Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 542
"I believe that in the war against the Immortal Cultivators, the Imperium of True Human Beings, and the dark forest, the Cultivators of the Flying Star Sector are definitely not fighting alone. No matter what, the Cultivators from at least another Sector have been fighting side by side with them at the risk of their own lives!
"The Flying Star Sector is never alone!
"This is both my belief and the fact that is happening right before you the idiot's eyes!"
As the universe-shaking roars echoed, the aura on the saber in Li Yao's hand had extended to thousands of meters. He slashed at the star child unstoppably!
"Ahhhh!"
The star child's right arm was formed by the debris of more than ten crystal warships. Now, it was further compressed into a longsword that was surrounded by black gas. The blade managed to block Li Yao's saber of stars. The blast resulting from the collision of the two weapons was no less intimidating than the most chaotic cosmic storm!
The star child's voice sounded more anxious than ever. "Who—who are you exactly?"
Li Yao burst into laughter. "I am Li Yao. Vulture is my nickname, and the Heaven's Origin Sector is my home!"
"The Heaven's Origin Sector is your home?"
The star child was dumbfounded. His computational ability was mired in a chaotic swirl and could not maintain the solidness of his soul any longer. The black longsword formed by his right arm was chopped in half by Li Yao's saber of stars. However, the saber did not stop there and continued pushing toward the star child's chest, until the enormous face on the chest was slashed apart, too!
The golden aura of the saber even penetrated through the star child's body and blossomed out of his back!
"The Heaven's Origin Sector is your home?"
The six Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators from the Flying Star Sector exclaimed in shock, too. Although they did not know exactly what had happened, their beliefs were firmed again, motivated by Li Yao's soaring fighting will. They were ready to fight one more time!
"My Fellow Cultivators here must have investigated my background earlier. You must have been curious about how a Mr. Nobody with no background could show such weird refining arts in the Skyhill Sword Seminar all of a sudden, fight the notorious space pirates in the Iron Plateau Space Zone, and even become the best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau, right?
"It's simple. Of course, I have my own masters and legacies. However they are not rooted in the Flying Star Sector but in the Heaven's Origin Sector, a whole different world!
"Yes. The Heaven's Origin Sector, which, according to what the guy just said, was a wasteland when it was discovered by the Imperium of True Human Beings two hundred years ago!"
The six Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators could not have been more shocked!
The wound on the star child's chest was almost a thousand meters long. Countless crystal warships were wriggling in it but could not heal it. Like a bottomless gorge, the wound added to the ugliness of the enormous face. "It's impossible. You are lying. What evidence have you got?"
Li Yao laughed. He pointed the saber in his right hand at the star child, and he touched the center of his eyebrow with his left index finger and middle finger. He said, "Evidence?
"I am the evidence!
"Star Child No.19, you said just now that the Heaven's Origin Sector had been desolate since more than two hundred years ago.
"Now, allow me to burn my life and soul and release my memory pieces so that you can see what the real Heaven's Origin Sector looks like!
"I believe that every one of you knows what a high demand building a vivid, vast world places on one's computational ability. If the Heaven's Origin Sector does not exist, with the computational ability of the superlative height of the Core Formation Stage, there is no way that I can make up so many memories all at once so quickly!
"Take a look. This is my hometown, the Heaven's Origin Sector!"
Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!
From the center of Li Yao's soul, golden streams of information rushed out and surged into overwhelming images in the sea of stars, illuminating the dark forest made of the deities and devils of the universe.
They were all the memories that he remembered most clearly!
The first picture was him in the War Museum of the Star Glory Federation. He watched countless Cultivators marching toward the army of the demon race on their starships, especially the scene where Distant Expanse, the flagship of the Cultivators, crashed into Heaven's Field, the flagship of the demon race, in the battle that marked the foundation of the Star Glory Federation.
Above the clouds that were dyed red by blood, the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars flag, the national flag of the federation, was fluttering in the wind!
The second picture was the scene where seven weak Cultivators sacrificed themselves against overwhelming Ghost Face Silver Mosquitoes to buy more time for the ordinary people on the crystal train to the Grand Desolate War Institution.
The third picture was in the Battle of Seven Cities. While countless ordinary people ran away from their homes that were caught in the flames of war, teams of Cultivators and federal soldiers were marching onto the perilous battlefield against the current!
The fourth picture was on Boneyard. Li Yao, Ding Lingdang, and the other Cultivators were fighting the squad of the demon race and Skeleton Dragon. In the end, Li Yao activated the drill of mystic rays of Sparkle and teleported himself as well as Skeleton Dragon to an unknown world!
Other than the four enormous pictures, there were thousands of smaller, scattered pictures. They were not relatively unimportant memory pieces, but the social form, customs, and history of the Heaven's Origin Sector were reflected in them, too.
Such a life-like world was too complicated and vivid to be constructed in the spur of the moment.
Along with the pictures were roars each higher than the last.
"Cultivators are the sabers of the civilization of mankind!"
"Dispelling evil is our responsivity. Pests, prepare to die!"
"Get the hell out of here. Don't stand in my way while I'm busy saving the world!"
"Cultivate for the rise of the federation!"
"Cultivators are fearless of death. Those who fear death will never be Cultivators!"
"Cultivators are here!"
The pictures and the voices dazzled the six Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, whose souls were burning furiously!
The black venom all over their bodies was burnt to ash and obliterated after screams.
Their souls condensed into the shape of human beings. Glamorous crystal suits that looked like diamonds and coral, which could never appear in reality, were growing crazily on their bodies, making their size expand continuously. They looked like giants that were slowly rising from an abyss!
"It's true. Li Yao was speaking a truth. There is at least one world other than the Flying Star Sector that is still guarded by the Cultivators."
"Cultivators are here… It's been a long time since I last heard such a refreshing declaration!"
"Although it is a small Sector that only has one space zone and insufficient resources, it has a very stable planet that is habituated by tens of billions of people. The war potential is quite huge. The Cultivation level is not low, either. Some of their technology is even more advanced than that of the Flying Star Sector!
"The Flying Star Sector is vast and unpopulated. All the citizens are dispersed.
"The Heaven's Origin Sector is small and has a huge population. The people are highly concentrated. They also have a very strong army that maximizes the combat ability of the ordinary people in groups!"
"The two Sectors are quite complementary!"
"The Star Glory Federation that governs the Heaven's Origin Sector has existed for five hundred years, but the star child claimed that it was a wasteland two hundred years ago?"
"He was lying!"
"If he was lying about the Heaven's Origin Sector, who knows whether or not his stories about the Rising Sun Sector and the Black Moon Sector were true?"
"Is the Imperium of True Human Beings really as strong and invincible as he described to be? Has it really governed both of the Sectors of mankind?"
The Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were all smart and determined people. Just now, their souls had been suppressed by the star child, and their computational ability had plummeted. That was why they had not been thinking too clearly.
Now that Li Yao had pointed out a loophole in the star child's lie with undeniable facts, it was like a hole being dug on an indestructible dam.
A collapse was about to happen!
The mind palace built by the star child started shaking. The deities and devils that constituted the dark forest crumbled and dispersed one after another!
"Do you see it, Star Child No.19? This is my world!"
Li Yao burst into laughter. Every picture of his memory was burning in golden flames. They turned into flying fire birds and swept across the entire dark forest, scorching the illusions of the deities and devils who were all screaming miserably. In the end, they flew to Li Yao one by one and melted into a pair of golden wings thousands of meters long!
"You kept saying that only by removing the humanity and sacrificing the ordinary people in the cruel dark forest will the civilization of mankind have a future.
"The Heaven's Origin Sector has been faced with serious threats all the time, but we have never forgotten what we fought for in the beginning and what we are dying to protect!
"Open your goddamn eyes and watch carefully. This is the future of the civilization of mankind!"
Chapter 813: Collision of Souls! |
Every word Li Yao roared raised a tide in the dead sea of stars along with the high-pitched drumming at the center of his soul.
Every feather on the golden wings turned into a minor power rune array. Together, the power rune arrays spurted dazzling sparks that reached hundreds of kilometers away, making him look like a rushing meteor shower coming from the end of the endless universe!
Boosted by the countless power rune arrays, Li Yao's speed was accelerated to the maximum instantly. His soul and his saber of stars melded into one as he stabbed the hideous face on the chest of the star child.
Chi!
Like a burning blade stabbing snow, all the debris of starships on the star child's chest was melted, vaporized, and driven apart!
The enormous face grimaced, apparently in excruciating pain.
Li Yao's soul twisted crazily. The wound soon turned into an enormous swirl that gradually expanded to the star child's entire body, mincing the thousands of crystal warships that made up the body into smithereens!
"Ahhh!"
The star child screamed miserably. The real face of his soul was exposed. It was waving hundreds of thick tentacles like a gargantuan, mutated octopus.
The illusions of the deities and devils in the universe all crowded to him and melted into his body.
After every illusion was absorbed, his soul grew stronger, and his tentacles became thicker. Dense sucking discs, fangs, thorns, and hooks appeared on the tentacles, too. The front ends of many tentacles were opening like blossoming flowers, making them look like bloody mouths.
A soul in the shape of a purple octopus almost ten thousand meters tall versus golden wings that were equally tall!
The universe was the battlefield, the stars were their weapons, the galaxy turned into sabers and swords, and their roars became the daunting cosmic storms!
"Even if there are still Cultivators in the Heaven's Origin Sector, you are just lucky dogs below the saber of the imperium. None of you ants are going to stop the march of the imperium however many of you there are!" the star child roared.
His hundreds of tentacles extended infinitely and dragged the debris of crystal warships close again. They then crushed and pressed the crystal warships brutally, turning them into crystal bombs that boasted highly-compressed spiritual energy and were extremely unstable. The bombs made of crystal warships were then tossed at Li Yao!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Li Yao was swallowed by countless destructive walls of fire, but in only 0.01 seconds, he had broken through the ocean of fire and sprinted forward. His soul also released thousands of threads and attracted all the crystal warships nearby to him, before he compressed them into giant golden feathers, each of which was dozens of meters long with delicate spiritual stripes on the surface and flames of spiritual energy dancing on them.
BAM!
The two immense souls that were Li Yao and the star child had a head-on clash!
Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!
Hundreds of purple tentacles tied Li Yao up. The thorns and the hooks trapped him in excruciating pain, while the sucking disc was absorbing his soul power crazily!
Li Yao gritted his teeth, but he could not free himself from them for the moment.
The star child burst into laughter, only to be interrupted by an overwhelming storm of debris. The giant face of the octopus was now riddled with holes.
It was Luo Xingzi and the other Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators!
Their souls had expanded to more than a thousand meters, too, while they attacked the raging monstrous octopus!
"Li Yao, we are here!"
"Cultivators from the Flying Star Sector and the Heaven's Origin Sector will fight side by side and make our own path in the dark forest!"
When Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were infuriated, the world could be overturned. Right now, the entire mind palace was shaking violently. Cracks were appearing at the end of the deep, dark universe, expanding quickly like spider webs. The background was falling apart, only to reveal the black chaos behind!
Li Yao's eyes were burning. Feathers were flying crazily and cutting the star child's tentacles and body like thousands of golden daggers.
"You pushed me to this!"
The star child was more than exasperated. His soul expanded quickly. More tentacles were protruding out of his round body, making him look even more hideous and bloodthirsty.
"I meant to keep you alive so that you can help stabilize the situation of the Flying Star Sector and contribute to the imperium.
"But since you are too obstinate, you've left me no choice except to eradicate your souls!"
Luo Xingzi gasped. "How could it be? His soul power is still soaring incessantly. Was he not doing his best a moment ago?"
"This is his last shot!" Li Yao shouted. "He must've relinquished the control over most of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers and the space gate and shifted all his computational ability to this mind place!
"As long as we can survive the attack, he will be doomed!"
The star child grinned hideously. Thousands of tentacles were slithering around him like thousands of vipers. Their sharp ends aimed at the seven of them at the same time, before bloody mouths were split apart on them.
"Li Yao, you are indeed very smart!
"However, how will you survive the attack?"
…
In the real world, at the periphery of the Spider Den Space Zone, the star beacons on the space gate, which was now in a lozenge shape, were being illuminated one by one. They were blinking in a mysterious rhythm. Their invisible brilliance was transmitting short messages to billions of lightyears away through the four-dimensional space.
70% of the star beacons had been illuminated. The blinking mystic rays would soon constitute a complete pattern and send out the precise coordinates of the Flying Star Sector.
But the process came to an abrupt halt.
In the meantime, most of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers were attacking the hall of the Meeting of the Next Millennium and the important warehouses of magical equipment, only to calm down weirdly and simultaneously enter the idle mode again.
The Cultivators were all breathing hard in confusion, not entirely recovered from their fear.
The star child had abandoned its control of the space gate and most of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers temporarily. He only kept a tiny portion of them to protect his real body.
In such a case, he would be able to concentrate most of computational ability on Li Yao and the rest of the Cultivators!
Inside the control room of the star brain, the real bodies of Li Yao and the other Cultivators were floating in the middle of the ever-changing golden brain dragged by an invisible force. Their four limbs dangled down helplessly as if they were in a deep coma. Their occasionally cramping hands and feet were the only sign that they were still alive.
The computation rune arrays and processing chips nearby, which looked like skyscrapers, were all emitting flashing red lights. The cooling rune arrays were also functioning at the highest efficiency in hissing sounds, too. Frost and fog were being spurted out nonstop.
Even so, some of the rune arrays were still exploding every now and then.
The star brain had reached its limits, too.
At this moment, in an inconspicuous corner of the 'skyscrapers', five clusters of round, fat liquid metal were rippling on the surface while they communicated with each other in a secret way.
"What's going on? Why has the outer defense of the star brain dropped by 95%?"
"Most of the defensive barriers have malfunctioned!"
"The Grand Illusionary Soldiers guarding the star brain have mostly entered the idle mode. There are barely any defenses right now!"
"Is it a trap?"
Professor Mo Xuan made the call. "We cannot hesitate anymore. It is now or never. We will start the invasion immediately!"
Hiu! Hiu! Hiu! Hiu! Hiu!
The five clusters of liquid metal were like all-pervasive mercury and snuck to the inside of the brain. They looked for the most critical computational rune arrays and processing chips before they devoured and sabotaged the units.
"Hiss. Such high computational ability. What a delicious meal!"
"Wow. I have never seen the structures or circuits of such processing chips. They are far more advanced than the technology of the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Flying Star Sector. I must devour them now so that I will be able to simulate them virtually!"
"Damn. Those few rune arrays are not edible. We will destroy them, then!"
