Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 552
"Of course, it was because I contributed in secret and helped you repair your soul!
"However, while I was repairing your soul, I also 'stitched' something special into it.
"After you entered the four-dimensional space, your poured unlimited spiritual energy into your core to increase its rotational speed to the maximum in an attempt to break into the Nascent Soul Stage. It was a major shock for your soul and gave me a great opportunity!
"There is nothing that can stop me from taking over the body now!
"Heaven's Origin, a planet with a population of tens of billions!
"The entire Iron Plateau only has a population of less than a hundred million, and all the space zones of the Flying Star Sector combined had a population of around ten billion. However, Heaven's Origin, a single planet, has tens of billions of residents, or rather, tens of billions of hosts that can provide mental power to support me incessantly!"
"Ah!" Li Yao screamed miserably. Bloody strains extended out of his left eyeball toward his right one.
Li Yao was in such pain that he was writhing on the ground and bashing his head hard, but he had completely lost control over his left hand. When his right hand meant to attack his left eyeball, his left even blocked the aggressive attack.
"Stop your futile struggle. You are only increasing your suffering!
"What's wrong with being a host of the Blood Stripe Virus? The Blood Stripe Virus will not interfere with your wars against the Blood Demon Sector and the Imperium of True Human Beings. Instead, it will only give you a hand!
"After all, the source of strength for the Blood Stripe Virus is the lust for killing of the host. The fiercer your war is, the stronger the Blood Stripe Virus will be!"
Li Yao held his head hard and bellowed, "I will not let it go your way. I would rather die before my body is occupied by the lust for killing!"
With all his strength, Li Yao crashed open the door of the training room heavily into the cockpit.
Since the distance was short and the destination was clear, Firefly had been cruising in its autopilot mode. Manual manipulation was barely necessary.
In several seconds, the space jump would be over, and they would show up in the sky of the Heaven's Origin Sector.
With any luck, they would even end up in the gravity sphere of the planet of Heaven's Origin directly!
Bloody tears were flowing out of Li Yao's eyes as he dragged the left side of his body, which was shivering crazily, and crawled to the control panel.
In a corner of the control panel, locked tight by triple barriers, was a self-destruction rune array!
"You want to die together with me? Too late now!"
The laughter inside Li Yao's head was louder and louder now. His consciousness was dwindling fast. He felt as if he was mired in a bloody swamp sinking nonstop. Another self-awareness, one that was stronger, gloomier, and crueler, was replacing the old one and taking over his entire brain as it gradually revealed itself.
"Right now, I have controlled 95% of your brain.
"In a few seconds, we will arrive in the Heaven's Origin Sector and meet our family and friends. Ding Lingdang, Yuan Manqiu, 'Fiend Blade' Peng Hai, 'Solar Eclipse' Jiang Shaoyang…
"Rest assured. I shall leave none behind.
"Look, we are here. Heaven's Origin is right in front of us. What a lovely planet!"
The bloody Li Yao laughed crazily. Firefly shook violently, and the chaotic light beam was clear again, manifesting everything that the crystal cameras had captured.
An enormous planet was floating in front of their eyes quietly.
The bloody Li Yao's laughter came to an abrupt end. Appalling spiritual waves were rushing out for the first time after he revealed himself. "No. This is—"
Almost at the same time, deep inside the control panel of Firefly, a high-frequency soundwave beyond the perception of human ears echoed.
A mental attack targeting the soul burst out like a volcanic eruption and swept the entire cockpit, piercing through Li Yao's brain completely!
Chapter 828: Battlefield of the Heaven's Origin Sector! |
On Heaven's Origin of the Heaven's Origin Sector, the sky of the Grand Desolate Plateau seemed to be stretched by many invisible giant hands and collapsed weirdly, forming 'swirls' that were beyond the three-dimensional time and space.
Twelve streaks of brightness dashed out of the 'swirls', as if they had been thrown up by twelve invisible, enormous beasts. They moved toward the boundless desert.
The mainframe crystal processor was quickly analyzing the constituents of the air and the gravity of the planet. It was also estimating the diameter of the planet in order to calculate its mass.
The final results were identical to the data of Heaven's Origin.
"We've made it!"
There was nothing but exclamations on the bridge of Sparkle.
Wu Mayan jumped up in excitement. Lei Dalu and Bai Kaixin hugged each other, thrilled. The spectral Cultivators from the Heaven's Origin Sector were all crying and unable to control their emotions.
The Grand Desolate Plateau was their destination.
The Heaven's Origin Sector was highly populated. In the central area of the Star Glory Federation, super metropolises could easily spread to a thousand kilometers away. Considering the instability of the space jump, if the destination had been set near the capital of the Star Glory Federation, should there have been an accident such as the explosion of one of the starships, the burning debris might have been a destructive catastrophe for the cities.
Therefore, the 'Heaven's Artillery', with which the Heaven's Origin Sector explored the universe, was deployed in the Grand Desolate Plateau, which was vast and least populated. Even if there was an accident, the damage caused to the Heaven's Origin Sector would be minimized.
Also, Professor Mo Xuan and the other spectral Cultivators were all locals of the Grand Desolate Plateau. They were familiar with the environment there and could make the parameters more accurate when they set them.
"We're home. We're finally home!"
Professor Mo Xuan managed to hold back his complicated feelings. His artificial arms were slightly trembling as he activated twenty pieces of probe magical equipment.
In a moment, twenty probe balls carved with floating rune arrays were launched from Sparkle to various direction.
They were contacting the other twelve starships and scanning the terrain to further determine their coordinates.
The picture sent by the probe balls gave them a big surprise.
The Grand Desolate Plateau right now was completely different from their memories.
The sky was broken and filled with colorful clouds in the shape of swirls. They were wriggling in the sky like enormous snails.
Venomous mist so thick that it seemed to be solid was floating in the air, slithering weirdly like translucent tentacles.
In the desert far ahead and near, countless behemothic skeletons were lying. Many of their bones were more than a hundred meters long. All of them used to be hideous demon beasts.
The skeletons of the demon beasts were mixed with the debris of the crystal tanks, telling the stories of the gory battles in silence.
A probe ball that had flown hundreds of kilometers away captured an enormous relic that looked like a forsaken city. More than half of the buildings had been buried by the dark red sand. Only the several highest towers had their upper sections exposed on the surface of the ground like broken tombstones.
The probe ball moved up. It could vaguely see that the desert in the north of the Grand Desolate Plateau had all turned red. A boundless red tide seemed to be consuming the entire world.
"How did everything become like this?" Professor Mo Xuan sighed. "It seems that the merging of the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector has accelerated in the years we were away. A few earth-shaking wars must have taken place here. Even the cities of the Grand Desolate Plateau have turned into wastelands!
"Gao Yang, scan the structure of the forsaken city and compare it with the cities in our database. See which city it is exactly, and we will know our precise coordinates. Then, we will send the information to the rest of the twelve starships and the entire Heaven's Origin Sector!"
Gao Yang, who was one of Professor Mo Xuan's disciples, nodded, but he did not respond for a long time.
Professor Mo Xuan found it odd. Comparing the features of a city was a simple task. With their current computational ability, it should have been done within a breath.
The forsaken city was unbelievably huge. It must have been one of the core cities of the Grand Desolate Plateau and was unlikely to have been built after they left. Therefore, they must have had the critical features of the city in their database.
"Gao Yang, what's up?" Professor Mo Xuan asked solemnly.
Gao Yang replied, his voice shaking, "Pro—Professor, the city buried by the sand is… Wild Waves City!"
Wild Waves City was the largest city on the Grand Desolate Plateau. It was also where the Grand Desolate War Institution, one of the nine elite schools of the Star Glory Federation, was located!
Professor Mo Xuan shook so hard that his artificial body almost broke apart.
On the light beam, dozens of crystal warships of the Star Glory Federation were rushing at them. Countless Exos and armed shuttles surrounded them like wild bees.
On the head of those crystal warships, two glittering emblems were painted on the left and the right.
The left side was the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars, while the right side was a saber and a chainsword crossed on the background of a furiously burning fist, which was the emblem of the Grand Desolate War Institution!
The emblem refreshed Mo Xuan and his companions who were nearly grabbed by desperation, but they could not have been more baffled.
"What happened in the past ten years? Why was Wild Waves City demolished? Since when has the Grand Desolate War Institution bought so many crystal warships?"
As a multipurpose exploration starship, Sparkle was not very large in size. The dozens of crystal warships of the Star Glory Federation were much larger than it and soon arrived.
Trying to hold back his excitement, Professor Mo Xuan commanded, "Send a message to those starships and tell them that Li Yao and Mo Xuan are back!"
However, before their telepathic thoughts were sent over, their mainframe crystal processor had received a telepathic thought from the crystal warships.
The message was very simple. In fact, it had only one word.
"Sparkle?"
…
An hour later, on the bridge of Sparkle, the experts from the Flying Star Sector were all observing the red-haired Cultivator who was addressed as 'Captain of the First Assault Team of the Grand Desolate Legion' with great interest.
It was the first Cultivator from the Heaven's Origin Sector who they had met except for Li Yao and Mo Xuan.
The person had exceptionally long limbs, which were as tensile and forceful as whips. The dark red battle robe of the person had the emblem of the Grand Desolate War Institution painted on the chest. It was emitting sharp killing intent, too.
The most eye-catching part about the person was the hair. Not only was it in a fresh crimson color, it was also burning furiously like flames. Anyone who drew close would feel the scorching airwave. There was no telling how the person kept their head from being burnt.
Such an odd symptom is either the sequela from the mental derangement while practicing an ultimate technique or the result of lethal poison that the person has pushed to the hair. Or maybe it is because of both…
Luo Xingzi watched the person hugging Professor Mo Xuan tightly, deep in thought.
Since the Flying Star Sector was going to fight side by side with the Heaven's Origin Sector, it was important that they had a general idea of the capability of their comrades.
The local Cultivator of the Heaven's Origin Sector left a deep impression on Luo Xingzi, who estimated that the person was perhaps in the peak of the Core Formation Stage. But more importantly, the person seemed quite young. Thirty years old, tops. There must have been a lot of fortuitous incidents, too.
Is the Heaven's Origin Sector a factory that produces young geniuses?
Luo Xingzi was greatly amazed.
Professor Mo Xuan was quite concerned about the Grand Desolate War Institution and his wife, Yuan Manqiu. The red-haired captain told everything that had happened and assured him.
Over the past ten years, vast changes had indeed taken place in the Heaven's Origin Sector.
After Li Yao and Mo Xuan left, the merging of the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector had further accelerated. Right now, the two worlds were like the two kernels in the same peanut. They were in a 'half-blended' state, and they were equivalent to two space zones of the same Sector now.
Besides, countless wormholes had appeared between the two worlds that could be travelled through easily.
To the north of the Grand Desolate War Institution, the 'Dark Desolate Domain', which resulted from the collision of the two worlds, had expanded to dozens of times its size ten years ago.
The Dark Desolate Domain, where countless Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures were generated because of the unsteady spiritual energy, had become a gruesome battlefield.
The war between the Blood Demon Sector and the Heaven's Origin Sector had upgraded, too. It was no longer restricted to the small-scale harassment and anti-harassment. A few head-on, hard battles had been fought.
Five years ago, the demon race even teleported a whole army directly to Wild Waves City, where the Grand Desolate War Institution was located, through a precise point-to-point space jump.
Although the army was annihilated in the end, Wild Waves City was ruined, too.
"There is not an inch of peaceful land on the vast Grand Desolate Plateau now that can accommodate a quiet campus," the red-haired captain said. "Therefore, the Grand Desolate War Institution has moved the campus to crystal warships and turned into a nomadic college that recruits all the young people who have lost their homes because of the war on Iron Plateau. We teach, and they grow, in the bloody battles!
"Among the armed forces of the Star Glory Federation, the Grand Desolate War Institution is also known as the 'Grand Desolate Legion'. We are now one of the four greatest legions of the federation!
"Professor Yuan Manqiu is safe and sound, too. Under her leadership, the Refining Department of the Grand Desolate War Institution has become the second-best academic establishment of refining in the federation, only below the Refining Department of Deep Sea University!"
Hearing that his wife was fine, Professor Mo Xuan was greatly relieved. He said, "Since the Grand Desolate Plateau is now safe, please hurry to search for the remaining crystal warships. It will be terrible if they encounter the assault squads of the demon race!"
The red-haired captain said, "We've been searching the five hundred square kilometers nearby in the last hour and eleven starships similar to Sparkle have been found."
Professor Mo Xuan was dazed. "But we have thirteen starships. One of them is very small and looks like a cocoon. It is piloted by Li Yao alone!"
"What?" The red-haired captain suddenly raised their voice. "Why?"
Professor Mo Xuan was confused. "The fact that twelve starships have been found within five hundred square kilometers proves that it was a successful space jump with precise landing points. Logically, there is no way that Li Yao should have failed.
"Also, it's been an hour. He should have contacted me long ago."
"Weird. We cannot reach out to Firefly. It doesn't seem to have come to the Heaven's Origin Sector with us at all!"
"Understood!" the red-haired captain said. "We will increase the search range immediately and look for Firefly, which has probably crashed in the thousand square kilometers nearby!"
"Please—Please wait a moment."
While everybody was worried, Xie Anan moved out of the crowd, with a jade chip in her hands. "Master gave the jade chip to me before we left and asked me to play the message after we jumped to the Heaven's Origin Sector."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Everybody was baffled.
Professor Mo Xuan took over the jade chip and inserted it into his chest. He then projected a light beam with the crystal camera on his forehead.
Inside the light beam, Li Yao's image gradually condensed and looked at everyone with a smile.
"Do excuse me for talking to you in such a way.
"First of all, I would like to tell you a piece of bad news. Hahahaha. It's very likely that I have been infected by the Blood Stripe Virus."
Chapter 829: The Most Difficult Scheme |
His words shocked everyone on board!
Gasps were echoing nonstop inside the bridge. The qi-trainers from Iron Plateau all jumped to their feet. But the few Cultivators of the Heaven's Origin Sector were still confused. The red-haired captain stared at Li Yao on the light beam while asking Professor Mo Xuan, "What is the Blood Stripe Virus?"
Inside the light beam, Li Yao scratch his head and said in a lighthearted tone, "I was mired in a prolonged coma during the battle against the star child when my soul was hurt by his self-detonation.
"In my coma, I had a lot of bizarre nightmares. All the nightmares had one thing in common, which was that they were persuading me to give up and embrace the eternal sleep.
"After I woke up, the memories of the nightmares kept bothering me.
"I believed that I was never a person to give up easily. Besides, the way home was right before my eyes, and I was about to reunite with my family and friends in the Heaven's Origin Sector. Was there any reason I should stop striving before victory?
"If dreams were a reflection of my subconsciousness, then my subconsciousness must have vastly changed from my normal thinking.
"At that time, I secretly grew suspicious.
"After I woke up, I felt that I was even more unusual. I always daydreamed, and the nightmares were more and more terrible. Every time I struggled to get away from the nightmares, I sensed that my lust for killing was more intense, and I was more cynical and brutal!
