Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 549
Moreover, even when Wu Mayan gritted his teeth and asked about the single starship cautiously again, Li Yao did not burst into fury. Instead, he summoned Xie Anan and brought out all his structural designs. Then, he patiently explained his purpose and methods in great detail.
Wu Mayan was a genius in training, and Xie Anan was a rising star in the circle of refiners. After analyzing Li Yao's structural designs, they had to admit that, theoretically speaking, training on the starship in the four-dimensional space was feasible.
Although it might not be enough to help a person break into the Nascent Soul Stage, their soul would be cleansed and built up. There did not seem to be any harm.
In the end, Wu Mayan and Xie Anan were both relieved. They figured that their master was just in a bad mood earlier because of the stress and had now managed to adjust himself.
They soon forgot the incident.
After all, the two of them, or rather, the entire Flying Star Sector, had been too busy to bother a 'trifle' like that.
Ever since the scheme of the Immortal Cultivators was disrupted, and the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Imperium of True Human Beings were discovered, the Flying Star Sector had been like a small pond that was thrown into a boundless ocean. The complicated outside world caught everybody unprepared.
The entire Flying Star Sector was in the fast lane. The sect structure, social form, and the educational system of the Cultivators were all broken. New orders were being established at a lightning-like speed.
The first question that everybody was faced with was the Grand Illusionary Soldiers.
The Grand Illusionary Soldier Project had been carried out for five years. A lot of sects had devoted tremendous resources to produce the Grand Illusionary Soldiers. It was impossible for them to simply abandon all the magical equipment.
After much deliberation, all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers were put on hiatus for half a year. During the half year, Professor Mo Xuan and the crystal processor experts from the important sects scrutinized the star brain, which was in a hibernation mode, to make sure that all the loopholes had been sealed. Then, they divided the computation modules of the star brain into more than ten parts, which were stored in different locations and protected by multiple barriers.
Other than that, Professor Mo Xuan also planted countless 'telepathic bombs' inside the star brain and made sure that he would be able to counterattack immediately if the star brain was compromised.
With all the security measures, the star brain's transmission speed of data dropped a lot, which affected part of the performance of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers. But it was much safer and more trustworthy now. Nobody would be able to seize control over the Grand Illusionary Soldiers after they seized the star brain.
Even so, the uncompleted production plan of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers was aborted. More resources were dedicated to the refinement of the crystal suits and crystal warships again.
The Cultivators had realized clearly that all magical equipment had loopholes and that it was human beings themselves who were most reliable.
Also, a large batch of Grand Illusionary Soldiers were seriously damaged in the insurrection of the Immortal Cultivators, bordering on total losses. To restore their combat ability would consume more resources than to produce new Grand Illusionary Soldiers of the same number.
Those Grand Illusionary Soldiers unfitting for repair were modified with prospecting and excavating functions before they were dedicated to the development of Iron Plateau and Spider Den.
Iron Plateau used to be the heart of the Flying Star Sector, with countless secret treasures and remains of the towns from five thousand years ago buried below the ground. Spider Den's underground boasted tremendous relics and mother lode residues, too.
Before, because of the division, no single sect had the capability to develop Iron Plateau or Spider Den.
But right now, the Flying Star Sector had joined hands to perform earth-shaking modifications on the two habitable planets.
In the heated construction, deserts turned into green lands, the gray sky was blue again, and many ancient cities buried deep below the ground embraced the sunlight!
Li Yao never lost control of himself again.
He dedicated himself to the Ice God Project wholeheartedly. Not only did he participate in the refining work of the new single starship in person, he also joined the calculation and production of the 'cosmic slingshot'.
Sometimes, he locked himself in his own room for more than ten days, calculating the structure of his starship and examining the star map. Sometimes, he trained himself in dozens of times the standard gravity until he was bleeding hard.
After tons of structural designs were drafted, he occasionally climbed onto the roof and stared at the night sky. The stars were shining in the deepest part of his eyes, but there was no telling what he was thinking about.
Finally—
In the ninth year after Li Yao and his companions traversed to the Flying Star Sector, the Ice God Project achieved preliminary success!
The first stage of the cosmic slingshot had been completed, and thirteen starships that could cruise across Sectors had been refined, too!
It was time to go home!
…
Ice King was a desolate planet at the edge of the Flying Star Sector. Since it was far from the star, the surface of the planet was entirely frozen. There was no atmosphere, much less breathable air for human beings.
The size and weight of Ice King were extremely low. It was only one tenth the size of Iron Plateau, which meant that the gravity was very weak.
Without the hinderance of the atmosphere, there would be less friction when the starships soared to the universe.
It was a perfect, natural launch base for starships.
Today, Ice King was packed with simmering people whose enthusiasm was almost melting all the icy blocks on the planet!
Amidst the continuous mountains of ice, two enormous man-made ravines, one horizontal and the other vertical, had been dug on the ground and formed a cross. Both ravines were more than three hundred kilometers long. Their profile was as smooth as a mirror without the tiniest flaw. Yet, ripples of spiritual energy were spreading out nonstop, and colorful, complicated rune arrays were glimmering every now and they.
It was the super space jump array left by the Star Ocean Imperium.
At the intersection of the two enormous ravines, a shaft whose walls were empty had been established. Thirteen well-prepared starships were floating in the middle of the shaft, wreathed in bluish colors.
Twelve starships were similar in appearance. There was only a slight difference in certain units on them.
They were Sparkle, and the simplified versions of Sparkle, namely Spark I to Spark XI.
There were few passengers on the twelve starships. Most of the storage space of the starships was loaded with magical equipment units to build star beacons.
After they reached the Heaven's Origin Sector, they would find an appropriate location to build a super star beacon.
The star beacon would emit mystic rays at a specific frequency. The observers unaware of it would not discover the signals, and even if they did, they would only consider it to be a normal astronomical phenomenon.
Only the Flying Star Sector could lock onto the mystic rays and read the corresponding information according to the signal.
With the navigation of the super star beacon, the following fleets would be larger in scale and sail between the Flying Star Sector and the Heaven's Origin Sector more swiftly.
Other than the twelve starships, there was a bizarre-shaped starship that was much smaller in size. In fact, it was less than thirty meters long.
Different from the slender, sharp-edged style of the mainstream starships of the Flying Star Sector, this particular starship was very fat and seemed to be connected by multiple round rings. It was more appropriate to call it a cocoon than to call it a starship.
It was the single starship devised by Li Yao and co-produced by the Grand Illusionary Group and the Star Fighters' Alliance. It had been designed with the principles of bionics and adopted a lot of materials of the apocalyptic beasts from Iron Plateau. During the flying, the shell of the starship would keep revolving, which made the stability and anti-collision ability of the starship multiple times higher than those of normal starships.
Li Yao had named his special starship 'Firefly'.
On the platform next to the launch base, all the experts of the Flying Star Sector had been gathered. They were bidding each other farewell.
The first echelon of Cultivators to go to the Heaven's Origin Sector included Luo Xingzi, who was a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, Lei Dalu and Bai Kaixin, who were both in the Core Formation Stage, and Wu Mayan and Xie Anan, Li Yao's two disciples.
"We're finally coming home!"
Looking at the shining starships in the blue brightness not far away and the splendid view of the super space jump array, Li Yao, Professor Mo Xuan, and the rest of the Cultivators from the Heaven's Origin Sector hugged each other. Everybody was emotional and desperate to go home.
"The Feathered Snakes Brotherhood made terrible mistakes in the insurrection of the Immortal Cultivators. Although it was because of the enchantment of Xiao Xuance, the previous leader, there is nothing we can to make up for what we did.
"Now, we can only wash away the disgrace that has choked the Feathered Snakes Brother with blood and bravery. Fierce battles are awaiting us in the Heaven's Origin Sector. Every Cultivator of the Flying Star Sector must lead the charge. One day, the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood will become one of the most respected sects in the Flying Star Sector again because of our valiancy!" Luo Xingzi roared to fifty Cultivators of the Feathered Snakes Tribe who were fully armed in distinctive armors. The fifty-one of them were all ready to fight.
"The most important thing about us Cultivators is friendship. The Cultivators of the Heaven's Origin Sector have done us a great favor, and now it's time that we return it!" Lei Dalu bellowed to the members of the Great Horn Exo Society, his belly protruding.
After ten years of development, the Great Horn Exo Society had become one of the strongest Exo Societies of the Flying Star Sector.
However, because of the limited carrying capacity, he had only selected a hundred experts to go with him, including the new-generation warriors such as Zuo Xiaohu and Lu Dian.
"Master, you must be very careful. Don't be too persistent you if cannot make a breakthrough for now. It will be a disaster if you become mentally deranged!" Xie Anan said to Li Yao uneasily.
Li Yao smiled. He patted Xie Anan's head and said, "Don't worry. I've made full preparations. I will not be mentally deranged. Just wait for it. When we arrive in the Heaven's Origin Sector, I will certainly show you… a brand-new master!
"Right. Have you brought the thing I gave you?"
Xie Anan nodded her head. "I have. However—"
Li Yao waved his hand. "No 'however'. Just remember what I said. Everything will be good.
"Alright. Ice King has reached the expected trajectory. It's about time that we march to the Heaven's Origin Sector!"
Chapter 824: Mouse Bai |
"Ladies and gentlemen in front of the light beam, this is 'Across the Heaven's Origin Sector', a special live segment hosted by the Flying Star TV. The most thrilling moment is about to come. The first echelon of Cultivators to go to the Heaven's Origin Sector has boarded on their starships!
"Ten thousand years! We've lost contact with our brother worlds for ten thousand years after the Star Ocean Imperium collapsed.
"For the ten thousand years, we've been resisting the extraterrestrial devils, the demon beasts, and the apocalypse in the cold, bleak universe all by ourselves.
"But everything will be different from now on. We are about to fight side by side with another Sector!
"Let's congratulate the return home of Li Yao, Mo Xuan, and the other friends from the Heaven's Origin Sector and pray that the Cultivators of the Flying Star Sector will have a safe journey and bring the greetings of the Flying Star Sector to our brothers in the Heaven's Origin Sector!"
At this moment, the Flying Star Sector was silent. The ordinary people closed their eyes and prayed in silence, while the Cultivators made hundreds of different gestures and sent telepathic thoughts of bliss into the universe.
At the periphery of the Spider Den Space Zone, on a ragged carrier, dozens of thickheaded, brutal-looking crew members crowded in a stinky cabin. Their muscles were so tight that their clothes were almost being ripped apart, and their fists, which were the size of a pot, were twisted so hard that sweat seemed to be dropping, while they prayed for the travelers in a way that did not seem praying at all.
Puchi!
While those rude and yet kind men were praying quietly, an inharmonious noise came from a corner. Somebody laughed in a shrieking voice.
"Mouse Bai, you are asking for trouble again!"
A muscular man with a long beard opened his eyes, only to see an extremely ugly young man whose head was disproportionally huge.
The young man was wearing an expression of easiness. He was actually yawning at such an exciting moment. Instead of praying with everybody else, he had taken out a bag of peanuts from god knew where and was enjoying himself. For some reason, his appearance made people want to beat him.
The young man was really ugly.
He seemed congenitally deficient and malnourished after he was born. He was only around 1.3 meters all. His pinky skin was wrinkled. His ears were larger than fans. His nose was long and red. Two of his big incisors protruded out, but his eyes were as small as needle tips, and the freckles that surrounded his eyes were as dense as the stars in a night sky, making him wear a natural eye-patch all the time. He did not seem to be a good person at all but fitted every description of a thief.
The young man's surname was Bai. Since he looked like a mouse, and he kept two weird white mice as his pets, everybody called him 'Mouse Bai'.
Mouse Bai had boarded the carrier three months ago.
At that time, Spider Den was being developed heatedly. The demand on carriers and engineering starships was very high. The carrier that belonged to a private company joined the gold rush and worked for half a year on Spider Den.
When they left Spider Den, the young man somehow got himself on board.
Other than space pirates, there were many civilians on Spider Den, too, who were the victims kidnapped by the space pirates, the posterity of the victims, or the family of the space pirates. Not all of them had committed crimes. Many of them were even slaves who had been oppressed for a long time.
After Spider Den was taken over, naturally, the victims could not be all killed. After rigorous identification and lie-testing, the residents of Spider Den who were innocent were asked to join the construction of Spider Den if they were eighteen or older and go to temporary school if they were not.
Even so, many people were plagued by their bad habits. They hated working as much as they hated school, and they simply horsed around and made trouble every day.
Mouse Bai was exactly such a man.
When he just got on board, his situation was much worse. He was essentially a skeleton, and he had a giant hole that basically incrusted on his head. The doctor on the starship said after examination that his skull had been bashed into several pieces. 99.9% of the people would have died of such injury, but the young man was tough enough to survive.
His injury somehow triggered the sympathy of the captain of the starship, who sent his photo and his fingerprint to Spider Den to check, only to find that the young man was an orphan who roamed the streets every day. A few days ago, he accidentally fell into a mining pit. Everybody thought that he was killed, but he somehow ended up on the carrier.
He was not a space pirate, nor did he ever commit any crimes. He looked rather pitiful for a teenager. Therefore, the captain took him in.
The young man's vitality was tougher than that of a cockroach. It took him less than a month to be fully recovered, but because of his indolence, which he developed on Spider Den, he was the first to come for dinner and the last to go to work.
The captain was kind enough to ask him to take several courses through the crystal processor, but he fell asleep every time a book was opened.
Seeing that he was not interested in books, several crew members meant to teach him martial arts, but he only laughed and refused them.
After several days, everybody on the carrier was pissed. They only regretted that they could not open the ventilation tube and throw the slug into space.
The only shining point about the scalawag was that he was good-tempered and smiling all day. He was never angry when other people cursed him or pulled his ears. Even when other people snapped his head in outrage, he would act like it was nothing. There was no telling whether he was broad-minded or simply shameless.
Mouse Bai was still enjoying his peanuts although dozens of muscular men were glaring at him. He even picked his teeth with his little finger now and then, utterly satisfied.
"Hey!" One of the muscular man held his ears and pulled him up, his saliva darting to the young man's face like nails. "Mouse Bai. It's fine that you are lazy and sleazy normally. But how can you be so indifferent when we are all praying for Li Yao and the other travelers?"
Mouse Bao simply allowed his ears to be pulled and continued enjoying his peanuts. He said with a smile, "I knew that my boy Li Yao is an unbelievably lucky man and that I could trust him to do anything nicely and smoothly.
"If so, why do I have to waste my time with a useless prayer?"
"Huh?" Brother Hong was even more furious. He pinched Mouse Bai's ear hard. "You have a tongue disproportional to your size, wrinkly Mouse Bai. Li Yao is the top-tier super experts of the Flying Star Sector, and a formidable man who slayed Xiao Xuance? You are no match even for his booger. How did you dare to call him 'my boy'?"
