao in person from the Martial Meritocrats Sector. Naturally, they knew part of the truth and were full of gratitude and admiration for Li Yao.
It was needless to mention the leaders of the Big Bai Pirate Gang, who, as natives of the federation, certainly knew the "founding father of the federation, dominator of three Sectors". Besides, the picture where Li Yao emerged out of nowhere leading a dozen Colossi during the battle to resist the Black Wind Fleet was still fresh for them!
"Li Yao! Li Yao! Li Yao!"
His name and his awe-inspiring attack just now almost boosted the morale of the Big Bai Pirate Gang and the Cultivators' fleet by ten times. It was no exaggeration to say that they were bold enough to march at the best fleet of the Immortal Cultivators as long as Li Yao was leading them!
