Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1649
"Of course he is!"
Li Jialing gnashed his teeth and said, "Considering Lei Chenghu's coldness and brutality as an Immortal Cultivator, the casualties of a few hundred million will definitely be regarded as 'acceptable price' or even 'necessary sacrifice'. It's not a big deal. However, since Wuying Qi does not dare to inform Lei Chenghu of the truth, it is evident that the victims to be sacrificed in his plan will far exceed three to five hundred million. Chances are that ten billion people will die!"
Such an appalling number silenced all three of them.
The quakes in the underground gaps that happened once in a while also gave them the intense fear that the rocks would close soon and bury them.
Thankfully, whenever the intense quakes happened, there would be no need to worry that Wuying Qi's alarm magical equipment would detect them, and Li Yao could take out his drill of mystic rays to press forward boldly. Their speed was significantly increased. In only a couple of hours, they already reached the spacious and flat tunnel that they stopped by last time.
The tunnel was already up ahead. Judging from the sounds, heavy tractors were rumbling by every once in a while. Hiding in a corner in the gap among the rocks, Li Yao released a few crystal cameras the size of flies to explore the environment.
The few crystal cameras flew out of the gap without a sound and happened to catch an overwhelming team of tractors that extended from this end of the tunnel all the way to the other end. It was impossible to see the star or the end of the tractors.
The team was mostly made of super-heavy tractors with a capacity of more than a hundred tons. They were like moving hills.
The tractors were covered in cloth. Based on the traces of the tracks, they were all fully loaded, and they had been driving for a long time.
Holding his breath, Li Yao released his telepathic thoughts and controlled a few crystal cameras to dig into the gaps of the cloth.
"Crystals? So many ultimate crystals of high purity?"
Li Yao was slightly stunned by the dazzling pictures sent back by the crystal cameras.
Beneath the seemingly plain cloth were loads of colorful, high-purity crystals, which had been repetitively purified and were readily absorbable for the trainers.
Li Yao even discovered quite a few marrow crystals. They were all rare treasures!
It was obvious that the crystals came from a myriad of sources and were wrapped very hastily. A lot of them were not stored in standard boxes but exposed to the air randomly.
In doing so, not only would the quality of the crystals be affected, but they might also cause inflammations or explosions. The excessive radiations they unleashed would hurt the shippers too.
Also, Li Yao felt that some of the crystals were whetted in a very strange way. They had all been built into an octagonal shape, with a hundred attack rune arrays carved on the surface.
Li Yao thought for a long time. For what purposes would a crystal be whetted in such a way, and why were so many attack rune arrays carved on them?
Three minutes later, it finally occurred to him that those high-purity crystals should've been used to power the massive anti-air positions. They were the ammunitions of the crystal cannons!
The capital, being the capital, naturally boasted a perfect defense network with comprehensive anti-air facilities. The whole planet was brimming with anti-air cannons that protruded at space. It was almost like a supermassive iron hedgehog.
The crystals and ammunitions of all sorts stored in the capital were naturally astronomical too.
However, right now, Wuying Qi had removed the crystals and even the marrow crystals that powered the anti-air positions, shipping them to the underground world.
Controlling the crystal cameras, Li Yao selected another few random tractors and checked their carriage. The result was the same. Tremendous crystals for anti-air positions and even for starships had been detached and moved to the underground world.
"What's the meaning of this?"
Li Yao blinked quickly. "The four families' ace fleets have arrived and will launch a general attack at the capital planet soon. Such a critical moment is exactly when the anti-air positions are needed most. However, Wuying Qi destroys his own defense by transporting the crystals for anti-air purposes to the underground world. Has he given up on the atmosphere defense?"
Li Yao shared the pictures he saw and his questions with Long Yangjun and Li Jialing. The three of them discussed for a moment and reached two conclusions.
Firstly, Wuying Qi truly trusted the secret weapon deeply buried below the ground. He believed that the other defensive measures were unnecessary as long as the secret weapon existed. Not even a single anti-air crystal cannon was needed on the capital planet. He would win the war the moment the secret weapon was activated.
Secondly, the activation of the secret weapon required astronomical energy. That was why Wuying Qi was sparing no efforts gathering crystals.
Over the past few months, he must've drained the whole capital planet. All the crystals in the arsenals, the warehouses, and among the civilians had been confiscated by him. That was why those crystals came from a myriad sources and were not appropriately preserved before they were shipped. In the end, he did not even let go of the anti-air positions but moved all the crystals away.
Of course, not all the crystals were supplied for the secret weapon. A proportion of them must've been used to blow up the most vulnerable parts in the tectonic structure to tear apart the land so that the secret weapon could be raised.
"What kind of magical equipment needs to be powered by the crystals of a whole planet?"
Li Yao found it hard to imagine. "Is it a piece of the legendary 'stellar magical equipment'?"
After checking the assets loaded in the tractors, Li Yao paid special attention to the soldiers who were carrying out the secret mission to ship the crystals.
That was because Li Yao had been haunted by one question, which was the identity of Wuying Qi's accomplices who helped him with the insane, appalling crime.
Yes, Wuying Qi's fundamental supporters were the Imperial Guards and the militarists who craved to restore the glory of the Imperium like Lei Chenghu.
As long as Wuying Qi proved that he was "Blackstar the Great", most of the Imperial Guards would certainly follow their ancestor determinedly.
However, there should be a limit to their inhumanity.
The capital planet was home to most of the Imperial Guards, who had lived here for dozens of generations. Right now, their wives, their children, and their parents lived in this place too. This planet was their home and their everything!
If Wuying Qi asked them to fight the four families, Li Yao believed that most of the Imperial Guards would not cringe.
However, if Wuying Qi asked them to detonate the capital planet, the home that they had lived on for a thousand years, and blow up their family members by the way, they couldn't have obeyed such a command even if something were wrong with their heads!
Li Yao did not believe that Wuying Qi could've fooled so many Imperial Guards into working for him, to the point of destroying their own hometown and families, only through deception.
It was highly unreasonable that so many crystals were shipped to the underground world and that the anti-air positions on the ground were all abandoned.
Most of the Imperial Guards were Immortal Cultivators. Which of them would charge forward relentlessly without figuring out what was behind it first?
Therefore, Li Yao paid attention to the Imperial Guards who were escorting the tractor team, particularly the officers with flowers on their epaulets who were surrounded by powerful vibes.
As he scanned the officers more carefully, Li Yao had a very uncanny feeling.
How should he put it? While soldiers were supposed to be grave and serious, the Imperial Guards who were wearing the pure-black, first-generation uniform of the army appeared to be lifeless.
They looked so determined, and their movements were so synchronized that they were almost no different from machines had it not been for their breaths.
Li Yao wouldn't say that they were devoid of the feelings of human beings. However, 90% of their feelings had been filled up by certain zealotry and piety.
"Come and take a look. What are those people?"
Li Yao shared the pictures that his crystal cameras scanned with Long Yangjun and Li Jialing.
"They look like…"
After watching for a long time, Li Jialing said, "They look a lot like the Nepenthe believers in the Great Iron Plants."
"Exactly. The magnetic fields from their brains are very strange. Interferences to a certain extent have been imposed on them, adjusting their brainwaves to the same frequency. They are in some sort of 'reverberation'."
Long Yangjun said, "You can say that they have been collectively hypnotized, or that they are in a certain state of collective unconsciousness or massive hysteria. Of course, it is not wrong to say that they have been brainwashed either."
"So, this is the way that Wuying Qi has adopted to make the Imperial Guards work for him!"
Li Yao recalled the riot of the captives of the Covenant Alliance that he had seen in the Godly Might Prison. The brains of those people of the Covenant Alliance were indeed similar to that of the Imperial Guards that he saw before his eyes.
Wuying Qi tried to brainwash him in the Seven Seas Grand Market. Although it did not work out, it implied that the man mastered some sort of terrifying brainwashing technologies. He was almost a duplicate of the Covenant Alliance!
It was not easy to brainwash Li Yao, but it was certainly not a problem to hypnotize and control a few Imperial Guards who had a deep trust in him in the first place.
"However, we cannot jump to any conclusion only by observing remotely."
Long Yangjun said, "It will be best if we can secretly capture a few Imperial Guards and scan their brains from every perspective. That way, we will know what is wrong with them."
Li Yao was thinking about how to catch a few captives when noises echoed ahead in the tunnel.
Chapter 2602: Brain Dissection |
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Creepy howls came over from the end of the tunnel.
It sounded like a ferocious beast on a rampage that had been skinned alive.
Very soon, a daunting shadow rushed into Li Yao and his companions' sight after a few leaps.
It was also an officer of the Imperial Guards. Judging from his epaulet, he was of a rather high military rank.
His face, however, couldn't have been more appalling. His head had expanded to twice the normal size. Quite a few lumps were rising high on his forehead and his temples, fluctuating like beating hearts.
His eyes were so red that they were almost purple, so purple that they were almost black. From the festering eyes, tremendous colorful, suspicious fluids were flowing out, as if his brain had entirely been turned into mucus that was being squeezed out.
Even so, he still boasted unparalleled strength. After a wave of his hands, he already tore two Imperial Guards who went forward to stop him into two pieces, their guts flowing all over the ground.
If the vitality field of the other Imperial Guards was like a lifeless river that was running at a fixed speed, the vitality field of this mad officer would be as violent as a colorful, surging vortex.
After killing a couple of soldiers in a row, he threw his head at a heavy tractor. He even tried to lift the heavy tractor that weighed hundreds of tons. His arms were squeaking, his legs deeply sank into the ground, and even his arm bones were protruding out of his elbows, but he couldn't care less about it.
The officer had completely gone mad.
The "normal" Imperial Guards around were utterly fearless. They took the opportunity to charge forward. After paying a price of more than ten victims, they finally dealt a fatal blow at the mad officer.
The mad officer, however, was unbelievably tough. His internal organs were almost burnt up by the heating guns and the crystal guns. A devastating hole appeared on his torso. However, his wails did not die down until more than half a minute later.
At this moment, his head had expanded to three times the normal size. The few lumps on his temples and the center of his eyebrows were as swollen as grapes that might explode at any moment.
A team of soldiers wearing special helmets that looked like anti-epidemic personnel immediately went forward and dragged the corpses of the officers and the dead soldiers away into an inconspicuous branch next to the tunnel.
The rest of the Imperial Guards seemed to be too familiar with such a scene to be surprised. It took them only half a minute to restore their order and continue shipping the crystals mechanically.
Li Yao and Long Yangjun looked at each other and said at the same time, "Follow them!"
Li Yao split a few crystal cameras and followed the team of "anti-epidemic soldiers" from not far behind them.
In the meantime, he scanned the tunnel and the branch and simulated the structure in his crystal processor. When another quake took place, he powered the drill of mystic rays and crawled toward the branch.
In the end, together with Long Yangjun and Li Jialing, he put on his crystal suit and turned on the stealth mode. The three of them were melted into the environment like chameleons.
The branch was zigzagging and now high, now low. It took the anti-epidemic soldiers more than twenty minutes to finish a thousand meters and reach their destination while carrying a massive amount of bodies with floating discs.
At the end of the branch was a hole from which fire and smoke were jetting out nonstop. There seemed to be a magma pool somewhere deep down.
Huala!
The anti-epidemic soldiers threw the corpses of a few soldiers in first. The dead bodies were immediately taken away by the fire and disappeared into the smoke. Melted by the magma, they did not have a single cell left.
"Let's do it!"
The anti-epidemic soldiers were about to throw the mad officer's body into the magma when Li Yao and Long Yangjun dashed down. Flashing into almost ten clones, they controlled the four anti-epidemic soldiers instantly and made them fall to the ground without any sound.
For safety, Li Yao set up an alarm rune array and a sound-blocking rune array on the branch, in case the sounds here might spread out.
"Do you want me to do it, or do you want to do it yourself?"
Li Yao asked Long Yangjun.
"Let me. I have a more profound understanding of the so-called 'brainwashing' than you."
Long Yangjun took out a few scalpels that were as thin as paper from her Cosmos Ring. They danced among her fingertips agilely.
Li Yao and Li Jialing helped her move the rest of the bodies, and they only kept that of the mad officer on the floating disc. Then, adjusting the anti-gravity rune array, Li Yao set the altitude of the floating disc to Long Yangjun's chest, turning it into a simple operation stable.
Long Yangjun's fingers turned into ten streaks of brilliance and operated on the officer's uneven head accurately. Very soon, the shattered skull was removed, and all the broken bones were picked out, but the brain tissues inside were not damaged at all.
However, although Long Yangjun did not injure the brain tissues of the mad officer, they were already as messy as churned tofu. If Long Yangjun had not covered and supported it with spiritual energy, they would've spurted all over the ground.
Thankfully, Li Yao and Li Jialing were both ruthless men, or they would've thrown up.
Focusing her attention, Long Yangjun separated the muddled brain tissues. Three minutes later, she found what she wanted.
"Do you see it? The brain tissues here went out of control. The brain cells proliferated crazily thousands of times faster than the speed of normal metabolism, unleashing abundant heat and causing severe internal bleeding."
Pointing at the abnormally swollen brain tissues with forceps, Long Yangjun said, "That's the reason why his head expanded twice and why he went mad."
Li Yao nodded to show that he understood it.
The symptom of the officer was not rare among the trainers. Many classic diseases in mental derangement would cause simple problems.
The cells inside a human body, both the body cells and the brain cells, died and grew every day. After every seven to ten days, the cells all over the body would be renewed. This process was known as "metabolism".
Metabolism was an indispensable function to ensure the vitality and vigor of human beings.
One of the most important training methods for both the Cultivators and the Immortal Cultivators was to absorb abundant spiritual energy and accelerate the speed of metabolism of a certain region or their entire bodies through special techniques.
The renewal of all the cells in the body was known as "one cycle". On the premise of enough resources, an expert of training could have dozens of cycles when they mediated for hours, renewing their cells dozens of times. That was why they boasted abilities far exceeded what the ordinary people were capable of.
However, it was not necessarily a good thing that the speed of metabolism was too fast.
That was because the renewal of cells would consume abundant resources and spiritual energy and also generate and discharge tremendous wastes, including the dead cells, the blood that covered the deal cells, the mucus, and even additional heat.
Such wastes had to be absorbed by the capillary vessels and shipped to the skin, where they were discharged through the pores.
That was why one would be spurting out hot steam and secreting stinky, black fluids when they were training hard.
If the speed of discharging could not keep up with the speed at which the wastes were produced, the poisonous wastes would be gathered inside the body, blocking the veins and nerves and disrupting the normal circulation of spiritual energy and body fluids. Tremendous damage would be caused, even including severe consequences such as mental derangement.
It was exactly the case for the officer.
His brain had too many "cycles" too quickly. The brain cells in a region were updated countless times, but the dead brain cells and blood were not discharged in time. Also, the heat released during the metabolism pressed and tore apart the regular brain tissues and cerebral vessels. Even the skull was blown up by the force. As a result, he was mentally deranged and went mad.
