Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 282
In a moment—
Hundreds of gold stripes spurted out of Leng Ziming's body. The biochemical beast closest to him was minced into pieces together with the demon inside of it!
Ba Weiqi was holding the enormous helmet of his crystal suit with both of his hands. His mental attack formed real circular waves in the seawater which charged at a biochemical beast in front of him that was the largest of all with a body length of almost twenty meters.
The head of the biochemical beast quickly expanded and exploded!
Out of the chamber jumped a demon. But he struggled on his feet for a long time as if he were drunk. Suddenly, his eyes bulged, and blood flooded out from all the holes on his face. He couldn't be more dead!
Within a moment, two expert demons had been slain!
It was not the end of it.
The hundreds of gold bullets triggered by Leng Ziming, after blowing a biochemical beast and the demon inside into pieces, spread out in unexpected arcs.
Ba Weiqi's mental attack also dispersed and rippled out in full coverage of the battlefield.
"This is… seed explosion!"
Chapter 414: Left For Dead! |
"Get out of their way! These Cultivators are in the seed explosion state!"
Through the vibration organs on the throat of the biochemical beast, Wang Ji sent out weird soundwaves which were transmitted clearly to every demon's hearing organ despite the high-density seawater.
The demons were all experienced fighters. Without him saying anything, they had already realized that something was not right. They ran away quickly, shrieking, at almost the exact same time as the two demons were slain just a moment ago.
The gold bullets turned into lasers and hit three demons. Their biochemical beasts exploded in a blood red mist.
The circular mental waves caught up to four demons, too, who screamed miserably with their heads in their hands.
However, seed explosion state faded away quickly like the shining falling star in a night sky.
Ba Weiqi and Leng Ziming activated their spiritual seeds when they were seriously wounded by the corrosion of the weird green lines, and therefore failed to enter the perfect seed explosion state.
They carried out only 30% of the capability of a Nascent Soul State Cultivator for merely one second!
In the meantime, the biochemical beasts maneuvered by the demon race were unimaginably sturdy. Under the strike that was almost 30% the strength of a Nascent Soul State Cultivator, they were only seriously injured and didn't get killed!
Ba Weiqi and Leng Ziming, on the other hand, couldn't bear the spiritual energy consumption of the Nascent Soul State because of their over-exhausted vitality. After a moment of brilliance, they both vomited blood and became lethargic.
Li Yao's heart suddenly turned heavy.
Seed explosion state was a double-edged sword. It could endow a Cultivator with dominating damage for a moment, but the recovery after over-exhaustion could be very long and hard.
Ba Weiqi and Leng Ziming would have barely any combat ability for the time being.
Before they set off for the mission, they had run a lot of simulations. In the seed explosion state, they had killed three to five demons with one attack even if the demons were inside biochemical beasts.
But right now, the invincibility of the real-life biochemical beasts was beyond their expectation. Two exploded seeds in exchange for two kills. It was hardly a good deal!
Wang Ji and the other demons fled hundreds of meters away. Several biochemical beasts unleashed an extremely brutal scent, seemingly so brutal that it pushed the silver seawater away. A lot of bubbles were popping up!
"Demon blood boiling!"
There was a technique among the demons similar to the seed explosion of the Cultivators named demon blood boiling. It was performed by melting the blood of the great demons no lower than demon emperors into the body of the low-level demons with secret arts. Once the foreign blood was triggered, it could improve the strength of the acceptant briefly, too.
Compared with spiritual seed explosion, the levels that demon blood boiling could upgrade were much fewer, but its duration was much longer. In most cases, demon blood boiling could last more than thirty seconds.
Unprecedentedly strong biochemical beasts, with thirty seconds of demon blood boiling, were too much for Team Blue Bronze to deal with at this moment.
"Let's go!"
"Let's go!"
Li Yao and Captain Hong Tong exclaimed almost simultaneously in the communication channel.
"Shua!"
Li Yao waved his hands and threw out almost twenty Frigid Prison Grenades which froze the seawater between Team Blue Bronze and the demon squad into a silver wall!
He dragged 'Shell' Leng Ziming, Ding Lingdang dragged 'Dummy' Ba Weiqi, and Captain Hong Tong altered the gravity nearby constantly. The team ran away to the depths of the silver ocean.
BOOM! CRACK!
The Frigid Prison Grenades didn't stop the demons for long. Earsplitting noises burst out behind them very soon.
The ice wall had been broken through!
But what followed was a second weird wave that froze the seawater hundreds of square meters around again!
His lips curling, Li Yao sniffed.
He had launched twelve Frigid Prison Grenades in total. Only six of them exploded in the beginning. The triggering condition of the remaining six had been reset and they would only explode when they were heavily shaken.
As a result, when the demon squad blew the first ice wall up, they were immediately sealed by the second wave of Frigid Prison Grenades on the spot!
But even the double freezing didn't hold back the demon squad for long. A moment later, Wang Ji and the other fourteen demons rushed close and caught up to Team Blue Bronze who had been burdened by the wounded companions.
However…
When attacked by them, the six members of Team Blue Bronze turned into six smoke-like phantoms which gradually twisted and dispersed. What was left were six pieces of shining, round magical equipment in the cores of the phantoms.
"Fakes? We've been fooled!"
"They didn't go up to the surface of the ocean!"
In the meantime, Team Blue Bronze was rushing to the depths of the ocean.
"At our current speed, there's no way that we can escape from the hunting of the demons if we run to the surface of the ocean. Moreover, this place is apparently a long-prepared trap. Maybe there are even more dangerous set-ups waiting for us on the surface of the ocean!
"Therefore, it's a better choice to run to the bottom of the ocean!
"The bottom of the ocean is boundless. I don't believe that the demons have explored every inch of it. Let's run to the ocean floor before we find a way to ascend and contact the other Star Teams!"
"Hurry up, everyone! Scan the terrain and look for a suitable place to hide!"
"Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!"
The six members of Team Blue Bronze dived to the bottom of the ocean thousands of meters deep. Invisible mystic rays scanned the bed of the ocean nonstop, unveiling undersea mountains and trenches one after another.
The pressure in this place was enormous. Their crystal suits had been ragged in the first place, and now with the heavy pressure, screeching, blood-freezing noises were coming from them, as if they would explode at any second.
"Hiss… This is—" Yan Yangtian cried out in the communication channel.
In front of them was a bottomless trench that looked like an abyss leading to the center of the planet. A huge centripetal force was taking effect and pulling them in.
Even their mystic rays couldn't reach the bottom of the trench.
Behind them, the demon squad was drawing close. Countless blood red light spots were raging on their light beams.
They had no other choice except to dive into the abyss.
Pulled by the absorption force of the abyss, their speed was even higher. It was as if they had jumped off n cliff.
Creak… Creak…
The seawater pressure was huger and huger.
On Li Yao's light beam, the translucent phantoms that represented the status of the six crystal suits had almost all turned into deep red now.
In a moment, they would be pressed into a meat sandwich.
"We can't go down any further! Check the two sides of the trench and see if there's any crevice that we can hide in!" Captain Hong Tong shouted.
The crags on the two sides of the trench were not intact, but full of cracks through which countless undersea spiritual beasts were crawling in and out while they gazed at the unannounced guests in a daze with their big yet useless eyes.
"This crevice is zigzagged and has a lot of branches. It's a perfect place to hide in!"
"Huh. Weird, weird. I sensed a vague spiritual wave coming from the depths of the crevice, and positive metal reaction!
"The feedback of the metal is quite strange. It seems not a natural mother lode, but some sort of man-made alloy!" Yan Yangtian exclaimed.
"Then this crevice it is. Let's go inside!" roared Captain Hong Tong.
At this moment, the demons were less than a kilometer from them!
The crevice on the crags of the trench was more than thirty meters wide and four meters tall. It looked like a long, deep, narrow eye, or a half-open mouth through which one could see the interconnecting fangs.
Li Yao and his teammates entered the crevice one by one and swam forward. A moment later, they noticed that something was wrong. Glancing around, they saw no trace of Captain Hong Tong.
Their captain was still outside the crevice!
"Captain!"
Li Yao, Ding Lingdang, Yan Yangtian, Ba Weiqi and Leng Ziming shouted at the same time.
They knew what their captain was going to do.
Captain Hong Tong didn't say anything. There was nothing but his heavy breath in the communication channel.
He merely waved his hands toward everyone and gestured them to run forward faster.
Then, he exerted his strength and punched the entrance of the crevice.
For a moment, the earth was shaking, and the rocks were falling. The entrance of the crevice was entirely blocked, and so was the communication between Captain Hong Tong and them.
In the last second before the communication was cut off, everyone heard Captain Hong Tong's furious roars when he detonated his spiritual seed, as if he was incarnated by a god.
His life was burning to maximum like the eruption of an undersea volcano. Seawater billions of tons was not enough to extinguish it.
No gallant words. The roars were the swan song of 'Mountain Monster' Hong Tong, the second captain of Team Blue Bronze.
"Captain…"
The eyes of Li Yao and the rest of the team were red. They bit their lips so hard that blood was streaming out. But they did not waste any time swimming to the depths of the crevice.
The shaking inside the crevice, however, got more and more violent, as if an undersea earthquake was taking place.
Cracks were appearing on the crags around them. Bizarre stones with sharp edges were falling down nonstop, brushing past them narrowly.
"It's been more than half a minute. Captain's seed explosion state should've ended long ago. There is no way that he can persist so long. Maybe… he has perished already!"
"But why is the shaking continuing and getting more intense?"
"Not good!"
"The demons are savaging the rock stratum in the outside. They are trying to collapse the rock stratum and bury us inside alive!"
Li Yao's blood was almost frozen when he realized what the demons were doing.
If it were hundreds of meters below the ground, being buried alive was not a big deal. They could dig their way up in their crystal suits easily.
But they were now ten thousand meters below the ground and thousands of meters below an ocean. The pressure they were faced with was tremendous!
If a Cultivator at the Refinement Stage were to appear in this place without a crystal suit, he would've been crushed into a piece of paper immediately.
Their crystal suits were all seriously damaged and nearing their limits. If they were buried here alive, the odds that they would survive were less than 1%!
Huala! Huala!
More and more stones were falling down over their heads. They seemed to be in the middle of a storm.
The space inside the crevice was too limited for any dodging movements. However hard they tried to avoid the rocks, some of the big ones still hit them precisely.
Their spiritual shields were functioning crazily, mincing the giant rocks into pieces.
But the hardness of their spiritual shields was dropping rapidly, too.
"Hurry up and look for the positive metal reaction that Yan Zi talked about!"
"It's our only chance!"
The crystal processor automatically scanned the surroundings and generated a map, guiding them the way. Li Yao and Ding Lingdang was in the lead blowing the rocks in their way into smithereens, while Yan Yangtian was gritting her teeth dragging the two wounded teammates.
Behind them, the undercurrent was raging, and the crevice was collapsing. The sea sand and tiny stones were chasing them closely like a ferocious animal.
Half a minute later, they finally arrived at the source of the metal reaction.
But in front of them, there was nothing but an undersea rock stratum that was as smooth as a mirror.
It was a dead end!
Chapter 415: Soaring Killing Intent! |
"I sensed very strong spiritual waves and intense metal reactions. Something has got to be hiding inside the rock stratum!" Yan Yangtian shouted in the communication channel.
Li Yao also felt a very familiar wave behind the rock stratum which was as smooth as a mirror.
It was itself a very odd phenomenon that such a flawless rock stratum should appear in a canyon in the deep ocean.
"Hurry and blow up this rock stratum! We cannot give up hope, no matter how slim it is!"
Gritting his teeth, Li Yao summoned Floating Vulcan Machine Guns and crystal cannons. Almost ten lines of burning bullets rained upon the rock stratum.
Deep purple flames surged out of Ding Lingdang's body, which pushed away seawater and hit the rock stratum.
Yan Yangtian, Ba Weiqi and Leng Ziming all exerted whatever was left of their spiritual energy and bombarded the rock stratum.
CRACK! CRACK!
The rock stratum was not thick. Very soon, cracks resembling spider nets were appearing on it, making it look like a dam that was going to collapse.
However, the rocks falling off above everyone's heads were more numerous and larger, too.
One of the rocks would've hit Yan Yangtian precisely if Ding Lingdang hadn't pulled her away in time.
"Our attack has accelerated the collapse of the crevice. According to my calculation, this undersea crevice is going to collapse and bury us completely within one minute!
"We have no other choice except to increase our firepower and dig out the metal object hiding inside the rock stratum!"
With rocks falling on their heads from above and more than ten demons lurking outside, Team Blue Bronze barraged with all their might. Ten seconds later, the thin rock stratum finally exploded. A lackluster silver brightness glittered in the darkness.
"This is—"
In front of everyone was a remnant of a crystal warship which was riddled with holes but not plagued by rust. Silver brightness was flowing all over its body.
The crystal warship was not very large. It was less than two hundred meters and streamlined. One could describe its style as 'unrestrained'. It gave the feeling that it came from an ancient painting drawn with ink in freestyle.
On the ragged shell of the warship was engraved with a Red Dragon Swallowing the Sun emblem, indicating that this was a crystal warship from the Star Ocean Imperium.
Maybe it had been left by the previous expedition team who explored Boneyard thousands of years ago.
Everyone was overjoyed with hope at first, but later, their hope turned into endless desperation while their hearts became heavier than ever.
They had found a crystal warship. But how could they enter it?
A crystal warship from the Star Ocean Imperium wouldn't be opened easily. Half a minute later, they would be buried forever, ten thousand meters below the surface of Boneyard together with the warship!
The only exception was Li Yao. His eyes were bulging, and his mouth was stretched wide, because he found it hard to acknowledge what was happening.
No wonder he had felt a familiar wave just now.
The crystal warship in front of his eyes, despite the crap-like appearance, was exactly the same as his Neltharion.
Neltharion was a piece of training magical equipment from the Star Ocean Imperium which he had retrieved together with his Cosmos Ring.
He had speculated that the item was meant to train warship pilots.
Over the past year, he had been training with Neltharion all the time and learnt the basic driving skills. He was not familiar with every detail of the warship yet, but he could fly it without much trouble.
As for the operation pattern, internal structure, weapon system… He had learnt a thing or two about them, too.
If the training magical equipment that was Neltharion corresponded to the very crystal warship in front of his eyes, it meant…
"Don't give up yet! There's still hope!
"Lingdang, help me block the rocks. Give me… thirty seconds!"
Li Yao turned into a streak of blackness and dashed at the crystal warship. He twisted and dodged countless raging rocks like a loach. Stomping on a giant stone, he accelerated again and landed on the shell of the crystal warship.
Behind him, Ding Lingdang grunted. Thousands of shackles seemed to be broken at the same time, as she entered the seed explosion state!
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
One, two, three… Seven dragons of flame in different colors roared and rushed out of her body. They circled her and chased each other. All the falling rocks coming close were blown to pieces immediately!
