Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 318
Very soon, the light beam manifested the scenes inside the spiritual shield generator cabin.
However, the true view inside the cabin dumbfounded Lei Dalu, Bai Kaixin, Xiong Tao, and everyone else who saw it in person. They wouldn't be able to forget it for the rest of their lives!
…
Ten seconds later, in an old port inside the Angry Serpent Domain.
"Good heavens! What in the world is this?"
Watching the scruffy starship slowly drifting close on the light beam, an experienced Cultivator rubbed his eyes and exclaimed in shock uncontrollably.
Had he not seen the occasional exhaust flames behind the starship, he would've thought that it was a ghost ship in urban tales.
Half an hour later, Gold Horn was docked at the port of the Angry Dragon Domain.
Within half a day, all the Cultivators and ordinary people of the Angry Dragon Domain learned the existence of such an Exo Society and such a starship, who were hired by an ordinary person at the price of a bag of rice and hunted a bunch of cruel and desperate space pirates through dozens of space zones and world fragments until they slaughtered all the outlaws, leaving none alive at the edge of the world.
Then, they broke into Wraiths' Wrath with their ragged starship through winds and tides fighting against a space swirl and a True Fusion. Eventually, the heroes arrived successfully!
Three days later, legends about the Great Horn Exo Society spread to the Flying Star Sector like tides along the Spiritual Nexus.
The originally small, unknown Exo Society rose to fame and surprised the entire Flying Star Sector after the battle!
…
Ten thousand years ago, Spider Den had once been the most resourceful planet in the Flying Star Sector that boasted tremendous Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. It was built into the most important refining center in the Flying Star Sector by the Star Ocean Imperium.
Starships and magical equipment produced in this place had been shipped to the entire Flying Star Sector and other worlds nearby.
After hundreds of years of over-exploitation, everything on Spider Den had been consumed.
High and mighty mountains were cut open. Underground mines were constructed one after another and almost completely emptied the entire planet. The sky was enveloped by furious spiritual storms. The ocean was corrupted by venom and acid, dyed various glamorous colors.
There was not the slightest hint of natural scenery as far as one's eyes could reach. Gargantuan honeycomb-like buildings made of steels were everywhere on the foul planet.
These buildings either pierced up into the sky or deep down into the ground. They eroded the vitality of the planet like cold canner cells. Eventually, the Star Ocean Imperium abandoned the place, leaving it barren, desolate, and uninhabited.
However, ten thousand years after the collapse of the Star Ocean Imperium, the dark side of the planet was reborn.
Over thousands of years, countless space pirates gradually arrived here. The magical equipment refining centers and starship modification bases that used to manufacture the deadliest weapons were put to use again, spraying dense black smoke and venomous fog. The new visitors had also found a lot of heavy weapons left by the predecessors in the warehouses deep below the ground!
If Heavenly Saints City was the center of light in the Flying Star Sector, Spider Den would be the soul of all the shadows of the Flying Star Sector.
It was the home base of most space pirates.
The criminals who had betrayed the doctrines of Cultivators and embraced evilness gathered in this place.
Deep below Spider Den, below the interweaving, labyrinth-like tubes and honeycomb buildings, inside a dark prison cell, Fengyu Zhong walked toward three Cultivators slowly.
The brutal bandit who had been wandering on Spider Den for dozens of years and broken through multiple sieges looked fair, plump, and gentle. He was more like a knowledgeable university professor.
Compared with him, the Cultivators crouching on three rune arrays in front of him, whose spines had been locked, were messy, dirty, and even somewhat obscene.
Wearing a sunny smile, Fengyu Zhong asked slowly, "For the last time, are you willing to be an Immortal Cultivator?"
The first Cultivator took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He shook his head and replied, "I am a Cultivator, and I always will be."
"Alright."
Fengyu Zhong nodded his head. His eyes glimmered. Suddenly, the rune array below the Cultivator spurted out purple flames which burnt him to ash immediately!
"Cultivator or Immortal Cultivator?"
Fengyu Zhong turned to the second Cultivator, his voice equally calm.
The second Cultivator gritted his teeth to stop himself from roaring. Struggling for a while, he gnashed his teeth.
"Cultivator!"
Fengyu Zhong sighed. The second wave of flames was summoned and set ablaze the Cultivator as well as his soul!
"How foolish you are!
"Since the moment our spiritual root is awakened, we have become a totally different species from mankind!
"We have surpassed the creatures that are as humble as ants; we have become omniscient and omnipotent divinities!
"Our path is to seek greater power and longer lives. Our destiny is the endless mysteries of the universe and a far more brilliant civilization!"
Fengyu Zhong looked the last Cultivator in the eyes and extended his chubby hands. He said earnestly, "There is still time for you to turn back. Recognize who you are!
"You are not a human being! Ever since your spiritual root awakened, you have not been a human being! Why would you let yourself be bound by such a ridiculous identity on your way to holiness?
"Come with me and become an Immortal Cultivator. Let's set off on the journey to the heavens and chase after the true Dao and an ultimate, eternal life!"
The third Cultivator was swallowing, his eyeballs shaking fast.
Fengyu Zhong sniffed. "Don't presume that Heavenly Saints City is indestructible.
"When the Immortal Cultivators show our true strength, you will soon realize how vulnerable you idiotic Cultivators are!
"Don't compare the demons to the Immortal Cultivators. The so-called demons are just dogs domesticated by us Immortal Cultivators!
"Let me ask you one last time. Immortal Cultivator or Cultivator?"
The third Cultivator hesitated for a long time.
Two dirty tears even dripped from the corners of his eyes.
He stared at the two heaps of ashes, from which smoke was still billowing up. In the end, he shook his head and said in a feeble voice that resembled the humming of a mosquito, "I am a human. I am… a Cultivator!"
Before the last syllable was uttered, the purple flames had wreathed him.
The Cultivator put on a relieved smile the moment before he became ashes.
Fengyu Zhong's eyes were cold and gloomy. He gazed at the three heaps of ashes silently.
Right then, his mini crystal processor buzzed.
Chapter 468: Fengyu Zhong's Fury |
The gloom inside Fengyu Zhong's eyes turned into delight. He raised his eyebrows and mumbled to himself, "News about Ah Ming!"
He turned on the crystal processor. Appearing in the light beam was a fat, middle-aged woman with a plain face. In the crowd, she was as inconspicuous as a drop of water in the ocean.
The middle-aged woman was Pang Wushuang. She was Fengyu Zhong's wife, as well the daughter of the leader of 'Black Spider Tower', a mysterious organization on Spider.
Black Spider Tower was an evil organization focusing on intelligence and assassination.
To complete a successful robbery, the space pirates had to know every detail of their prey. They would have to know which world fragment was sending valuable goods to which star fortress, at what time, and with how many guards before they started their jobs.
Without enough intelligence, it was very likely that they would kick a steel plank. Suppose a fleet was accompanied by several Core Formation Stage Cultivators, they would never ask for its trouble.
When the space pirates were faced with the massive sieges of the righteous sects, the intelligence work was all the more crucial because it concerned their own lives.
Black Spider Tower was an organization of the space pirates that gradually came into being after thousands of years of life of shadow. Countless spies had been trained and tasked with infiltrating the righteous sects, partly to gather the latest information, and partly to stir chaos within the sects. The assassins had also been deployed to decapitate the active supporters of space pirate clearing.
Although her personal strength was not very impressive, as the daughter of the leader of Black Spider Tower, Pang Wushuang had many people under her command.
It was based on the intelligence of Black Spider Tower that Fengyu Zhong had run away from the sieges of the righteous sects time after time.
At this moment, Pang Wushuang's face was even more horrifying than that of a devil. Every muscle on it was trembling. Black flames seemed to be bursting out from her hollowed eyes.
Fengyu Zhong's smile was frozen. His face color changed as he asked hurriedly, "How is Ah Ming?"
"Ah Ming is dead! Our only son is dead!"
Pang Wushuang screamed desperately, "He was hunted by the Great Horn Exo Society for more than two months and eventually caught at the edge of the sea of stars. They tormented and slayed him!
"He was thrown into the crystal reactor of Ghost Jail and burned alive. Not even a piece of his bones was left! What remained were only scraps of 'Dark Fire'!
"I've watched the video. It was indeed Dark Fire. The scraps of Dark Fire!"
CRACK!
Centered at Fengyu Zhong's feet, the ground of the entire prison cell was shattered. Spider-web-like cracks quickly spread across the around, rose up the walls, and eventually climbed to the ceiling!
Thousands of stripes immediately appeared on the ceiling!
The dim illumination rune arrays exploded one after another.
The prison cell was immediately enveloped in endless darkness. The only thing that could be heard was Fengyu Zhong's heavy breathing that resembled a wounded beast; the only thing that could be seen was a pair of eyes in which a storm was brewing!
"That's impossible! I gave Ah Ming three Cosmos Rings. Even if Ghost Jail was blown into pieces, the items inside the Cosmos Rings should have been enough for him to escape!
"Ah Ming wouldn't be so unwise as to not abandon Ghost Jail when he had to. I've told him again and again that he should not bother about other people and just run at the earliest chance if anything went wrong!
"How come he was stuffed into the crystal reactor of Ghost Jail? How could that happen? How could that happen!"
Fengyu Zhong went crazy. Weird purple flames covered him, attracting the pebbles and stones falling from the ceiling before burning them all to powder!
"It's true! The spies of Black Spider Tower have ascertained that Ah Ming was killed, very miserably!" exclaimed Pang Wushuang who held her chest in agony.
Fengyu Zhong was furious. He gnashed his teeth. "Who exactly was it that killed him? The Great Horn Exo Society? I don't buy it! What kind of bullsh*t is the Great Horn Exo Society? A second-rate Exo Society, with only one starship, a few hundred Exos, of whom barely any can be called experts. How on earth were they capable enough of killing my son!
"Investigate. Start investigating immediately. A true murderer must be hiding behind the Great Horn Exo Society!
"Find him! Find him even if we have to dig the entire Flying Star Sector upside down!
"The Great Horn Exo Society cannot be let go of, either. Ah Ming died because of their pursuit. Now that they've admitted it… they can go to hell, too!"
Pang Wushuang's face was twisted. She said shrilly, "There are indeed a lot of suspicious parts about the matter. I've urged all the manpower of Black Spider Tower to investigate it. When we find the true murderer, he will regret ever being born into this world!
"As for the Great Horn Exo Society, of course, they will be annihilated. They will be sacrifices for our son!"
Taking a deep breath, Fengyu Zhong narrowed his eyes and said, one word after another, "This event must've spread to every corner of the Flying Star Sector. If everybody knows that my only son died because of the Great Horn Exo Society and I don't launch any reprisals, how am I going to walk around on the Spider Den in the future?
"Release the message. Tell everyone on the Spider Den and every assassin of Black Spider Tower that I want the Great Horn Exo Society to be wiped out!
"I will provide a bounty of five million for every member of the Great Horn Exo Society! If they are experts above the Building Foundation Stage, the bounty will be multiplied according to their level!
"Whoever finds the murderer of my son, dead or alive, will be offered a 'Tiger Shark'-level crystal warship!"
Very soon, black torrents flooded to every corner of the Spider Den via the Spiritual Nexus.
All the space pirates were frenzied!
Five million did not seem very much, but it was the price for a single member.
It was impossible that every member of the Exo Society was above the Building Foundation Stage. A lot of them were low-level Cultivators, ordinary fighters, and even logistic workers.
Killing a refiner who was mediocre in fighting would mean being rewarded with five million. It was a bargain that couldn't be more desirable.
And those who found the true murderer of Fengyu Ming would be given a 'Tiger Shark'-level crystal warship?
All the space pirates were trembling in excitement and craziness beyond their control.
'Tiger Shark'-level starships were the most advanced crystal warships that Spider could produce and possessed amazing firepower. More importantly, their power rune arrays could provide extraordinary momentum!
Owning a 'Tiger Shark'-level warship was the ultimate dream of almost every space pirate!
They were not afraid that Fengyu Zhong would take back his words.
There were certain rules that all the space pirates abided by on Spider Den. Publicly-declared promises such as Fengyu Zhong's had hardly ever gone unfulfilled.
This was the home base of most space pirates. If their reputation was ruined in this place, they would have nowhere to run to when they were hunted by the righteous sects and could only wait to be captured.
Countless space pirates, assassins, and brutal bandits who heard the news all started their own investigations.
They were curious, too. What was the real background of the Great Horn Exo Society? Who was it that took down Fengyu Zhong's only son?
…
At the edge of the Flying Star Sector, a cluster of battleground remains were drifting silently and motionlessly.
Suddenly, a large pile of metal garbage shivered and sprayed a wave of feeble brightness through the gaps among the debris, altering the direction of the garbage toward the stone belt ahead.
Soon, the pile of metal garbage entered the stone belt and slowed down, as if it were searching for something.
It searched patiently for seven days, and finally found its target.
Its target was a plain-looking metal remnant, perhaps originating from the surface of a starship. There were not many scratches on the remnant, which appeared to have been left there not long ago.
Two arms extended from the heap of garbage to the remnant. The claws in the front snatched the remnant and pulled it in.
Deep inside the metal garbage, Sparkle was lurking.
In the beginning, they had stalked Gold Horn. But after Gold Horn dived into the Dim Flame Belt, they had stopped at the outside.
After all, none of the crew members of Sparkle were alive. The resources and spiritual energy were abundant, too. There was no need to take the risk. They could bypass the Dim Flame Belt, although it would take a few additional months.
The remnant had been thrown away on purpose when Li Yao was recycling the components on Ghost Jail.
He had left a piece of special magical equipment on the remnant which could release spiritual waves at a certain frequency. Those who received them would only consider them to be part of the spiritual turbulence in the sea of stars.
Only Sparkle was able to decrypt the hidden coordinates contained inside the spiritual waves and locate the remnant.
Li Yao had hidden the information storage chip group of Ghost Jail's mainframe crystal processor within the remnant.
He had also copied 'Gold Horn Maintenance Manual' and 'Stormy Sword', as well as the latest progress about himself, to a jade chip and concealed it inside.
Half a day later, Ghost Jail's chip group was connected the mainframe crystal processor of Sparkle. After the spiritual password of the highest clearance was typed in, enormous information was transmitted over unstoppably.
The most detailed star maps of the Flying Star Sector based on Fengyu Zhong's dozens of years' experience—including the coordinates of many secret supply points, the strategies and the structural designs of the space pirates recorded in 'Stormy Sword', together with 'Gold Horn Maintenance Manual'—gave the five spectral Cultivators on Sparkle a deeper understanding of the starship refinement principles within the Flying Star Sector.
"The starship technology of the Flying Star Sector is indeed much more advanced than that of the Heaven's Origin Sector. They could even create star fortresses on their own!"
"The distribution of this power rune array is new. We can increase Sparkle's speed by another 5% if it is employed!"
"Turrets! We need more, and bigger turrets! I want to install a hundred turrets on Sparkle!"
"Modification! A full upgrade of Sparkle is a necessity! I can't wait for it!"
The Four Kings chatted with each other enthusiastically.
Mo Xuan pondered for a moment and said, "Li Yao said that he went to the central space zone of the Flying Star Sector, and that he might have pissed off the space pirates of Strom Prison whose retaliation is very likely to be on the way.
"We are still too weak at this moment. He said that we don't have to join him in the central space zone any time soon. It would be better if we stay in the periphery, search for materials and spiritual energy, and perform a full upgrade on Sparkle.
