Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 531
He gritted his teeth and waved his saber forward, extending the aura until it was dozens of meters long.
In front of him, all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers in the shape of a sector were like bamboo crafts that had been stomped on. They exploded amid cracking noises, their components flying everywhere.
One attack eliminated almost thirty Grand Illusionary Soldiers.
However, more Grand Illusionary Soldiers quickly filled the vacancy like mercury. They marched onward fearlessly and emotionlessly, draining Li Yao's spiritual energy and crystal suit.
This is not going to work!
After almost three thousand Grand Illusionary Soldiers had been destroyed, many Cultivators were running out of spiritual energy. There were even casualties.
"Leader Si, have the crystal warships of the Star Fighters' Alliance not arrived in the tenth space ring yet?" a Cultivator shouted in the communication channel.
"The main force crystal warships of the Star Fighters' Alliance and the six sects of Heavenly Saints City are the important targets of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers. They are all being harassed!
"The Grand Illusionary Soldiers have also occupied the artilleries of several space rings. They've blocked the sailing route with railguns. The crystal warships will suffer heavy losses after they pass each space ring!"
Si Koulie's throat sounded like smoking.
"A starship of the Glorious Sunlight Group has broken through the eighth space ring. It is arriving in the tenth space ring soon!" Li Yao roared, refreshed.
All the Cultivators were delighted first, but doubts surfaced very soon.
"The starship is going to carry us all through the ten space rings. It will be blocked and hunted. Therefore, it must be tough enough," Si Koulie said straightforwardly "I've never heard that the Glorious Sunlight Group has ever refined any powerful crystal warships. What is the level of this particular starship?"
"Believe me!" Li Yao declared confidently. "It is definitely the best starship in the world! We should go to the No.17 space port right now to meet the starship!"
Si Koulie and the rest of them considered for only three seconds before they accepted Li Yao's plan.
They had no other options.
"March toward the No.17 space port!"
When the dozens of Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and Core Formation Stage Cultivators went on a rampage, even all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers in the world were not enough to stop them!
In that moment, flying swords were raging, magical equipment was roaring, and smoke was rising nonstop. An iron forest seemed to be burning, and molten steel was flowing everywhere like magma!
Almost a hundred experts broke out of the siege!
But hundreds of Cultivators in the Building Foundation Stage were still mired in the swamp, unable to move.
More Grand Illusionary Soldiers were marching close from the flanks unstoppably, like the fangs of a viper that were biting together.
"If the Grand Illusionary Soldiers keep following us, there is no way that we can all board the crystal warship."
Looking at the overwhelming Grand Illusionary Soldiers, Liao Huagu, a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator from the Furious Bears Union, suddenly said calmly, "The number doesn't matter in the assault of Heavenly Phantom, but the speed must be high!
"Fellow Cultivators, leave now. I will cover your retreat!"
"Fellow Cultivator Liao!"
All the Cultivators were yelling. They knew what Liao Huagu meant.
Even though he was a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, nothing but doom awaited him if he was attacked by tens of thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers simultaneously.
"Leave now! Stop wasting your time here!"
Liao Huagu opened his arms. Flames of light leaked out of his crystal suit and formed a giant dozens of meters tall in midair. It could vaguely be seen that a light ball that looked like a baby was crouching in the center of the giant.
The Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator had started burning his life and soul. He was releasing the spirit and will that he had accumulated over his entire life!
"Even the Immortal Cultivators can defend their beliefs at the cost of their life. Are the Cultivators no match for them?
"No matter what, I will not let any Grand Illusionary Soldier pass by me before you all board the crystal warship!
"Go now! Go assault Heavenly Phantom and execute Xiao Xuance!" Liao Huagu roared almost crazily.
Above his real body, the giant, which was dozens of meters tall, was also thundering. The soaring flames of light were both like wings and a pair of hands that were going to rip apart the darkness of night!
"Let's go!"
There was no time to dawdle. More arduous fights were awaiting them. All the Cultivators gritted their teeth and darted toward the No.17 space port.
Liao Huagu smiled. Faced with the tens of thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers, he closed his eyes and reminisced about his life, his eyes somewhat wet.
Right then, he sensed unfathomable strength appearing behind him. He opened his eyes and immediately frowned.
Another Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, Zhuge Ci from the Silver Moon Clan, had left the team and returned to him.
"What are you here for? You don't believe that I will stop them?" Liao Huagu burst into fury.
"Exactly, I don't believe in your soft bones," Zhuge Ci scoffed. "In all the time I've known you, have you ever won a single competition between us? During the exchange between the Furious Bears Union and the Silver Moon Clan, you even wept after you lost. Haha. Covering the retreat is such an important task. How can I trust that you will handle it well?"
"Bullsh*t! Bullsh*t! Bullsh*t! That was more than a hundred years ago. It doesn't count!" Liao Huagu was more than angry. "You are shameless enough to talk about the fights when our spiritual roots had not even awakened yet more than a hundred years ago. Why don't you talk about the competitions after we advanced into the Nascent Soul Stage? Have you ever won any of them?"
Zhuge ci smiled. "That's because I went easy on you. You are more or less a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator and an elder of your sect. I was merely helping you preserve your face in front the juniors."
Liao Huagu laughed so crazily that there were tears in his eyes. "Hahahaha. It's been two hundred years. You have not changed at all. Shameless and rodomontade. One look at you is enough to piss me off. Just get out of here and stop being a nuisance!"
"What will you do if I don't?" Zhuge Ci asked calmly.
Liao Huagu's laughter came to an abrupt end. He was silently briefly, before he took a breath and said, one word after another, "Then let's have one last competition and see who the better one is!"
"Alright. Then I'll show you the latest accomplishments of my training over the past few decades," Zhuge Ci said. "However many Grand Illusionary Soldiers you kill, I will kill one more!"
The two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators stopped talking.
A monolithic giant gradually formed above Zhuge Ci's real body, too.
The two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were dozens of meters away from each other.
But the two giants were very close to each other because of their enormous size.
Shoulder to shoulder, and the furious flames interweaving together, they confronted the sweeping black clouds alongside one another!
Chapter 796: Transformation |
The No.17 space port had been bombarded into smithereens. All the airtight doors and the docking rune arrays had turned into the melted slag. The air inside the tenth space ring leaked out through the damage, raising minor swirls along with the debris on the ground.
The Grand Illusionary Soldiers were crowding toward the port from various direction like locusts. Xiao Xuance seemed to have discovered the aim of the experts and wanted to drown them in an ocean of iron with all the forces available. At least, he wanted to drain their spiritual energy and damage their crystal suits.
"Where is the crystal warship of the Glorious Sunlight Group right now?" Si Koulie asked, breathing heavily.
He was not good at fighting. Persisting in the storm for so long had hit his limits.
"The crystal warship has broken through the ninth space ring smoothly and will be arriving soon. However, it cannot be docked here. We'll just fly out of the space port to board it!"
Li Yao and the Cultivators fought and moved out of the space port.
The situation in space was even more chaotic than the tenth space ring. The Grand Illusionary Soldiers that looked like red-headed flies were everywhere. Crystal warships were colliding and exploding as far as one's eyes could reach. The ever-surging fireballs looked like fireworks and showed absolutely no sign of dwindling.
"We have suffered heavy casualties. There's no time to look for a second starship!" Si Koulie scanned the status of all the Cultivators in the system. He said worriedly, "The crystal warship of the Glorious Sunlight Group is our only hope. Is it capable enough of bring us through nine space rings to somewhere near Heavenly Phantom?
"We must know that Heavenly Phantom is a super warship co-produced by the Star Fighters' Alliance and the Grand Illusionary Group. At that time, we did not know that Xiao Xuance was an Immortal Cultivator. It was designed to be the flagship of the coalition army in the final battle. Therefore, it was refined with the most marvelous techniques. The main guns and the defense rune arrays have never even been used before in any main force warships of the Star Fighters' Alliance!
"If a regular starship shows up in front Heavenly Phantom, it might be blown into oblivion after one shot!"
"Rest assured!" Li Yao licked his lips and said, "This crystal warship is the Glorious Sunlight Group's secret weapon. Its firepower might not be as impressive as that of Heavenly Phantom, but it is definitely the fastest, the most inconspicuous, and the most distinguished in interference and anti-interference starship of the Flying Star Sector—It is here!"
All the Cultivators were overjoyed. Thousands of crystal cameras scanned the surroundings far and wide.
But as far as their eyes could reach, there were nothing but broken starships on the burning battlefield. There was not the slightest sign of a super starship.
Right then, a ragged starship crawled out of an area of debris.
It was a carrier no longer than two kilometers. It was round and looked like a fat buffalo. The anti-collision plates on the surface were mottled, dented, and rusted. On the shell of the starship, the heat-resistance and defensive patches were a mess. It was like a twelfth-hand antique that somebody had bought from a bankrupt ship factory and did not even bother to paint the anti-rust lacquer.
All the Cultivators were rendered speechless.
Their skeptical eyes pierced through their crystal suits and toward Li Yao without any disguise.
Si Koulie was dumbfounded, too. He failed to come up with any comment and could only gasp.
Thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers condensed into dozens of tornadoes and swept toward them and the old-aged carrier.
All the Cultivators believed that the carrier was doomed, because they did not detect any cannons or even a glimmering spiritual shield on the surface of the carrier.
When the Grand Illusionary Soldiers invaded the carrier, its only outcome would be destruction!
However, when hundreds of Grand Illusionary Soldiers moved to a hundred meters from the carrier, they came to a weird standstill in glittering sparks at first, before their limbs and spines were twisted into screws amid cracking noises.
In a moment, the hundreds of Grand Illusionary Soldiers were completely destroyed.
"This is the latest magnetic defense rune array that can deploy a very powerful, controllable magnetic field outside the starship. With sufficient spiritual energy, all the metal within range can be manipulated!" Li Yao explained to the bewildered Cultivators.
Si Koulie was the first to come back to himself. He flew toward Sparkle without any hesitation. "We don't have any choice now. Get on board!"
The five gates on the right side of Sparkle were opened. More than a hundred Cultivators boarded the starship at the same time. More Grand Illusionary Soldiers followed them, only to be shredded into pieces by the special magnetic field when they entered Sparkle's defenses' range!
Sparkle turned around and marched toward the central area of Heavenly Saints City!
"Welcome aboard, fellow Cultivators." Professor Mo Xuan greeted the hundred Cultivators gracefully in an artificial body. "Powerful medical and recovery magical equipment has been installed on Sparkle. Please make the best use of the facilities to recover your strength and restore spiritual energy for the fierce battle to come."
The environment inside Sparkle was totally different from the shabby appearance on the outside.
Overall, every place was built with silver liquid metal. There was not the slightest gap on a single cabin door, much less traces of forging or riveting. It seemed to be made of an intact silver block.
It would not be exaggerating to say that it was flawless.
Even the experienced Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City were awed by the internal structure of Sparkle after they were aboard and did not know what to say for a long time.
Si Koulie, as an expert in starships, was glowing with interest. He scratched every corner of Sparkle and seemed to be willing to melt into it!
Si Koulie was the most skilled expert in the production of starships in the Flying Star Sector. Although Professor Mo Xuan and the other spectral Cultivators had turned into unique 'star spirits' by accident, their main specialty was crystal suits. In regard to starships, they were not as knowledgeable as Si Koulie.
However, the life forms of Professor Mo Xuan and the other star spirits were the souls of human beings combined with the mustard-seed-level liquid metal on the starship.
One might say that they were part of Sparkle, and Sparkle was their 'body'!
The modifications that they did to their 'body' naturally far exceeded Si Koulie's expectations.
"I didn't know that the Glorious Sunlight Group had such a high expertise in the refining of starships. Even the Star Fighters' Alliance might not be able to produce such a strong starship!" Si Koulie complimented sincerely.
Professor Mo Xuan smiled and waved his hands. The silver walls around immediately rippled as if they were water in a pond. Soon, they became almost transparent.
The whole of space was before them.
In front, a few other light beams displayed Sparkle's form and the situation of dozens of battlefields captured from different perspectives.
At this moment, Sparkle had left the tenth space ring for the central area of Heavenly Saints City, but their trouble had not ended yet. Many Grand Illusionary Soldiers had captured the scene where the experts entered Sparkle.
A great number of Grand Illusionary Soldiers and starships that were controlled by the Immortal Cultivators marched toward Sparkle quickly, planning to block the starship on its way.
Faced with the overwhelming enemies, Professor Mo Xuan did not intend to fight the hard way. Instead, he piloted Sparkle into a battlefield that was packed by the debris of more than ten starships.
Si Koulie was dazed for a moment. He was an expert in starships and naturally knew a lot about the tactics of the starships.
Entering a zone of debris could allow the starship to get away from the enemy's searching. However, it would also mean that the starship would be trapped in the zone forever and completely lose its mobility. Therefore, it was quite a passive tactic.
However, what happened next made him feel stunned even though he had been dealing with starships all his life!
When Sparkle flew into the debris zone, it had been a fat carrier.
However, after the ragged plate was shaken off inside the debris zone, it changed into a slender assault warship.
After a quick look, Si Koulie recognized that it was a 'Red Shark'-level assault warship that the Star Fighters' Alliance devised more than a hundred and thirty years ago. Since it was simple in structure and reliable in performance, it was very popular among the middle and small sects. Today, it was still many small sects' favorite.
The Red Shark assault warship was also rusted and riddled with holes. Large clusters of fireballs were popping up everywhere, as if a large batch of Grand Illusionary Soldiers were raging inside the starship and the Cultivators on-board would lose control at any moment.
Si Koulie blinked and realized that it was a very smart camouflage.
The Grand Illusionary Soldiers were looking for a ragged carrier instead of a Red Shark assault warship.
Besides, judging from the appearance, the shaking and collapsing assault warship would not catch the Grand Illusionary Soldiers' attention at all!
With such a disguise, Sparkle passed through the ninth and the eighth space rings easily. Such light assault warships boasted plain firepower and were not threats to Heavenly Phantom. On the priority rank of the Immortal Cultivators, they were in a very low position.
However, after analyzing the data in the battlefields carefully, Xiao Xuance did cast his suspicious eyes to the weird assault warship in the end.
At this moment, Professor Mo Xuan played the same move. Sparkle entered another packed battlefield and took off another 'shell', pretending to be a 'Light' rapid starship that was much smaller in size!
"The surface of Sparkle is adorned with both mechanical structures and the camouflage of mystic rays. It can pretend to be fourteen different models of crystal warships according to our demand in a battle. Moreover, it can also fake six forms, including 'slightly damaged', 'heavily damaged', 'loss of momentum' and 'total loss', in order to bait the enemy!" Professor Mo Xuan declared proudly.
Later, they changed into six different disguises, from a rapid starship, to a maintenance starship, to a medical starship, and to debris that had completely lost all impetus. Finally, in the storm of bullets and cannon fire, it reached the central area of Heavenly Saints City without being damaged at all!
However, in the central area, the disguises would not work anymore!
