Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 457
"More than that," Huangpu Bo added. "Xiao Xuance, as the CEO of the Grand Illusionary Group, has offered a solution to such an emergency. However, if Xiao Xuance has other intentions and the Grand Illusionary Group has been infiltrated by the Temple of Immortals since the very beginning, they can easily set up deceptions in the project such as telepathic thoughts that can hibernate for several years. When the timing is appropriate, the telepathic thoughts will be triggered, and the Temple of Immortals will take control of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers and the Flying Star Sector without any trouble!"
"Huh?"
Li Yao was dumbfounded and almost fell off from his seat. He stammered, "How—how did you know?"
Xue Yuanxin and Huangpu Bo looked at each other and could not help but laugh at the same time.
"Little Sand, although we are both more than a hundred years old right now, we were once teenagers and at an age to dwell in fantasies, too," Xue Yuanxin said.
"I remember when I was in junior high school," Huangpu Bo remarked," magazines such as 'Fiction World' were always my favorite. Literary works in which the Spiritual Nexus was compromised, the crystal processors lost control, and the beast puppets rebelled were already a cliché back then."
"Yes. I recall that there was a classic movie called 'War of Deities and Devils'. Right now, dozens of prequels and sequels have been produced. You can find a lot of similar plots in the movies.
"Many refiners were attracted by such fictions and movies and grew interested in magical equipment and the Spiritual Nexus, so they set off on the path of refining in the end. Do you think that we cannot think of your concerns?"
"Is that so?" Li Yao scratched his hair and blushed. He said, somewhat in embarrassment, "Please do excuse me, masters. I've never seen such movies on Iron Plateau. Perhaps I was being too paranoid."
"No. No. No. Your concerns are perfectly normal and necessary," Xue Yuanxin said solemnly. "A piece of stellar-level magical equipment can change the fate of a Sector. It is simplely prudence to imagine the most extreme conditions!
"Suppose we select the Grand Illusionary Project in the end, the Temple of Immortals will definitely try its best to gain control over it once it is fully implemented.
"But again, any kind of stellar-level magical equipment is possible to be infiltrated.
"Right now, you are worried that the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project might be taken advantage of by the Temple of Immortals in the end. But won't Ice King be likely to be seized by the Temple of Immortals after it is transformed into an invincible warship? Or rather, is there any kind of stellar-level magical equipment that will absolutely be never infiltrated by the enemy. We cannot stand by and do nothing just because we fear that the Temple of Immortals might intrude and manipulate our products."
Li Yao thought for a moment and said, "That makes sense."
"Make bold assumptions, and run careful verifications," Huangpu Bo said. "Naturally, we won't initiate the Grand Illusionary Project recklessly just because of a few words of Xiao Xuance.
"The technological investigations will take at least a year and a half. The project won't be carried out until we are totally sure that there were no loopholes.
"If there are any problems, the project will be postponed indefinitely.
"Moreover, we will investigate and monitor the actual supervisor of the stellar-level magical equipment, or in this case, the Grand Illusionary Group and Xiao Xuance.
"It's not that we don't believe in Xiao Xuance, but the matter is too important. Any Cultivator, even you, will be thoroughly vetted and traced back to your great, great grandparents for complete scrutinization if they become the supervisor of the stellar-level magical equipment."
Li Yao was greatly relieved. "Technological investigations for an entire year? Very good and very necessary. We can do two years if one year is not enough, or three if two are not. I would rather endure the harassment of the Temple of Immortals for several more years than have such a big project carried out hastily!"
"Of course. Considering the strength of space pirates and the Temple of Immortals right now, it won't be a problem for the world of Cultivators in the next couple of years," Xue Yuanxin and Huangpu Bo said at the same time.
Li Yao could not sit any longer now that he had received so much information.
He wanted to go back to his residence and reach out to Professor Mo Xuan and the other Star Spirits in the Cross Wind Space Zone.
The five of them had once been living in the form of 'Phantom Entities', and they were reincarnated in liquid metals combined with the mainframe crystal processor of Sparkle in the destructive cosmic storm.
After the accident, they were all granted a certain ability to control crystal processors and boost their computational ability.
Li Yao meant to discuss the Grand Illusionary Project with them and see whether they could find any loopholes in it or he was simply being hysterical.
However, an unexpected message disrupted his plan.
Xiao Xuance invited me to a secret meeting?
Li Yao narrowed his eyes, not knowing what was on the mind of the CEO of the Grand Illusionary Group.
Maybe, he wanted to talk Li Yao into supporting the Grand Illusionary Project in the secret meeting?
After all, the Glorious Sunlight Group and the entire Iron Plateau backing Li Yao could provide tremendous resources.
The flames of suspicion that just died down in Li Yao's heart start bouncing again.
He decided that something must be wrong with Xiao Xuance if the man was too enthusiastic about the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project and wanted to have it fully carried out no matter what.
Thinking through that, Li Yao gladly accepted the invitation and planned to get in touch with Xiao Xuance at a short distance.
…
Half an hour later, Li Yao began to suspect his previous suspicions.
He was in a spacious meeting room three hundred meters below the main hall of the Millennium Meeting.
Illuminated by the glittering crystal processors and ever-changing light beams, it was more like a command center.
When Li Yao arrived, almost a hundred Cultivators were already sitting in the command center.
Li Yao had seen most of their photos before in various Cultivation magazines.
Their resounding names had been chanted time and time again on the Spiritual Nexus, sometimes in shock, sometimes in fear, and sometimes in admiration.
Five Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and more than sixty Core Formation Stage Cultivators. All pure battle-type Cultivators!
This was essentially a gathering of the peak warriors of the entire Flying Star Sector!
With so many super experts crowding at the same place, although everybody was cautious enough to suppress their capability to below 1%, the dominating aura from them still make the underground command center as solemn as a grave.
Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!
The Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and the Core Formation Stage Cultivators glanced at him and quickly moved their eyes away.
Li Yao's eyelids twitched violently. He felt that his back was soaked in cold sweat.
Several experts there were from Flying Star University and had communicated with Li Yao before. They nodded at each other in acknowledgement.
It seemed that the meeting had nothing to do with the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project.
If the Grand Illusionary Soldiers were the focus of the meeting, research-type and creation-type Cultivators should have been invited instead of the murderous fighters here.
Xiao Xuance in reality was even taller and stronger than in the Grand Illusionary Land. The black cloak on his body was like a black shadow of high mountains in a dark night. But he did not carry any feeling of aggressiveness at all.
He appeared more like a veteran who was full of hot blood and passion, willing to sacrifice first for his creeds, than a high and mighty leader.
Although Li Yao was still suspicious, he had to admit that Xian Xuance was a charismatic man when he was faced with him.
"Senior Xiao, I thought you invited me to ask me to support the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project," remarked Li Yao.
Cultivation aside, Xiao Xuance was ten times as old as him. It was only appropriate that he address Xiao Xuance as a 'senior'.
Xiao Xuance smiled casually. "My young friend Sand, you are a representative of the Glorious Sunlight Group and Iron Plateau. Your support will, of course, be necessary when we carry out the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project.
"However, I don't want any organization to express their support easily before they figure out the situation clearly.
"If you are really willing to support the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project, I'm hoping that the refiners of the Glorious Sunlight Group can locate the loopholes in the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project with your wisdom instead of carrying out the project right now."
"Oh?" Li Yao blinked his eyes. "I didn't know Senior Xiao was so prudent."
"We can't be prudent enough when we are faced with a planetary-level magical equipment system that can change the fate of the Flying Star Sector." Xiao Xuance sighed and said, "Although the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project is safe and secure according to our calculations and there is no way that the star brain will be compromised, the wisdom of everyone in the Grand Illusionary Group is still too limited. We need every Cultivator of the Flying Star Sector to give us a hand!
"Moreover," Xiao Xuance smiled bitterly and said, "different from the traditional Demonic Cultivators, Immortal Cultivators are barely distinguishable in daily life. I cannot guarantee that the Grand Illusionary Group is devoid of spies sent by the Immortal Cultivators.
"Therefore, even if the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project is to be implemented, every Cultivator must keep an eye on it closely!
"We welcome you to supervise us in the strictest standard, my young friend Sand. If you suspect that one of the workers here is an Immortal Cultivator, you can tell us first even if you don't have any proof. We'll definitely look into the matter.
"In regard to the safety issue, it's better to wrong a thousand innocent people than to let one suspect get away."
Li Yao opened his mouth and yet did not know what to say. He could only frown and nodded. "Alright."
"But it's still a future far away from now. Even if everybody agrees to implement the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project, it will still take one to two years to start. We can discuss and make sure there are no loopholes in the project during that time," Xiao Xuance said.
"We invited my young friend Sand and other fellow Cultivators above the Core Formation Stage because we have something urgent to tell you.
"Now that everybody is here, allow me to introduce to you the assault the Temple of Immortals is going to launch in the main area of the Edge Sharpeners' Meeting at the center of Heavenly Saints City.
"Inside the Temple of Immortals, the deadly assault that has been planned for more than half a year is known as the Mist Plan!
Chapter 682: The Mist Plan |
Whispers immediately filled the command center.
Li Yao was quite startled, too.
He had long known that a secret squad made by the elite members of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City were investigating and striking the Temple of Immortals on a hidden battlefield. But he did not know that the squad had made such a remarkable achievement as to learn the code name of the Temple of Immortals' next operation.
"Many fellow Cultivators know that we established a rapid response force named 'Immortal Slayers' with the core disciples of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City as pillars after the appearance of the Temple of Immortals to cope with the unprecedented change," Xiao Xuance said.
"However, for the sake of confidentiality, few knew that the Immortal Slayers were actually divided into two squads. On the surface, they were a rapid response force. But in fact, quite a lot of members of the Immortal Slayers infiltrated the Temple of Immortals.
"The underground frontline was bloody and cruel. Over the past year, a hundred and thirty-two Immortal Slayers have sacrificed themselves in the darkness.
"It is based on their endeavor and sacrifice that we gradually grasped some of the secrets of the Temple of Immortals, including the general picture of the 'Mist Plan'!
"Therefore, before the formal introduction of the Mist Plan, let's express our sincerest gratitude for the martyrs!"
All the Cultivators lowered their heads and had a moment of silence.
"Other than them, there is a special Cultivator that we shouldn't forget."
Xiao Xuance continued his speech touchingly. "Fellow Cultivator Li Yao, the unaffiliated Cultivator who was the first to unveil the secrets of the Temple of Immortals.
"Although Fellow Cultivator Li was merely an unaffiliated Cultivator in the Building Foundation Stage, he sabotaged the first great scheme of the Temple of Immortals with his unparalleled wisdom and courage and informed us of the existence of Immortal Cultivators so that we could make preparations sooner."
Li Yao was almost moved.
He found it harder and harder to tell whether Xiao Xuance was a good man or a bad one.
After a minute of silence for Li Yao and the deceased Immortal Slayers, the gloom on Xiao Xuance's face was entirely gone. He put on a shrewd and determined face again and waved his hands, summoning hundreds of light beams behind him on which detailed profiles of the members of the Temple of Immortals were listed.
"Since the battle in the Iron Plateau Space Zone was over one year ago, the Temple of Immortals has never planned any big operations. They seemed to have vanished in the sea of stars and simply asked the space pirates to continue harassing our sailing routes.
"We suspected that the Temple of Immortals were accumulating its strength in secret and planning an earthshaking operation. Therefore, we dedicated a lot of manpower to investigate and finally discovered the 'Mist Plan'."
Shua!
About ten pictures on the light beam behind Xiao Xuance were enlarged.
Most of the pictures were quite fuzzy or captured from a special angle. It was very hard to distinguish the faces of the people in the pictures.
"According to our investigation, the eight people in the pictures are all high-level killers of Spider's Thorn, an assassin group of Black Spider Tower. They are known as the 'Eight Blades'.
"The Eight Blades of Black Spider are all super experts above the Core Formation Stage. They have arrived in Heavenly Saints City and snuck in right next to us!"
Gasps were echoing inside the command center again.
Eight Core Formation Stage Cultivators, who were adept at stealth and assassination, had teamed up. Even a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator would have a headache if he ran into them.
No wonder so many experts had been summoned for the meeting today!
Xiao Xuance waved his hands. The light beam changed into a black shadow with a big blood-red question mark in the middle.
"Eight Blades of Black Spider are not leaders of the Mist Plan, despite all being in the Core Formation Stage.
"Four Kings of Immortality: Mountain, Sea, Black, Lotus. Of them, Yan Xibei, the Mountain King, was in charge of fanning the flames in the six tribes of Iron Plateau and has been slain by Fellow Cultivator Sand.
"Right now, the 'Mist Plan' is probably supervised by the Black King, another leader of the Temple of Immortals.
"We don't have the first clue as to who the Black King is exactly. Our best guess is that he is probably 'Hellsword' Zhuang Ziyou, one of the two top experts on Spider Den who is equally famous as Bai Xinghe, the 'Pirate Potentate'.
"However, 'Hellsword' Zhuang Ziyou is an unpredictable lone wolf all the time and wanders separately from the pirate gangs. He does not even listen to the orders of the 'Pirate Potentate' Bai Xinghe. We truly do not know much about him.
"Of course, it is not appropriate to say that the Pirate Potentate and the Hellsword are the top two experts right now. According to the latest news, Fengyu Zhong, captain of Storm Prison, has advanced into the Nascent Soul Stage recently!
"It is quite possible that there are three Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators among the space pirates!"
Li Yao raised his eyebrow.
Fengyu Zhong was now a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, too?
He had killed Fengyu Zhong's only son. The two of them were mortal enemies and would not stop hunting each other until one of them was killed.
Li Yao was eager to find out whether or not he could take down a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator with the help of the reborn Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit now that he was in the superlative height of the Building Foundation Stage and had a capability almost twenty times higher than common Cultivators in the peak of the Building Foundation Stage.
"The Black King, who is possibly in the Nascent Soul Stage; the 'Eight Blades of Black Spider, who are in the Core Formation Stage; and other experts hiding in the darkness that we do not know yet are the operatives of the 'Mist Plan'!
"Even for the Temple of Immortals, such an elite team must be made up their top warriors.
"In other words, as long as we can fish them up, the Temple of Immortals will suffer heavy losses, and we will get more precious time for the planning and building of our stellar-level magical equipment!"
Xiao Xuance paused for a moment and looked at everybody.
A Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator who had wrinkles all over his face and looked to be three hundred years old observed casually, "This is the center of Heavenly Saints City, the most heavily guarded place in the entire Flying Star Sector. Even if they have a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator and eight or more Core Formation Stage Cultivators, can they do whatever they want and kill anybody here?"
"Of course not."
The light beam behind Xiao Xuance changed yet again. Three big words—Heart Gnawing Mist—popped up along with a large number of files.
"The Heart Gnawing Mist is the new-generation poison that the Temple of Immortals condensed based on countless ancient books by mixing nine different common poisons and purifying them with modern technology. It can attack flesh, cells, nerves, and the soul at the same time!
