Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 808
"However, for such a great accomplishment as discovering a relic of the Pangu civilization… is it bearable for the three of us?
"How will the guys who regard us as sworn enemies allow us to return with such an accomplishment, to take back everything that belongs to us, and even to seek revenge from them?"
Tang Qianhe and Kou Ruhuo both fell silent.
"Moreover, don't you forget what the expedition army for this mission is made of!" Su Changfa said coldly. "The Black Wind soldiers of the Black Wind Sector!
"The Black Wind Sector is one of the most dangerous Sectors in the territory of the Imperium. After years of battles with the Covenant Alliance and the extraterrestrial devils, the Black Wind soldiers are as ruthless as the Covenant Alliance and as bloodthirsty as the extraterrestrial devils themselves. They are as cruel to their enemy as they are to their allies. When they go crazy in the competitions of accomplishments and trophies, they will not hesitate to slaughter their allies!
"The Black Wind soldiers are a bunch of rabid dogs and locusts who do not understand rules in the first place. Right now, the Covenant Alliance has gathered their forces and occupied the Black Wind Sector. The Black Wind troops that are stationed outside are all going on a rampage because of the loss of their mother planet!
"They are wandering and causing trouble everywhere in the capital space zone, demanding His Majesty wage a war and take back the Black Wind Sector immediately for them!
"But national affairs are not child's play. Every battle influences the big picture. How can you wage a war because of their complaint?
"However, it is also a bad idea to keep such an army of locusts, which is thorny, disobedient, and drifting homelessly every day. What can we do if they truly go mad and claim a random Sector?
"Therefore, after receiving the signal from the Flying Star Sector, His Majesty decreed the Black Wind fleet to be the expedition army for the sole purpose of keeping the troublesome fellows as far away from the capital space zone as possible!
"A remote, desolate Flying Star Sector is naturally not enough to satisfy the Black Wind soldiers. It is said that His Majesty made a deal with the Black Wind soldiers that all the Sectors conquered by the Black Wind soldiers after they left the territory of the Imperium would be their land!
"Think about it. The Black Wind soldiers are all ravenous wolves with hooks in their stomachs who devour everything but give nothing. Will there be any benefits left for us after we summon them here?"
Tang Qianhe was dazed for a moment. Then she mumbled, "Will the Black Wind soldiers be stationed here? Didn't they say that they will redeem their battle credits and march back to the Black Wind Sector?"
"That is just bullsh*t to fool others!" Su Changfa sneered. "The Black Wind soldiers are crazy, but they are not stupid. The Black Wind Sector is exactly in the middle of the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance. It is the frontier with the fiercest battles. Yes, there are abundant resources, but they must consider whether or not they can live long enough to enjoy the resources! Although this place is much more barren, it is far from the war after all. They can develop for hundreds of years in peace!
"The Black Wind soldiers' claim to march back to the Black Wind Sector was just an approach of negotiation. What they really want must be this place! How will they go away if they really come?"
"You do have a point, Master Su," Kou Ruhuo said solemnly. "The Black Wind soldiers will certainly devour the Flying Star Sector without leaving any crumb!"
"It is still acceptable if that's everything," Su Changfa said gloomily. "The Flying Star Sector is just a bone. The relic of the Pangu civilization is the real fat meat. Once the Black Wind soldiers discover it, there will not be the smallest share for us!
"Hehe. We and they are all homeless dogs, but there are only the three of us while they have a whole fleet! This place is too far away for any message to be sent back to the Imperium in time. It will be more than easy to make us 'go missing' in the relic of the Pangu civilization!"
Li Yao was both delighted and worried while he was eavesdropping. He was delighted that the Imperium of True Human Beings had a limited effective boundary as Professor Zhou Yifu had described. Only the dozens of Sectors around the capital space zone were really under the emperor's control, while the Sectors farther away boasted a certain degree of independency.
For example, the Black Wind soldiers who lived in the Black Wind Sector did not entirely obey the orders of the emperor, and they could even negotiate with him!
Judging from the unsurprised tone of the conversation, that was not a special case in the Imperium. It was possible that all the frontier Sectors who boasted their own troops were more or less the same.
Such an amalgamation of warlords was obviously a great advantage for the Star Glory Federation's strategic planning later.
What Li Yao was worried was that the 'Black Wind soldiers' that were coming at them were cruel even for the Immortal Cultivators. It was obvious that they were the most ferocious and inhumane guys!
Besides, now that their own home was occupied by the Covenant Alliance but they had decided to look for a new shelter instead of taking back their home, the war between the two parties would not end until one side was utterly eliminated!
While pondering the solutions, Li Yao continued eavesdropping.
With a bitter smile, Tang Qianhe said, "Master Su, according to you, would you say the odds of our doom are ten to one?"
"We are a hundred percent doomed," Kou Ruhuo said coldly. "Otherwise, why would our enemies have been hypocritical enough to give us the opportunity of 'expatriation'? This is a scheme. They are trying to kill us through the Black Wind soldiers!"
Su Changfa sighed. "I'm too old now. I have neither the determination nor the strength for a desperate counterattack. If I am all by myself, what does it matter if I end up as a pile of dry bones at the edge of the cosmos?
"But are the two of you really willing to give in?"
Tang Qianhe hurried to reply, "Master Su, of course, we are not willing to give up just like that. We are eager for your enlightenment!"
"Death matters little to me," Kou Ruhuo said coldly, "but it will be best if I die after chopping off the heads of a few enemies!"
Su Changfa chuckled. "If the two of you are determined to counterattack, I am always ready to give you a hand. Right now, the only solution for us is to conquer the Flying Star Sector on our own instead of summoning the Black Wind fleet!"
Li Yao was anxious at the beginning and then relieved later. Everything would be good if the three Immortal Cultivators did not summon the main force from millions of lightyears away.
Conquering the Flying Star Sector right now with only the three of them?
That would truly be a suicidal mission!
Tang Qianhe and Kou Ruhuo looked at each other in silence.
"Even if the guy's intelligence about the Flying Star Sector is true, the three of us are still far from enough to occupy the entire Flying Star Sector!" Kou Ruhuo said solemnly. "It is a civilization based on starships with a sparse territory after all. Almost a thousand sects are scattered in dozens of space zones. Even if they do not have many experts, how can the three of us take over all the land?"
Su Changfa smiled and replied unhurriedly, "Now, you must understand why I didn't destroy the guy's brain and soul in the beginning, mustn't you?
"Since he is the son of an elder of a local sect of the Flying Star Sector, he might be of use if we keep him alive when we are conquering the Flying Star Sector!
"Also, the relic of the Pangu civilization is a planetary warship. The debris on the primeval battlefield on the surface is but a drop in the ocean. The real marvelous weapons and the primordial techniques must be buried deep inside the planet.
"If we can enter deep into the planetary warship and excavate the marvelous weapons of the primeval era, we will have some bargaining chips to live on!"
Tang Qianhe and Kou Ruhuo both gasped. "Entering the planetary warship?"
"Exactly!" Su Changfa's face suddenly turned extremely hideous. In the most excited voice, he declared, "I, as a cr*ppy old man, lost all hope when I was exiled to the desolate land at the edge of the universe. But now that I have been blessed by the heavens to discover such an unparalleled treasury, it is impossible that I'm going to let it slip through my fingers!
"Even if I must die, I will die in the depths of the Pangu's relic, which will be better than dying at the hands of the Black Wind soldiers with the laughter of my enemies!
"However, if we are fortunate enough to not get killed but excavate infinite secret treasures from the relic… Hehe. Hehehehe!"
Tang Qianhe and Kou Ruhuo both changed their expressions at Su Changfa's laughter that was full of hatred. Greed and abhorrence were flowing out of their own eyes, too!
"However, the guy is still keeping something from us!" Tang Qianhe reminded. "He still has ill intentions and will prove to be an unstable factor!"
"It doesn't matter. I have basically guessed what he was lying about!"
While chortling, Su Changfa walked to Li Yao. "Trust me. The guy will cooperate."
Chapter 1236: Such Ugliness! |
Li Yao sensed Su Changfa open his hands and press on his skull in an extremely weird gesture with the thumb sticking to the center of his brow, which was the place where the 'pineal body' was located.
Five streams of extremely uncanny spiritual energy dived into Li Yao's brain as Su Changfa's fingers trembled violently. They looked for their prey like five sordid vipers.
It was the most dangerous moment. Li Yao's every nerve ending was shivering like a flower as he was ready to burst out and kill Su Changfa at any moment.
He was very clear that Su Changfa was stimulating the part of his brain that was responsible for fear, hatred, regret, bloodthirst, and all other negative emotions. The guy was guiding the negative emotions to his shallow brain cells and displaying them in the form of a nightmare. Or in other words, Su Changfa was casting him into a nightmare in reality!
Li Yao's countermeasure was to create a tiny zone inside his brain and filled it with the carefully-fabricated memories with his and the mental devil's amazing computational ability, covering his real soul and memories.
On the crystal processors, there was a technology named 'virtual machine', which could simulate the performance of different crystal processors as a compression of telepathic thoughts that had been optimized.
In a similar way, Li Yao built a 'virtual brain' inside his head, waiting for Su Changfa's invasion!
Never would Su Changfa have dreamed that he was facing such a monster-level opponent like Li Yao. He fell into the trap easily. After finding the 'virtual brain' that Li Yao prepared for him, he smiled and suddenly exerted his strength. Five telepathic thoughts pierced into the virtual brain and injected the lethal 'venom' into it!
"Hu…"
Such a secret technique was a great burden for Su Changfa, too. He took a long breath in relief and loosened his fingers. Smiling, he said, "Let's wait and see. What is the most fearful, guilt-provoking and ulterior thing at the bottom of our little brother's heart?"
Very soon, Li Yao reacted.
His face gradually turned dark and then turned from dark into pale. He was breathing faster and faster while he raised his hands and waved crazily in midair, like someone who was unable to free himself from a deep quagmire.
His eyes were still closed, but his eyeballs were rolling fast. Sweat the size of beans leaked out of his forehead and was pouring down very soon, spreading into a pool around him.
He was now angry, now biting his lips, and now wearing a pitiful, adulating expression.
Hulu. Hulu!
His chest was fluctuating rapidly, as if somebody had stabbed him right in the lungs.
Li Yao was shuddering harder and harder. Eventually, he was cramping as if suffering from an epileptic attack. After cramping for more than ten seconds, his limbs suddenly tightened. His body shivered, and he opened his eyes.
Every vein on his face was protruding, as if it was covered in an ugly spider web. His eyes were deeply hollowed, but his eyeballs were appallingly huge, without the slightest vigor inside but covered in mist and blood, like an animal that had lost its soul. He was murmuring something to himself while saliva mixed with blood slowly flowed out of the corner of his lips. Yet, he did not seem to know how to wipe it away.
Like a real animal, he rolled on the ground and squatted, eyeing the surroundings while baring his teeth. When he saw the three Immortal Cultivators, his pupils obviously constricted, as if he had seen the most horrible things in the universe. His every muscle was twisted to the maximum, and he shrieked in fear like a eunuch.
"Old Lei, Brother Bai, Little Chen… Why—why are you here? You are dead. You are already dead! Don't come here. Don't come here!"
He shouted in a twisted voice while he edged back with lips as pale as those of a dead person.
"Don't come close. Don't come any closer! Old Lei, I didn't kill you. It was Brother Bai who did it. He stabbed you in the back. I was forced by him! He's right next to you. Go for him. Go for him!
"Brother Bai, I didn't kill you, either. Little Chen did it. He fooled you into the gravity room and pressed you to death there! I didn't eat much. I only ate half of your hand. Little Chen had the most. He devoured your two thighs!
"Don't look at me like that! Don't look at me! Don't! Bai Kaixin, you were the first to feed on others! You were the one who butchered Fatty Gao and divided him for us! It's just karma that you were eaten by us! It's the karma from the heavens! If you want revenge, go to the heavens. Don't come to me. Don't come to me!"
Li Yao was in such fear that his face was covered in tears and snot. He collapsed to the ground as if he had no bones while he begged for mercy. "Don't come close. Don't come any closer! I didn't have a choice. I only wanted to survive! We had little left on board. How could that be enough for so many people? Everybody would have died if it was all divided evenly! Bai Kaixin, wasn't it the logic you told me? I was simply doing what you said!
"Please. Don't kill me. I want to live. I want to survive! As long as you don't kill me and eat me, I can do anything for you!
"Right. I know that three persons are hiding on board. As long as you don't eat, I'll bring you to them and eat them all! There's an old man, a woman, and a fatty. The fatty has a lot of meat. He probably weighs more than two hundred kilograms. There will be enough food for days!
"They are all yours. Just leave a few bones to me, and I will be fine. I will be fine…"
The Immortal Cultivators had been observing coldly. It was not until this moment that they finally put on a disgusted look.
"The guy's memories are all mixed up. The three people that he mentioned are us, right?" Tang Qianhe giggled. "It never occurred to me that such an unattractive guy would be so shameless. No wonder he was carrying four Cosmos Rings. They must be trophies after cannibalism!"
"The universe is full of disasters, and this is nothing unusual after a disaster," Su Changfa remarked casually. "Anyone who survives a cosmic storm, especially if he is the only one alive on board, must have more stories than he cares to admit!
"It's almost like raising insects. If hundreds of insects are kept in the same cage, how can the last surviving one be kind in nature? He is definitely a great scoundrel!
"However, for us, the more shameless, the better. It will be easier for our 'cooperation' later. Hahaha!"
"Wait a moment," Kou Ruhuo said coldly, "the guy is up to something."
Before he concluded his sentence, the pores all over Li Yao's body had constricted while he spurted out the spiritual waves that far exceeded the Building Foundation Stage. He lunged at the three of them after a bellow!
Kou Ruhuo sniffed. He took a step forward and blocked Su Changfa and Tang Qianhe. Raising his right arm, he summoned his spiritual energy and condensed it into an enormous hand, clutching Li Yao as if he were a fly. Li Yao was unable to move forward at all!
Li Yao waved his hands and struggled hard with the ugliest face. Utterly different from the obsequious guy a moment ago, he laughed. "You didn't see this coming, did you? I am not in the Building Foundation Stage; I'm in the Core Formation Stage! Hahaha. While you idiots are fighting each other exhaustedly, I will take advantage! I will eat all of you. All of you!
"Nobody can stop me from living on! If you like the escape capsules so much, I might just as well give them to you and send you to hell. Haha. Hahahaha!
"I must live on! I must live on! I must live on!"
He was foaming at the mouth, and his eyes seemed to be melted in the clots of blood, which seemed to be a red mast on his face. It was obvious that the veins on his face were exploding because of the intense blast of spiritual energy!
"Not good. He is going to be mentally deranged!" Tang Qianhe exclaimed. "The guy is still useful. He cannot die!"
"Understood!"
Kou Ruhuo strode forward and kicked Li Yao right in the chest.
The kick seemed to be fast and unstoppable, but the force entailed was actually gentle and neutral, scattering the furious spiritual energy that was raging inside Li Yao's body.
Pu!
Vomiting a mouthful of stinky, black blood, Li Yao stepped back and, leaning against the wall, slowly collapsed.
The blood on his face ebbed, and the fire of spiritual energy around him slowly died down. He was like a withered cabbage that had been scorched in the sunlight for an entire day.
Kou Ruhuo moved forward and opened his mouth, pouring a dose of high-nutrition drug into it before he pushed the drug into his internal organs with spiritual energy.
"I didn't see this coming." Tang Qianhe was quite amazed. "He is actually in the Core Formation Stage. We were almost fooled by him. What a cunning man. Chances are that he was really planning to eat the three of us!"
