Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1646
Chapter 2596: The Sun Shooting Plan! |
While talking, Lei Chenghu displayed dozens of holograms, which were the battle pictures captured by dozens of crystal suits and crystal tanks from different perspectives.
It could be seen that Li Yao was flying freely in the midst of fire like a cockroach that had grown wings on the picture. Very soon, he found a gap and unleashed thousands of rays. The Colossus "Arsonist" arrived magnificently!
In the next moment, all the holograms shook hard, and the picture was disrupted by the waves released by the Arsonist.
Very soon, smoke and fire covered all the cameras, and the whole garage fell into chaos. As it turned out, the Arsonist had blown a hole in the airtight door of the garage. All the materials inside were absorbed into the vacuum, including most of the crystal suits and the crystal tanks.
The three Colossi, on the other hand, were rather restrained in the battle because they were fighting on "Iron Torrent", the Astounding Thunder Fleet's flagship.
Li Yao took the opportunity to flee. Turning into a glittering ray of light, he ran into space.
"Not only was the combat ability of this 'Vulture Li Yao' astonishingly high, but he was also using a very advanced Colossus. It was more advanced than any Colossus in the Astounding Thunder Fleet."
Lei Chenghu gnashed his teeth. "I deployed seven Colossi and thousands of crystal suits and armed shuttles to surround him. However, the space was too vast and it was too unexpected. We were unable to block a Divinity Transformation Stage expert equipped with a state-of-the-art Colossus. Please forgive us, Your Majesty!"
"That was not your fault."
Wuying Qi said leniently, "This Li Yao is like an unbeatable and uncatchable cockroach. He is unbelievably shameless and cunning. Even I failed to catch him on the capital planet when I employed abundant troops. It is understandable that the scoundrel escaped from Marquis Liaohai's hands when you were in a fierce battle against Yun Xuefeng and Song Yushi's fleets.
"Thankfully, just like a cockroach, the man is upsetting but cannot affect the big picture. Marquis Liaohai, if such trivia are all that you want to say, you could've reported it to me via boats. There was no need for you to use the precious 'Heaven'-level communication line to ask for my forgiveness.
"I'm afraid that you misunderstood, Your Majesty. While it was regretful that Li Yao ran loose, asking for forgiveness is not my main purpose."
Emotionlessly and solemnly, Lei Chenghu went on, "In order to convince me, Li Yao told me a lot of things in his space shuttle, including plenty of slanders about Your Majesty…"
Amused, Lei Chenghu interrupted him, "Marquis Liaohai, You did not buy into his words, did you? Think about the destruction of 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' or the so-called 'arrival of the Black Wind King'. Li Yao is best known for his mouthfuls of lies and his psychological tricks. Even dead people may come to life again under his persuasion.
"It is in fact very easy to deal with such silver tongues. As long as you turn a deaf ear to him and do not believe anything he says, there will be nothing he can do.
"Marquis Liaohai, you have been the most loyal and determined Immortal Cultivator for two hundred years. You are not changing your beliefs just because of a few words spoken by a Cultivator, are you?"
"That's absolutely right, Your Majesty. Naturally, I would never believe this Vulture Li Yao's bulls*it."
Lei Chenghu said, "However, something he said was indeed what had been worrying me. Even though I attacked him decisively at that time, the concerns have been haunting me and corrupting my beliefs since he escaped. I was almost mentally deranged.
"As Your Majesty knows, I am burning my soul to the maximum every second for the battle of Seven Seas. My body and my brain are already seriously exhausted and may collapse easily in the first place. If I'm mentally deranged at this moment, the outcome of the battle of Seven Seas may be unpredictable.
"Therefore, I boldly asked Your Majesty to activate the most precious secret line, hoping that Your Majesty could answer the questions for me and stabilize my mind to ensure the victory of the battle of Seven Seas!"
"Oh?"
Wuying Qi squinted. Gloomily, he opened his mouth slowly and asked, "What are your concerns, Marquis Liaohai?"
"It's Your Majesty's plan of victory in the capital."
Lei Chenghu went on, "Li Yao claimed that Your Majesty had dug a gigantic trap in the capital and prepared an enormous scheme that would affect the future of the Imperium and even mankind.
"I absolutely did not believe a word he said. However, when the Astounding Thunder Fleet left the heartland of the four families, we were both very clear that the unshackled ace fleets of the four families would attack the capital immediately.
"At that time, you asked me to fight the battle of Seven Seas in full confidence and said that you were definitely capable of resisting the four families' ace fleets until I won the battle in the Seven Seas Space Zone and united all the forces of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors as well as the warlords at the edge of the Imperium.
"However, I have calculated the combat ability of the Imperial Guards and the Deep Sea Fleet. Even though their combat abilities were multiplied, it would still be impossible for them to defeat the four families' ace fleets. Besides, the four families had not just the few ace fleets but also the fleets from a hundred Sectors, which could all jump to the Empyreal Terminus Sector during emergencies. How are you going to address them, Your Majesty?
"I asked Your Majesty the question at that time, but Your Majesty told me that you had a secret weapon that you could not reveal yet for confidentiality purposes. You asked me to focus on the battle in the Seven Seas Space Zone, assuring me that you would tell me everything when the timing was ripe.
"I believe that the timing is already very ripe right now. I have collapsed Yun Xuefeng's main forces in the Seven Seas Space Zone. Even though Song Yushi is resisting, he cannot hold on for long. In the capital, the four families' ace fleets have occupied the planets and the stone belts near the capital planet, and they are about to launch a final attack when the two planets are closest to each other on their orbits. It seems that no miracles could stop the capital from falling again.
"Your Majesty, whatever trump cards you have, you can tell them to me now, can't you? I still remember my ecstasy when you revealed your identity to me. I'm ready to die for you any second, Your Majesty. Can't you even trust me, Your Majesty?"
As he approached the end, Lei Chenghu was blushing and shouting hoarsely, as if he truly felt that he was terribly wronged.
"About that…"
His hands on his back, Wuying Qi pondered for a long time. "Marquis Liaohai, you've misunderstood me. Ever since I was reborn, everybody who got attached to me did so for certain interests. Li Linghai was so, Yue Wushuang was so, and Dongfang Sheng was so too! Everybody is fighting for themself, but Marquis Liaohai, you are the only one who is fighting for the Imperium, for the true path of immortality, and for the civilization of mankind!
"If I can't trust you, who else can I trust? It was only because my plan was too dangerous and could only work with absolute confidentiality. Should anything be leaked out, we might be doomed forever!"
Lei Chenghu said, "That's the reason why I asked Your Majesty to activate the 'Heaven'-level communication line. Only in this line that will never be hacked can Your Majesty reveal the whole plan without concerns."
Wuying Qi asked, "Marquis Liaohai, do you really want to know it?"
Lei Chenghu replied, "Your Majesty, I have to know it. If it is kept a secret from me, my beliefs may collapse any moment, which will result in the failure of the battle of Seven Seas."
"Fine…"
Taking a deep breath, Wuying Qi stared at Lei Chenghu in the eyes and said most sincerely, "Like I said, there are no secrets between Marquis Liaohai and I. What can't I tell Marquis Liaohai when I have already told you the secret that I hid in the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum for a thousand years and returned to the Imperium in Li Linghai's body? Now, I will inform you of the 'Sun Shooting Plan' exactly as it is."
"The Sun Shooting Plan?"
Lei Chenghu was slightly stunned. "… Houyi shooting the suns?"
"Exactly. The tale of Houyi shooting the suns is a legend that has passed on among human beings for hundreds of thousands of years. Eliminating the ridiculous, mysterious parts, we now know that there was indeed a 'Houyi Clan' in the thirteen carbon-based lives that made up the Pangu civilizations' alliance. As natural born 'star specialists', they were adept at the studies on most types of stars in the universe. They were also good at absorbing energy from all kinds of stars, or even… altering the statuses of the stars!"
Wuying Qi opened his hands. The Grand Illusionary Land behind him immediately turned into a vast cosmos where ten stars of different types showed up. Some were exploding intensely like supernovas, some were as huge as red giants, and some were unleashing colorful, dazzling brilliance while waving tentacles that looked like fiery rains. It almost seemed that ten suns were in the sky at the same time.
Right under the radiations of the ten suns, Wuying Qi explained slowly, "Stars are the sources of life and the most important celestial bodies in the universe that entail infinite energy. All the civilizations in the past and in the future need the illumination and nurturing of stars in order to live and prosper.
"Stars seem to have a stable structure and may have a longevity of hundreds of billions of years, living a life almost as long as the universe itself. Most of the time, they live in the prime years where they are extremely steady as they unleash light, heat, and all kinds of radiations to the entire system. Even if they do decay into white dwarfs or even black holes, it will take so much time that the brief civilizations originating from planets like ours can never feel.
"However, from another point of view, it is rather… easy, or at least theoretically possible, to slightly alter the status of a star so that it can unleash the furious energy that will sweep across the whole system.
"Because stars are too enormous and powerful, even if only one billionth of its force is triggered, it will be enough for the insignificant creatures like us to sense the destructive tide.
"It's almost like a sneeze from the sun is enough to blow away all the warships scattered in space."
Chapter 2597: Houyi Shooting the Sun! |
Behind Wuying Qi, nine out of the ten suns had all dimmed and died out, and only the last one, which seemed to be steady and unattractive in the prime years, was magnified nonstop, revealing the crazily-dancing fire and the swirls that were enough to swallow planets on the surface. Lei Chenghu couldn't help but feel that it could burn everything.
As a contrast, some insignificant glass pebbles were scattered around the glittering sun. They were all the planets that were moving around the sun.
Around those planets, on the other hand, were clusters of dust. Even though Lei Chenghu had fully activated his spiritual energy in the Divinity Transformation Stage, he could only vaguely see the black spots that made up the dust.
The black spots that were no larger than dust were exactly the super warships that human beings were proud of, thinking that they could conquer the sea of stars with them.
Suddenly, the sun sneezed.
Or rather, a certain scorching swirl that only took up less than one percent of the surface of the sun had a minor sneeze.
Immediately, countless flames millions of kilometers long spurted out, snatching at the cosmos like the arms of gods that had been extended out of the sun.
Although the arms did not grasp any specific matter, they were like hands churning a lake and soon raised overwhelming, destructive waves.
The arms split, spread, and exploded. The crimson waves swept across all the planets like a cosmic storm.
Even the planets protected by the atmosphere sensed the intense shock. It was needless to say the fleets that were no more than dust. They were all blown apart or even shattered into smithereens.
"I am not a man who underestimates myself. However, how small and weak is the civilization of mankind compared to the formidable universe? The starships we are proud of, the Colossi that we consider as 'ultimate weapons', and our marvelous spiritual energy and techniques… All of these are nothing when faced with the wrath of the universe. They can't stop anything."
Wuying Qi heaved a deep sigh. "Since ancient times, the classic battle cases where the weak defeated the strong couldn't have been achieved without favorable circumstances. In some cases, the magnificence power of nature was the key to victory. Too many overwhelming armies were lost in the boundless deserts or destroyed by the surging tides in an ocean.
"It is not going to be an exception this time.
"I have never considered winning the war with only the Imperial Guards, the Deep Sea Fleet, or Marquis Liaohai's Astounding Thunder Fleet. Faced with enemies who are a hundred times more than us, any courage, determination, or schemes would be useless.
"However, even if the four Kurfürst families were ten times, a hundred times, or a thousand times stronger, they would still be dead for sure in front of the roars of the sun!"
Lei Chenghu's eyes were so deeply attracted by the exasperated sun that a minor volcano eruption seemed to have taken place inside his pupils. Staring at the virtual picture for a long time, he couldn't help but ask, "Does Your Majesty have a way… to make the sun sneeze?"
"Yes."
Wuying Qi smiled. "Like I said just now, I would never underestimate myself. However insignificant human beings and however vast and formidable the universe is, human beings will completely conquer and utilize the universe someday!
"While stars are among the most important celestial bodies in the universe, their structures and state of operation are relatively simple, even simpler than many planets. The stars in the prime years can run stably mainly because of the subtle balance when the power of fusion offsets gravity. You can imagine them to be extremely sensitive scales. As a matter of fact, as long as a tiny force is imposed on them, it will be possible to break the balance and make them plummet toward chaos and destruction.
"However, the scales are too enormous for the knowledge and technology of mankind. Precise calculations must be run, and all the features of the scales have to be grasped, in order to find the point to impose force upon.
"As long as the point is found, it will be possible to trigger a series of chain reactions. We can make the sun sneeze without the least trouble.
"There's no need to doubt our abilities. In fact, the whole thing is like a naïve child playing on a dry, windy hill. He accidentally caused a sparkle, which led to a forest fire that burnt down dozens of mountains and killed countless creatures. With the child's own heart, wisdom, and strength, was he capable of burning dozens of mountains and killing countless people? Of course not! However, when all the conditions were miraculously met at the right moment in the right place, one child and one sparkle would be enough for that.
"It's the same for us right now. All we need to do is to project a tiny sparkle toward the sun."
Lei Chenghu was silent for a long time, as if he were assessing the veracity of the matter. He asked cautiously, "How did Your Majesty learn the specific features of the star in the Empyreal Terminus Sector, how would you grasp the subtle balance point, and how are you going to send the 'sparkle' to the sun, Your Majesty?"
"This is exactly why I have named the plan 'Sun Shooting', from the tale 'Houyi shooting the sun'. Marquis Liaohai is not wrong at all. It hasn't been long since I woke up from a thousand years of dormancy. I do not control any study institutions or specialists in the Imperium. Naturally, I don't have enough time to understand the features of the sun. However, the Houyi Clan, part of the Pangu civilizations' alliance in the past, was capable of it."
Wuying Qi said, "I don't know how much you know about the Houyi Clan, Marquis Liaohai. They were a carbon-based life born on the planets very close to the sun. The planets suitable for the survival of mankind were usually the third or the fourth planet in a stellar system. However, the Houyi Clan mainly lived on the second planet of a stellar system.
"The Houyi Clan at the beginning were insignificant bugs that were covered in black shells that looked like solar panels. They were strongly resistant to heat. However, their living environment was too rough. The star granted them too much light, heat, and destructive radiations. They had to observe the star all the time and adjust the elements and internal structures of their black shells according to the radiations to absorb energy as much as possible and to block radiations so that they could survive in such an extreme environment.
"In the Pangu civilizations' alliance, there was also the Kuafu Clan, whose people were also star specialists born in similar ways. They pursued the sun to obtain energy. However, the Kuafu Clan's specialty was the stable utilization of the energy from the stars. They established abundant energy-absorbing panels on the orbit of the star, trying to enshroud the whole star with a piece of magical equipment named 'Kuafu's Sphere', thereby achieving a 100% utilization rate of energy.
"The Houyi Clan differed from the Kuafu Clan who were relatively mild and peace-loving in that they were tougher and better at breaking the subtle balance in stars to unleash the most formidable power instantly for war and destruction purposes.
"It is said that millions of years ago, before the Pangu civilizations' alliance was established, the Kuafu Clan and the Houyi Clan, two interstellar civilizations both good at making use of stars, once had a protracted, magnificent war.
"At that time, the Kuafu Clan was developed earlier. They stepped out of their mother planet almost ten thousand years earlier than the Houyi Clan did, colonizing the dozens of neighboring Sectors. They found ten stars in those Sectors that were very stable and suitable for energy collection.
"Around the ten stars, the Kuafu Clan set up 'Kuafu's Spheres' and established a glorious and powerful interstellar civilization with the energy of the ten suns. They suppressed all the developing civilizations within their range of exploration, not giving the latecomers a chance to surpass themselves.
