Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 295
"However, every one of us believe that he is alive and not lost in the cosmic turbulences. He has taken the first step of conquering the universe on behalf of the Star Glory Federation and the human civilization of the Heaven's Origin Sector!
"His name is Li Yao!"
From this moment, Vulture Li Yao's name was known by everyone in the Star Glory Federation.
…
2,600 kilometers away, in No. 1899 boot camp, hundreds of newly-recruited soldiers whose heads had been shaved clean were gazing at the light beam.
Hearing the name of 'Li Yao', one of the soldiers was dazed for a moment. He gritted his teeth, trying to contain himself, but eventually failed. His nose was twitching, his eyes red with tears brewing inside.
"Meng Jiang, what's wrong?" his companion beside him asked in a low voice.
"It's alright. I'm fine."
Meng Jiang, Li Yao's best friend in high school, took a heavy breath and gnashed his teeth.
His clenched fists were gripping his trousers so hard that the veins on the backs of his hands were bulging. The extremely elastic military suit was about to be torn open by him.
'Li Yao, never did I expect you to accomplish something so extraordinary!
'As your best friend, I can't be left behind by you by too much!
'Although I'm just an ordinary person and cannot awaken my spiritual root to be a majestic Cultivator, I'm officially a soldier of the federal army right now.
'Who says ordinary people can't fight demon beasts?
'Just wait for it. I will train as crazily as you do. By the time you come back, I may have already slain… a thousand demon beasts!'
…
On the playground of Floating Spear City's Mining Clan High School of Floating Spear City, all the students were weeping.
The training facilities of Floating Spear City's Mining Clan High School had all been sponsored by Li Yao. Many underprivileged students wouldn't have been able to go to school and train themselves without Li Yao's help.
Li Yao had even established a special fund to maintain the normal operation of Floating Spear City's Mining Clan High School.
Therefore, the students here all admired Li Yao and considered themselves to be Li Yao's young junior brothers. They had established an interest group named 'Vulture Squad' to collect all the news in which Li Yao appeared.
They had never expected that they would hear the news that Li Yao had gone missing in the sea of stars from the Speaker of Parliament one day.
The students were too young to have the basic concepts about the universe and other worlds. They only knew that Senior Brother Li Yao had gone to a place far, far away with no way of knowing if he was dead or alive. Inevitably, they all shed tears.
"Don't cry. We can't cry!"
A tall, thin boy who looked like a reed suddenly jumped up. He wiped his tears and announced, "Senior Brother Li Yao is a big hero from Floating Spear City. He will be fine! One day, he will come back as he promised. He will return splendidly with stellar magical equipment under his feet and blow the venomous pests of the Blood Demon Sector into smithereens!
"Until then, we, as his junior brothers, must not disgrace him!
"Senior Brother Li Yao is nicknamed as 'Vulture', which is the reason we created 'Vulture Squad'.
"Before he comes back, we will try our best to train ourselves and let the name of 'Vulture' resound on behalf of our senior brother!"
…
In the floating mountain of the Refining Department of the Grand Desolate War Institution, there was nothing but dead silence.
Surrounded by more than ten Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit of different models, Yuan Manqiu and a lot of other professors were watching the live stream quietly.
Yuan Manqiu's eyes were red. Two lines of dirty tears were flowing on her plump face.
"Li Yao, Li Yao…"
She sighed softly.
"Hahahaha. Senior Brother Li Yao, you must rest in peace! From today on, the banner of the Refining Department of the Grand Desolate War Institution shall be flown by me, the legendary super awesome lightning-hand, the rising superstar in the world of refiners, the puncher of Jiang Sheng and the kicker of Li Yao, sorry, the kicker of… Jiang Shaoyang. Yes, that's what I, Li Sanhao, will do!"
A young fatty was dancing merrily and declaring confidently in a classroom of freshmen and sophomores, only to be kicked to a corner after a cry.
…
In Serpent City in the south of the federation, Jiang Shaoyang was faced with a giant mountain of rusted magical equipment components.
But there was nothing except easiness in his face. Whistling a song out of tune, he was moving his hands so fast that thinking appeared to be redundant for him. Hundreds of his spiritual threads pulled almost a thousand components, removed dust from them, scraped them to the proper size, polished and reassembled them as quickly as a lightning.
Brand new magical equipment was born one piece after another in his hands which seemed to be an assembly line.
Occasionally, Jiang Shaoyang would raise his eyebrow and glanced at the light beam beside him.
"Li Yao, there is not really a winner between us yet. You don't want to run away just like that, do you?
"I hope you can train yourself to be a stronger, and even greater, person in the depths of the sea of stars!
"Only in such a way can I be granted a supreme sense of accomplishment after I defeat the invincible you!"
…
In the Dark Desolate Domain deep inside the Grand Desolate Plateau, thunder was rumbling, lightning was striking, and a storm was raging.
A somewhat lonely girl was traveling by herself in the wilderness. The occasional lightning illuminated the world and cast a narrow, long, and sharp shadow that looked like a saber behind her.
"Puff. Puff. Puff."
Dozens of hungry demon wolves approached the lone girl stealthily in the heavy rain.
Before the wolves were about to lunge forward, their leader suddenly had a sense of great danger. A ferociously flame seemed to be burning its heart into ash.
The girl was wearing a blood-red ring on her middle finger, which blossomed momentarily like a lotus of fire. It was sharp-edged and brimming with brutality; it had turned into an intimidating knuckle!
The girl walked toward the wolf pack with a smile and stretched to warm herself up. Explosive noises could be heard from the joints all over her body.
"My man is a hero of the federation.
"One day, he will come back with stellar magical equipment under his feet.
"I need to make use of every minute in training, too, in order to be the strongest person in the Heaven's Origin Sector before he returns!"
…
In the Blood Demon Sector, more than ten demon emperors in different yet equally hideous appearances gathered beside the raging, dark blood pool.
Countless demon kings and demon generals were kneeling humbly in panic beside their feet, waiting for the murderous fury to be rained upon them.
The intelligence from the Heaven's Origin Sector had been sent back.
The mission videos from Boneyard were all stored in the information bugs which were flying around them.
Elder Blood Robe waved his hand. Some ten information bugs were swallowed by the redness released and exploded into mists of blood after cracking sounds.
The mists of blood twisted and turned into life-like 3D videos, which were enough for the demon emperors to learn what had happened on Boneyard, even though the videos were mottled with blood.
In the videos, Li Yao steered Sparkle and activated the Rogue Meteorite at first, blowing countless demon generals into smithereens.
Then, with the enhancement of the Dragon Scale Extension, he turned into a God of War and slew everything standing in his way, causing immeasurable casualties.
One demon after another was slaughtered and cut into pieces as easy as pie amid their dying screams!
"Ughhhh!"
While he was watching, one of the demon emperors was too angry to contain himself anymore. His body quickly expanded and revealed his true self, an enormous crocodile with fearsome horns!
He slapped his tail hard, smashing the solidest rock into powder that was even finer than sand, as he exclaimed, "My grandson! My most excellent descendant with the most amazing power of bloodline whom I've bred wholeheartedly for twenty years has been slashed in two by Vulture Li Yao! Just one slash!"
Another demon emperor roared, too, "One of my true disciples was blown into pieces by him! This particular disciple had just accepted a tenth of my demonic blood. It seems it was a waste now!"
"And also my youngest son!"
"And also my disciple who has followed me for thirty years. The disciple that I'd spent so many Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures on modifying was killed! All my previous endeavors are in vain now!"
"Kill him! Kill Vulture Li Yao, pull his soul of his body, soak it into the blood pool, make him a pet of the Blood Demon Sector, and torture him for a thousand, no, ten thousand years!"
The anger of so many demon emperors congregated and triggered a surging tsunami inside the blood pool. Even the purple sky had been stabbed through, through which countless stars peered through.
Intimidated by their daunting aura, the demon kings and demon generals were all shaking in fear. Some of the weak demon soldiers in the periphery even passed out.
"What?"
"Li Yao has been teleported to the depths of the sea of stars together with Skeleton Dragon?"
"Damn it! Damn it!"
"Vulture Li Yao, you can't get away, not even if you hide in the other shores of the sea of stars. All the demon emperors of the Blood Demon Sector will join hands to find you and let you taste the fury of the Blood Demons!"
Chapter 434: Challenge the Storm |
The central constellations in the sea of stars were often the ancient battlefields of the wars between the Demon Beast Empire and the Star Ocean Imperium, or the Cultivators and the demonic Cultivators.
Here, many worlds had been entirely shattered and broken into billions of world fragments.
Even the intact worlds were sometimes plagued by furious cosmic storms, spiritual tides, space turbulences, and even aggressive magical equipment left by past Cultivators, demonic Cultivators, or demons.
These places were places of perils.
One of these places was an exceptionally unfertile world, without a planet or a fragmented continent that was suitable for the survival of intellectual creatures. Even the star of this particular world had become dim and lackluster due to countless brutal, bloody wars over the past forty thousand years. It was emitting its last bit of brightness exhaustedly.
The edge of this world was a frozen hell. There were no planets, satellites, comets, or world fragments.
As far as one's eyes could reach, there was nothing but an overwhelming purple-red cosmic storm, which was raging and rushing in its orbit like a giant animal that was about to consume everything in its way.
The cosmic storm which was as vast as an ocean was mixed with a lot of meteorites. The smaller ones were only the size of fingernails or fists, but the bigger ones were more than a hundred meters in diameter. All the meteorites were shaped bizarrely with sharp edges, emanating brilliance of weirdness.
Maybe a long time ago, they had all belonged to the same planet. But the planet had been unfortunately captured by the cosmic storm, making its fragments the teeth of the cosmic storm.
Right then, a peculiar black swirl appeared in the way of the cosmic storm, like an invisible giant beast had opened its bloody mouth, spurting out dazzling brightness.
In the center of the brightness was something that couldn't be more ragged and twisted.
It was Sparkle and Skeleton Dragon!
Sparkle seemed to have been crumpled by a devil and then straightened carelessly. The previously streamlined shell was riddled with folds, fractures, and holes, from which air currents of red, orange, green and various other colors were spraying out nonstop.
Many metal scraps had broken up and exploded, like parasites which were desperate to run away from a dying host.
Skeleton Dragon was in an even worse state.
Sparkle had the last bit of its spiritual shield as well as its metal shell for defense, but Skeleton Dragon held back the tearing force of the space jump with nothing but its flesh-made body which had already fallen to its weakest point before the incident.
The majority of its silver bones had been battered. Seven out of its nine arms were broken. Two of the nines arms had been entirely blown to smithereens. There was only one last functional arm floating poorly in the vast space, trembling violently like the tail of a tadpole.
Its transparent body was now dirtier than ever. The strength that supported its body had been drained.
Crimson liquid flowed out of the red core in the center of its body which looked like a rotten apple right now.
The wounds were too heavy for Skeleton Dragon despite its amazing vitality. While it was struggling, it sensed the cosmic storm behind which was rushing close. Desperate mental waves burst out from its body.
"Die! We are all going to die!
"This cosmic storm is going to swallow us both! We can't run away! We can't!"
The lights inside the cockpit of Sparkle were all blinking. Most of the light beams were gone. Some ten crystal wires had cracked. Large clusters of sparks were bursting out from the mainframe crystal processor every once in a while.
The blood beside Li Yao's feet had gathered into a lake. His eyes were deeply hollowed and looked like two burning coals embedded in his head. With a smile of craziness, he ushered the remaining four power rune arrays to fully speed up without caring about Sparkle's extremely fragile state. Stunning brilliance burst out from the drill of mystic rays again!
There was no gravity in the space. Pushing Skeleton Dragon forward, Sparkle reached the limit of its speed in the blink of an eye and charged at the cosmic storm which had been blended with a cascade of meteorites.
"For the last time!
"SPIRIAL THURSTING!"
With Skeleton Dragon in its front, Sparkle crashed into a seven-colored meteorite almost a hundred meters in diameter like a lightning!
BOOM!
The meteorite exploded!
Skeleton Dragon let out a dying scream. It was drilled through by Sparkle from the center of its body. The red core shaking in fear in the beginning was punctured and split into multiple parts, dispersing into the universe!
Swoosh!
Sparkle turned into a streak of gold and continued drilling through Skeleton Dragon's body and into the meteorite until that was dug through, too!
Losing the enhancement of the red core, Skeleton Dragon's body parts finally couldn't stay together any longer. It collapsed magnificently like a tower built by sand being blown by savaging wind.
The silver bones with extraordinary defense ability which had been created based on the bones of countless strong demon beasts exploded!
Many pieces of the ancient magical equipment exploded!
The body tissue of Skeleton Dragon which was almost transparent exploded!
The remaining demonic energy that Skeleton Dragon had turned into intense demonic gas which spread out to form a blood-red cloud due to the loss of the demonic soul.
Skeleton Dragon, the ancient deadly demon from forty thousand years ago, had finally been slain by Li Yao and gave away a lot of precious Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures!
The silver bones, the scraps of the ancient magical equipment, its body tissues, and even the giant cluster of demonic energy were all ultimate treasures that every Cultivator craved for.
However, Li Yao had no time to collect all that stuff, because he was in the middle of a great crisis!
Sparkle had been completely devoured by the cosmic storm.
The purple-red cosmic storm was a result of the collision, absorption, and division of countless spiritual tides. It could invade the spiritual energy network of a warship easily and sabotage the spiritual energy circulation system, not to mention that the swarm of meteorites in it was at its top speed, the potential damage of which was no less than the full-strength strike of a Core Formation Stage Cultivator!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Sparkle's spiritual shield, which was already as thin as paper, was torn apart by the cosmic storm instantly. Most spiritual energy routes had been jammed or entirely cut off. Three of the four power rune arrays had broken down. The one that was still functioning seemed like it could join them at any moment.
The cascade of meteorites tore open Sparkle's weathered shell effortlessly and mauled the cabins and paths to its heart's content.
Li Yao's legs suddenly lost strength. He collapsed to the ground and gazed at the blinking ceiling in a trance.
"The damage of Sparkle has reached 62%, and is still soaring.
"The last bit of spiritual energy has been used up. The mustard-level maintainers are the only magical equipment that work right now. The spiritual shield and the power rune arrays are all unusable at this moment, let alone another space jump!
"The structure of Sparkle is in the worst state, too, and is not enough to support a second space jump. Even if there is enough spiritual energy, I will probably be ripped apart in the four-dimensional space and end up being a speck of dust in the universe if I perform a space jump recklessly!
"My own situation is much worse. The sequela of detonating the spiritual seed is attacking. My soul is dry, my body heavily wounded, and I need to summon all my strength just to lift one of my fingers. There is no way that I can repair Sparkle right now.
"What can I do even if I miraculously fix it up?
"Based on the lackluster sun of this world, I am certain that no habitable planet or world fragment can be supported by such a star, let alone one that is suitable for Cultivators!
"I am hopeless now.
"Even if I'm lucky enough to survive the cosmic storm, I can't repair Sparkle or embark on a new journey just by myself.
"I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept faith… There's really nothing I can do now except to listen to the call of fate now."
