Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 757
To the north of the Dark Desolate Domain, on Burning Prairie, despite the super thunderstorm, the awe-inspiring spiritual waves were perceived, too!
Luo Xingzi, Ji Wende, and other Cultivators from the Flying Star Sector all narrowed their eyes and looked at where the spiritual waves were coming from.
"It is thunderbolt? Or is it…"
The troops in the drill around the Dark Desolate Domain detected the spiritual waves, too. The commanders of the troops were confused and thinking hard, too.
At the center of the spiritual waves, the ultimate collision of two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators even affected the weather and created a temporary 'microclimate'. The clouds disappeared, and the sun rose again in the one square kilometer nearby. Rays of sunlight pierced through their bodies, which were now riddled with holes.
Pu!
Li Yao vomited a mouthful of blood while the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit exploded into pieces. He could not help it any longer and slowly landed on one of his knees. He panted hard and almost could not control his bladder because of the lack of spiritual energy.
Or to put it in a more straightforward way… he almost peed his pants in the fight!
Pada!
While he was calming himself down trying to control his bladder, Zhou Hengdao fell on his face, creating a huge noise. The Five Tigers Hell Cutting Saber, which had broken in half, stabbed into the soil nearby, too.
Zhou Hengdao's Basaltic Fighting God Battlesuit was now pure garbage. He took off his twisted facial cover with all his remaining strength, revealing a dry, dying face.
He extended his iron hand that was about to melt to Li Yao. His dry lips moved for a long time before a soft sound echoed from the depths of his throat.
"Federation…"
Iron Commander Zhou Hengdao, the Chief of the General Staff of the federal army, gradually lost his breath.
Before his body perished, his soul had been crumbled by Li Yao's saber. It was impossible for him to be transformed into a spectral Cultivator at all.
Li Yao sighed and vomited another mouthful of blood. He crawled over and closed Zhou Hengdao's only eye.
He tried three times, but the old command who was as tough as iron would not close his eye. Uncanny brilliance popped up in his hollow eye as he watched Li Yao. There was no telling what the remaining emotions in it were. Regret? Frustration? Or… glimmering hope for the new federation in the future?
Chapter 1153: Butterflies in the Storm! |
Li Yao sat next to the Iron Commander's corpse. He took out more than some energy bars made from the oil of the demon beasts, the roots of the demonic plants, and the powder of marrow crystals. Biting off the seals brutally, he absorbed all the surging energy inside and did not feel better until he devoured more than ten of them.
"Little Black!"
Li Yao had sensed that Black Wing was not well when he blew out the final attack a moment ago. Now, he finally had the strength rip the broken Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit off his body and pluck Black Wing from whatever remained of the crystal suit.
To his surprise, he found that, despite the cracks the size of fingers on Black Wing, which gave the feeling that the flying sword should be nothing more than pieces now, there was bottomless darkness in every crack. When he extended his spiritual threads into them, he felt that he had entered boundless abysses that were covered in a weird, hazy mist. He could not touch the soul of Black Wing at all!
Li Yao recalled the 'Occult Orb Card' that he had been given before he joined the Occult Orbs Fellowship years ago. At that time, a vast world seemed to have been hidden in a card as thin as paper, which he could not see clearly however hard he pried with his spiritual threads.
The Occult Orb Cards were the part of the relics of the Star Ocean Imperium retrieved from an 'Occult Orb'.
The anomalies of Black Wing were quite similar to the Occult Orb Card, although the flying sword seemed much more advanced.
There was no telling where the soul of Black Wing was hiding inside the sword. It did not respond to his calling at all.
"Little Black, what happened to you? Wake up!"
Li Yao was quite anxious. Black Wing had accompanied him for twenty years through thick and thin. In Li Yao's heart, Little Black was not just a flying sword but a close friend that was connected with him.
It was needless to say that Little Black was the only thing that his foster father had left him!
Endless secrets about Little Black and his foster father had yet to be unraveled.
In the past, when he had been weak, he did not feel too much about it, but now that he had traveled far and wide and even entered the Nascent Soul Stage, the more he considered it, the more immeasurable he thought his foster father was.
His foster father had once said that he had traversed dozens of worlds. In his early years, Li Yao did not understand the weight in those words. He had taken them for his father's drunk talk.
But in recent years, he had felt shocked whenever he thought of it.
He had experienced such incredible events after travelling in only three Sectors, but his foster father had toured in dozens of Sectors. What a soul-stirring journey it must have been if it was true!
Who was his foster father exactly? Where did he come from, and how did he end up in the Heaven's Origin Sector at the edge of the cosmos? What about Black Wing? Why was a flying sword behaving like a living creature and even appearing to be sealed?
Before, Li Yao had intended to find about the answers to the questions after the preliminary cooperation among the Heaven's Origin Sector, the Flying Star Sector, and the Blood Demon Sector was agreed and the minor apocalypse was settled.
One must be graceful. His foster father had raised him for ten years and taught him countless training tricks without him knowing, which had laid a solid foundation for his rapid advancement later.
If his foster father had been wronged and forced to flee to the Heaven's Origin Sector, it was Li Yao's responsibility to seek justice for him!
At the very least, he had to find out his foster father's identity and see if he still had other family members who should be given the message of his death so that his father's life could come to a proper conclusion!
However, right now, Black Wing was in a weird state of near-broken. It seemed as if it would shatter if he touched it too hard.
Due to the shortage of facilities, Li Yao did not dare to act recklessly. He could only retrieve a cluster of oil from his Cosmos Ring and smeared it on Black Wing carefully before he covered the sword with a piece of soft skin and sent it to rest in the Cosmos Ring.
There was no way that he could further study it until he returned inland and found an advanced refining workshop with full facilities.
Taking a deep breath, Li Yao calmed himself down and observed the surroundings.
As Iron Commander Zhou Hengdao died, the thunderstorm in the Dark Desolate Domain seemed to have weakened, especially in the place where they were. Because of the collision of the most immense spiritual energy, a stable zone that was barely affected by interference had been created!
There might not be enough time to go further into the Dark Desolate Domain and search for Burning Prairie now. Li Yao could also use the riskier and yet more straightforward method!
He retrieved dozens of metal sticks that had been carved with complicated rune arrays from his Cosmos Rings and stabbed them around himself. With the metal sticks as the framework, he crossed more bars on it and built it up, eventually assembling them into a large piece of magical equipment like an iron cage.
Atop of the 'iron cage' was an extendable antenna that stretched upward almost twenty meters.
Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi!
As the rune arrays were slowly activated, the 'iron cage' was surrounded by electric arcs. The metal sticks were shivering, resonating with Li Yao's brainwaves and significantly enhancing them!
The 'iron cage' was sort of a 'spiritual tower' in a different form. With its assistance, Li Yao turned himself into a 'communication base' that could spread out his telepathic thoughts through the antennas and the metal net.
However, the transmission distance of such a 'communication base' was still very limited. Besides, the remaining parts of the Dark Desolate Domain were still in the middle of the thunderstorm, which brought tremendous interference.
There was no telling whether or not they could pick up his message.
But the situation was too urgent for Li Yao to consider such issues. He glanced at the weapons of the old days that were scattered on the ground. He was having all kinds of illusions and seemed to see the federal soldiers and the Cultivators who had sworn to protect all human beings in the Battle of Broken Wind two hundred years ago.
All the predecessors were around him. None of them were looking at him. They were all gazing into distance.
In that moment, he seemed to be one of them, too, a random soldier on the battlefield.
No drumming, no roaring. The only sound was the fluttering Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars flag in the wind!
Accompanied by the melody of the flag, Li Yao sat cross-legged and concentrated his attention, broadcasting to the entire Dark Desolate Domain.
"Brothers of the federal army taking part in the 'Furious Fist' drill, Cultivators who are cooperating with the federal army, and allies from the Flying Star Sector, I am Li Yao, broadcasting to you from the south of the Dark Desolate Domain about the 'ultimate order' from Jiang Hailiu, the Speaker of the Parliament!
"The order is as follows…
"I repeat. All personnel who hear this broadcast, abort all activities. Effective immediately!"
Li Yao's telepathic thoughts rippled out under the enhancement of the electric arcs.
The ripples were so weak that they looked like butterflies in the storm that were flapping their wings helplessly.
Li Yao stared at the storm and the clouds far away, his head aching and dizzy. He felt that his brains were about to flow out of his nostrils and ears at any point.
But he did not stop. He exploited his brain cells time and time again, triggering more telepathic thoughts and sending them to the depths of the Dark Desolate Domain.
"Brothers of the federal army, fellow Cultivators from the Flying Star Sector…"
At the north of the Dark Desolate Domain, in the storm, Burning Prairie finished the maintenance of all the units.
"We are done testing the space jump array. All the faults have now been fixed. It can be activated at any time!"
Luo Xingzi, Ji Wende, and the rest of the leadership of the Burning Prairie Fleet were all pacing anxiously on the bridge, looking at their watches every once in a while.
"Why is Iron Commander still not back? What's with the immense spiritual waves a moment ago? Do we set off now or stand by?" Zhou Tieyi, the captain of Zhou Hengdao's guards, vaguely felt something. He collapsed into the buffer rune arrays and stared at the interconnecting wires on the bridge in a daze.
At this moment, a signalman on the warship jumped to his feet and ripped off his headset. Too shock to say anything, he waved his hands crazily in midair.
"What's up?" Luo Xingzi frowned. "Are we in touch with the rear now?"
The signalman rolled his tongue for a long time but still could not speak a complete sentence. In the end, he simply switched the communicator to the loudspeaker mode. The next moment, hundreds of broadcast rune arrays large and small on the bridge were echoing the storm and thunder, as well as a weak, seriously twisted, and yet continuous voice mixed in them, at the same time.
"Brothers of the federal army taking part in the 'Furious Fist' drill, Cultivators who are cooperating with the federal army, and allies from the Flying Star Sector, I am Li Yao, broadcasting to you from the south of the Dark Desolate Domain about the 'ultimate order' from Jiang Hailiu, the Speaker of the Parliament!
"The order is as follows…"
The same voice was ringing above every troop in the Dark Desolate Domain. Some of the soldiers who heard the 'ultimate order' were greatly shocked, some burst into fury, and some, who were the members of the Patriots Partnership, were grasped by desperation and collapsed to the ground helplessly!
Everybody turned their eyes to the south, where the broadcast came from!
Li Yao knew none of it. He only repeated the words time and time again like a machine and showed no intention of stopping when blood was flowing out of his nose and ears.
He did not know how many times he had broadcasted that message. About to lose consciousness, he told himself again and again, [One more broadcast. One last broadcast, and the odds of somebody picking it up will increase. One more broadcast…
He fell into the mud. The microclimate, which lasted half an hour, finally shattered. The clouds and the storm consumed the land again, dying the mountains and rivers with darkness. His telepathic thoughts were ripped into pieces by the lightning and the tornadoes before they reached dozens of kilometers away!
Even so, Li Yao still lay on the ground, his limbs stretched out. He opened his eyes as best as he could to force himself to stay awake through the pouring rain while he sent out the telepathic thoughts that were destined to be shredded.
One telepathic thought. One telepathic thought was all that he needed. One telepathic thought meant one more shred of hope.
When he was about to fall unconscious, he vaguely heard sweeping tides from the back of the mountains in the north, as if a magnificent floating mountain was flying over. On the 'floating mountain', the two words Burning Prairie was emanating such brilliance that the storm and the clouds were shattered alike.
From the south, dozens of colorful streaks of brilliance were rushing close and piercing through the thunderstorm, too.
The red brilliance that was as scorching as the fire at the core of the planet was charging at him!
"Li Yao!"
Ding Lingdang's roars even eclipsed the thunder in the sky. Even pouring rain halted for a moment in fear.
Li Yao closed his eyes in great relief. He grinned soundlessly in the mud!
Chapter 1154: Repatriation! |
A month later, in the Federal Square in the capital city…
For more than half a month, the capital city had been sunny and peaceful. The temperature was neither too high nor too low. It was the most comfortable time in autumn.
"Hurry. Hurry up! There's a place here!"
A team of teenagers were yelling and shouting outside of the square. A tall, fat boy crammed into the crowd and shook his shoulders, creating room around him, before he gestured for the girl behind him to come over.
Guo Xiaohe was agile enough to jump to the high stairs. She looked at the front, standing on her toes.
Girls of her age recovered fast. The heavy wounds that she had suffered in the explosions a month ago had been fully healed, without the slightest scar left on her body. Every pore on her red skin was brimming with the youthful vigor. Revisiting the Federal Square today, Guo Xiaohe did not seem troubled by the bad memory at all, as if the accident had no effect on her whatsoever.
"Wow!"
The rebellious young girl was amazed by the flags, the cramming heads, the balloons, and the flying pigeons in the Federal Square.
"Let me take a look. Have they arrived? Are they here?"
The fat boy tried to squeeze upward, only to be blocked entirely by Guo Xiaohe. As it happened, she was wearing a short skirt that day. The little fatty's eyes shined as he raised his head. He changed his attitude. "Well, Xiaohe. You just stay there and watch. I can watch your share down here!"
"Alright, Si Mao!"
Guo Xiaohe raised her left hand and aimed the crystal camera on her portable crystal processor at the center of the square and began shooting. She also activated the share mode and shared the picture she took with her companions down there.
But as to where exactly the fat boy, Si Mao, was looking, only the heavens knew.
At the center of the Federal Square, and the center of everybody's attention, a special team walked close slowly.
At first glance, the team was made of the most ferocious demons!
Some of them had arms and torsos that were covered in thin scales, some had long, black hair on their faces, some had tails with bone spurs behind their bottoms, and some even had sharp horns above their foreheads!
When they moved out of the crystal tanks, stood in neat rows, and marched toward the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars flag at the center of the Federal Square, their hideous appearances and alien auras put the Federal Square in silence despite the pack of people.
Even Guo Xiaohe also gasped at the edge of the square and shrieked together with her companions.
However, nobody panicked or glared at them. On the contrary, people were looking at the demons with admiration, sympathy, and even some embarrassment.
The demons were not wearing the standard armor of the coalition army of demons, either, but the brand-new, black formal dress of the federal army. Every demon was wearing three to four medals in front of their chest. At the center of their hats, a Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars bag was nailed squarely!
They were not demons but the soldiers of the Flying Tigers Legion, who chased the enemy to the Dark Desolate Domain in the Battle of Dawn two years ago, only to be captured by the Nether World Watch and sent to the Nether World at the North Pole of the Blood Demon Sector for the experiments of the Demon God Virus!
Today was the day of their homecoming!
Led by Han Tuhu, the warriors, whose appearances had mutated but whose hearts did not, walked to the national flag firmly in goose-step on the land of their motherland with their feet that had grown sharp talons.
Below the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars flag, their families were waiting for them. Their parents, their wives, and their children!
In that moment, the soldiers who had travelled in the foreign land for two years, tortured and deformed, could see nothing else. Not the crowd that was greeting them on the two sides of the road, not the leadership of the federal army in the auditorium who were showing complicated feelings, and not even the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars flag that was flapping in the wind.
