Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 276
Since the vehicles had no passengers, they would be filled with abundant crystals, which would provide enough energy for the initial boost to 'pull' the vehicles back to the Heaven's Origin Sector.
While thinking, Li Yao unfolded the units of the star beacon on the surface of the ocean deftly.
To survive in extreme environments, star beacons had a solid fixation system and defense rune arrays that were remarkably strong.
Li Yao adjusted the pedestal to the ocean mode. After a "Chi" sound, the pedestal quickly absorbed air and expanded into sixteen giant airbags floating on the ocean.
In the ocean mode, the star beacon could resist tenth-level strong wind, which should be enough to survive one month without being damaged.
Li Yao's hands danced up and down, connecting one component to another. An octagonal metal tower about five meters tall with various branches was taking shape.
Li Yao extended four spiritual threads through the gaps in the hand of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit and connected them to the mainframe crystal processor of the star beacon. Then he started setting the coordinates and the environment information on the tiny light beam that had been projected to his retina.
At this moment, he felt that something was shaking the ocean.
The antennas on the star beacon were also trembling.
"Huala! Huala!"
From the crimson ocean jumped up countless weird fish with sharp horns in front of their heads. While uttering eccentric noises in their mouths, they opened their fins into membranes almost one meter long, which allowed them to glide in the air for a long time before they fell into the ocean eventually. Then they sprang and glided again anxiously. They were fleeing in such a flurry that they didn't even have time to bother the weird-looking intruders that were Li Yao and his teammates.
Li Yao suddenly had a bad feeling. He asked, "Captain, is one of the undersea volcanoes erupting?"
Captain Hong Tong was even more confused than him.
"We have sunk quite a few probe balls undersea. The mountains below are peaceful within a hundred square kilometers with no sign of volcano eruption at all. There's no undercurrent, either. The shaking seems to be from the seashore. Could it be an earthquake?
"Wait!
"It doesn't sound right. According to the map drawn by the crystal cameras, the land… should be on the other side!"
Li Yao was greatly alarmed.
The land was on the other side?
Then, what were the continuous mountains almost ten thousand meters high that they saw on the 'seashore'?
Li Yao's eyes were twitching violently while he turned around. He didn't know if it was his imagination or not, but the mountains at the end of the ocean were even higher and more majestic than before. They were swallowing almost half of the sky.
The shaking was becoming more and more intense. Thousands of sharp-horned, gliding fish leapt and cried in desperation passing by them like a group of deserters.
Li Yao blinked his eyes to make sure that what he saw was really happening.
The red mountains at the horizon grew taller still. Two thirds of the sky had been devoured. Destructive roars finally swept over, too.
It was clear now that the sky-blocking existences ten thousand meters high and hundreds of kilometers long were not mountains but a tsunami!
Chapter 405: Tide Rises Like Spears |
The dominating tide that was almost ten thousand meters high almost ripped the atmosphere of Ultimacy open. Its tip was reflecting the dazzling brilliance from the stars, while it pushed forward unstoppably like thousands of galloping horses.
The crimson waves formed an all-consuming wall that blocked the sky and eclipsed the sun. It seemed still, but it was enlarging rapidly, consuming the clouds at an unimaginable speed.
This time, not just the gliding fish, but all kinds of weird sea beasts were fleeing to the other side of the ocean crazily. Many of them popped up from the ocean and screamed desperately looking at the overwhelming tide.
"The peak of the wave is around 8,700 meters and still rising!"
"Ultimacy must have one or two giant satellites that are very close to it. They are the reason for such a frightening tide! Maybe the folds we saw on the land were shaped by the enormous pull of the satellites, too!
"The good news is that the speed of the tide is less than half the speed of sound!
"Bad news is that the spiritual energy around us has been stirred into a chaotic state. Invisible spiritual energy turbulence is swirling in the air. Our crystal suits may not be able to reach full speed!
"I have sent the preliminary map to your crystal processors. Run toward the real land now!"
Yan Yangtian, who had been scouting the environment around, shouted in the communication channel as loudly as she could.
Despite the protection of their crystal suits, the roaring tide that sounded like ten thousand cannons shooting at the same time suppressed her voice without any trouble.
"Don't bother with the star shuttle. The important assets are all in our Cosmos Rings. Let's leave now!
"Although the tide may not be able to catch up to us, it will be a terrible disaster if our crystal suits lose momentum because of the spiritual energy turbulence!"
Brilliant exhaust flames spurted out from the back of five crystal suits, while they rose up to the sky and fled in the direction of the land hurriedly, leaving ten lines of splashes on the surface of the ocean.
But Li Yao was still on the pedestal of the star beacon on one of his knees. He was dismantling the star beacon into separate units that he had just assembled.
"Vulture, what are you doing?" Captain Hong Tong yelled in the communication channel.
Li Yao glanced at the surging tide which was drawing near and said tranquilly, despite his pale face, "I'm going to recycle the star beacon."
"Are you out of your mind? We brought three star beacons in total. There are still two of them even if this one is damaged! Just go now!"
Hong Tong was shouting furiously.
"Although we have three star beacons, the natural environment of Ultimacy is too harsh, not to mention that we might be engaged with the exploration squads of the demon race who will also sabotage our star beacon should they come across one! The more star beacons we have, the more likely we can go back successfully!"
Li Yao's speed was higher and higher. The hundreds of blurred shadows caused by the deft movements of his hands were almost transparent. It seemed like the star beacon was being corroded by invisible acids, because its components disappeared into thin air one by one.
"Then just stuff the star beacon in your Cosmos Ring already! The tide is only five thousand meters away from you!"
Hong Tong and the other teammates were almost going mad.
"I can't. My Cosmos Ring has been filled with assets and components. The star beacon is too large with too many branches. If I absorb it into the Cosmos Ring by force, the space inside the Cosmos Ring may overlap, which will damage the magical equipment. I have to dismantle the star beacon into the most basic components before putting them back!"
While he was talking, Li Yao pulled the last component apart from the star beacon.
What was left was a giant pedestal of airbags which was no longer needed.
The pedestal was only of use in the ocean anyway, while Li Yao had made up his mind to not build up a star beacon on the ocean again.
At this moment, the raging tide was less than a thousand meters away from him. A prehistoric beast seemed to have opened its bloody mouth. The intersecting tips of waves were like the sharp tusks of the beast.
BOOM! BOOM BOOM! BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
The exhaust flame of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit left a giant swirl on the surface of the ocean.
Li Yao looked at the tide one last time.
In the middle of the crimson tsunami, many hundreds-of-meters-long sea beasts, which were definitely dominators of the ocean during peacetime, were swimming, struggling and screaming with the current just like fries and shrimps.
The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit flew up to the sky!
"Swoosh!"
Li Yao turned into a streak of blackness. He rushed forward and left a parting almost a hundred meters deep in the ocean, getting ahead of the tide.
800 meters… 900 meters… 1,000 meters… He was getting further and further away from the wave.
Suddenly!
Li Yao felt that his body was light, as if he had stepped onto nothing. The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit was pulled by something unknown and fell down to the ocean.
This was a spiritual energy turbulence, the last thing that Cultivators would like to experience when they were flying!
Li Yao widened his eyes and entered the super perspective state. His brain cell activity was brought up to 500%, and his computation ability was maximized!
While his body was moving, the invisible turbulence gradually unveiled its traces in front of him.
After dozens of modification procedures, the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit right now insanely had 354 power rune arrays with six spiritual gas acceleration gadgets. It was truly a monster of speed.
The tide left behind a moment ago was catching up fast. The distance between them was shortened to 1,000 meters… 800 meters… 500 meters…
"Vulture!"
Captain Hong Tong's voice had been twisted by the roars of the tide.
"Li Yao!!!"
Ding Lingdang was shouting three times louder than Hong Tong. She flew close without bothering about anything. Spiritual energy burst out of her body like a volcano eruption. A small sun seemed to be rising up from the ocean. Much seawater was vaporized by the flames on her body, forming a mushroom cloud in the sky!
It appeared that she was planning to fly to Li Yao and blow the thousands-of-meters-high tides into pieces with her fists!
At this critical moment, Li Yao rumbled and sped up, freeing himself from the turbulence. With his own acceleration and the effect of the centrifugal force, he managed to run away from the tide again.
"I'm fine! I was caught by a turbulence by accident, but I'm out of it now!" shouted Li Yao.
"You are not fine! Next time you act recklessly like this, I will punch your head into pieces personally if the tide doesn't!" Ding Lingdang was more than angry.
After the harmless yet scary incident, Li Yao did not dare to fly as fast as he could anymore. He kept his speed a bit higher than that of the tide, while he detected and dodged the spiritual energy turbulences in his way.
After ten minutes of fearful flight, they finally saw a broken land.
Countless giant stone pillars were standing on the seashore. Brushed by the waves for thousands of years, they were extremely smooth and looked like a natural bulwark.
Li Yao and his teammates passed by it roaringly. Half a minute later, the tide almost ten thousand meters high smashed down brutally.
Thousands of falling stars seemed to have hit the continent at the same time, raising an enormous blast like a super hurricane with deafening noises. The six of them were shaking in midair like headless flies.
Gritting their teeth, they moved another hundred or so kilometers inland. When they looked back again, they discovered that the seashore had been drowned. The mountains thousands of meters high had turned into lone islands in the middle of the ocean.
The foundation of many mountains had been crushed to smithereens by the tide. Therefore, many of the lone islands sild into the seawater after violent trembles, triggering another round of soaring waves.
The apocalypse-like scene startled the members of Team Blue Bronze.
Natural paradises where spiritual energy was abundant tended to have extreme crustal movements and climate changes. This was the inevitable side effect of the overactive spiritual energy.
To conquer the natural paradises required the hard work of human beings to alter the environment and build it into a place that was favorable for the living and thriving of mankind.
"It seems that neither the ocean nor the shore are good places for star beacons. The relics and ancient battlefields of the Star Ocean Empire and the demon race will not be here even if they do exist. Let's march further inland."
Captain Hong Tong commanded, "Yan Zi, analyze the spiritual waves nearby, so that we can move toward where the spiritual energy is the most intense; Vulture, look for a suitable location to establish star beacons; Dummy, try to contact the other Star Teams; the rest of us will stay on guard! Since the spiritual energy is more than lavish in this place, dangerous spiritual beasts might be roaming around, not to mention the demon squads that we might encounter!"
Team Blue Bronze flew hundreds of kilometers westward. The land was still uneven. One moment, it was mountains piercing into the clouds; the next moment, it was canyons that were too deep to see the bottom.
Many of the territories had traces of the scourge of tides.
It seemed that the giant tide that they'd just experienced was not even close to the largest one ever taking place on Ultimacy.
Maybe, the mountains and the canyons were all the work of the super tsunamis.
It was not until they moved more than a thousand kilometers into the land that the traces of tides gradually disappeared. Shallow basins could be found in the middle of the interconnecting mountains.
In one of the basins, Li Yao set up the first star beacon.
With the activation of the runes, the star beacon hummed. A transparent octagonal glass tower appeared, sending a streak of bright gold up to the sky until it dispersed beyond the atmosphere.
It meant that Ultimacy had been 'illuminated' on the star map in the control center of Occult Orbs Fellowship in the Heaven's Origin Sector.
They could've moved closer to the center of the land where spiritual energy was more copious and established a star beacon there, but considering that the demon squads might appear at any time, there wouldn't be enough time to build a second one if the first star beacon was destroyed. Therefore, it was safer to build a star beacon in this place although it was relatively barren.
After assembling the first star beacon, Li Yao established four stealth rune arrays, blending the star beacon in with the surroundings.
Although it was definitely not enough to fool the expert demons at a short distance, the star beacon would be unrecognizable hundreds of kilometers away.
At this moment, Yan Yangtian reported some good news, too.
The spiritual waves in the southwest were extremely intense with a patterned frequency, indicating that their source was not a natural marvel, but relics of certain civilizations.
Taking a brief rest, the six of them feasted upon the high-nutrition food and drugs from their Cosmos Rings and refilled their crystal suits with spiritual energy. Then they continued on their journey westwards.
After a flight of an entire day and night, they finally found a vestige that was apparently the work of intellectual creatures!
Chapter 406: What a Formidable Being! |
"Good lord, what is this—"
The six Orb Patrollers all thought that they'd seen a lot of things, but what they saw right now still dumbfounded them. Their hearts seemed to be tossed into the middle of the surging tide, bouncing up and down with no way to calm down.
After passing through the steep mountains, they'd found a vast, black plateau, on which countless absolutely vertical black lines were standing while they pierced into the sky and protruded out of the atmosphere.
As they drew close, they finally realized that the 'black lines' were actually giant pillars more than a hundred meters in diameter.
The cylinders were more than a hundred meters in diameter and dozens of kilometers long without the slightest error. There was no telling what the cylinders were made of. They didn't collapse because of their own weight, nor were they weathered or worn by thousands of years of climate changes and crustal movements; they just stood silently on the rugged land of Ultimacy.
The indifference of the black pillars indicated the formidability of their creator!
Everybody held their breath faced with such an unbelievable splendor. They circled around the black pillars time and time again, only to become more confused than before.
Li Yao drew his dagger and scratched the pillar, trying to retrieve some powder for future research.
But he failed to leave any trace on the black pillar even though he exerted all his strength. The material and the technology making up the giant pillars were indeed too advanced to fathom.
Li Yao clicked his tongue. Whatever those black pillars were made of, it was much solider than many super metals recorded in the classics of the Hundred Smelting Clan. Flying swords, armor, and starships would be indestructible if they were refined out of such materials!
If he could figure out the distribution of the materials and learn the method of refining, the war potential of the Star Glory Federation would be upgraded by many levels.
Ultimacy was indeed a place full of treasure!
Right then, he heard Yan Yangtian's cry in the communication channel.
Li Yao was greatly alarmed. He quickly moved to where Yan Yangtian was, only to find that she was not in any danger but was floating in front of one of the black pillars in a daze.
Li Yao raised his eyebrow and looked at the black pillar. His eyes immediately widened, and his pupils dilated in shock.
Three scratches that were several meters deep had been left on this particular black pillar which was indestructible in Li Yao's understanding. A claw more than ten meters in diameter must've snatched down from the sky and torn the black pillar apart easily!
"What kind of magnificent being could leave scratch marks like this?!"
Greatly amazed, Li Yao flew toward to the depths of the black pillars.
He noticed that the distribution of the black pillars was apparently in a pattern. They seemed to form a giant array. The closer he got to the center, the more scratches he found on the black pillars.
After their surfaces were broken, the black pillars were not able to withstand the weathering of time despite their unparalleled hardness. Small granules could be found on the edge of the scratches. Li Yao finally gathered some powder.
