Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 363
Li Yao breathed softly and focused his full attention. The escape capsule flew among the stones as if it were a weightless feather.
Although the magical equipment had existed for five thousand years and it had failed to resist the legendary apocalypse five thousand years ago, Li Yao was not sure that it had entirely lost its power, nor was he willing to test it with his life.
However, other people were not as prudent as he was.
Not far behind Li Yao, Squid had finally reached the edge of the planetary ring.
The stones in the area were too dense for a starship of Squid's size to enter. Otherwise, it would be attacked by countless stones.
If it were to resist all the stones, it would have to keep its spiritual shield at the maximum all the time. The spiritual energy cost would be shockingly high.
Therefore, Squid could only float in orbit along the planetary ring and release a lot of crystal suits.
Almost a hundred crystal suits leaked into the planetary ring from different angles in battle formation, trying to surround Li Yao.
"Come on. I've waited for a long time!"
Li Yao smiled and rubbed his burning hands. Then he tapped on the operation light beam.
Instantly after a cracking noise, the escape capsule became a different form again. Four sharp-edged fins made of super alloys extended out of the tail of the escape capsule and formed what seemed to be a cross.
In space, the cross-shaped fins were usually meant to cut apart the tiny stones so that they wouldn't hit the escape capsule directly.
In the middle of the cross-shaped fins, four micro units that could accelerate the spinning, turning, and small-scale movements gradually revealed themselves.
This was the ultimate form of the Wild Butterfly escape capsule after Li Yao's modification!
It was no longer an escape capsule; it was an out-and-out super shuttle, one that could fly freely within the stone belts!
The operation menu in front of Li Yao's eyes gradually changed, too. The number of buttons to control the direction, speed, and angle increased by five times. There were now five operation menus instead of three.
The small cabin was glittering in gold, as if it were the operation platform of the most professional super shuttle.
"Let the game begin!"
Running away was not Li Yao's style. Even though his opponent was a Core Formation Stage Cultivator, he was still trying to make counterattacks, however feeble they were!
This planetary ring was the graveyard that he had chosen for the space pirates!
Li Yao whistled as his hands turned into two clusters of mist on the shining light beam. Torrents suddenly erupted out of the bottom of the escape capsule. As if someone had kicked it from behind, the escape capsule continued fleeing forward in a weird curve.
The space pirates couldn't have been angrier. They didn't expect their enemy to be crazy enough to rush at such a high speed inside a planetary ring where there was nothing but a raging storm of stones!
But Fengyu Zhong had stated in his fury that the enemy must be stopped at all costs. Whoever captured the enemy alive would be granted a crystal warship immediately. Every contributor of the hunt would be given a super crystal suit crafted by the top experts on Spider Den!
Space pirates were all desperadoes in the first place. Now, they were even more motivated by the enticing reward!
Countless space pirates flooded in and sprinted among the stones fearlessly!
The planetary ring seemed still, but it was, in fact, spinning around the planet at an extremely high speed. The stones inside were also running and colliding into each other without any pattern. All the routes and angles had to be calculated on the spot. It was impossible to foresee anything!
In their urgency, more than ten space pirates were smashed by passing stones!
Although they were defended by their spiritual shields, many of them had broken bones. The less fortunate ones were even hit on the back of their head, where the crystal processor was located, or on their spine, where the crystal reactor was. They almost lost all of their combat ability and had to withdraw from the battle.
On the other hand, Li Yao was steering the escape capsule to perform unbelievable small-scale movements unhurriedly. He was like a feather near a swirl. Although he seemed to be swallowed by the stones many times, he always showed up again a moment later. The space pirates couldn't have been madder and cursed loudly.
Some of the more impatient space pirates had even launched attacks at him, triggering their flying swords and crystal cannons without caring for anything else.
Due to the long distance between the two parties and the blockade of the stones in the way, all the attacks missed their target.
Not only did they fail to hit the escape capsule, they even lead to more terrifying consequences!
Li Yao was calculating the position and route of the escape capsule carefully, when he suddenly sensed that an extremely furious spiritual tide was surging toward his back. He was greatly surprised and replayed what had happened while he dodged the spiritual tide.
He saw that, when several space pirates were attacking him wholeheartedly, a glittering stele drew close to them without them noticing. One of the space pirates was hit precisely by the stele when he was launching his flying swords!
The space pirates were immediately heavily injured. But in the meantime, the barrier of the stele seemed to be triggered. The dark green object suddenly emitted dazzling brilliance and became as eye-catching as jade!
The spiritual waves released from the center of the stele was hundreds of times more intense than before. They spread out like nerves and veins and penetrated into all the stones nearby.
The previously loose stones were then concentrated into a giant beast with more than ten tentacles made of stones, which were spinning crazily!
Caught off guard, more than ten space pirates were snatched by the tentacles and torn to shreds before they even had the chance to struggle!
Clouds of blood mist were exploding. The scraps of the space pirates' crystal suits were propelled out by the tentacles to other space pirates in various directions.
The other space pirates all ran far away with their heads in their hands while they screamed and yelled in their communication channel.
Li Yao was greatly alarmed. He felt that he was lucky not to have messed around with the steles.
It appeared that the super defense array five thousand years ago had not entirely lost its power yet and was still fulfilling its duty.
After five thousand years, under the scourge of so many meteoroids, the steles could still unleash such formidable strength. It was not hard to imagine how magnificent they had been when they had just been refined and filled with sufficient spiritual energy!
Li Yao was fascinated by the thought. He looked at the space pirates behind him and noticed that there were less than seventy of them after the outbreak of the stele.
Li Yao grinned and was meaning to accelerate again when he suddenly felt lightheaded and his heart seemed to be bitten by nine snakes at the same time. The pain was truly excruciating!
…
Inside the cockpit of Blood Rain, Fengyu Zhong's face was gloomy.
The Iron Plateau Space Zone was a battlefield of his choosing. Since the space zone was a forbidden area for Cultivators, there were no large star beacons or ports and bases of the Cultivators. Even the signal of the Spiritual Nexus was extremely weak. One could only hope to be connected to the Spiritual Nexus when they were at the edge of the space zone.
Also, the dense stone belts there would be a great help to him during his escape.
Therefore, he had gone through all the trouble and employed all possible methods to drive the Great Horn Exo Society to the Iron Plateau Space Zone before the final deadly attack.
But at that moment, he felt that he had become a victim of his own scheme.
Although his enemy was merely in an escape capsule, it would be barely possible to destroy it if it snuck into the planetary rings near Iron Plateau. The search would be long and hard and might prove futile later.
Time was what he needed most.
"General Feng, Squid has gotten in touch with the enemy, but the enemy hasn't been stopped yet," said the advisor in a low voice.
Fengyu Zhong didn't respond.
He was faced with a tough decision.
At that moment, Blood Rain was at the back of his fleet. He was covering the rear personally in order to resist the possible counterattack of the Great Horn Exo Society.
By logic, since his enemy had been heavily damaged, their starships almost entirely paralyzed, there was no reason they would catch up to him again.
However, the people of the Great Horn Exo Society were all crazy. They were anything but logical.
But if he did not act in person, his subordinates might not be able to capture the sly enemy in the stone belts at all.
Fengyu Zhong pondered for a long time.
For the whole time, the sea of stars behind him had been tranquil. There was no hint of the Great Horn Exo Society whatsoever.
"Those lunatics must've reached their limits, too. It's not likely that they will come and commit suicide."
Fengyu Zhong finally made up his mind.
Shua!
An extremely hideous crystal suit appeared around him!
Chapter 537: Desperadoes |
What a terrifying crystal suit it was!
In a lackluster red color, the crystal suit seemed to be made of dried blood. Human faces were everywhere on the surface of the armor, including the chest, shoulder, back, arms, and legs.
Most of the faces were screaming in agony, some of them were angry or grinning hideously, but all of them were life-like. Even the tiniest muscles had been carved out. Countless restless souls seemed to be haunting the crystal suit. One would be able to hear endless screams with a look at it.
What was weirder was that, as Fengyu Zhong burned his soul and spiritual energy, the painful faces were twisting and changing their expressions, as if the faces were really sealed inside the crystal suit!
This crystal suit was named 'Blood Face', made in the Temple of Immortals. A hundred Cultivators had been tossed into the furnace as blood sacrifices before it had finally been forged. It boasted extremely powerful ability in mental attacks!
When the Blood Face Battlesuit appeared, the cockpit was immediately wreathed in gloom and depression. Everyone was gripped in utmost terror.
Even the space pirates of Storm Prison felt that their heads were dizzy and were not willing to look at the twisted faces on the crystal suit.
Many crew members whose mental power was relatively weak were shivering with pale faces. They felt that they were about to throw up.
Ten minutes later, Fengyu Zhong floating in space, outside of Blood Rain.
He was wearing the Blood Face Battlesuit, with a special super assault rocket below his feet.
BOOM!
An extremely furious purple light ball suddenly appeared around him, surrounded by black lighting that seemed able to tear everything apart. It enveloped both him and the assault rocket under his feet!
Motivated by spiritual energy, the spiritual stripes on the assault rocket were glittering, and the exhaust flames in its back surged out!
Although it was merely an assault rocket, the exhaust flames behind it were as brilliant as those in the back of Blood Rain. It was instantly accelerated to the maximum speed, which was ten times higher than that of the assault rockets for ordinary space pirates!
Just like the ancient Cultivators who rode their flying swords, Fengyu Zhong rode his assault rocket and turned into a streak of brightness, darting toward the planetary ring in rage!
…
Exactly when Fengyu Zhong charged at the planetary ring to try to stop and kill Li Yao, a ragged starship was moving in stealth mode behind Storm Prison. Two broken horns pierced out of the two sides of the starship. Undying fighting will could be felt from the coldly-shining factures on them.
Gold Horn had caught up!
Gold Horn at present couldn't look more wretched. It had regained the ability to cruise at high-speed for now after the emergency maintenance with the components and units from the other two starships. But on the surface, it was unattractive, and there were patches everywhere. It was probably the ugliest starship in the universe.
On the main deck of Gold Horn, four hundred silent Cultivators were standing, like four hundred dented, broken, but unbent battle sabers.
What Cultivators they were!
Their faces were all stained with blood. Most of them were tied up in bandages, some of which were still leaking blood. Some of them were even missing limbs!
The crystal suits on their body were also shabby and disintegrated. Almost every crystal suit had been fixed up with a component from other crystal suits. Some of the crystal suits were even piled up by the wreckages of several crystal suits.
Mottled, messy, and multi-colored, the crystal suits seemed to be for beggars.
But right now, the beggar-like soldiers in tatty crystal suits who had just endured brutal failure were all holding their heads high, their killing intent soaring. Their broken crystal suits could not withstand the burning ambiance and were all rattling chaotically.
Lei Dalu stood in front of the four hundred Cultivators and looked around.
His crystal suit might well have been the worst of the four hundred crystal suits there.
But his face was the proudest and most confident, as if he were a great general who had just secured an unparalleled victory.
"Brothers, allow me to briefly repeat what has happened in the past few days!
"At first, we were ambushing the space pirates with quite a bunch of people, only to be fooled by the space pirates, who took the opportunity to break into our homes!
"In the Skyhill Domain alone, more than forty thousand people were killed. Forty thousand people!
"Then, the three starships of ours were ambushed by Fengyu Zhong, who beat us up terribly. Every one of us has suffered miserable wounds. To be honest, we were beaten the s*hit out of!
"In the end, when we were desperate, and the space pirates were going to butcher us like pigs, one person, yes, only one, came after a long journey in the sea of stars and reversed the situation by himself. Not only did he sink one of Storm Prison's starships, he also attracted the attention of the main troops of the space pirates, thereby saving our lives!
"Right now, the man is surrounded by four crystal warships, a thousand brutal bandits, and one Core Formation Stage Cultivator!
"We have only two choices right now!
"We can wait and watch the space pirates on the four crystal warships enfold the man who came to our rescue from distances away and kill him.
"When our reinforcements arrive, and we return to the peaceful land, we will hold a solemn ceremony in memory of the valiant and fearless hero. We will shed tears and swear to avenge him!
"Nobody will blame us. Except for the occasional guilt that we may feel when we are alone late at night, we will be totally fine.
"It is definitely the most regular, rational, and reasonable choice that we should make right now.
"Or, if you don't want to make such a choice, one that seems to be sane but is, in fact, ballless nonetheless, and if you prefer a crazier but more manly choice, you can also charge forward with me and fight side by side with the man who decided to come to our rescue all by himself!
"Yes. Your eyes are not deceiving you. The starship that our enemy deployed to cover their retreat, the one right in front of us, is the flagship of Storm Prison, Blood Rain, which is the largest and possesses the highest combat ability!
"It's very possible that Fengyu Zhong, a Core Formation Stage Cultivator, is on his flagship right now!
"However, it's been four days since we sent out our first distress call!
"I guarantee that countless reinforcements are marching toward the Iron Plateau Space Zone at this very moment. Chances are that some of them will show up in the next second!
"Even though we cannot destroy Blood Rain, as long as we can bite it hard for one day, one hour, one minute, or even as short as one second, we may be able to buy enough time for the reinforcements to reach us. At that time, Fengyu Zhong will be surrounded, and his sorry life will end in this bleak space zone!
"This operation is very dangerous. Maybe after all our blood runs dry, the reinforcements still won't show up. Everybody will die in vain!
"Therefore, it's perfectly normal and reasonable if anybody wants to quit. Just step back now and stay in the starship!
"All the remaining brothers will come with me and crash into Blood Rain!
"Don't forget that a Cultivator is fighting alone at the front!
"Even if we may not be able to save him, at least our hot blood should flow together with our good brother's in this cold universe!"
The four hundred Cultivators, who looked like unbent battle sabers, were all breathing heavily, but it sounded almost metallic, as if the edge of a saber was rubbing against its sheath.
Nobody stepped back.
Instead, many people unconsciously made a step forward.
"Listen to me, Cultivators from Swooping Eagle!"
Jing Yong, First Deacon of the Swooping Eagle Sect, stepped forward and looked at the dozens of Cultivators on the left. He then spoke. "When we started our expedition from our hometown, many of our compatriots bade us farewell and wished that we spread the name of the Swooping Eagle Space Zone in the sea of stars!
"However, we came to this place across dozens of space zones, only to be stomped on and slaughtered like pigs!
"Of the five hundred warriors who set off, three hundred have perished, and a hundred have been heavily wounded. Our starship is on the verge of destruction, too.
"Are we going to return to our hometown like losers?
"By that time, when the folks in our hometown see our devastated appearance and our brothers whose bodies are gone with only their spiritual nameplates left, how will we answer their inquiries?
