Forty Millenniums of Cultivation - Chapter 750
Chapter 750: I Beg You!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Every light beam was monitoring a certain area, pathway, warehouse or chamber.
Most of the places were now full of the Immortal Cultivators and space pirates.
On this particular light beam, two space pirates were captured, too. However, different from their companions, who were plundering the trophies merrily, they crawled into an inconspicuous tunnel after quite a few stealthy maneuvers, one in front and the other behind.
Then, the two of them took off their crystal suits so that they would be off the grid for the other space pirates.
What dumbfounded Li Yao were the faces of the two space pirates.
Li Yao knew who they were. They were the last people in the world that should and could have shown up.
They were Lei Dalu, captain of the Great Horn Exo Society, and Bai Kaixin, the advisor of the Great Horn Exo Society!
Are—are you kidding me?
What exactly is going on here? Why have Lei Dalu and Bai Kaixin appeared in this place, pretending to be space pirates?
From the picture, Bai Kaixin seemed to be surprised that Lei Dalu should appear out of nowhere, too. The two of them stared at each with extremely weird expressions.
However, there was only picture but no sound on the light beam. Since they would turn their backs to the camera now and then, Li Yao had no idea what they were talking about. He could only see that Bai Kaixin sat down slowly leaning against the wall of the tunnel.
An even weirder thing then happened!
As, Bai Xinghe was in the Nascent Soul Stage, his senses were hundreds of times keener than ordinary people. Even when his killing intent had been raised to maximum, he was still paying close attention to the hundreds of light beams.
Therefore, Bai Xinghe discovered Lei Dalu and Bai Kaixin no later than Li Yao did.
Then—
After being tense for more than half a minute, Bai Xinghe suddenly lost all his spirits like a balloon that had been pierced with a hole. The overwhelming aura around him was completely gone, and he was a dry, old man again!
Li Yao was even worried that, if Bai Xinghe took off his crystal suit, he would collapse to the ground immediately!
What—what kind of schemes and traps is this? Li Yao blinked his eyes, utterly confused.
Huala! Huala! Huala!
The ‘Blood River Battlesuit’ on Bai Xinghe suddenly exploded and sprayed all over the ground.
Before the fight began, he abandoned the advantages that he had secured through all the trouble and took off his crystal suit!
Without the protection of his crystal suit, the muscles all over Bai Xinghe’s body went sloppy. They were dangling down from his bones.
The intimidation and sharpness of the Pirate Potentate had disappeared, replaced by confusion and even anxiety, which Li Yao could not understand!
“Bring out the Dragon King Battlesuit,” Bai Xinghe said exhaustedly. “I’ll put on it.”
“Huh?”
Li Yao was baffled. He vaguely realized that Bai Xinghe’s uncanny behavior must have something to do with the abrupt appearance of Lei Dalu and Bai Kaixin.
It couldn’t be a trap. Their arrival was not within Bai Xinghe’s expectations and had completely disrupted Bai Xinghe’s neatly-made scheme!
Li Yao suddenly thought of something. He asked, “You said that I did you a favor by saving somebody else at the risk of my own life. I did indeed risk myself by saving the Great Horn Exo Society at the periphery of the Iron Plateau Space Zone. Is either Lei Dalu or Bai Kaixin related to you?”
Bai Xinghe was silent.
The hands of the Pirate Potentate, an expert in the Nascent Soul Stage, were shaking.
Li Yao raised his voice. “Boss Bai, what is going on exactly? You should tell me the whole truth now!
“If you really wish for a sincere cooperation between us, you should at least tell me your reasons and your plans!”
Bai Xinghe’s eyes suddenly turned dirty. There was resignation to the old proverb ‘man proposes but Heaven disposes’ 1 all over his face. He replied in an extremely coarse voice, “Alright. There’s not much time left for us. I’ll tell you everything!
“However, promise me that you will help me rescue them when you know everything!
“I’m begging you, Li Yao!”
…
In an inconspicuous tunnel deep below the underground fortress, the captain and the advisor of the Great Horn Exo Society were confronting each other in silence and in darkness.
Bai Kaixin was already living in depression every day in the first place. Right now, his face was so gloomy that it was if it would rain at any moment. He said coldly, “You shouldn’t have come here.”
Lei Dalu picked his ears and flicked his earwax to the tunnel casually. Then he said, “Should or shouldn’t, I’m already here.”
Bai Kaixin gnashed his teeth. “What are you doing here?”
Lei Dalu opened his hands and said, “A month ago, Mr. Advisor of the Great Horn Exo Society, my best bro, left me an odd letter casually, claiming that he would like to quit the Great Horn Exo Society. Then he went missing mysteriously never to be seen again.
“Of course, I tried my best to track him down and see if I could persuade him to come back. But I did not know that I would find a great secret. As it turned out, he was dissatisfied about the life in the Great Horn Exo Society because it was too boring and unrewarding, and he decided to start a new career that had quite promising prospects named space pirate.
“Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. There are indeed a lot of treasures in the underground fortress. I was told that the main warehouse on the bottom level has mountains of gold and silver. I felt so tempted that I was thinking of joining the enemy’s side when I had the opportunity!”
The phrase ‘space pirate’ seemed to stimulate Bai Kaixin’s nerves. He suddenly burst into fury and blurted out, “I am not a space pirate!”
His words echoed inside the tunnel.
Lei Dalu grinned and stared at him in silence.
Bai Kaixin seemed to have lost all his strength. He sat down slowly, leaning against the corner, while he said sadly, “You shouldn’t have come. It’s dangerous here. Very dangerous. You might get killed at any moment!”
“Okay.”
Lei Dalu scratched his nose and said, “Then, at least tell me what I going to be killed for.”
Bai Kaixin was silent for a long time. His eyes suddenly turned hollow, and his voice seemed to be coming from a deep cave. He finally resolved himself to tell the whole story.
“A long time ago, there was a young man whose parents were both Cultivators.
“As far as he could remember, he had been living with his mother. His mother was a gentle and smart woman. Although she was busy at work, she never forgot to teach him the strictest principles of the Cultivators.
“He had heard a lot of stories where Cultivators helped the weak, punished the evil, and protected the ordinary people from his mother since he was a little kid. He secretly swore that he would become a Cultivator in his mother’s story somebody.
“His father was always out and rarely went back home. Even when he was at home, he was always serious and seldom asked about him.
“But his parents loved each other very much. In the rare days when his father was at home, they would spend a lot of time together talking and laughing. It was quite warm.
“Many families were like this one. The young man did not think too much of it in the beginning.
“However, as the young man grew older, he discovered that his living environment was kind of weird.
“The young man and his mother lived in an underground chamber. Although there were all kinds of facilities, including the virtualization magical equipment that could simulate sunlight and natural environment, the young man hardly ever got in touch with other people. Other than his mother, his only playmates were the silly beast puppets.
“When he was old enough to surf the Nexus, his mother allowed him to. But it was clear that all the information had been filtered multiple times, as if she was scared that the young man might find out something.
“I forgot to mention that the young man’s mother was a very awesome expert in crystal processors. What she had been busy doing was attempting to crack a batch of ancient crystal processors.
“The young man grew older and more suspicious every day. He felt that he had been living in a carefully constructed greenhouse.
“Finally, one day, when his mother was busy, the young man ran away from home and saw the real world that he was living in for the first time!
“What a scary world it was!
“Dead bodies were everywhere in the stinky gutters. All the people on the street were like animals in human skin. Crazy devils were dancing in the soul-stirring neon lights!
“The young man was even fooled and almost sold as a slave. Thankfully, his father’s subordinates came in time.
“His father’s subordinates started a merciless slaughter immediately. Not only did they kill those who tricked the young man, they also slew many irrelevant, innocent people in the cruelest methods!
“The scene awed the young man profoundly.
“The young man finally learned that the world he had been living on was Spider Den, the most terrifying place in the entire Flying Star Sector!
“His father was not one of the Cultivators from his mother’s stories at all, but a ruthless space pirate!
“What was even more horrifying was that the love between his father and his mother was perhaps faked. It was possible that his mother did not live with his father at her will at all!
“His mother had been captured during a hunting job of the space pirates. Because of her fierce resistance, his father could’ve executed her without any hesitation.
“However, his father earlier found a batch of ancient crystal processors that he could not crack himself. Therefore, after learning that his mother was an expert in crystal processors, his father spared his mother’s life.
“Moreover, even his own birth was likely based on an extremely cruel reason!
“His father wanted his mother to stay in the underground willingly to help him crack the crystal processors. His father also feared that she might do tricks to the crystal processors in secret. Therefore, his father raped her in the most sordid ways, until he was born in the end.
“He was born to be a tool that his father could use to threaten his mother!
“Hehe. The young man finally discovered that everything in his life was a lie.
“He finally understood the origin of his name.
“The young man was named… Bai Wuxin 2 !
“His father had been a tearless, heartless, and lawless bastard the whole time!
“The young man found everything completely unacceptable and had a mental breakdown. After several years of life in confusion and denial, the last accident that put him in the utmost desperation happened.
“Soon after the super crystal processors were successfully cracked, Bai Wuxin’s mother died!
“All the evidence suggested that it was his father who killed her!
“That was quite reasonable. The super crystal processors had been cracked. His mother was no longer of any value, but she was a threat who could potentially leak the secrets of the underground world. Therefore, it was only natural that his father shut his mother’s mouth once and for all!
“After all, his father was a man without feelings. What kind of things could he not do?”
Chapter 751: Never to Regret
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
“His mother’s death was the straw that broke the camel’s back. He went mad and planned to kill his father no matter what!
“Obviously, his assassination failed. Also, his father was inhuman enough as to beat him to ‘death’ brutally and even threw his body into the random stinky gutters of Capital Nest!
“However, it was not Bai Wuxin’s doom yet. Three days later, he woke up in the gutter and survived stubbornly!
“In the years that followed, Bai Wuxin lived in the darkness of the bottom level of Capital Nest and was constantly polished by the cruel rules of Spider Den. While his capability soared, his talents were awakened, and his brain developed an extremely high computational ability, and he could keep clam at any time.
“By accident, he joined a pirate gang.
“Bai Wuxin did not mean to become a space pirate. Never for one moment had he forgotten his mother’s teachings. Also, he hated all the space pirates and was desperate to seek revenge from his father!
“He was merely taking the opportunity to leave Spider Den.
“He made it.
“The pirate gang he joined was engaged with an enemy in space and battered before they started their hunting job.
“Bai Wuxin found a chance to steal an escape capsule and left the pirate gang. He was saved by a fleet of carriers in the end.
“From then on, Bai Wuxin used a different name and buried his past deeply. He travelled in the universe and worked in multiple organizations and Exo Societies, until he met the Great Horn Exo Society and a wounded, sloppy man one day.
“The two of them both loathed the space pirates. So, they became best friends and teamed up to slay the space pirates.”
Bai Kaixin was silent for a long time when he got to this part. In the end, he took a long breath and bit his pale lips hard, before he gnashed his teeth, his voice shivering. “However, no matter how many space pirates he killed, Bai Wuxin never had enough capability to challenge his father, because his father was… Bai Xinghe, the Pirate Potentate!”
Bai Kaixin finished his story and looked at Lei Dalu, his eyes red.
Lei Dalu scratched his hair hard, his dandruff flying crazily like snowflakes.
Pondering for a long time, Lei Dalu rubbed his cheek as if he had a toothache, before he said, “Old Bai, think on the bright side. Nobody gets to choose their parents. Besides, it might not be as bad as you think…”
“Not as bad as I think?” Bai Kaixin finally burst into fury. Tears all over his face, he roared, “Bai Xinghe is my father. Tell me, how can it be any worse?”
Lei Dalu blinked slowly and then replied delightedly, “For example, Bai Xinghe being your father is better than Fengyu Zhong being your father, isn’t it?”
Bai Kaixin was dumbfounded.
His facial expression suggested that he was going to either spit right in his best friend’s face or lunge forward and bite him hard.
Lei Dalu chuckled and said, “If so, why did you sneak into Spider Den? Right now, Bai Xinghe is at total war with the Temple of Immortals. He is definitely no match for the Immortal Cultivators. Since you hate his guts, isn’t his death what you desire most?”
Bai Kaixin’s countenance suddenly changed. Intense confusion appeared on his face, as he mumbled, “Because when Bai Wuxin grew older and even cracked one of the jade chips left by his mother, he found that there were a lot of suspicious points about the whole event. Everything he believed in was probably false!”
Lei Dalu frowned. “A jade chip?”
“It was a jade chip in the shape of a pendant, the only belonging that his mother left him,” Bai Kaixin said. “Before, Bai Wuxin always regarded it as a normal charm. But when he grew up and advanced into the Building Foundation Stage, he sensed the telepathic thought stored deep inside the jade chip. It was not until ten years later that he cracked the barrier on the pendant and found out the information inside the jade chip.
“Inside the jade chip was his mother’s diary, from the day when she was captured by the space pirates to a few days before her death.
“The diary smashed the ‘facts’ that Bai Wuxin had firmly believed in into smithereens!
“In the diary, Bai Xinghe only forced his mother to crack and repair the ancient crystal processors in the underground chamber and… did not rape her.
“Everything that happened later, including the birth of Bai Wuxin, was at his mother’s own will!
“In the beginning of the diary, his mother mentioned that she felt that Bai Xinghe was different from other space pirates and a great secret that kept him living in suffering seemed to be concealed in the bottom of his heart. Maybe, there was still conscience in him, and he was not as cruel and merciless as he appeared to be.
“Her purpose in the beginning was simple, too. She knew that there was no way that she could get out of the place. If by any chance she could approach Bai Xinghe, get to know him, influence him, and even change his mindset, maybe the man would commit fewer murders in the future.
“If Bai Xinghe killed one less person because of her, that would be her last contribution to the Cultivators.
“However, when the two of them really started communicating with each other, nobody could say for sure where their feelings and emotions were heading. It is safe to say that even they had forgotten what was on their mind in the beginning and what their purposes were.
“Anyways…
“In the diary ten years later, Bai Wuxin’s mother left a conclusion for her son. She told her son that, when her son grew up, learned the whole thing, and viewed the relationship between his parents in retrospect, he might find it unacceptable, appalling, or even ugly and disgusting. But no matter what he thought—
“She did not regret it.
“For all those years, she had never regretted staying with Bai Xinghe!”
Bai Kaixin had tears all over his face again. He sobbed for a long time before he continued his story. “His mother’s diary raised a tsunami in Bai Wuxin’s head.
“His mother was an expert in crystal processors, possessing immense computational ability. Although women tend to be silly when they are in love, Bai Wuxin did not believe that his mother hadn’t calmed herself down after so many years.
“Since his mother stated that she never regretted it, there must have been true love between Bai Xinghe and her.
“Then, regarding his mother’s abrupt death…
“At this moment, Bai Wuxin, as a grown-up now, reviewed everything that happened years ago and found a lot of uncanny points.
“Firstly, Bai Wuxin was only a teenager when his mother was killed. With Bai Xinghe’s cunningness, if he were the real murderer, how could he have left so much evidence that even his son could discover?
“Secondly, with Bai Xinghe’s Cultivation, it was impossible that he beat his son to death ‘accidentally’. If he wanted his son dead, how could he have let him survive in the end?
“Thirdly, Bai Wuxin had been living in an underground greenhouse before the accident and barely experienced any difficulties in daily life. He was not a battle-type Cultivator, either. Yet, he lived safe and sound for years in Capital Nest, where the death rate was astonishingly high. Whatever dangers he was in, he could always resolve them in ways that he could not even tell himself. In the end, not only was he alive, he also learned a lot of new stuff, and his capability soared. He even possessed basic combat skills!
“Fourthly, it was quite uncanny that the pirate gang was defeated by its enemy when he left Spider Den and he managed to steal an escape capsule in the chaos to run away.
“If all these things were lucky coincidences, then Bai Wuxin must have saved the world in his previous life!”
Lei Dalu listened attentively and suddenly commented, “Therefore, you suspected that there was the other side of the story.
“For example, Bai Xinghe captured an expert in crystal processors during a hunting job. He happened to have a batch of ancient crystal processors that he was desperate to decrypt. Therefore, he spared the expert’s life.
“Maybe in the beginning, he was merely exploiting the expert’s value. But a secret chamber, a lonely man, a lonely woman… Who can say for sure what chemical reactions happened between them?
“In the end, the two of them formed a small family deep underground. It was perhaps the only safe house for a great bandit such as Bai Xinghe who lived in storms of blood all the time.
“More than ten years later, their child gradually grew up. But his ‘wife’, the expert in crystal processors, was killed!
“Bai Xinghe rose to the top abruptly in only a hundred years. Naturally, he had a lot of enemies. And in places such as Spider Den, his enemies wouldn’t care about morality at all!
“In the end, his wife was killed by one of his enemies.
“Besides his grief, Bai Xinghe was shocked to another terrifying reality. His son would never be safe if his son was kept on Spider Den!
“Since his enemies could kill his wife, they could of course kill his son.
“Therefore, he had to find a way to send his son away from Spider Den!”
In a trance, Bai Kaixin mumbled, “There are many space pirates on Spider Den who send their family to the outside world. Why did he resort to such an extreme approach?”
Lei Dalu’s lightheartedness was entirely gone. His eyes were as cold and clean as the water in a brook while he said, “There’s no reason you could not think of something that even I could think of. It’s just that you don’t want to admit it.
“Bai Xinghe was the Pirate Potentate, the man in the spotlight all the time. Even if he sent his son to the outside world, it was likely that his enemies could find his son again. Therefore, he simply took the opportunity and made a scheme. He pretended that he had lost his mind and beat his son to death!
“It was even possible that the ‘evidence’ that associated him with his wife’s death was likely to be handed over to his son in a certain way by him intentionally for the purpose of infuriating his son. In such a way, his son would definitely cross the line without caring about anything else. He would have a perfect reason to eliminate his son.
“After that, all the space pirates would know that he killed his own son. His enemies naturally wouldn’t consider his son a target any longer.
“However, it was only the secondary purpose.
“More importantly, he hoped that the relationships between his son and Spider Den, the space pirates, and himself, the most infamous bandit alive, could be severed once and for all. All the connections should be wiped out!
“Maybe, his wife’s death taught him a good lesson. He did not wish for his son to embark on the road of space pirates like him. He hoped that his son could be a man who walked in daylight, a good man who had nothing to do with space pirates and even loathed them, and a Cultivator… a real Cultivator from his wife’s stories!”
Bai Kaixin finally collapsed. He covered his face and shook his head hard, before he murmured, “I don’t know… I don’t know… I don’t know…”
Lei Dalu sighed and said, “You’ve come to Spider Den for an answer, haven’t you?”
Chapter 752: Secret Training Room!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Covering his face, Bai Kaixin said through the gaps between his fingers, “In fact, I should’ve come earlier. I notice several suspicious points a long time ago and vaguely guessed the answers.
“But I didn’t dare. I did not have the courage!
“I was scared that my guess was wrong and that Bai Xinghe was really an inhuman animal who killed his own wife and son!
“I was even scared that everything had been faked by him. He did not kill his own wife. Everything was meant to send his son away from Spider Den to a place where his son could live a good, peaceful life. If so—
“How was I supposed to face him?
“He was an unpardonable space pirate with blood all over his hands. There was no reason why I should let him go.
“But in the meantime, he was my father. If he had really never done anything wrong to me and my mother, could I kill him personally?
“Therefore, I’ve been hesitating and debating with myself all these years. I couldn’t make up my mind. So, I simply buried the whole thing deep down in my heart. I pretended that I knew nothing of it!
“I was too timid, and even shameless, was I not?”
Lei Dalu plucked his beard hard but gave no reply, so Bai Kaixin continued, “When the Temple of Immortals rose and the Immortal Cultivators showed up, I stopped thinking about confronting him, because everybody thought that the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators were the same thing. I thought that Bai Xinghe was an Immortal Cultivator, too.
“In the debut of the Immortal Cultivators, the Great Horn Exo Society was their target. They meant to destroy all of us!
“If Bai Xinghe did send me out of Spider Den intentionally years ago, he must have known that the advisor of the Great Horn Exo Society was his son, Bai Wuxin!
“But the Immortal Cultivators started the battle anyway!
“It was evident enough that, whether I knew the answer or not, he did not care about me. My life and death did not mean a damn thing to him.
“After I figured it out, I was no longer in a dilemma. I felt less sad when I did not have any expectation.
“It was not until the news that Bai Xinghe and the Temple of Immortals were on bad terms and would go to war came over that I realized that the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators might not necessarily be the same thing!
“Old Lei, you were right. The odds of Bai Xinghe’s success in the war against the Temple of Immortals are slim. If he is killed, I won’t know the answer for the rest of my life!
“That was why I decided to sneak into Spider Den without thinking about anything else. I want to ask him face to face whether or not my mother was killed by him and I was delivered out of Spider Den on purpose!”
Lei Dalu uprooted a grey hair suddenly. His eyes were clearer than ever before as he grinned. “Old Bai, you are not telling the whole truth. In fact, the answer has already been obvious since the moment Bai Xinghe started a total war against the Temple of Immortals. There is no need to ask.
“You left the Great Horn Exo Society and snuck into Spider Den because… you want to save your father, don’t you?”
Bai Kaixin was speechless. He was dazed for a long time, before he lowered his head deeply and said, “With the crimes that Bai Xinghe committed, he should be punished, after a trial of justice by the Cultivators and the victims, instead of being killed by the Immortal Cultivators.”
Lei Dalu patted his good friend’s shoulder and said, “Alright. I totally got you, buddy, but why are you so sure that Bai Xinghe fled to the underground fortress after he was heavily wounded? And where can we find him?”
“I lived in the depths of the underground fortress from the day I was born,” Bai Kaixin said. “This is my home. Of course, I knew a lot of secret tunnels.
“In the diary that my mother left, some of the information about the underground fortress was recorded, too, including the locations of Bai Xinghe’s secret bases.
“He will definitely come to this place when he is too heavily wounded and has nowhere else to run because…”
After pausing for a moment, Bai Kaixin’s voice became clear and tough again. “Because this place is his home!”
…
In the meantime, inside the palace of stars, Li Yao listened to Bai Xinghe’s story quietly and concluded, “Therefore, in order to keep the secrets of the Star Prier’s House to yourself, you killed your wife to shut her mouth, and in your fury, you killed your own son, too. But your son was lucky enough to survive and escaped from Spider Den after a series of coincidences, only to become Bai Kaixin, the advisor of the Great Horn Exo Society in the end.
“Now, you are too old, and your attitude has changed. You feel sorry for your son and you want to save him?
“Boss Bai, do you believe such a flawed story yourself?”
Bai Xinghe was rendered speechless.
“When you mentioned that you killed your wife, you looked to the top right corner, and your pupils expanded slightly. These are both signs of lying,” Li Yao said. “It is not strange that you were lying. In fact, I wonder if you have ever spoken truth.
“But when you were lying before, even the tiniest muscle on your face wouldn’t twitch. I was never able to notice anything abnormal.
“Based on that, I think it’s safe to say that even killing your wife in your imagination was insufferable for you.
“Your wife must not have been killed by you. Your enemies, or somebody else, did it, right?
“Now, I finally understand why you waged a war at the Immortal Cultivators without caring about the cost.
“Two years ago, in the first battle of the Cultivators, they targeted the Great Horn Exo Society and meant to kill your son. If I hadn’t shown up in time, there was a good chance that Bai Kaixin would’ve become dust in the universe.
“You paid such a high price to help your son out of Spider Den far away from space pirates so that he could live a good, peaceful life, even at the cost of your son hating you for the rest of his life. It was clear that you loved your son profoundly.
“The Immortal Cultivators, on the other hand, chose your son as their target and almost killed him. Naturally, you burst into fury and were determined to destroy the Temple of the Immortals without caring about the consequences even at the cost of your own life.”
Ruthlessness beamed out of Bai Xinghe’s eyes, as he said coarsely, “You talk too much!
“I have confessed everything now. Will you help me or not?”
When ‘not’ came out of his mouth, the floor ten square meters around Bai Xinghe’s feet turned into ruins completely. It was pressed down more than half a meter by his spiritual energy!
For a moment, dust filled the palace.
“I will! Of course, I will!” Li Yao replied unhesitatingly.
Both Lei Dalu and Bai Kaixin were his friends. When he was trapped on Iron Plateau, the Great Horn Exo Society, knowing that the planet was a ‘forbidden area for Cultivators’, had still marched to Iron Plateau at great risk in order to save him.
Right now, their life was endangered. How could Li Yao stand by and watch?
However, Li Yao found something confusing. He asked, “Boss Bai, I’ve been in touch with Bai Kaixin for a while. His strategies and computational ability are as good as yours. Although he is not a battle-type Cultivator, he certainly has the capability to protect himself after all these years of struggle.
“Besides, right now, he is with Lei Dalu, who is a Cultivator in the Core Formation Stage.
“Over the past year, the Great Horn Exo Society has been a close partner of the Glorious Sunlight Group. We have produced a batch of powerful crystal suits for their use. They should be both carrying the crystal suits and other magical equipment with them.
“Their identity hasn’t been seen through by the Immortal Cultivators yet. They shouldn’t be in too much danger right now. Why are you in such a rush?”
Bai Xinghe smiled bitterly. “It is not the Immortal Cultivators that I’m scared of, but the traps in the fortress, which are already activated!”
“What?” Li Yao was bewildered. “Is it possible? Like you said, the traps from ten thousand years ago should’ve been damaged already. You couldn’t have installed new traps. What’s there to be activated?”
Bai Xinghe hesitated for a moment. Glancing at his son on the light beam, he made up his mind and said, “The traps deployed by Yan Xinjian!”
Li Yao was dazed. “The supreme space pirate, Yan Xinjian, who defeated the coalition fleet of the Cultivators and established ‘Ten Sword Rules’ five hundred years ago?”
Li Yao suddenly thought through many things.
It was said that Yan Xinjian was the first space pirate to enter the core area of the underground fortress.
Also, according to Bai Xinghe, Yan Xinjian was the first to discover the Star Prier’s House. He had activated the defense rune array on Spider Den with the super crystal processors, which caused a major problem for the incoming coalition fleet of Cultivators and eventually forced them to retreat.
Rumor on Spider Den had it that Bai Xinghe was the successor of Yan Xinjian’s knowledge!
If it was Yan Xinjian, it was quite possible that large-scale traps could have been established underground.
The title of ‘supreme space pirate’ did not come from nothing. When the coalition fleet of the Cultivators had just been defeated, Yan Xinjian’s power reached the peak on Spider Den. He took the opportunity to perform purges on Spider Den by eliminating the dissidents and driving away the disobedient. All the while, he collected tremendous resources and wealth!
At that time, Yan Xinjian’s prestige on Spider Den was ten times higher than Bai Xinghe’s today!
It was also told in some tales that Yan Xinjian reached the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage only several decades after defeating the coalition fleet of the Cultivators. He was the well-deserved best expert of the Flying Star Sector at that time!
Yan Xinjian had enough manpower and resources to fully modify the underground fortress and deploy multiple traps, before executing all the workers and sealing the news when all the jobs were done.
However…
Li Yao frowned. “Why was Yan Xinjian setting up traps down here?”
“Because he established a secret training room in the deepest part of the underground fortress,” Bai Xinghe explained.
Li Yao was baffled. “A secret training room ten thousand meters below the ground? Why?”
“Because he was planning to break into the Divinity Transformation State, something nobody had ever done in the five thousand years after the apocalypse!”
A Divinity Transformation Cultivator!
Li Yao gasped. He quickly thought through the whole thing and shouted excitedly, “I got it!
“Since Yan Xinjian was the first to discover the Star Prier’s House, naturally, he learned the truth of the apocalypses through the legacy of Liu the Prier.
“It was clear to him that he might be struck by an apocalypse when he broke into the Divinity Transformation Stage from the Nascent Soul Stage. But the apocalypses all required a process of ‘perception’ and ‘activation’.
“That was why he built a secret training room ten thousand meters below the surface. He was going to hide here while he attempted to break through to the Divinity Transformation Stage!
“Such a plan had two merits.
“Firstly, blocked by the rock stratums as thick as ten thousand meters, the spiritual energy he released when he was breaking the threshold of the Divinity Transformation State might have escaped the attention of the ‘minor apocalypses’ that were floating in the universe. In such a way, the ‘minor apocalypses’ that were meant to exterminate the experts would not be activated!
“Secondly, even if a ‘minor apocalypse’ was truly activated, it might not be able to pierce through ground and exterminate him!”
Chapter 753: A Five-Hundred-Year Battle!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Bai Xinghe nodded and quickly replied, “Correct. In order to break into the Divinity Transformation Stage, Yan Xinjian levied and looted on Spider Den. He annihilated a lot of pirate gangs with the excuse that they violated the ‘Ten Sword Rules’ before collecting all their resources. Naturally, he made a lot of enemies. There were even more who behaved nicely and obediently but were in fact merely scared of the tremendous soldiers under his control.
“It was not a small task to break into the Divinity Transformation Stage from the Nascent Soul Stage. Three to five years were already rarely seen. During the breakthrough, the Cultivator needs to be totally focused. They have absolutely no time or energy to care about other affairs.
“If Yan Xinjian did not show up on the ground for several years, his power would definitely be assumed, and the reign of iron and blood built by him would collapse. When other space pirates learned that he was hiding below the ground doing his training, they would definitely do anything they could to sabotage his endeavor to enter the Divinity Transformation Stage.
“During the period when a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator broke into the Divinity Transformation Stage, it was like a caterpillar in a cocoon waiting to become a butterfly. It was the most vulnerable time of their life. They had to pass through all kinds of difficulties and were prone to heavy wounds or mental derangement at any time.
“If his enemies suddenly marched into his training room when Yan Xibei was mentally deranged, it was not hard to guess what would happen next.
“Therefore, in order to advance into the Divinity Transformation Stage successfully, Yan Xinjian made full preparations. Not only did he establish a secret training room ten thousand meters below the surface, he also set up multiple lethal traps based on the original fortress.
“Yan Xinjian created ‘Ten Sword Rules’ when he governed Spider Den. He was quite merciful to his prey in space, but to the space pirates on his side, he was cruel and ruthless and would butcher them easily.
“Many space pirates at that time complained about his petty kindness. Hundreds of years later, many people in the world of Cultivators still hold him in high regard, insisting that he at least had a certain mortal standard.
“But they did not know that Yan Xinjian was so tough on the space pirates and performed purges every once in a while partly in order to accumulate wealth and resources quickly, which were necessary for his breakthrough into the Divinity Transformation Stage, and partly, as well as more importantly, to execute all the insiders with the purges as the disguise.
“After everybody who knew the secret training room and the underground traps was wiped out, Yan Xinjian ‘died abruptly’!
“But in reality, he secluded himself underground for the breakthrough into the Divinity Transformation Stage!”
Li Yao was hooked and couldn’t help but ask, “If so, the anecdote should be a top secret. How do you know it?”
Bai Xinghe smiled and said, “I found some of Yan Xinjian’s notes from the super crystal processors of the Star Prier’s House. He set the notes to be automatically unlocked and readable three hundred years after he entered the secret training room.
“If somebody entered the Star Prier’s House and activated the super crystal processors within three hundred years, not only would they have no access to the notes, all the traps in the underground fortress would be triggered immediately and destroy everything!”
Li Yao thought through the whole thing very quickly.
Whether the breakthrough to the Divinity Transformation Stage succeeded or failed, the answer would be revealed within a hundred years.
If Yan Xinjian successfully advanced into the Divinity Transformation Stage, he should have ended his seclusion in several decades. By then, he could always modify or delete his notes, and he could have governed Spider Den again as the ‘best expert of the Flying Star Sector’.
If he did not turn on the super crystal processors three hundred years later, there was only one possibility, which was that he was dead.
The breakthrough from the Nascent Soul Stage to the Divinity Transformation Stage was a risky process. Even without the influence of the apocalypses, the success rate was no higher than 10%. Yan Xinjian probably left those notes in order to leave his legacy for the latecomers. Many high-level Cultivators would do similar things for total strangers when they were striving to enter a higher level.
“The notes that I received marked the secret training room and the locations of the traps in great detail,” Bai Xinghe said. “It also recorded part of Yan Xinjian’s secret arts and techniques. However, according to the notes, most of Yan Xinjian’s magical equipment and techniques were stored in his secret training room. He hoped that those who were fortunate enough to read the notes could open his secret training room and become his real successor!”
Li Yao suddenly beamed with joy. “So, you are indeed Yan Xinjian’s successor!”
Bai Xinghe sneered and shook his head. “No, I am not. I did not open Yan Xinjian’s secret training room.”
Li Yao was dumbfounded.
The secret training room of a Cultivator in the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage equaled to his treasury. There must have been immeasurable benefits hidden inside. Yet, Bai Xinghe, the space pirate who made his living from others’ fortunes, chose not to open it?
“Why?”
Bai Xinghe replied coldly, “Because I didn’t believe in Yan Xinjian.
“When I was young, I once considered the ‘supreme space pirate’ as my role model and went through a lot of trouble to collect information about him.
“After cross-checking the files and the notes he left, I felt more and more alarmed as I studied deeper.
“On the surface, all the files stated that Yan Xinjian ran away from Heavenly Saints City and ended up on Spider Den because his wife cheated on him. The man burst into a fury and slew countless people.
“However, as I studied the files carefully, I found anomalies and came to a different conclusion.
“Yan Xinjian’s wife might have cheated on him, or she might not have. It doesn’t matter. What mattered was that Yan Xinjian was likely to have received a map, or at least the scraps of a map, of the underground fortress of Spider Den earlier.
“Otherwise, how could Yan Xinjian, as an outsider, find the entrance to the core area of the underground fortress in only one and a half years, when the local space pirates on Spider failed to find it for hundreds of years?
“Therefore, his wife cheating on him was probably only his excuse. In such a way, he could escape to Spider Den without raising the suspicion of the space pirates!
“It was even possible that the battle of Spider Den was manipulated by him in person, too!
“Think about it. Yan Xinjian ran to Spider Den alone. However capable he was, would the ferocious, disobedient space pirates really listen to his command?
“Only when the coalition fleet of the Cultivators approached could the value of him, the man who was most familiar with the starships of the Cultivators, be maximized. That was why he was granted with the temporary right to command many pirate gangs on Spider Den!
“Yan Xinjian gradually rose to power during the protracted war. All the space pirates who objected to him or doubted him got killed in the bloody battles.
“After years of war, the Cultivators were finally defeated and retreated without a victory, but the space pirates suffered equally heavy losses. Many pirate gangs were wasted or crippled. The best experts among space pirates were mostly killed. The one who got the most benefits was Yan Xinjian!
“He turned from a desperate deserter into the supreme ruler of Spider Den!
“The world of Cultivators and Spider Den were both tricked by him while knowing nothing of it. The man was indeed cunning and strategical!
“Would such a terrifying man really pass on his legacy to latecomers?
“Naturally, normal people may think that, since Yan Xinjian was likely to be killed, his last words might not be harmful. It was not a strange idea that the deceased left some benefits for the latecomers so that they could pass on their will.
“But was Yan Xinjian normal people?
“I did not dare take the risk. In my life, I was never scared of anybody, even when I was surrounded by Cultivators, outnumbered ten to one. But after learning of Yan Xinjian’s doings, I felt goosebumps all over my body.
“My intuition told me to keep as far away from anything related to Yan Xinjian as possible!
“Therefore, although I discovered Yan Xinjian’s secret training room, and I knew that his legacy and secret treasures were probably hidden inside, I gritted my teeth and made up my mind that I would not open it for the rest of my life!”
Cold sweat appeared on Li Yao’s forehead as he heard the story.
It was definitely true that none of the people who left their names in history and whose influence lasted to this day were easy to deal with.
If Yan Xinjian were really behind the curtain of everything, the resolution and schemes of the ‘supreme space pirate’ were indeed appalling.
Li Yao couldn’t help but recall the residence of Skeleton Dragon on Boneyard.
At that time, Skeleton Dragon was also luring the new generations with secret treasures for the purpose of breaking the barriers and returning to the world!
Although Yan Xinjian was probably long dead, who could say for sure what was on the mind of the old monsters in the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage?
It was possible that the notes he had left in the super crystal processors were really bait to fool the latecomers into opening the secret training room!
However, Yan Xinjian must never have foreseen that, after hundreds of years of waiting, it was another man who was as resolute as himself named Bai Xinghe who discovered the notes, and that he could refrain from succumbing to such huge temptations!
Maybe, this was a five-hundred-year battle between the ‘supreme space pirate’ and the ‘Pirate Potentate’!
“So, you did not open Yan Xinjian’s secret training room but merely took control over the traps he made? That explains a lot. You have indeed never deployed any traps below the ground. The Immortal Cultivators would never even think that they will be faced with the most terrifying traps designed by the supreme space pirate himself!” Li Yao said.
Bai Xinghe smiled bitterly. “Not the Immortal Cultivators, but us. The traps have been activated. Nobody is going to run away!”
Li Yao was dumbfounded. “When did you activate the traps?”
“I didn’t have to,” Bai Xinghe replied. “The trigger system of the traps is very complicated. By taking the total weight of everybody in the underground fortress, the heat and spiritual waves they emit, the waste gas they breath out as well as other factors into account, after a series of precise calculations, as long as the trigger system determines that a lot of intruders have entered the core area, especially the main warehouse at the bottom level, all the traps will be activated immediately!
“Therefore, the traps have been activated now. Nobody is going to stop them!”
Li Yao blinked fast. “Why can’t I feel anything?”
Bai Xinghe sighed and said, “Do you remember the Nether River that we leapt across seven days ago? The Star Prier’s House uses the water of the river as its source of energy. Yan Xinjian’s traps are based on the Nether River, too.
“Once the traps are activated, the critical parts around the Nether River will be blown up immediately. The route of the Nether River will change, and the water will pour into the underground fortress and devour it!”
Chapter 754: Return of the King!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Hardly had Bai Xinghe concluded his explanation when the entire Star Prier’s House started shaking slightly. Li Yao stuck his hands to the ground. Spiritual energy surged out of his palms as he sensed the surroundings carefully. He did detect that spiritual energy of the water class was roaring in various directions. Even the steam in the air was more irked than usual.
The color of Bai Xinghe’s face changed, and he said in a hurry, “There’s no time. I’ll explain to you later while we are on our way!”
Li Yao hesitated for a moment and tossed the Cosmos Ring that stored the Dragon King Battlesuit to Bai Xinghe.
After changing into the Dragon King Battlesuit, Bai Xinghe threw a Cosmos Ring to Li Yao, too, saying that it would be needed soon.
Bai Xinghe set the super crystal processors to run automatically. The two of them exited the Star Prier’s House from the way they had entered, except that they bypassed the Lustful Rock Spider’s hunting range and zigzagged down a brand-new branch.
Bai Xinghe was carrying a mini crystal processor that was connected to the super Cultivators remotely. It could display the real-time picture that the thousands of crystal cameras captured. However, the transmission of telepathic thoughts was intermittent because of the complicated terrain in the underground fortress. They could only stay close with Bai Kaixin and Lei Dalu. As for Bai Wulei, Fengyu Zhong, the Black King, and the other Immortal Cultivators, they were not able to monitor them constantly.
While they were on their way, the shaking became more and more violent. In the beginning, a slight shiver would only occur every twenty seconds or so. But now, a great earthquake would take place every other second.
Bai Xinghe ran forward fast as he explained, “Yan Xinjian spent decades resetting the parameters of the crystal processors in the main control room of the underground fortress. There was nothing strange upon first inspection, but an extremely sordid backdoor actually had been concealed.
“When the traps are activated, the entrance and the exit of the underground fortress will be immediately detonated. But other than them, all the other channels, including the gates, tunnels, ventilation tubes, and maintenance tubes, will be fully opened and cannot not be closed off with the crystal processors so that the flood can pour in without any obstacles!
“The flood is not terrifying per se. Many crystal suits can fight underwater. For the experts who have Cultivated to a certain level, they can live a long time by holding their breath and resorting to their ‘inner cycles’.
“However, there are countless horrifying beasts inside the river. Those we met when we leapt across the Nether River are just one kind of them. The hundreds and even thousands of other beasts did not have the ability to soar hundreds of meters into the sky. That was all.
“The beasts have lived in the Nether River for thousands of years. By absorbing the mother lodes below the ground, they continue mutating and strengthening themselves. They have strong senses about spiritual energy just like the Lustful Rock Spider and feast almost exclusively upon spiritual energy!
“When the intruders in the underground fortress encounter such a drastic change, they will certainly put on their crystal suits and trigger their spiritual energy. If so, they will be perfect prey for the beasts in the water!
“Moreover—”
Bai Xinghe narrowed his eyes and said, “A lot of high-purity crystals, such as ‘Thunder Stones’ and ‘Sunlight Stones’, are stored inside the warehouse of the underground fortress. Those crystals are as stable as rocks in dry air. However, once they meet water, intense chain reactions will be triggered. A huge amount of spiritual energy and heat will be emanated instantly as they turn into powerful bombs!
“Hehe. It was indeed an excellent move for Yan Xinjian. Since this is a fortress, important war assets such as the Thunder Stones and the Sunlight Stones are not weird at all when they are piled up in this place!
“The intruders would never have dreamt that the Thunder Stones and the Sunlight Stones, which are stored in the driest, special warehouses and blocked by drying rune arrays, will be submerged by a flood!
“The flood and the explosion of the Thunder Stones and the Sunlight Stones will block the upper half part of the underground fortress immediately.
“The important persons of the Immortal Cultivators are all concentrated in the bottom half of the fortress. They will have absolutely nowhere to run to when they realize what is going on!”
Sweat covered Li Yao’s forehead. Yan Xinjian’s schemes were indeed sordid.
It was impossible to destroy the entire underground fortress. However, drowning half of the fortress by pouring the river into it, together with the explosion of the crystals and the underwater predators, was going to be a major headache for the intruders.
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao asked, “Such traps might be sufficient for those in the Refinement Stage and in the Building Foundation Stage, but I wonder whether or not they are effective for those in the Core Formation Stage and in the Nascent Soul Stage.”
“That is exactly why I am hiding here,” Bai Xinghe explained. “After I discovered Yan Xinjian’s traps, I thought of building the traps into my last trump card. Therefore, I performed major modifications on the Star Prier’s House and sealed it again. Moreover, I deployed water-driving rune arrays around the house and stored tremendous food, compressed air, and water-driving magical equipment inside.
“In the meantime, I spent ten years digging a secret tunnel leading to the outside of the underground fortress from the Star Prier’s House. The front end of the tunnel exceeded the block range of the fortress. I built a one-way teleportation array there that could transport people out!
“My plan was simple. When the river poured into the underground fortress, I would stay in the Star Prier’s House and have a good rest while I observed the fight between the Immortal Cultivators and the underwater beasts.
“When the Immortal Cultivators had soaked in water for one day or two and were exhausted in the battles against the beasts, I would sneak out with the water-driving magical equipment and assassinate my targets.
“The underground fortress has a complicated terrain, and I am familiar with the environment here. Having had several days of good rest and knowing the location of every one of them, I could avoid the strongest experts and attack the lone, weak ones.
“With my capability in the Nascent Soul Stage and the chaos of the situation, it should not be a problem to slay a few people in the Core Formation Stage. By any luck, I could assassinate Fengyu Zhong or the Black King if I had the opportunity!
“Whether I could successfully assassinate the important persons of the Immortal Cultivators or not, I would return to the Star Prier’s House without any hesitation and then leave the underground fortress through the secret tunnel!”
Li Yao thought for a moment and suddenly blurted out, “When a tiger leaves a mountain, the monkey calls itself the king.”
Bai Xinghe chuckled and sneered. “Do you think Boss Bai is a monkey? But you are not wrong. Compared with the powerful Temple of Immortals, I am indeed a monkey.
“However, when I reappear on the surface, the ‘tigers’ of the Temple of Immortals will still be struggling to survive in the underground fortress!
“The traps might not be enough to kill the Black King, Fengyu Zhong, and Bai Wulei, but the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators in the Refinement Stage and Building Foundation Stage will definitely suffer heavy losses!
“Then, just think about it. All the space pirates who distinguished themselves in the final battle between me and Fengyu Zhong and proved themselves loyal to the Temple of Immortals were permitted to enter the underground fortress. Then, what kind of person would be left on the surface?”
Li Yao took a long breath and replied, “All the space pirates loyal to the Temple of Immortals have come deep below the ground. Those left on the surface will either be the pirate gangs that were defeated and battered because they are loyal to you or those who were not really willing to contribute to the Temple of Immortals’ cause during the last battle!
“The final battle between Fengyu Zhong and you was like a filter that directed all the hardcore lackeys of the Temple of Immortals underground. Those who were left on the surface are definitely not the most loyal ones even though they were lackeys, too!”
“Exactly,” Bai Xinghe said. “That is the key of my entire plan.
“As the saying goes, a cake is sour when it is not divided evenly. I publicized the news that a lot of secret treasures of the Star Ocean Imperium are buried inside the underground fortress since a long time ago. Even a pig on Spider Den should be familiar with the rumors and fantasizing the wealth, not to mention the space pirates.
“The space pirates left on the ground are destined to not be trusted by the Temple of Immortals in the future. They can only wait and watch other pirate gangs looting trophies underground and probably swallowing them one day when those pirate gangs are strong enough!
“Tell me, what would those space pirates think?
“It is needless to say that the pirate gangs defeated and loyal to me are probably waiting for their death now. As long as there is a slim chance of survival, they will definitely try their best!
“Alright. That would have been the basic situation when Boss Bai, the Pirate Potentate, returned to the surface.
“The Temple of Immortals would have no leaders, and their core persons would not be able to break out of the underground fortress in a fortnight.
“Besides, with the flood and the explosions, and because of the blockage of the thick rock stratums, no news would be leaked out. I would be the only one who could tell them what happened below the ground.
“Just like that, when I showed up in front of everything and claimed that I had killed all the key persons of the Temple of Immortals in the underground fortress, preferably with the Black King’s or Fengyu Zhong’s head, do you think there would be anybody on Spider Den who would not obey me?”
Li Yao thought for a moment and cursed. He mumbled, “The king has returned!”
Bai Xinghe smiled and said, “Half a month would be more than enough for me to carry out a brutal counterattack!
“By then, even if the Black King or Fengyu Zhong could break out of the underground fortress, so what? Everything would already have changed!
“Hehe. What I was going to lose was the Abyss Pirate Gang, whose loyalty was questionable, but what I was going to get was the whole of Spider Den! Isn’t that a fair deal?”
“It’s a pity that you never calculated that your son would appear out of nowhere,” Li Yao said.
Bai Xinghe smiled bitterly. “Indeed, I didn’t. What a fool. I haven’t seen him for decades. Right now, I seem to be doomed for sure. Why did he come here?
“Is it possible that he grew suspicious about his past and wanted to know the truth before I was killed?”
Li Yao recalled Bai Kaixin’s eyes that were forever filled with vague sorrow and yet were as sharp as a frosted blade. He shook his head and said, “Boss Bai, you can’t see the big picture because you are in the game. Bai Kaixin is such a smart guy. Do you think he does not know the truth to this day? In my opinion, he figured everything out a long time ago.
“He did not come for an answer; he came to save you.”
Bai Xinghe suddenly stopped running and blurted out, “I am a battle-type Cultivator in the Nascent Soul Stage, and he is an admin-type Cultivator in the Building Foundation Stage. Do I need him to save me? What makes him think that he can save me?”
“The fact that he is your son,” Li Yao said.
Bai Xinghe was dazed for almost ten seconds. He suddenly burst into laughter. The aura of a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator fully burst out and nearly knocked Li Yao over.
“Yes. I should’ve realized it earlier. He is here to save me. My son is here to save me!
“But right now, let your old man save you first!”
Chapter 755: Fierce Flood!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Inside the main warehouse at the bottom level of the underground fortress, Bai Wulei looked at debris, remains, and the rusted scraps of magical equipment that had been piled up like a hill, dumbfounded.
Powerful crystal suits of the Star Ocean Imperium appeared to be hanging on the sixty shelves that were dozens of meters high. However, with the slightest touch, all the crystal suits crumbled into crazily flying iron dust as if they were made of sand.
Bai Wulei coughed heavily because of the stimulation of the iron dust. He coughed while he bellowed, “It’s impossible! How could there be only such a pile of garbage? The old man said that magical equipment that could equip tens of thousands of Cultivators was hidden in his place!”
He rushed crazily inside the warehouse madly and explored the weapons and magical equipment one area after another. It was a pity that his finger seemed to be blessed with a destructive ability all of a suddenly. All the weapons and magical equipment he touched were shattered and collapsed into debris.
“How can this be?” Bai Wulei was about to cry. He gnashed his teeth and said, “It’s unreasonable. The old man already presented countless techniques and magical equipment he took from the underground fortress in order to boost morale. At that time, I asked him what about ourselves when we were offering so many secret treasures to other people.
“In the end, the old man burst into laughter and declared that what he had taken out was only one tenth of all the treasures. The real good items were still below the ground!
“How is it possible?
“There must be something wrong. There must be another warehouse. There must be!”
Bai Wulei waved a seemingly glamorous flying sword. But after one slash, it broken into more than ten pieces, suggesting that it was more fragile than glass.
Fengyu Zhong, Master Hidden Fog, who was the previous leader of Black Spider Tower, and Dark Empyrean, who was the real ‘Black King’, all frowned and stared at the wall, deep in thought.
The spacious warehouse was wreathed in a vague black mist, as if streams of demonic aura were leaking in through the wall.
Fengyu Zhong asked respectfully, “Black King, what do you think?”
Since Dark Empyreal had launched an attack in the Nascent Soul Stage toward Bai Xinghe in front of everybody, there was little point in him concealing his identity any longer. Getting rid of the low profile as one of the ‘Eight Blades of Black Spider’, he stood confidently, surrounded by a daunting, decisive aura. He replied calmly, “It appears that we have all been fooled by Bai Xinghe. The old, cunning Pirate Potentate was merely bluffing.
“There are not as many secret treasures of the Star Ocean Imperium as he claimed. Even if there were, most of the magical equipment and the weapons would already be rusted and damaged.
“Those he brought to the surface were just about everything. That old fox!
“However…”
Dark Empyrean, the Black King, narrowed his eyes and said slowly, “It suddenly occurs to me that, although most of the weapons and magical equipment on our way here are seriously damaged, there are a great number of war assets, especially high-purity crystals such as the Thunder Stones and the Sunlight Stones. Their volume seems to far exceed the need of a regular war.”
Hardly had he concluded his sentence when the color of his face changed abruptly. He drew a rune quickly and held it in his palm while he murmured a spell. Then he opened his hands suddenly!
A black bug immediately flew out of his hands and flew far away in a streak of blackness.
A moment later, Fengyu Zhong’s nose flapped as he sniffed the air. He observed with a solemn face, “Something is indeed not right. The moisture of the air has increased all of a sudden. The spiritual energy of the water class is very active right now!”
“Not good!” Dark Empyrean seemed to have sensed something. His face turned extremely pale as he shouted loudly, “Hurry and leave!”
…
The middle level and the upper level of the underground fortress had changed entirely.
Over the past ten thousand years, the multiple earthquakes, especially the super earthquake affected by the apocalypse five thousand years ago, had already riddled the fortress with holes everywhere.
The traps that Yan Xinjian had devised neatly, through a few insignificant explosions, altered the route of the Nether River precisely, turning the Nether River into a raging dragon that invaded the fortress. The hair, claws, and teeth of the dragon were running into the fortress through the countless fractures on the top half of the fortress!
In a moment, the underground fortress turned into a swamp!
The unstoppable flood was roaring in every pathway like ferocious beasts, smashing everything in its way.
Countless space pirates were consumed by the flood before they realized what was going on. They were bashed into the wall hard by the rushing torrent. Despite the protection of their crystal suits, they were vomiting blood with their internal organs torn apart.
The flood alone was not terrifying, but most of the warehouses inside the underground fortress were packed with high-purity crystals such as the Thunder Stone and the Sunlight Stone.
Those extremely unstable crystals did not even need to meet water directly to explode. As long as the moisture of the air increased to a certain level and the spiritual energy of the water class in the air was active enough, they would detonate instantly!
As a result—
Explosions were taking place everywhere inside the underground fortress. Countless warehouses and pathways collapsed before they were swallowed by the flood. The space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators inside were buried and suppressed by the fireballs and billions of rocks that were cascading down on their heads without even having the opportunity to scream.
For the areas that were not affected by the explosions of the Thunder Stones and the Sunlight Stones, when they were drowned by the flood, the eccentric beasts living inside the Nether River crawled into the fortress along with the currents.
Those eccentric beasts had been living in absolute darkness for thousands of years. They could only perceive their prey through spiritual energy.
In order to keep away from their enemies, most of them had evolved with the ability of converging their spiritual energy, too.
Right now, the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators who had triggered their spiritual energy instead of concealing it in the emergency were like butterflies in a dark night. They became the most appealing prey for the eccentric beasts.
There were floating eccentric beasts that were emitting dim lights like jellyfish, fish-type beasts that had sharp tusks and could bite through the toughest super alloys, and insect-type beasts that both looked like water snakes and giant centipedes with flagella and tentacles wriggling all over their bodies to name a few.
Hundreds of eccentric beasts were swimming, sneaking, and searching in the water, exchanging greedy and cruel information with each other.
Even the mortal enemies gave up the idea of hunting each other for now because more delicious prey was right in front of them.
Swoosh!
A floating eccentric beast that looked like a transparent jellyfish lunged at a space pirate who was struggling inside the flood. The boneless body of the beast opened like a bag and covered the space pirate’s head as fast as lightning. The soft tentacles groped for the gaps in the victim’s crystal suit and injected the fatal venom into it.
Hiu!
Hundreds of ‘goldfish’ that had the sharpest teeth congregated into a cluster of deadly gold as they charged at an Immortal Cultivator who had suffered internal injuries during the strike of the flood. Their teeth bit his crystal suit hard. After being ripped for a moment, the crystal suit was creaking and about to crumble at any moment!
Hu!
The insect-type beasts that looked like enormous centipedes spurted corrosive body liquids as they swam forward. The dark green body liquids quickly spread out in the water and enshrouded two Immortal Cultivators, who did not know what was going on silently, like faint mist.
“Ah!”
“Ah! Ah!”
“What is this? What is this damn thing?”
Screams were echoing nonstop inside the communication channel of the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators. Countless people were killed before they sensed where their enemy was!
…
Inside a secret tunnel, Bai Kaixin and Lei Dalu were moving forward prudently. Suddenly, Lei Dalu’s nostrils widened, and his ears twitched. He leaned against the wall and listened carefully for a while, before he mumbled, “Something’s wrong.”
Bai Kaixin turned nervous. “What is it? This road is very inconspicuous. The Immortal Cultivators shouldn’t be able to discover it.”
“It doesn’t sound like the Immortal Cultivators,” Lei Dalu murmured. Then he suddenly shouted, “Not good. Run quickly!”
“What’s going—”
Before Bai Kaixin finished his sentence, he had already heard a boom far away from them, as if something had exploded, which was followed by the earsplitting noise of a flood that was pushing close to the two of them unstoppably.
Bai Kaixin was lost, too. “What’s happening?”
Huala! Huala! Huala!
As if the horn of the God of Water had been blown, a tide rounded the corner and was rushing close.
“What are you waiting for? Run now!”
Lei Dalu snatched Bai Kaixin’s elbow and ran as fast as he could!
…
Li Yao and Bai Xinghe had snuck into the river. Everything they saw raised the deepest fear deep down their heart.
It was a pathway that had just been savaged by the flood and the eccentric underwater beasts.
Endless debris was floating in the dirty water. There was no telling whether it was originally crystal suits or the magical equipment inside the underground fortress. Occasionally, there were empty crystal suits stuck in a strange position, as if waving at the bottom of the pathway. When Li Yao drew close and observed, he often discovered that there were only skeletons inside the crystal suits, if there was anything at all.
They were the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators who had been attacked by the eccentric beasts. Not even their bodies remained.
Li Yao and Bai Xinghe were both aware of the toughness of the underwater beasts. They both switched their crystal suits to stealth mode and tried to reduce the spiritual energy being emitted as much as possible, while they continued forward in the water purely with the strength of their muscles and bones.
Right now, a huge bunch of space pirates and Immortal Cultivators had triggered their spiritual energy to the maximum due to anxiety. They were more eye-catching prey than the two of them. Therefore, it did not matter very much even if some of their spiritual energy leaked out.
They had been engaged with a lot of eccentric beasts on their way, too. If the shoal was not large enough, they would eliminate the beasts as quickly as possible. When it was too large, they would simply turn off the last bit of their spiritual energy output and pretend to be two cold, iron shells.
Since the eccentric beasts had been living below the dark underground for generations, most of their optical organs had retrograded, and they could only perceive their surroundings with spiritual energy. Li Yao and Bai Xinghe did not run into any trouble when they passed the blind predators. However, the ugly appearance of the beasts caused goosebumps all over Li Yao’s body.
“The two of them are running toward the core area of the underground fortress.”
While there were no eccentric beasts nearby, Bai Xinghe triggered the light beam again and watched. There was worry in his voice as he said, “Not good. According to their current route, it is likely that they will run into the main force of the Immortal Cultivators!
“We have to save them before they meet the main force of the Immortal Cultivators and bring them back to the Star Prier’s House before we all run away from here together!”
Chapter 756: To Kill, to Save!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Right now, the lethal flood was gradually invading the middle level and the bottom level of the underground fortress from the top level of it.
Many space pirates and Immortal Cultivators had noticed the incoming flood and sealed the entrances and exits of the rooms by force, but the blockage was not waterproof. It was not long before they were crushed by the pressure of the flood.
However, the underground fortress was enormous in scale and complicated in terrain. It was not entirely drowned by the flood so quickly.
Bai Kaixin had grown up in the underground fortress. Naturally, he knew that countless brutal beasts lived within the Nether River. Therefore, Lei Dalu and him did not head upwards against the flood but downwards to avoid the flood and search for a possible shelter.
The main force of the Immortal Cultivators led by the Black King, on the other hand, was marching upward, trying to flee as quickly as possible!
“Not good!”
At a turn of a pathway, Lei Dalu suddenly stopped and released his telepathic thoughts. He sensed for a moment and said coarsely, “I’ve sensed that quite a few experts are releasing their aura blatantly and unstoppably as they are making their way upwards. There are at least two experts in the Nascent Soul Stage, two at the peak of the Core Formation Stage, and another ten or so in the lower levels of the Core Formation Stage!”
Bai Kaixin pondered for a moment and replied, “They must be the main force of the Immortal Cultivators. Fengyu Zhong, Bai Wulei, the Black King, and their lot!”
They looked at each other in bewilderment. Although they had disguised themselves and snuck into the pirate gangs amid the chaos, they were not real space pirates after all. It was quite possible that the experts in the Nascent Soul Stage would see through them quickly.
Besides, with the chaos below the ground, it would not be unusual if those selfish Immortal Cultivators captured them to use as cannon fodder.
“Let’s go back and find another way!”
The two of them made up their mind quickly and turned around, having no desire to meddle with the Immortal Cultivators at all.
…
Not far away from them, inside the main corridor of the underground fortress, the Black King suddenly stopped and said coldly, “Wait. Something is not right!
“I just sensed that somebody scanned me with their telepathic thoughts not far away.
“It was not odd that somebody scanned me. It is odd, however, that the man turned and ran away in a different direction after he saw me. Judging from the speed of his escape, the man is probably in the Core Formation Stage!
“We are all allies here. Why is he running away from us? There must be something wrong with them!”
Fengyu Zhong frowned and said, “Black King, I think it’s more important that we get out of here as quickly as possible, isn’t it?”
The Black King sniffed and glared at him. “Why do you think a flood is savaging the underground fortress and there are explosions everywhere? Chase and catch those people!”
Fengyu Zhong was dazed for a moment and immediately realized what was going on. Endless brutality beamed out of his eyes as he went after where Lei Dalu and Bai Kaixin had disappeared together with Master Hidden Fog, Bai Wulei, and the elites of the Immortal Cultivators that were with him.
…
“They have encountered the Immortal Cultivators!”
Eight floors above them, Bai Xinghe cursed and stopped converging his spiritual energy. Together with Li Yao, he activated the power rune arrays to the maximum, as he accelerated his speed to the highest. The two of them darted to the lower floors along with the flood like two undercurrents.
Shua!
Countless eccentric beasts were ignorant enough to attack them while they were on their away, only to be blown into clusters of blood by Bai Xinghe’s spiritual energy.
After descending four floors, they were even met with almost twenty dizzy space pirates. Having no time to disguise their identities, they simply put on the most brutal appearance and slashed their way forward!
Hiu!
Li Yao’s Feathered Dragon Saber turned into hundreds of inconspicuous fish in the dirty, black water. They were ten times more dangerous than they were in the air. They snuck into the gaps of the crystal suits of almost ten space pirates, cut opened their main artery, reached their heart and blew it up. They then broke out of the space pirates’ bodies again and returned to Li Yao.
The Feathered Dragon Saber turned from black to crimson immediately.
Bai Xinghe was even more insane. Eager to rescue his son, he fully exerted the unbelievable capability of a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator. Dragon balls of tremendous size were appearing and disappearing on the seven dragon heads of the Dragon King Battlesuit. The space pirates who were caught by them were not left with an intact body.
Explosions were echoing two floors below, but the shaking was not violent. It did not seem to be the result of the Thunder Stones and the Sunlight Stones exploding but a fight.
Lei Dalu and Bai Kaixin must have engaged with the Immortal Cultivators!
The color of Bai Xinghe’s face changed, and he was about to dash downward, only to be stopped by Li Yao.
“Boss Bai!”
Li Yao pointed at the space pirates killed by him.
The crystal suits of those space pirates were basically intact, except for the tiny holes on the wrists, thighs, or the necks. Nobody would notice anything wrong when the crystal suits were disguised without looking at them carefully.
Bai Xinghe immediately realized what he meant. He selected two corpses approximately their size together with Li Yao and replaced the Dragon King Battlesuit and the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit with the dead bodies’ crystal suits, before the two of them continued rushing downwards.
The two floors were a fairly large warehouse area. They had not been drowned by the flood yet, and the water only reached everyone’s waist.
When Li Yao and Bai Xinghe arrived, they discovered that almost twenty Immortal Cultivators were attacking Lei Dalu and Bai Kaixin together.
Among the Immortal Cultivators, Fengyu Zhong and Bai Wulei, as well as a few experts of the Eight Blades of Black Spider, were present.
With Lei Dalu’s and Bai Kaixin’s capability, they could not resist the enemy at all.
The Immortal Cultivators meant to capture them alive and feared that they might detonate themselves. That was why they had managed to hold out for a few minutes.
Li Yao and Bai Xinghe looked at each other before approaching the enemy quietly, one from the left and the other from the right.
They were both wearing the crystal suits of space pirates, with the battle emblem of the pirate gang they were in on their chest. Right now, the Immortal Cultivators were in a hurry to capture the Bai Kaixin and Lei Dalu alive and did not pay much attention to them. They thought that Bai Xinghe and Li Yao were merely other space pirates who considered the place a shelter.
“Bai Wulei?” Li Yao suggested the target of their attack inside the communication channel.
“Fengyu Zhong!”
Bai Xinghe was truly the Pirate Potentate. He planned to take down an expert in the Nascent Soul Stage at first try!
“Okay!” Li Yao replied without any hesitation.
Bai Xinghe’s strength was slightly higher than Fengyu Zhong’s, and when he was in an outburst, he could boast the combat ability of the Nascent Soul Stage briefly. If the two of them joined their hands and ambushed the enemy without alarming him, it was very likely that Fengyu Zhong would be heavily wounded!
Fifty meters… Forty meters… Thirty meters…
The two of them pretended that they were here to help and drew closer and closer to Fengyu Zhong.
Right then, Bai Kaixin suddenly screamed.
One of the Eight Blades of Black Spider had stabbed a flying sword that was almost transparent deeply into the left side of his chest!
The flying sword seemed to be a piece of extremely vicious magical equipment. When the edge of the sword entered Bai Kaixin’s body, it started pumping his blood and spurting it out from the hollow grip of the sword!
Seeing that his only son was heavily wounded, Bai Xinghe shivered and gasped uncontrollably. The aura beyond the Core Formation Stage spread out of his body all of a sudden!
Fengyu Zhong was also a cunning and vigilant man. He sensed that anomaly immediately and was greatly alarmed. Leaving the two prey that were about to fall into his hands aside, he retreated a hundred meters and hid behind the countless Immortal Cultivators. He shrieked, “There’s something wrong with the two newcomers!”
Li Yao cursed within his heart. At this point, there were no other options. He threw dozens of crystal bombs out. With the brilliant fireworks for cover, he and Bai Xinghe completed air changes instantly!
“Kill them!”
Li Yao lunged at the Immortal Cultivators like a tiger attacking lambs. After a few zigzags, a few Immortal Cultivators who were relatively weaker were chopped in half instantly!
“It is… you!”
Fengyu Zhong was both shocked and scared. Although the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit looked completely different from when it had been at the periphery of the Iron Plateau Space Zone after multiple upgrades, Fengyu Zhong still grasped the unique aura of the crystal suit keenly!
“It is more important to save them. Don’t fight for too long. Their reinforcements will arrive at any moment!” Bai Xinghe shouted in a hurry inside the communication channel.
His capability was slightly higher than Fengyu Zhong’s, and Li Yao’s capability was slightly higher than Bai Wulei’s.
However, other than Fengyu Zhong and Bai Wulei, their enemies also included Master Hidden Fog, the previous leader of the Black Spider Tower, and the multiple experts of the Eight Blades of Black Spider, who were adept at stealth and assassinations and boasted a higher combat ability than that of normal Cultivators in the same level. It would not be easy to kill them all.
Besides, Bai Xinghe had vaguely sensed that Dark Empyrean, the real Black King, was running close at a high speed.
When the Black King arrived and they were surrounded by a large batch of Immortal Cultivators, there was no way that they could survive.
When the attempted ambush failed, it was smart to run away quickly. Before Lei Dalu realized what was going on, Bai Xinghe had already placed Bai Kaixin on his shoulder and shouted at him, “Follow me!”
Lei Dalu was dazed. Naturally, he had recognized the famous ‘Dragon King Battlesuit’. The fact that the Pirate Potentate was standing right before him made the captain who earned his living by hunting down space pirates quite uncomfortable.
Li Yao slashed another Immortal Cultivator in half and detonated almost a hundred crystal bombs in a row, turning more than half of the warehouse into a forest of flames, before he went back to Lei Dalu like a rabbit and patted his shoulder firmly. “Captain, I’ll explain to you later. Just run quickly!”
Lei Dalu gasped when he realized who was talking and said, “Li Yao?”
Discovering that this little brother of his seemed to appear in the most unbelievable places under the most unbelievable identities every time, Lei Dalu was dumbfounded.
Last time, it was Sand Scorpion, the best warrior of Iron Plateau. This time, he got even crazier and became a lackey of the Pirate Potentate?
Li Yao said in a hurry, “Advisor Bai was hit by ‘Back Teeth Heart Tangling Sword’. If it is removed by force, the entire heart will be dragged out. We have to find a safe place and destroy the traps inside the sword first!”
“Alright!”
Lei Dalu thought quickly and realized that, no matter why Li Yao had shown up in this place, Bai Xinghe would not mean any harm to Bai Kaixin.
Before the flames of the explosions died down, the three of them, carrying Bai Kaixin, escaped the way where they had come and ran out of the siege of the Immortal Cultivators!
Half a minute after they fled, the Black King charged into the warehouse with a large batch of Immortal Cultivators!
Seeing the mess and the wounded who were screaming in the water, the Black King was gloomy.
After hearing Fengyu Zhong’s report, the Black King’s face remained unchanged as he said seriously, “It was indeed Bai Xinghe’s scheme. But I wonder why he showed up without any reason!
“They can’t run far away carrying a heavily wounded ally. Run after them. Stop Bai Xinghe whatever the cost!
“Right now, the upper level of the fortress is completely blocked. There is no way that anybody can get out within the next ten days. We have to capture Bai Xinghe and elicit everything from him!
“My methods are not easy to shake off. He cannot be in his peak state right now. Go after him!”
Chapter 757: A Truth That Nobody Believes
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
In a warehouse that had been swallowed by the flood, there was an empty space around five meters in diameter in the center. In the middle of the space was a deep blue ball that was floating and emitting electric arcs.
It was a water-driving ball. With the mechanism of ionization, it could create and maintain a waterproof space for half an hour.
Bai Kaixin’s upper half body was naked. His face was as pale as paper. With the help of the anti-gravity rune arrays, he floated three inches from the ground, with a translucent flying sword that looked like a fishbone atop his heart.
Coldly shining thorns were all around the flying sword. Just one look at them was enough to make one’s heart beat fast.
Li Yao manipulated dozens of metal threads that were thinner than his hair with his telepathic thoughts and extended them into the hollow grip of the flying sword. After groping carefully for a while, he completely destroyed the traps inside the flying sword after a click sound.
The spurting blood came to a sudden stop.
Li Yao took a long breath in relief. He wiped off the sweat on his forehead and said to Bai Xinghe and Lei Dalu, “The traps have been destroyed. The sword will not absorb blood from Advisor Bai’s body any longer. However, I’m not a doctor. The flying sword is really too close to the heart. It’s impossible to remove it here. Let’s see what we can do after we get to the Star Prier’s House.”
Bai Kaixin was lackluster, and his lips seemed to be dyed with chalk. He stared at Bai Xinghe and did not move his eyes away even when Li Yao was destroying the traps.
Bai Xinghe was in a trance. His face grew old at a visible speed, as if the sword was not stabbed in his son’s chest but his own.
Shivering, Bai Kaixin extended one of his fingers.
Li Yao and Lei Dalu both turned to Bai Xinghe. They both knew what Bai Kaixin meant. He meant to ask Bai Xinghe a question, one that he had guessed the answer to but would like to hear it from Bai Xinghe’s mouth anyway.
Bai Xinghe was silent for a long time. He opened his mouth slowly, his voice so coarse that it seemed to come not from his throat but from his broken heart. “Although your mother was not killed by me, I was to blame for her death! If I didn’t force her to stay on Spider Den, she wouldn’t have been killed. She wouldn’t have!
“It was me who got her killed. It was me!”
Bai Xinghe collapsed to the ground in grief, mumbling. Faced with his heavily wounded son, he lost his demeanor as the Pirate Potentate completely.
Bai Kaixin finally learned the answer. There were tears in his eyes, but the sorrow that had occupied his face for decades faded away all of a sudden as if it had been blown away by a spring breeze.
For the first time, Li Yao discovered that Bai Kaixin was quite a handsome man when he was not wearing a bitter expression.
He shook his hands slightly and allowed his father’s rough hands to hold them, before he closed his eyes with a smile in relief.
“The flying sword had been broken. We must head back to the Star Prier’s House. The Immortal Cultivators are coming close to the area we are in. They will find us shortly!”
Bai Xinghe treated Bai Kaixin’s wounds simply. Then, he asked Li Yao to fix the lower bottom half of the flying sword, while he chopped off the part of the flying sword that was out of Bai Kaixin’s body. The only thing left on Bai Kaixin’s chest was a slight bulge.
Then, he put a special waterproof suit on Bai Kaixin. Then he carried him and deactivated the water-driving ball. The four of them swam toward the Star Prier’s House.
From the surveillance cameras, they could tell that the main troops of the Immortal Cultivators were surrounding them.
The experts above the Core Formation Stage were not something that the underwater beasts could deal with. They would only be slightly harassed by the beasts, but nothing more.
“Hurry up!”
Bai Xinghe was in the lead. They made their way in the flood that was devoid of any light and returned to the Star Prier’s House.
After half an hour’s journey, they gradually drew close to the Star Prier’s House.
However, there was no road forward.
The entire pathway had collapsed due to an intense explosion. Debris and rocks had completely blocked it.
“Well—” Li Yao frowned. When they went down, the pathway had been perfectly fine. He did not expect it to have been destroyed so quickly.
“Is there another way?” Lei Dalu asked.
“Yes!” Bai Xinghe replied.
He glanced at the picture on the mini crystal processor, only to smile bitterly and added, “There are two other ways that we can take, but they are both occupied by the Immortal Cultivators now!”
“Then we can only dig through the pathway!”
Lei Dalu stuck his hands to the debris and rocks before he bellowed and exerted his strength. An enormous rock in front of him was immediately crushed into powder.
However, more rocks slowly fell down and took up most of the space that he had just emptied.
“Let me have a try!”
With Li Yao’s telepathic thoughts and his surging spiritual energy, the Feathered Dragon Saber dispersed again and reformed into a giant black drill.
The drill of mystic rays on Sparkle was a piece of powerful magical equipment from the Star Ocean Imperium. Li Yao had killed Skeleton Dragon with the drill of mystic rays and had been particularly fond of the magical equipment ever since then.
Because of his insistence, when the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit was being modified, a small drill of mystic rays had been created and embedded with the Feathered Dragon Saber.
Sha! Sha! Sha! Sha!
The drill made of the Feathered Dragon Saber revolved rapidly, surrounded by brilliance electric arcs and mystic rays that were illuminated the dark water of the river. Soon, a large space was drilled out.
However, the pathway was extremely long, and the tectonic structure above was very unstable. Despite the marvelous tool in Li Yao’s hand, he had to work carefully and push forward at a very low speed.
While he drilled forward, Lei Dalu stabilized the pathway behind him. Bai Xinghe watched them in silence while holding Bai Kaixin.
When another twenty meters was drilled through inside the pathway, half of the empty space had a collapse again. Bai Xinghe suddenly said, “You guys take your time to drill forward here. I’m going to investigate the Immortal Cultivators’ progress.”
Li Yao and Lei Dalu were both dazed for a moment. They both realized what Bai Xinghe was going to do.
Bai Kaixin’s eyes shone in the dark water. In response, Bai Xinghe smiled and pressed somewhere behind his son’s neck, making his son close his eyes as he fell into a deep sleep.
Shua!
Bai Xinghe took off the Dragon King Battlesuit and stored the crystal suit into one of his Cosmos Rings before he threw the Cosmos Ring to Li Yao. In the meantime, he put on the ‘Blood River Battlesuit’ that he had worn during the second confrontation with Li Yao!
“Li Yao, consider the Dragon King Battlesuit a gift of mine. It would be a shame if the crystal suit fell into the hands of the Immortal Cultivators,” Bai Xinghe said casually. He patted the Blood River Battlesuit on his body and declared, “The crystal suit on my body is enough.”
“Boss Bai!”
Li Yao’s heart was filled with a mixture of emotions. He did not know what to say.
Bai Xinghe put his son down carefully and touched his forehead for the last time. He waved his hands and vanished into the darkness.
From then on, Li Yao could only talk to Bai Xinghe through the communication channel.
“The latest map of the underground fortress, including the parts that Yan Xinjian changed and the location of his secret training room, has been sent into your crystal processor,” Bai Xinghe said. “It is a little gift that I offer you. You are a worthy opponent, Li Yao.”
Li Yao gnashed his teeth. “Are you really going, Boss Bai?”
“Is there a second option?” Bai Xinghe asked casually. “I’ll give you half an hour. You must break through the pathway within half an hour and get my son out of the place. Otherwise, I won’t let you go even if I die and become a ghost!”
Li Yao was silent.
Bai Xinghe smiled bitterly and said gloomily, “I’ve been lying to you about something. If I don’t tell you the truth now, I think I will not die in peace. Just consider it a story if you find it too hard to believe.
“Do you remember how I came to Spider Den?”
Li Yao was dazed. “Is it all false?”
“Everything in the beginning is true,” Bai Xinghe mumbled. “We encountered a space storm, ended up in an unknown space zone, were saved by somebody else, and got caught in desperation later. My parents planned to kill our lifesavers so that we could keep ourselves alive… That part is true.
“But then I lied!
“At that time, I was already seven, and I already knew a lot of stuff.
“When my father said, ‘Out of two, one will live’ and ‘If I don’t kill him, he will kill me’, although I didn’t know what he meant, I did sense the soaring killing intent from his tone and his facial expression.
“It was something that I’d never sensed from my father before.
“I was so scared that I cried. I held my father’s legs and asked what he was going to do exactly and whether or not he was planning to do something bad.
“I said to my father—’Father, you are a Cultivator; Cultivators don’t do bad things!’
“Maybe my father was moved by these words. He was dazed for a long time and suddenly held my mother, both of them crying. He cried and screamed, ‘I don’t deserve to be a Cultivator!’
“The two of them cried for a long time and gradually calmed down. They agreed that, if they did such things to their lifesavers, who had offered them such great help, they could barely be called humans any longer, much less Cultivators.
“Therefore, they decided that they would try to repair the communication magical equipment with all the remaining resources on the starship one last time. If it didn’t work out, they would see what they could do the next day.
“However…
“That night, while they were working hard to repair the communication magical equipment, our lifesavers assaulted us!”
Li Yao couldn’t help but cry out, “Say what?”
Bai Xinghe’s voice was as cold as that of a ghost, as he said, “Our most trusted lifesavers ambushed us. Everyone on board, including my parents, was killed by them. I only got away from the disaster because my parents put me into an escape capsule in advance and launched it. Then, I was fished up by the space pirates.
“Hehe. My father was right. Out of two, one will live. If I don’t kill him, he will kill me. I was the one who got them killed. I killed my own parents!
“If—if I hadn’t stopped him, maybe it would have been us that made it to the end, and I wouldn’t have fallen into Spider Den and ended up being an inhuman, lawless space pirate!”
“Why did you lie to me in the beginning?” Li Yao asked solemnly. “What could you get by telling such a lie?”
“Because,” Bai Xinghe said gravely, “I meant to make you believe in me at that time, and you certainly wouldn’t have believed the truth!”
Li Yao found it curious. “Why?”
“Because—”
Bai Xinghe’s voice sounded like he had gone mad. “Do you know who our ‘lifesaver’ was?
“Haha. Hahahaha. The one who rescued us first but also pulled the trigger first, slew everyone on board, and looted all the resources on our starship in the desperate situation was the former leader of the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood, the CEO of the Grand Illusionary Group, the crownless king of the Flying Star Sector, and the unquestionable leader of the Cultivators—Xiao Xuance!”
Chapter 758: Boss Bai!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
The name ‘Xiao Xuance’ was like an eruption of thunder that broke out inside Li Yao’s brain.
It was also like a bolt of lightning that connected all the pieces together!
When Li Yao and Professor Mo Xuan had discussed whether or not there could be something wrong with the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project, they had met an unanswered question, which was Xiao Xuance’s motive.
Logically, as the crownless king of the Flying Star Sector and the leader of all Cultivators, Xiao Xuance did not seem to have any motivation to overturn the Flying Star Sector.
The theory that he was trying to change from the ‘crownless king’ into the ‘crowned king’ did not seem very satisfactory.
However, if Xiao Xuance had been baptized by the ‘dark forest’ more than a hundred years ago and killed countless innocent fellow Cultivators and ordinary people for his own survival, then…
Li Yao was instantly soaked in cold sweat. Everything was explainable now!
Bai Xinghe took his long silence for suspicion and smiled bitterly. “You don’t believe it, do you? That’s right. Nobody is going to believe it! Although Xiao Xuance hadn’t advanced into the Nascent Soul Stage a hundred years ago, he was an expert in the Core Formation Stage, the elder of the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood, a man worthy of respect in the world of Cultivators. He punished the outlaws and helped the weak, like any noble man would do!
“When he first rescued our starship, he might not have been vicious at all. He thought that reinforcements were coming very soon. He even offered the resources on his starship to us for free.
“Several of the wounded crew members on our starships were treated on his starship. Some of them were even treated by him in person at the cost of his own spiritual energy.
“At that time, my parents couldn’t stop complimenting him. Cultivators from the six major sects of Heavenly Saints City were truly different. That was exactly what an elder of a great sect looked like!
“Hehe. Maybe that was partly why my parents hesitated later.
“It never occurred to them that, however great the sect a person hails from is and however chivalrous they are, they do not have a second option when they are trapped in the dark forest.
“Out of two, one will live. If I don’t kill him, he will kill me. The logic is very simple. Since my parents could think of it, Xiao Xuance definitely could, too.”
Li Yao took a long breath and asked, “Are you sure it was Xiao Xuance?”
Bai Xinghe laughed bitterly. “I was already seven at that time, and I admired the celebrities in the world of Cultivators. When my parents told me that he was an expert from the six sects of Heavenly Saints City, naturally, I bore his name in mind. How could I be mistaken?
“When I was sold to Spider Den, inside the dark fortress that was full of traps, there was not one moment when I stopped reciting the name ‘Xiao Xuance’ in my mind!
“Revenge! Revenge for my parents!
“Seeking revenge from Xiao Xuance was the only motivation to keep me alive in the darkness underground!
“It was a pity that I chose a wrong path.
“If I wanted revenge, I had to be stronger. However, there was only one way if I wanted to be stronger, which was to be a space pirate—the strongest, the cruelest, and the most brutal space pirate!
“When I became a space pirate, I had to kill people, a lot of innocent people. I had to pour the blood of the innocent on my unpardonable, inhuman soul!
“After repetitive plundering, slaughtering, and betraying, I became stronger and stronger, but I also became more and more desperate.
“You see, I found that the gap between me and Xiao Xuance was too huge. It was impossible for me to become stronger than him no matter how hard I tried!
“When I became a well-known brutal bandit on Spider Den, Xiao Xuance became the leader of the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood.
“When I established the Abyss Pirate Gang and rose to power on Spider Den, Xiao Xuance became the CEO of the Grand Illusionary Group and controlled most of the Spiritual Nexus!
“When the Abyss Pirate Gang became the most powerful organization on Spider Den and I became the Pirate Potentate, Xiao Xuance became the crownless king of the entire Flying Star Sector and the leader of all Cultivators!
“Haha. Hahahaha. The Pirate Potentate. Sounds cool and awesome, doesn’t it? But it is just insignificant crap in front of Xiao Xuance. When I leave Spider Den, I am a rat that everyone spits and stomps on. How am I qualified to fight against Xiao Xuance?”
“Why didn’t you state the truth?”
“Who would believe it?” Bai Xinghe responded. “When I sorted through the truth and my voice was loud enough, I had already become an infamous space pirate. Who would believe my story when I didn’t have the slightest proof?
“Nobody would believe the truth that I told, but Xiao Xuance would certainly notice it and realize that I was the only survivor of the disaster decades ago!
“He would certain try everything he could to deal with me!
“As the CEO of the Grand Illusionary Group, he had more than half of the Spiritual Nexus under his control. It would be more than easy for him to delete, add, or forge information!”
Li Yao was silent.
It was also why he had never proposed his assumptions on the Spiritual Nexus.
He was afraid that, wherever he posted a thread of the ‘truth’, it would be deleted instantly, and Xiao Xuance would trace it back to him without any trouble!
“Now, do you understand why I would rather die before I become an Immortal Cultivator?” Bai Xinghe sighed. “Yes. I firmly believe in the Dark Forest Theory, but my parents died because of the Dark Forest Theory. I cannot regard the Dark Forest Theory as the ultimate Dao for me!
“However, although I’m against the Immortal Cultivators, it is impossible for me to embrace the world of Cultivators.
“Hehe. Even Xiao Xuance, the leader of all Cultivators, could easily cross the line of the Cultivators and butcher the innocent when he was trapped in the dark forest.
“After everything he did, he could still keep it as a secret and rise to power in the world of Cultivators until he became the leader of it.
“Then, what is the difference between the Immortal Cultivators and the Cultivators?
“Maybe, righteous and evil, Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators, are just the same thing in the dark forest. The same thing…”
Bai Xinghe’s voice was intermittent, becoming weaker and weaker.
Because of the savaging flood and the serial explosions, the communication between the two parties was gradually cut off.
“No. Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators are absolutely different!” Li Yao clenched his fists hard, declaring in such a high voice that it even shocked himself. The fury that he had been suppressing in his mind after he heard the Dark Forest Theory from Bai Xinghe seven days ago fully burst out. “The so-called Dark Forest Theory is just Liu the Prier’s own invention after all!
“I don’t believe that such a simple theory can depict the truth of the entire universe!
“The universe cannot be so dark!
“Even if it is, are there really no opportunities to change it at all?
“Let me tell you, Boss Bai. Even if the odds are just one billionth, I, as well as all the real Cultivators, will set the dark forest into eternal flames!”
There was nothing but white noise in the communication channel. Bai Xinghe’s voice was gone for such a long time that Li Yao thought that the communication had been cut off.
But the Pirate Potentate last words came over in the end.
“I wish you luck. I truly do.”
…
In the depths of the underground fortress, inside an empty warehouse, wearing the Blood River Battlesuit, Bai Xinghe released the immense spiritual energy of the Nascent Soul Stage without any disguise.
Stimulated by the surging spiritual energy, the bloody stripes on the surface of the crystal suit seemed to come to life and emitted a boiling aura of blood in various directions.
In front of Bai Xinghe, Bai Wulei, Fengyu Zhong, Master Hidden Fog, the Black King, Eight Blades of Black Spider… Hundreds of experts among the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators all focused their attention on the great enemy.
It was like a tiger being surrounded by a pack of wolves. The wolves knew that the tiger was dead for sure, but none of them had the courage to lunge at the tiger first.
Bai Xinghe glanced over the Immortal Cultivators on the spot and stopped at Bai Wulei, his true disciple. A deep voice came from his cold helmet, as he said, “Bai Wulei, things have gone too far between you and me. I only want to ask you one question.
“Was Meng Yue killed by you?”
Bai Wulei was silent for a moment. Then he laughed and sneered, “Yes. Your wife was killed by me!”
His tone absolutely unchanged, Bai Xinghe asked, “Why?
“I never wronged you after I recruited you as my disciple. Not only did I teach you countless techniques and secret arts, you were also promoted to a high position in the Abyss Pirate Gang despite your young age. I was treating you like my own son.
“Right now, the Temple of Immortals has showed its muscles, and you have your own supporters. It is not strange that you betray me.
“But decades ago, the Abyss Pirate Gang was like the unstoppable rising sun. Why did you kill my wife at that time?”
“Treated me like your own son? Do you really think I was a fool?” Bai Wulei replied coldly. “Look at your real own son Bai Wuxin. How did you treat him?
“You built a greenhouse below the surface when he was born and kept him insulated from the ugliness of the world of space pirates. I don’t think he had even killed a hen when he was fifteen, had he?
“What about me?
“It’s true that you taught me your techniques and secret arts, but you were merely treating me as a tool!
“You taught me how to kill people when I was six. You taught me how to disguise, how to plot, and how to betray when I was eleven!
“Hehe. Why didn’t you teach your own son any of that? Why didn’t you ask your own son to butcher one starship of people after another together with you? Why?
“Why did I kill your wife, you ask? It’s simple. I was jealous. I was jealous of everything that Bai Wuxin had. I envied that he could grow up innocently and carefreely in the garbage heap called Spider Den, as if he had been born in a f*cking noble family of Cultivators!
“Such a life was something I had never relished and would never have the opportunity to!
“What I could not get, Bai Wuxin could never get. I must destroy his everything. Simple as that.”
Bai Xinghe nodded. “Understood. For decades, I’ve always thought that my enemies killed Meng Yue because they were coveting the secrets inside the underground fortress. I was investigating the wrong line of thought all along. It never occurred to me that you were involved.
“But it is still not late to have learned the truth now.”
Bai Xinghe stepped forward in midair as if there were invisible stairs before him, approaching the hundreds of Immortal Cultivators.
The color of Bai Wulei’s face changed greatly as he shouted loudly, “Bai Xinghe, with everything reaching this point, just give up. You don’t stand a chance!”
Bai Xinghe smiled, before he suddenly vanished into thin air.
Then, a thunderous roar suddenly echoed in the void.
” Call me Boss Bai! ”
Chapter 759: Bandit and Dog
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
The ears of all the Immortal Cultivators were humming, as if two sharp blades had pierced into their brains through their ears. Their heads were dizzy, and they were seeing all kinds of illusions. All of a sudden, Bai Xinghe seemed to have thousands of clones that were charging right to their face and even into their crystal suits.
“Ahhh!”
Many Immortal Cultivator who were weaker screamed in abject fear, even though they were not wounded, and launched their strongest attacks toward the illusions.
Thousands of streams of golden brilliance burst out of the void, as if a hundred small suns had risen up slowly. Even if they shut their eyes tightly, they could not stop Bai Xinghe’s sharp sword aura from breaching their defenses and sweeping into their brains!
Fengyu Zhong shrieked. Every bronze ghost face on the Hundred Faces Battlesuit opened its eyes, which were shedding blood, and screamed miserably.
The screams spread out in midair like ripples, outlining a fuzzy shadow of blood.
“There he is. Stop him!”
The Black King’s black crystal suit turned into a cluster of black fog, which turned into hundreds of weird bats.
The black bats crowded toward where Bai Xinghe was at.
BOOM! BOOM!
The hundred black bats were engaged with Bai Xinghe’s bloody shadow.
The head-on clash between two experts in the Nascent Soul Stage made the entire warehouse shake violently. Countless cracks were growing on the walls and the dome. Flooding water spurted in along the cracks, stabbing and stirring everything like billions of swords of water!
The hundred black bats suddenly dispersed. Fengyu Zhong took the opportunity to activate Devil’s Cry, his long spear. Hundreds of ghost faces interweaved into a sharp aura and pierced forward. Bai Xinghe grunted, and the bloody shadow twisted and disappeared all of a sudden!
Before the Black King and Fengyu Zhong had the chance to catch their breath, Bai Wulei suddenly cried miserably behind dozens of Immortal Cultivators who were protecting him!
Everybody was greatly shocked. Their attention had been focused on the battle between the three Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators.
They had never thought that Bai Xinghe would attack Bai Wulei while he was fighting hard against two experts in the Nascent Soul Stage.
“It’s a decoy. A bloody incarnation!”
The Black King was gloomy. He did not find out until this moment that the ‘Bai Xinghe’ who exchanged three moves with him just now was merely a puppet condensed by blood. In the face of his full-strength strike, the puppet had been scattered into broken pearls of blood.
The real Bai Xinghe, on the other hand, had snuck behind the Immortal Cultivators and grabbed Bai Wulei’s head!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The helmet made of super alloys was as vulnerable as rotten wood in Bai Xinghe’s hands. After a slight press, it was already shrinking in size.
Bai Wulei felt that a surging river was flooding into his body from the top of his head. He had no strength to counterattack at all.
His two eyeballs were about to be squeezed out of their sockets. His screams were even more miserable than those of the hundreds of ghost faces on Fengyu Zhong’s crystal suit combined!
Bai Xinghe grinned hideously. “Even your betrayal is a fiasco. Why bother living?”
While talking, he exerted his strength. Dozens of thunderbolts seemed to be echoing inside his palms. After a ‘pa’ sound, Bai Wulei’s head together with his helmet was crushed into the size of an apple. Bone and metal was mixed together, and blood was spluttering everywhere. The scene could not have looked gorier!
The headless corpse twitched briefly in midair for a moment, before it fell into the flood helplessly. The water current was quite rapid. There was no telling where the dead body had ended up to after a short moment.
Within a breath, Bai Xinghe had killed a Cultivator in the peak of the Core Formation Stage with such cruel methods right in front of two experts in the Nascent Soul Stage!
Everybody was so shocked at Bai Xinghe’s approach that they did not know what to say.
Deep laughter that resembled that of a wounded lion echoed inside the Blood River Battlesuit.
Crimson balls of blood were leaking out of Bai Xinghe’s crystal suit as if it were his skin. Heated by his spiritual energy, the bloody was vaporized into a mist, and the mist dissolved into red aura that extended to every corner of the warehouse!
LUM DUM! LUM DUM! LUM DUM!
Hundreds of bloody auras were fluctuating in the air along with the rhythm of Bai Xinghe’s heartbeat.
Everybody’s soul was shivering together with Bai Xinghe’s heart.
Very soon, the bloody auras formed various bloody flying swords, which span around Bai Xinghe slowly.
“He… is burning his life and soul without caring about anything!”
The Black King and Fengyu Zhong both felt their heads going dizzy. It did not feel like a Cultivator no taller than two meters was appearing above their head, but an overwhelming giant of blood hundreds of meters tall!
Both the Black King and Fengyu Zhong regretted believing in Bai Wulei easily and being fooled underground.
Unless there were absolutely no choices, they would definitely rather not have a head-on battle with a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator who had gone mad in such a narrow space!
“Stall him!” the Black King said coldly to Fengyu Zhong in the communication channel. In the meantime, his telepathic thoughts surged out as he gave commands to his subordinates around to form a battle array.
“Boss Bai!”
Fengyu Zhong immediately understood what he was being asked to do. He shouted, not very confident of his declaration, “What are you struggling for with everything coming this far? Just give up already!
“We are all lawless bandits here. Are you pretending that you are a hero now that you are going to be killed?
“You and I are the same. We don’t have any choice other than joining the Temple of Immortals!
“Faced with the great Dao of immortality, I guarantee that the grudge between us will be cleaned once and for all!”
Bai Xinghe smiled. He extended his right hand and opened it.
The bloody stripes on the Blood River Battlesuit seemed to be a living thing. They flowed along his arm and gathered in his hand, forming a bloody saber.
As more and more blood flowed out of his veins, the saber became ever longer, and the ripples on the surface of the saber were echoing with his heartbeat.
Gazing at the tip of his saber, Bai Xinghe said casually, “You and I are different.”
Fengyu Zhong burst into laughter. “What’s the difference? Did you kill fewer people than I did? Cut the crap! You are destined to be a hateful space pirate, and you think you can correct your wrongdoings before your own death?”
The tip of the bloody saber drew a curve on the battle array of the Immortal Cultivator that was about to take shape. Bai Xinghe glanced at Fengyu Zhong and curled his lips up. He said, “I am a ruthless, unforgivable bandit. And you—
“You are just a dog.”
…
The pathway was almost dug through.
Li Yao’s spiritual energy was running out. The size of the drill was a third smaller than in the beginning. He felt that his ribs were aching. While catching his breath, he suddenly sensed the intense spiritual waves below him that felt like a volcano eruption.
It was the most brilliant moment that a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator could present when they burnt their life and soul and released everything they had!
“Boss Bai…”
Li Yao did not know how he should comment on the Pirate Potentate at all. Of course, he was an unpardonable bad man, but the guy had also offered the Dragon King Battlesuit to him. Moreover…
Suddenly, Li Yao’s body was stiffened. He cursed silently.
I was fooled again.
Bai Xinghe gave the Dragon King Battlesuit as well as the map of the underground fortress to me, including the location of Yan Xinjian’s training room, and volunteered to cover our retreat. He also told me the past of Xian Xuance and him…
Everything he did was meant to persuade me to fight against Xiao Xuance and avenge him!
Bai Xinghe knew that, as the Pirate Potentate, even if his plan worked out and he successfully escaped from the underground fortress, he would not be able to compete with Xiao Xuance even if he had all the resources and manpower of Spider Den under his control. If anything, he would only be seen as a greater villain and end up being another medal on Xiao Xuance’s chest!
Therefore, he handed over the ‘mission’ to me!
He knew that ‘Sand Scorpion’, the owner of the Glorious Sunlight Group, is my other identity, and I have a lot to do with Iron Plateau, which means that I can summon tremendous resources and manpower!
He also inferred from the style of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit that another mysterious organization is backing me!
Therefore, it is possible that I can achieve the purpose that he could not!
The cunning bandit was afraid that I would not take the bait. He lured me with the Dragon King Battlesuit and Yan Xinjian’s training room first and made me feel that I owe him. Then he told me the story between Xiao Xuance and him and revealed Xiao Xuance’s real face to trigger my sense of justice.
Then he sacrificed himself to buy us more time, which is another favor that I owe him!
Damn. Everything he did was in order to make to go against Xiao Xuance!
So soon as I had the idea of ‘telling Xiao Xuance’s secret to public’ and Xiao Xuance discovered even a hint of the plot, he would certainly try to kill me to shut my mouth. By then, I and the forces behind me would have to start a total war against Xiao Xuance!
Li Yao was amused. Boss Bai was indeed Boss Bai. At the last moment of his life, he established his final scheme!
However, Li Yao decided to take the bait willingly.
Xiao Xuance, you might have had no choice in the desperate situation after the cosmic storm a hundred years ago.
But right now, the great explosion in the Skyhill Sword Seminar, the countless victims on Iron Plateau, the arrival of extraterrestrial devils in Heavenly Saints City… Everything you did has crossed the line!
If you were really behind everything, I will most certainly unveil your real face. Even though you are in the high level of the Nascent Soul Stage, I will execute you whatever the cost!
Huala!
The pressure was suddenly gone. The drill of mystic rays dug through the last bit of the debris. An empty hallway appeared again!
“Captain, hurry and stabilize the last section. Let’s not get sloppy at the crucial moment!”
While Lei Dalu was strengthening the last section of the pathway, Li Yao turned back and picked up Bai Kaixin, who was still unconscious.
At that moment, Li Yao finally figured out why Bai Xinghe had given the precious crystal suit and the map to him instead of his own son.
He loved his son and did not wish his son to be involved in the dangerous swirl related to Xiao Xuance.
Huala! Huala!
The flood was still striking. The pathway that had just been stabilized was showing signs of collapse again. Rocks and rebars began falling again.
Li Yao tried to cover Bai Kaixin with his body, but rocks weighing hundreds of tons buried his feet when he was about to crawl out of the pathway.
“Captain, get him!”
Li Yao threw Bai Kaixin to Lei Dalu. Then he unsheathed the Feathered Dragon Saber and removed the rocks on his legs bit by bit.
He did not dare to detonate the rocks with his spiritual energy, because he was worried that the gap resulting from the explosion might make even more rocks fall from the ceiling.
Right then—
Crack!
An ominous crack echoed above Li Yao’s head. The flood suddenly turned dirty.
“Not good!”
Li Yao’s pupils shrank violently. Before he had the chance to shout a warning, he sensed that an immense strength had pressed down.
A great mountain seemed to have collapsed and smashed at his head!
Li Yao had no choice but to bellow. His spiritual energy burst out in the mud and flood like a bomb.
It was like quenching one’s thirst with poison. Although some of the space was cleared, more rocks and debris were falling off above his head!
Li Yao could not tell which direction he was heading in. He could only follow the glimmering light in front of him subconsciously. The pathways behind him collapsed one section after another, until it was entirely twisted and broken.
When everything was stabilized again, Li Yao turned around and found that the channel he had gone through all the trouble to dig out had vanished. What he was faced with was scattered rocks.
Chapter 760: No Way Out
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Li Yao’s head was dizzy. He was surrounded by absolute darkness. The warehouses and pathways nearby had been entirely blocked, but new gaps and hollows had also been created by the violent quakes. The flood was squeezed and twisted during the collapses and gave birth to rapid undercurrents, swirls, and bubbles!
The area he was in was both like a maze and swamp. It had been entirely reshaped in the tremors just now.
The furious spiritual energy was spinning around him quickly like ten thousand swirls. Even when he fully released his telepathic thoughts, they were devoured by the swirls, and he could not perceive the surroundings at all.
There was nothing but blank noise in the temporary communication channel. The communication between Lei Dalu and him had been entirely cut off!
It seems that I will have to find another way out. Thankfully, I have the map of the underground fortress. Although the area has collapsed, it is unlikely that the entire underground fortress has been destroyed. There is bound to be a way out.
While Li Yao was pondering, his breath suddenly halted for a moment. His intuition told him that a great danger was coming his way, as if—
A high mountain was crashing at him at a high speed from below the ground!
Gritting his teeth, Li Yao blinked backwards more than a hundred meters in the flood that looked more like mud now.
Another collapse took place here and buried the area where he had been standing earlier. An enormous black shadow appeared out of the broken rocks!
The shadow was dozens of meters long. More than half of it was buried inside the rocks. What was exposed to the air were five thick limbs that were covered in thorns. The lumpy shell of the shadow made it looked no different from a giant rock. However, blood-freezing redness was beaming out of the joints of the shell, which looked like the patterns of a deadly beast.
The translucent, complex eye of the shadow glittered suddenly like clusters of crystals like an enormous spotlight. Li Yao was enshrouded in the thick brightness.
Li Yao spat and finally realized why there would be such uncanny, large-scale collapses.
It was the work of the Lustful Rock Spiders, the enormous beasts lurking on the upper level of the underground fortress!
Even Bai Xinghe, a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, would rather not mess around with them and simply concealed his spiritual energy when he was passing through their hunting range.
It seemed that the changing of routes of the Nether River and the serial explosions in the underground fortress had affected the habitat of the Lustful Rock Spiders too.
Maybe the place it had been lurking in was not appropriate for his survival, or perhaps it had sensed the tremendous spiritual energy spurting out from the fortress and decided to have a good meal. Whatever the reason was, the big monster had sneaked down to the lower level of the fortress, too!
The Lustful Rock Spider was naturally blessed with earth-escaping techniques. The thick rock stratums would not be enough to stop them at all!
“In a head-on clash, the brave one wins. Bring it on!” Li Yao bellowed.
With the chaos in the environment, if he were pushed somewhere else by the Lustful Spider Rock, chances were that the way leading to the Star Prier’s House would be entirely blocked.
He had to kill the monster no matter what and find a way to the Star Prier’s House!
The Feathered Dragon Saber had not resumed the form of a saber yet and remained a drill. A huge amount of spiritual energy was flowing out blatantly, making it looked like a burning torch.
Li Yao gritted his teeth, ready to have a great battle with the Lustful Rock Spider!
Right then, the rocks above his head fell down crazily again, and a giant pillar of thorns revealed itself!
The giant pillar was a limb of another Lustful Rock Spider!
A second Lustful Rock Spider crept out of the rocks!
The majority of the second Lustful Rock Spider was buried inside the rocks. Only a tiny bit of its body was exposed to the air. There was no telling how large it was.
However, the limb that it extended out just now was almost twice as thick as those of the first Lustful Rock Spider!
Cold sweat was pouring off Li Yao’s head.
“Huh. In fact, those who suit their actions to the situation are wise. A tactical retreat when necessary is a smart move under certain circumstances.”
The first Lustful Rock Spider remained absolutely still while it stared at Li Yao with its complex eyes.
Li Yao suddenly felt that something was not right.
After scanning the surroundings with his telepathic thoughts, Li Yao discovered that the defensive paint on the surface of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit was mostly gone, and the flexibility of the super alloys was quickly diminishing!
In other ways, the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit was turning into a rock quickly!
“Petrifying mystic rays!”
Li Yao shuddered heavily.
From the ancient classics he had read, Li Yao knew that a lot of beasts of the earth class in the primordial era, when the universe had just been created, boasted terrifying techniques that could pour spiritual energy of the earth class into the body of other creatures in weird forms through mystic rays and take away their vitality, transforming the victims into stone-like objects.
Those objects were also known as fossils!
The scholars in the world of Cultivators had excavated a lot of fossils, including many strong dinosaurs. Some of them were naturally made, but some others were impossible to have been made in a natural environment from a geographical standpoint. The latter were the masterpieces of the deadly beasts.
Li Yao did not realize that the Lustful Rock Spider could also trigger petrifying mystic rays. It was perhaps because they were the descendants of the primordial beasts and had passed on in the depths of the underground for billions of years!
Huala! Huala! Huala!
Before Li Yao came back to himself from his surprise, another hundred Lustful Rock Spiders that were smaller in size crawled out of the rocks.
The new Lustful Rock Spiders were about the size of Li Yao. They were fast and agile. Wherever Li Yao could enter, they could enter without any trouble, and for the places that Li Yao could not enter, they could still enter through their earth-escaping techniques!
There was only one thought in Li Yao’s brain.
Run!
It seemed that the Lustful Rock Spiders belonged to the same clan. Since their habitat had been destroyed, their entire clan had migrated to look for a new home.
During a migration, it was reasonable that abundant food needed to be stored first.
Hiu! Hiu!
Two small Lustful Rock Spider charged at him, one from the left and the other from right.
Li Yao raised his hands and threw out two crystal bombs, blowing the two Lustful Rock Spiders into pieces.
When he took a breath in relief, thinking that the Lustful Rock Spiders were too fragile, he discovered that the body liquids of the Lustful Rock Spiders would significantly reduce the hardness of his crystal suit when they stained it. The vulnerability of his crystal suit soared as it was doused in the gray bodily fluids, further petrifying!
Damn. They are essentially self-detonating bombs!
Li Yao was caught off guard. One of the power rune arrays of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit had been corrupted by the body liquids of the Lustful Rock Spiders when they exploded. It soon turned into a rock and stopped providing any impetus.
No wonder even Bai Xinghe was not willing to deal with these insects!
Without any hesitation, Li Yao released another hundred crystal bombs, not to trigger explosions, but to freeze the flood in front of him with the tremendous frost rune arrays inside the bombs.
Crack! Crack!
The ice was shattered by the Lustful Rock Spiders within one second. A soul-stirring pursuit was happening in the absolute darkness!
Li Yao could only cry for help. He could not tell where he was and simply rushed forward crazily in the maze-like underground fortress.
When he was slow for several seconds, a few Lustful Rock Spiders would catch up with him, and he would be involved in a harassing battle.
The small Lustful Rock Spiders did not boast high combat abilities, but they would detonate themselves automatically when they were heavily wounded. Their spluttering body liquids were like quick-drying concrete. A tiny speck was enough to seal one of the rune arrays on the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.
The two giant Lustful Rock Spiders, on the other hand, would only show up after a long while.
Every time Li Yao took a breath in relief and thought that he had gotten rid of them, the two Lustful Rock Spiders would suddenly leap out from the rocks and stir up everything around Li Yao!
Bai Xinghe had mentioned that the Lustful Rock Spiders searched for the enemy with spiritual waves. If there were no spiritual waves, they would not be able to detect anything.
Li Yao had the idea that he could risk taking off the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit and concealing all his spiritual energy. Then, he could pretend to be an ordinary person and hide in a corner.
But after hesitating for a long time, he did not have the courage to do so.
Right now, the Lustful Rock Spiders were right behind him, darting petrifying mystic rays at him nonstop. He had only managed to resist their attack with his spiritual shield and his crystal suit.
If he retreated his crystal suit and converged his spiritual energy, turning himself into an ordinary person, his own skin would probably end up become rock when it was scanned by the petrifying mystic rays!
It is not going to work out if I simply keep on running!
Maybe because Li Yao had blown up two Lustful Rock Spiders, or maybe because the spiritual waves from the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit were more intense than those of the other crystal suits, the Lustful Rock Spiders chasing after Li Yao would not let him ago.
After he slayed more than thirty Lustful Rock Spiders, more rune arrays on the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit turned into rock, and the specifications of the crystal suit plummeted.
Li Yao gritted his death. He would be killed sooner or later if he kept running about like a headless chicken.
He had the map of the underground fortress, but the problem was that he did not where he was.
Calculate now!
Li Yao drew the routes that he just ran and compared them with the multiple pathways inside the underground fortress.
He was going in straight lines most of the time, which did not have many features. The crystal processor outputted seven coordinates he could be at after analysis.
Having no other choices, Li Yao could only turn around and circled around at the risk of being corrupted by the Lustful Rock Spiders.
After running three laps, he finally collected enough features to locate his precise coordinates in the map.
I’m now in the southeast corner at the bottom of the underground fortress. There’s a long way to go to the Star Prier’s House. I basically have to cross the entire fortress.
Besides, the Lustful Rock Spiders are right behind me. Even if I’m lucky enough to make my way to the Star Prier’s House, I might not be able to get rid of them.
It will be a major disaster if those bastards rush into the Star Prier’s House!
The last thing Li Yao wanted was for the Star Prier’s House to be destroyed, not only because Lei Dalu and Bai Kaixin were probably hiding in the Star Prier’s House treating their wounds, but also, and, more importantly, because the three hundred super crystal processors of the Star Prier’s House could search for the coordinates of the other Sectors. They were the only hope for him to return to the Heaven’s Origin Sector.
He could not lose them no matter what!
Therefore, until he got rid of the Lustful Rock Spiders, he could not draw close to the Star Prier’s House.
Is there any place nearby where I can keep myself away from the Lustful Rock Spiders?
Li Yao glanced over the important locations on the map of the underground fortress. Finally, his eyes stopped at location at the deepest part of the underground fortress, which had been clearly added most recently.
Li Yao discovered that he was close to Yan Xinjian’s secret training room.
Chapter 761: Out of Expectation
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Li Yao’s interest was aroused. Yan Xinjian had built the secret training room in order to avoid the strike of the apocalypses. Therefore, a lot of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures had been employed. The shell of the training room was made of super alloys and hundreds of layers of defense rune arrays. It was basically indestructible.
Such a shell was designed to resist the apocalypses. The Lustful Rock Spiders could dig through the rocks, but there was no way that they could crawl through the shell of the secret training room.
Should I take the risk?
In the information that Bai Xinghe had transmitted to Li Yao, the method to open the secret training room was included.
However, the methods had been left by Yan Xinjian, so there could be hidden traps in the method.
Li Yao had experienced quite a few similar traps. His first encounter with Ou Yezi, his adventure on Boneyard, which almost destroyed the Heaven’s Origin Sector and forced Li Yao to roam in the sea of stars and end up in the Flying Star Sector, and so on.
BOOM! BOOM!
Another violent earthquake took place. The two Lustful Rock Spiders seemed to have gone crazy because they had been chasing their prey for too long. They raised a storm in the rock stratum above Li Yao’s head.
There’s no time to consider any of that now.
As the Lustful Rock Spiders caused havoc, the pathways and warehouses marked on the map were all demolished. The map would soon be useless in guiding him.
The performance of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit continued dropping because of the petrifying mystic rays. Li Yao was not sure whether the weakening was permanent or not. But apparently, the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit could not be recovered for now.
In another five minutes, when all the pathways collapsed, he would not be able to run to Yan Xinjian’s secret training room even if he wanted to!
Yan Xinjian was a human being, not an ancient demon. Even though he was in the Nascent Soul Stage, it’s been five hundred years, and he is probably as dead as anyone can ever be right now.
Even if his remaining soul still lingers, should I really worry about that? There is nothing in my brain but soul remnants!
Li Yao thought quickly and made up his mind. He sprinted toward a pathway on the left leading downwards.
Two small Lustful Rock Spiders popped up on his way, only to be chopped in half by him. The bodily fluids they spurted out corrupted yet another three rune arrays on the surface of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.
As he moved violently, cracking noises were echoing on the surface of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, and the crisp camouflage dropped off one piece after another.
Li Yao had no time to check his crystal suit. Guided by the map, he dashed to a secondary warehouse at the bottom level of the underground fortress quickly.
He then crawled into a secret maintenance room through the ventilation tube in the northwest corner of the warehouse.
After passing through the maintenance room, Li Yao reached a dormitory for soldiers that was only half completed. The other half of the dormitory was a dark cave.
Upon first inspection, this place was the end of the underground fortress whose construction was concluded in too much of a hurry.
Li Yao glanced around. Almost a hundred stalactites were dangling down from the top of the cave, emitting colorful brilliance.
On the corresponding locations on the ground were thick stalagmites.
Li Yao found one of the stalagmites and rotated it 180 degrees quietly.
The stalactites above his head suddenly shone brightly. Almost a hundred mystic rays popped up an formed a thousand unpredictable patterns that were a password rune array.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Li Yao felt as if he were standing in the stomach of an enormous beast. The cave was shaking crazily.
The two giant Lustful Rock Spiders must have sensed Li Yao’s spiritual waves and were marching toward him rapidly.
Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!
Li Yao felt that his heart was being burnt. Before the light beam was fully unfolded, his right hand had already input a series of passwords.
He only hoped that the password was true now. He was ready to take any of Yan Xinjian’s ill intentions as long as he was permitted into the room right now!
Beep! Beep! Beep!
As the password was typed in, the light beam turned from scarlet into emerald.
Chi—
On the ground, all the stalagmites kept swirling nonstop. Hundreds of giant screws seemed to be rising slowly from the floor.
Li Yao had not been excited for half a second yet, when two extremely thick insect limbs darted out of the rocks and pierced into the floor, brushing past the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, leaving two deep scratches on the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit and nearly piercing Li Yao.
Dozens of small Lustful Rock Spiders crawled out of the rocks along the two limbs and lunged at Li Yao crazily!
Li Yao had no more options. At the risk of the shell of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit being seriously corroded, he waved his blade into a tornado and slayed more than ten Lustful Rock Spiders within a breath.
Before the shell of the crystal suit was fully petrified, he crashed toward the inner inside of the cave.
Chi…
A gap was opened slowly in the darkness in the depths of the cave. Inside the gap was a mix of greenish, bluish, and reddish colors.
A weird wind blew through the cave. It was not very chilly, but Li Yao shuddered.
By this point, there was no way to retreat now. Li Yao summoned his courage and dashed into the gap. He rolled on the ground and split off into seven clones that charged toward the deeper part of the training room from various directions, while his real body stopped right near the door.
As his clones lunged in, squeaking noises echoed inside the secret training room. There were also weird cries of children and sounds of cans and bottles being knocked over.
The door was not completely closed yet. More than ten Lustful Rock Spiders took the opportunity to march in. What was more horrible that the two giant Lustful Rock Spiders had caught up, too!
“Hiss! Hiss!”
The two giant beasts were too large to crawl into the secret training room, but they bashed against the training room hard like two crystal trains while they shrieked in such a high voice that Li Yao’s eardrums felt as if they were being torn apart. They also extended two thick limbs into the door, stopping it from being closed.
I have to shut the door!
Li Yao gritted his teeth and tried to slash the obstacles, only to be harassed by the ten or so small Lustful Rock Spiders that had already gotten into the room.
He meant to take down the small Lustful Rock Spiders first, but the two insect limbs were like two sharp sickles that were clattering loudly ready to reap his life anytime.
Moreover, the two giant Lustful Rock Spiders were crouching right outside the door of the training room. Their complex eyes were projecting mystic rays into the room from various angles.
If the mystic rays covered the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, its defense ability would be greatly diminished!
While Li Yao was in a flurry, hundreds of light spots suddenly darted from the depths of the training room toward the outside as fast as lightning!
Li Yao was dazed, suspecting that his eyes were deceiving him. It was not Yan Xinjian’s remaining soul that appeared in front of his eyes but… hundreds of mice!
Fluffy, white mice with a golden stripe from head to tail on their back!
Such mice were formally known as ‘Golden Stripe Mice’. It was a commonly seen animal for experimental purposes because of their keen sense of spiritual energy.
Many Cultivators would try a lot of extreme methods when they were trying to break into a higher level. They often ran experiments on the mice first.
Therefore, it was not unusual for there to be so many mice in Yan Xinjian’s secret training room.
They must have been brought into the training room by him five hundred years ago. Even if he had only brought ten of them in the beginning, five hundred years was more than enough for them to reproduce into a clan of thousands of members.
What dumbfounded Li Yao was that the mice were not naked but covered in tiny ‘robes’. They looked hilarious.
Many mice were also wearing delicate ‘armor’ over their robes. They were also holding ‘flying swords’ that looked like needles in their paws and tails.
Not just that. The mice were classified into six teams according to the colors on their robes. Although they were apparently not well trained, they moved and attacked in an organized fashion. They looked like six funny troops.
The mice that were wearing ‘robes’ and holding ‘flying swords’ were squeaking. Their noises were even mixed with the sound of the human language.
Li Yao listened carefully. He heard that they were all shouting, “Let’s get out! Let’s get out! It’s been five hundred years. The door is finally opened!”
Every mouse was smaller than Li Yao’s fist, but they were releasing rather impressive spiritual energy. The ‘captain’ of every mice team even had the spiritual energy equal to that of a Cultivator in the Refinement Stage.
They caught the Lustful Rock Spiders’ attention the moment they showed up.
Compared to the tricky Li Yao, those mice were apparently much more delicious and suitable food.
Most of the Lustful Rock Spiders abandoned Li Yao and turned to attack the mice.
The Lustful Rock Spiders and the mice had a fierce confrontation.
The limbs of the Lustful Rock Spiders were sharp. They could kill a mouse after stabbing their body. Very soon, they kept almost ten mice on their sharp limbs.
The mice, on the other hand, were quick and agile. The few mice in the lead were even able to perform certain techniques. While the Lustful Rock Spiders were attacking their companions, they crawled to top of the Lustful Rock Spiders’ bodies.
They stabbed their needle-like flying swords deep down their feeble complex eyes. Then, they waved their paws crazily, made the gestures, and cast the spells. Their ‘flying swords’ immediately rushed inside the Lustful Rock Spiders’ bodies.
Soon, a few Lustful Rock Spiders collapsed and stopped moving.
While the Lustful Rock Spiders were being harassed by the mice, Li Yao, having no time to feel surprised, quickly dashed to the door. He raised the Feathered Dragon Saber high above his head and chopped the giant limbs that blocked the door brutally!
All his strength had been condensed in the attack. After the flash of the saber, the limbs were broken, and bodily fluid was jetting everywhere!
The two giant Lustful Rock Spiders stepped back amid screams. The door was finally closed.
The rune arrays carved behind the door emitting dazzling brilliance. They revolved for a moment, and the door closed up without leaving the slightest gap.
BOOM! BOOM!
The two Lustful Rock Spiders burst into fury outside the room. They were bashing and gnawing at the wall hard.
However, when the door was closed, the quakes were much less violent. Only when Li Yao stuck his hands to the wall could he vaguely sense the feeble shaking.
Li Yao finally had the chance to catch his breath. He turned around and discovered that the hundreds of mice, as owners of the place, had slayed all the remaining Lustful Rock Spiders after sacrificing dozens of their companions.
The hundreds of mice were all glimmering in different colors according to the ‘robes’ on their bodies. The colors that Li Yao saw through the gap in the beginning were in fact from them.
The mice formed a battle formation and surrounded Li Yao. They drew close to him while they creaked crazily!
Chapter 762: Mice
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Ten thousand meters below the ground, inside a training room of a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, five hundred aggressive mice were wearing armor and holding flying swords, yelling and shouting angrily.
The scene was both weird and funny. Li Yao did not know what to do for a moment.
Of the hundreds of mice here, even the strongest were merely equal to the Cultivators in the Refinement Stage Cultivators. Li Yao would not have been scared even if the mice were sprinting forward and attacking him together.
However, the mutation of the mice probably had a lot to do with Yan Xinjian’s training room. Li Yao did not intend to execute all the mice without knowing what had happened here.
Li Yao raised his alert and observed them.
Seeing that the door behind Li Yao was closed again, the mice were all jumping up and down while they shouted angrily.
The mice that were emitting orange colors, which made them appear to be burning, were the most outraged. They waved ‘needles’ and made gestures to point the weapons forward, while they bellowed, “Open the door. Open the door! I am the best expert of the Flying Star Sector. If you don’t open the door, I will crush you into pieces instantly!”
The mice that were emitting green colors were gentler. They twisted and said with an alluring voice, “You came to this place because you saw my notes? Wonderful. Come on and inherit my knowledge and the unparalleled techniques… However, open the door first. It’s too dark here. Too choking!”
The mice that were emitting crimson colors, which were twisting like weird flames ,drooled while they stared at Li Yao maliciously. They squeaked, “What a healthy body! Offer it to me. Possession! I’m going to possess your body!”
The mice that were emitting blue colors, in the meantime, held their head in their hands and said lethargically, “It’s hopeless! It’s hopeless! He cannot open the door! He can’t! We are going to be locked here for another five hundred years!”
The mice that were emitting black colors were grasped by desperation. They craned their necks and burst into creepy laughter. “It’s useless. We can’t run out. Even if we get out of here, where can we run to? It’s too large. It’s too dark. There’s nowhere to run to. Nowhere to run to!”
Another several mice that were emitting gentle white colors were leaning against the wall. They mumbled to themselves, “Xiao Yu, Xiao Yu, I shouldn’t have killed you. I miss you so much, Xiao Yu…”
The hundreds of mice in different appearances baffled Li Yao. He had a weird feeling that they were not mice but human beings with real emotions and feelings.
Li Yao could not help but ask, “Who are you?”
The mice fell silent for a moment. Then they started shouting at the same time, simmering, on the tip of their feet, with their tails straightened.
“I am Yan Xinjian, the best expert of the Flying Star Sector!”
“I am the supreme space pirate Yan Xinjian!”
“I am Yan Xinjian, the vice commander of the coalition fleet of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City!”
“I am Yan Xinjian!”
“I am Yan Xinjian!”
All the mice were yelling. Li Yao noticed that the mice whose ‘robes’ and ‘armor’ were more glamorous had higher Cultivation and clearer tones.
In the meantime, the mice that had little clothing on their body were only shouting fuzzily. Their voices were little more than a normal mouse’s cry, except it could rise and fall in pitch, and they tried to utter ‘Yan Xinjian’.
However, were these mice all Yan Xinjian?
Li Yao could not figure out what had happened.
When he decided to risk entering Yan Xinjian’s training room, he had been prepared to have a huge fight with Yan Xinjian’s remaining soul. He would not have been surprised to see any abrupt changes, but he had never thought that he would be faced with so many mice.
Li Yao tried to hold back his laughter and said, “There are so many of you here. Which of you is Yan Xinjian exactly?”
His words raised a riot among the mice. All of them craned their necks and jumped crazily, while they shouted, “I am Yan Xinjian. I am the real Yan Xinjian. They are all frauds. They are all my clones!”
While they were arguing, they started to fight among themselves!
The mice emitting orange colors were the largest in number. They waved their needles and triggered sword auras the size of one’s finger, while they pierced and slashed the other mice. They shouted, “I am Yan Xinjian, the best expert of the Flying Star Sector. You are all my clones. You are all fakes. Only I am true! I’m going to swallow all of you! All of you!”
The mice emitting green colors confronted the red mice. “Damn. You are just my clones and part of my desire. I am the real Yan Xinjian!
“I am not just the best expert of the Flying Star Sector. I am also going to unite the entire Flying Star Sector and become the king of it. Just behave and become one with me!”
The mice that where emitting white colors cried nearby and shouted, “I am Yan Xinjian. I am the original Yan Xinjian. I am the real Yan Xinjian! I don’t want to be the best expert of the Flying Star Sector. I don’t want to be the king of the Flying Star Sector. I just want Xiao Yu to be alive again. I just want Xiao Yu to be alive! It’s all your fault! You killed Xiao Yu!”
The red mice and the green mice stopped fighting and stabbed their needles at the white mice. “It’s your fault! It’s your fault! If you did not think of the bi*ch at the critical moment and disrupt my thoughts, would I have become mentally deranged, would my breakthrough have failed, and would I have ended up like this?”
The mice that were emitting dense black colors and wreathed in desperation were sitting in the middle of the chaos. They gazed at the ceiling and smiled dumbly, while they murmured, “It’s hopeless. It’s hopeless. It’s too vast. It’s too dark. There’s no way to get out. There’s no way to get out.”
The mice in different colors all claimed that they were the real Yan Xinjian. The more they talked, they angrier they became. The more they argued, the higher their voices got. In the end, all of them were fighting against each other.
Their needle-like flying swords were flying crazily everywhere. Spiritual energy the size of fingernails was bursting out like bombs. The mice were not horsing around at all but were fighting a life-and-death battle that was even crueler than the fight against the Lustful Rock Spiders.
Very soon, dead bodies of the mice were lying everywhere on the ground.
However, before each mouse was stabbed through and killed on the spot, a tiny wave would spread of their brain and go to the depths of the training room.
Li Yao could see now that the mice were holding ‘flying swords’ and wearing armor not because they were trying to resist the intruders but because they had been in a constant internal strife for hundreds of years.
The mice were so devoted to their fight that they completely ignored Li Yao.
Li Yao’s curiosity was aroused. He explored the training room and those brainwaves.
Yan Xinjian’s secret training room was in a shape of a ball. It was surrounded by a shell of indestructible shell made of super alloys and divided into three levels.
The top level was the living area, but it was now full of tiny buildings that looked both like a honeycomb and a palace.
They were the bureaus of the mice. Countless mice were crawling in and out of the buildings. Li Yao felt that his head was dizzy just looking at them.
The brainwaves returned to the buildings. Very soon, a new mouse crawled out of the buildings, with the brightness of wisdom in their eyes, while they waved and danced crazily as if they were drunk.
Possession?
The souls of the dead mice return to this place and occupies the body of another mouse.
Li Yao thought of something and realized that the jibber-jabber of the mice might not have been complete nonsense.
Behind the buildings were enormous iron cages in which more mice were locked.
They were all normal mice, animals without the slightest wisdom.
The entire living area has been modified into a kingdom of mice. Yan Xinjian is probably already dead.
Li Yao realized that, whether Yan Xinjian was good or evil, he must have the aura and demeanor of a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator. If he were alive, there was no way that he would allow those mice to blemish his training room.
But Li Yao did not relax and entered the middle level carefully.
The second level took up the most area of the training room. It was the warehouse of materials.
A Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator need to consume astronomical crystals and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures in order to break into the Divinity Transformation Stage. The resources that Yan Xinjian had collected and looted on Spider Den five hundred years ago were all stored here for his usage during the breakthrough.
Hiss!
So many Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures were glittering right in front of Li Yao’s face like a spectacular thicket of coral. Li Yao was fascinated by the brilliance and gasped, his heart almost jumping out of his throat.
Although he was a refiner, he had never seen such abundant treasures before!
A third of the materials here were available neither in the Heaven’s Origin Sector or in the Flying Star Sector. Even in Ou Yezi’s memory pieces, they were only briefly mentioned but never really showed up!
Yan Xinjian indeed went through a lot of trouble to break into the Divinity Transformation Stage. The entirety of Spider Den must’ve been exploited by him!
No. Spider Den alone could not boast such a large quantity of exotic treasures. Right. They must be from the underground fortress!
How could the underground fortress left by the Star Ocean Imperium really be empty?
Even though the traps and the magical equipment were damaged during the ten thousand years, Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures would not decay so easily!
Five hundred years ago, Yan Xinjian was the first to enter the underground fortress. He must have moved all the valuable Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures from the underground fortress to this place!
That was why Bai Xinghe found no valuable items when he entered the underground fortress again five hundred years later!
But as it turned out, I am the one to take all the advantage now!
Li Yao swallowed hard. Flames were almost spurting out of his nostrils.
His training methods were different from normal. Forming the core for him was as difficult as breaking into the Nascent Soul Stage for other Cultivators.
Before, he did not have enough resources and opportunities. He had been wandering around the Core Formation Stage but could not find a way to get in. Although the superlative height of the Building Foundation Stage granted him the combat ability above the peak of the Core Formation Stage, he was not really in the peak of the Core Formation Stage after all!
With so many Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures in this place, he was definitely going to soar into sky!
However, there were traces of gnawing on many Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. Li Yao pondered for a moment and realized that it must have been the mice.
What is the relationship between the mice and Yan Xinjian exactly?
Li Yao considered carefully while he explored the warehouse of materials. When he reached the southwest corner of the warehouse, his heart, eyes, and brain froze almost simultaneously.
A man was gazing at him in the darkness with his eyes wide open!
Chapter 763: Essence of the Star Ocean Imperium!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Li Yao was so scared that he almost slashed the Feathered Dragon Saber instinctively.
He had just scanned the entire training room with his telepathic thoughts and sensed no hints of experts, but the man had been lurking in the darkness, gazing at him, for such a long time without being discovered by him.
After releasing nine layers of spiritual shields instantly, Li Yao felt safer. He calmed himself down and looked carefully, only to find that he was being paranoid. The man he saw was not alive, but a corpse soaked in a crystal flume.
The crystal flume was like a translucent coffin that was filled with bright green preservative liquid. The corpse, covered in a mustard-seed suit, was standing inside.
In the darkness, the preservative liquid was emitting mysterious fluorescence, making the body seem to be alive. Creepy scents were spreading out of the dead body.
Li Yao’s pounding heart gradually calmed down. He discovered that the preservative liquid was quite dirty. There was damage over the entire body, and even the mustard-seed suit was riddled with holes because of biting.
All was likely the mice’s doing.
Even the eyelids of the corpse had been torn away by the mice, making the man literally ‘dying with eyes open’. That was why he was ‘gazing’ at Li Yao in the darkness all the time.
He is…
Li Yao thought of something. Although the body had been seriously damaged, he could tell from the facial structure of the body that it was similar to Yan Xinjian’s appearance in many pictures.
Besides, there could not be a second man who showed up in the secret training room without a reason and whose body was carefully preserved other than Yan Xinjian.
The best expert of the Flying Star Sector five hundred years ago, the unparalleled expert who had the chance to break into the Divinity Transformation Stage, Yan Xinjian, died just like that, in a world of darkness ten thousand meters below the ground, and turned into a cold body that was gnawed at by mice. Even his eyelids have gone.
Li Yao had complicated feelings.
In order to break into the Divine Transformation Stage, Yan Xinjian had indeed made full preparations. He had even taken the resistance of apocalypses into consideration.
However, he had still failed in the end. He perished, his Cultivation gone, and mice even insulted his body after he died.
Bai Xinghe said that everything Yan Xinjian did, including killing his wife and the family of his leader, was perhaps a disguise to cover his real purpose, which was to explore the underground of Spider Den for treasures.
If Yan Xinjian had known that this would be his ending after he abandoned everything and went through all the trouble, I wonder, would he have given up his dignity and his career?
Li Yao sighed. He could not help but recall the mice that were emitting white brightness. They were like men living in pain who kept reciting their late wife’s name in regret.
Li Yao was more and more eager to know what had happened inside the secret training room for five hundred years.
How did Yan Xinjian die? Where were those mice that could spoke human language from?
Li Yao looked at the back of the crystal flume and found that a lot of debris of magical equipment was piled up in the corner. After examining for a while, he decided that they were the scraps of several artificial bodies.
Artificial bodies were different from the spiritual puppets. They were specially refined to serve as bodies for spectral Cultivators. Therefore, the specifications of the crystal processor and the overall structure were slightly different. As a seasoned refiner, Li Yao recognized what the objects were quickly.
Scraps of so many artificial bodies?
Was there once a strong spectral Cultivator in this place
Right. Right. Yan Xinjian must’ve been smart enough to foresee that he might die during the breakthrough. But one’s soul would not necessarily go immediately after they died. So, he prepared a lot of artificial bodies in case he perished unfortunately during the breakthrough. Thus, he still had the chance to be transformed into a spectral Cultivator and continue his training!
However, ghosts have their longevity, too. Five hundred years is too long. Even the strongest spectral Cultivators gradually disperse, and all their brainwaves quiet down in the end. When that happens, it marks the arrival of their real ‘death’.
Li Yao held back his curiosity and kept exploring.
At the bottom of the training room was the true training area, which was divided into two areas, training and meditation.
Li Yao was faced with a whole lot of bizarre-shaped training facilities as if he had been placed in the middle of an iron forest. He was so thrilled that he was about to cry.
So many powerful training facilities. They are all invaluable treasures!
Li Yao held his breath, his hands shaking. He touched the cold shell of the training facilities carefully, especially the Red Dragon Swallowing the Sun pattern, which was the battle emblem of the Star Ocean Imperium.
They are the training facilities of the military. Judging from the patterns next to the battle emblems, they are prepared for high-level officers. Only real experts in the military were qualified to use them!
Right. The underground fortress above my head was the last stronghold of the Flying Star Sector. In the plan, countless experts would have gathered and fought in this place. Therefore, it is only natural that advanced training facilities were constructed deep inside the fortress!
Yan Xinjian selected all the usable training facilities five hundred years ago and moved them here!
Also, the Fire Stealers five thousand years ago, who were the predecessors of the space pirates, stole a lot of the most advanced training facilities when then carried out ‘Plan Prometheus’. They must have brought the stolen goods to Spider Den in the end. Eventually, Yan Xinjian, as the supreme space pirate, got took all of them and transferred them here!
Therefore, the training room is the essence of the underground fortress, no, the essence of Spider Den!
Li Yao was like a rat that had fallen into a tank of rice. He was flushed with excitement and did not even know where to put his hands.
This training machine can release hundreds of ‘tiny ball lightnings’ no larger than one millimeter in diameter instantly. When the ball lightnings are imported into the limbs and organs, the acupoints will be stimulated and the body will be built up. It must be hundreds of times more effective than the common ‘electric arc training equipment’!
This training machine can simulate 150 times standard gravity? That’s awesome!
Hiss. This training machine can stimulate the trainer’s brain directly and simulate the battle scenes of a hundred experts in the Star Ocean Imperium in their brain. The trainer will be fighting against the experts in the deep meditative state!
This training machine is even more powerful than a furnace. It can create an environment of any temperature between absolute zero and five thousand degrees. The trainer will be able to train in the burning heat or the freezing cold!
As a training maniac and a crazy fan of magical equipment, Li Yao felt his soul shivering and his blood boiling when he read the introductions that were as glamorous as flowers on the training machines.
The meditation chamber at the bottom was an even bigger eye-opener for him.
The meditation chamber was not very large. Li Yao could only cram himself in, and he could only sit cross-legged after he entered it.
Dense runes the size of the heads of flies were carved on the smooth walls. When Li Yao sat at the center of the chamber, they immediately started humming.
Every rune turned into a dancing, brilliant butterfly and flew into Li Yao’s brain swiftly.
Li Yao’s consciousness was pumped away from his body. It left Spider Den and the Flying Star Sector at a speed higher than that of light and returned to the Heaven’s Origin Sector, to his past.
The teachings of so many seniors and masters during his growth popped up inside his brain again.
The mechanisms of training, formulas, and techniques that had troubled him before were now as obvious and understandable as one plus one equaling two.
The details of the bloody battles he experienced occurred to him again.
It was like the review of a fierce chess game after the game was completed. Li Yao reflected on all the battles that he had participated in and thought of dozens of new ways of fighting instantly.
During the ‘Limit Challenge Competition’ that I took part in on the Devil Flood Dragon Island, although I was on a killing spree with the backdoors I left on the contestants’ magical equipment, such a way of fighting was not the most efficient. If I had adopted this strategy, this strategy, and this strategy… I might have been able to achieve better results!
I once encountered Wang Ji, a silver-blood demon and the prince of the Kingdom of Lion Butchers, in the Thunderous Sound Mountain. At that time, I could do nothing except run away. But now that I think of it, if I had selected apposite tactics, there would have been a one percent likelihood that I could have reversed the situation and executed Wang Ji!
In the battle versus Skeleton Dragon…
During the fight against Fengyu Zhong…
Li Yao only planned to have a try of Yan Xinjian’s training facilities briefly, but he found it hard to stop when he got started. When he was back to himself, he realized that three hours had passed.
Unbelievable. Truly unbelievable. I have sorted through most of my combat experience in three hours of meditation inside this chamber. My tactical choices are clearer now, and I have a deeper understanding about the utilization of spiritual energy!
Although my strength is not improved, my wisdom as to how to use the strength has been significantly improved!
Before Li Yao left the meditation chamber unwillingly, Li Yao carefully studied the surroundings and discovered that the entire chamber was made of an intact, flawless black jade.
The jade was about five meters in diameter. A hollow around two meters in diameter had been made in the middle and was a natural space for meditation.
Li Yao had never seen such weird jade before. He thought hard and compared it with all the jade materials in Ou Yezi’s memory pieces. Still, he got nothing.
It was possible that the jade was from the outer space and was unique in the world of Cultivators. No wonder it was built into a meditation chamber by Yan Xinjian.
After three hours of fighting, the living area was already brimming with bodies. Even the most ferocious red mice were showing signs of exhaustion.
When Li Yao showed up again, the mice all crowded toward him like a tide.
The red mice roared, “I am Yan Xinjian. I demand that you kill all the rebels right now, or I will blow you to smithereens together with them!”
The green mice responded, “I am the real Yan Xinjian. They are all fakes. Just kill all of them right now. I will teach you all my techniques. Hahahaha!”
The purple mice negotiated, “I am Yan Xinjian. Young man, I can see that your body is quite good. Why don’t you lend it to me for a while? When I am out of the place, I will find a way return it to you. You can’t get out of the place without me. You can’t!”
The depressed blue mice were still leaning against wall while moaning, “It’s useless. Nobody is going to get out. Never going out!”
The few white mice were crouching in a corner. They dragged their voice and cried loudly, “Xiao Yu, I shouldn’t have killed you. I’m so regretful. I’m so regretful…”
Chapter 764: Dead End
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
The hundreds of mice creaked while they crawled on Li Yao’s body along his legs. They were like the soldiers of Lilliput climbing on a giant that looked like a mountain.
Li Yao frowned. His spiritual energy surged out and blew the mice off his body. Countless mice fell to the ground in an utter mess. The red mice were jumping angrily, the green mice were screaming, and the blue mice were laughing creepily. The room was like a boiling teapot, and Li Yao felt that his head was dizzy because of all the noise.
Li Yao glared and bellowed, “Stop yelling!”
His spiritual energy spread out like tide, mixed with sharp killing intent.
The mice shivered and looked at each other in bewilderment. Most of the mice did not dare to move anymore, but the red mice were still shaking their heads and wagging their tails, bluffing.
Right then, the training room shook violently again. An earsplitting explosion took place outside.
Li Yao stuck his ear to the door and listened carefully. Dull noises were echoing outside, as if countless rocks were collapsing. Half a minute later, there was nothing but dead silence. He could not even hear the two Lustful Rock Spiders now.
The two Lustful Rock Spiders burst into fury because they could not crash into the training room. Therefore, they simply collapsed the cave above the training room and tried to bury me alive.
Li Yao inferred such from the sounds.
It was within Li Yao’s expectations, so he was not very worried.
Such forced collapses were not solid and gapless. With the drill of mystic rays, he could always dig through the obstacles slowly if he had one month.
I’ve been here for more than three hours, and I don’t feel short of air at all. It seems that the air recycling rune arrays are still functioning normally.
Also, since so many mice are living in this place, there must be abundant air, water, and food.
It was rather chaotic outside. Li Yao wondered whether or not Lei Dalu and Bai Kaixin had successfully made it to the Star Prier’s House when the two Lustful Rock Spiders were attracted to him.
Even if they had fled, there were still thousands of space pirates and Immortal Cultivators on the ground who would not leave in another month or two.
Therefore, it might not be a bad idea to lie low there for a while.
But there was one question…
How can I open the door of the secret training room?
Li Yao frowned. The door he had entered through had blended into the wall after flashes of rune arrays. There was not the tiniest gap right now.
The wall seemed to be made of a certain super alloy. Li Yao took off his gloves and groped with his fingers for a long time. He did not find any gaps or holes at all.
He scratched the wall hard with the Feathered Dragon Saber and only managed to scrape off some powder after working hard for a long time.
Li Yao picked up the powder and put it below his nose, before he sniffed and examined it. However, he could not discern the elements of the super alloy at all.
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao stored the powder carefully and planned to investigate further with magical equipment later. Then, he took a few steps back and punched the wall hard with all his spiritual energy.
BOOM!
As he expected, the surging spiritual energy was like a bull made of mud that was pushed into an ocean. It did not raise the slightest ripple and was devoured by the wall without leaving any traces.
This is getting tricky.
In order to avoid the apocalypses, Yan Xinjian must have built the training room with the hardest super alloy with countless defense rune arrays embedded in between.
How can I break the shell of the training room with my brute force when even an apocalypse might not be able to?
In the notes that Yan Xinjian left, there were only methods to enter the training room. He did not mention how to exit it. It seems that special passwords, gestures, or even Cultivation arts are required if one wants to open the door from the inside!
Li Yao quickly thought of what the blue mice had said.
“We can’t get out. We can never get out!”
Li Yao raised his hands. His spiritual energy swept across the mice.
The mice quickly dispersed, but a red mouse, a green mouse, and a blue mouse were snatched by him.
Li Yao opened his hands and exerted his strength slightly. The three mice immediately started squeaking.
“How should the door be opened?” Li Yao asked coldly.
The red mouse was so outraged that the messy hair on the top of its head stood on end. It was trying to stab Li Yao’s fingers with the ‘needles’.
However, it was held one foot away from Li Yao, and due to the shortness of its limbs, it was not able to touch Li Yao’s fingers. It was so angry, and its whiskers were shaking violently, while it declared, “I am the best expert of the Flying Star Sector. How dare you insult me like that? Put me down now, or I will chop off your head with just one move!”
The green mouse struggled hard, with the most cunning expression on its face. It shrieked, “Put me down! The door can only be opened with the ‘Dream Breaking Arts’. You can’t get out of the place without my help! Put me down. I’ll teach you the Dream Breaking Arts, but you need to bring me out together, and you must help me to eliminate all the fakes!”
The blue mouse, on the other hand, only laughed miserably. “Don’t believe me. Don’t believe me! I’ve forgotten. I’ve forgotten the Dream Breaking Arts. We can’t get out! We can’t!”
Li Yao pulled the green mouse closer and asked, “What are the Dream Breaking Arts? A secret technique of Yan Xinjian’s? Tell me everything that you know!”
The green mouse rolled its eyeballs crazily and scratched his cheeks, stammering, but it failed to come up with anything.
“Huh?”
Li Yao was angry. His telepathic thoughts struck the green mouse’s brain like a lightning, which was so painful that the green mouse’s limbs were all cramping. Its tail rigid, the green mouse held its head and screamed, “I forgot. I’ve forgotten. I’ve forgotten the Dream Breaking Arts. Ahhh!”
“Hehehehe!” The red mice laughed.
“Hahahaha!” The blue mice chuckled.
“Huhuhuhu!” The black mice giggled.
“Xiao Yu, where are you? Don’t leave me. Xiao Yu…” The mice that were emitting white colors were still crouching in the corner lethargically, as if they saw none of what was happening in front of them, while they called a woman’s name nonstop.
Li Yao spat in his heart and threw the green mouse away. He captured several more mice, but the results were the same.
The red mice were arrogant and bad-tempered. They considered themselves to be the best expert of the Flying Star Sector and would rather die before they surrendered. They would resist without caring about anything, even when they were completely suppressed by him, and were not willing to cooperate with him at all.
The blue mice and the black mice acted like there was nothing in the world that they cherished. They kept reciting ‘we can’t get out’. When Li Yao pushed further, they simply craned their necks and stared at Li Yao indifferently.
The green mice were very willing to cooperate, but they seemed to have really forgotten the Dream Breaking Arts and could not provide anything of value at all, even though they were quite enthusiastic in negotiating with Li Yao.
Li Yao was as busy as a bee for half an hour. The hair of those mice was all over his body, but he did not collect any useful information at all.
In the beginning, Li Yao had thought that the mice had wisdom and could be spoken to sensibly. But after further communication, Li Yao discovered, to his disappointment, that their brain capacity was limited after all and that they could only repeat the several sentences. When the topic was outside that range, their nature would be immediately revealed, and they did not understand what he was talking at all.
Realizing that he would not get anything from the mice, Li Yao could only turn back and continue his searching.
Soon, he found the air-cleaning rune arrays and water-cleaning rune arrays.
Other than the primary ones, there were also two sets of supply rune arrays and countless components for repairs. Their structure was very simple. Even outsiders could repair or replace them very easily.
Yan Xinjian planned to lurk below the ground for decades. If anything happened to him, he might even have needed to live on in the form of a spectral Cultivator for hundreds of years. Therefore, he had everything set.
Even a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator could not hold their breath for decades. They would be zombies if so!
It was good news for Li Yao.
He examined the two rune arrays carefully. Judging from the level of damage, they could function normally for at least another several decades and provide sufficient water and air.
Then, Li Yao found the food storage room on the right side of the warehouse of materials.
A huge number of high-nutrition drugs, edible and dehydrated Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, the meat of eccentric beasts, and a lot of fresh food preserved by the refreshing rune arrays were placed in this room.
Most of the food was sealed in cans, especially the high-nutrition drugs and the dehydrated ingredients. They could be stored for hundreds of years without decaying.
The fresh meat, on the other hand, had holes all over them. It seemed that the mice had been living on the meat over the past hundred years.
Yan Xinjian was in the Nascent Soul Stage. His appetite must be a lot higher than mine.
He stored enough food for a hundred years. Then, it was unfortunate of him to have perished and turned into a spectral Cultivator. Spectral Cultivators do not need food or water and can be sustained with crystals only. Therefore, a huge amount of food has been left in this place.
Air, water, and food were all sufficient. Li Yao was greatly relieved. He began to search for a second exit.
Yan Xinjian prepared to live here for decades. The garbage and the defecations had to be dumped in a certain way. So, there must be a certain exit in this place!
Li Yao examined the training room carefully and finally found the channel for garbage and defecations an hour later.
However, the channel gave him a headache.
It did not lead to the outside world but an incinerator nearby.
The garbage and defecations would be burnt into ash in the incinerator, and the ash would be blown away by the rune arrays of the wind class later.
There were nine tubes to discharge the ash, all of which were the size of fingers. There was no way that a human being could crawl out through them.
This is a dead end. I have to leave through the front door.
There are only two ways to leave through the front door. Firstly, I can blow up the door with strength that is even higher than that of a minor apocalypse.
Or secondly, I have to find out what exactly the Dream Breaking Arts is.
Li Yao found almost twenty crystal processors in the training room.
However, except for the mainframe crystal processors controlling the various rune arrays inside the training room, which boasted tight defense rune arrays that blocked them from the mice, the other crystal processors had been mostly deformed by the mice.
But it was not a problem for Li Yao. He unplugged the storage chips of the broken crystal processors and studied the structure of rune arrays for half a day to determine the storage mechanism.
Then, he assembled a small convertor and connected the storage chips to the crystal processor of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.
Let me see what Yan Xinjian has left in his crystal processors!
Li Yao rubbed his hands. His telepathic thoughts rushed into Yan Xinjian’s storage chips along the crystal processor.
Chapter 765: Yan Xinjian’s Training Log
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
The storage chips did not have any passwords or barriers. Li Yao’s trouble in cracking them was saved.
Several storage chips had been left with a few holes by the mice. The information contained in them was incomplete.
However, the remaining ocean of information was already a great eye-opener for Li Yao, who felt that he had climbed on a mountain of treasures.
Most of the jade chips recorded Yan Xinjian’s training notes. They were the detailed explanations, suspicions, and reflections based on his own understanding after he studied thousands of techniques profoundly.
Not only did he explain the Cultivation arts in great detail, he had also recorded the changes in his body and soul. Besides words, there were also pictures, videos, and data detailing his training after he grasped the techniques!
This is indeed invaluable treasure!
A Cultivator in the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage had analyzed every detail in his training process and summarized his lifelong training, including his experience during the breakthrough toward the Divinity Transformation Stage. Every event had been elaborated on!
Li Yao browsed through it quickly. He felt that he had fallen into a giant kaleidoscope. He felt that every word in the notes was as precious as gold. His eyes glimmered, and his heart was racing while he read on!
Since Yan Xinjian lived below the ground for more than a hundred years, he had left too many notes for Li Yao to finish reading so quickly. Therefore, Li Yao put the notes aside and checked other things.
Soon, a document named ‘training log’ caught his attention.
He vaguely sensed that Yan Xinjian’s secret must have been kept inside.
The training log was not a journal but a work record like a logbook for sailors where the status of Yan Xinjian’s daily training was noted down.
Yan Xinjian seemed to be a taciturn, meticulous man. The training log in the first few years was very brief. The subjects were mainly his body status and the training arrangements for the day. The several years of records were all alike. They were boring, dull, and as precise as machines.
However, several years later, short comments appeared in the log. His feelings and his remarks on the Cultivation arts were involved.
“I haven’t made any progress in the ‘Upper Clear Flame Manipulation Arts’ for three months. What a headache.”
“‘Truth Returning Technique’ is purely garbage. It was really a waste of time for me to eliminate two pirate gangs in order to get it!”
Li Yao speculated that, to live in solitude ten thousand meters below the ground and be secluded in such a narrow space with only mice as companions, the mental pressure must have been very high.
Even a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator might suffer from mental illnesses when they lived alone for several years.
As Li Yao expected, when he got to the later chapters of the log, Yan Xinjian became more and more depressed and agitated when he could not find an approach to break into the Divinity Transformation Stage more than ten years later.
Sometimes, there were two words in the log for months—’Same old!’
Sometimes, he would be berating many Cultivation arts and ancient classics for days, claiming that they were not worth practicing at all.
Sometimes, he gnashed his teeth, cursing some people who must’ve been his enemies.
Sometimes, he kept repeating the name of a woman, ‘Yun Suoyu’. He swore that the woman was a haunting witch that would not rest in peace even though she had died but kept showing up in the room every day.
Based on the context, Li Yao inferred that Yun Suoyu was his wife who was killed by him. She was also the ‘Xiao Yu’ that the white mice repeated.
After twenty years of mental crisis, the log was suddenly written in a different style. It became positive and even started bragging about Yan Xinjian.
Yan Xinjian had finally found a way to enter the Divinity Transformation Stage.
“The last step. I’m about to succeed. The entire Flying Star Sector will kneel before me!”
It was the last chapter of the log that was in continuity with the previous ones.
The next chapter jumped to a month later, which was written in an extremely crazy style.
“You sick bi*ch!
“Why? Why did you have to show up and stare at me at the crucial moment when I was about to break into the Divinity Transformation Stage?
“Why were you smiling? What was so funny?
“How did you crawl into the place anyway? How? Speak. Speak!
“Don’t smile. Don’t smile! I’m going to kill you! I’m going to kill you!
“You made my breakthrough into the Divinity Transformation Stage fail. You made me mentally deranged and heavily wounded. I’m going to die in this wretched place!
“You made me end up like this, a ghost hiding in scrap iron and copper!
“I failed. I have failed!”
Although hundreds of years had passed and Li Yao was merely reading the log on the light beam, he could still read intense hatred and regret between the lines.
It seems that…
In order to find an excuse to get out of Heavenly Saints City, Yan Xinjian killed his wife before he left.
Maybe his wife had not cheated on him at all. This is certainly a story with a lot of twists and turns. But the bottom line is, Yan Xinjian felt sorry for his wife and was ashamed when he thought of her.
When he finished the arrangements for everything after decades and finally escaped to the underground, preparing to break into the Divinity Transformation Stage, the shame in the bottom of his heart gradually emerged because of the long solitude and let him see his wife’s illusion occasionally.
Moreover, at the crucial moment when he was about to break into the Divinity Transformation Stage, the wife he killed long ago reappeared in his brain, which made him lose control over his mind and got him killed because of mental derangement.
After he perished, his soul transformed into a spectral Cultivator and hid in an artificial body. The vacant one month must be the period in which he turned from a normal Cultivator into a spectral Cultivator.
Li Yao read on patiently.
The log that followed proved his deduction.
The focus of Yan Xinjian’s training suddenly shifted from regular techniques to methods to build up soul power for spectral Cultivators.
However, training in the form of a spectral Cultivator was only Yan Xinjian’s backup plan after all. Most of the techniques he knew were for living persons, and he did not know much about the training of the spectral Cultivators.
Therefore, in the more than a hundred years that followed, he could only stop his soul from retrograding but could not recreate his formidability in the old days.
He could not even return to the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage, not to mention breaking into the Divinity Transformation Stage.
Two hundred years passed. In the last fifty years, Yan Xinjian’s training log became more and more disordered and was barely readable. In the messy lines, about five different characters were narrating from their perspective at the same time.
Are you serious? Yan Xinjian, the old ghost, suffered from schizophrenia after living alone for two hundred years below the ground?
Judging from the tone and the style of writing, Li Yao distinguished five different characters that were composing the log, or rather, five facets of Yan Xinjian’s mind that turned into his clones and stated everything on their own.
One of the clones were still dreaming about breaking into the Divinity Transformation Stage and uniting the Flying Star Sector. It kept repeating that it would cultivate to the ultimate level, rush out of the underground, unite Spider Den, and sweep the Flying Star Sector with the strength of Spider Den.
Another clone was grasped by desperation. It chewed on Liu the Prier’s Dark Forest Theory all day and put forward a lot of assumptions and deductions. It also came up with several possible social structures of alien civilizations and the means of war that those civilizations would resort to against humankind.
Many civilizations were as vivid as real things in the deductions. Their strange means of attack made Li Yao scared and soaked in sweat, too.
One other clone was living in regret and completely abandoned training. It grieved over everything in the past and only hoped that the wheel of time could be reversed to the day when his wife was killed. It would extinguish all the ambitions and schemes and simply live a peaceful life with his wife.
Only one of the clones remained absolutely calm and pondered brand new Cultivation arts.
One of the Cultivation arts could compress the soul to the minimum into the shape of a needle before darting it into the brain of the prey so that the control over the prey’s head would be taken over.
In short, it was a secret art of ‘possession’.
The second Cultivation art was a domineering Cultivation art based on his experience in Cultivation and more than ten techniques that he had grasped. It was named ‘Dream Breaking Arts’!
However, there were back doors in the Dream Breaking Arts. The Cultivation art was authentic, but when the trainer practiced to between the fourth level and the fifth level, their brain would endure a fierce storm, and their soul power would be greatly weakened!
From the general logic of the Dream Breaking Arts, it was not exactly a backdoor, because the brain storm was necessary to purge and cleanse the brain so that further training could proceed.
Yan Xinjian was indeed up to something!
Li Yao thought through Yan Xinjian’s scheme very quickly. He immediately felt creepy and applauded Bai Xinghe’s wisdom.
Yan Xinjian’s scheme was quite sordid. He knew that he could not live forever as a spectral Cultivator and that he could not regain his previous Cultivation no matter what.
Besides, the electromagnetic environment of the outside world was complicated and far less stable than ten thousand meters below the ground. He could live hundreds of years in this place, but if he left and was exposed to sunlight, he might really kick the bucket thirty or fifty years later. That was if his hordes of enemies had not come looking for revenge first.
Therefore, Yan Xinjian decided to keep hiding below the ground and practiced the art of ‘possession’ in secret.
After all, he had left some bait outside.
As long as somebody found the Star Prier’s House and his message, they would certainly be tempted to explore the training room of the ‘best expert of the Flying Star Sector’.
Once somebody entered the secret training room, if they were not capable enough, Yan Xinjian could possess them on the spot and reappear with a brand-new body.
If the newcomer was strong, Yan Xinjian would trick the prey into practicing the Dream Breaking Arts. When the prey reached between the fourth level and the fourth level and suffered from a brain storm, Yan Xinjian would suddenly attack them while their soul power was at its weakest. Odds were quite high that he could occupy a new body!
Thankfully, it was Bai Xinghe who discovered Yan Xinjian’s training room. Boss Bai is truly Boss Bai. He held back his desire for decades and ignored Yan Xinjian’s training room!
If it were anybody else, they would have been possessed by Yan Xinjian already!
Chapter 766: Ironic Truth Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Li Yao wiped the sweat off his forehead and kept reading.
Yan Xinjian had unhurriedly implemented his great plan of possession step by step.
As time went by, Yan Xinjian’s secret art of possession had become more and more sharp and brutal, and the Dream Breaking Arts were gradually perfected, too. Except for the brain storm that everybody had to experience when they were between the fourth level and the fifth level, it was indeed a powerful super technique.
The data had reached around a hundred years ago. But the training journal came to an abrupt halt.
When new chapters appeared, it was already more than half a year later.
The first new chapter had only two words.
“Mice! Mice!”
The second chapter did not appear until three months later. There was only one inexplicable paragraph in it.
“There are no other solutions. This is the last resort. Thankfully, I have many mice.”
Li Yao swallowed and read through all the remaining log patiently in the next hour.
Although he had been prepared, he was still dumbfounded when he learned everything that happened later.
He glanced at the squeaking mice around him. The mice had all learned of his toughness and did not dare get too close to him.
The red mice were gritting their teeth in clattering noises. They glared at him with their tails straightened like spears.
The green mice were rolling their eyes nonstop. There was no telling what kind of schemes they were concocting.
The blue mice had deep eyes. They stared at him pitifully and told in silence the desperation that had echoed for five hundred years.
Li Yao sighed and suddenly felt truly sympathetic for Yan Xinjian.
No matter what crimes he had committed years ago, his ending seemed a bit too miserable.
Li Yao imported Yan Xinjian’s training log into his mini crystal processor. Then, he brought the log to the meditation chamber at the bottom of the training room.
Li Yao took a deep breath and entered the deep meditative state amid the prolonged humming sounds.
The information that he had collected just now was all glittering inside his brain. The general picture of everything and the portrait of Yan Xinjian’s life gradually took shape.
…
Five hundred years ago, Yan Xinjian used to be most famous genius in training of the Flying Star Sector.
He was born in a middle-class family and revealed his talents when he was very young. He was carefully educated by the six sects of Heavenly Saints City and advanced into the Nascent Soul Stage when he was only a hundred years old. During the battles to eliminate space pirates, he made a lot of contributions and was promoted to the vice commander of the coalition fleet of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City. He was responsible for the safety of Heavenly Saints City and the core area of the Flying Star Sector.
At that time, Yan Xinjian’s rise was an out-and-out miracle. Many civilians considered him to be their role model.
However, his rise ended there, because his supervisor was also a rarely-seen genius in training. The two of them were of similar ages and Cultivation, but their backgrounds were vastly different. His supervisor was born in a noble family with parents who were both celebrities of the Flying Star Sector.
If things went on like that, his supervisor could live another two hundred years with his Cultivation. The ‘vice’ in Yan Xinjian’s title would never be taken away.
It was not hard to guess how depressing it must have been for Yan Xinjian, the super genius who had been used to leading the vanguard and making the call in everything, to work as the deputy of somebody else for hundreds of years!
A long time later, Yan Xinjian, who had lost his mind by then, left a lot of criticism about his supervisor in his training log. Jealousy, depression, hatred, fury… All the feelings were written between the lines.
In Yan Xinjian’s opinion, his Cultivation, capability, and charisma were all better than his supervisor’s, and the sole reason why his supervisor was commanding the coalition fleet of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City was the man’s background!
Envy could tie up a person like a viper. Even the expert in the Nascent Soul Stage could not free himself from it after decades.
Then, one day, Yan Xinjian received a detailed map of the underground fortress of Spider Den, as well as part of the permissions that were known as ‘Spider Key’, by accident.
It was the duty of the coalition fleet of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City to deal with the space pirates. Naturally, Yan Xinjian knew everything about Spider Den. He was aware that a lot of secret treasures of the Star Ocean Imperium were probably hidden inside the underground fortress.
If I can get those treasures, my Cultivation will definitely reach a higher level. I will be able to surpass the noble families and even dominate the entire Flying Star Sector!
Li Yao did not know if Yan Xinjian really thought that way. However, it was not a solo task to hunt for treasures on Spider Den. He needed strong support.
Besides, he was now the mortal enemy of the space pirates. Not to mention Spider Den, if he so much as drew close to the Spider Den Space Zone, countless space pirates would have blown him out of the sky without any hesitation.
Moreover, how was he going to explain everything to the other Cultivators? When the message was out, he would not be able to own all the treasures.
Therefore…
After a painful, prolonged hesitation, he killed his own wife, Yun Suoyu, and slew the entire family of his supervisor!
Did his wife really cheat on him?
From the context, Li Yao felt that she did not.
Otherwise, Yan Xinjian would not have felt so guilty, to such a degree that he could not let it go after decades.
Yan Xinjian was merely devoured by the constantly expanding greed in the bottom of his heart. He did such an insane, inhuman thing only because he needed a justifiable reason to desert Heavenly Saints City and sneak into Spider Den!
He made it!
After he defected to Spider Den, because of the murders he committed, most of the space pirates did not doubt him.
But at that time, he was still alone and did not have the power to conduct large-scale searches.
Therefore, he managed to incite the Cultivators to wage a war on the space pirates. Then, with his advantage as the previous vice commander of the coalition fleet of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City, he was granted temporary leadership by many pirate gangs because he was familiar with the enemy.
For an unparalleled expert such as Yan Xinjian, there was no way that he would relinquish the leadership after getting it ‘temporarily’.
In the decades that followed, he defeated the Cultivators, purged Spider Den, and seized absolute power. Finally, he achieved his purpose and excavated the underground fortress on a large scale.
Yan Xinjian knew that the secret treasures would raise a storm of blood should they appear on the ground. Not only would all the space pirates be fighting for them, it was also very likely that the Cultivators would come back again.
Therefore, Yan Xinjian simply built a secret training room deep below the ground and shifted the training facilities and precious resources of the Star Ocean Imperium, as well as the treasures he looted in space, into the place!
When all the arrangements were completed, he killed all the insiders and set up multiple traps. Then, he left some bait before he entered the secret training room, preparing to break into the Divinity Transformation Stage.
It was a perfect plan.
Yan Xinjian calculated everything, including the possibility of an apocalypse.
But he missed out one thing, which was his heart.
He did not expect that his wife whom he had killed decades ago would show up again right in front of him when he was breaking into the Divinity Transformation Stage from the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage.
Yan Xinjian’s mind was disturbed. He was mentally deranged and heavily wounded. After a few days in a critical condition, he died. The only thing that remained was his soul.
Thankfully, he had been prepared for such a scenario and could continue his training as a spectral Cultivator in the artificial bodies.
However, the speed of his training was much lower than when he was alive.
Just like that, he continued training for a hundred years below the ground, hoping to restore his capability.
The high-intensity training was very damaging for the artificial bodies. He had to switch to a new artificial body every few days.
Gradually, all the artificial bodies in storage were seriously worn. He had to repair and maintain them on his own and reused the old artificial bodies.
Then, an accident happened.
When Yan Xinjian entered the secret training room, in order to experiment on new techniques, he had brought a few mice.
After hundreds of years, there were already hundreds of mice.
With Yan Xinjian’s Cultivation, even though he had become a spectral Cultivator, it was not likely that he overlooked the beasts.
Li Yao estimated that he was too lonely below the ground and simply kept the mice as pets, except that he controlled the total number of them.
But it was not within Yan Xinjian’s expectation that some mice escaped his attention and broke the crucial components on an artificial body.
The damage was very inconspicuous. Yan Xinjian was not a refiner and did not notice it during the maintenance.
When he did high-intensity training with said artificial body, a serious accident happened.
The outcome was quite miserable. Yan Xinjian’s soul was split apart and could not sustain the basic form of a spectral Cultivator. He had to possess something immediately, or he would be gone forever!
The objects of possession had to be a living creature.
Yan Xinjian went through all the trouble and developed such a sordid skill named the Dream Breaking Arts, but there was no time for him to wait for a human being on the ground to arrive.
Right now, the only living creatures inside the secret training room were… the mice!
It was not difficult to take over the mice’s bodies. A mouse’s brain was simple in structure and had barely any soul power. There would be barely any resistance.
However, since the brains of the mice were too simple, they could not accommodate Yan Xinjian’s soul, which was tremendous in size.
It was like stuffing an elephant into a rat hole. The mission was simply impossible.
Yan Xinjian was truly a genius of training. Before his soul entire dispersed, he came up with a solution. He dissected his enormous soul into hundreds of parts with a secret art, each of which took over the body of one mouse!
From the ancient times to this day, ‘possession’ had always been a dangerous endeavor. One moment of carelessness, and the host might devour the intruder’s soul instead, just like Ou Yezi, who tried to take over Li Yao’s body before.
Splitting one’s soul into hundreds of parts each possessing a mouse was an insane attempt that nobody had ever even thought of before.
Nobody knew what the consequences would be.
But Yan Xinjian had no other choice.
Therefore, he said, “I have a lot of mice.”
How crazy, desperate, and ironic his final words were!
…
The hundreds of mice I saw were indeed Yan Xinjian. Inside every mouse’s brain is part of Yan Xinjian’s remaining soul!
Yan Xinjian had made it. His life continued in hundreds of mice in such a weird way.
But he had failed, too, because he did not know any techniques for the training of animals.
Chapter 767: Five Hundred Remaining Souls Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Although animals and plants could all turn into creatures of wisdom, there were many prerequisites.
Some of them were manually made, such as demons. Their brain cells and bodies underwent world-shaking evolutions within several hundred years. After being filtered harshly, one in ten thousand might become powerful biological weapons.
Some other creatures might have lived on rough foreign planets that boasted special radiations and mother lodes. Against all the odds, the wisdom of the natives was triggered, and they became intelligent.
Before Yan Xinjian entered the secret training room, he had calculated everything. But he did not expect that he would be forced to enter the bodies of mice one day.
Therefore, although he had prepared a lot of techniques for training as a spectral Cultivator, he did not have any training methods for animals.
As a result, although he successfully possessed the mice, he did not have any idea how he could carry out his training with the mice’s bodies.
The training log that followed clearly showed how tense, how crazy, and how desperate Yan Xinjian was after he turned into the mice.
The super genius thought of every method possible, trying to transform the training methods of humans so that mice could train with them, too.
However, his brains were now no larger than peanuts. How many sparks of wisdom could he trigger even if he used his every single brain cell?
Besides, there was something that Yan Xinjian did not think of.
When a person’s self-awareness was divided into five hundred parts, would every independent part of self-awareness equal to the person himself?
In the world of Cultivators, notions such as ‘clone’ and ‘real body’ were not new. However, were the clone and the real body the same person?
What was more devastating was that, before Yan Xinjian possessed the mice, he had already been showing signs of schizophrenia. There were almost five different personalities inside his brain at the same time.
As his soul was divided into five hundred parts, the different personalities flew into the bodies of different mice along with the scraps of his soul.
The different personalities that used to cram in the same body finally appeared in the secret training room, controlling independent entities!
Every group of mice represented one of Yan Xinjian’s personalities. They believed that they were the real Yan Xinjian and the other mice were simply Yan Xinjian’s ‘doggedness’, ‘irrelevant thoughts’, and ‘mental obstacles’.
Since the others were mental obstacles, it was best that they were removed.
Therefore, a civil war broke out!
The details of the war were not recorded in the training log, but Li Yao could infer the situation of the war with the chapters written in different tones.
Those mice transformed scraps of magical equipment into ‘armor’ and ‘flying swords’ and built their own ‘cities’ and ‘houses’ with whatever techniques they remembered. They attacked each other every day.
During the hundred years, the Yan Xinjians were fighting incessantly inside the training room. The reason was that they could only kill the bodies of the other mice but not the remaining souls lurking inside the victims’ brains.
Whenever a mouse was killed, the remaining soul inside its brain would simply float away and look for a new mouse to possess.
After all, mice were extremely fertile. Without control, they could flourish into thousands of members in several years from two to three in the beginning.
There was abundant food and no predators inside the secret training room. The number of the mice had been growing exponentially.
If they had not killed a lot of their companions in the ‘civil war’, the place would have been overflowing with mice a long time ago.
However, that was all decades ago.
Since decades ago, the updates of the training log had become intermittent. Sometimes, there were no new chapters for years.
Even if something new was added, it was usual very simple. Even the word order was sometimes wrong. The training log seemed to be written by a three-year-old who had only just learned the language.
The mice were retrograding.
Although Yan Xinjian did not find an appropriate training method for the mice, he managed to maintain his techniques and consciousness for decades. But the passage of time was not something that he could resist.
The longevity of the mice was short in the first place. Also, because of the gory battles, most of the mice could not live for one and a half years.
Sometimes, when part of Yan Xinjian’s remaining soul just took over the body of a mouse, it was immediately slain by others.
The process of possession consumed soul power, too. After every possession, Yan Xinjian’s remaining soul decreased slightly. Countless feelings, memories, and thoughts were mottled and crumbling, eventually leaving him like black and white butterflies.
After countless possessions, his memories and self-awareness were finally gone. What was left was the last big of his determination like the struggling sparks in an amber.
There had been no updates on the training log since ten years ago. Not a single new word had been added.
It seemed that the Yan Xinjians had already forgotten how to control the crystal processor.
No, they were not Yan Xinjian; they were just a bunch of pathetic mice that carried Yan Xinjian’s different personalities.
That was Yan Xinjian’s story, which had come to an end.
Retrograding was like a snow slide. There was no way to stop it.
If Li Yao had not come, maybe in another three to five years, the last bit of Yan Xinjian’s will inside the mice’s brains would have totally vanished.
By then, they would have become normal mice and continued living inside the secret training room for the next hundred or thousand years, until all the resources ran out and the air-cleaning and water-cleaning rune arrays broke.
Or maybe, before the last bit Yan Xinjian’s soul vanished, the mice would all have gone mad and killed each other brutally, until Yan Xinjian’s last self was killed by himself.
Li Yao took a long breath with mixed feelings.
He thought for a long time and yet did not know what to comment on what he had read. But an old saying popped up inside his head.
If you had seen the day coming, would you have done what you did?
Li Yao was silent. He imagined how sad and desperate Yan Xinjian had been when he decided to tear his soul apart into five hundred pieces and throw them into the bodies of mice.
Li Yao also thought, when part of Yan Xinjian’s remaining soul invaded the body of a mouse and yet could not find a suitable training method, he had fought hard against other ‘clones’ while resisting the irresistible retrogradation of his brain. When his memories faded away like fallen flowers, had he remembered how ambitious he had been hundreds years earlier, when he was promoted to the vice commander of the coalition fleet of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City although he was born a poor boy?
Had he remembered his life before he discovered the treasures below the surface of Spider Den, the time when he cuddled his wife and complained about his work while his wife combed his hair and comforted him?
Alright. Let’s not think that much yet. I’d better figure out how to get out of this place first. Otherwise, there is a good chance that I will become the second Yan Xinjian!
Li Yao shuddered and shook his head, throwing aside the miserable image of him ending up as the mice behind him. He then searched for the methods to open the door of the training room.
Very soon, he found the answer in one chapter of the training log.
The mice were not lying to him. The door of the training room had been installed with barriers both on the inside and on the outside. If one wished to open the door from inside, they had to practice the Dream Breaking Arts to the sixth level and condense their spiritual energy into a unique ‘key’ with the special methods!
Odd. Why can the door only be opened with the Dream Breaking Arts? What is the purpose of such a design?
Li Yao pondered for a moment. Then he slapped his head and realized that it was a silly question.
Of course, the Dream Breaking Arts was the only key to the door. It was all part of the possession plan!
A hundred years after Yan Xinjian became a spectral Cultivator, his soul power gradually diminished, and possession was his only choice.
However, even if somebody on the ground found his message and entered the secret training room, they might not necessarily listen to his commands.
Those on Spider Den were all cunning, brutal bandits. Would they behave nice and simply practice the Dream Breaking Arts when he asked them to?
It was impossible. The newcomers would definitely be suspicious about him.
Besides, even if they were interested in the skill, they did not have to practice it in this place. They could always empty the room out and find a safe place outside where they were protected by trusted people. They could always study the art later.
At that time, Yan Xinjian was in the form of a spectral Cultivator. His capability was no higher than the peak of the Core Formation Stage. The newcomers might even have been stronger than. He would not have any solution even they did not obey him.
That was why Yan Xinjian designed a door that could only be opened via the Dream Breaking Arts.
As long as a newcomer entered the secret training room, the door would be automatically closed and would not be opened again until they practiced the Dream Breaking Arts.
At that time, Yan Xinjian would pretend that he was weak and feeble and say things like ‘Young man, I can see that you are talented, and your body is very strong and surrounded by a halo of extraordinariness. I have been dead for years and cannot practice the Dream Breaking Arts. The hope for us to get out is all on you.’ or other similar crap.
The newcomer would not have any options. If they did not intend to die of old age inside the training room, they could only behave nicely and practice the Dream Breaking Arts.
As for the Dream Breaking Arts, except for the minor flaws between the fourth level and the fifth level, it was indeed a powerful technique.
The more the newcomer practiced, the less suspicious they would get and the more they would believe that Yan Xinjian was passing the knowledge on to them sincerely.
In order to open the gate sooner, the newcomer would definitely train hard. When the first four levels were grasped, their suspicions should already be entirely gone, and they would focus their attention on the destiny of the sixth level.
Then, when they experienced a brain storm in the middle of the fourth level and the fifth level, Yan Xinjian would attack the newcomer all of a sudden and try to possess their body!
What a marvelous scheme!
Li Yao could not help but wonder what he would have done if the last accident had not happened to Yan Xinjian and he were still alive as a spectral Cultivator right now.
He was afraid that he would have had to practice the Dream Breaking Arts anyways even though he knew that there might be tricks in it, before he figured out a way to fight against Yan Xinjian’s wisdom.
Thankfully, Yan Xinjian has been dead for decades. There are only a bunch of mice left. There’s no way that they can take over my body!
I can practice the Dream Breaking Arts without worry now!
Li Yao licked his lips and retrieved the Dream Breaking Arts. He browsed through the introduction part first.
While he was reading, Li Yao’s mouth grew wider and wider, and his eyes bulged out like two duck eggs.
What!
The Dream Breaking Arts can only be practiced when the subject’s Cultivation is higher than peak of the Core Formation Stage? What the heck?
Chapter 768: Strive for Core Formation!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Li Yao cried helplessly. His training methods were different from normal Cultivators. Although his combat ability was close to that of the Core Formation Stage, and he could even fight a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator when he was in his best state, the way that his spiritual energy functioned was the way of the Building Foundation Stage after all.
There was a notion called ‘overclocking’ in the field of crystal processors. By special designs, the low-level crystal processors could have the performance of high-level crystal processors’.
Li Yao’s training methods were similar to the idea of overclocking.
But the low-level crystal processors were essentially low-level crystal processors anyway, however much they were overlocked. Many large programs that required high specifications could not be run on them.
“What is Yan Xinjian’s problem? Why did he have to set such a high threshold for the Dream Breaking Arts?” Li Yao cursed aloud. He thought carefully and sighed, realizing that it was only reasonable.
Yan Xinjian had taken everything into consideration. He must have foreseen that, if he offered a common Cultivation art as the password to open the door, the newcomer would definitely be suspicious—why would a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator choose such a simple technique as the key to the door?
There must be something wrong!
It was only reasonable and less suspicious if his own ultimate art was set as the password to the door.
Besides, a mediocre technique commonly seen everywhere might not interest the newcomer at all. But his own ‘ultimate art’ would certainly be much more tempting.
On the other hand, the Dream Breaking Arts was the summary of Yan Xinjian’s lifelong experience as a Cultivator. The essence of his countless other techniques had been embedded into it. When other people picked it up, their body and soul would gradually morph toward Yan Xinjian’s original body, until they became ripe for possession.
After Yan Xinjian successfully took over the body, he would immediately be controlling the body free at will. There would not be much rejection at all.
It was a perfect plan.
But it was now a major headache for Li Yao.
I cannot open the door until I reach the sixth level of the Dream Breaking Arts, and I cannot reach higher than the fourth level of the Dream Breaking Arts until I advance into the peak of the Core Formation Stage even though I can practice the first three levels.
But I am not even in the Core Formation Stage yet!
Can I afford to stay here and train myself until I reach the peak of the Core Formation Stage?
This place is indeed the best natural paradise for training in the Flying Star Sector. One day of training here equals to ten days outside. But do I have that much time? The situation outside could escalate at any moment!
Li Yao felt that his heart was burning.
In the ten days that followed, he seized every second and skimmed through the information and files inside the crystal processors. He also groped the wall inch by inch. He even tried to put on the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit and cut into the wall with the drill of mystic rays.
As a result, the drill of mystic rays and the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit were both serious damaged, and only a shallow trace was left on the wall.
Li Yao adopted almost twenty different examination methods and analyzed the metal powder off the wall. Yet, he could not tell their specific constituents.
He only knew that the material was extremely hard, and its microstructure was similar to the ‘Super Bendable Steel’. It could shift the energy on the point of impact evenly to the entire shell, before the energy was buffered, dissolved, and absorbed by the arc-shaped structure of the shell. The energy would then be transferred to the defense rune arrays.
Li Yao calculated for a whole night and came to the conclusion that, if he refined all the high-purity crystals inside the training room into a super bomb, it was possible that he could blow the door open from the inside with a targeted explosion.
However, the secret training room was fully enclosed, and the spiritual energy had nowhere to run to, which meant that the abundant spiritual energy would destroy everything inside the training room before it destroyed the door.
It would have been difficult for him to survive the explosion even if he hid inside the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.
Li Yao was helpless.
Right now, he had only one option.
He had to advance into the peak of the Core Formation Stage in the shortest amount of time possible and grasp the sixth level of the Dream Breaking Arts!
Li Yao took a long breath after he made the decision. He threw away the crystal processor and sat on the ground in a daze.
Countless mice—red, green, black, and white—surrounded him with their tiny eyes wide open and looked at him without blinking.
…
Li Yao’s training log. Day one.
“I never expected that I would be writing a training log. It feels odd. I hope I don’t end up like Yan Xinjian.
“If the day really comes, I will certainly not choose to split my soul and live in the bodies of mice.
“Now that I think about it, the underground of Spider Den and the underground of Boneyard have a lot of amazing similarities.
“In the underground of Boneyard, Gao Xingce, the previous captain of Sparkle, also lived in solitude for hundreds of years in a sealed room. Eventually, his memories faded away and his soul vanished.
“However, Gao Xingce and Yan Xinjian are different.
“Senior Gao Xingce gritted his teeth to live on for an honorable purpose. He was backed by the belief that he was protecting humanity. At the last moment of his life, even if he had wiped out all his memories, he never forgot his family, especially his wife and his children.
“His self-awareness dispersed in the beautiful memories where his wife and his children were in his company. I think that he died a peaceful and gratifying death.
“What about Yan Xinjian?
“For the pursuit of power and strength, he lost his humanity and killed his own wife. His name was rotten, and in the end, he was the victim of his own scheme.
“When his soul gradually faded away in the brains of the mice, who would he be thinking of?
“Right now, I’m going to strive for a higher level and more strength, too.
“If everything goes well, I will advance into the peak of the Core Formation Stage one day. Someday in the future, I may even break into the Nascent Soul Stage and boast the combat ability equal to that of a crystal warship!
“I hope that I can always remember why I pursued strength in the beginning and do not get lost as my strength increases.
“Who should I hope to become if I must choose between Gao Xingce and Yan Xinjian?
“I don’t know whether or not I have the guts to be a hero like Gao Xingce when the moment of decision comes.
“However—
“I will never become Yan Xinjian. Never.”
…
Li Yao’s training log. Day 11.
“I broke six ribs today and got my liver torn apart seriously.
“Thankfully, Yan Xinjian left a lot of advanced medical facilities and healing drugs. After my maintenance, most of the facilities are still running normally.
“Today, I have finally determined the functions of all the training facilities here!
“A Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator is indeed a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator. His training methods and the intensity of his training are just insane!
“I have lowered the intensity of most of the training facilities here by several levels, but several key training facilities are not adjustable. I can only train in the level that Yan Xinjian had fixed earlier.
“It is the intensity that a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator was used to. I feel scared just thinking about it!
“However, I don’t have a choice.
“It will take about twenty years for a regular Cultivator to advance from the peak of the Building Foundation Stage to the high level of the Core Formation Stage.
“But I don’t have that much time. In five years or so, there will be enough Grand Illusionary Soldiers to form an army. Whatever plans Xiao Xuance has in mind, they will be fully implemented by then!
“If I can only get out of this place after twenty years of training, I’m afraid that the entire Flying Star Sector will be filled with the Grand Illusionary Soldiers and controlled completely by the Immortal Cultivators!
“Therefore, I have no better ways except to try my best!
“I have to break into the peak of the Core Formation Stage in five years and grasp the sixth level of the Dream Breaking Arts!”
…
Li Yao’s training log. Day 33.
“The training is harsh. It is depressing to live alone ten thousand meters below ground, too. I’ve gradually come to feel the same as Yan Xinjian must have years ago, and I understand why he allowed the mice to reproduce freely.
“Because observing the mice is now the only entertainment when I’m not training.
“Many scraps of Yan Xinjian’s soul still reside in the bodies of the mice. A different color represents a different personality. The mice of the same personality form a mini tribe.
“After a month of observation, together with the reference of Yan Xinjian’s training log, I gradually discovered the difference between the mice.
“The red mice stand for Yan Xinjian’s ambitions. Although they are trapped in such a wretched environment, they are still making wild dreams of breaking into the Divinity Transformation Stage and governing the Flying Star Sector.
“The red mice always consider themselves to be kings of the Flying Star Sector. Occasionally, one of the red mice would crawl to the top of their ‘castle’ and wave a tiny cloth, shouting, ‘I’m an expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage. I’m the king of the Flying Star Sector!’
“What is most hilarious is that, before the other tribes attack the mouse, the other red mice would crowd forward, drag the mouse down, and rip it into pieces.
“Hehe. It seems that, even if they represent the same personality, they are not the same person. Every one of them thinks that they are the real Yan Xinjian and others are merely clones.
“The green mice stand for the cruelty and cunningness in Yan Xinjian’s mind. Their tribe is deadly silent most of the time. All the mice are crouching in dark corners, rolling their eyes, and formulating funny plots one after another.
“They often come and talk to me, claiming that they are willing to recruit me as their disciple and teach me unparalleled techniques, as long as I bring them out of the place.
“The most hysterical thing is that they have completely forgotten all the techniques other than their plots. Therefore, when I pretend that I agree to their proposal and ask them to provide their techniques, they will be dumbfounded and simply look at me without words, as if they are crystal processors that have crashed.
“The blue mice and the black mice probably stand for the desperation that Yan Xinjian accumulated for five hundred years below the ground. Other than staring at the ceiling dumbly and repeating things like ‘we can’t get out’, they are always discussing the Dark Forest Theory solemnly. Now and then, they grasp their whiskers and say things like ‘It’s too dark, and there’s nowhere to run to.’
“I’ve discovered that they have completely stopped reacting to light. Even when I flash them with the most dazzling lamps, they still simply bemoan that it’s too dark as if nothing happened.
“However, I don’t like the red mice, the green mice, the blue mice, and the black mice.
“I like the mice that are emitting mild white colors best.
“They stand for the greatest loss in Yan Xinjian’s heart, his wife, who was killed by himself.”
Chapter 769: A Thousand Days of Training
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
“The pure white mice are the smallest in number. They do not like to participate in the competitions among mice. Their favorite thing is to mumble alone in the corners.
“Sometimes, I listen to them carefully and find that they are recalling their past with their wife hundreds of years ago.
“At that time, Yan Xinjian was not the vice commander of the coalition fleet of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City yet. He was merely a talented, ambitious young man. Since he devoted most of resources to training, life was quite difficult for him. He only managed to climb higher and higher with the encouragement and support of his wife.
“Every time they get to the end of their story, the pure white mice always sob in grief. Occasionally, when they are too sad, they even run to the front of other mice and yell, ‘You killed her. It was you who killed my wife!’
“Naturally, they end up being ripped apart by other mice, and their remaining soul turns into a streak of whiteness looking for a new mouse to possess.
“Several times, I also saw the pure white mice drag out ignorant female mice from the cage, hug them and murmur, ‘Xiao Yu, Xiao Yu’, regarding them as their ‘wife’.
“Those female mice were not possessed by any soul. They were the most ordinary animals. They could not do anything despite their hard struggles. Other ‘clones’ of Yan Xinjian all burst into laughter when they saw this.
“I felt quite uncomfortable seeing what happened to them. Finally, one day, I drove away mice in other colors and built a small house for the pure white mice with the materials that I specially prepared. I then established defense rune arrays around the house so that the mice that stood for the guilt and shame in Yan Xinjian’s heart could live in peace temporarily.”
…
Li Yao’s training log. Day 356.
“Without me knowing it, it’s been more than a year.
“There have been no sounds outside at all over the past year. I don’t know whether or not Lei Dalu and Bai Kaixin successfully ran away or if people of the Temple of Immortals were all annihilated.
“However, neither of the two parties should know that I’m in this place.
“Bai Xinghe was the only one who knew the secret of Yan Xinjian’s secret training room. Also, the two Lustful Rock Spider went on a rampage and buried the entrance to the secret training room with abundant rocks in their fury.
“There are no magical equipment or techniques in the underground fortress. Even if some members of the Temple of Immortals escaped, there should be no reason for them to excavate the underground fortress on a large scale, given the tremendous manpower and resources required.
“Therefore, I can train myself without worry here.
“After one year of training, although my Cultivation is still in the superlative height of the Building Foundation Stage, my combat ability and my battle sense have undergone drastic changes.
“By my estimation, they are at least twice as good as one year ago!
“I’ve been absorbing the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures that Yan Xinjian left with the Art of the Swallowing Whale every day, and my body of flesh and blood have both been upgraded in amazing ways.
“As for the techniques that Yan Xinjian left, except for those that only people above the Core Formation Stage can practice, I’ve studied almost all of them. When I compared them with the techniques that I knew before, I was greatly inspired by the similarities and differences between them.
“Maybe, on the same day next year, I’ll be advancing into the Core Formation Stage!”
…
Li Yao’s training log. Day 577.
“Today, Yan Xinjian’s clones had an unprecedented war.
“In fact, there had been signs of war since days ago. The mice collected a lot of food and crystals, which was quite unusual for them. They then crafted countless ‘flying swords’ that looked like needles and strengthened their ‘castles’. Even the red mice that were often very bad-tempered went quiet.
“However, since my training came to the crucial moment, I didn’t have time to pay attention to the mice.
“When I noticed it, the war between the mice had already begun. The red mice seemed to be planning to destroy all the other mice once and for all.
“At the end of the war, every party involved left almost a thousand bodies. Hundreds of Yan Xinjian’s remaining souls were broken apart. The remaining souls that still existed were extremely lackluster and looked like shaking candles that were about to burn out.
“I even saw that one of Yan Xinjian’s remaining souls tried to possess a mouse, only to fly out in half a minute after crawling into the mouse’s ear. It was even more pitiful after the endeavor.
“That remnant of Yan Xinjian’s soul had been weakened to such a point that it could not guarantee to possess a mouse now.
“I suddenly realized why the war had broken out.
“Yan Xinjian’s doom has come.
“His remaining soul was too weak to be weakened any further. It will perish completely within a year and a half.”
…
Li Yao’s training log. Day 701.
“Anxious. Anxious. I’m very anxious!
“My capability is now so strong!
“I can punch a thousand times in one minute under fifty times the standard gravity. The blast from my fists can trigger a force of thousands of kilograms up to three meters away. With a telepathic thought, the weight of thousands of kilograms can be condensed in an area the size of my fingertip!
“I can survive for dozens of seconds in an environment of almost a thousand degrees, naked. Even if the environment suddenly shifts to minus two hundred degrees, I won’t even bat an eye, and 30% of my combat ability will still remain!
“In the ancient classics of training, it was described that high-level Cultivators were ‘unwavering in front of flood or fire’. That must be what I’m currently experiencing!
“But why can I never find an opportunity to form the core?”
…
Li Yao’s training log. Day 733.
“The red mice have gone extinct today. The ambitions deep inside Yan Xinjian’s heart are finally gone.
“Barely any mice in other colors are alive now. As for the pure white mice, there is only the last of them.
“For some reason, as Yan Xinjian’s remaining soul perished bit by bit, I was gradually grasped by desperation, too, and I did not have the courage to imagine what my life would be like once all the remaining souls were gone.
“Maybe, deep in my mind, I considered his remaining soul as someone alive, no matter how evil and sordid he was.
“Once the ‘someone’ died, I would be the only person in this room.
“Can I really succeed in forming the core? Will I ever get out of this place?
“Today, I asked myself in the mirror such questions.
“A weird thing happened!
“The me in the mirror looked like a totally different person. His left eye was emitting demonic red brightness, and he nodded his head affirmatively with a mysterious smile on his face.
“I was greatly shocked and shook my head hard. When my mind was clear again, I looked at the mirror, only to discover that—
“There was no mirror.
“I was merely talking to myself against a wall.”
…
Li Yao’s training log. Day 809.
“I feel that I’m now mired in a weird swirl.
“My strength continues expanding, but my Cultivation does not rise accordingly.
“Recently, I’ve been feeling that my brain is not enough to control every part of my body. I often make attacking movements subconsciously, like a tyrannosaur driven by the lust of killing whose brain is only the size of a peanut.
“Is this mental derangement?
“I’ve read a lot of books, including those left by Yan Xinjian and the ancient classics in the Heavenly Refining Tower deep inside my brain. I searched for the symptoms of mental derangement when a Cultivator was about to break into a higher level.
“I discovered that the anomalies that happened to me were different from the normal symptoms of mental derangement.
“But anyway, I cannot continue training in such a way. Something serious is definitely going to happen to me if I go on!
“After a long period of consideration, I’ve decided today that I’ll put my training on hold for now.
“After all, my combat ability is dozens of times higher than that of the peak of the Building Foundation Stage in common sense. Since so many Cultivators in the peak of the Building Foundation Stage have formed their cores with a lesser combat ability, the obstacle that blocks me from forming the core should not be my body.
“Of course, I will not idle by ten thousand meters below the ground. Don’t forget that I’m a hybrid-type Cultivator. Other than talent in combats, I’m also gifted at creation!
“I’ve stopped worrying about the ways to form the core and brought out the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, the Dragon King Battlesuit, and the Unparalleled Extension. I plan to study how to combine the two super crystal suits and the most advanced Ares Extension of the Flying Star Sector.
“Many Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures in Yan Xinjian’s training room are not absorbable. Leaving them below the ground will be the greatest waste ever.
“I’m planning to craft the best crystal suit of the Flying Star Sector, the Heaven’s Origin Sector, and the Blood Demon Sector with those Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures as well as the key components on the two super crystal suits.
“Then, based on the crystal suit, I will build a tailor-made Unparalleled Extension for myself!
“Mystic Skeleton plus Dragon King, Unparalleled in the sea of stars. Just thinking about them is enough to make me thrilled!”
…
Li Yao’s training log. Day 1000.
“What a nice surprise!
“Since I gave up the pursuit of absolute strength when I sensed the untamable desire for killing deep inside my heart half a year ago, I’ve been polishing my mind by refining crystal suits.
“The combination of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit and the Dragon King Battlesuit went very well. Also, during the arduous tasks of designing and forging day after day, I could clearly feel that my mind was cleansed and perfected.
“As a result, last night, when I completed the design of a critical valve of the strengthened crystal reactor, I suddenly felt that my spine was itching so hard that I could barely resist. My limbs and internal organs seemed to have turned into endless dragons flooding into my spine and then gathering at the end of my spine!
“I had the feeling that the end of my spine was ‘expanding’.
“I knew that the evolution had begun!
“My ‘second brain’ is awakening, maturing, and taking shape!
“When the ancient Cultivators strove for a higher level, they often valued ‘opportunity’ or ‘spur of the moment’. In fact, such feelings were just the reactions between their brand-new organs and the surrounding spiritual energy.
“This is my opportunity!
“Better late than never. I’m going to have everything prepared in three days and advance into the Core Formation Stage officially!”
Chapter 770: Breaking Out of Seclusion
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Three days later, at the bottom of the secret training room, Li Yao was sitting in the middle of the meditation chamber, which was made of an intact meteorite, surrounded by the carefully selected Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. The pills and the crystals were all glowing, making him seem to be made of translucent jade, too. Immense vitality was flowing below his skin like tides.
After more than three years of high-intensity training in solitude, Li Yao was now more serene, solemn, and peaceful. His eyes looked like oceans before a great storm.
Finally, I’ve reached the threshold.
Li Yao sensed the tremendous energy inside his body that was about to burst. There was no emotion on his face, not even expectation, because everything was natural and a matter of course.
My current capability is dozens of times higher than the peak of the Building Foundation Stage. Stably compressing such tremendous spiritual energy from the liquid form into the solid form is going to be extremely difficult!
If I’m careless for one moment during the compression, the spiritual energy in the solid form will become disordered and transform into the purest chaos, which will rip me apart directly.
However, if I miraculously succeed…
Li Yao exhaled slightly and dispelled the messy thoughts from his brain.
He checked the items that might be of use for the last time and began the process of forming the core!
I will not fail.
On the other side of the sea of stars, in my home, somebody is waiting for me!
I already have a way to calculate the coordinates of the Heaven’s Origin Sector. The path home is right before my eyes!
Nothing in this world is going to stop me!
Li Yao gritted his teeth and activated the ‘Core Formation Instrument’.
The Core Formation Instrument was a piece of ancillary magical equipment to help the formation of the core that Li Yao had invented himself. It looked like a special crystal suit, except that countless bottles of drugs were connected to the shell of the magical equipment.
When Li Yao released his spiritual energy unstoppably, the fully-enclosed suit would cover all the spiritual energy inside. Together with the tightness of the meditation chamber, an environment similar to the super-compressed crystal reactor would be simulated.
The strengthening drugs were condensed into lines of liquids thinner than his hair because of the high pressure, and they penetrated into Li Yao’s body before being released among Li Yao’s muscles, veins, and nerves.
In a moment—
As Li Yao fully released his spiritual energy and started compressing it, Li Yao shuddered violently and felt that his entire spine had woken up. It was expanding, expanding, and expanding into a raging gold dragon!
In the meantime, all kinds of illusions were popping up inside his brain. The wheel of time was reversed, and his consciousness went backwards as if it were ebbing. It returned to the surface of Spider Den, Heavenly Saints City, the Iron Plateau Space Zone, Boneyard, and the Heaven’s Origin Sector. In the end, it came back to the magical equipment graveyard in Floating Spear City of the Star Glory Federation.
He was a baby lying in a stinky gutter, staring at the dim, yellow sky quietly.
Backwards. Backwards. He continued going backwards on the path of his life!
There was suddenly nothing but blackness in front if his eyes. Li Yao found himself in the middle of warm water and could not have felt more comfortable and safer. He had turned into a tiny fetus and returned to the original point of his life.
At this point, his life had only just sprouted. There were endless possibilities in his evolution. His brain, spine, limbs, and internal organs did not exist yet. The only things that existed were episodes of causality that interweaved into helical forms and were dancing like butterflies.
Li Yao’s soul was as clear as moonlight. He knew exactly what he was going to do.
He had already found the password of his body. He would optimize his body from the source and unseal the barrier of evolution so that the speed of evolution could be hundreds, thousands, millions of times higher!
With a telepathic thought, part of Li Yao’s spiritual energy flew toward his episodes of causality.
The chains of genes were ripped apart!
The evolution rushed forward toward a whole new direction!
BOOM!
A thunderclap echoed inside Li Yao’s spine.
An organ that did not exist in the beginning, similar to the ‘spiritual root’ except that it was hundreds of times stronger, was sprouting, growing, developing, and expanding at the end of Li Yao’s spine!
If Li Yao’s soul could have left his body at that moment and observed himself externally, he would have discovered that his every cell was spurting endless light and heat like a volcano. The brilliance had even pierced through the iron suit he was wearing and turned it as transparent as glass.
Below the transparent suit, his veins, nerves, bones, and internal organs were so clear that they seemed to be soaked in certain white, fluorescing liquids.
Li Yao finally could not hold it any longer and roared!
“Ahhhhh!”
He felt as if a small blackhole that was about to devour his soul, flesh, and spiritual energy had appeared at the end of his spine.
He had no choice except to summon the spiritual energy all over his body and throw it into the ‘blackhole’ incessantly!
Li Yao had a vague feeling that, if he could fill the ‘blackhole’ before the spiritual energy inside his body ran out, he would not only be advancing into the Core Formation Stage but also forming a unique, super core.
But if he failed to fill up the ‘blackhole’ before his spiritual energy ran out, it would definitely continue devouring, eventually crushing Li Yao into the most fundamental particles. He would be gone from this world for all eternity!
Time and space had lost their significance. Li Yao had no idea how long the process had lasted at all.
He kept drifting in a vast universe like a lonely cell. His telepathic thoughts left him at the speed of light and turned into shining stars in the dark space very soon.
Did I make it?
Did I make?
Did I?
Did?
?
…
Another year had passed.
It had been five standard years of the Star Ocean Imperium since the great confrontation between the previous king of space pirates and the new one.
The Flying Star Sector had changed more during those five years than it did during the five hundred years before the event.
The fire of war had consumed many space zones. Countless Cultivators had unfortunately perished. A lot of new organizations had risen to fame in the chaos, and the new-generation’s experts had gradually stepped onto the stage, drawing new paintings in the sea of stars with their hot blood and the blades in their hands.
Capital Nest, the biggest city on Spider Den, had been totally reshaped by the continuous war.
In the afternoon of that day, inside a forsaken tunnel of Capital Nest, the earth was shaking slightly, and feeble sounds were echoing deep below the ground.
A moment later, the earth suddenly bulged high before it collapsed down and revealed a hole more than half a meter in diameter.
The broken rocks fell silently, but there was no sound of them hitting anything for a long time, which indicated that the hole was very deep and perhaps led to the core of the planet.
Half a minute later, an average-sized young man awkwardly crawled out of the hole.
He looked quite plain. His messy hair covered his shoulder randomly. Since he had been out of the sunlight for a long time, his skin was so pale that it was almost transparent.
His eyes were quite weird. They seemed to be covered by a colorful membrane. Even in the depths of darkness, colorful brilliance was still shining in his eyes as he looked around.
He seemed a bit thin, and there was not much muscle on his body. However, when the sharp-edged rocks scratched his skin, not only did they fail to break his skin, their edges were also polished smooth, as if somebody had touched them thousands of times carefully.
Almost ten colorful rings were outside of the young man’s pupils. In the darkness, all the rings were expanding and shrinking, as if the most precise crystal cameras were adjusting the focal length.
When he finally sensed the brightness outside of the tunnel, the young man was dazed for a moment. His eyes were soon filled with tears. He lay on the ground, his limbs all stretched out and waving crazily. His belly was rising and falling, as if an ocean had been stuffed inside. Cries of joy and relief were echoing deep inside his throat.
The young man was, of course, Li Yao.
After five years, he had finally escaped from Yan Xinjian’s secret training room!
“Old Yan, come here.”
Li Yao cried and laughed for a while. Then he took out from his pocket a metal cylinder, which had ventilation holes, and opened it carefully. Inside the cylinder were two mice.
Over the past five years, Yan Xinjian’s soul fragments that were attached to the mice had gradually withered. When Li Yao broke out of the training room, all the other remaining souls had dispersed except for a mouse that had been emitting white colors in the beginning.
However, the white colors on the mouse was fading away, too, and its behavior was no different from common mice. Regret and longing similar to human beings occasionally appeared in the mouse’s eyes, but they were soon eclipsed by the cruelty of animals.
When Li Yao left Yan Xinjian’s secret training room, he brought the mouse and a female mouse that it would not let go of out together.
“Go now, Old Yan, and your… Xiao Yu.”
Li Yao put the two mice on the ground. They hugged each other and crawled to the inside of the tunnel, staggering. Soon, they disappeared into the darkness.
Watching the two mice gradually disappear, Li Yao felt both delighted and lost.
He calmed himself down and thought of his plan again.
When he was digging holes below the ground, he could vaguely sense the frequent intense explosions on the surface. It seemed that a fierce war was still on.
It was a good sign that suggested that Xiao Xuance’s Grand Illusionary Soldiers had not taken over Spider Den completely yet.
There was still a chance to change everything.
Xiao Xuance, the crownless king of the Flying Star Sector. The war between you and me has finally begun!
Li Yao smiled and walked out of the forsaken tunnel. He raised his right hand and retrieved a ragged, gray coat from his Cosmos Ring before he put the clothes on.
After every step he made, the air around him would slightly change. The strange colors inside his eyes were gone, and his eyes appeared dirtier. His skin, which was as warm and smooth as jade before, turned thick and rough, too.
When he got out of the forsaken tunnel, he seemed to be a totally different person, a shrimp of the lowest class that could be seen everywhere on Spider Den.
Chapter 771: New Version of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Capital Nest was burning.
The biggest city on Spider Den had never been affected by any war since the battle to protect Spider Den five hundred years ago. But in Li Yao’s five-year absence, it had become battered and buried in debris.
Li Yao walked upwards along the spiral stairs. Wherever his eyes reached, he could see that countless tunnels and caves had collapsed, and many of what used to be buildings were debris lying awry on the ground now. Traces of fire and battle could be found in a lot of places. In some places, even the mountains were half blown apart, revealing the bare, ugly rocks below.
Li Yao was planning to capture a space pirate for interrogation when hasty alarms suddenly echoed above his head. He raised his head and found dozens of white pillars of smoke left in the sky, as if several shooting stars had just flown past the broken atmosphere.
Brightness vaguely flowed out of Li Yao’s eyes. He raised his hands and released Neltharion, which had been heavily modified by him. The magical equipment entered stealth mode instantly and observed the earth from the sky hundreds of meters from the ground.
The surface of Spider Den was enshrouded in smoke and dust. The ground near Capital Nest seemed to have been hit by hundreds of meteor showers. Steams and smoke were popping up nonstop from the pits. The colorful smoke did not vanish until a long time later, as if it had been frozen. On the top, the smoke dispersed into what seemed to be mushrooms, making them look like a weird forest.
When the ‘shooting stars’ passed the sky, hundreds of sword auras and pillars of light rose from the ground and darted toward the ‘shooting stars’. A certain defense rune array seemed to be functioning.
However, the trajectories of the ‘shooting stars’ were extremely unsteady, and they were as unpredictable as dry leaves in a blowing wind. Besides, there were defense rune arrays outside of the ‘shooting stars’, too. Even when they were hit by the sword auras on the ground occasionally, they would continue smashing at the ground without being damaged after ripples of light spread out over their surface.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Countless shooting stars hit the ground and raised a sand storm hundreds of meters high.
Soon, clattering noises echoed inside the sandstorm. A silver metal torrent flooded out of the sandstorm and blossomed like a flower into the various tunnels of Capital Nest.
Grand Illusionary Soldiers!
Li Yao pupils constricted violently. From the perspective of Neltharion, he could clearly see that the metal torrent was made of silver war puppets with limbs, a head, and everything. But they were all no higher than two meters. It was unlikely that they were crystal suits. The only possibility was that they were the Grand Illusionary Soldiers!
The Grand Illusionary Soldiers that had been dispatched for the battle were completely different from the prototypes that Li Yao had seen in the Meeting of the Next Millennium five years ago.
They were apparently better made. The rune arrays carved on their bodies were more elegant and glamourous. Illuminated by the setting sun, brilliance was flowing on them, indicating that they were made of more advance materials, too.
The Grand Illusionary Soldiers have been deployed to assault Spider Den, and the Temple of Immortals and the space pirates are actually the defenders now. It seems that the Immortal Cultivators are in a bad position.
A lot of the Cultivators’ warships must have gathered near Spider Den.
The Grand Illusionary Soldiers required the Spiritual Nexus to be connected to the enormous database of the Grand Illusionary Group in order to achieve their best performance. Based on Li Yao’s knowledge five years ago, there was no Spiritual Nexus in the Spider Den Space Zone.
Therefore, quite a few crystal warships of the Cultivators must have gathered in space and established a temporary network as its nodes.
The Immortal Army and the space pirates in various directions of Capital Nest, noticing that the Grand Illusionary Soldiers had invaded, lunged out and fought the intruders hard.
The Grand Illusionary Soldiers are quite strong. Li Yao observed the situation calmly.
Compared with the prototypes five years ago, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers today moved more agilely and had abundant tactical choices. Li Yao noticed that they frequently performed the classical moves of the best Exos as if actual humans were controlling the metal puppets.
Common Grand Illusionary Soldiers could resist the bombardment of crystal cannons head-on almost five times. For the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, which were more eye-catching in color and protected by multiple layers of spiritual shields, they could even be on par with the space pirates in the Building Foundation Stage during the battle.
It will indeed be terrifying if there are a million such warriors!
Li Yao continued climbing upwards, searching for a suitable target.
Very soon, he found a burning building and a few dead bodies on the ground nearby.
Li Yao opened his fingers. His spiritual energy surged out like a tide and forced the bodies to float in midair.
He moved his fingers quickly. The crystal suits on the few bodies were dissected into the most basic components after a ‘huala’ sound.
Tens of thousands of components formed a tornado in the air and swirled rapidly.
Li Yao curled his finger. The tornado of components moved toward him and wreathed him. After a period of clattering sounds, a brand-new crystal suit was assembled, and the redundant components darted out automatically into the rocks like bullets in earsplitting noises.
His left hand behind him casually, Li Yao extended his right index finger. A brilliant sun was soon shining on his finger.
Immense spiritual waves were spreading out of the light ball, which was soon perceived by the Grand Illusionary Soldiers.
They were like a group of sharks that had smelt a drop of blood.
Seven Grand Illusionary Soldiers immediately lunged at him.
Li Yao shook his right hand. The light ball of spiritual energy vanished into thin air. The surface of his crystal suit was covered in a thin spiritual shield, and he simply allowed the Grand Illusionary Soldiers to barrage him.
He discovered that the Grand Illusionary Soldiers were made of teams of seven. Every team had roles such as remote attackers, melee fighters, snipers, and tanks. The teamwork was neat and flawless, indicating that they had been well-trained.
The specifications of the temporarily assembled crystal suit plummeted like a thermometer that had been broken.
Bathed in the sword auras and the bombardment of spiritual energy, Li Yao noted every perceivable change, deep in thought.
In less than half a minute, the crystal suit on his body had been riddled with holes and was on the brink of destruction.
Some of the crystal cannons hit the parts of his skin that were exposed to the air, but it seemed that they had missed their target since there was absolutely no damage at all.
The combat data has mostly been collected.
Li Yao extended his right hand again and snapped his index finger.
A streak of whiteness darted out of his fingernails and blew up the head of a Grand Illusionary Soldier instantly before it marched to the next one.
It was not until the heads of three Grand Illusionary Soldiers were blown up that a high-pitched noise was echoing above the battlefield.
What is their internal structure?
Li Yao opened his right hand and pressed down. The remaining four Grand Illusionary Soldiers seemed to be suppressed by an invisible mountain. However many sparks were bursting out of their joints, they could not move forward even one step.
Hundreds of spiritual threads emerged like vipers on Li Yao’s right hand. They slithered toward one of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers. They circled around the Grand Illusionary Soldier three times before they found the first gap.
Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!
Li Yao’s spiritual threads flew up and down around the Grand Illusionary Soldier. Five minutes later, the Grand Illusionary Soldier was dismantled into the most fundamental components.
The structure is quite precise. The designs of five classical crystal suits have been borrowed from. The key components are all made of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. Quite a piece of magical equipment. It must have consumed a lot of resources, though.
Li Yao’s eyes were like two crystal cameras with extremely high resolutions. The loose components were transformed into microstructural designs and saved in his brain.
In the same way, he dismantled the rest of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers that were designed for different purposes.
According to the different tactical purposes, the sniper, the melee fighter, and the heavy firepower Grand Illusionary Soldiers boast different designs. The commander has a strengthened telepathic thought reception rune array attached to its crystal processor, which ensures that enough information can be received even if the Spiritual Nexus is unstable, and it can share the information with its ‘subordinates’.
Pa!
Li Yao held his right hand. All the components floating in midair were pressed together by the invisible spiritual energy as if they were plasticine. They were crumbled and crushed until they became a big, smooth iron ball.
Watching the iron ball falling into the deepest part of a mining hole, Li Yao was deep in thought. It seems that the technology in the Grand Illusionary Soldiers has significantly improved in the past five years. Such a team of Grand Illusionary Soldiers may mean little for the Cultivator above the Core Formation Stage, but they can pose a huge threat for common Cultivators.
If there are enough of them, say, ten thousand, even a Core Formation Stage Cultivator would have a headache.
Also, since those Grand Illusionary Soldiers have been deployed for battles publicly, they are perhaps not the best weapons under Xiao Xuance’s control. Chances are that he is manufacturing even stronger Grand Illusionary Soldiers in secret!
Li Yao roamed the battlefield in the ragged crystal suit, looking for a suitable target to interrogate. He was desperate to know what had happened in the outside world exactly during his five years of training below the ground.
He did not intend to capture an ordinary space pirate, because they were merely cannon fodder and had no access to inside information.
He did not want to capture the soldiers of the Immortal Army, either. Those Immortal Cultivators might know much more information, but they were also the most fervent zealots and would not tell him the information he needed easily.
Soon, he found a perfect target.
It was a team of space pirates with a battle emblem of a bloody raindrop, which was a sign of the Storm Prison Pirate Gang, on their crystal suits.
Since Fengyu Zhong was designated by the Temple of Immortals as the new ruler of space pirates, his subordinates must know more than other people do.
The space pirate in the lead is in the peak of the Building Foundation Stage. He must be one of the core members in the Storm Prison Pirate Gang.
It shall be him!
Li Yao moved forward and turned into a streak of brightness. When he accelerated, the whole world seemed to be frozen by a cluster of invisible glue. The Immortal Army, the space pirates, and the Grand Illusionary Soldiers were suddenly slowed down, and he was the only one that retained the high speed!
Shua!
When Li Yao reached the center of the battlefield, the ragged crystal suit on his body had long been shattered, but his target was a muscular man more than two meters tall, more than 2.5 meters tall including his heavy crystal suit.
However, Li Yao snatched the neck of the space pirate with his right hand only and dragged him off the battlefield without any trouble!
Chapter 772: This Is the Last War!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
The space pirates, the Immortal Cultivators, and the Grand Illusionary Soldiers only sensed something flash by. The next thing they knew, a man who had been jumping and yelling a moment ago vanished into thin air!
Inside an abandoned warehouse far away from the battlefield, Li Yao shook his right hand, and cracking noises echoed inside the space pirate’s body, which looked like a black, iron tower. Li Yao broke all his joints, and he was tossed to the ground like a spineless snake.
Li Yao’s spiritual energy entered the space pirate’s body and mercilessly stimulated the nerve endings and acupoints like needles.
“Ahhhh!”
The space pirates jerked up as if he had been hit by ten thousand lightning bolts simultaneously, only to be pressed down by Li Yao’s spiritual energy. He seemed to have hit an invisible cap and fell back to the ground heavily. His eyes were so bloodshot that they might have burst out at any point!
Right when his soul power was the weakest, redness blinked in Li Yao’s eyes, and he threw a ‘terror bomb’ into the space pirate’s brain, where it was detonated!
In a moment, the space pirate began seeing all kinds of illusions. He felt if he was placed in the middle of a magnificent furnace whose walls were as smooth as mirror. He could not get out of the cage however hard he tried. On the bottom of the furnace, the temperature was rising, and the air gradually turned more scorching than ever.
On the top of the furnace was a horrendous devil that was staring at him emotionlessly.
The space pirate completely broke down and stopped struggling. He breathed heavily and cramped uncontrollably.
Li Yao observed for a moment and asked solemnly, “Did you enter the underground fortress five years ago? What became of Bai Xinghe in the end?”
The space pirate shuddered in both fear and confusion. As if hypnotized, he murmured, “Five years ago, I followed captain and went to the underground fortress. But we encountered flood, explosions, and collapses and got trapped for an entire month before we finally escaped.
“Bai Xinghe… Boss Bai… was strong. Too strong!
“Boss Bai fought hundreds of space pirates and Immortal Cultivators all by himself. He heavily wounded captain and the Black King of the Temple of Immortals. Although the blood on his body was almost running dry, he killed two of the Eight Blades of Black Spider unhurriedly before he finally fell into the flood.
“We searched for his body in the water for a long time but found nothing. It was perhaps swept to a deeper part of the underground fortress by the flood.”
“Oh?”
Li Yao was immediately interested. It was unlikely that Bai Xinghe survived the battle against two experts in the Nascent Soul Stage and hundreds of other high-level Cultivators. However, since the man’s body was never found, he could make something out of that.
After pondering for a moment, Li Yao spoke again. “Tell me any news on the Great Horn Exo Society in the past five years.”
The space pirate quickly replied, “The Great Horn Exo Society has been growing quickly over the past five years. It is almost the biggest Exo Society of the Flying Star Sector now. They established their headquarters on Iron Plateau, and a lot of elites among the qi-trainers have joined the Great Horn Exo Society. As for their equipment, the Glorious Sunlight Group has greatly supported them.
“The Glorious Sunlight Group is another organization that has been expanding quickly over the past five years. The Glorious Sunlight Magical Equipment Research Center is now almost on par with the three main crystal suit centers and has provided a lot of advanced magical equipment.
“Supported by Iron Plateau and the Glorious Sunlight Group, although Lei Dalu, the captain, and Bai Kaixin, the advisor, are merely in the Core Formation Stage, the Great Horn Exo Society has a lot of hands and a high comprehensive capability despite its lack of super warriors!”
Lei Dalu and Bai Kaixin had both escaped!
Li Yao was greatly relieved. It was a piece of good news that he had been looking forward to for five years.
“Has the Glorious Sunlight Group been developing fast recently?” Li Yao asked calmly.
In the space pirate’s illusion, Li Yao’s voice was as overwhelming and irresistible as thunder. He could only confess obediently. “Very fast. The Glorious Sunlight Group is already one of the strongest organizations in the Flying Star Sector, other than the six sects of Heavenly Saints City. There is a guy named Wu Mayan in the Glorious Sunlight Group. He is the best expert in the younger generation of the Flying Star Sector now. He has killed many of our people in the past five years. The Black Spider Tower organized several assassinations against him, but none of the attempts succeeded.”
Li Yao could not help but smile in his mind. The young Wu Mayan was indeed not idling around!
Having received satisfactory answers to the three most crucial questions, Li Yao was much more confident about the situation right now. He then asked the space pirate about the history of the Flying Star Sector in the past five years unhurriedly.
It was only after he asked carefully that he learned a great many events had taken place in the Flying Star Sector over the past five years.
Five years ago, during the final battle between the old king of space pirates and the new, although Fengyu Zhong and the Black King had been heavily wounded and Bai Wulei had even been executed by Bai Xinghe, Bai Xinghe’s great escape plan did not work out in the end because of Bai Kaixin’s abrupt appearance. The Temple of Immortals still controlled Spider Den.
Then, the survivors of the Temple of Immortals got out of the underground fortress in the next month and successfully subdued all the forces that were still loyal to Bai Xinghe.
Since Bai Xinghe and Bai Wulei were both dead, there was a power vacuum in the Abyss Pirate Gang. It was incorporated into the Immortal Army and the Storm Prison Pirate Gang.
After taking over the whole of Spider Den, the Temple of Immortals soared in capability. It began carrying out operations everywhere and harassing all the remote space zones.
In the first two years, they made a lot of progress. During their prime days, they even occupied two space zones and established governments according to their ideology.
But their good days did not last long.
The assaults of the Immortal Cultivators triggered the deepest sense of crisis for the Cultivators. All the sects dedicated their available resources to the production of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers without caring about the cost.
As more and more Grand Illusionary Soldiers rushed out of the assembly lines, those war machines that were tireless and fearless were deployed to the remote space zones and the dangerous sailing routes. They were like nooses that gradually tightened the necks of the Immortal Cultivators and the space pirates.
In the beginning, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers could do nothing except increase the cost and duration of the space pirate’s jobs.
Even so, the space pirates already felt very uncomfortable because they had to pay more, and their gains were fewer.
Gradually, with the technology of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers growing more and more mature and better materials being adopted, the combat ability of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers significantly increased. They were able to fight the space pirates in high-intensity combat.
The remote space zones that used to be flat plateaus turned into marshes and swamps when the tremendous Grand Illusionary Soldiers guarded them. When they were careless and got trapped by the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, they would not be able to get away unless they paid a high price.
After several large pirate gang got trapped by the Grand Illusionary Soldiers when they were plundering and were annihilated by the reinforcing Cultivators later, all the space pirates began hesitating. They often did not dare do anything until they had lurked for months and made thorough plans. Even so, the success rate of their missions was dropping fast.
Faced with such a dilemma, the Immortal Cultivators offered no good solutions. Over the years, they attempted to lure the extraterrestrial devils in several space zones. But the Grand Illusionary Soldiers were like the insecticide for the extraterrestrial devils. The hasty operations did not achieve the desired results at all. Instead, the hatred and the resolution of the entire Flying Star Sector were triggered by their boldness.
“Let’s go to Spider Den and destroy the Temple of Immortals once and for all!”
It became the unanimously agreed slogan in the Flying Star Sector for all the Cultivators and ordinary people.
The Flying Star Sector was on the move. Every magical equipment center was crafting the components of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers day and night. Every light beam was displaying the scenes where the Grand Illusionary Soldiers fought the extraterrestrial devils. Every kid’s favorite toy for their birthday was a model of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers!
Just like that, starting from the third year, the attackers and the defenders swapped their roles. The Temple of Immortals and the space pirates experienced unprecedented failures in all space zones. Not only were the Immortal Army and the pirate gangs defeated brutally many times, many Immortal Cultivators who had been lurking in the world of Cultivators were also dug out and executed with their names rotten.
By the fourth year, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers covered 70% of the space zones of the Flying Star Sector. Many sects and space towns had handed over the guardian work of the sailing routes to them.
The impregnable dragnet had wreathed all the sailing routes and the important space towns. The space pirates and the extraterrestrial devils that had savaged the Flying Star Sector in the old days were rushing toward their doom.
In the fifth year, the fully-blown counterattack of the Cultivators began.
Not only were the two space zones occupied by the Immortal Cultivator recovered, the vanguards made of the Heaven’s Origin Sector had even marched into the Spider Den Space Zone.
The Temple of Immortals was no longer as impressive as it had been five years ago. It was like a stray dog whose legs were all broken and could only manage to hold out on Spider Den.
As their doom drew closer and closer, some of them thought of surrendering.
However, the Cultivators had made announcements stating that the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators had the blood of the innocent all over their hands, and they were unpardonable by any criterion. Therefore, their surrender would not be accepted, and they would be completely annihilated!
Right now, the troops of the Cultivators had established a defense line in space at the periphery of the Spider Den Space Zone.
They had taken over a space gate left by the Star Ocean Imperium and were busy repairing it.
The so-called ‘space gate’ was not really a gate but a super space lighthouse made of countless star beacons.
Once repaired, the ‘lighthouse’ would release immeasurable spiritual waves and broadcast its coordinates clearly in order to provide navigation for the crystal warships that were performing a space jump.
The Flying Star Sector was too large. The dozens of space zones were far away from each other. It was impossible for the troops to cruise to the Spider Den Space Zone slowly, because it would consume too much fuel and time. Chances were that it would take a fleet in the furthest space zone dozens of years to arrive in the Spider Den Space Zone.
Once the space gate was repaired, the coordinates of the Spider Den Space Zone would be highlighted unmistakably on the space map. Through space jumps, all the fleets would be able to show up in the Spider Den Space Zone instantly.
The Cultivators, the Immortal Cultivators, and the space pirates all knew that it was the final war!
Right now, the space pirates of the entire Flying Star Sector and the soldiers of the Temple of Immortals were all hiding on Spider Den, waiting for their doom.
It was also said that the leaders of the big sects of Flying Star Sector had gathered in Heavenly Saints City. A morale-building rally was about to be held.
Once the space gate was repaired, countless Cultivators, crystal warships, and Grand Illusionary Soldiers would show up around Spider Den through space jumps. They would launch a thunderous attack and crush the planet into smithereens forever!
Chapter 773: Space Gate
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
The space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators were very clear that they would be doomed when the space gate was successfully repaired.
Therefore, since the day they found the fleet of the Cultivators at the periphery of the Spider Den Space Zone, brutal battles had never ceased, not for a single day.
The space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators were sabotaging the repair work of the space gate so that they could postpone the date of their death day by day.
As for the Cultivators, not only did they establish defense lines near the space gate, they had also launched a lot of Grand Illusionary Soldiers to Spider Den on a regular basis.
It was partly to stall the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators and partly reconnaissance by firepower. Through the data collected in the battles, the final battle could be won easier.
As more and more crystal warships fully loaded with Grand Illusionary Soldiers marched into the Spider Den Space Zone, the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators began showing the signs of losing. Their multiple assaults had met failures. It was very likely that the space gate would finish construction within one month.
That was all the information that the space pirate knew.
Of course, Li Yao did not show any mercy to the member of the Storm Prison Pirate Gang. After hearing everything, he snapped a light ball with his right hand, which pierced through the captive’s breastplate and into his chest. The spiritual energy immediately melted his heart like magma.
The space pirate’s bulged. They were still filled with confusion and consternation, but they gradually lost their color.
Li Yao fell into deep thought. If everything was part of Xiao Xuance’s plan, what was he up to exactly? Was he really going to destroy Spider Den?
A moment later, Li Yao waved his fist and almost shouted out aloud.
He understood it now! He understood everything!
Five years ago. He had been discussing the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project with Professor Mo Xuan. At that time, they had agreed that, even if Xiao Xuance set up backdoors in the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, it was impossible for him to take control over all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers in the dozens of space zones simultaneously.
Due to the long distance between space zones, the transmission of telepathic thoughts had latency even if they were transmitted at the speed of light.
The Cultivators in a different space zone had many ways to cut off connection from the Spiritual Nexus with other space zones and turn the Spiritual Nexus of their space zone into a local area network. Any commands from the outside world would be blocked!
However, in the final battle, the problem would be no more!
This was the final war. In order to completely destroy Spider Den, the Cultivators would definitely concentrate most of the available soldiers and crystal warships to this place. The Grand Illusionary Soldiers would also be shipped here through space jumps. The greatest hazard of the Flying Star Sector would be dealt with once and for all!
Since all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers were focused in the same space zone, the latency of the Spiritual Nexus did not exist!
Besides, in a battlefield, there could only be one commander and one voice. It was impossible for all the units to fight on their own. Therefore, after they gathered in the Spider Den Space Zone, all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers and Cultivators would definitely be commanded as a whole. Who else could the supreme commander be except for Xiao Xuance, the crownless king of the Flying Star Sector?
It would be even easier for Xiao Xuance to do his tricks!
“Spider Den is Xiao Xuance’s bait. The Temple of Immortals and the Immortal Cultivators are merely Xiao Xuance’s stepping stones. Everything he has been doing is to focus most of the strength of the Flying Star Sector and the Grand Illusionary Soldiers in the Spider Den Space Zone!
“Xiao Xuance is taking the Blood God’s example!” Li Yao mumbled and shuddered violently.
Ten thousand years ago, during the prime years of the Star Ocean Imperium, an expedition army was formed by all the elites of the nation and marched toward the last nest of the demon race.
They had thought that they would be sure winners and that the demon race would be wiped out without much trouble.
However, the Blood God, the supreme commander of the expedition army, was transformed into the Mad Armageddon and rebelled. He then made an alliance with the demon race, manipulated by the extraterrestrial devils.
Struck by the rebellions and the demon race together, the expedition army, which represented the top combat ability of mankind, was obliterated!
If there are really backdoors in the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, after all the people are gathered in the Spider Den Space Zone, Xiao Xuance will activate his plan, and the Grand Illusionary Soldiers will attack the Cultivators under his command together with the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators!
Caught off guard, the Cultivators will definitely suffer heavy losses, if not leaving no survivors at all!
This is going to be the last war. When the elites in the world of Cultivators perish, the space zones without guardians will be like fat lambs that can only wait to be butchered!
Yes. Yes. This is the only possible plan and the only hope for the Immortal Cultivators to win the war when they are terribly outnumbered!
Li Yao had been suspicious for a long time. Compared to the Cultivators, the Immortal Cultivators were too weak. Their schemes in the Skyhill Domain, Iron Plateau, Heavenly Saints City, and Spider Den, although neat and seamless, were all restricted to the tactical level. Even if all their schemes worked out, they were not likely to really shake the foundation of the Cultivators’ reign in the Flying Star Sector. If anything, they would only expose themselves more and more during the operations.
The Immortal Cultivators were never going to win a war of attrition!
If Li Yao could think of that, the schemers among the Immortal Cultivators must have been able to think of that, too. But they had jumped out unhesitatingly anyway and implemented their cruel, sordid plans one after another.
Why?
Before, Li Yao had been baffled.
But now, he had fully understood.
It did not matter how many times the Immortal Cultivators failed. Even if they had failed in the Skyhill Domain, on Iron Plateau, in Heavenly Saints City, and on Spider Den alike, it was not important.
As long as they acted like they were a threat and everyone supported the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project, driven by their sense of crisis, it would be good enough!
The space pirates, the Immortal Cultivators, the Black Spider Tower, the Temple of Immortals… All of them were mere insignificant chess pieces.
Xiao Xuance and his Grand Illusionary Soldiers were the real players here!
Right now, the players had made their final move. The trap was already taking shape!
No. I cannot allow the space gate to be repaired.
Right now, the leaders of every space zone and the officials of the important sects are all on their way to Heavenly Saints City for the morale-building rally.
When the morale-building rally is over, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers and the crystal warships in various space zones will perform space jumps and reach this place together!
After they all arrive, Xiao Xuance will be able to initiate his final scheme!
If I destroy the space gate, I can at least buy myself enough time to leave for Heavenly Saints City and unveil Xiao Xuance’s true face in front of everyone!
Li Yao did not have any evidence right now. Everything was just his speculation. However, he was ninety percent confident about his deduction.
It was, naturally, very tricky to accuse the crownless king of the Flying Star Sector without proof.
However, the validness of an accusation had a lot to do with the person who made it.
If Bai Xinghe went to accuse Xiao Xuance, nobody would believe him even if he was speaking the truth.
But Li Yao was different. He was a big hero of the Flying Star Sector, the best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau, and the real controller of the Glorious Sunlight Group!
Li Yao was not worried that the Glorious Sunlight Group would betray him, because the foundation of the Glorious Sunlight Group was its research center. Even if everybody else in the world betrayed him, the research center, supervised by Professor Mo Xuan, would stand by him.
With my words, I can influence the decisions of the Glorious Sunlight Group, Iron Plateau, and the Great Horn Exo Society. When they take action together, a chain reaction in the world of Cultivators will be triggered. I don’t believe that Xiao Xuance will stand by and watch.
When he takes measures, his flaws will be revealed, and I will finish him quickly with a headshot!
Li Yao thought of something and realized that such a plan was a bit too passive. He might not be able to reveal Xiao Xuance’s plot completely.
Maybe, I should dig a pit for Xiao Xuance with something that only I know about…
But right now, let me check the space gate first!
Only a minority of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers were sent to Spider Den after all. They were gradually extinguished by the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators.
The secret docks below Spider Den launched countless crystal warships, which marched into space with long exhaust flames behind.
With Li Yao’s Cultivation right now, he easily snuck into a crystal warship and got a ride into space.
After more than half a day’s flight, they were already in the vast universe. The continuous flames of war dyed the darkness crimson.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Before they entered the battlefield, the surging spiritual waves were already crashing into the shell of the crystal warship like tireless tides.
Then, earsplitting alarms echoed. The crystal warship shook suddenly and lost all its momentum. It circled and crumbled slowly.
They had been hit by a dense bombardment and ripped apart.
Hiu!
Wearing the standard crystal suit of the Immortal Army, which he had taken from an unlucky man, Li Yao dived into space like a normal soldier.
The spectacular view he saw, however, made him stop breathing briefly.
More than a hundred large star beacons, each of which was almost a hundred meters long, formed what seemed to be a cube. Every ridge of the cube was dozens of kilometers long.
Spiritual energy reverberated between the star beacons. Brilliant lines connected them, making them clear and eye-catching in the dark universe.
They seemed to be a cube made of a deity that had been left in space.
It was the space gate.
Right now, countless refiners and mechanics were clinging to the star beacons like ants on a pebble. They were seizing every second to repair the devices.
The eight angles of the space gate each had an enormous star fortress. They looked like eight giant honeycombs.
Every honeycomb was almost a hundred kilometers in diameter. Countless crystal suits, armed shuttles, and even crystal warships were entering and exiting the ‘honeycombs’.
It was really incredible that eight star fortresses of such enormous scale had been moved to the frontline.
Centered around the eight star fortresses, dozens of defense lines spread out and covered the space gate tightly.
The space pirates, the Cultivators, the Immortal Cultivators, and the Grand Illusionary Soldiers were involved in fierce combat in the cold universe. The scorching flowers of death were blossoming on the dead bodies and the remains of the starships. Tides of spiritual energy pushed away the corpses and the debris in various directions like dandelions in a blowing wind.
The space gate is about to be recovered. Only one corner is still lackluster.
Other than the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, the elites of the Cultivators are stationed here, too!
Li Yao frowned. He saw that the battle emblems of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City were carved on many crystal warships.
In the fierce battles, many Exos showed excellent combat ability, too.
Xiao Xuance’s scheme was top secret. Perhaps few Immortal Cultivators in the Temple of Immortals knew it. Naturally, the Cultivators in this place were not likely to be his accomplices. They were probably cannon fodder that had been fooled to go there.
Therefore, Li Yao could not simply kill them.
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao thought of an approach.
Chapter 774: Li Yao’s Scheme, Begin!
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!
Li Yao’s two eyes seemed to have become two black holes. Endless stars in the universe, together with the two parties that were involved in the fierce battles, especially the experts, were devoured. Their coordinates, their movement patterns, and the trajectories of their attacks were all transformed into a series of complicated data. A bright golden storm of data was congregating inside Li Yao’s brain as he calculated and sorted through every detail in the battlefield.
For a moment, Li Yao considered whether or not he should reveal his identity immediately and announce Xiao Xuance’s scheme to public.
But he abandoned the idea very quickly.
When an arrow was put on the bow, it had to be shot out. For a war that everybody in the Flying Star Sector was involved in, the daily consumption of resources was already astronomical. For the war to be halted or stopped because of several words from somebody was impossible.
With Xiao Xuance’s position, power, and prestige, he was not likely to be crushed by groundless rumors, either.
If Li Yao launched his attack prematurely, he could only raise Xiao Xuance’s wariness, defense, and readiness. Xiao Xuance would cover any flaws in his facade, and he would also launch the fiercest counterattack in order to destroy Li Yao and even the Glorious Sunlight Group, the Great Horn Exo Society, and Iron Plateau behind him!
However, the space gate is about to be completed, and the final battle could happen at any moment. I don’t have any time to collect evidence!
Besides, Xiao Xuance is a prudent, meticulous man. In order to achieve his purpose, he sacrificed his own son. For such a brutal man, how much evidence will he have left for me to find?
The time is too urgent. I have to gamble. If Xiao Xuance doesn’t bite my bait, I can always reveal my identity and speak the truth to everybody!
In that moment, Li Yao planned a trap for Xiao Xuance!
First, he was going to attack the defense lines of the space gate together with the space pirates!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The flowers of death were blossoming among the space pirates and the Immortal Army. Countless Immortal Cultivators were blown up by the immense blast.
Without the protection of spiritual energy, their broken bodies were soon frozen into icy blocks by the cold universe, drifting randomly in the battlefield.
Li Yao narrowed his eyes and calculated the trajectories of the bombardment quickly. It took him five seconds to find a satisfactory coordinate and angle.
Without any hesitation, he charged at where the Cultivators’ defense was weakest, with an orange exhaust flame spurting out of his back.
Half a minute later, Li Yao was hit precisely by a powerful crystal cannon in the front!
The bombardment came from the main cannon of a crystal warship. The tremendous spiritual energy stored in the attack blew him away instantly!
When the light of the crystal cannon died down, although Li Yao’s body was still intact, his crystal suit had been battered, and blood was flowing out all over his body.
The blood was soon frozen and turned into crimson frost.
Li Yao drifted slowly toward a corner of the space gate as if he were a dead body.
There were many dead bodies similar to him on the battlefield. Nobody paid him much attention.
Sneaking into the defense line under the disguise of a corpse was a common strategy. However, the soldiers who carried out such a strategy had to wear a crystal suit when they pretended to be dead bodies, too.
In the airless, frigid space, without the protection of a crystal suit, even Cultivators would not able to hold on for long.
At the very least, their heads had to be protected by helmets, which would provide necessary oxygen and energy.
On the other hand, Li Yao was only covered by twisted scraps of his crystal suit, which had been melted onto his body as if it were slag.
His head was exposed to the vacuum. His eyes were wide open and dim. His facial expression was frozen in the bewilderment at the last moment of his life. Over all, he looked like a vivid rock statue.
Shua! Shua! Shua!
Mystic rays beamed out of the Cultivators’ crystal warships and scanned the battlefield carefully, especially the ‘dead bodies’ whose limbs were intact and whose crystal suit was undamaged.
If so much as the tiniest spiritual wave was perceived, the crystal warships would bombard the targets mercilessly until the dead bodies were blown into ashes together with their crystal suits.
Corpses like Li Yao that did not have crystal suits and had twisted limbs were determined to be ‘lifeless’ and simply ignored by the crystal warships.
Li Yao gradually approached the space gate.
The powerful crystal cannon gave him a high initial velocity. In the vacuum where there was barely any friction, he was like a shooting star.
However—
There were too many variants in a battlefield, and he could not take all the accidents into consideration.
A crystal warship suddenly exploded near him, and its debris smashed at him like a hurricane.
With Li Yao’s Cultivation right now, he could resist all the incoming scraps as long as he placed the weakest spiritual shield around him.
But as a ‘dead body’, he could not do that.
The distance is close enough, Li Yao thought as he calculated quickly. At this moment, there were the last fifteen kilometers between him and a star beacon that had been repaired.
Then—it’s time to take action!
In a moment, Li Yao’s eyes turned from a dull gray to shining gems. Endless lightning was dancing around his pupils. The crimson frost on his skin was boiled into a bloody aura that surrounded him!
Hiu!
Li Yao did not crash at the space gate. Instead, he darted toward a crystal warship that was closest to him!
…
Rong Jun was extremely excited in the simmering battlefield.
Rong Jun was a Cultivator in the high level of the Building Foundation Stage and also an experienced Exo. It had been more than half a month since he came to the front line, and he had participated in more than ten bloody battles where he had slain dozens space pirates and Immortal Cultivators. Naturally, his excitement was not because of a regular battle.
He was so thrilled that he was barely able to control himself because another batch of Cultivators had arrived in the Spider Den Space Zone.
Long Feihu, his idol and the undefeated champion of the Heavenly Sword Arena, was among the newcomers!
Long Feihu was a top expert who had been famous for almost fifty years. He was in the high level of the Building Foundation Stage, and his skills in operating a crystal suit were fantastic. In the Heavenly Sword Arena, one of the top five arenas of Heavenly Saints City, he had once secured a miraculous hundred-win streak!
Many young men of the Flying Star Sector actually embarked on the path of an Exo after watching Long Feihu’s combat videos!
Rong Jun was no exception. When he was little, Long Feihu had already distinguished himself. He kept Long Feihu’s personal autograph to this day, which was the most valuable treasure for him.
He did not expect that he would be fighting side by side with his greatest idol. Besides, the two of them were so close to each other. How could Rong Jun not be excited?
Long Feihu! The expert who secured a hundred victories in a row! The legendary expert of the Heavenly Sword Arena!
Strong. He is so strong. Just one slash, and a ‘Greedy Wolf Battlesuit’ has been chopped in half!
The helmet and the breastplate of such a crystal suit adopted the Great Bright Alloy, which is extremely hard. They are designed to resist the bombardment of a crystal cannon multiple times. But Long Feihu broke them apart with a casual attack!
In the chaos of the battle, neither of the two parties were able to keep their battle formation. It had become an open hunting ground.
Rong Jun simply chose to stay closely behind Long Feihu. He accepted his idol’s temporary command and teamed up with him, while he observed his idol’s battle skills.
Rong Jun had thought that Long Feihu’s fighting style was the glamor and sophistication he demonstrated in the Heavenly Sword Arena.
But now that he was on the battlefield, he realized that Long Feihu had not been giving his best performance in the arena at all. His real fighting style was simple, straightforward, and cruel. The piercing and the slashing were clean and quick. Barely any space pirates or Immortal Cultivators could let him attack twice. In several minutes, countless dead bodies were already floating around Long Feihu. He was likely the most precise slaughtering machine in the world!
Rong Jun was completely fascinated. He was about to cheer for his idol loudly in the communication channel!
Suddenly—
Earsplitting alarms echoed inside Rong Jun’s crystal processor. An immense spiritual wave was darting at an unimaginable speed from behind him!
Before he realized what was going on, Long Feihu had rushed upward!
Then, Rong Jun felt as if a crystal warship was rushing at full speed crashed into him!
I’m screwed!
Rong Jun was blown away before he had the chance to scream.
With his abundant experience in fighting, he knew clearly that it was probably the last second of his life.
However, in the next second, as he gradually freed himself from the tremendous blast stabilized himself, Rong Jun discovered, to his surprise, that he was not dead. In fact, there were not the slightest injuries on his body. Even his crystal suit was undamaged!
How is this possible?
Rong Jun was immediately soaked in cold sweat. At first, he thought that he had been hit by a mental attack. But when he looked at his surroundings, he found out that he had truly been blown several kilometers away!
This… this is impossible!
A stream of spiritual energy blew me several kilometers away without hurting me at all? Who—who did it? His control over spiritual energy must be incredibly precise!
Before Rong Jun recovered from his daze, he saw an even more dumbfounding scene!
His crystal camera found that Long Feihu, his idol, was floating a kilometer away like a puppet that had lost all its strings. Flames were bursting out from all the key parts of his crystal suit, as if somebody had chopped off all the transmission tubes of his crystal suit!
“Senior Long!”
Countless exclamations echoed inside the communication channel.
Clearly, Rong Jun was not the only person who had seen the shocking view.
“Cough cough. Cough cough cough cough!”
After three seconds of silence, Long Feihu’s coughs came over in the communication channel.
Along with the coughs was a furious roar. “Got away. He got away!”
“Long—Long Feihu was totally crushed in just one second!”
Something deep down in Rong Jun’s heart seemed to be collapsing. He held back his astonishment and looked at Long Feihu’s back.
He saw a streak of redness hundreds of meters long that looked like a shooting star with a long exhaust flame. It was zigzagging agilely in the impregnable web of fire. The crystal cannons hit him multiple times, but in the end, it was the blurred shadow of him that was shattered.
Within a breath, after altering his direction hundreds of times, the red shooting star with an extremely long exhaust flame crashed into the front of a crystal warship heavily!
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