Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 472
This time, Hellsword was really desperate. "You can't kill me. I know countless secrets and treasures. Do not kill me. They are all yours. All yours!"
Li Yao heard none of it. His right hand snatched one of the guns while he examined the bullet clips and the barrels.
"Don't—don't kill me! You can imagine the immensity of the Temple of Immortals! We will have the entire Flying Star Sector under our control eventually! You will have nowhere to run!
"Join us. Your personality and your shrewdness indicate that you are a natural-born Immortal Cultivator. Join the Temple of Immortals, and your future is nothing but bright!
"Maybe—maybe you can become the new 'Mountain King'. I will support you. We will work together and explore the true path of immortality!
"Immortality! That's immortality I'm talking about! Endless life, endless Cultivation arts, endless power and wealth, endless mysteries in the endless universe!"
Hellsword was so scared that he did not even know what he was saying.
Crack!
Li Yao inserted a thick bullet clip. Each of the bullets was the size of one of his fingers.
Holding the gun with both of his hands and stepping on the head of Hellsword's corpse, he aimed at the ghost.
The other fifteen guns also revolved fast, stimulated by his telepathic thoughts. A storm of bullets was looming.
Li Yao smiled, a shallow dimple appearing on his face. While he pulled the trigger brutally, he opened his mouth and spurted three words at the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator.
"Go to hell!"
Chapter 704: End of the First War |
Sixteen interconnecting lines of burning bullets dissected the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator's soul like jigsaws!
Hellsword screamed miserably and struggled hard. A waning voice echoed from the writhing ghost.
"Immortality… Immortality… Immortality…"
However, the feeble voice was eclipsed by the roaring bullets. It was like a tiny spark that was overwhelmed by an enormous tide.
The fire of Hellsword's soul shrank and diminished at a visible speed until it was thinner than ever.
One minute later, Li Yao stopped shooting.
Huala!
The floor of the upper level could not withstand the barrage and collapsed, raising a storm of dust.
Gloomily, Li Yao carried the gun on his shoulder as he paced slowly in the debris, searching.
Suddenly, he halted and gazed at several broken bricks in the debris with a cruel smile.
His spiritual energy swept over and dragged out the remaining soul that was no larger than a cockroach.
The remaining soul was only the size of fingernail. But it had limbs and a face, and it looked exactly like Hellsword except countless times smaller.
The remaining soul was uttering high-pitched noises and struggling under Li Yao's pressure.
However, nobody was able to tell what he was talking about. He might have begging for mercy, screaming, browbeating, or cursing.
Looking at the remaining soul, Li Yao said, one word after another, "Since the moment you became an Immortal Cultivator and assaulted ordinary people, you should have seen this day coming.
"Listen up. You may have many Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators. Your organization may be powerful. Your plan may be very thorough. Your infiltration to the world of Cultivators may be quite deep.
"You can choose to start the war at any time, at any place, and in any way you want.
"However, you don't have a say in when and how the war will end. I, Li Yao, will make the call!"
The name 'Li Yao' dazed the remaining soul of Hellsword, which was writhing hard. There was epiphany, regret, and fury on his face.
The next second, Li Yao poured all of his spiritual energy into his right foot and stomped on the remaining soul.
Hellsword, as a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, could not even utter a final scream. After a dull noise, both his body and his soul were exterminated by Li Yao!
At this moment, less than ten minutes had passed since the two of them entered the construction site.
Li Yao raised his hands and placed Hellsword's dead body and the Black Horn Battlesuit into the Cosmos Ring. He did not feel any hinderance.
It indicated that Hellsword was not lying. There were no more Cosmos Rings on his body.
Cosmos Rings were refined based on the mechanism of space collapse and transference. They could store almost any object, but there were two restrictions that came with them.
Firstly, living creatures could not be stored because they would crumble into a pile of meat when they were folded and unfolded.
Secondly, one Cosmos Ring could not store another Cosmos Ring. It had to do with the interference and rejection of two collapse fields. The mechanism was quite complicated, and even Li Yao did not know much about it.
Therefore, if there were more Cosmos Rings on Hellsword's body, Li Yao's movement would have hit an invisible wall, and he would not have been able to store them.
On second thought, there were no reason why Hellsword would lie to him. He must have handed over all the Cosmos Rings partly to reduce his wariness and partly to stall him longer so that his soul could be further consolidated.
If Li Yao were not such a weirdo that attacked him without verifying any of the Cosmos Rings' passwords, the plan of Hellsword's counterattack would have likely worked.
Li Yao studied the crystal processor dismantled from the head of the Black Horn Battlesuit.
In order to win his trust, and more importantly, to buy himself more time, Hellsword had told Li Yao the password of his crystal processor a moment ago.
According to the crystal processor, several experts of the Temple of Immortals were lunging toward the building.
Li Yao licked his lips and finished the preparation inside the building in one minute and a half. Then, he glided to the first floor through the elevator shaft, before he removed his crystal suit and put on clothes that were riddled with holes and stained with blood and mud. With a dumb-looking countenance, he staggered out of the construction site.
BOOM!
Half a minute later, an earsplitting explosion took place in the building behind him. It collapsed from the middle, as if an invisible giant hand had pressed it down into the ground!
The blast raised a furious wind and passed Li Yao, making his messy hair even messier.
Li Yao did not turn back to watch the explosion.
He kept looking at the front, searching for his next prey.
Right then, weird humming sounds echoed in the sky and attracted his attention.
He raised his head, only to discover that a cluster of objects that looked both like a dark cloud and a swarm of locusts had flown in through the damaged places on the dome.
Li Yao looked carefully and realized that they were crystal suits that were smaller and more concise than normal crystal suits!
Green lights were shining through the gaps of all the crystal suits. They extended to their faces and formed three lines that were twisting and jumping into simple facial expressions.
Li Yao pupils constricted violently. They were not crystal suits, but—
The Grand Illusionary Soldiers!
Thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers lunged into the tenth space ring. The newcomers immediately attracted the attention of a lot of devils.
Countless devils formed tornadoes and swept at the Grand Illusionary Soldiers!
Dark clouds collided in midair, but the outcome was quite surprising.
Although the combat ability of one Grand Illusionary Solider was weak, as could be seen in the demo last time where ten Grand Illusionary Soldiers were no match for one Exo, they were cold machines and did not have a brain that devils could invade, nor did they have the notion of fear or any other negative emotions.
Therefore, countless devils hovered around the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, jumping and bouncing, only to find no gaps they could enter into.
On the other hand, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers had been equipped with spiritual energy weapons targeting energy entities. After a flash of light sabers, several devils were immediately cut into pieces!
The devils could only heave the debris from the ground and smash it at the Grand Illusionary Soldiers by way of remote control.
However, such a way of attack was merely an ancillary approach and nowhere near as powerful as their mental attacks.
Only several thousand Grand Illusionary Soldiers defeated devils that were ten times more than themselves and drove them away from the battlefield. Soon, the block was cleared. The Grand Illusionary Soldiers immediately moved on to the next block.
Li Yao narrowed his eyes and looked at the retreating Grand Illusionary Soldiers, deep in thought.
In the deep, dark sky, a solemn voice came over. "Citizens of the tenth space ring of Heavenly Saints City, don't panic. I am Xiao Xuance, a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator and the CEO of the Grand Illusionary Group!
"I, as well as all the other Cultivators in Heavenly Saints City, have devoted ourselves to the battle to slay the devils!
"Not just that, prototypes of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, the latest invention of the Grand Illusionary Group that is still being tested, have been deployed!
"Six thousand Grand Illusionary Soldiers are now fighting against the extraterrestrial devils!
"Please stay safe in the shelters. We will clear all the devils and rescue you shortly!"
In countless shelters of the tenth space ring, all the citizens waved their arms and exclaimed silently.
"Hooray!"
"Cultivators have arrived with their latest magical equipment!"
"We are saved. We are saved!"
The six thousand Grand Illusionary Soldiers, after clearing four blocks collectively, dispersed in various directions.
The Grand Illusionary Soldiers were the best tools to deal with the extraterrestrial devils. They played an important role in every battlefield.
In the fierce battles, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, which were made of common materials and therefore were very weak, suffered tremendous damage, too.
However, the slaughter machines that did not know fear, pain, or exhaustion would crawl on the ground and lunge at the devils in the sky boosted by the power rune arrays even though their legs were broken.
The picture of the Grand Illusionary Soldier fighting until the last breath left a deep impression on Cultivators and ordinary citizens alike.
An hour after the Grand Illusionary Soldiers were deployed to the battlefield, the chaos in the tenth space ring was basically under control. The Temple of Immortals' scheme was already doomed.
Lurking alone in the darkness, Li Yao stared at a small shop whose gate was closed.
According to Hellsword's crystal processor, it was a secret base of the Temple of Immortals.
"Cultivators have utilized new magical equipment never seen before. The extraterrestrial devils are about to be annihilated. Carry out Plan C and evacuate immediately!"
"After the assault of Heavenly Saints City, Cultivators will definitely seek retaliations crazily in the near future. Don't wander about in the outside world and return to Spider Den as soon as you can!"
On the dark net, messages and commands were continuously sent, detailing the closest routes of escape for the Immortal Cultivators and the space pirates that were scattered everywhere in Heavenly Saints City.
The tenth space ring was too large, even larger than many asteroids. At this moment, riots and explosions were still taking place everywhere. Countless starships anchored in the docks were leaving and fleeing away from the place.
The Cultivators were too busy saving the people to bother about them. The tenth space ring was now filled with debris both inside and outside. Once the starships passed through the debris, they would be like waterdrops in an ocean, and it would be impossible to lock onto them.
The starships anchored in the hundreds of space ports of the tenth space ring seemed to have come from various space zones of the Flying Star Sector for the Edge Sharpeners' Meeting.
However, a lot of the space pirates' starships were actually mixed in them. Once they were loaded with space pirates and Immortal Cultivators, they would soar into the sky and run away from Heavenly Saints City.
Spider Den?
Li Yao chewed on the name.
Spider Den, the home camp of all the space pirates and the most terrifying place of the Flying Star Sector, might be where the secrets of the Temple of Immortals were buried.
Why would the Cultivators who were supposed to protect ordinary people end up being cruel, lawless space pirates?
Where did the Temple of Immortals come from?
How were Immortal Cultivators and demonic Cultivators related, and how were they different?
Li Yao scratched his chin.
He knew where he should look for his answers now.
Chapter 705: Death of Sand Scorpion |
One month passed after the battle in the tenth space ring.
Heavenly Saints City was the center of the world of Cultivators after all. When large batches of Cultivators crowded into the tenth space ring and slaughtered the devils together with the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, the only thing awaiting the extraterrestrial devils was doom.
One altar was destroyed after another, and the devils vanished into black smoke following each other.
However, since the environment of the tenth space ring was too complicated and too many citizens had been possessed by the devils, it took three days and three nights to finish off the remaining devils that were hiding among the broken walls and sewer systems, and it took another ten days before the last devil was finally killed.
During that time, most Immortal Cultivators retreated from the tenth space ring successfully and ran to space with the help of space pirates, before vanishing into thin air through space jumps.
The aftershock of the arrival of the extraterrestrial devils still echoed in the dozens of space zones of the Flying Star Sector one month later.
During the unprecedented catastrophe, not only had the ordinary citizens living in the tenth space ring suffered heavy casualties, the Cultivators who went to reinforce them had also witnessed a huge loss. Almost a hundred experts in the Core Formation Stage were injured or even killed. As for those below the Core Formation Stage, there were too many to count.
Many Cultivators had gone missing during the chaos. It was very likely that they self-detonated and died together with their enemy.
Sand Scorpion, the best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau, was one of them.
After more than half month of extensive searches, there was still no trace of him.
Cultivation was a dangerous profession. Every Cultivator had a habit of buying a huge amount of insurance and leaving a will.
The will not only applied to the cases where the Cultivators died, but also took effect when the Cultivators went missing, became mentally deranged, or secluded themselves for a long time.
When the Cultivators returned, recovered from their mental derangement, or broke their seclusion, the testament would expire immediately.
It was based on the special circumstances of Cultivators. After all, even the strongest expert was not certain that they would be perfectly safe during their daily training and that they could maintain their rationality forever.
Li Yao had managed to survive several attempted assassinations by the Temple of Immortals while he was in Flying Star University. One of the assassinations had even been conducted by an expert in the Core Formation Stage.
Therefore, he had made detailed arrangements to make sure that the Glorious Sunlight Group would not be affected when something happened to him.
In the central area of Heavenly Saints City, in the corridor outside the main meeting room, Xie Anan was pacing back and forth anxiously until she saw a grave young man. She hurried to run to him, almost tripping herself over.
"What about it? They said that they'd found traces of master. Is it true?"
Wu Mayan was much more solemn than a month ago and much more mature for his age.
He bit his lips hard, and his eyes were slightly red. He breathed heavily for a moment and nodded, but then he shook it after thinking for a moment.
Xie Anan bulged her eyes. "What happened? Say something?"
"The Rescue Committee found master's crystal suit." Wu Mayan took a long breath before he continued. "It was not the Gold Wolf Battlesuit but the debris of a 'Fire Tyrant Battlesuit', a crystal suit that is ten times more advanced than the Gold Wolf Battlesuit!"
Xie Anan almost jumped to her feet when she heard the first half of the sentence, but she felt her head go dizzy when she heard the latter half. "Debris? How bad is the debris?"
"Very bad." Wu Mayan gnashed his teeth. "More exactly, it is not debris but some tiny pieces."
Xie Anan stumbled a few steps back. Her face lost all color, and she asked, her voice shivering, "How did they know that it was master's crystal suit?"
Wu Mayan replied gravely, "Master Xue Yuanxin and Master Huangpu Bo ran detailed analysis on the scraps of the crystal suit and found traces of a special manual forging method from them. Such a method was of master's own invention. He was the only one in the entire Flying Star Sector who knew it. You should be clearer about that than I am."
Xie Anan's face was even paler. She mumbled, "But—but they didn't find master's body, did they?"
"Of course, there was no body." Wu Mayan smiled bitterly. "Experts of the Rescue Committee found master's Gold Wolf Battlesuit ten kilometers away from where the scraps were found. They came to a conclusion after preliminary investigation and analysis.
"The Gold Wolf Battlesuit that master showed in front of everyone was not his real trump card. His real trump card was the Fire Tyrant Battlesuit, which was ten times stronger!
"The Gold Wolf Battlesuit was modified by master and Master Xue Yuanxin together. But master also hid a Fire Tyrant Battlesuit in secret and strengthened its key parts with his special technique. Maybe he even lowered the difficulty of operation. Nobody knew anything about it!
