Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 807
"The Immortal Cultivators are different from us Cultivators!
"We Cultivators always dedicate ourselves to the execution of evil and the protection of ordinary people. We won't hesitate to burn ourselves to illuminate the world!
"The Immortal Cultivators, however, consider ordinary people to be nothing but ants. They have no moral standards to achieve their purpose, and they can sacrifice tens of thousands of ordinary people without batting an eye!
"In the Flying Star Sector, the Immortal Cultivators have launched too many terror attacks. Countless ordinary people have been killed by them. They are a major trouble for us!"
"I didn't know that there were such shameless Cultivators in the world!" Su Changfa said in shock. "Then, haven't the fellow Cultivators of the Flying Star Sector figured a way to eliminate them yet? Have your Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators and Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators not taken action?"
In confusion, Li Yao replied, "Divinity Transformation Stage? There's nobody in the Divinity Transformation Stage in the Flying Star Sector. Even the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators are only a handful, and only one of them is battle-type! The Flying Star Sector is too large a place. One battle-type Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator is far from enough!"
Su Changfa, Kou Ruhuo, and Tang Qianhe looked at each other, almost unable to hold back their derision and delight.
Kou Ruhuo, the tall and strong 'chief of arms', stepped forward and asked solemnly, "Fellow Cultivator Li, I wonder, what's the population of the Flying Star Sector? How many warships and worthy Cultivators are out there?"
It was quite a sensitive question, but Li Yao appeared inert enough to catch the killing intent entailed in the sentence. Tilting his head and thinking for a moment, he shook his head and said, "The population… is about seven to eight billion, or maybe even ten billion. I really can't tell!
"The Flying Star Sector is a civilization based on starships. Most of the people live on starships that drift from space zone to space zone. There is not a central government. No conclusive census has ever been conducted, so nobody can tell the precise population!"
"There isn't a central government?"
In a daze, Kou Ruhuo asked, "Then, how do you organize your army to fight the space pirates… and the Immortal Cultivators?"
With a bitter face, Li Yao replied, "That's the problem! The Flying Star Sector experienced a great catastrophe five thousand years ago. The environment of the entire world underwent drastic changes. Ever since then, we have been loose sand. A few starships make a sect, and every sect minds their own business. There has never been a united army. That's why the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators have been causing so much trouble!
"However, after the Immortal Cultivators showed up, all the sects finally joined our hands to build a piece of magical equipment named 'Grand Illusionary Soldier', hoping to exterminate the Immortal Cultivators!"
Tang Qianhe, the 'navigator' and the only female Immortal Cultivator, asked with a smile, "Grand Illusionary Soldier? What is that?"
Li Yao nodded at the Grand Illusionary Soldiers of the Imperium of True Human Beings in the sky. "It is similar to the metal puppets of yours. Such magical equipment can fight on their own without being controlled by a Cultivator. All the Grand Illusionary Soldiers are manipulated by the 'star brain', a super crystal processor. It is said that several million of them will be enough to settle the trouble of the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators once and for all!"
"That explains a lot!" Su Changfa's deep, dark eyes rolled time and time again. "But I wonder, when did you end up in this place? At that time, the final battle between you and the Immortal Cultivators had not begun yet, had it?"
Li Yao nodded. "We were ambushed by the space pirates five years ago. Then, we drifted in space for about three years before we found this place. It's been around two years since I was forced to land here!"
"Since you were forced to land in your crystal suit, you certainly didn't have a starship to live in," Kou Ruhuo said coldly. "Where have you been residing in the past two years, Fellow Cultivator Li?"
Li Yao pointed east and said, "I've been living in a cave several hundred kilometers to the east!"
Cold brilliance suddenly shined in Tang Qianhe's eyes. "If you've been living hundreds of kilometers in the east, why did you come here?"
Sullenly, Li Yao replied, "I've been hiding in my cave, not daring to come out, fearing that some ferocious beasts might be lurking on this planet. But the food that I carried is about to run out. It's not like that I can feed on moss every day, right?
"Besides, my crystal suit hasn't been maintained for two years, so many components have already rusted!
"I detected a large-scale metal reaction in this direction. That was why I decided to risk coming over. Even if I couldn't find any food, I could at least find some fuel and metal components so that my crystal suit could be more or less repaired. After that, I would be able to hunt in the abysses!
"I'd found nothing of value after exploring for almost half a month until I noticed that my fellow Cultivators landed today. I didn't know whether you were friends or foes, human beings or demons. That's why I was lurking and observing in the dark!"
Chapter 1234: Who's Being Hypnotized? |
The three of them cooperated with each other and asked Li Yao a lot more questions.
Most of the questions were about the politics, geography, history, population, and sects of the Flying Star Sector, especially the scale of the starships, the number of Cultivators, and the important wars in the history of the Flying Star Sector.
From the perspective of a Mr. Nobody, Li Yao dutifully confessed everything that a regular Cultivator in the Building Foundation Stage should know, except that he underrated the Flying Star Sector in some critical aspects, such as the size and firepower of the strongest warship of the Flying Star Sector and the number of the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and the Core Formation Staged. All in all, he described it to be a chaotic world where everybody fought for their own interests and whose security was supported by the Grand Illusionary Soldiers.
The three Immortal Cultivators showed neither trust nor suspicion regarding his answers. After interrogating him for half an hour, they asked again exactly how he came to Kunlun, especially the times and coordinates of the short-distance space jumps that his carrier performed.
Li Yao knew that they were trying to infer the relative distance between the Flying Star Sector and Kunlun from the number of space jumps.
With the distance and part of the coordinates of the Flying Star Sector, it was possible for them to deduce the precise location of the Flying Star Sector.
Naturally, Li Yao 'was not wary at all'. He carefully 'thought back' for a long time and described a fake memory without pause.
Occasionally, however, he hesitated, and his eyeballs slightly shivered. Even his heartbeat and the secretion of his hormones also showed anomalies.
The three Immortal Cultivators seemed to have noticed nothing wrong. After asking him more than ten times, they finally nodded in satisfaction, and Su Changfa smiled. "Fellow Cultivator Li, what you have said will be of great help for our escape. Now, we should all work together to overcome the difficulties!
"Why don't you join us and live on 'Flourishing Sun', Fellow Cultivator Li? Isn't it much better than living in the wilderness?
"Look, we have hundreds of artificial warriors here. Let's go to your residence and move your belongings to Flourishing Sun!"
Li Yao could not help but feel that he was lucky. He knew that the old fox did not believe what he said and intended to search his living place.
Thankfully, the first thing that he did after landing on Kunlun was prepare such a residence. He had even prepared all the living traces including excrement in advance.
It was a valuable experience that he had learned when he pretended to be a 'barbarian' on Iron Plateau.
Therefore, he agreed in delight. The four of them, together with a hundred Grand Illusionary Soldiers, flew all the way to the east. Very soon, they reached his 'residence', which was hidden among moss and bushes!
"My residence is rather messy because I had little time for cleaning. Please excuse me, seniors," Li Yao said, blushing.
"It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Fellow Cultivator Li, you must be tired after such a long journey. Why don't you take a rest and let our warriors do the job?"
Su Changfa patted Li Yao's shoulder again, but his hand slithered to Li Yao's neck like a snake and pecked the back of his head.
Li Yao's eyes immediately froze and became covered in a layer of gray mist. He could not help but lean backward, only to be caught by a Grand Illusionary Soldier. Then, soft snoring sounds came over.
Su Changfa grabbed his wrist and sensed his pulse carefully for a moment. Then, he nodded and said, "The breathing, heartbeat, and flow of blood are all very stable. He has entered the deep sleep state."
Li Yao sneered in his heart, calculating again whether or not he should launch an attack right now.
He knew that the Fire Ant King and Professor Mo Xuan would be lurking nearby. They had planted a lot of traps in advance.
However, Su Changfa was obviously an expert of mental warfare, and he definitely had better methods.
Meanwhile, Kou Ruhuo, the 'chief of arms' who appeared to be the strongest, had yet to reveal his truly capability. The casual kick from the navigator, Tang Qianhe, in the beginning suggested remarkable speed and strength.
Li Yao's purpose was not simply to kill the three Immortal Cultivators. He was planning to capture one or two of them alive and interrogate them for more intelligence about the Imperium of True Human Beings. Moreover, he intended to take over Flourishing Sun, their war base.
If they activated a certain 'self-destruction device' when they were caught in desperation and detonated the entire war base, it would be a great waste.
Therefore, Li Yao did not move at all but continued to stay 'sound asleep' while waiting for an opportunity.
Judging from the speed of wind and the waves in the air, Li Yao sensed that the three Immortal Cultivators split apart and searched both in and out of the cave.
Tang Qianhe—the short, female navigator—however, squatted next to him and groped from his hair to his heel, searching even the gaps of his toes. She even unleashed feeble, itching electric currents to test if he had really fallen asleep.
It was a common approach for the Secret Sword Bureau of the Star Glory Federation, too. In the past few months, Li Yao had been in a close relationship with Guo Chunfeng, and he had learned quite a few sordid, shameless moves and the corresponding countermeasures from the new director of the Secret Sword Bureau.
Even if his nerve endings were being directly stimulated by electricity, he was still making the intuitional reactions fitting someone who was sound asleep.
Tang Qianhe's hands went to a necklace on his neck.
Li Yao's heart immediately tightened.
For him, covering his identity was as natural as breathing. It was not difficult at all.
What was really difficult was how to conceal the few most important Cosmos Rings on him!
The Cosmos Rings stored the critical magical equipment such as Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, Dark Flame Gold and Black Wing. There was no way that Li Yao would let them be far away!
Before he left, Li Yao had pondered hard how he should hide the few Cosmos Rings when he was forced to resort to his acting skills after an encounter with the Immortal Cultivators.
He had thought for a long time and realized that it was not safe to hide them anywhere. Therefore, he simply chose the opposite approach. While hiding a few Cosmos Rings that he specially devised in the most conspicuous parts, he wore the Cosmos Rings that stored the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, Dark Flame Gold, Black Wing and tons of crystals on his neck as a necklace, after polishing it into the most common appearance with the techniques of the Hundred Smelting Clan and painting it with a layer of gold lacquer!
Cosmos Rings were invaluable treasures. Normal Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators usually only hand a handful of them, but Li Yao had put almost ten on his neck, which formed a shining, gold necklace!
Whoever saw it would be fooled by its appearance. They would never believe that such an eye-catching necklace was actually made of Cosmos Rings.
Even so, Li Yao still sent telepathic thoughts to his every cluster of nerve ending. As long as Tang Qianhe grew even slightly suspicious, he would kill the woman immediately and attack the remaining two Immortal Cultivators together with the Fire Ant King and Professor Mo Xuan.
But luckily, Tang Qianhe was tricked!
She groped on the inconspicuous parts on Li Yao's body for a long time but simply ignored the thick gold necklace.
After finding four Cosmos Rings, she sneered and patted Li Yao's face before she stood straight again.
Li Yao was greatly relieved.
The four Cosmos Rings had been designed for them in the first place. They could take the Cosmos Rings if they wanted, but he would have them back sooner or later with additional interest!
Half an hour later, the three Immortal Cultivators gathered again to report their findings.
"The guy has indeed fallen asleep," Tang Qianhe said. "I tested him with a secret technique, Green Bee Sting. His nerve reactions were quite normal. However, I did find a lot of interesting stuff on him!"
"I've searched both inside and outside," Kou Ruhuo said. "Even his excrement has been examined. Some of it was left as least half a year ago. It seems that he has lived here for more than half a year. He wasn't lying about that."
"I have compared the logs in his crystal processor with everything he said," Su Changfa said. "Every item corresponds perfectly!
"Also, just now, we asked him countless questions about the history, politics, geography, and social form of the Flying Star Sector repetitively. Those questions were carefully devised and correlated, too!
"I have inputted his answers into the mainframe crystal processor for deduction. There are no major loopholes. It is indeed a world that exists in reality. He couldn't have imagined it based on nothing."
"If so, everything makes sense now." Tang Qianhe chuckled. "It seems that the star child, our senior from a hundred years ago who went missing, indeed ended up in the Flying Star Sector. However, this place was still controlled by the Cultivators, and he could not occupy it directly.
"Therefore, with thorough and delicate plans, he transformed part of the Cultivators into Immortal Cultivators in a hundred years and produced the magical equipment named the Grand Illusionary Soldier, hoping to fully control the Flying Star Sector!
"But in the end, some accident took place and rendered his endeavor a failure. He was not able to send the complete coordinates of the Flying Star Sector back and vanished!
"It doesn't matter. What our senior failed to accomplish shall be continued by us. The result will be the same!"
"Wait," Kou Ruhuo said coldly, "are you fully convinced by the guy's words?"
Tang Qianhe sneered. "Of course not. Whenever we asked how the guy ended up in this place, he stammered and tried to change the topic. He is obviously hiding something from us!
"Also, he is just a Building Foundation Stage Cultivator. Even if he is a son of a certain sect, how can he be rich enough to own four Cosmos Rings?"
Su Changfa laughed, too, while scratching his long beard. He said casually, "I've been monitoring the guy's breathing, heartbeat, and hormone secretion all the time just now. I found that the signs were all normal when he answered the questions about the general background of the Flying Star Sector, which suggested that he was speaking the truth.
"However, when we asked how he got here, something was obviously wrong with his breathing and heartbeat, and the secretion of several key hormones increased by at least twenty percent. They're all reactions when you are lying.
"He wasn't telling the truth!"
"Isn't it simple?" Tang Qianhe asked lightheartedly. "In my opinion, let's just waste our time no more and bring him back to Flourishing Sun, where he will be interrogated slowly and carefully. Or maybe, we can kill him here and now and freeze his brain. Then we'll cut it into slices and scan them layer by layer. After the key memories are retrieved, the whole truth will be found out!"
Chapter 1235: Ill Intentions! |
Su Changfa shook his head and said, "It's inappropriate."
"Master Su, what's wrong?" Tang Qianhe was confused. "The guy is not anybody important. I don't think he knows much useful information. Why should we waste our time and effort on him?
"As long as we can determine the rough coordinates of the Flying Star Sector based on the intelligence in his head, we will be able to swallow the Flying Star Sector after building an enormous space gate and summoning the expedition fleet.
"What's the use of keeping him alive?"
"If you are planning to summon the expedition fleet, it is indeed useless to keep the guy alive."
Su Changfa's face suddenly turned extremely weird. He said mysteriously, "But otherwise, he will prove to be greatly useful!"
Tang Qianhe and Kou Ruhuo were both surprised. Looking at each other, they both frowned. "What do you mean, Master Su?"
"The three of us are all losers in the competitions of our respective family or sect."
Gloomily, Su Changfa said, one word after another, "We've lost everything we had. Position, glory, manors, and slaves. We have even been blamed for things we didn't do and exiled to the desolate land at the edge of the cosmos with no way of returning for the rest of our lives!
"I'm too old to care about anything now, but the two of you are still very young. Are you really willing to live the rest of your lives like this?"
"But we've discovered a relic of the Pangu civilization!" Tang Qianhe said in a hurry. "This is such a great accomplishment. Is it still not enough for us to be embraced again?"
"You're wrong, Little Tang."
Su Changfa sighed and said, "If we had only discovered the Flying Star Sector as we were instructed to and made an accomplishment neither too big or too small, chances were that part of our crimes would have been pardoned, and our position would have been slightly restored. The enemies in our families and sects would not have considered us a great threat!
